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The Ruined Map
''The Ruined Map'' (燃え尽きた地図 ''Moetsukita chizu'', 1967) is a novel by Japanese writer Kōbō Abe, translated into English by E. Dale Saunders for Knopf in 1969. Plot ''The Ruined Map'' is the story of an unnamed detective, hired by a beautiful alcoholic woman, to find clues related to the disappearance of her husband. In the process, the detective is given a map (a ruined one), supposedly to help him, but which turns out in the end to be more like a metaphor of the guidelines one should have in life. The impossibility of finding relevant clues to help him solve the mystery leads the main character to an existential crisis, which builds slowly from the inside and finally puts him in the position of identifying himself with the man he was supposed to find. ''The Ruined Map'' is exemplary of the postmodern detective novel, exploring themes such as urbanization, alienation, semiotic confusion, and narrative fallibility through classic elements of the noir genre. In thi ...
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Kōbō Abe
, pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kafka for his modernist sensibilities and his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society. Biography Abe was born on March 7, 1924 in Kita, Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Mukden (now Shenyang) in Manchuria. Abe's family was in Tokyo at the time due to his father's year of medical research in Tokyo. His mother had been raised in Hokkaido, while he experienced childhood in Manchuria. This triplicate assignment of origin was influential to Abe, who told Nancy Shields in a 1978 interview, "I am essentially a man without a hometown. This may be what lies behind the 'hometown phobia' that runs in the depth of my feelings. All things that are valued for their stability offend me." As a child, A ...
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Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ...
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Shinchosha
is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in Yaraichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award. Books * Haruki Murakami: ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (1985), ''Uten Enten'' (1990), ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' (1997), '' After the quake'' (2000), '' 1Q84'' (2009-2010) * Alex Kerr: ''Lost Japan'' (1993) Book series Magazines Weekly * – since 1956 * – manga, discontinued in 2010 * ''Focus'' – suspended Monthly * – Literary magazine since 1904 * * * '' nicola'' * (suspended) * * * * ''ENGINE'' – Automobile magazine, since 2000 * '' Foresight'' – Japanese edition discontinued in 2010 * - manga, since 2011 Web magazine * '' Foresight'' – Japanese edition since 2010 * ''Daily Shinchō'' – comprehensive news site basically excerpting from '' Shukan Shincho'' since 2015 Seasonal * ''Grave of the Fireflies'' In 1967, Shinchosha published a short story ''Grave of the F ...
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Alfred A
Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlude)" and "Alfred (Outro)", songs by Eminem from the 2020 album ''Music to Be Murdered By'' Business and organisations * Alfred, a radio station in Shaftesbury, England *Alfred Music, an American music publisher *Alfred University, New York, U.S. *The Alfred Hospital, a hospital in Melbourne, Australia People * Alfred (name) includes a list of people and fictional characters called Alfred * Alfred the Great (848/49 – 899), or Alfred I, a king of the West Saxons and of the Anglo-Saxons Places Antarctica * Mount Alfred (Antarctica) Australia * Alfredtown, New South Wales * County of Alfred, South Australia Canada * Alfred and Plantagenet, Ontario * Alfred Island, Nunavut * Mount Alfred, British Columbia United States * Alfred, Maine ...
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Existential Crisis
In psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning. Some authors also emphasize confusion about one's personal identity in their definition. Existential crises are accompanied by anxiety and stress, often to such a degree that they disturb one's normal functioning in everyday life and lead to depression. Their negative attitude towards life and meaning reflects various positions characteristic of the philosophical movement known as existentialism. Synonyms and closely related terms include existential dread, existential vacuum, existential neurosis, and alienation. The various aspects associated with existential crises are sometimes divided into emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. Emotional components refer to the feelings they provoke, such as emotional pain, despair, helplessness, guilt, anxiety, and loneliness. Cognitive components encompass the problem of meaninglessness, the loss of ...
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Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Brooklyn Follies'' (2005), ''Invisible (Auster novel), Invisible'' (2009), ''Sunset Park (novel), Sunset Park'' (2010), ''Winter Journal'' (2012), and ''4 3 2 1 (novel), 4 3 2 1'' (2017). His books have been translated into more than forty languages. Early life Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey,Freeman, John"At home with Siri and Paul", ''The Jerusalem Post'', April 3, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008. "Like so many people in New York, both of them are spiritual refugees of a sort. Auster hails from Newark, New Jersey, and Hustvedt from Minnesota, where she was raised the daughter of a professor, among a clan of very tall siblings." to Jewish middle-class parents of Poles, Polish descent, Queenie (née Bogat) and Samuel Auster. He i ...
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The New York Trilogy
''The New York Trilogy'' is a series of novels by American writer Paul Auster. Originally published sequentially as ''City of Glass'' (1985), ''Ghosts'' (1986) and ''The Locked Room'' (1986), it has since been collected into a single volume. The Trilogy is a postmodern interpretation of detective and mystery fiction, exploring various philosophical themes. Plot ''City of Glass'' The first story, ''City of Glass'', features an author of detective fiction who becomes a private investigator and descends into madness as he becomes embroiled in the investigation of a case. It explores layers of identity and reality, from Paul Auster the writer of the novel to the unnamed "author" who reports the events as reality, to "Paul Auster the writer", a character in the story, to "Paul Auster the detective", who may or may not exist in the novel, to Peter Stillman the younger, to Peter Stillman the elder and, finally, to Daniel Quinn, the protagonist. ''City of Glass'' has an inte ...
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Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzou Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize. Growing up in Kobe before moving to Tokyo to attend Waseda University, he published his first novel ''Hear the Wind Sing'' (1979) after working as the owner of a small jazz bar for seven years. His notable works include the novels '' Norwegian Wood'' (1987), ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' (1994–95), ''Kafka on the Shore'' (2002), and '' 1Q84'' (2009–10), with ''1Q84'' ranked as the best work of Japan's Heisei era (1989–2019) by the national newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' survey of literary experts. His work spans genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crim ...
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Wild Sheep Chase
(literally An Adventure Concerning Sheep) is the third novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. First published in Japan in 1982, it was translated into English in 1989. It is an independent sequel to ''Pinball, 1973'', and the third book in the so-called "Trilogy of the Rat". It won the 1982 Noma Literary Newcomer's Prize. While the original story of ''A Wild Sheep Chase'' was set in the 1970s, translator Alfred Birnbaum and Kodansha editor Elmer Luke wanted a story that was more contemporary and also appealed to American readers. In the novel, Murakami blends elements of American and English literature with Japanese contexts, exploring post- WWII Japanese cultural identity. The book is part mystery and part magical realism with a postmodern twist. ''A Wild Sheep Chase'' has been defined as a parody or a renewal of Yukio Mishima's . Plot summary This quasi-detective tale follows an unnamed, chain-smoking narrator and his adventures in Tokyo and Hokkaido in 1978. The ...
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The Man Without A Map
is a 1968 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and starring Shintaro Katsu. The screenplay was adapted by Kōbō Abe from his novel ''The Ruined Map''. This was the fifth and final film collaboration between Teshigahara and Abe.Berra, John (2012). Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2'. Intellect Books. p. 276. Cast * Shintaro Katsu – detective * Etsuko Ichihara – wife * Osamu Okawa – wife's brother * Kiyoshi Atsumi – Tashiro * Tamao Nakamura – detective's wife * Kinzō Shin was a Japanese stage and film actor. Between the early 1930s and late 1980s, he appeared in over 80 films by directors such as Masaki Kobayashi, Kon Ichikawa, Kaneto Shindō, Tadashi Imai and Yasuzō Masumura. Biography Kinzō Shin was born i ... – coffee shop owner References External links * 1968 films 1960s Japanese films Films directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara 1960s Japanese-language films Toho films {{1960s-Japan-film-stub ...
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Hiroshi Teshigahara
was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker and artist from the Japanese New Wave era. He is best known for the 1964 film ''Woman in the Dunes''. He is also known for directing other titles such as ''The Face of Another'' (1966), ''Natsu No Heitai'' (''Summer Soldiers'', 1972), and '' Pitfall'' (1962) which was Teshigahara's directorial debut. He has been called "one of the most acclaimed Japanese directors of all time". Teshigahara is the first person of Asian descent to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, accomplishing this in 1964 for his work on ''Woman in the Dunes''. Apart from being a filmmaker, Teshigahara also practiced other arts, such as calligraphy, pottery, painting, opera and ikebana. Biography Teshigahara was born in Tokyo, the son of Sōfu Teshigahara, founder and grand master of the Sōgetsu-ryū school of ''ikebana''. He graduated in 1950 from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and began working in documentary film. He directed his ...
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Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and millions of books. In addition to its archiving function, the Archive is an activist organization, advocating a free and open Internet. , the Internet Archive holds over 35 million books and texts, 8.5 million movies, videos and TV shows, 894 thousand software programs, 14 million audio files, 4.4 million images, 2.4 million TV clips, 241 thousand concerts, and over 734 billion web pages in the Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive allows the public to upload and download digital material to its data cluster, but the bulk of its data is collected automatically by its web crawlers, which work to preserve as much of the public web as possible. Its web archiving, web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains hu ...
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