Reborn Bao Guowei, I really didn’t want to be a great writer!

Chapter 413 The future development of detective novels!
Agatha Christie.

One of the most famous British mystery novelists in the early 20th century.

Known as the "Queen of Detective Fiction".

Later, she was awarded the title of "Queen of Detectives" by the Queen of England.

Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and Then There Were None.
It can be said that the plots of Agatha's novels influenced the mystery fantasy of a generation.

Many mystery works in later generations were influenced by this lady and have been adapted into television and movie screens many times.

By 1930, Agatha was already one of the most popular writers of the time. Especially after Conan Doyle's death, there was no mystery writer on the market who could compete with Agatha.

She holds an extraordinary status both among the people and in academia.

Let's put it this way: if the lady wanted to, she could have a good chat with the King of England at the time.

In Britain at that time, intellectuals were able to reach this status.

Many people attended this cultural salon just for Agatha's fame.

But later I heard that she couldn't come due to schedule, which was really regrettable.

Unexpectedly, Agatha appeared in front of Bao Guowei at this moment.

"Ms. Christie Christie, you are actually Agatha Christie!"

The waiter, who had a serious face at first, immediately remembered the face he had seen in the newspaper before after hearing Agatha's name. It happened to be the same face!

He couldn't suppress his excitement and stammered.

"I am your loyal reader. I didn't expect to see you again. We all look forward to your return and bringing us works like "The Mystery of Roger"

The waiter searched for a long time and finally found a purse and a pen in the car. He handed them to Agatha and asked.

"I hope to get your autograph."

Agatha's face was hidden under the wide brim of her hat, her fair skin still showed the charm of her youth, but now, it had some wrinkles from the vicissitudes of life.

She took the purse and pen and spoke in a deep female voice.

"Sir, I don't suppose you'll let me sign outside the car?"

"Ah," the waiter looked panicked. Even though he liked Agatha very much, he still maintained his professionalism. "Madam, I hope to receive you, but this car is for Mr. Bao today. Everything will be subject to his instructions."

The waiter might have looked down on Oriental people in his heart, but he still didn't dare to be rude to this distinguished guest of His Royal Highness the Prince.

Bao Guowei looked up and said in a gentle voice.

"Ma'am, it's my pleasure."

"Thank you! Your generosity will surely bring you good luck, great sir!"

The waiter was very excited and bowed to Bao Guowei repeatedly, making Bao Guowei feel a little embarrassed.

I couldn't help but complain in my heart.

It seems that the "star chasers" in the UK are much more fanatical than those in China.

On the other hand, the waiter's identity and reaction are enough to illustrate Agatha's status in Britain at that time.

The back of the car is very spacious, and it can be said that it is specially prepared for reception. It is not difficult to accommodate six passengers to sit opposite each other and discuss matters.

Including Agatha, there were only five people in the back seat of the sedan, so the space was more than enough.

After coming in, Agatha first helped the waiter sign the briefcase. After the other party thanked her profusely and returned to the front row, she politely greeted everyone present.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Christie. I am Shi Zhaoji, the Minister of the Republic of China in London. I have read your works."

Shi Zhaoji seemed very excited, and even felt like he had seen the world. He stretched out his hand and shook hands with Agatha politely.

To be honest, in all the years he has been in London, he has never been as prominent as he is today.

This made Shi Zhaoji feel even more emotional.

"Hello." Zhang Nianyue nodded politely. To be honest, she was a little wary at first, but after Agatha got in the car, she looked very polite and even sat next to Zhang Nianyue to avoid suspicion, which made her feel very comfortable.

"Hello! Ms. Agasha!"

Agatha was stunned by Cao Yanhai's rough Chinese, and she could barely hear that he was greeting her.

After taking a turn and waiting for the car to start, she took advantage of the ten minutes or so of the journey to chat with Bao Guowei.

It is obvious that her real purpose of this trip is to get to know Bao Guowei.

"Mr. Bao, I really like your speech at the salon. Although I am not very proficient in economics, I can tell that these economic policies are really based on the common people."

Agatha said bluntly.

Bao Guowei had some expectations in his mind that the other party came because of this matter, but he still spoke with some doubts.

"Ms. Christie actually knew that? I didn't find you at the party."

Although I really wanted to call her Agatha, which is more catchy, in the British cultural context, names are only used by close people, so it was still a bit inappropriate when we met for the first time.

Agatha gave a mysterious smile.

"I was watching the party."

She then explained, “I had an experience that I couldn’t bear to look back on, so when I returned to London this time, I didn’t want too much attention and wanted to create quietly.”

Agatha didn't want to elaborate, so Bao Guowei naturally didn't ask.

But he could guess in his heart what this unbearable experience was.

It is indisputable that Ms. Agatha Christie is a great female writer.

However, such a great female writer fell into a low point due to the failure of her marriage.

About four years ago, Agatha's husband Archer left her for another woman when she was heartbroken by her mother's death.

This made Agatha heartbroken, and her writing slowed down from then on.

But even though Agatha had been away from London for four years, her legend was still circulating in the world, and countless readers and literature lovers were looking forward to her return.

Bao Guowei nodded and said, "I understand."

"Let's not talk about this." After four years of settling down, Agatha seemed very calm, and she continued.

"I thought your economic policies were far better than those hypocritical politicians. I never thought that one day an Oriental would propose a policy that was more in line with the interests of the people than that of local European politicians.

This is ironic.”

Apparently Agatha wasn't too happy with the authorities, which is understandable.

Agatha was a person of many identities who had participated in the war. When she lived abroad, she also met many war refugees. The turbulence of life under the background of war and the changes in human nature made her have a negative attitude towards war and the authorities.

Like many anti-war writers in Europe at the time, Agatha was somewhat inclined towards socialism.

"Ma'am, I must remind you of something." Bao Guowei said helplessly, spreading his hands. "In fact, thinking for the people is a common characteristic of normal politicians. This should be the most normal thing."

Agatha looked at Bao Guowei with some surprise, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Sir, your words can be regarded as a golden sentence." The topic of politics did not last long. For the two writers, discussing their works was the most important thing.

“I really like the performance of The Shawshank Redemption. It allowed me to see a different kind of dramatic expression and made me understand that a good story does not need to be handled too deliberately, and it can still dig out praise for the power of the human spirit.”

When talking about the works, Agatha could hardly hide her praise, and it was obvious that she came here not just for economic policies.

For a writer like her, the world of literature is much more important.

Bao Guowei knows that he currently has two works that are popular in the West.

One is "The Godfather", which is widely circulated among ordinary people.

Another one is the drama "The Shawshank Redemption", which even Bernard Shaw admired, not to mention Agatha.

Bao Guowei said very honestly: "To be honest, I provided the script for this work, but the script alone cannot achieve the full expression of the drama, and Mr. Cao Yu's contribution in it is also indelible."

Perhaps it is because his influence is so great that when people mention "The Shawshank Redemption", it is easy to ignore Cao Yu, which is something Bao Guowei does not want to see.

"Cao?" Agatha said with some confusion.

Hearing this word, Cao Yanhai at the back shuddered, thinking that it was the British aunt calling him.

Bao Guowei gave her a brief introduction.

Agatha nodded and said, "I will remember this name too."

Then she smiled.

"But you don't have to be so modest. This book left a deep impression on me. I will consider learning from it later. I think the storytelling techniques in this work will be very useful for the creation of mystery novels."

shit
Bao Guowei couldn't help feeling a little surprised.

This is not the first time that a well-known and famous writer in history has expressed his influence and inspiration.

I wonder what the literary world will look like a hundred years from now, given the changes I have brought about.
And he immediately caught a detail in the other party's words.

I couldn't help but ask, "Does Ms. Christie have any new works?"

Bao Guowei was looking forward to it. Since the other party was influenced by him, would he be able to create those well-known works in advance?

It seems like "The Mystery of Cliff House" is about to be created?

"Murder on the Orient Express" is almost being ripped off by later mystery works!

There are also a lot of excellent works, such as "The ABC Murders", "Death on the Nile", "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and so on.

Of course, the more anticipated work is "And Then There Were None", which has been made into film and television works countless times.

The Blizzard Mansion model has been imitated and borrowed by countless works, and can be said to be the culmination of Agatha's detective novels.

To be honest, if Agatha hadn't been sitting right in front of him, Bao Guowei really wanted to copy all of these excellent works.

But unfortunately, Xiao Bao is not yet shameless enough.

"I guess so." Agatha said with a reserved smile. "It may take some time."

She seemed to remember something.

"Speaking of mystery novels, I would like to hear Mr. Bao's understanding of mystery novels."

What is your understanding of detective novels?
This touches upon Bao Guowei's area of ​​pretense.

He smiled and said, "I have some immature ideas."

In the carriage, Bao Guowei and Agatha were chatting enthusiastically, and the other three people could hardly get a word in.

Zhang Nianyue had to struggle to understand the conversation between the two people.

Thinking about Bao Guowei's performance today, Zhang Nianyue felt that she had fallen far behind without realizing it.

I secretly made up my mind to work harder and not hold Bao Guowei back.

Cao Yanhai was about to fall asleep, and not snoring in the carriage was his greatest respect for the discussion.

"interesting."

Shi Zhaoji would make a comment from time to time, squinting his eyes and listening carefully to the conversation between the two people.

The look he gave Bao Guowei was as gentle as a father seeing his successful child.

Shi Zhaoji was very happy and proud of Bao Guowei, but what he didn't know was that these words he ignored would become an important theory for the development of detective novels in the future!
“Since Mr Conan Doyle, I call this period the golden age of mystery fiction, and there are now countless mystery novelists.

Including but not limited to Madam, the late Mr. Conan Doyle, Mr. Ellery Queen, Mr. John Dickson Carr, etc.

But I have some more analysis on the development of mystery novels. Madam, you can listen to it for now, but don’t take it too seriously.”

Agatha had no reaction to Bao Guowei listing her among the best contemporary mystery novelists.

She is a confident person. She doesn't think she is bad, but she doesn't think she is great either.

Agatha was looking forward to the other party's opening remarks.

"I have read many mystery novels nowadays, which mainly focus on logical reasoning and puzzle design, emphasizing the intellectual competition between readers."

"Puzzle design?" Agatha frowned, and then felt that the other party's analysis was very accurate.

It can even be said to be so accurate that it exceeds the understanding of many mystery writers.

Realizing Bao Guowei's level, she immediately became more serious.

Bao Guowei said bluntly: "This is good, but sooner or later readers will get bored."

"You mean, there are other genres of detective fiction?"

Agatha's brows tightened.

She had never analyzed a detective novel so carefully. This was not because of Agatha, but because of the limitations of the times.

It has been less than a hundred years since the detective novel was truly defined and born in 1841.

The development of detective novels is not even as systematic as that of science fiction.

Most mystery novelists are still at the exploratory stage, let alone analyzing future developments.

"Yes!" Bao Guowei nodded firmly and continued to talk incessantly.

“I think detective novels should not be limited to this, but should be more diversified.

For example, we can strengthen the core of detective novels - detective ability, so that they can show more perseverance and courage, focus on the description of social cases and the portrayal of characters, and of course the description of the environment and fighting is indispensable.

In addition, we can combine it with the current popular realism, use realistic techniques, focus on exploring the underlying causes of crime in society, and expose social irrationality and the dark side of human nature.

This kind of revelation is a kind of story in itself.

Of course, ladies, you can continue to strengthen logical reasoning and puzzle design, and even add more novel fantasy and science fiction elements to create more grand scenes.

besides"

(End of this chapter)