I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 199: Paradise Lost seems to be a big hit in France? !

Kitagawa Hide and his companion had lunch in the restaurant of the Kawaide Shobo headquarters building, and then immediately got into the boss's private business car and headed straight for the New Tokyo International Airport.

The business car turned around and paused for a moment before leaving Kawaide's study - the big boss Kawaide Shizuko personally brought a group of senior executives and editorial backbones to line up in front of the company's gate to see them off. Driver Kinoshita rolled down the two rear windows to make it easier for Kitagawa Hide and others to wave goodbye to the bosses.

"Come on, Teacher Kitagawa!" Shizuko Kawaide, who was always cold and cool in front of others, raised her fist for the first time and whispered to Kitagawa Hide and the others.

Seeing that the usually extremely cold and aloof boss also revealed his emotional side, the company executives lined up like their fans, shouting slogans to see them off.

This made Kitagawa Hide, who had originally not been very interested in the Goncourt Prize, suddenly feel an inexplicable sense of mission.

The atmosphere has become so tense, it seems unreasonable not to bring back an award.

After waving goodbye to the big boss and others, the car shot out like an arrow from a bow into the vast sea of ​​cars.

"Beichuan, it's okay if you didn't win the award, don't feel stressed."

Saito Reina patted the back of his hand gently and whispered,

"Being nominated for an overseas literary award is the best interpretation of your ability. President Shizuko Kawade and others are so excited simply because the Japanese literary world has not produced a novel that is recognized overseas for a long time."

Kitagawa Hide could understand this very well.

In his previous life, he specialized in research related to Japanese literature.

When talking about Japanese literature, many people's first reaction is "mono no aware", "No Longer Human", "mystery literature" or "Haruki Murakami". However, in the eyes of literary researchers, the biggest label of Japanese literature is niche.

Due to its unique cultural background and language style, Japanese literature is not easy to translate, and it is difficult to understand Japanese novels before modern times without understanding Japanese history.

This leads to a very interesting phenomenon.

The most popular entertainment products of Japan are anime and games, which have a large number of loyal fans all over the world.

The creators of these works were basically influenced by ancient and modern Japanese writers.

They spend their entire lives trying to reach that level of creation and height, and the few who manage to get close are basically hailed as gods in the industry.

For example, Naotoshi Hideo, Hayao Miyazaki, Masamune Shirow (the original author of Ghost in the Shell), Hideaki Anno (the original author of EVA), etc.

However, these people's social status in Japan is far lower than that of Haruki Murakami, Junichi Watanabe and others, not to mention the three pillars of the literary world.

However, internationally, their reputation and reputation are completely the opposite.

Japanese literature, which the Japanese are so proud of, is unknown overseas, but anime works are well-known.

This situation has made the literary giants and practitioners who have always been high and mighty in the country hold their breath, and they are desperate to produce a work that can sell well both at home and abroad and be recognized by foreigners.

Unfortunately, the last work to go viral was Ichiro Tanizaki's "The Devil's Tattoo", and even though it was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, its popularity overseas is only average.

The fact that Shizuko Kawaide and others have such high hopes for "Paradise Lost" is a side reflection of the current state of Japanese literary world.

Kitagawa Hide felt that Saito Rena's hands were cold and shaking, and he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart.

You are obviously the one who is nervous, but now you come to comfort me first.

Saito Rena occasionally reveals this strong woman side, but compared to Kawaide Shizuko's ease and control, she seems a little clumsy.

It can be seen that she is heading towards that path, but her determination is not firm enough, and she seems to be moving forward by groping.

If it had happened 1996 or years later, it would have been considered boxing. But in Japan in , women's rights had just been trampled upon so violently after being implemented that almost no women had the idea of ​​boxing.

The heyday of Japanese feminism was between 1989 and 1992. The false prosperity of the bubble era also gave rise to this kind of strange product. But with the Great Depression, the status of women plummeted in an instant. Supported by men's money, they soon realized who was the master at home.

Of course, this phenomenon is limited to Japan of this era.

Kitagawa Hide realized that this might be the deep-seated reason why Saito Rena was working so hard all day, but it was not convenient to talk about it now, so he didn't say anything, but just took out his hand and gently covered her palm, then patted it gently.

Saito Rena was indeed so nervous that her throat was in her throat.

She originally thought that she had experienced all kinds of ups and downs in the past two years, and that she wouldn't be nervous just going overseas to attend an awards ceremony - but that was strange!

Since yesterday, she looked as if she was busy and worried about various trivial tasks, but in fact, the swelling and dark circles under her eyes were caused by this trip abroad!
She is not as stable as she thinks!
And today, I was so nervous that I went to comfort Kitagawa Hide, "Don't be nervous." What's worse is that Kitagawa Hide saw through my underwear at a glance!

She felt a little ashamed, but the warmth from her palm made her feel inexplicably at ease.

In the company, facing her leaders and subordinates, Saito Rena always wears the mask of a smart, capable, young and promising female editor, but in fact her life is quite tiring.

Only in front of Kitagawa Hide, she could take off her disguise and turn back into the editor who ate and drank with him at the barbecue stall and complained about the company and the author. Suddenly she felt so relaxed.

Saito Reina couldn't help but gently squeezed Kitagawa Hide's hand, then quickly let go and smiled at him: "Thank you, Kitagawa, I'm fine now."

"That's good." Kitagawa Hideya smiled back, "We still have a long way to go in the future, Mr. Saito."

The long-lost words "Teacher Saito" made her feel as if she had returned to a year and a half ago, and all the anxiety in her heart suddenly disappeared.

Yes.

The two of them have supported each other to get to this point, starting from nothing.

Even if we lose, the worst that can happen is we will go back to the original state, so what?

Seeing that Saito Rena had completely adjusted her state, Kitagawa Hide smiled again, said nothing more, and concentrated on reading today's newspaper.

After one hour.

The two entered Terminal 1 escorted by a group of people in black clothes and sunglasses.

These people are familiar faces in Kinoshita's driver bodyguard team. They came to see them off today mainly to ensure the safety of the two.

Yes, you are not mistaken.

Not only Kitagawa Hide and his partner, many passengers coming to the New Tokyo International Airport are escorted by several bodyguards as long as their families can afford it.

Because Terminal 1 started the expansion project last year, when Hideichi Kitagawa looked up, he could see workers walking everywhere, towering tower cranes and other mechanical equipment.

The companies in charge of this project were Fuji Housing and Construction and Mitsubishi Construction. The construction companies under the two big conglomerates fought privately in order to bid for the project, and as a result, more than a hundred airport executives and gangsters were hacked to death.

Finally, the government had no choice but to split the project into two and let the two companies take charge of it together.

Even so, they would not give in to each other for the sake of their own interests, and would even send gangsters to suddenly rush out and injure passengers on the other side's territory, thereby triggering a public opinion crisis for the other side.

This is Japan, lawless corporations and a submissive government.

Fortunately, Kitagawa Hide and his companion had a smooth journey. They entered the terminal safely and boarded the plane smoothly and sat in the first-class cabin booked by Kawaide Shizuko.

With the help of the beautiful stewardess, Kitagawa Hide lay down, covered himself with a blanket, put on an eye mask, and slowly fell asleep amid the roar.

When I woke up again, it was already 14 o'clock in the morning, 7 hours later.

The plane landed smoothly at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France.

This was Rena Saito's first time going abroad. Having read a lot of romantic French literature since childhood, she was quite curious about this romantic city. As soon as she got off the plane, she couldn't help looking around and taking in everything new around her.

Kitagawa Hide was no longer surprised by this. During his work-study period in his previous life, he also took the opportunity to travel to many countries on a budget. As long as you don't spend money to enjoy yourself, the most expensive thing on a trip is probably the plane ticket.

He has been to Paris several times. Before coming here, he always imagined that this was an international city full of romance and extravagant life. He thought that anyone on the street had to hold a luxury bag to look very fashionable.

In fact, the feeling that Paris gave him was similar to that of the Eastern Paris next door, with a stronger atmosphere of life and a relatively slower pace of the city.

Then there is the "Seine River", which actually doesn't have much scenery, but there is a lot of garbage.

In short, it is a romantic city that does not really meet your expectations.

The two of them walked slowly along the crowd toward the subway station. Six or seven years ago, due to the booming bubble economy, many Japanese liked to travel abroad for vacation, so Japanese signs could be seen everywhere in Paris, which made it easier for them to find their way.

What surprised the two most was that the airport and subway stations were covered with posters about the Goncourt Prize - the density of the posters even exceeded that of several major luxury brands that occupied fixed advertising spaces all year round.

This reminded Kitagawa Hide of the time when he was wandering around Tokyo on the Japanese subway last year, and he was shocked to find that the literary influence of the parallel world was greater than that in the original history.

It looks like the same is true for France?
With this in mind, it’s no wonder that the Japanese literary world feels so upset when their considered “excellent works” fail to sell well overseas.

When the influence of literary works around the world has been magnified, it is really frustrating that you cannot be famous overseas and can only be a leader in China.

Kitagawa Hide didn't jump to conclusions so arbitrarily until he and Saito Rena took the subway and saw several blond-haired, blue-eyed French people reading the French translation of "Paradise Lost" with relish. He was really surprised!
"Paradise Lost" has been published in France for more than a month. Without an efficient Internet system and Kawaide Shobo having no branch here, it will probably take three or four months for the real sales data to be fed back to Japan.

Therefore, Kitagawa Hide and others had no idea what the situation of "Paradise Lost" was in France.

The Goncourt Prize jury simply invited them to watch the ceremony and didn't say much.

Now it seems that Paradise Lost is a big hit in France?!

(End of this chapter)