I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 266 "The Dancing Girl of Izu" shocked the president of Paris VII University!
Tetsutaro Mori started reading slowly from the first page and was soon attracted by the new work of Mayumi Aso and the other two.

After reading it, even he, who has always been very picky about pure literature, couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"It's unexpectedly good. As expected of being the disciples of Mr. Beichuan, the three of them have their own styles, and their writing skills are not inferior to other 'mid-stream writers' at all!
It seems that the revision of "Wenyi" is going to be successful."

Judging from Kawaide Shobo's decision this time, President Kawaide Shizuko obviously wants to take advantage of Mr. Kitagawa's momentum and seize the opportunity to take away some of Shinchosha's market share.

Major changes to the magazine's cover, sections and size are equivalent to a small-scale redo. This decision is actually very risky, especially when "Wenyi" has the upper hand. It takes great courage to make such a decision.

Tetsutaro Mori was not optimistic about the changes made by "Wenyi".

After all, increasing the volume means raising the sales price of the magazine. Even if it is just an increase of 100 yen, readers can keenly perceive it, not to mention the current huge price increase from 550 yen to 750 yen.

Many readers don’t know it themselves, but in fact, they have a vague price in their minds for everything.

Maybe when Wen Yi magazine was selling for 550 yen, they were willing to buy it and were willing to accept that the quality of the magazine was sometimes not that good.

When Wen Yi magazine is sold for 750 yen, even if they see that the total number of pages has increased from 80 to 120, they may be more inclined not to buy it.

This issue of "Wenyi" sold well, and a large part of the credit goes to Mr. Beichuan.

What if Mr. Kitagawa doesn’t serialize new books in the future?
Will these readers be unable to accept the high price of "Wenyi"?

At that time, will Hechu Bookstore be able to change the price back?
But now, after watching the new works of Mayumi Aso and the other two, Tetsutaro Mori's view on this matter has completely changed.

"Night Boat on the White River", "White Night Walk" and "Under the Blooming Cherry Trees" are obviously rare masterpieces in the Japanese literary world. If the three novels were serialized separately, they would be enough to support a publishing house for a year.

And Kawaide Shobo was willing to release them together with Kitagawa sensei's "The Dancing Girl of Izu".

It can be seen that the quantity and quality of Kawade Shobo's author reserves are far greater than last year. Things are different now!

"I didn't expect that President Shizuko Kawaide's ideas could be put into practice!" Tetsutaro Mori couldn't help but sigh again.

When Shizuko Kawaide took over Kawaide Shobo, she publicly stated that she wanted to cultivate a group of young writers like a big family to ensure that she would have peace of mind for the next few decades.

She believes this is the most correct way for a publishing house to run its business.

The practice of other publishing houses of draining the pond of fish and ruthlessly abandoning writers when they lose their inspiration and commercial value cannot last long.

When she finished the press conference, she was greeted with ridicule and sarcasm.

Now, five years later, I wonder what those who laughed at her at the beginning are feeling now.

“Wenyi will continue to get better and better, and even if Mr. Beichuan leaves, it will slowly become the industry leader.”

After finishing the second half of "The Dancing Girl of Izu" and all the other novels in the entire "Baijutsu", Tetsutaro Mori wrote this with such certainty in his notebook.

Not only Mr. Kitagawa and his apprentice, but also other writers from Kawade Shobo are making progress and becoming stronger. Compared to the pedantic people in the Japanese Literature Society, these new generation of writers seem more like literary writers!

At the same time, University of Paris, Paris, France.

At this time, the sun was still shining brightly in Paris with clear skies.

The students coming and going were divided into countless small groups, talking and walking on the campus.

On the connecting corridor between the University of Paris V and the University of Paris VII.

Jean Oudmaison, who is over 70 years old, walked briskly, and Combesco, who was standing beside him, followed closely behind.

As soon as these two great writers in the French literary world appeared, they immediately attracted the attention of countless students.

The former is a member of the French Academy and an evergreen in the French literary world, while the latter is the winner of the Prix Goncourt, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for the first time last year, and a leading figure of the new generation in French literary world.

Both of them are gods in the eyes of French literature lovers, and the number of times they appear in the same frame is very few.

The students were very curious about what the two big guys were doing here, but unfortunately they were in a hurry and had no intention of stopping to answer their questions.

In his hand was Oudmaison a copy of the French translation of The Dancing Girl of Izu, which Combesco had brought him that morning.

At that time, Oudmaison was planning to go to the French Academy to finalize the list of nominees for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. He was one of the seven people in the French literary world who received confidential documents from the Nobel Prize Committee.

After hearing that this was the latest novel written by Mr. Kitagawa, Odmesson decisively postponed his trip and began to read it with relish.

"Paradise Lost" brought a great impact to the French literary world. The beautiful Japanese love once infected many people. The Goncourt Prize was also unanimously approved and awarded to Kitagawa Hide.

From then on, Oudmaison became interested in the young writer far away in the East.

But I didn’t expect that his new work would cover such a wide range!
Switching directly from writing novels to writing short stories is simply courting death in the eyes of the older generation!
In the French literary world, probably no one knows the short story better than Audemaison and Combesco.

Because their famous works are also short stories.

But as their literary careers expanded, both of them discovered that short stories are extremely difficult to write and are an extremely thankless subject. The more they delved into it, the more they realized that if they did not have talent, writing short stories would be a dead end.

So they all decisively changed their career paths after middle age and achieved success.

Kitagawa Hide, who is the same age and much more successful than them, actually did the opposite, which made Combesco break out in a cold sweat!
This book was brought to him by Olivia, a freshman in the School of Arts and Letters.

Relying on the title of the little princess of the Chanel family, Olivia got to know many big names in the French literary world, and had a particularly good relationship with Combesco, who taught at the University of Paris Des Arts.

It was said that Kitagawa Hide was deprived of the nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature in Japan - this was something Olivia told him indignantly after exaggerating it, but Combesco was skeptical.

But what is certain is that Olivia's father, Mr. Gerard, one of the helmsmen of the Chanel Group, is working hard to help Hide Kitagawa find a major French publishing house.

Unfortunately, Olivia told me that this cooperation project was difficult to advance. Major publishing houses were unwilling to invest resources in a foreigner, even though he had won the Goncourt Prize and wrote Paradise Lost.

Then Olivia brought him a sample copy of the first half of "The Dancing Girl of Izu (French translation)" published by the Chanel Group, and begged Combesco to help Mr. Kitagawa.

After watching "The Dancing Girl of Izu", Combesco couldn't sleep all night. He really couldn't sleep all night!

If the French translation of "Paradise Lost" made him feel the beauty of Japanese love and Japanese literature, then "The Dancing Girl of Izu" intensified this hazy feeling a hundred times!
It is no exaggeration to say that the six short stories in the book, especially the one with the same title as "The Dancing Girl of Izu", made Combesco feel powerless as if he was looking up to top writers.

This is one of the best and most wonderful short stories he has ever read! It can even be compared with Guy de Maupassant, one of the three great short story masters!
As soon as the sun rose today, Combesco couldn't help himself and went straight to find Odemaison and gave him "The Dancing Girl of Izu".

Then Odmeson was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a long time.

The two remained silent for two hours at Audemaison's home. Finally, Audemaison decided to bring "The Dancing Girl of Izu" to the University of Paris VII and show it to Patrick Modiano, the president of the university.

The two of them rushed all the way and finally arrived at Patrick Modiano's office before he left.

"Teacher Odmeson, Teacher Combesco, why are you here?"

Modiano, who had just celebrated his 52nd birthday, saw the two uninvited guests, walked over with a smile, hugged them one by one, and asked curiously.

"Modiano, please take a look at this book." Odemason handed him "The Dancing Girl of Izu" with an anxious look.

"Is this your new novel?" Modiano became interested. He took the book and took a look. The smile on his face disappeared immediately. "Izu. Dancing Girl. Is this a novel from Japan, Korea or China?"

"It's a Japanese short story of pure literature," said Odemaison.

Modiano was even less interested now.

He has read novels from many countries, but the one he hates the most is Japanese and Korean literature.

He also read Paradise Lost, which was a best-seller in Paris not long ago. The book is quite interesting and indeed worthy of last year's Prix Goncourt.

But one book could not change his view of Japanese literature.

Seeing his disdain, Odemaison added: "This collection of short stories was written by the same writer of Paradise Lost."

"Oh?" Modiano, who had put the book down, picked it up again. "It's worth a look. But I have to go to the administrative office building to discuss the merger of the seven and five universities, so I can only take a quick look at it for now."

"Believe me, once you've seen it, you'll agree that watching it is worth more than doing anything else!" laughed Odmeson.

"Is it more worthwhile than facilitating the merger of the Big Seven and the Big Five?" Modiano couldn't help but laugh.

The merger of the Seventh and Fifth Universities is an event of immeasurable merit and will be recorded in history in the entire history of French education.

He couldn't believe that this short story could have such magic.

When talking about the seven and five universities, we have to mention the magical history of the University of Paris.

The University of Paris was founded in 1200. In 1968, a large number of students protested against outdated curriculum and rote learning and demanded more academic freedom and campus democracy. The French government then made a series of reorganizations and adjustments to the University of Paris, forming 13 independent universities.

That is now the University of Paris I-XIII.

These thirteen universities are independent and have no affiliation with each other. The numbers only represent the order and have nothing to do with quality or reputation.

The most famous among them are the five and seven towers connected by corridors.

These two universities alone have produced four Nobel Prize winners, including the world-famous Curies!
After being hired as the president of the University of the Seventh, Modiano has been committed to promoting the merger of the University of the Five and the University of the Seventh.

Once these two top universities merge, there will be a new behemoth in the French education sector!
His name will also be forever engraved on the monument of the University of Paris!
This is Modiano's highest pursuit in life, and he can't think of anything that has a higher priority than this.

In the original history, Modiano ultimately failed to successfully promote this merger project.

The fifth and seventh universities were finally merged and reorganized in 19, and by then he was no longer the president of the seventh university.

But what is dramatic is that Modiano won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2014, becoming the th writer in French history to receive this honor, which indirectly helped him realize his dream of becoming famous in history.

"Worth it!" Odemeson and Combesco nodded at the same time.

Now Modiano's interest was completely piqued.

He didn't think that the two great writers would be so bored as to come here to amuse themselves.

It seems to be a good book worth reading.

Modiano opened "The Dancing Girl of Izu" with great interest.

The name of the first novel is "A Scene from the Festival of Ghosts". There is no Ghost Festival in France. Instead, there is the well-known Halloween.

It is actually quite difficult to translate Japanese traditional festivals and customs.

But the publisher this time was the Chanel Group, and Gerard wanted to help his daughter gain some good connections through this, so he invested a lot of money.

The French translation of "A Scene from the Evocation of the Dead" was excellent, which immediately made Modiano interested in this "Imperial Circus".

“Distinctive folk landscapes, rich and three-dimensional character creation, and a short but profound storyline. From the perspective of a short story, it is really great!”

Modiano spent ten minutes watching A Scene from the Evocation of the Dead.

Just the first novel made him feel that the time spent was worth it!
The subsequent "Life Insurance" and "People in the Mine" were more exciting than the last, and without such a strong Japanese culture, he read them more smoothly and comfortably.

"The translated versions are so good, it's hard to imagine how amazing the original work must be!" As a fellow writer, Modiano is well aware of the destructive power of translation on a novel.

If "The Dancing Girl of Izu" itself scores 90 points, after being translated into French, no matter how hard the translator tries, the translation will probably only reach a level of 72 points.

This is the case when the translator's level is high enough.

A normal translation can often only reach 60% of the level of the original work.

A novel with a score of 90 only had 54 points left after translation, which is not even up to the passing line. Adding on the fact that it is Japanese literature, it is no wonder that those publishing houses dare not take the risk.

But now, even this 72-point translation has made Modiano deeply addicted and unable to extricate himself!

All the emotions were accumulated, and he felt as if his heart was being gripped by a hand.

Now is also the time for him to read the main text of "The Dancing Girl of Izu"!
(End of this chapter)