I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 153 In the world literary world, Japanese literature is just a small part, isn’t it?

"As for the title of the book, it's called 'Paradise Lost.'" Kitagawa Hide replied with a smile.

"Paradise Lost? Mr. Beichuan, does this book title have any special meaning? Can you tell us a little about the subject matter and creativity of the novel?" The reporter who asked the question continued to raise his hand to speak.

Kitagawa Hide glanced at the reporter, who was wearing a nameplate that read "Nikkan Sports News".

Although these questions were not on the questionnaire given to him by the two secretaries, this newspaper had supported him many times in public opinion and was considered half his own. Kitagawa Hide smiled and repeated the meaning of the title "Paradise Lost" that he had told Yumeko at that time.

Of course, it has not been revealed yet that the male and female protagonists are Tomomi Muramatsu and Rinko Matsubara.

Regarding the issue of using their two original names, since this was a point specifically emphasized in the suicide note, Kitagawa Hide asked the public relations staff of Kawaide Shobo to come forward and communicate with their families.

This again has to do with the extremely high national identity and social status of Japanese writers.

When they heard that the famous teacher Kitagawa was going to write a book under their names, their families quickly signed a contract to agree to the authorization.

"In terms of creativity, initially, I only planned to write a short story. Because when I was writing "Border", I was thinking about what kind of story would it be if 'Hatsu' and Shimamoto did not make that choice, and they finally chose to accept each other and give up their original families?"

This was what Kitagawa Hide really thought when he watched "Border" for the first time. As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of discussion broke out in the conference hall.

Obviously, this is also the thought of all readers who have read "Border".

"Afterwards, because of some things, I was inspired and commissioned to write this book "Paradise Lost." Kitagawa Hide did not explicitly say that it was still related to extramarital affairs, but everyone guessed it, and expressions of curiosity and joy appeared on their faces.

"I see. I'm personally looking forward to seeing your new work. Thank you for your answer, Mr. Kitagawa." The reporter bowed and sat down.

The invited reporter from the Yomiuri Shimbun immediately raised his hand to ask questions.

He is a serious "babysitter".

“Excuse me, Mr. Kitagawa, Borderland, like the Youth Trilogy, was only nominated for the Tanizaki Prize but did not win.

As far as I know, you seem to be in an awkward situation where your books are selling well, but awards and the literary world are not very friendly to you. What do you think about this? "

The reporter who asked the question was sweating profusely.

He didn't know why Mr. Beichuan would arrange to ask such a sharp question, and in the end it fell on him.

Mr. Beichuan is now at the peak of his career. Everyone says that if he continues to write like this, sooner or later he will become the new "No. 1 in the world".

And if he asked embarrassing questions at the writer's first book signing event, he, as a reporter, would probably be infamous forever.

"I heard that the Ministry of Education and some senior literary figures rejected me from the Tanizaki Prize this time. In a sense, I feel like I have become an outcast in the Japanese literary world. I have my own readers, but most of the literary critics and senior literary figures don't like me at all."

Kitagawa Hide showed a distressed expression and continued,
“In their eyes, I was like an ugly duckling who could never become a swan.

I and other writers are playing the game of 'literature', but the rules of our games seem to be completely different, just like I am playing basketball and they are playing football. No matter how hard I try, basketball stars can't win the World Cup, right? "

Kitagawa Hide smiled. This time he did not criticize the Tanizaki Prize. After all, the other party was subject to some giants in the Japanese literary world and pressure from the Ministry of Education. Shortly after "Border" was not selected, the jury of the Tanizaki Prize called to apologize.

This time, he wanted to take the opportunity to criticize the Ministry of Education and the Japanese literary world for maliciously manipulating the Tanizaki Prize behind the scenes.

This time the answer was not as direct and to the point as the previous two times in criticizing the mastermind behind the scenes, but this hidden needle could better hit the pain in the hearts of the Japanese literary world and the Ministry of Education.

They are deliberately targeting Kitagawa Hide in various ways.

The situation did not improve after Kitagawa Hide wrote a series of good books and even won the Naoki Prize.

After realizing that everyone was playing different games and that they could not be compatible with each other, Kitagawa Hide took a different approach this time.

"So what you mean is that you're going to write more groundbreaking novels to fight back against those people?" the reporter continued.

Kitagawa Hide shook his head: "I just said, I am playing basketball and they are playing football. I can't win the World Cup, but maybe I can try for the NBA championship.

I think the world's serious readers are 5% of the population. So even if there are great TV shows or whatever, that 5% of readers will still read seriously and passionately. This is not something you can stop by changing the rules of the game or prohibiting good books from winning awards.

In the world of literature, Japanese literature is just a small part, isn't it? "

The implication of this answer is already very clear.

Kitagawa Hide plans to expand the market for Paradise Lost overseas. Compared with the small Japanese literary world, the vast world literary world is a broader stage that is more suitable for him.

After "Border" made the song "South of the Border" popular, the original novel was successfully translated into English and published in the United States. The speed of publishing the physical book was even faster than in Japan.

Everyone knows about this, but not many people in the literary world care about it.

It is an indisputable fact that Japanese pure literature has not been well accepted in the world literary scene.

The reason why the seven "best writers in the world" are recognized by everyone is that four of them have created various records in the literary world that are difficult to break.

For example, a novel that has the highest total sales in history, a classic work that has promoted the development of the literary world, a novel that has been included in textbooks, etc.

Among the other three, two have won extremely well-known and influential literary awards overseas. The real number one in Japanese literary world, Ichiro Tanizaki, is also the name of the world's Tanizaki Prize. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Whether you recognize the Nobel Prize in Literature or not, it is still the world's most recognized literary award to date, and the only literary award that ordinary people who don't read novels know about!
With just one nomination, Ichiro Tanizaki firmly sat on the top spot of "the best in the world" and has not been shaken for many years.

However, since being nominated in the 70s, Ichiro Tanizaki has not written a book for more than years, and he rarely appears in the public eye.

Even when something like this happened with the Tanizaki Prize, he didn't say anything - the Tanizaki Prize was just an award that borrowed his name to gain popularity, and he had no need to be responsible for it.

Although the Tanizaki Prize is one of the top awards in Japan's pure literature circle, he can still ignore it.

This is the confidence of the first place of "Tianxia Yipin"! Now Kawade Shobo has not announced the overseas sales of "Border", so everyone does not hold too high hopes. Just treat it as Kitagawa Hide's first overseas show, and it will be enough to have some small achievements.

Therefore, now that Kitagawa Hide hinted that he would win some overseas awards to fight back against the evil deeds of the Japanese literary world, a group of reporters and celebrities who came to attend the book signing event suddenly became interested.

Afterwards, several reporters asked Kitagawa Hide questions one by one according to the script. After he answered, the first part of the signing event officially ended.

The hotel manager immediately called the staff to clean up the venue. During the break, celebrities came to Hide Kitagawa with their brand new copies of "Border" to ask for his autograph and take photos.

When Kitagawa Hide saw the newly set up autograph booth, he initially thought it would be like the ones he had seen before, with him and Yumeko sitting in front of the booth and book fans lining up to get their autographs.

But this kind of low-class behavior is obviously not suitable for these "special fans" who have a very high status in society. They are scattered around the venue in an orderly manner according to their invisible social status.

The first ones to come and ask for autographs and take photos were top political, business and legal figures like Tomiichi Murayama. The others would automatically chat in the corner of the venue, waiting for the big guys in front to finish chatting with Kitagawa Hide, and then come over one after another.

Kitagawa Hide couldn't help but sigh at the strict class sense in Japanese society. Even such things had to highlight the differences in their respective identities?

No wonder his open criticism of the industry and his strong behavior of "overthrowing the superiors" just now would win the favor of a large number of passers-by fans.

After all, even among the celebrities present, most of them are still subject to the control of people of higher classes. They may have the idea of ​​"overthrowing the superiors" in their hearts, but the higher the position they sit, the less likely such behavior will happen.

If you "rebel against your superiors" in the company, the worst that can happen is that you will be fired.

But if you try this in politics or somewhere else, you might end up being pushed into the crematorium and burned.

"Mr. Kitagawa, I'm looking forward to your new work." Murayama Tomiichi said, introducing the fat man next to him, "This is Ken Matsuyama, the president of the Nikkan Sports News. I heard that your new novel is going to be serialized in the newspaper?"

"Yes, there is such a plan." Kitagawa Hide nodded.

"That's great, you can chat more. I have something else to do, so I'll take my leave now." Murayama Tomiichi smiled, glanced at Kitagawa Hide, then took his people away.

Ken Matsuyama is a short, fat, middle-aged man. When he smiles, his eyes narrow into a line. In Kitagawa Hide's opinion, this kind of person is the most difficult to mess with.

Seemingly kind, but actually scheming.

"It's a great honor to meet you, Mr. Kitagawa." Matsuyama Ken was very enthusiastic. He first took the initiative to exchange business cards, and then took out "Border" and asked for an autograph.

After a conversation between the two, Ken Matsuyama bluntly stated the current dilemma of the Nikkan Sports News - they want to transform into a more popular newspaper, but readers generally know them as a sports column newspaper.

Those passers-by readers will give up buying the newspaper when they see the name of the newspaper.

And because of some historical reasons, he was unable to convince the board of directors to change the name of the newspaper.

Then the only way is to ask well-known writers to serialize novels in newspapers and rely on novels to attract a large number of audiences to buy newspapers.

Once they develop the habit of reading novels and buying newspapers, the audience will naturally increase, and their cognition will change subtly.

Ken Matsuyama is indeed a shrewd businessman.

Last year, he resolutely risked offending Shintaro Ishihara by awarding the Nikkan Sports Film Award to "Akudama", which was his first move.

However, his original idea was to take it step by step, and would consider it a success if he could get Kitagawa Hide to serialize a novel in his own newspaper.

Unexpectedly, Kitagawa Hidemoto had intended to serialize "Paradise Lost" in newspapers. He suddenly felt that the opportunity had come. This time he spent a lot of money to get in. On the one hand, he made arrangements with the relationship with Kawaide Shobo, and on the other hand, he asked Murayama Tomiichi to be the introducer.

Kitagawa Hide has a good impression of this newspaper. It was them who exposed Okatake Yomiuri before, so they are really half one of their own.

"I am a very vulgar person. I don't really understand literature, and I'm not very good at speaking. So, Mr. Beichuan, I can't understand the scheming of writers. From what you said, I feel that you are not that kind of person."

Matsuyama Ken said bluntly,

"Please forgive my bluntness. If you are willing to serialize Paradise Lost in our newspaper, I am willing to offer a serialization fee of 5 yen per page, plus a 15% share of the profits from the sales of those issues."

Kitagawa Hide's current royalty is 2 yen per sheet of manuscript paper, which is the upper limit for "upper-class writers". If you increase it further, you will bear the risk of public opinion once the literary world knows about it.

Japanese society is very sensitive about this kind of thing.

Therefore, the pay of stars in the entertainment industry is not high, and the prices are subject to very detailed and unified standards.

The same applies to literary royalties; prices should not be unworthy of one's position.

5 yen per sheet of manuscript paper, this is the unit price of "Tenka Ippin".

Of course, Ken Matsuyama knew that Hide Kitagawa was not short of this little bit of royalties, and he took the initiative to propose this just to show his attitude and determination.

I regard you as the best in the world and am willing to take the risk if the matter is leaked.

The other 15% of the newspaper sales profit share is the real big deal!

This is equivalent to transferring part of the company's interests directly to Kitagawa Hide.

The Nikkan Sports News is a newspaper at the bottom of the second tier of Japan's newspaper industry, but even so, its sales volume is terrifyingly high.

"President Matsuyama hasn't read my manuscript. Aren't you worried that my work will not be liked by readers?" Kitagawa Hide didn't agree immediately. He agreed to the condition in his heart, but he still wanted to give the other party a try.

Songshan Jian smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We are willing to take all the risks as long as Mr. Kitagawa can serialize the novel!"

"Okay, I understand. I'll give you an answer in three days, okay?" Kitagawa Hide replied with a smile.

Ken Matsuyama, who was as shrewd as a man, immediately understood, nodded continuously, and left with satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)