I Asked DALL·E 3 to Visualize Murakami's Books

Introduction

Have you ever tried to explain something tricky, and wished the person could just see inside your mind? That’s the idea behind prompts for AI. A prompt is a clear instruction, or direction, to get AI to understand and produce what you want. Big tech companies are starting to hire folks with humanistic background because they’re good at this. They know how to use words in a way that paints clear pictures. And this skill is super useful when you want AI to create a specific image from a description.

The hottest new programming language is English

— Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) January 24, 2023

The landscape of AI-driven image generation has always been a delicate dance between human input and machine output. Historically, the process required users to supply highly detailed prompts to produce accurate visuals. Take, for instance, the system Midjourney. To paint a picture of a serene scene, one might have to describe it meticulously, also requiring the definition of technical concepts related to the photographic world such as lens aperture and shutter speed.

Yet, the advent of DALL·E 3, with its integration into ChatGPT, is ushering in a new era. This technology shows an uncanny ability to auto-prompt, or intuitively grasp, the essence of a description.

During these tech advancements, I had an idea for a fun experiment. I’ve always been a big fan of Murakami. His stories, filled with amazing places and deep feelings, have always captivated me. So, I thought, why not see how DALL·E 3 handles his writings? Can it create pictures that match the dreamy and mysterious worlds Murakami describes? As I went through this experiment, I didn’t just learn about what the AI could do, but also thought a lot about how our favorite stories can turn into pictures in our minds—and now, on the screen.

For this experiment, I took a bunch of paragraphs and quotes from some of my favorite Murakami ’s books. From these, With each chosen passage, I presented it to DALL·E 3 within ChatGPT. Alongside each Murakami quote, I’ve posted its corresponding AI-generated image where the associate caption is the auto-generated prompt by ChatGPT.

#1 Kafka on the Shore

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.

#2 Men Without Women

And once you’ve become Men Without Women, loneliness seeps deep down inside your body, like a red-wine stain on a pastel carpet. No matter how many home ec books you study, getting rid of that stain isn’t easy. The stain might fade a bit over time, but it will still remain, as a stain, until the day you draw your final breath. It has the right to be a stain, the right to make the occasional, public, stain-like pronouncement. And you are left to live the rest of your life with that gradual spread of that colour, with that ambiguous outline.

#3 Dance Dance Dance

You gotta dance. As long as the music plays. You gotta dance. Don’t even think why. Start to think, your feet stop. Your feet stop, we get stuck. We get stuck, you’re stuck. So don’t pay any mind, no matter how dumb. You gotta keep the step. You gotta limber up. You gotta loosen what you bolted down. You gotta use all you got. We know you’re tired, tired and scared. Happens to everyone, okay? Just don’t let your feet stop.

#4 1Q84

The moon had been observing the earth close-up longer than anyone. It must have witnessed all of the phenomena occurring - and all of the acts carried out - on this earth. But the moon remained silent; it told no stories. All it did was embrace the heavy past with a cool, measured detachment. On the moon there was neither air nor wind. Its vacuum was perfect for preserving memories unscathed. No one could unlock the heart of the moon. Aomame raised her glass to the moon and asked, “Have you gone to bed with someone in your arms lately?” The moon did not answer. “Do you have any friends?” she asked. The moon did not answer. “Don’t you get tired of always playing it cool?” The moon did not answer.

#5 Sputnik Sweetheart

Being all alone is like the feeling you get when you stand at the mouth of a large river on a rainy evening and watch the water flow into the sea. Have you ever done that? Stand at the mouth of a large river and watch the water flow into the sea?

#6 South of the Border, West of the Sun

Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.