Chapter 125: South of the Border, West of the Sun

Chapter 125: South of the Border, West of the Sun

Chapter 125: South of the Border, West of the Sun

"South of the Border, West of the Sun" occupies a rather awkward position among Haruki Murakami's works.

In terms of sales, "Norwegian Wood" and "1Q84" are at the top.

In terms of literary quality, there are two huge mountains standing in the way: "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "At World's End and Hard-Boiled Wonderland".

Hide Kitagawa personally likes this work very much because it continues Haruki Murakami's unique writing style of using youth love stories to explain the philosophy of life.

And because it was written after "Norwegian Wood", many details are more complete, making it a perfect warm-up for "Norwegian Wood".

However, these advantages did not prevent Kitagawa Hide from choosing to copy it.

In his dense arsenal, "South of the Border, West of the Sun" is definitely not a good choice.

Unless it's appropriate enough.

And now, thanks to the joint public essay contest organized by Kodansha and Bungeishunju, the niche subject of social fiction has been forced into the public eye.

This directly made up for the biggest shortcoming of this novel - that it was difficult to impress all audiences due to its special subject matter.

In the original history, "South of the Border, West of the Sun", released in 1992, sold more than 50 copies that year, even though the subject matter was extremely niche.

Now that the shortcomings have been made up, there is no need to worry about sales, as for literary quality.

The three entry points alone, namely the "hollowing out disease", the unique loneliness of "only children" caused by the "danchi", and the "extramarital affair" that everyone in Japanese society is afraid of, are enough to cause widespread response from the public.

Many people, including Kitagawa Hide before he came to Japan to study in his previous life, find many things extremely strange and absurd because they do not understand some of the country's unique national conditions.

For example, in "South of the Border, West of the Sun", the protagonist "Chu" openly cheated on his wife many times and thought that "there is nothing wrong with this. I just lust after them physically and have no emotional attachment to them, so there is no need to hide it from my wife."

Just this personality and ideas, if placed in the next door or in the future, will definitely make him a rat crossing the street that everyone will shout and beat.

In addition, this novel is also the only pure literary novel in which Haruki Murakami uses a large number of pornographic descriptions.

If it were put into the neighboring online literature circle, it would probably be blocked with only half of the book left.

When these things were wrapped in the skin of literature and stirred into the frying pan of modern Japan, they became a delicious delicacy and were enthusiastically pursued by the Japanese people.

Of course, the core reason is that Haruki Murakami cleverly crushed the core of the story he wanted to express and mixed it into these gimmicky plots.

If I just talk to you at length about "empty heart disease", "spiritual emptiness" and "the pressure of modern people", you will probably be so sleepy that you will yawn.

But if it is mixed with erotic descriptions, extramarital affairs and other eye-stimulating things, you will become interested!

As I read on, I was gradually convinced by the "sense of incompleteness" he wrote about.

This is also the reason why among all the great Japanese writers, Haruki Murakami's style is unique and seems to be different from others.

However, in terms of the plot, Kitagawa Hide still had to make some modifications and adjustments.

This Japan is different from the original one, and the novel insists on describing in detail the specific details of the sexual intercourse between "Hatsu" and "Shimamoto" at the end. If this thing is directly serialized in "Wenyi", it will definitely be criticized.

Especially at the end, Shimamoto insisted on giving "Hatsu" some verbal skills, and then wrote a lot of details about them. This thing could obviously be written in a more imaginary way, and the meaning could be expressed more accurately. If it was not written like this, in this era, it would probably be regarded as a "sensual novel".

While thinking about these questions, Kitagawa Hide quickly typed out the outline, chapter outlines and revision ideas into a document to help him start writing the book quickly.

Speaking of it, how much benefit can "South of the Border, West of the Sun" bring to you?

The whole book has 10.5 words. With his current serialization fee of 3 yen per piece of manuscript paper, the serialization fee alone is 787.5 million yen!

There is no need to talk about the physical book. Kawade Shobo must publish the single volume as soon as possible, taking advantage of the popularity of Kodansha's essay contest and selling a large amount of it.

It would be better to hold a book signing event to boost sales. Since I have already made a public appearance, there is no need to be as cautious as before and worry about being recognized.

As for awards, this time Kitagawa Hide decided to take the initiative and let Saito Rena apply for the Tanizaki Prize.

Having won the Naoki Prize last year, I will definitely not receive the Akutagawa Prize. Other awards of high importance are not good enough for me. Since I have decided to work towards becoming the best in the world this year, it would not be too much to get a Tanizaki Prize as a good start, right?

Finally, regarding the social impact, Kitagawa Hide decided to continue writing his own preface in front of the novel, and this time the focus will be on "extramarital affair", the "tiger" that everyone is afraid of!
What does “the best in the world” mean?
He was a top-notch writer standing at the top of the Japanese literary world, recognized by the national government and with the title of "national teacher".

Their duty is to write about things that the public dares to think but not to say, peeling off the outer shell of things to reveal the bloody insides.

Only by taking this step can Kitagawa Hidetoshi completely get rid of the label of "romance novelist" that those guys have forced on him, and move towards the status of a "social" writer.

"I Am a Cat" is very successful in this regard. Although its sales are not as good as "Akitsugu" and far behind "No Longer Human", its reputation in the literary world is the best among all Kitagawa Hide's books.

The focus this time on "extramarital affair" is Kitagawa Hide's public step to announce to everyone in the literary world that he is not satisfied with the title of "upper-class writer" and has the ambition to become "the best in the world"!
The more Kitagawa Hide thought about it, the more he felt that this novel was worth copying, as it met his current needs in every aspect.

And if it can attract a large number of loyal readers in this field, then in the future when people scold Ryutaro Hashimoto, he will not dare to talk back and will stand at attention obediently.

Ryutaro Hashimoto is the politician who will succeed Tomiichi Murayama as the next prime minister on January 1 this year. He is known as the "Swordsman Prime Minister."

Other countries have mixed reviews of him.

Those who have good comments say that he was one of the representative figures in Japanese politics in the 20s. During his term in office, he promoted administrative reforms at home and redefined the "Japan-US alliance" abroad, which had a huge impact on Japan's domestic and foreign policies in the new century. He also vigorously promoted social welfare system and medical system reforms during his term in office, which was very popular among the people.

The main reason for his negative reviews is that he actually visited the Yasukuni Shrine as prime minister during his term of office.

The Yasukuni Shrine, commonly known as the Yasukuni Toilet, is a hellish place where Japan's shameless right-wing politicians enshrine a bunch of Class A war criminals from World War II.

It's something the Japanese use purely to disgust people.

But paying a visit to the shrine is a visit, and Ryutaro Hashimoto is the second Japanese Prime Minister to be friendly to China after Tomiichi Murayama. He is also the first to visit the "September 18th" Memorial Hall and write "Peace is the most precious", becoming the first incumbent Japanese Prime Minister to enter the hall.

So Kitagawa Hide doesn't understand politics and doesn't know the minds of politicians, but this won't stop him from angrily criticizing Hashimoto Ryutaro in his next novel after he visits the Yasukuni Shrine!
What is the use of writers? This is the time when they are used.

"In this case, it seems that writing only "South of the Border, West of the Sun" is not enough." Kitagawa Hide scratched his head and felt that he should write a few more books, taking advantage of the crisis of Kawade Shobo to at least push himself to the top class of "upper-class writers."

But he thought of several books, but felt that none of them were suitable for the occasion. Either the sales were too poor, or the literary quality was too poor to be presented.

Kitagawa Hide had no choice but to give up and continue writing the book.

Time flies.

Today is the first day of the new year. The New Year holiday at the University of Tokyo can be extended to January 1th. Mengzi plans to stay at "Peter Cat" until the 7rd, help Kitagawa Hide sort out all the trivial matters for the opening of the cafe in the New Year, and then return to her hometown to spend the twilight years with her parents.

At this time, she was mopping the floor with a mop. Seeing Kitagawa Hide getting into the intense work on the first day, she felt very happy. She immediately ran back, cut a plate of fruit, poured a cup of hot milk, and brought it to him.

Japanese women are extremely strong-willed by nature. They like to see their loved ones working hard and making money for the family. The stronger a man is in all aspects, the faster they will fall for him.

Ordinary corporate slaves (a compound word of the Japanese words kaisha and kachu, meaning the company's cattle and horses) will attend various parties after get off work and will not go home until very late.

Wives often prepare everything thoughtfully and do not think this is a bad thing.

On the contrary, if you go home early after get off work every day and want to have a wife and children to spend time with, they will look down on you and think you have no social skills!
"What is Xiujun going to write in his new book?" Mengzi leaned over curiously, picked up a piece of apple with a toothpick and stuffed it into his mouth.

She knew that writers don’t like others standing next to them and looking at the screen, so she stood farther away, with a strong sense of boundaries.

Mengzi is also an avid fan of Kitagawa Hide's books. She was so curious that she couldn't help but ask.

Kitagawa Hide smiled and showed her the title of the book.

"'South of the Border, West of the Sun'. What a strange name, but it sounds so nice. I can't help but want to know the content." Mengzi became interested when she saw the title of the book.

"This book continues the writing style of the Youth Trilogy, and is also mainly about love stories, but it talks about an extramarital affair."

Beichuan Xiu patted her little head and explained,

"You can't think too much."

The relationship between the two was progressing rapidly. Yesterday, which was the last day of 1995, Mengzi had already washed herself clean, but suddenly her period came. She had no choice but to chat until three or four in the morning, and then slept in his arms all night.

Kitagawa Hide plans to go to Yumeko's house to get engaged after his career reaches its peak this year and their relationship becomes completely integrated.

The most frightening thing about marriage is not that it becomes a grave, but that it has affairs.

"Extramarital affair?" Mengzi became even more curious.

She looked into Kitagawa Hide's clear eyes, knowing what he was thinking, and smiled sweetly, "No, I know Hide is definitely not that kind of person~"

She spoke very seriously, and her eyes were full of trust from the bottom of her heart, which touched Kitagawa Xiu.

Kitagawa Hide hugged her in his arms and smiled as he briefly talked about the concept and content of the book.

In the original history, Haruki Murakami was surrounded by his most beloved person and best reader, his wife Yoko Murakami.

And now, he also has his own "Yangzi".

"It turns out that South of the Border is a song." Mengzi was shocked after hearing it.

West of the Sun involves the core content of the book and cannot be revealed to her now, but South of the Border is no problem.

"South of the Border" is a jazz song sung by American singer Gene Autry.

Gene Autry is the only person to receive all five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, recognizing his achievements in film, television, music, radio, and theater.

He is a true pentagonal warrior.

This song has a melodious tune. Since it was created in the 30s, it has a strong American country style, but the content of the song is actually about Mexico.

What exactly is south of the border?

When Hide Kitagawa wrote the title of this book, he posed this question to his readers.

Mengzi tilted her head, and as one of the readers, she became more and more curious and expectant.

(End of this chapter)