I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 229 This is actually a fantasy pure literature novel!

1996 9 Month 10 Day.

Kawaide Shobo's new headquarters is located in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.

President's office.

With her long and straight legs, Shizuko Kawaide sat upright in the boss chair, holding the pile of still warm manuscript paper in her hands, studying it carefully without blinking.

Opposite her, Saito Rena also sat quietly, the expression on her face changing constantly, sometimes worried, sometimes expectant, and sometimes curious.

As soon as she arrived at the office this morning, she received a private fax from "Peter Cat".

After Kitagawa Hidekazu Yumeko returned from Izu, they brought a lot of souvenirs for her and other friends.

Saito Rena heard that Kitagawa Hide and his companions had brought back a group of homeless dancing geishas from there, and she has been busy settling them down recently.

This made her think that the new book she had agreed to publish was finally going to be postponed!
To be honest, since becoming an editor, the most annoying thing for her is the authors' delays and waivers in submitting their manuscripts.

But if Kitagawa Hide, the human-shaped typing machine, could procrastinate on submitting his manuscripts once, she would actually breathe a sigh of relief.

Because that’s what a normal writer does!

However, there were still eight days before the new issue of "Wenyi" was released, and the distribution department hadn't even started planning the cover and layout, but Kitagawa Hide sent "Killing Commendatore" over!

With mixed feelings, after spending nearly two hours reading the six chapters he sent her word for word, Saito Rena was completely convinced.

"The Strange Bird Chronicle" still maintains the "Kitagawa Hidefuku" that she is familiar with, and the plot of the last six chapters of the first part to be serialized is very good. After reading it, she is basically sure that the Thief Magpie chapter should surpass "Confessions", "Paradise Lost" and "Border" to become the best-selling novel of the year.

But after watching "Killing Commendatore", she directly rejected this idea.

This novel allowed Saito Rena to see another side of Kitagawa Hide - Kitagawa Hide, who has written several hit books, not only has solid writing skills and literary skills, but also has an incredible and unconstrained imagination!
The document involves many massacres that many political parties are reluctant to talk about, and she doesn't know what the Ministry of Education will think about it. She is unsure, so she can only bring it to the big boss for personal review.

In the past, she always read the manuscripts in Saito Rena's office, but this time, in her own office, Shizuko Kawaide felt an indescribable strange feeling in her heart.

Why do I feel like the more I spend time with them, the more I feel like I've transitioned from a boss to an editor?

An inexplicable thought flashed through her mind, and Shizuko Kawaide continued to focus her attention on the novel.

The opening quote is very interesting.

Compared to the ubiquitous everyday opening of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", the introduction of "Killing Commendatore" unfolds with an interesting fantasy story, which is very eye-catching.

The protagonist "I" is a well-known portrait painter.

One day, a faceless man wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and a long dark gray windbreaker came to me and asked me to draw a portrait of him.

"I'll give it back to you. I'm sure you need it! This little penguin will protect you and the precious men and women around you. But, in exchange, I want you to draw my portrait."

At the beginning of the story, a strange faceless man came to my residence and asked me to fulfill my previous promise and paint a portrait for him.

The faceless man also gave me a pendant with a little penguin on it, saying that this penguin amulet would protect me and the people around me.

"But it's no use for you to urge me. I have never painted a portrait of a person without a face." "I" said this to the faceless man.

"I heard that you are an excellent portrait painter. Besides, everything has a first time." said the Faceless Man.

Then he laughed, and the sound was like the hollow sound of wind coming from the depths of a cave.

"He took off the black hat that covered half of his face. Where there should be a face, there was no face, and there was a milky white mist slowly swirling there."

When reading this, Shizuko Kawaide subconsciously associated the faceless man's "appearance" in her mind, and felt that the swirling milky white mist was very strange and peculiar.

In the end, "I" still failed to successfully draw the portrait. After all, a faceless person has no face, and it really made it difficult for me to start.

At the end of the introduction, the faceless man said that the time was up, and then he exhaled large clouds of white mist from his "face" and disappeared from "my" sight. He promised to come again next time, hoping that "I" could complete the portrait by then.

In the last sentence, Kitagawa Hide informs readers that "The Assassination of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar" is actually a painting.

Shizuko Kawaide had never seen this kind of magical opening in any pure literary novel.

No wonder when Reina Saito came, she said excitedly, "This may be a completely new and unprecedented writing style!"

"It's a bit like a Western fantasy novel." Shizuko Kawaide couldn't wait to turn the page and read the first chapter.

The entire first part is called "The Manifest Idea", but I don't understand the deep meaning of this name yet.

"After divorcing my wife, I lived in the Valley for about eight months during which time I had physical relationships with two women.

Both of them are married women. One is younger than me, the other is older, and they are both students in the painting class I teach. "When Shizuko Kawaide read this, she smiled knowingly, because it made her feel similar to "Border" and "Paradise Lost".

It seems that starting from "Border", Mr. Kitagawa likes to write some taboo ethical relationships in order to increase the tension of the story and the characters in the novel.

It has to be said that in the pure literature market, readers are very fond of this kind of thing. Many writers have begun to imitate similar interpersonal relationships and have achieved considerable results.

Of course, these are just some small embellishments in the book and have little to do with the overall story.

The gradual story advancement technique is the most common routine in Kitagawa Hidefu's novels.

Shizuko Kawaide kept flipping through the manuscripts, and soon she was completely immersed in the life of "I", a professional portrait painter.

She and Mengzi were already very familiar with each other, and she was certain that Mr. Kitagawa had no experience in learning painting, but the life of the painter described in his book was so real and so immersive.

The same thing happened when I watched "Confessions" and "Border" before.

"Border" is okay, the protagonist "Chu" is a bar owner, and Mr. Kitagawa also runs "Peter Cat", so they have something in common.

The heroine in "Confessions" is Yuko Moriguchi, a teacher. Mr. Kitagawa has no teaching experience at all, but the novel he wrote was praised by the teacher community.

I have to say that Mr. Kitagawa really put a lot of effort into these details.

The plot of the first three chapters is that my wife cheated on me, and I divorced her. Then, at the invitation of my good friend Masahiko Ameda, I moved into the old house and studio of his father Tomohiko Ameda in the mountains outside Odawara, hoping to adjust my mood through the change of environment.

Even such a simple novel plot is very fascinating in the hands of Mr. Kitagawa. He mixed a lot of knowledge related to history, humanities and painters into it, which made Shizuko Kawaide marvel at his erudition.

Starting from Chapter 4, the strange painting "Assassination of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar" created by Tomohiko Ameda officially appears.

During the conversation between "I" and my good friend Masahiko Ameda, I gradually revealed to the readers that his father Kunihiko Ameda had participated in the Pearl Harbor attack, the July 7 Incident, the Massacre, etc.

One after another, dusty historical facts were unearthed.

At this time, Tomohiko Ameda, who had turned into a ghost and had been wandering in the studio, kept appearing beside me, forcing me to dig deep into his past and experiences.

"The atmosphere of this story is a bit like that famous American horror movie." Shizuko Kawaide felt that the last three chapters suddenly became very depressing and thriller, and the style was different from the first three chapters.

Why does this article "Assassination of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar" look more like a training work for Mr. Kitagawa?
He seems to be trying more writing techniques and he is looking for a breakthrough.

Are you still not satisfied with having reached the "best level in the world" and want to continue to make progress?

"Are you talking about The Shining?" Saito Rena also thought so. "It's a horror novel written by Stephen King in 1977, released in the United States in 1980, and is one of the most acclaimed horror movies to date."

"Yes, that's the work. The atmosphere, the weather, the protagonist being trapped in the villa and the studio, and gradually losing his mind."

As Shizuko Kawaide spoke, she slowly closed her eyes and began to recall the contents of the novel again.

Somewhat similar, but not the same.

Did Mr. Kitagawa write this because he wanted to bring this book to the international market again?

In fact, many writers in the Japanese literary world started out by imitating Western writers. This is not something difficult to talk about. After all, their Renaissance started much earlier than Japan’s, and many of their literary concepts were more advanced.

But few writers do this nowadays.

The reason is also very simple.

Japanese pure literature has a very low status in the world literary world. Apart from several "world's best", only Ichiro Tanizaki, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize, has some fame.

Rather than being looked down upon abroad, it is better to just reap the domestic market and be done with it.

If the leading figures above are like this, it is even more impossible for the newcomers below to strive for excellence.

After reading the sixth chapter of "Assassination of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar", Shizuko Kawaide was both surprised and expectant.

She doesn't have any of the stickling or baggage of the Japanese literary world, as long as the work is good, that's all she wants.

If Mr. Kitagawa's new book can really enter the international market again, we will make a lot of money!
As for the historical events that Saito Rena was worried about, Kawaide Shizuko simply made her attitude clear that she would always support Mr. Kitagawa.

And this is the historical truth, why do we have to follow those politicians to cover it up?

“When the magazine goes on sale this month, I think it will give readers a big surprise!”

Shizuko Kawaide smiled and said,

"Fantasy style? That's the word, right? A fantasy style pure literature novel, just thinking about it makes me excited!"

(End of this chapter)