David Mitchell Attains Japanese Thought. Or Does He?

The paper I'm giving at the University of Aberdeen in July focusses on the contemporary British writer David Mitchell and whether or not he can be considered an altermodern writer. I call him a British writer a little provocatively, because the altermodern, and definitely Mitchell's novels, question the traditional sense of nationality.

In The Radicant, Nicolas Bourriaud discusses Victor Segalen, his book Essay on Exoticism and his ideas of diversity-as-energy and positive experiences of difference. Recounting how Segalen travelled to and through China and came to write a collection of prose poems Steles, Bourriaud defines Segalen's importance to the altermodern as this: "if the book [Essay on Exoticism] encourages us to seek to understand foreign cultures, it is so as to better appreciate what establishes our own difference. One cannot become Chinese, but one can attain the ability to articulate Chinese thought; one cannot claim as empathy what is merely a tourist's clear conscience, but one can translate".

My thought, which came to me whilst doing the washing up earlier, was that Mitchell attains a similar ability vis-a-vis Japan. Having re-read Cloud Atlas, I have just finished number9dream and am now moving on to Ghostwritten. It is number9dream that interests me here.

What struck me initially was how similar to some of Haruki Murakami's narrator-heroes Mitchell's narrator Eiji Miyake is. His thoughtfulness, stubborness and naivete are all found in Kafka on the Shore's narrator, as well as that of Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Now, there are quite a few assumptions being made here - which naturally were I to follow this line of thought I would chase up - concerning how typical of "Japanese thought" Murakami's characters are. And there is certainly room for debate, given the obvious debt of influence he and his characters owe to Western culture - Beatles songs, jazz, pasta. But assuming that Murakami is able to articulate a recognisably Japanese mindset, then the similarities to Mitchell would suggest that the non-Japanese writer gets pretty close too.

My gut instinct says that number9dream doesn't seem mannered. Eiji doesn't come across as the character stuck between a British background and a Japanese present that you might expect. He doesn't seem caricatured or two-dimensional. And in those moments where characters use familiarly "British" words like "bloody", the effect is to make them more vivid and memorable. One might even be able to argue that Mitchell's background actually helps him see Japan more clearly: his experience of difference is translated into country-boy Eiji's impressions of megalopolis Tokyo.

These are very much early thoughts, but suggest that there is some mileage in the David Mitchell-Altermodern idea.

A Little Thought About David Mitchell

By rights I shouldn't like David Mitchell. His writing is slightly cyber-punky, Matrix-y and Bladerunner-y; all things I steer pretty well clear of. Whilst not overly elaborate it's not spare - fast becoming my favourite writing style - either. It's punchy and quick and he weaves a good yarn. Now yarnin', as Zachry in Cloud Atlas calls storytelling, is something I do like. And it's probably what makes me like him as much as I do. He has a similar storytelling prowess to Haruki Murakami and weaves in and out of reality much like him. (I'm too ignorant to say whether it's the Japanese connection - Mitchell lived and taught in Tokyo for many years). That not-sparse prose is given to occasional flourishes but not exaggerated ones. It is calm and somewhat measured but reveals a joy of the wriggliness of language too.