Contemporary Japanese writer and former Tufts visiting fellow Haruki Murakami participated in an informal discussion with students and faculty yesterday afternoon in the Coolidge Room of Ballou Hall.

Murakami is a cool, funny and shy writer and novelist who was born in Kyoto in 1949. He moved to Hyogo (Ashiya City) when he was one year old and was then brought up in Kobe. His first novel, "Hear the Wind Sing" was published in 1979.
   Murakami's novels contain everything from the boredom of modern city life to delicate and mysterious human relationships and worlds that thrive underground. "I write spontaneously," Murakami said. "I don't think about anything when I write, I don't know anything when I write."

He related his writing to computer games, saying that when he writes he is like the programmer and the player at the same time; the mind is divided in half.
   Murakami discussed how we are living in a world that is reality, but underneath, he strongly believes there is an "underground." In addition, there is a type of underground within his mind. "I have things in the back of my mind that are lying beneath my conscience. Writing, for me, is a passive way to get these thoughts in-side of me out."