Haruki Murakami

[eunice]

Any fans of his novels out here? His novels are deeply moving imo. I'm currently reading an old novel "South of the Border, West of the Sun". His main characters seem to be mainly INXjs.

Haruki Murakami official website
wiki info
quotes from his novels

[implied]

seems like i've seen him typed as INTp, but it's just something i've read (old socioniko stuff.) i just got after dark but i haven't gotten into it yet.

[aestrivex]

i think he's ILI, but that's more a hunch than anything.

[Gilly]

No way. Read his books: TiNe out the ass. VIs as LII, too.

[Ms. Kensington]

like him a lot.

[eunice]

He seems to be anti-Gamma based on his criticisms about the decrease in human values and a loss of connection between people in Japan's capitalist society. He writes about Japan's obsession with capitalism and the theme of his novels are about alienation, loneliness and longing for love.

[Pink]

The main character of his novel "A Wild Sheep Chase" is IxTp. His books exude strongly developed Ni and Te. The concept of time is a crucial theme in his stories. I type his 2nd girlfriend in the story as ENFp; a fictional ENFp from the perspective and mind of an IxTp. It's really neat!

Haruki is extremely descriptive in his writing, to the point that it is bone chilling; as you read.. He does this cleverly and tastefully, as his in depth descriptive writing never becomes mundane.

Im not sure if I would be able to pinpoint Haruki's exact type quite yet, or if it would be fair to type him solely based on his novels.

So all in all, he could be:

ILI - Strongly developed Ni, strong use of surrealism and magic realism in his literature. Time is of essence in his work and plays an important role of piecing his story together. His use of Ni instead of Fe he corporates it with Te.

SLI - Although his Ni is extremely developed, I couldn't help but see this type as a possibility as well, but his descriptive writing could be a result of his strong and vivid memory(Ni)?.

(Maybe) LII - I'm a bit iffy on this one. His writing doesn't contain a lot of Ne, at least from my perspective.

[Olimpia]

Have only read quotes from his books so far, not read one yet.

His work strikes me as very Fi and Ni heavy.

Based on that, I'd reckon he is either EII or IEI.
I lean towards EII for him, because there seems to be an over-emphasis on the personal internal feelings of the characters.

The following quotes from his novel 1Q84 struck me as being Fi:

“If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person.”

“Once you let yourself grow close to someone, cutting the ties could be painful.”

“I'm a coward when it comes to matters of the heart. That is my fatal flaw.”

“It's not me but the world that's deranged.”

And this sounds like Creative Ne:
"1Q84 serves as a culmination of many of his prior works, assigning further meaning to his previous novels."

[ashlesha]

I agree re: Fi and Ni. I vaguely like the EII typing, but it's been a few years since I've read him and I don't remember enough to be confident about it.

[consentingadult]

I know nothing about the man himself, but I have read Norwegian Wood and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, and what strikes me most about his lead characters that they are a sort of healthy manifestations of schizoid personalities, so definitively xLI. In the Dutch translations of these books (which I read) these definitively look a lot more SLI than ILI, but then again, the supposed magic realism of these novels have, imho, been lost in translation. Some of the more realistic female love interests are obvious IEEs (Sara Kimoto, Midori Kobayashi). Characters such as Hatsumi (Norwegian Wood) and Yuzuki Shirane (Tsukuru Tazaki) give me the impression of being detached, fragile EIIs.

Don't know however if his lead characters are modeled after his own personality.

[Tonatiuh]

Any fans of his novels out here? His novels are deeply moving imo. I'm currently reading an old novel "South of the Border, West of the Sun". His main characters seem to be mainly INXjs.

My fondness of him and his writing is profound.

[Pink]

Maybe it's just biased towards the novels I've read of his, but as I hold and read "A Wild Sheep Chase" it's undeniable that Haruki, undoubtedly a genius, gifted and talented writer, who is well rounded and descriptive, I feel like I'm perversely invading the mind of a xLI. The way he perceives and writes about his Delta NF female encounters are just strongly from a Ni and Te viewpoint..

i can't be so sure though. It could be his Fi playing mind games with me.

ALSO** I feel that his style of writing is dynamic > static.. Which means xLI Xi + Te
negativist ---> ILI but I can't tell because all of his characters are extremely developed and realistic.

[consentingadult]

... his characters are extremely developed and realistic.

You really think so? I agree his characters are realistic, but at the same time their personalities seem very reduced to their essences. To put it differently: I know of no other writer whose characters fit so nicely into Socionics types, with the exception of Herman Hesse perhaps, but we all know how Hesse was inspired by Jung ;-)

[consentingadult]

...The way he perceives and writes about his Delta NF female encounters are just strongly from a Ni and Te viewpoint..

This is actually a good point you're making. E.g. if we take the characters of Sara Kimoto and Midori Kobayashi (Tsukuru Tazaki and Norwegian Wood respectively), these relationships seem promising in a way, but for some reason these women ultimately leave the main characters hanging by a thread and standing out in the cold, in the case of Midori quite literally, if we read the closing paragraph of Norwegian Wood. With a bit of caution this could be interpreted as Mirage relationships, i.e. very helpful for personal development, but no intimate relationship satisfaction.

[consentingadult]

Actually, I'm starting to think that the main characters of Norwegian Wood and Tsukuru Tazaki might indeed be ILI. I've already hypothesized that the female characters of these books are IEE and EII, and it's remarkable how the roles of the two IEEs are the same as are those of the EIIs. In both books the EIIs die, one by suicide, the other supposedly by a murder, although while reading Tzukuru Tazaki I got the impression that Yuzuki Shirane might have set up being murdered herself.

Actually, when you start thinking about these relationships with EIIs from a Socionics POV, you might start to wonder if these women's deaths is the result from being in Benefit relations with the lead characters? Why is Tzukuru Tazaki accused of having raped Yuzuki Shirane, what reason could she have had to put the blame of the crime on Tzukuru?

ETA: but then again, the lead characters seem to be way too organized in the material sense to be ILIs ;-)

[consentingadult]

By now I have read Sputnik Sweetheart. In this book he quotes two texts by one of the characters, Sumire, which the main character, K., has found on a diskette. To me these two texts unmistakably have a literary emotional expression of an IEE. It is remarkable, if not scary, how Murakami can portray the inner world of EIIs and IEEs as if he were inside their heads, when his lead characters are obvious xLIs.

[Chthonic Daydream]

Yeah, he's like a better John Green. I found the really explicit sex scenes to be not off-putting but quite oddly described, and left a sour taste in my mouth. Again, DEFINITELY better than John Green, I can't stand the guy.

Seriously though. At times I can't be sure if I'm reading Murakami or a 90s porno mag.

[khcs]

Haruki Murakami - ENFP - Huxley

Haruki Murakami2.jpg

[guac]

Maybe there's already been a thread on him.
Anyway, what do you think his type is, based on his writing.
The writing feels very Si/Ni to me, leaning towards Ni (and also sx-last).

[Tzuyu]

I'm leaning towards EII, for style of writing. No idea about his actual type. It feels very Si/Ne for some reason. Probably because it's very whimsical and filled with totally random quirky nonsensical characters at times lol. And the cats. So many cats.

sidenote- from the little i have read i do enjoy his unique writing style! my favorite is Hardboiled Wonderland. My only critique for him would be the smarmy and somewhat unnecessary smexy scenes, kind of g.r.r. martin-ish y'know

[Marep]

Yes, EII