I am a literary giant in Japan

The writer who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature was José Saramago from Portugal.

His major works include "Chronicles of a Monastery", "Blindness" and "Recovery of Sight".

In 1995, he won the Camões Prize, the highest literary award jointly awarded by the Portuguese and Brazilian literary circles.

In 1997, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, becoming the truly recognized "number one" in Portuguese literary circles.

The Swedish Academy's citation and reason for his award were: Saramago's works are highly imaginative, compassionate and ironic, allowing people to repeatedly relive that elusive period of history.

As a representative and leading figure in Portuguese literature, Saramago is qualified to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is most likely to be awarded to the contemporary "best in the world" in a certain country, and it likes to give awards to small and weak countries, in order to highlight the "inclusiveness" and "control" of the United States behind the Swedish and Norwegian governments.

To put it simply, "I don't look down on you or deliberately suppress you just because you are a small and weak country, but you have to understand that you can win the award because I nodded my head."

Both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States are very good at using this combination of kindness and severity, and it is reflected in all areas.

But putting aside his status and position, and only considering his literary attainments and his historical position in the history of world literature, it is actually quite unlikely that Saramago would win the Nobel Prize.

His works like to tell serious stories in an absurd and humorous tone. The writing style and plot are rather old-fashioned and cannot be regarded as masterpieces.

His famous work "The Monastery Chronicle" is a simplified youth version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". If it is placed in the world literary hall, it can probably only be regarded as a second-rate work.

If we talk about Saramago's advantages, apart from coming from a niche circle like the Portuguese literary world, it is that the content of his works likes to criticize his own country, which is very much in line with the political correctness requirements of the United States.

In addition, his works like to satirize Catholicism, and even Jesus. This unorthodox writing style is also deeply loved by the Swedish Academy of Literature.

They like writers who don't play by the rules because it can particularly demonstrate their tolerance.

In this world, there is another important reason why Saramago won the award, and that is the retaliation by the Nobel Prize officials against Kitagawa Hide.

Because of offending the Arnault Club, Kitagawa Hide's reputation in the Swedish and Norwegian literary circles suddenly plummeted.

Coupled with the smear campaign by a bunch of celebrities from the Arnault Club, Kitagawa Hide was not only sanctioned by the Nobel Prize officials, but also became the object of scorn by the literary giants of various countries in the Nordic region.

No matter how well "Norwegian Wood" is written, or how popular "Remembrance of Things Past", "The Old Man and the Sea", "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "The Little Prince" are overseas, they will never compromise and award this year's Nobel Prize in Literature to Kitagawa Hide, who is only 26 years old.

Saramago is the one who was dragged out to take the blame.

Like Dario Fo last year, Saramago did not feel happy for long after receiving the official congratulatory letter from the Nobel Prize, and soon fell into anxiety and helplessness.

He is 76 years old this year and has been up and down in the literary world for decades. It would be a lie to say that he has no thoughts about the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Writers all over the world want to win the three major literary awards (the Booker Prize in Britain, the Prix Goncourt in France, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in Sweden and Norway).

If you can win the Grand Slam once, you will be the first person in the history of world literature. If you can't win one, your career as a writer will be complete.

But how could Saramago, 76 years old and yet to win a major award, not be jealous?

The problem is, being jealous is one thing, but winning awards is another.

Kitagawa Hide emerged in 1995, became popular in Japan in 1996, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997. However, "The Dancing Girl of Izu" was extremely controversial, and many judges and experts believed that Kitagawa Hide was more qualified to win the award.

In 1998, many overseas countries called this year "Kitagawa Hidetoshi". "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was popular in the six civet cat countries, "The Old Man and the Sea" was popular in the western United States, and "Remembrance of Things Past" broke through the French literary world.

Plus "The Little Prince" which has recently become popular in the children's literature market.

In addition, "Snow Country" and "Norwegian Wood" are the two best hits.

No one could think of a reason why Kitagawa Hide didn't win the award.

But the Arnault Club chose to risk the world's condemnation and disgust Kitagawa Hidekazu and the Japanese literary world.

Shortly after receiving the congratulatory letter, Saramago first called the Swedish Academy to find out its attitude, and then communicated with well-known writers in the literary circles of major countries such as France, Britain, Germany and the United States.

When he learned that he had won the award, only eight of the eighteen lifetime judges were present, and three of them abstained, which made Saramago even more upset.

Isn't this just pure scapegoating?

This side of Tokyo.

After sorting out what happened, Kitagawa Hide became much more calm.

It has been a long time since the Western literary world has been disgusted by the Eastern literary world.

In this regard, China, Japan and South Korea are all quite weak, and they clearly look down on Eastern culture.

Even Russia, which considers itself to belong to the Western literary world, is often marginalized due to its geographical location and political factors.

The more he learned about this bullshit, the less Kitagawa Hide cared about it.

Being able to travel through time and having a happy family, a successful career, and financial freedom is already the limit of what one can achieve in life.

With these, he will no longer deliberately pursue empty fame.

It would be better if you could leave your name in the history of world literature, but it’s okay if you can’t.

After all, he is a plagiarist. As for his real writing ability, Kitagawa Hide believes that he is only among the "upper-class writers" in the Japanese literary world, and has not yet entered the ranks of "the best in the world".

However, the Nobel Prize is an obsession that is stuck in the hearts of Shizuko Kawaide, Rena Saito, and Yumeko Kitagawa.

Before the official announcement of the list of winners, Saito Rena still had illusions. She thought that with such a huge response from writers in the United States, France and other countries, the Nobel Prize officials should consider the seriousness of the matter.

Moreover, in September, Yale University specially held a "World Literature Seminar Festival" for Hide Kitagawa, which was a direct slap in the face of the Nobel Prize officials.

The Nobel Prize officials should at least take everyone's feelings into consideration, right?
But she still underestimated the influence and determination of the Arnault Club and those celebrities.

Sending this invitation is like writing a letter of challenge, and we will fight to the death.

"If we don't go, we will appear to be weak and guilty, but if we go, we will simply be disgusted.

How disgusting! If the Oscars are like this, forget it, fortunately I won't even get an Oscar."

Jabami Rei, who was holding Kitagawa Toru, complained angrily.

She put her long legs directly on the sofa and let Kitagawa Midori climb up to play.

The two little guys didn't know that their dad was disgusted. They kept babbling and sticking to Shebali, wanting to play with their godmother.

"What do the literary society and the publishing industry think?" Kitagawa Hide looked at Kawaide Shizuko. By now, everyone in Japan with some status should know about this.

Kitagawa Hide's attitude towards the Nobel Prize cannot represent the Japanese literary world, and as he is also the vice president of the Japan Literary Society, he also has to consider the feelings of the country's top writers.

"Professor Niwa Fumio has not made any statement, but Professor Kato Shuichi has already started writing a commentary, preparing to lash out at the Nobel Prize officials.

In the publishing industry, there are undercurrents and people’s minds are divided.”

Shizuko Kawaide also sighed and said helplessly.

The publishing industry seems to be united, but in fact, everyone is a competitor.

This time, Kitagawa Hide lost the Nobel Prize, and there will definitely be publishing houses that make a big fuss about it in order to weaken Kitagawa Hide's credibility in the literary world.

Fumio Niwa's lack of statement means that he is neutral and taking a wait-and-see attitude.

In the past, he was a staunch supporter of Kitagawa Hide, but this time he remained neutral, contrary to his usual behavior. This shows that there are invisible forces influencing the position of the Japan Literary Society.

This is the New Japan Literary Society, which was cleansed up after the fall of Ichiro Tanizaki and is basically full of fresh blood!
Fumio Niwa had previously supported Kitagawa Hide and was a veteran of the new literary faction that separated literature and politics.

And after the Nobel Prize officials issued an announcement to sanction Kitagawa Hide, Niwa Fumio and Kato Shuichi and others angrily criticized the inappropriate behavior of the Nobel Prize officials.

The true identity of the invisible force is self-evident as it can turn a big shot in his own camp into a neutral state.

Under such circumstances, Kato Shuichi was able to maintain his attitude of supporting Kitagawa Hide, which shows that he really regarded the "History of Japanese Literature" he was writing as the most important career in his life.

The opponent was aggressive and powerful, and they deliberately blocked the attack at this critical juncture. No wonder Shizuko Kawaide was rarely able to break down in front of so many acquaintances.

Seeing through the worries of the women, Kitagawa Hide picked up Kitagawa Midori, who was still crawling on Jabami Rei's long legs, and comforted her, "In the current situation, it's useless to worry too much, we'll just deal with it as it happens.

No matter what tricks they use, as long as the quality of the novel is high enough, those tricks will not be of much significance."

In order to reassure them, Kitagawa Hide took the opportunity to talk about his writing plans for the last quarter of this year.

After finishing "The Villain", Hide Kitagawa prepared to start serializing "White Tower" in "Mass Magazine".

After finishing "Asakusa Red Group", he will decide whether to continue serializing a new pure literary novel based on market feedback, or put it on hold for a while and do a wave of hunger marketing to the readers of "Kitagawa", and by the way, get the Kitagawa Prize at the end of this year.

On the "Wenyi" side, Kitagawa Hide would naturally not let the six major conglomerates easily snatch away Kawaide Shobo's dominant position in the publishing industry.

Therefore, he will surely make a seamless transition immediately and use a work that will be able to crush the Japanese literary market to tell everyone that he, Kitagawa Hide, has not yet run out of ideas!

"Beichuan is right. The response to The Villain is very good now. Other publishers want to use the Nobel Prize to attack us, but readers may not buy it. When the heat of the event passes, we will regain our home advantage.

Sister Jingzi, you don’t have to worry too much about this matter.”

After listening to Kitagawa Hide's plan, Saito Rena quickly calmed down and was no longer as worried as before she came.

Having worked with Kitagawa Hide for three years, no one probably knows Kitagawa Hide's "keeping his word" character better than her.

If he says it’s okay, then it must be okay!

"Well. Then we'll just deal with it as it happens."

Shizuko Kawaide was mainly a little embarrassed to speak up.

Kitagawa Hide had made it clear before that he would choose which publishing house to submit his books to based on market conditions. Even though he had a lot of shares in Kawaide Shobo and had a close relationship with Kawaide Shizuko, he would not favor "Wenyi" because of this.

Moreover, "The Villain" is Kitagawa Hide's compensation for not paying attention to "Wenyi" some time ago.

Now ask him to serialize better new books in "Wenyi".

Shizuko Kawaide couldn't bring herself to say such things.

Now that Kitagawa Hide himself talked about his creative plan, Kawaide Shizuko felt relieved. Her complexion also improved a lot, and the atmosphere in the whole living room became relaxed.

"Are you still going to Stockholm?" asked Jaburi curiously.

Beichuan Xiu smiled and said, "Go, why not? If you really sit there, I believe there are many people who are more uncomfortable than me."

After he said that, Saito Rena naturally decided to risk her life to accompany him and fight to the end with him.

In early October 1998, Tokyo, Japan slowly passed through a period of turmoil.

The news that Hide Kitagawa was kicked off the Nobel Prize shortlist spread like wildfire, was circulated through multiple channels, and became the most talked-about topic among everyone in and outside the industry.

The fact that the Swedish Academy wanted to invite him to attend the award ceremony became a humiliation in the eyes of countless Kitagawa fans.

The previous punishment incident was dug up again and became the biggest hot topic on the Internet recently.

Most people still hold the original view that the Nobel Prize officials are too arbitrary and autocratic and should not punish Kitagawa Hide in this way.

A small number of people followed the lead of the newly emerged "Tenka No. 1" Nagai Kazufu and began to criticize Kitagawa Hide in a purposeful and organized manner.

Assisting Nagai Kazukaze in his efforts were a large number of conservative writers and major publishing houses under the six major conglomerates.

At this point, the dark hand hidden behind the scenes and disgusting Kitagawa Hide and Kawaide Shobo finally surfaced.

Seeing this situation in the domestic literary world, people in the industry quickly realized that someone was trying to shake Kitagawa Hide's position as the "number one in the world."

All the way, it was Kitagawa Hide who fought his way up from the bottom to the top, and finally knocked Tanizaki Ichiro off the throne.

Now he has become the "evil dragon" guarding the treasure. When he thinks about it carefully, Kitagawa Hide finds it quite interesting.

While there is still controversy in Japan over this issue, the voices in overseas literary circles are surprisingly unanimous.

After The Little Prince was published overseas, Kitagawa Hide was given the title of "Master of Children's Literature". Combined with his many previous masterpieces, there are few contemporary writers who do not recognize him.

Yale University went even further in its mockery, with Paul DeMan writing an article of tens of thousands of words in which he thoroughly criticized the Nobel Prize from beginning to end.

Also being criticized was the Nobel Prize winner in Literature that year, Saramago.

Paul de Man, this big troll, doesn't care whether you are a big shot in the literary world!

Just like that, amidst the boos, "Asakusa Red Group" ushered in the second episode of the series. (End of this chapter)