I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 223: Try your best to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle! (Two in one)

It seems like Arima-sensei might actually lose.
Half an hour had passed since she finished reading the book "Literature" in her hand, but Kawata Riko's eyes were still fixed on the last chapter of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", "The Happy Laundry".

Unlike any anti-war novel she had read before, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" did not contain any preaching or exaggeration of suffering.

The novel takes the disappearance of the protagonist's cat as a clue, unravelling the story step by step, perfectly interweaving the reality line, the dark line and the historical line.

Starting from the fourth chapter of the serialization, Mr. Kitagawa slowly introduced the historical content related to Nomonhan through an old soldier, Mr. Miyata.

Readers who lack knowledge of history, geography, and the political landscape of the time may find this passage boring or even dull.

Because it contains many special terms and special events, it is easy to be confused if your historical literacy is not good enough.

Not to mention that from Mr. Miyata's oral narration, I could understand Mr. Kitagawa's views on the war and the deeper intention behind writing this passage.

But for avid history buffs like Riko Kawata, the plot of this historical line is simply the most exciting!
Soldiers trapped at the bottom of a well, stress and trauma caused by war, and military life is not as good as ordinary people imagine
Riko Kawata recalled that during the interview just now, Mr. Kitagawa solemnly said that in order to write this book, he had consulted more than a dozen relevant documents and was extremely meticulous about the historical truth.

At that time she thought it was just a casual remark of his. It would be so troublesome to read so much information and study so many historical details!
I never thought that Teacher Beichuan really did what he said!
His awe and respect for history alone moved and impressed Riko Kawata.

To be able to become the eighth "Tenka No. 1" in the Japanese literary world at the age of only 24, he must be quite capable!
"It's amazing. And after reading his novels, I can't help but doubt Arima-sensei and other writers' works. Are they really anti-war literature?"

Riko Kawata had deep doubts about this.

This seed was planted in the hearts of all readers by Hideya Kitagawa in the "Author's Talk" after the serialized part.

The first serialization of "The Strange Bird Chronicle" released six chapters, which not only feasted the eyes of the readers who had been waiting for a long time, but also included an "Author's Talk" of about 2000 words at the end.

In the "Author Talk", Hide Kitagawa mentioned his creative ideas, inspirations and purposes.

The reason for choosing this topic is not because Arima Yoshi has published a new book on this topic.

He was not at all interested in the fighting among the "top talents in the world", just as he never cared that he had not won the Tanizaki Prize or the Akutagawa Prize.

He wrote this purely because of the disgusting thing that Ryutaro Hashimoto had done before.

That kind of behavior is unforgivable!

Although he did not publicly criticize the cabinet, he only said that he wanted to let more citizens understand history, know the truth, remember the crimes, and repent, but wasn't his deeper intention to satirize the political circles and writers like Arima Yoshiyoshi?

He also mentioned two new concepts: pseudo-anti-war and anti-war defeat.

"Exaggerating the damage caused by the war, only capturing the suffering, and not writing about the process and purpose of the aggression. This act of castrating the definition of an aggressive war is despicable!"

Riko Kawata couldn't help but look at the closed door again.

Mr. Arima is a well-known right-wing literary writer in the industry, and Bungeishunju, which published "The Harp of Burma" this time, is also a well-known right-wing publishing house.

These are nothing.

It is normal for Japanese celebrities from all walks of life to have different political attitudes and stand on their own platforms.

But deliberately distorting history, misleading the people, and doing these things under the guise of being "the best in the world" is of a different nature.

90 years later, after experiencing the bubble era and the Great Depression, and with the rise of the Internet, the Chinese people are no longer the submissive sheep.

They hate smuggled preaching more than anyone else!

Kitagawa Hide's "Author Talk" only touches on these things superficially. As a well-known writer, he certainly would not personally get involved in a quarrel with others.

But this postscript is just a spark!

After hesitating for a while, Riko Kawata got up and left the private villa, preparing to return to her rental house to go online and take a good look at the Yahoo Japan Forum and the website that made her excited, "Kitagawa's Little Bookstore."

Having just picked up a new car, Mori Tetsutaro, who is working harder, is holding a coffee cup in his hand, browsing "Kitagawa's Little Bookstore" and quickly flipping through various posts on the literature section of Yahoo Japan Forum.

After the latest issue of "Wenyi" was released this morning, he quickly received a signed copy from Mr. Kitagawa from the editorial department of Kawade Shobo. Although he has not officially established diplomatic relations with Mr. Kitagawa so far, he has been tacitly regarded by Kawade Shobo as a well-known literary critic of the same faction.

Every time "Wenyi" is released, he receives a signed copy as a gift!

Like all long-awaited readers, Tetsutarou Mori thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Kitagawa's new book.

To be honest, the quality of this book is not as good as the most popular novels by "Kitagawa Hidekaze" such as "Hear the Wind Sing" and "Border".

Moreover, the book chooses anti-war themes and advances on three fronts. The historical line is a disastrous experience for readers who have not done their homework.

But then again.

This book is a typical one with both obvious advantages and disadvantages. Once you can accept the ideas and writing techniques contained in it, you will be deeply attracted to it!

In the "Author Talk", Mr. Kitagawa mentioned many things that happened when he was writing this book. His thoughts made Tetsutaro Mori even more touched.

He originally thought that after being promoted to "the best in the world", Mr. Beichuan would take a long break, or even stop writing and retire.

He was anxious and suffered from insomnia for a long time because of this - Teacher Beichuan was like his bread and butter. If he stopped writing, he, the recognized number one Beichuan critic in the literary criticism circle, would instantly turn into a human pig!
Fortunately, Mr. Beichuan is not pedantic or materialistic at all. After winning the Goncourt Prize, he was in high spirits and soon produced excellent works.

However, Tetsutaro Mori has always believed that the new work will most likely return to the style of the "Youth Trilogy", so that he can most smoothly secure his position as the "number one in the world".

Then Mr. Kitagawa slapped him hard in the face again.

“Is he really trying to compete with Arima Yoshiyoshi, or is he simply expressing his dissatisfaction with the cabinet?”

Political issues were too sensitive, and he did not dare to ask the editorial department of Kawade Shobo, so he could only guess Mr. Kitagawa's intentions on his own.

Anyway, he and Mr. Kitagawa are good buddies. He hits wherever Mr. Kitagawa points.

Because he was indecisive about these things, he was stuck on writing the new literary review he was supposed to publish this afternoon while the heat was on.

There was another thing that also surprised him.

The sales performance of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" will definitely not be bad, but due to the special subject matter, he always feels that the popularity will not be too high, and at most it will be similar to "The Burmese Harp".

But now look
Yahoo Japan Forum was directly flooded with "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"!
The last time this happened was when Kitagawa-sensei published "Confessions", which crushed Shinichiro Azuma's "The Last Song" with a tough attitude.

But this is an isolated case. After all, it was only able to gain such popularity because of the focus of social events.

The traffic from pure literary topics is about the same as the gossips about top celebrities in the entertainment industry in the Yahoo Japan Forum. It is impressive if it dominates a small section, but it is impossible for it to be popular in the entire forum.

He couldn't help but click on the posts one by one and found that the posters were not water armies, but almost all of them were serious netizens!

"Do these guys like this novel so much?" Mori Tetsutarou was puzzled and clicked on several posts. [It is worthy of being a new work of "Tianxia Yipin"! Kitagawa's skills are not inferior to Arima's, and even better!

The descriptions of daily life in the book are very detailed and moving. I never thought that heavy topics could be written in this kind of background!
The three-line writing method seems to be very rare in pure literary novels, right? 】

[To be honest, I bought "Literature and Art" because of Mr. Beichuan's reputation. I am not really interested in such heavy topics.

But unexpectedly, the plot of the book was not boring at all, and I learned a lot of little-known facts.

For example, the Battle of Nomonhan. Did we fight there before? I don’t remember it being mentioned in history textbooks.

[The person above must not have studied history textbooks carefully in high school. This sentence is mentioned on page 455 of History A. If you don’t believe me, look it up yourself.]

Tetsutarou Mori took a quick look at the posts and found that most of the netizens focused on the historical line that he thought was the most boring.

Moreover, war history is a part that is covered by both "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "The Harp of Burma". Although the former is about the Battle of Nomonhan and the main scene of the latter is the battlefield in Burma, there are still many intersections.

With the comparison, the two groups of book fans quickly evolved from discussing the content of the novel to pulling each other down, and neither of them was willing to give in.

In most of the posts that were insulting each other, the powerful weapon that Kitagawa fans used to attack Arima fans was that Mr. Kitagawa had a better understanding of history and a more thorough research on anti-war themes.

According to the "Author Talk", the other party's favorite author, Arima Yoshiyoshi, deliberately led the people to oppose the defeat of the war and move closer to pseudo-anti-war themes.

Once this big hat was put on, fans of Arima Yoshiyoshi's books felt bad. They liked Arima's works very much, but they could not accept that their idol did such a disgusting thing.

Therefore, the war of words on the forum gradually escalated into an exploration of the historical truth and what the core of anti-war literature is.

When the topic of discussion reaches this level, it is actually related to current affairs.

No wonder topics related to "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" dominated the entire Yahoo Japan.

Tetsutarou Mori was watching with great interest. These days online verbal battles are still very old-fashioned and there are no Zaun people who only know how to curse at others.

Everyone started arguing, each trying to convince the other party with their strength, and then they kept digging for information to find the other party's flaws.

If you read these kinds of verbal battle posts for a long time, you can really learn something useful.

As he read on, Tetsutarou Mori suddenly had an idea and finally knew what to write in his new literary review!

The most discussed topic on the Internet today is whether Arima Yoshiyoshi's "The Harp of Burma" is anti-war literature or pseudo-anti-war literature.

And which one is better, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" or this one?

As for the latter question, it is impossible to draw a definitive answer because the two novels have just started serialization.

The discussion results of the above question have gradually been achieved.

It's quite funny to say.

Kitagawa fans don’t know much about Arima Yoshihiko and “The Burmese Harp”. They are wholeheartedly devoted to Mr. Kitagawa and don’t want to spend time reading the works of his competitors.

As a result, Kitagawa fans really haven't found any substantial evidence and can only repeatedly use Kitagawa's "author talk" to argue.

But some horse fans can't stand the "slander".

They joined together to analyze The Burmese Harp word by word according to Hide Kitagawa's definitions of the three types of literature: anti-war, pseudo-anti-war, and anti-defeat.

Then a funny scene happened.

As they were doing it, they were shocked to find that they had become the executioners who pushed their idol to the gallows!
Because Arima Yoshiyoshi's original intention was to brainwash readers with that kind of thinking.

But the current society, environment and international public opinion are no longer suitable for what was advocated in the past.

He could only settle for the second best and use anti-war writing with hidden agendas to subtly influence readers' thinking.

This is exactly what Kitagawa Hide said.

In order to prove their innocence, their fans did a lot of slice analysis, and then they found out that their butt was really not clean.

This is as disgusting as eating rat poop.

Arima fans were silent.

Beichuan fans celebrated.

Tetsutarou Mori also has the best material.

"Arima Yoshiyoshi - As a "top scholar" in the world, he openly wrote pseudo-anti-war novels to whitewash the war. Does he deserve to be on par with Mr. Kitagawa?"

This title is definitely powerful enough.

But he hesitated after writing the title.

He had previously publicly blasted Kodansha, Bungeishunju, Ishihara Shintaro, and even Academy member Ichiko Sadatsugu on behalf of Kitagawa Sensei.

But the status of these people is far inferior to that of Arima Yoshiyoshi.

I don’t know if any newspaper or magazine would dare to accept a literary review written in this way.

And if he really wrote that, he would be completely tying up Teacher Kitagawa.

What if Mr. Kitagawa fails?

Then he will also be doomed to eternal damnation and fall into the dust.

As long as he doesn't take this step, he still has room to turn around.

Can.
He glanced again at the number of posts which was still increasing.

He remembered that Reina Saito, deputy editor-in-chief of Kawaide Shobo, had recently written an article, which basically said that the future of literary criticism might move towards the Internet.

The current literary criticism circle will gradually be abandoned by readers because it is monopolized by newspapers, magazines, and television programs and cannot express itself correctly.

His bread and butter is not those high and mighty people, but these guys who spray each other on the Internet.

Beat a fight, bike change bike!
"Teacher Beichuan, I'm going to stake my life on you this time. The first publication date of "Wenyi" must not be too different from that of "Wenxuejie"!"

Thinking about the horrific historical record of 14.2 copies of "Literature World" printed on the first day, Tetsutaro Mori gritted his teeth, resolutely tapped the keyboard, and decided to fight to the death with Kitagawa Hide!
(End of this chapter)