I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 281: Can "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" really become a hit?

Kitagawa Xiu had a very fulfilling week of "internship" at Beichuan Network and learned a lot of new knowledge.

The news of his field research at his own Internet company was also heard by all kinds of people through various media.

Ichiro Tanizaki, who had been holding back all his energy and decided to completely defeat Kitagawa Hide with his new book, was also in seclusion.

Recently, he has sent the draft of his new book "Foolish Love" to the editorial department of Shinchosha.

The "number one in the world" of Japanese literary world has made a comeback.

This exciting news alone stopped the decline in sales of "Shincho", which had been caused by the disqualification of Naoki Momota from the award.

No matter what the conflict was between Kitagawa Hide and Tanizaki Ichiro, or whether the Nobel Prize nomination was really manipulated by Tanizaki Ichiro behind the scenes, as soon as he released the news of his new book series, all the discordant voices disappeared.

"Devil's Tattoo" is an enlightenment Japanese pure literature that has been read by three generations of Japanese readers, old, middle-aged and young.

The name Ichiro Tanizaki has long been written into textbooks and is a writer that every university literature student must know.

After receiving the manuscript, Shinchosha immediately mobilized all the resources of the company to promote "The Foolish Man's Desire" to the utmost.

On the other hand, Kitagawa Hideya, who had just returned from Kitagawa Network, secluded himself for three days, and then directly sent the revised first few chapters of "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" to Saito Rena.

His new book is so mysterious that even Rena Saito didn't know what he was going to write before receiving the manuscript.

On the afternoon of June 3th.

Kawade Shobo editorial office area, deputy director's office.

Due to the hot sales of "The Dancing Girl of Izu" in France and the fact that Hide Kitagawa was successfully shortlisted for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, Rena Saito, who was promoted to editor-in-chief at the beginning of the year, was promoted half a level and became the de facto second-in-command of the editorial department!
The current editor-in-chief is a veteran employee of Kawaide Shobo who is on the verge of retirement and has actually already retired to the second line.

As a result, Saito Rena completely entered the core management of Kawaide Shobo and became the first woman in the history of Japanese publishing industry to hold this position.

She and Shizuko Kawaide joined forces and were very successful in the board of directors. She was also independently responsible for the project of "The Collection of Kitagawa Hide's Novels (French Translation)". She was in control of the power and looked very impressive!
These days, Saito Rena has rarely reviewed manuscripts, but when Kitagawa Hide's manuscript arrived, she immediately put down all the work at hand and started to study it.

Along with "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" was also sent the beginning of "Remembrance of Things Past".

The latter, Kitagawa Hide, plans to serialize the work directly in France, and after it causes a sensation there, he will publish it as a physical book and sell it in China.

Now, except for insiders such as Saito Rena, no one knows that Kitagawa Hide has made such a big move.

"It is expected to be 40 chapters long, with each 20 chapters forming one story. The novel consists of two seemingly completely unrelated storylines, which unfold in parallel and cross. The odd-numbered 20 chapters are 'Cold Wonderland', and the even-numbered 20 chapters are 'The End of the World'."

Saito Rena was surprised when she read the instructions written by Kitagawa Hide on the front.

This is a preface he wrote specifically to make it easier for the editors in the editorial department to read. When the book is officially serialized, there will definitely be no such "spoiler content".

The multi-line narrative writing technique is very common in pure literature. Rena Saito can name several well-known novels written in this way just by thinking about it.

But this kind of dual narrative style with completely unrelated story plots was the first time she had seen it!

Moreover, Kitagawa Hide was very creative in placing "Cool Wonderland" in odd-numbered chapters and "The End of the World" in even-numbered chapters, alternating them like a woven net, which is very imaginative.

"When writing The Strange-Bird Chronicle, Kitagawa tried to use multiple narrative lines, but at that time, he still used characters as clues to the plot line, and all the multiple plot lines served one main line."

Reina Saito recalled the book that Hide Kitagawa had recently written, and felt more and more that he was constantly improving his creative ability through writing.

Not only is he learning and innovating, he’s also trying to improve as he writes!
What a terrible literary curiosity!

Ichiro Tanizaki was proud of being shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature throughout his life. After he firmly established himself as the "number one in the world" in the Japanese literary world, he stopped writing.

But Kitagawa Hide seems to be completely dissatisfied with this.

He said he would take me to win more awards, and even go to Sweden together to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature one day. He was not just talk!

He has been working hard for this silently!
Saito Reina took a deep breath and became serious.

She opened the manuscript and the first chapter that caught her eye was "【Cold Wonderland】Elevator, Silence, and Obesity".

At the beginning of the story, the protagonist "I" was accidentally trapped in the company's elevator.

The content of the opening is unremarkable. Kitagawa Hide completely abandoned the "gimmick-style" opening he liked to use in the past, and instead adopted the most conventional environmental description and psychological description.

It was not until I read "As soon as I entered the building, I was stopped by two guards who asked me who I was looking for. They then checked the list of scheduled visitors, looked at my driver's license, confirmed my identity with the central computer, and searched my whole body with a metal detector before they pushed me into the elevator," that Rena Saito realized that the background of this novel was not the real world.

In Japan in 1997, apparently no company would use a central computer to confirm the identity of its employees, and metal detectors were used to check people's bodies when entering and leaving the door.

This kind of scene usually appears in imported Western science fiction blockbusters.

"So this time, Kitagawa is going to cross a new dimension and go directly into science fiction themes?" Saito Rena's breathing became slightly rapid.

"The Strange Bird Chronicle" is a war literature, "Killing Commendatore" has a bit of fantasy and science fiction style, and the subsequent "The Dancing Girl of Izu" returned to the Japanese style of mono no aware literature.

This time, let’s just go for the science fiction genre which is less popular!

Pure literature plus science fiction, is this something that most people dare to touch?

The March issue of Shincho will serialize Ichiro Tanizaki's new book.

The March issue of "Wenyi" will obviously have to compete head-on with "Xinchao".

In the eyes of most people, the safest and best way to deal with the situation is for Hide Kitagawa to write a novel similar to "The Dancing Girl of Izu". This is foolproof and has a greater chance of winning.

Probably only Kitagawa Hide would dare to play like this.

At this critical moment, something completely new is brought out to shock the readers.

If it were any other writer, Saito Rena would be afraid that the "surprise" would turn into a "shock".

But if Kitagawa Hide did this, she would be inexplicably very confident!
soon.

She finished reading the first chapter.

The second chapter is titled "【End of the World】Golden Furry Beast".

[The End of the World] is a town surrounded by high walls and isolated from the world. This chapter mainly introduces the situation of the town, the surrounding environment, and a magical animal called "Golden Beast".

Chapter 2 was also read quickly.

After reading two chapters, Saito Rena felt confused for the first time. "These are two completely unrelated stories! And it seems that there are two protagonists." Saito Rena trusts Kitagawa Hide's writing ability and believes that he will not be perfunctory at this time.

I heard that in order to write this book, he went to Beichuan Network for a week-long field investigation.

But at the moment, the contents of these two chapters alone are completely meaningless!
"What exactly is the golden-haired beast? It seems there is no point in writing about it." Saito Rena was confused and could only continue reading.

Kitagawa Hide sent a total of ten chapters this time, five chapters each for [Cold Wonderland] and [The End of the World].

As the plot progressed, Rena Saito gradually felt the charm of this novel.

[Cool Wonderland] is obviously based on the current Tokyo society and large companies, and the computers in it are programmers and office workers.

Their lives are monotonous and painful. Although the story is about a fantasy "computing task", it actually alludes to the monotonous daily life of office workers.

Some of the details in it are touching, and you can feel that Kitagawa Hide has indeed conducted on-site investigations and carefully studied the living conditions of office workers.

Wrapping real life in a science fiction novel is undoubtedly an idea that transcends time and cognition.

At least there has been no similar literary work in the Japanese literary world.

In addition, the story of "Cool Wonderland" is full of the strong "Kitagawa Hidefuku style". After reading the content of this chapter, Rena Saito thought it could be given a score of 9 (out of 10).

But here comes the problem.

Compared to "Cold Wonderland", the story line of "At World's End" is completely incomprehensible.

According to the storyline, the protagonist gave up his shadow when he entered the town, just like the other townspeople.

The atmosphere in the town is peaceful and the residents live in peace, but they have all lost their shadows and their hearts, without emotions or love.

Residents who cannot completely lose their hearts are banished to the depths of the forest to live a hard life.

The hearts of the residents are embedded in countless unicorn skulls, transformed into "ancient dreams" and stored in the library. The protagonist "I"'s daily job is to read these dreams.

The story seemed absurd and incomprehensible, and Rena Saito couldn't grasp the core of it.

In fact, when Hide Kitagawa read this book for the first time, he was also bored by the story line of "At World's End".

Compared to the thrilling and immersive [Cold Wonderland], what is [The End of the World]?

If it could be made into a TV series, "The World's End" would be something quite atmospheric.

In fact, someone later used the core and elements of this story and made it into a movie.

In "Ghost Town", a well-known horror film in Hong Kong, the heroine, who is a novelist, accidentally enters the ghost town and then arrives at an agency. The old man who looks like a librarian, as well as the setting and atmosphere of the agency, are inspired by "At World's End".

Unfortunately, there are no film or television works to help readers watch "The End of the World". They will most likely be as clueless as Rena Saito and completely fail to understand Kitagawa Hide's intentions.

At the back of the draft, Kitagawa Hide wrote a line of words with a fountain pen: "This book is dedicated to Watanabe Yasuko who died unjustly."

This surprised Saito Rena.

There was only one celebrity named Watanabe Yasuko in her memory.

The murder of a Tepco OL is still very sensitive, even though the heat has passed for a long time.

Many government departments have expressed the hope that publishing houses and newspapers will not touch on this case and keep its popularity to a minimum.

Kitagawa Hide's words
She called immediately.

After a few beeps, Kitagawa Hide's lazy and tired voice was heard.

"Rena?"

"It's me. I just finished reading The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland." She succinctly expressed her final message and her doubts about "The End of the World."

Kitagawa Hide didn't seem surprised and quickly explained, "That's it. When I wrote about Watanabe Yasuko, I didn't question the intentions of certain people and organizations. It's just that the idea that she died unjustly is not sensitive, right?"

"That's what you said." Saito Rena nodded and wanted to say something, but then she changed her mind and thought, Kitagawa Hide even condemned the past wars, so what did this matter?
And he certainly didn't name names or make blatant sarcasm.

"After reading the whole book, readers should be able to understand my intention." Kitagawa Hide continued, "As for [The End of the World], it's normal to be confused by just these ten chapters. Don't worry, as the plot progresses, your doubts will be answered soon."

If you want to clarify all the doubts in your mind in one go, you have to read the entire novel.

But the novel is a serial, and this time it will take four months to complete, so it is impossible to finish it in one go.

Kitagawa Hide doesn't think his readers are so impatient that they would abandon a book just because the beginning is too slow.

In the age of online literature, perhaps this kind of writing would lead to failure, but at this time, readers of pure literature still have plenty of patience.

Of course, he could also speed up and cut down on the plot to circumvent these problems.

But after thinking about it for a long time, Kitagawa Hide still felt that he had to spend some time to describe the atmosphere of the small town "The End of the World" in the beginning, so that the later part would be shocking enough.

Since he said so, Saito Rena will of course fully support him.

After hanging up the phone, she continued watching "Remembrance of Things Past".

This draft was also sent to France via email, and was received by Olivia, who was thinking about her very much, at the first opportunity!

It was still quiet in France at night. Olivia, who was lying in her room reading a book, excitedly printed out several copies of the manuscript and sent them to Odemeson and others who were also very curious about Kitagawa Hide's new book.

Now "The Dancing Girl of Izu" has sold over 50 copies. With the full recommendation of the French President, this novel has become the first exception to break the law on overseas book sales - the cultural department allows it to be sold throughout France.

As a result, in just one month, "The Dancing Girl of Izu" broke the record of 100 million total sales and is still climbing towards higher peaks.

Kitagawa Hide's name was heard throughout the streets of Paris, and as he was a writer recommended by the French literary world and shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he suddenly became one of the household names among foreign celebrities.

The "Collection of Novels by Hide Kitagawa" is being prepared at full speed, and Odmeson and others have already pre-ordered a copy.

Audemason, who was discussing with Combesco who would win the Nobel Prize in Literature, was immediately cheered up and stopped talking after receiving the manuscript sent by Olivia.

"'Remembrance of Things Past'? This name." He frowned.

(End of this chapter)