MURAKAMI -1Q84
Tengo surprised himself with his own eloquence.
His explanations were clever, his voice carried well, and he could excite the class with a good joke. He had always thought of himself as a poor speaker, and even now he could be at a loss for words when confronted face-to-face.
MURAKAMI - 1Q84
When he was home, Tengo usually wrote from first thing in the morning until the approach of evening.
All he needed to satisfy him was his Mont Blanc pen, his blue ink, and standard manuscript sheets, each page lined with four hundred empty squares ready to accept four hundred characters.
MURAKAMI - 1Q84
Tengo was not dissatisfied with his salary.
It was by no means high, but the school paid in accordance with ability. The students were asked to do course evaluations periodically, and compensation hinged on the results. The school was afraid of having its best teachers lured away (and, in fact, Tengo had been headhunted several times).
MURAKAMI - 1Q84
“I have something bigger in mind,” Komatsu said.
“Something bigger?”
“Much bigger. Why be satisfied with small-scale stuff like the new writers’ prize? As long as we’re aiming, why not go for something big?”
MURAKAMI - 1Q84
Tengo fell silent. He had no idea what Komatsu was getting at, but he sensed something disturbing.
“The Akutagawa Prize!” Komatsu declared after a moment’s pause.
“The Akutagawa Prize?” Tengo repeated the words slowly, as if he were writing them in huge characters with a stick on wet sand.
MURAKAMI - 1Q84
“Come on, Tengo, you can’t be that out of touch! The Akutagawa Prize! Every writer’s dream! Huge headlines in the paper! TV news!”
“Now you’re losing me. Are we still talking about Fuka-Eri?”
“Of course we are - Fuka-Eri and Air Chrysalis. Have we been discussing anything else?”
