Another one I've been concerned about is Haruki Murakami. One can fairly argue that some nuances are lost in translation from Japanese to English. But his later books have a lot of red flags to me. "Killing Commendatore" is particularly worrying.
Plot points I consider red flags, frank talk about sexual violence and other concerning things
The protagonist is a middle-aged man in an artistic line of work (portrait painting) who recently went through a divorce. The very first thing he does is go on a post-divorce finding-himself road trip where he:
Has a one-night-stand in a hotel with a woman who wants very rough sex. complete with hard choking.
Has lengthy discussions on physical and psychological changes during puberty with a middle school girl who is modeling for him.
Has lengthy discussions about said girl with a middle-aged wealthy man who believes - but has no evidence - that he is the girl's father. There's subtext about this man basically trying to groom her.
Several chapters with graphic depictions of the conduct of Japanese soldiers in China in WW2. To Murakami's credit he is not remotely a nationalist and he claims that this is about forcing his fellow citizens to confront the reality of Imperial Japan's actions. But it's still disturbing.
I used to love his work, it's my kind of weird. But now I wonder.
Another one I've been concerned about is Haruki Murakami. One can fairly argue that some nuances are lost in translation from Japanese to English. But his later books have a lot of red flags to me. "Killing Commendatore" is particularly worrying.
Plot points I consider red flags, frank talk about sexual violence and other concerning things
The protagonist is a middle-aged man in an artistic line of work (portrait painting) who recently went through a divorce. The very first thing he does is go on a post-divorce finding-himself road trip where he:
Has a one-night-stand in a hotel with a woman who wants very rough sex. complete with hard choking.
Has lengthy discussions on physical and psychological changes during puberty with a middle school girl who is modeling for him.
Has lengthy discussions about said girl with a middle-aged wealthy man who believes - but has no evidence - that he is the girl's father. There's subtext about this man basically trying to groom her.
Several chapters with graphic depictions of the conduct of Japanese soldiers in China in WW2. To Murakami's credit he is not remotely a nationalist and he claims that this is about forcing his fellow citizens to confront the reality of Imperial Japan's actions. But it's still disturbing.
I used to love his work, it's my kind of weird. But now I wonder.