Chapter 33: After the sales plummeted, the only thing that could save "Group Portrait"
Chapter 33: After the sales plummeted, the only thing that could save "Group Portrait"
Three days after the May 1995 issue of "Gunzo" was released, Kodansha exploded.
That morning, Muramatsu Tomomi, who had maintained a perfect attendance record for nearly ten years, and Saito Reina, who had never broken the habit of coming to work early and leaving late since she started working, both took leave.
The reasons written on the two people's leave notes were completely unrelated, but in fact they took leave for the same reason - insomnia.
And it was all because of the article "Pinball in 1973" written by Kitagawa Hide.
When Kitagawa Hide handed the manuscript to Saito Rena a few days ago, she couldn't help but stay up late to read it, and then was deeply attracted and moved.
It is no exaggeration to say that this new novel has pushed Kitagawa Hidena's unique "Kitagawa style" to a new high.
Just as Muramatsu Tomoshi said to Kitagawa Hide, he did it!
It perfectly combines the strong sense of the times and the feeling of love in youth, giving birth to a brand new product in the field of pure literature. So far, this is the first time they have seen such a pure literature novel!
No amount of praise can describe the excitement and throbbing in their hearts after watching "Pinball 1973".
But this alone was not enough to cause both of them to suffer from insomnia last night.
What really made them tremble was the article "Tokyo Past in 15" serialized by the leading writer Mitsunari Oshima in the latest issue of "Gunzo" released on the 1973th.
Their first reaction after reading it was that it was no wonder that An Yuanxian refused to send Oshima Hikaru's manuscript to the editorial department for review first, and was even unwilling to reveal the title of the book.
It is said that Oshima Hikaru requested to keep it secret and hoped that everyone would have confidence in his ability.
Then the editorial department also agreed to this request.
After all, he was a pillar-level writer starting a new work, and a bunch of editors in the "Qun Xiang" editorial department didn't dare to really guide him and ask him to revise the content. If the novel was changed badly, who would take the responsibility?
It turns out that the real reason was that he plagiarized some of Kitagawa Hide's creativity and ideas!
Even the time point of 1973 was deliberately kept exactly the same!
But the funny thing is that Akira Yasuhara only saw the prologue provided by Kitagawa Hide, and when he later recounted it to Oshima Hikari, he definitely wouldn't be able to restore it all.
After all this, Oshima Hikaru's understanding became very different.
He already had a very strong personal style, and he temporarily integrated Kitagawa Hide's novel into his own content. An expert could feel the haste and disharmony at first glance.
But it is undeniable that Oshima Hikaru's writing skills are extremely strong. He has mixed these things together very well and tried his best to present it as a relatively qualified work.
If they had not finished reading Kitagawa Hide's original work, they would agree that "Memories of Tokyo in 1973" is a book above the standard.
But after reading Kitagawa Hide's novel, there is only one obvious comment left - it is a poor imitation of the original work, but it fails to achieve the desired result!
The strong sense of shock and contrast made Rena Saito, a pure literature lover, completely sleepless.
The internal intrigues and Yasuhara Akira's blatant and shameless behavior also made Muramatsu Tomoji lose sleep.
After getting up in the morning and sending her two younger sisters off with a tired body, Saito Rena took another nap.
She originally planned not to go to the company today.
But when she got up to eat lunch at noon, she accidentally glanced at the literature section of the Yomiuri Shimbun and saw that Shintaro Ishihara, a regular judge of the Akutagawa Prize, had published an article under his real name to diss Kitagawa Hide. She suddenly came to her senses.
Shintaro Ishihara's words were sharp and his attitude was bad. He bluntly said that Kitagawa Hide's writing style was too casual, without any of the seriousness and "classicism" that pure literature should have, and used kitsch love as the main line of the story. What kind of teachings and guidance can such a thing bring to the people today?
Ishihara Shintaro also mentioned in the article that when he was chatting with a friend in the industry, he unexpectedly learned that Kitagawa Hide was very eager for money and status, and did not behave like a "national teacher" at all.
Even without telling anyone, Rena Saito knew who this "friend in the industry" was.
So the so-called desire for money means that he would rather give up a long-term contract with guaranteed income and choose a short-term contract with great uncertainty?
The desire for status means that he repeatedly emphasized that others should not call him "Teacher Beichuan" before signing the contract, and that after winning the award, he can still chat and laugh with the security guards who have a good relationship with him?
"As long as I am still a judge for the Akutagawa Prize, I will never give the prize to such a vulgar writer who only cares about money and is seeking to attract attention."
This is the original words in the article.
Shintaro Ishihara, a senior who has the top voice in the industry, jumped out to slander Kitagawa Hide by his real name, which made Saito Rena furious!
The Japanese literary world that she longed for and knew should not be like this!
With a lot of anger in her heart, after combing her two long ponytails, Saito Rena picked up her bag and rushed straight to the Kodansha headquarters.
Then in the afternoon, I saw with my own eyes the "explosion" of Kodansha.
The atmosphere in the editorial office was quite depressing, and all the editors seemed a little absent-minded.
"Sada, did you really hear me right? Sales have dropped by nearly half compared to the first day?" The speaker was Editor Yamashita, a die-hard supporter of Muramatsu Tomoji.
He stretched his neck so far that it was almost touching Editor Sada's desk.
Editor Sada rolled his eyes at him and whispered, "Have you forgotten my nickname? How could I have heard it wrong? To be precise, the sales on the first day were about 2 copies, and the next day it dropped to 4 copies. I heard that today's optimistic estimate is that the total sales will not exceed 1 copies."
"Hiss - no wonder Editor-in-Chief Muramatsu took a leave today! It seems something really big has happened." Editor Yamashita began to speculate the reason why Muramatsu Tomoshi took a leave.
Seeing Rena Saito, who rarely wore high heels, walking over with a bag, the two of them immediately lowered their voices.
They were afraid of disturbing Rena Saito.
After all, in recent days various newspapers have been intentionally or unintentionally attacking Kitagawa Hide, who has just become a little famous.
It was originally thought that the success of "Hear the Wind Sing" would allow Kodansha to have another "Oshima Hikaru", but it seems that people both inside and outside the company do not want this to happen, and they are blatantly trying to trip up Kitagawa Hide.
First, the original serialization plan was cancelled, then the importance of the publishing plan was inexplicably raised to a higher level, and then various literary critics began to criticize and question it. In the latest edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, Shintaro Ishihara became the first "literary giant" to criticize Kitagawa Hide by name.
As the editor-in-chief of Kitagawa Hide, Saito Rena must be overwhelmed.
"By the way, did you buy the last issue of 'Gunzo'?" When Editor Sada saw Saito Rena walking away, he whispered to Editor Yamashita.
Editor Yamashita was stunned for a moment: "Why should I buy it? Doesn't the company give a copy to employees every issue?"
"Don't you know?" Editor Sada looked at him in surprise.
The editor at the bottom of the mountain was even more confused: "Know what?"
"Although the last issue of Gunzo sold 99.6 copies, many people still missed it. I went to the Shibuya Book City Night Market a few days ago and found that the last issue of Gunzo was being sold for 3000 yen a copy."
"Are you crazy? You can buy a brand new book for 850 yen. If it's an old book like this, no one would want it even at 500 yen. And now you say the price has increased several times?" Editor Yamashita couldn't help but shout out.
Immediately, several editors joined the discussion after hearing this.
"This is true! As you all know, the company sends my copy of "Gunzo" to my father-in-law in Adachi. He called my wife the day before yesterday and said that someone came to his house and bought it for 3200 yen, and asked me if I could get some stock from the company."
"What exactly is this for?"
"You're so stupid! Have you forgotten what was in the last issue of 'Gunzo'?" Editor Sada said and couldn't help but look at Rena Saito who was working peacefully over there.
A group of editors gathered together and said in unison: "Hear the Wind Sing!"
If Kitagawa Hide were here, he would definitely sigh that this scene is so "Japanese drama-like". There are similar scenes in almost every Japanese workplace TV series.
Saito Rena, one of the protagonists of the TV series, is currently worried about the hardcover paperback edition of "Hear the Wind Sing".
The total sales volume of "Group Portrait" last month was 99.6 copies, and the month before that it was 49.8 copies, an increase of almost 100%.
The new issue has been on sale for almost three days now. According to the data Editor Sada has heard, only more than 4 copies have been sold in total. If nothing unexpected happens, the total sales of this issue will not exceed 60 copies.
In other words, without Kitagawa Hide, even if Oshima Hikaru took action, it would be difficult to reverse the declining sales of "Gunzo" month by month.
This sounds like a good thing, indicating that the quality of Oshima Hikaru's new work is worrying, and the core reason for the previous sales surge was "Hear the Wind Sing".
But this also means that the popularity brought by the release of "Hear the Wind Sing" has completely dissipated.
Damn!
If Deputy Editor-in-Chief Yasuhara could have been stopped and "Pinball in 1973" could have been serialized first, or if the promotion of the hardcover paperback edition of "Hear the Wind Sing" had not been suppressed, the popularity would not have faded so drastically!
If this continues now, readers will definitely be disappointed with "Gunzo" again. Will the hardcover paperback edition of "Hear the Wind Sing" released by Kodansha, which seems to be a money-making move, also be greatly affected?
Rena Saito really couldn't guarantee it.
She rubbed her temples and felt her face becoming more swollen.
He even uttered a swear word for the first time.
Although she said it in her heart, it also showed that she was extremely anxious.
There was still a copy of the Yomiuri Shimbun daily on the table. The timing of Ishihara Shintaro's diss article was just right. After today, I'm afraid that the whole of Japan will know that the Akutagawa Prize's resident judges are dissatisfied with Kitagawa Hide.
Don't underestimate the influence of "upper-class literary giants" like Shintaro Ishihara.
His famous work "Season of the Sun" has sold nearly 100 million copies in total, and the hardcover paperback novel "Life Is When You're Old" published in February last year has also sold nearly 2 copies.
In other words, he has at least hundreds of thousands of loyal readers. Those people follow his footsteps like stars around the moon, obeying his words without any doubt.
Slander and criticism are spreading like ripples in the pool of pure literature, and may soon turn into a huge wave, overturning Kitagawa Hide and Saito Rena on their small boat!
"If it was Kitagawa-san, how would he deal with this situation?" Saito Rena supported her chin with her hand, and suddenly an idea came to her mind.
Soon, the figure of Yudai Hashimoto appeared before her eyes.
After get off work that day, she went to read the mail as usual, and accidentally saw Kitagawa Hide's submission, and then learned the whole story from Hashimoto Yudai.
An unknown security guard, who graduated from high school and lived in poverty, had a dream of becoming a writer.
Faced with a situation where it was impossible to realize his dream, he still took the initiative to take the initiative and submit the manuscript first, instead of considering this or that.
And what he said to himself that day.
"Everything depends on human effort, right? As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we shouldn't give up."
Instead of waiting to die, it is better to strike decisively!
Saito Rena's eyes lit up as she saw Muramatsu Tomoshi, who was yawning and in a bad mental state, dragging his body to the office area.
She stood up suddenly, her twin ponytails swinging slightly, and then she ran quickly towards Muramatsu Tomoshi.
"Editor Muramatsu! I have something I want to discuss with you."
(End of this chapter)