The Elephant Vanishes
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The Elephant Vanishes
is a collection of 17 short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The stories were written between 1980 and 1991, and published in Japan in various magazines, then collections. The contents of this compilation were selected by Gary Fisketjon (Murakami's editor at Knopf) and first published in an English translation in 1993 (its Japanese counterpart was released later in 2005). Several of the stories had already appeared (often with alternate translations) in the magazines ''The New Yorker'', ''Playboy'', and ''The Magazine (Mobil Corp.)'' before this compilation was published. Stylistically and thematically, the collection aligns with Murakami's previous work. The stories mesh normality with surrealism, and focus on painful issues involving loss, destruction, confusion and loneliness. The title for the book is derived from the final story in the collection. Contents Synopsis "The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday's Women" ''Note: This story was subsequently updated as the fir ...
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Alfred Birnbaum
Alfred Birnbaum (born 1955)Our Authors: Alfred Birnbaum
Hyperion Books. Accessed March 10, 2010.
is an American translator. Alfred Birnbaum was born in the and raised in Japan from age five. He studied at , , under a

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Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, violin, voice, and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms has been considered both a traditionalist and an innovator, by his contemporaries and by later writers. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. Embe ...
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San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of California cities by population, fourth most populous in California and List of United States cities by population, 17th most populous in the United States, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of , at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City, and the County statistics of the United States, fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income (at $160,749) and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include ''SF'', ''San Fran'', ''The '', ''Frisco'', and '' ...
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Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco
Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. The F Market streetcar runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car line runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fisherman's Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away. History San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf gets its name and neighborhood characteristics from the city's early days of the mid to later 1800s when Italian immigrant fishermen came to the city to take advantage of the influx of population due to the gold rush. Most of the Italian immigrant fishermen settled in the North Beach area close to the wharf and fished for the local delicacies and dungeness crab. From then until the present day the wharf remained the center of operations for San Francisco's fishing fleet. Despite its redevelopment into a tour ...
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Arson
Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercraft, or forests. The crime is typically classified as a felony, with instances involving a greater degree of risk to human life or property carrying a stricter penalty. Arson which results in death can be further prosecuted as manslaughter or murder. A common motive for arson is to commit insurance fraud. In such cases, a person destroys their own property by burning it and then lies about the cause in order to collect against their insurance policy. A person who commits arson is referred to as an arsonist, or a serial arsonist if arson has been committed several times. Arsonists normally use an accelerant (such as gasoline or kerosene) to ignite, propel and directionalize fires, and the detection and identification of ignitable liqui ...
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Cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively, ''C. ruderalis'' may be included within ''C. sativa'', all three may be treated as subspecies of ''C. sativa'', or ''C. sativa'' may be accepted as a single undivided species. The genus is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from Asia. The plant is also known as hemp, although this term is often used to refer only to varieties of ''Cannabis'' cultivated for non-drug use. Cannabis has long been used for hemp fibre, hemp seeds and their oils, hemp leaves for use as vegetables and as juice, medicinal purposes, and as a recreational drug. Industrial hemp products are made from cannabis plants selected to produce an abundance of fibre. Various cannabis strains have been bred, often selectively to pro ...
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Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques de l'Algérie (web). and in 2020 was estimated to be around 4,500,000. Algiers is located on the Mediterranean Sea and in the north-central portion of Algeria. Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the Casbah or citadel (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle. Names The city's name is derived via French and Catalan ''Origins of Algiers'' by Louis Leschi, speech delivered June 16, 1941, published in ''El Djezair Sheets'', July 194History of Algeria . from the Arabic name '' ...
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Mime
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message bodies may consist of multiple parts, and header information may be specified in non-ASCII character sets. Email messages with MIME formatting are typically transmitted with standard protocols, such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), the Post Office Protocol (POP), and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). The MIME standard is specified in a series of requests for comments: , , , , and . The integration with SMTP email is specified in and . Although the MIME formalism was designed mainly for SMTP, its content types are also important in other communication protocols. In the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for the World Wide Web, servers insert a MIME header field at the beginning of any Web transmission. Clients ...
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Burning (2018 Film)
''Burning'' () is a 2018 South Korean-Japanese psychological drama, psychological thriller film co-written, produced, and directed by Lee Chang-dong. The film is based on the short story "Barn Burning" from ''The Elephant Vanishes'' by Haruki Murakami, with elements inspired by William Faulkner's Barn Burning, story of the same name. It stars Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, and Jeon Jong-seo. The plot depicts a young deliveryman, Jong-su (Yoo), who runs into his childhood friend, Hae-mi (Jeon). They soon meet an enigmatic young man named Ben (Yeun), whom Jong-su becomes suspicious of and begins to believe Hae-mi is in danger. The first film by Lee after a hiatus of eight years, the film premiered on May 16, 2018, at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or; it ended up receiving the FIPRESCI, FIPRESCI International Critics' Prize at the festival. It was released the following day in South Korea and on October 26, 2018, in the United States. It received almost u ...
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Lederhosen
Lederhosen (; , ; singular in German usage: ''Lederhose'') are short or knee-length leather breeches that are worn as traditional garments in some regions of German-speaking countries. The longer ones are generally called ''Bundhosen'' or ''Kniebundhosen''. Once common workwear across Central Europe, these clothes—or Tracht—are particularly associated with Bavaria and the Tyrol region. Traditional Bavarian men's clothing Formerly, lederhosen were worn for hard physical work; they were more durable than a fabric garment. Today, they are mostly worn as leisurewear. Lederhosen and dirndl attire is also common at Oktoberfest events around the world. Lederhosen were widespread among men of the Alpine and surrounding regions, including Bavaria, Austria, the Allgäu, Switzerland, the autonomous Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol (formerly part of Austria-Hungary) and the Alpine area of today's Slovenia. ''La Couturière Parisienne'', however, says that lederhose ...
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Honda Civic
The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. Since 2000, the Civic has been categorized as a compact car, while previously it occupied the subcompact class. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/City and Honda Accord in Honda's global car line-up. The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 as a two-door coupe model, followed by a three-door hatchback that September. With a 1,169 cc transverse engine and front-wheel drive like the British Mini, the car provided good interior space despite overall small dimensions. Initially gaining a reputation for being fuel-efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly, later iterations have become known for performance and sportiness, especially the Civic Type R, Civic VTi, Civic GTi and Civic SiR/Si. The Civic has been repeatedly rebadged for international markets, and served as the basis for the Honda CR-X, the Honda CR-X del Sol, the Concerto, the first generation Prelude, the Civic Sh ...
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Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, «Анна Каренина», p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever written, Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1875 to 1877, all but the last part appearing in the periodical ''The Russian Messenger.'' A complex novel in eight parts, with more than a dozen major characters, ''Anna Karenina'' is often published in more than 800 pages. It deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and rural vs. city life. The story centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness, but after they return to Russia, their lives further un ...
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