Chapter 7 You said you made this all up?

Chapter 7 You said you made this all up?

Chapter 7 You said you made this all up?
From the outside, the Kodansha headquarters is a collection of several six- or seven-story high-tech buildings. In Tokyo, Japan, which has experienced rapid development, it is not considered a particularly impressive high-rise building.

Even from the outside, it's hard to imagine that this is a leading publishing company with more than 50 magazines, about 2000 new books published each year, annual book and magazine sales of 1200 billion yen, and about 1000 full-time employees.

Reina Saito and Hide Kitagawa walked into the building. Because it was early, they couldn't see any other employees working there.

"Go up this elevator and you'll find the editorial office area of ​​Shonen Magazine. We're going to go through here."

Saito Rena was in good spirits. As they walked, she briefly introduced the organizational structure and departmental distribution of Kodansha to Kitagawa Hide.

Kodansha is most famous for its comics editorial department.

After all, it is known as one of the three giants in the Japanese comic publishing industry along with Shueisha and Shogakukan, and it produces super popular comics such as "Ghost in the Shell", "Slam Dunk", "Parasyte", and "Initial D".

Compared with Shonen Magazine, the relatively less famous pure literature magazine Gunzo was founded in 1946 by the fourth president Shoichi Noma, who is known as the "founder of the revival."

However, soon after its establishment, Gunzo was rated by readers as one of the top five literary magazines in Japan, and the Gunzo Newcomer Award was also regarded as a gateway to the Japanese literary world.

As he walked into the editorial office of "Gun Xiang", Kitagawa Hide immediately smelled a faint scent of orchids. On the public bookshelf next to the door were neatly placed rows of "Gun Xiang" magazines, and below were the award-winning works of the annual Newcomer Award. Since the founding of the magazine in 1946, 49 new writers have won this honor.

Most of these writers are now the mainstays of Japanese literary circles.

Kitagawa Hide squatted down curiously and looked at Oshima Hikaru, Oda Mamoru, and Yamada Yuri.
Very good, I don't recognize any names.

No Haruki Murakami either.

That's great.

"Mr. Kitagawa?" Saito Rena, who was standing at the door of the reception room, turned around and saw this scene. She vaguely remembered the scene when she first came here.

At that time, she, like Kitagawa Hide, half-squatted and stroked the books of her predecessors with her hands, fantasizing that one day her own works would be displayed among them.

Unfortunately, over the past year, after countless manuscript reviews and exchanges with various writers, Rena Saito finally understood.

I don't have the talent to do this.

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Saito. When I saw these books, I couldn't help but stop and pay my respects. These are all seniors who are very worthy of my learning."

Beichuan Xiu said the words against his will without blushing or beating his heart.

Saito Reina smiled, pushed open the door of the reception room, and made a gesture of invitation: "Maybe Kitagawa-san's works can be exhibited there one day."

"That's a dream I never dared to even think about." Beichuan Xiu walked over with a smile, supported the door with his hand, and waited for her to go in first before he entered the door and closed it.

Reina Saito turned on the light, prepared tea, then sat down upright and took his manuscript out of her handbag.

Kitagawa Hidenori looked at the female editor under the warm light.

To be honest, she is really young and beautiful.

She has decent makeup and is obviously well-educated, with an intellectual beauty that is unique to working women.

He was a top student who graduated from the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo, but was trapped by the depressed social situation at the time and was unable to achieve good results.

It is consistent with the information I got from the security guards in my mind.

Come to think of it, isn’t that Yumeko and the others’ senior in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo?

I just don’t know what year she graduated. She looks about the same age as me.

"Let's talk about books, Mr. Kitagawa." Saito Rena gently tucked the few strands of hair behind her ears, smiled and pushed the manuscript in the middle, then took out a notebook.

There were densely written words in it, and there were labels on many places, with various marks made with pens of different colors. It was obviously the notebook of a top student.

"Okay, Mr. Saito." Kitagawa Hideya sat up straight.

"Can you first tell me about the inspiration and ideas you had when writing this book?" Saito Rena planned to start with some common questions.

No matter how "Hear the Wind Sing" will eventually go, judging from the spirituality of the text and her observations along the way, she has already thought about signing a contract with the new writer Hide Kitagawa.

Even if they fail this time, the two may be each other's companions and comrades-in-arms for many years to come, so some understanding is still necessary.

Kitagawa Hidetoshi had almost memorized Haruki Murakami's book by heart, so his answers came naturally and easily.

This book actually describes the social background of Japan in the 70s, and many things that are quite representative of the times are particularly eye-catching.

But he used a Spring and Autumn style of writing to make Japan in the 70s feel like the late 80s and early 90s.

For example, people in the book widely use telephones, drive luxury sports cars, and so on.

The former seemed particularly out of place in 95 when most people were still using pagers, while the latter was like a microcosm of Japanese society during the bubble era.

Another reason why Kitagawa Hide chose this book is that the young people of that era were in a period of historical confusion and self-perplexity, very much like the "baby boomer generation" that is now trapped in the post-bubble era.

Different times, same confusion and loneliness, making "Hear the Wind Sing" seem particularly appropriate when read at this time.

".As for the novel "Hear the Wind Sing", there are many things I don't understand myself. In short, most of the things written in it came out very subconsciously. There was almost no calculation on how to write it, and there was no overall conception. I just wrote whatever I wanted to write, and wrote it down like this. This may be an exaggeration, it feels like 'automatic recording'."

Kitagawa Hide said so. Saito Rena had just been holding her chin with her hand, holding a fountain pen between her slender fingers, listening to him attentively. When she heard these few words, an indescribable impulse suddenly surged in her heart.

Is this the legendary “sixth sense” of excellent writers?

Even without thinking about how to weave the words, something interesting and attractive just flows out like a spring.

As the conversation continued, the two people's communication on the content of the article became more and more in-depth. As a reader, Saito Rena naturally asked some questions that had been bothering her for a long time.

For example, the "American humor" that is inadvertently revealed in the article is probably because Kitagawa Hide has been to the West or has studied a lot of American literature.

Kitagawa Hide did not hide this and generously admitted that both happened - although that was something from my previous life, you can't check my airline ticket purchase records!
"No wonder you subconsciously extended your hand when you greeted Mr. Beichuan just now. Shaking hands is a common etiquette in the West, right?"

As Saito Reina was talking, she let out a low cry. Realizing that the sound was too loud, she gently covered her mouth again and looked at Kitagawa Hide somewhat embarrassedly.

You have to maintain your dignity as an editor in front of new people, Reina-chan! She complained about herself in her heart.

"What's wrong, Teacher Saito?" Kitagawa Hide looked at her in confusion.

Could it be that you found some problem?

"I thought of something. I don't know if it's right, but I'd like to ask Mr. Kitagawa to explain it to me."

Saito Reina held the pen in her hand again, looked into his eyes, and asked word by word,
"The 'rat' and 'I' in the book are actually the same person, right?"

The whole novel of "Hear the Wind Sing" is a huge and messy memory about summer. The only person whose name can be called out is the friend of the protagonist "I" - the young man "Rat" who comes from a wealthy but cynical family.

The timeline of the entire story is also run through by these two main characters.

But in fact, the 21-year-old "I" and the 29-year-old "Rat" are the same person.

The time and space of the whole story is chaotic, mixed with "I"'s 21 years old, "Rat"'s 22 years old, and 29 years old.

If you read this carefully several times, you can see some clues.

The fact that she could appreciate this also shows that Saito Rena has indeed read the book carefully several times.

"Yes." Kitagawa Hide nodded with a smile.

"What a magical writing technique." Saito Rena was now a little restless. The writing technique of playing with time and space was quite common in the newly emerging mystery novels. It was not absent in pure literary works, but it was very rare.

Because of the confusion in time and space, the story plot will also become a mess, which requires extremely high writing skills and plot construction ability of the author.

Most authors just can't handle it.

I seem to remember that Mr. Hikaru Oshima, who debuted in 89, had a similar work.

But to be honest, the narrative of that book is too confusing and Rena Saito doesn't recommend it very much.

She thinks that the main reason for its good sales is the strong promotion of Kodansha and the high popularity of Mr. Hikaru Oshima.

In this regard, Kitagawa Hide obviously did better.

Especially when you first read it, you will be attracted by the atmosphere of the times and the hazy love story, and these writing techniques will be subconsciously ignored.

When it was revealed at this time, I felt a sense of clarity and goose bumps.

"And there's the American writer Hartfield, whom you mentioned many times. To be honest, I admire him very much, but I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't know about him before."

Saito Reina said with a blushing face.

"This is a writer I made up. It's pure fiction."

Kitagawa Hide smiled.

As she said this, the pen in Saito Reina's hand fell onto the table with a click.

The sound is very crisp.

"You made it up?" Saito Reina's eyes widened. After a while, she suddenly realized, "I see, that's how it is! Now it makes sense."

Everything makes sense.

No wonder he introduced Hatfield's life and literary philosophy at the beginning, and then said, "The writing is difficult to understand, the plot is confusing, and the idea is superficial and naive."

No wonder Hatfield’s suicide is so comic.

Because it’s all fiction!

In other words, the real Hatfield is the handsome young man sitting in front of him with a smile.

Thinking about how she was frantically trying to find this American writer last night and wanted to read his works, Saito Rena's face turned even redder.

If there were any moving pictures, she felt that her head must be like a steam kettle, with steam bubbling out of the top of her head.

(End of this chapter)