I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 307 An unexpected meeting between two literary masters

In early November 1997.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude", which was serialized in "A Century of Appreciation of Latin American Literature", aroused heated discussions in the literary circles of Latin American countries.

On the online forums of these countries, there are endless discussions about whether the author of this book, Hide Kitagawa, truly understands Latin American literature and Latin American countries.

Writers and critics from Latin American countries have mixed opinions on "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

Some people believe that Kitagawa Hide deliberately distorted the history of Latin American countries over hundreds of years, with the intention of deliberately making the lives of ordinary people miserable and demonizing them, and whitewashing nouveau riche such as the Buendía family.

Many people also believe that this book perfectly presents the current situation of contemporary Latin American countries, especially the "magical realism" writing technique used in the novel, which has far-reaching significance for Latin American literature.

If a book receives only positive reviews, it is highly likely that the publisher and the author have inflated the reviews.

If a book has all negative reviews, then it is likely that the quality of the book is indeed questionable.

For a work like "One Hundred Years of Solitude", there are thousands or even tens of thousands of arguments about right and wrong, good and bad, which indirectly proves the book's extremely high literary value.

People who have read the novel soon discovered that most of the critical comments came from a group of colleagues who were jealous of Kitagawa Hide's writing ability and literary accomplishment.

They not only criticized "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and Kitagawa Hide, but also were hostile to any newcomers who could threaten their position in the literary world.

While Latin American countries were still arguing about the merits of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Remembrance of Things Past" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude", whose American publishing rights were bought by the Hartree family, also became hot sellers in the western United States.

The Hartley family did not need to do much publicity for these two books because the Hartley Publishing Company, which they controlled, had a near monopoly on station bookstores in the western United States.

Travelers who want to come to the west from the east or central part of the country now have to take the train.

The slow train ride makes people sleepy, so most passengers choose to buy a leisure reading material to pass the time.

Compared with the economically developed East and the politically complex Central United States, the Western region is wild and unrestrained, just like in the famous game "Red Dead Redemption", where cowboys with double guns, galloping wild horses, and crisscrossing farms can be seen everywhere, but there are very few bookstores.

Realizing the mismatch between people's increasing demand for reading and the underdeveloped bookstore industry in the West, the Hartree family immediately spent money to monopolize all western station bookstores.

Nowadays, whenever you go to a train station or walk into any bookstore, you can see the eye-catching Hartree family logo, and outside the store there are silhouette posters of Kitagawa Hide.

The Hartree family are all native Westerners who uphold the family philosophy of distinguishing between gratitude and resentment, repaying kindness, and not leaving grudges overnight.

With his book "Border", Hide Kitagawa helped Gene Hartley, who was in his twilight years, to find the meaning of life again. They made Mr. Kitagawa's name resound throughout the Western United States!
Kitagawa Hidekazu Yumeko, who departed from Hamburg, Germany and arrived in the western United States in early August, just followed the flow of people and walked into a nicely decorated station bookstore.

As soon as they entered the bookstore, they saw "Remembrance of Things Past" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude" placed in the most conspicuous position.

The cover of the former reads "Love, hate and hatred in France during the First and Second World Wars", while the cover of the latter is "A magical realism work written by a famous Japanese writer - it takes you to understand the century-long history of rise and fall of Latin American countries."

These words undoubtedly attracted a large number of tourists to stop and watch.

In just a short while, Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko saw that the two books on the booth were sold out, and then a new batch was quickly replenished.

Compared to "Border", which did not perform well in the United States, the sales of these two books are obviously much better.

Since it would take another hour to get to Cupertino where the Hartley family lived, Kitagawa Hide and Yumeko planned to buy some reading materials to pass the time.

Just as he reached out to pick up a novel called "The Green Mile", a sudden voice interrupted Kitagawa Hide's actions.

"Hey, I suggest you take a look at the book 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' next to it. The 'Green Mile' you are going to take is nothing compared to it."

The speaker's voice was sharp and small, and his tone was full of disdain for "The Green Mile".

Kitagawa Hide turned his head and found that the other person was a thin middle-aged white man with a pointed face and monkey cheeks. Next to him was a plump white lady with a round face.

The white lady held the man's hand intimately, smiling and nodding in agreement with his words.

This combination seems quite incongruous. In California, the most economically developed state in the United States, these white ladies are generally the wives of politicians and businessmen.

Obviously, this guy with a pointed chin and monkey cheeks is neither of these two types of people.

"I don't think so. The Green Mile is written by the famous novelist Stephen Edwin King. I like his novels very much. I heard that he won the 'O. Henry Short Story Award' last year for this book."

Kitagawa Hide glanced at the white middle-aged man and thought he looked familiar, but he couldn't remember who he was.
"Of course, I don't deny that One Hundred Years of Solitude is also a good work. There is no need to rank the best works among the best, right, sir?"

"That's because you haven't read these two books yet."

The middle-aged white man shook his head and reached out to pick up a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude. He then tapped the cover of the book vigorously.

"The protagonist of The Green Mile has special powers, and the story tells some interesting things that happened in a death row prison called The Green Mile.

The author's original intention in writing the book was actually to use a writing technique similar to magical realism to break through his previous horror writing style.

Unfortunately, even after writing this book, he did not realize what "magical realism" really is, let alone its systematic application and presentation like Mr. Kitagawa.

So, I can tell you 100% that instead of reading a 'replacement' of the same genre, it is better to read a better work.

After all, a train journey is only a dozen hours, and no one wants to waste time on a bad novel, right? "

The white middle-aged man spoke very convincingly, and it was obvious that he had really read these two works and studied them in depth.

However, it was obvious that he had a rather aggressive temper. After being contradicted by Kitagawa Hide for a few words, he quickly found a breakthrough and "fight back" at him.

This is quite in line with the "Western cowboy spirit".

"I see. I really like reading Mr. Stephen's book The Mist. The ending is still fresh in my memory."

Kitagawa Hide still chose to buy "The Green Mile". Even though this book is not as good as "One Hundred Years of Solitude", who would kill time on the train with their own novel?

Seeing that the Asian man Hide Kitagawa was unmoved, the white middle-aged man was so angry that he even wanted to snatch "The Green Mile" from him.

"Why don't you listen to my advice? Instead of wasting more than ten dollars on a crappy book, why not take a good look at One Hundred Years of Solitude? I tell you, The Green Mile is really not that good."

He still did not give up marketing his beloved "One Hundred Years of Solitude" to Kitagawa Hide. Seeing that his persuasion was fruitless, he finally couldn't help but whispered,
"Hey, listen to me. This book is really not worth reading. I don't understand why the shop owner put it together with One Hundred Years of Solitude."

"Sir, why do you have such a strong hatred towards The Green Mile?"

Kitagawa Hideya was attracted by his words and actions. From the time they met until now, he was like a special shill for his novel in the station bookstore, and he kept recommending "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

It's really interesting.

"Because I wrote this book," the white middle-aged man finally said the reason. He lowered his voice very low, obviously feeling ashamed of writing a book like "The Green Mile".
"I tried this writing method last year because I wanted to change my style. I thought it was pretty good, but after reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, I really wanted the bookseller to buy back all the novels."

"Haha, this matter made my dear depressed for a long time. Who would have thought that in the second year, a writer would write such a perfect novel with the same method."

Stephen Edwin King's wife Tabitha smiled.

"So you are really Teacher Stephen!" Kitagawa Hide said that he felt this guy looked familiar, and it turned out that he really ran into the real person.

Stephen Edwin King is one of the most famous horror novelists in the United States, and his status in American popular literature is the same as that of Keigo Higashino in Japan.

The two also have one thing in common, which is that they have written a lot of works in which the duality of gods and ghosts is obvious.

Good works can be famous all over the world, while bad works seem to be written by a hired gun.

It is probably the low period in recent years that made him want to switch to a different writing style.

However, by accident, he published "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in 1997, which dealt a severe blow to this master of horror.

But this is also a good thing, right?

Stephen's series of transformation works were all flopped, but he later returned to the top with "The Dark Tower Series".

If he continues to focus on pure literature or other subjects, he might go further and further astray.

"It's me. So now you can understand why I'm pushing you to watch One Hundred Years of Solitude instead of the 'alternative' The Green Mile."

Stephen nodded.

"I understand."

Kitagawa Hide said that he still paid the clerk $12 and bought the copy of "The Green Mile".

"But I decided to read The Green Mile on the train."

"Why don't you listen, you guy?" Stephen's anger rose again.

He originally thought that if he revealed his identity, the other party would quickly accept his recommendation.

I didn't expect Kitagawa Hide to be so unmoved. Even after talking to this point, he still insisted on buying his book "The Green Mile"!

Is this guy's rebellious teenage period still going on? !
“Because I wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

Kitagawa Hide pointed to the copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude in Stephen's hand and chuckled.
"Would you buy a copy of The Green Mile to read on the train?"

"what?!"

Stephen's eyes widened, and he looked at Beichuan Xiu in disbelief.

"Hey, this joke is not funny. The teacher who wrote this book, Kitagawa, is from Japan.
Wait, are you really Kitagawa Hide?"

"Replacement guaranteed."

Kitagawa Hide subconsciously reached into his pocket, then remembered that Japan did not have an ID card like the one in China, so he had to show Stephen the invitation letter to be a visiting professor that the National University of Columbia had just sent him.

Stephen looked around carefully for several times, and then realized that he had done something extremely stupid. He was stunned and didn't come to his senses for a long time.

"So where are you going?" asked Tabitha.

"Go visit Cupertino" Before Kitagawa Hide finished speaking, Stephen took over.

"Mr. Hartree?" Stephen looked at him, the embarrassment on his face deepening.

"Yes." Kitagawa Hide nodded, "You too?"

"Yes. Because I just read One Hundred Years of Solitude written by you, and I heard that they will invite you to participate in a literary exchange meeting in the near future, so I came to California to take a look."

Stephen scratched his head awkwardly. He didn't expect that he would run into the person he wanted to meet before he even arrived in Cupertino.

Just now, he kept praising his novel in front of the other person, and then frantically belittled his own novel, which was very awkward.

"Teacher Stephen, let's go back to the train and talk."

Kitagawa Hide saw that more and more readers were gathering around them. Since both of them were celebrities, it would be troublesome if they were surrounded, so he directly invited Stephen and his wife to get in the car.

Stephen had a lot to say to him, so he nodded immediately, pulled Tabitha up, and followed Kitagawa Hide to the car.

“Excuse me, how did you learn about the history of Latin American countries and the Buendía family?
From the novel, I can clearly feel the sense of reality when you wrote about them. Those magical myths and legends are easy to find, but it is hard to imagine how these details of real history were written."

Before Stephen even got into the car, he started asking Kitagawa Hide incessantly.

As a screenwriter and writer, he is always stuck in writing. The more he writes, the more he feels that his foundation and knowledge reserves are insufficient, so he really wants to learn something from Kitagawa Hide.

Kitagawa Hideya is a man who tells us everything he knows. Of course, he put in a lot of hard work to write "One Hundred Years of Solitude". He spent a week collecting information in the small town of Aracataca.

The two of them enjoyed the conversation more and more, and as Stephen touched the copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude in his hand, he felt that the trip was well worthwhile.

When he arrives at the Hartree family, he must find time to chat with Kitagawa Hideaki!
While the two were chatting on the train, station bookstores along the western United States sold hundreds of copies of "Remembrance of Things Past" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

Before Hide Kitagawa arrived in Cupertino, the sales data of the two books had already reached Gene Hartley's desk.

"Father! In less than 10 days, 'Remembrance of Things Past' sold 20 copies. 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is even more exaggerated, having sold nearly 50 copies!

These may be the two best-selling pure literary novels in the West this year!
You really have a sharp eye!"

The youngest son said in an exaggerated manner that he did not read books, but was proficient in business.

When he was running "Border", Kitagawa Hide's commercial value was not very obvious, but once these two books were published, he directly became a top-tier best-selling author in the American literary market.

The United States is now using the financial crisis to shift domestic conflicts outward, but the domestic economic situation is actually very bad.

The literary market is the underlying foundation of all cultural and entertainment industries. If the Hartree family can incorporate this market into their business empire, then they may be able to catch up with the Morgan, Rockefeller and other families!

"Yes. Continue to maintain cooperation with Japan's Kawaide Shobo. I heard that they are short of funds now. You can consider providing some business assistance."

The elderly Gene Hartley has long stopped caring about the family business. This time he just wants to entertain Kitagawa Hide and his wife and try to get him to write a popular book for their Hartley family!
(End of this chapter)