I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 288 Who is the future of Japanese literature?

67.2 copies!

The first-day sales of the April 1997 issue of Literature and Art were 4 copies.

And it is a truly inflated 67.2 copies.

When this extremely detailed data report appeared on the desk in the president's office, the usually cold-hearted Shizuko Kawaide lost her composure immediately.

Her hands were tightly grasping the pages of A4 paper, and her eyes were fixed on the paper for a long time, her turbulent mood taking a long time to calm down.

The previous issue of "Wenyi" was sold in large quantities to France, and eventually surpassed "Xinchao" in monthly sales.

But she is not sure whether the French will continue to be eager to read the sequel to "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" after reading it, or whether they will be more critical of Hide Kitagawa's new book than praise it, like the readers here.

After all, even she couldn't stand the weird [End of the World] chapter this time.

When the latest ten chapters were delivered to her desk a few days ago, Shizuko Kawaide rarely did not read them immediately - she was a little scared.

I was afraid that Kitagawa-sensei's skills would fade away, that the "End of the World" chapter would still be boring, that the quality of the "Cool Wonderland" chapter would also begin to decline, and I was even more afraid that this would allow "Shincho" to gain the upper hand and allow Ichiro Tanizaki to return to the top.

These days, she has overcome all objections and single-handedly promoted the plan of "Wenyi" to expand overseas markets. Among them, the six overseas markets that have been confirmed are France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, and China.

The first phase of this "going global plan" invested 100 billion yen, and the total investment is estimated to be 300 billion yen, which is almost half of the total liquidity of the Kawade family.

Shizuko Kawaide listened to Kitagawa Hide's advice and decided not to make any outrageous investments and development plans in the next few years. Therefore, she only used half of the funds, and the rest should be enough.

She really couldn't bear to watch Wen Yi approach the ceiling of Japan's pure literature market without spending a penny, and give up on development when there was such a good opportunity.

When she took over from her father as president four years ago, Shizuko Kawaide showed her decisiveness and boldness.

It is precisely because of this character and business philosophy that she was able to successfully "pick up the bargain" of Kitagawa Hide when no one else could react.

The grand "overseas expansion plan" is closely related to the domestic sales war. If "Wenyi" and Mr. Kitagawa are defeated by "Shincho" and Ichiro Tanizaki, who among the family, company, and shareholders would dare to believe that Mr. Kitagawa alone can successfully expand overseas and conquer the literary markets of other countries?

so far so good.

The French people's love for Mr. Kitagawa was beyond her imagination.

Of the 67.2 copies this time, about 20 were sold to France. It is said that the collection value of the Japanese version of "Wenyi" is very high there.

At first, Shizuko Kawaide was quite skeptical whether there were really so many French people who bought the Japanese version of "Bungei". Is Mr. Kitagawa really that famous in France?
Her doubts were instantly dispelled after the statistics department handed her the carefully verified data analysis.

In 1997, the total population of France was about 6000 million, of which the literary market was about 1200 million, which means that one in five French people was willing to spend money on literature.

In the 1200 million literary market, "The Collection of Beichuan's Novels (French Translation)" can probably sell 200 million copies.

How scary is this sales data?
A certain online novel website next door has about 600 million paying users, and the top novels have about 30 readers who have fully subscribed and paid, which only accounts for one twentieth of the total volume.

Such works are already the top of the market.

The sales volume of "Collection of Kitagawa's Novels (French Translation)" shows how well-known Mr. Kitagawa is in France.

The latest ten chapters of The World’s End and Hard-Boiled Wonderland also performed very well.

Shizuko Kawaide hasn't read a single word of this book, but she has read all the reviews and ratings on the Internet word for word.

The combined score of the first ten chapters is only 8.5 points, and only less than 30 readers rated it.

After the latest ten chapters were serialized, the number of people who rated it exceeded 100 million overnight, and the overall score was raised from 8.5 to 9.1!
Currently, the rating of "The Foolish Love" is only 8.9 points!

After the reversal of word-of-mouth, "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" also returned to the public eye and became the most talked-about and hotly discussed work, without a doubt.

The preface written by Kitagawa Hide at the very beginning of the novel: "I dedicate this book to Watanabe Yasuko who died unjustly." was also brought up again, and countless people talked about it.

At present, it is still unclear how the murder of the Tepco OL is related to this novel, but combined with Mr. Kitagawa's previous books such as "Confessions", it is hard not to have some unintentional thoughts.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, which spent a huge amount of money to settle the matter, was completely panicked.

Watanabe Yasuko's death is related to corruption within TEPCO and the current party in power. In addition, the Mitsubishi Group, the US government and others are also involved in this matter.

This is a huge capital interest chain that cannot be moved at all.

Naturally, the only ones who are sacrificed by the all-powerful chaebol capital are ordinary workers like Yasuko Watanabe.

Mr. Kitagawa's metaphor once again inspired the public to think about the current political and economic situation in Japan.

After the bubble era, Japan fell into a visible recession. It had four prime ministers in three years, and each of them vowed before taking office that he would boost the national economy and restore national confidence.

The result is an increasingly worse social environment and national economy.

In order to restore the economy, the Prime Minister's cabinet also raised the consumption tax and added many other types of taxes, turning people's money into deposits into the national treasury.

The money is given to you, but what about the economy? Why is the economy still like this?
Could it be that this money is being used by the government to help the chaebols overcome economic difficulties?

Our hard-earned money, the people's blood and sweat, will not become part of the chaebols' luxury cars and mansions? These so-called capitalists cried poor and pitiful during the "Spring Struggle" and were unwilling to give even a 15% salary increase. In the end, they gave a 5% that was enough to send away beggars.

That's fine.

After all, the economy is really bad. It is better to add less than no increase, and it is better for the company to exist than to go bankrupt.

But if the fact is the opposite, then wouldn’t we be the ones being taken advantage of?
Ryutaro Hashimoto never dreamed that the great writer he had supported would become the death knell of his throne of power.

Letter after letter of inquiry was sent to the prime minister's cabinet, and Congress also began to ask him repeatedly when the economic recovery he promised would come.

At this time, those in power and the chaebols were sweating profusely and were unable to respond to the expectations of the people.

They can only hope that the market conditions will improve this year, or that America will provide some funding and motivation, so that the economy doesn't remain in this terrible state by the next election day.

the other side.

Kato Shuichi, the "world's number one" literary critic who had stopped writing for many years and had served as director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library, professor at Sophia University, University of British Columbia, Free University of Berlin, and visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University, Yale University, University of Geneva, Brown University, Cambridge University, and University of California, has returned to the literary world for this matter!
Kato Shuichi is known as an "encyclopedic" scholar in contemporary Japan, and his influence on the Japanese literary world is no less than that of Tanizaki Ichiro.

However, he announced his retirement from writing as early as 1980, and has since been concentrating on academic research at various universities. He has not participated in any events in the literary world, nor has he published any articles related to the literary world.

Even though the scandal surrounding the Nobel Prize in Literature nominations was so hot a while ago, and Kitagawa Hide was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he never expressed any opinion.

This time, his commentary was suddenly published in the Yomiuri Shimbun daily, which immediately caused a huge sensation throughout Japan.

The title of this review is "Thoughts after reading "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland", on the competition between Kitagawa Hide and Tanizaki Ichiro for the title of the best in the world, and the possible future development of Japanese literature."

Readers familiar with Kato Shuichi know that when this big guy writes a review, the longer the title, the more he values ​​the content.

He said in the manuscript: "When reading only the first ten chapters of "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland", its quality is obviously far inferior to Kitagawa Hide's previous excellent works. But after reading the latest ten chapters carefully, combined with the intention of its preface, its intention is infinitely higher.

In the highly developed capitalist society, we are just one mindless and emotionless "calculator" after another, repeating the programmed life every day without considering anything else.

But when capital monopolizes everything and controls everything, all living beings can only be victims and consumables.

There are many different opinions about the death of Yasuko Watanabe. The only thing that is certain is that if it were you, me or him, we would have the same ending.

I think that when Kitagawa Hide wrote this book, his emotions were probably similar to mine now. He was extremely disappointed with such a country, society, and government, extremely sad about the deaths of Watanabe Yasuko and others, and extremely moved by our powerlessness.

It seems that about half of the novel is still unfinished. I can't say whether these thoughts and ideas are in line with Kitagawa Hide's intentions. I hope you can give me your personal advice when you have time.

These days, many people around me have been asking me about my opinions on Kitagawa Hide's nomination for the Nobel Prize, his blacklisted spot, and his competition with Tanizaki Ichiro for the title of the best in the world.

I have no opinion.

Today, the Japanese literary world has long been the preserve of conservatives and a place of revelry, where any bizarre things are not surprising.

As for who is the 'best in the world', I think we will have to wait until the book "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" is completed to find out.

I am more worried about the future of Japanese literature.

In fact, I have always been paying attention to these messages, but I have never made any comments on them.

Kitagawa Hide's sudden appearance made me sigh and feel sad.

He represents a new generation of literary power. Different from the traditional conservatives, he is more energetic and has a bright future.

But he is unique and self-born.

He is not even a literary figure who emerges from our university education system.

So I was very anxious.

Should we pin our hopes for the future of literature on this kind of legendary figure that is drawn in a lottery?

If Kitagawa Hide had never appeared, would Japanese literature today be stagnant and gradually declining?
In my opinion, the development of Japanese literature has reached a dead end, and no matter which of them wins, it will not be good for literature, the literary world, the industry, the people, and the country.
If you insist on letting me say it.

I hope Kitagawa wins. ”

Kato's pessimistic remarks on Monday infected countless people.

He affirmed Kitagawa Hide's achievements and literary talent, but was also completely disappointed with the current Japanese literary world.

He didn't think that this lottery method could boost Japanese literature, but he couldn't find a better way.

At the end of the review, he said that he would write a new book, "History of Japanese Literature". He could not find the direction or the answer, but he could sort out the history of Japanese literature over the past hundred years, and perhaps future generations would be able to get a glimpse of it.

In fact, many people can't understand Kato Shuichi's sadness and disappointment. All they can clearly see are a few explosive arguments:

Mr. Kato Shuichi called out to Mr. Kitagawa, hoping that he could give him some advice and that the two could sit down and talk about "The End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland".

Mr. Shuichi Kato highly praised Mr. Kitagawa's talent.

Mr. Kato Shuichi hopes that Mr. Kitagawa will win and become the new "No. 1 in the world"!
(End of this chapter)