The title format "What We Talk About When We Talk About X," which today perhaps would be called a meme started with a famous short story by Raymond Carver, part of his short story collection published in 1981 with the same title (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_We_Talk_About_When_We_Tal...). It's a great story, strongly recommend it.

This format is now very widely used in blogs and other pieces, almost to the point of being overdone. TIL from (https://lithub.com/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-thi...) that Murakami "asked Tess Gallagher, Carver’s widow, for permission to use the title form." for his memoir published in 2009. He's probably an important factor in the resurgence of the format.

Also worth mentioning that the title was made up by Carver's editor Gordon Lish, who significantly altered the story (originally called Beginners). Lish made relatively extensive changes to many of Carver's stories, and is widely accepted as having improved them, though not everyone agrees.

Great point! Lish was a tight controller who was universally liked, to say the least. He’s generally insufferable (judge for yourself don’t this PM interview: https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6423/the-art-of-ed....) A sexier version of Maxwell Perkins with better hair, perhaps? Yet he did teach writing and edited well.

Way, way past the point of being overdone! And I'm sure most of the people who keep overdoing it are referencing the Murakami book, rather than the great Carver short story.

Thank you for sharing. My mind went right to the Murakami book as well, so it's nice to have the additional information you provided.