I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 286: The French people who are crazy about purchasing "Literature and Art"!
"An autobiographical novel written by Mr. Kitagawa from the Japanese literary world, with the background of our country's World War I and World War II?"

Several French readers holding "Remembrance of Things Past" had a lot of question marks over their heads, and they found it unbelievable no matter how they looked at it.

This really sounds hard to accept, as if it is fake.

Therefore, the store manager and the staff could only keep explaining to the readers who came into the store.

I told them over and over again, tirelessly, that Remembrance of Things Past was indeed Kitagawa's latest masterpiece.

But even though the people in the bookstore insisted that this was a novel written by Mr. Kitagawa himself, those readers were still skeptical. Looking at the high price, they chose to put the books in their hands back on the bookshelf.

As prosperous as the French literary market is, it is still flooded with shameless "pirated" novels.

However, this "piracy" is not that kind of "piracy". The novel was indeed published by a publishing house through formal channels, with all procedures complete and registered with the Ministry of Culture.

But this kind of "pirated" novel is just like some "pirated" books in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. For example, if the book is called "Nine Yin Nine Yang" and the author's name is also written as Jin Yong's new work, readers will think it is the new work of Master Jin Yong and buy it happily.

When I opened it and read it at home, I found it seemed less and less interesting. My level has dropped so much!

Then after a long time, the readers realized that they had been tricked!
This Jin Yong's new work does not mean Jin Yong's new work, but Jin Yong's new work!
The real author’s name is the ridiculous Jin Yong Xin!
There are also many such "pirated" books in the French literary market, which really deceive readers.

Seeing waves of readers coming and going, but only a few buying "Remembrance of Things Past", the store clerks became increasingly anxious.

Fortunately, in the afternoon, the University of Paris Press finally delivered the new poster that was made on the spur of the moment - that's how the French are, because there is not much work and survival pressure, many people are slow in doing things and have low work efficiency.

This new poster was supposed to come with the novel, but it was unexpectedly delayed by a whole morning!
However, after this little episode, the discussion of "Remembrance of Things Past" became much more intense, and readers who had hesitated in the morning all came over during tea time.

This time they no longer had any doubts, and each of them took a copy and happily read "Remembrance of Things Past".

In France in the 90s, literature had become one of the main concerns of the whole society.

The literary world is ahead of the performing arts and entertainment industries and has been indispensable throughout the era.

During this period, a large number of literary schools and outstanding writers emerged in the French literary world, and many writers won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

However, looking at the French literary world, readers and writers alike cannot find another book that can be written in the stream-of-consciousness style of "Remembrance of Things Past".

When reading for the first time, the large amount of psychological monologues and stream-of-consciousness descriptions will make many readers feel confused. The protagonist's thoughts and ideas are very jumpy, and it is easy to be distracted if you don't fully immerse yourself in the story.

Thanks to the many excellent works in the French literary market, a large number of high-quality readers with patience and certain literary literacy have been cultivated, and they were able to endure the boredom of "Remembrance of Things Past" in the early stages.

After "I" met Gilberte Swann, the eldest daughter of the Swann family, the gears of fate slowly began to turn, and the novel suddenly became extremely exciting!

After reading the first volume of "Remembrance of Things Past", literature lovers from all over France went crazy for it and began to post various comments on the Internet.

"It's really wonderful and interesting! How will the relationship between Marcel and Gilberte develop in the future? Although it is an autobiographical novel, the love story in it is really touching!"

"I recommend you to read Remembrance of Things Past. It's hard to imagine that this was written by a foreigner. The customs and practices during the First and Second World Wars are so realistic!"

"Yes, yes! My grandfather participated in World War II. I described to him some of the situations about Marcel and the Swann family. He told me with certainty that the author must have experienced that era!

But do you know? It is said that Mr. Kitagawa Hide is only 25 years old! The same age as my child! "

"Muse, have you read the book Remembrance of Things Past?"

"Remembrance of Things Past? What book is that? Is it a new work by a literary teacher?"

"Yes. But the writer is not from France, but from Japan."

"Japanese writers? Heidi, when did you start liking East Asian literature? I heard that the customs there are completely different from ours. Their novels are hard to understand, right?"

"No, no, no. This book is about France during World War I and World War II. You really should read it carefully. Didn't you once say that it would be great if there was a novel about love during that period? Now there is one! It's perfect for you!"

"Really?! I'll go and wait for you right away. Did you just say that this novel was written by a Japanese writer?"

"That's right! Mr. Kitagawa Hide's Paradise Lost won the Goncourt Prize last year, and his previous work The Dancing Girl of Izu was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature!"

"Is it that amazing? Then I'll go check it out right away!"

Similar conversations frequently appeared throughout France, and the entire French literary world was like an earthquake. The immeasurable sensational impact shocked many local writers.

For a time, the topic everyone was discussing was related to Remembrance of Things Past. Word of it spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and more and more people rushed to bookstores to buy it.

"Remembrance of Things Past" did not sell well on the morning of April 4 due to the lack of promotional posters, but it sold like wildfire in the afternoon and evening. The Buddhist University of Paris Press did not expect that it would attract readers to this extent.

Based on the data from Kitagawa Hide's collection of novels, the University of Paris Press issued a total of 30 copies of Remembrance of Things Past on the same day, of which 25 copies entered the market and 5 copies were kept in reserve.

Unexpectedly, all 30 copies were sold out before 10 o'clock in the evening!

Faced with the needs of such a huge readership, the University of Paris Press had to urgently contact the distribution department and printing factory and ask the workers to work overtime to produce a batch of new books as quickly as possible!
The French, who have always been leisurely, experienced for the first time the pain of working overtime in the middle of the night.

French newspapers also published many literary reviews about this book.

In the evening edition of Paris Soir, Roland Barthes, a famous French literary critic, semiotician and thinker, wrote: “The First and Second World Wars were cruel years that we are reluctant to look back on. Whether we are old or young, when we talk about this era, we will subconsciously avoid it.

But at the same time, we hope that a group of writers will emerge in the literary world, using that era as the background, and write novels that can resonate with everyone.

In such a contradictory mood, for nearly a hundred years, no writer in the French literary world has dared to set foot in that era and dared to use pen and ink to describe the customs and folkways of that era.

We don’t want to recall, we don’t want to write, but we also don’t want to forget.

I am extremely grateful to Mr. Hide Kitagawa. In his writing, in that chaotic yet tempting era, there was such an admirable pure love!
There is no doubt that even though it seems that the story of Remembrance of Things Past has just begun, it deserves to be called a masterpiece rarely seen in the French literary world for a century! "

Roland Barthes became professor of literary semiotics at the Collège de France in 1976 and became the first scholar of this chair.

He has countless students, including famous film master Christian Metz, well-known poet Edmond Jabès, French publishing "myth" Amelie Nodon, and so on.

After he gave such a high evaluation to Kitagawa Hide, it caused a great stir. "Literature", "Young French Writers", "Literature and Art", "Echo", "International Herald Tribune" and other newspapers also gave many positive comments. On April 4, "Le Monde", which was founded in 3 and mainly focuses on political and diplomatic reports, with a daily sales of over 1944 million copies in France, specially opened a large space in the literature section to introduce Kitagawa Hide's life and resume in detail.

Before this, for French readers, Hide Kitagawa was still a "hen" that laid delicious eggs but they didn't know much about him.

After the detailed introduction in Le Monde, Kitagawa Hide's legendary personal experience also greatly impressed the readers.

They began to find ways to find someone to go to Japan to buy "Wenyi" for them, wanting to take a look at the new book "The End of the World and Cold Wonderland" that Mr. Kitagawa was writing at the same time.

Sensing a business opportunity, the Chanel Group immediately dispatched a business delegation to Tokyo and soon contacted Kawaide Shobo's overseas marketing department.

After several collaborations, both parties knew each other well. Shizuko Kawaide liked this French luxury goods company very much. After a phone call with Hide Kitagawa to confirm, she handed over the agency rights of "Wenyi" in France to the Chanel Group for three years of copyright for 1.6 million francs, equivalent to 24 billion yen.

The Chanel Group's action capability is terrifying. On April 4, it released the first issue of "Literature and Art".

However, because they bought the copyright for three years, in order to avoid excessive losses, the French mainland will start publishing "Wenyi" from the April 1995 issue, and will quickly transition to being synchronized with the Japanese mainland at the rate of one issue per week.

The April 1995 issue of "Wenyi" was the one that published Kitagawa Hide's debut novel "Hear the Wind Sing". On the day of publication on April 4, a total of 4 copies were sold. The first-day performance was enough to make it one of the top pure literature magazines in France!

But water far away cannot save the fire near.

Readers would rather read The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland.

After sensing this business opportunity, many French people studying or traveling in Japan began to secretly purchase large quantities of the March 1997 issue of Wen Yi (Wen Yi), and then brought it back to France and sold it at high prices to those in need.

A copy of "Wen Yi" that costs 750 yen and is an original Japanese version can actually be sold at a sky-high price of 500 francs in France!
The price has increased tenfold!
The interest rate gap drives businessmen crazy.

A wave of purchasing craze in the 90s quietly arrived.

The cause was a pure literary magazine!

At this time, Kitagawa Hide, who had just finished writing "Swann's Love", the second volume of the first part of "Remembrance of Things Past", and chapters 11 to 20 of "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland", did not know that he had become a well-known overseas literary figure in France.

On April 4, the new issue of "Wenyi" will be released, so he has to send the manuscript to Saito Rena for review. After all, he also has to reserve about a week for typesetting and promotion for the distribution department.

The draft entered Saito Rena's computer through the mailbox with a ding-dong sound. Not long after, Kitagawa Hide received an email reply from Saito Rena -

Good news! Beichuan! I'll come to your house right away!
Perhaps she is still a little unfamiliar with computers and e-mails, so whenever there is an important matter, Saito Rena is still used to running to Kitagawa Hide in person to talk to him.

When communicating via email, her replies were like the WeChat chats of later generations, mostly "got it", "OK", and "hmm".

In fact, email has become a means of communication for many people nowadays. There are even "online lovers" who use email to fall in love.

Of course, where there are business opportunities, there are unscrupulous businessmen.

A while ago, Kitagawa Hide heard that an editor of Kawaide Shobo was defrauded of 100 million yen during an "online romance", and all the savings he had worked hard to save for several years disappeared.

There are many online scams nowadays, but the Internet supervision is weak and the security risks are indeed great.

This reminded Kitagawa Hide of instant messaging tools such as LINE. He wondered if he had contacted ICQ company and bought their core technology after he mentioned it to Senhara Masato last time.

Just as I was thinking about it for a while, the doorbell rang.

Kitagawa Hide stood up and walked out of the study, followed closely by the British shorthair fat blue cat Pete, like a guard protecting the king, walking with a heroic and unyielding pace.

"Good afternoon, Yumeko-chan~ Congratulations on having a baby~ This is the red and white cake that I specially asked someone to bring from Kyoto~" Saito Rena hugged Yumeko warmly as soon as she entered the door.

Yumeko also gave her a box of specialties she brought back from Osaka.

After the two handkerchief friends exchanged gifts in a procedural manner, Yumeko went to the kitchen to make tea with a smile, while Saito Rena sat down on the sofa and drank three sips of tea without any restraint. Then she looked up at Kitagawa Hide who looked curious.

"What's going on?" Kitagawa Hide sat down next to her. As far as he could remember, the last time she lost her composure like this was when he was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Beichuan, you should have heard that in order to increase the popularity of "The Idiot's Desire", Shinchosha specially invited several national-level actors to promote it. Recently, they invested about 3 million in the market."

Saito Reina suppressed her excitement and said,
“When we got the sales data on the 5th of this month, Xinchao sold 379.1 million copies, while we sold 352.7 million copies. The gap has been getting bigger and bigger.

A colleague from the data analysis department said that if nothing unexpected happens, if they continue to invest in this amount, the final shortfall should be around 35 copies.

Shizuko originally wanted to try spending money like them, but you said to just let it go, and guess what happened?"

Riddler, get the hell out of Gotham City!
Beichuan Xiu complained in his heart, then asked with a smile on his face: "What's wrong?"

"On April 4, after the first issue of Literature and Art was released in France, readers there became even more curious about your new book, and a large number of purchasing agents rushed to buy the March issue of Literature and Art!"

Saito Reina pulled out a data sheet from her bag and said with a smile,

"Look! These are today's statistics! To be honest, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that you've become so popular in France!"

The data sheet clearly states:

截止1997年4月10日，1997年3月号《文艺》在日本全国累计销售共472.4万册！

The March 1997 issue of Shincho sold a total of 3 million copies across Japan.

Thanks to those crazy purchasing agents, "Wenyi" not only made up the gap of more than 5 copies on the 17.3th, but now it has surpassed the gap of copies!

No wonder Reina Saito, who is already very calm, would lose her composure like this.

This is simply like "a Lin Daiyu falling from the sky"!

"Of the more than 120 million copies sold in five days, at least half were sent to France." Kitagawa Hide was shocked when he saw that the sales of "Wenyi" in France had increased tenfold.

These French people are outrageous!
(End of this chapter)