Tokyo Girlfriend Guide

Chapter 588: Good Old Deng

Chapter 588: What a Good Old Deng

The Disaster of Neon Literature

"Recently, I heard a piece of news from a good friend - a rising star in the literary world has sold one million copies of his second novel in the first print run. You know, my most popular book has only sold over 600,000 copies. So after hearing this news, I was shocked and had mixed feelings. I just felt that I really had no talent in the field of literature.

Fortunately, although I am not talented, I am still good at learning, so I immediately asked my friends who he was and asked if there was a chance to see it first. Then I was surprised to hear a name from my friend [Hojo Kyousuke]. I thought hard for a long time but couldn't figure out who this person was. It is well known that the literary world is an inclusive and close-knit circle. When you meet a talented young person, everyone will share it, just like discovering a treasure.

After all, if we want to revive the declining literary world, we need new forces, so I and you are happy to provide help to newcomers. For example, I invited Arakawa Shoji to practice writing in my column, and then he wrote the masterpieces that everyone knows.

But this Hojo-kun, I have searched my memory but have never found this name, really..."

Seeing this, Hikigaya Hachiman couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Ahhh, Onii-chan! Your dead fish eyes have become even whiter! Now they are real dead fish eyes!" Komachi exclaimed.

Encouraged by his sister, Hikigaya rolled his eyeballs upwards with even more force, until his eyeballs began to hurt a little before returning to their normal dead fish eyes, and then he looked at his sister smugly.

"How about it?"

"That's great. Although Komachi has no idea what's so great about rolling her eyes, Onii-chan's love for Komachi scores very high with her!"

Hikigaya Komachi clapped his hands, his expression very vivid.

Hachiman smiled smugly again and looked at the newspaper.

You old bastard, if you really haven't heard of Big Brother's name, I'll just turn my head off and give you a "blast vote"! Big Brother's "The Devotion of Suspect X" has such high sales and won the house award. It's okay for ordinary people, but how could you, a person related to the literary world, not have heard of this name?

The old guy is obviously trying to pull down Minister Hojo!

Hikigaya suppressed his anger and continued reading. He knew that this was just the appetizer. After all, the sensational title had not been officially revealed yet.

"…But there are so many geniuses in the world, and there are always some hidden gems, so I asked my good friend what Mr. Hojo's masterpiece was, and my friend just told me to go to the bookstore and take a look.

I went to a familiar bookstore and found out what it was. There were three posters of the work "The Dream and Death of Writer K" posted at the entrance of the bookstore. It was amazing. I had only seen such a grand occasion in Kabukicho. Those gigolos would use this trick when competing for customers, but it was the first time I saw it done in the promotion of a novel.

When I walked into the bookstore, I was about to ask the owner about this book, but I was shocked again. Forgive me for exclaiming so many times, it is really because the works of this Hojo teacher are so popular. There were many people queuing in front of the bookstore counter. I took a quick look and found that they were all customers who were pre-ordering this book "The Dream and Death of Writer K". I think this kind of grand occasion cannot be compared even when several literary masters who have left their names in history published new works in modern times.

I wanted to wait until the customers left before going up to talk to the store manager, but my legs were numb from standing there and the number of customers in line didn’t decrease at all, which shocked me again…”

Hahahahaha

Seeing this, Hikigaya couldn't help but laugh out loud. Although the old man didn't say a single good word and every word was full of evil intentions, he still laughed so hard. He immediately took out his phone and took a photo and sent it to the chat room of the Rampage Angel for everyone to enjoy.

Komachi, who had already walked into the kitchen and put on a yellow apron, looked over and smiled when she saw her brother's energetic look. Then she hummed a light tune, turned on the gas stove, and began to prepare dinner for the brother and sister.

“…Because I was so curious about the charm of this work that attracted so many customers to buy it, I asked the store manager to let the employees register first so that I could have a few minutes to talk.

Why is it so popular?

In response to my question, the store manager pointed to the billboard next to the cashier counter and the poster on the glass of the store door, and said, "Looking at such a beautiful poster, aren't you curious about the work? Many customers come in and ask me about the book after seeing the poster, and then write down the reservation information."

This is really shocking. Forgive me for being too old-fashioned, but it is incredible for a traditional literary creator like me to attract customers just because of the beautiful posters. Before I could continue to ask, a customer who was waiting in line to register generously joined our conversation. She was a girl in her teens, still wearing a school uniform, and seemed to have rushed here after school. Her words also solved my doubts:

'Even the poster is so beautifully made, how can the quality of the novel itself be bad? Just from the poster, you can feel the sincerity of Mr. Hojo! '

Can the quality of a novel and the sincerity of the author be seen from the poster? I have never heard of such a novel in my many years of work, so I continued to talk to this girl out of curiosity, wanting to know more about her views. Soon, my worldview was overturned again.

This Hojo teacher not only drew many exquisite posters for his novels, but also created a special short comic. I know that in some niche circles, novels are often adapted into comics, but I have never heard of creating a comic just to promote a novel.

The high school girl generously answered my question. It turned out that before writing novels, Mr. Hojo was first a cartoonist, and a famous author in the comics world.

Everything suddenly became clear. It turned out that they were bringing the publicity methods of the entertainment industry to the literary world."

Seeing this, Hikigaya knew it was time to show his true colors. He had said so much nonsense before just for the sake of the attack. He took a moment to check his phone, which was filled with messages. It must be his companions scolding him.

“…I originally wanted to read and study the masterpiece of this Hojo teacher, hoping to create such a popular work in the future, but now it seems hopeless.

After all, I really can't do anything that attracts attention with beautiful posters and promotional cartoons.

When I started writing literature, my teacher told me that although writing is a very personal thing, once a work is created, it no longer belongs to me but to the world, so writers should be cautious. What kind of ideas the work wants to express is the most important thing. If you can't become such a writer, at least you should be able to write a good story.

A true writer should rely on the core ideas of his works to inspire empathy and attract people with excellent and interesting plots. This is the most important thing.

But today! I want to sincerely thank Mr. Hojo here, thank him for letting me see another way, a way that does not require good ideas, but a good story can also make the work sell well.

All you need to do is hire a few painters at high salaries to draw a few eye-catching and exquisite posters, and then invite a cartoonist to draw a short story, and voilà, a best-selling masterpiece with an initial print run of one million copies is born!

To be honest, when this thought came to my mind, I was frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. This is no exaggeration, and the store manager standing next to me at the time can testify to this. He anxiously asked me if I was feeling unwell, and I told him that I was fine, but that something might be wrong with the Japanese literary world.

The great success of this Hojo teacher will probably set off a trend. What kind of trend will it be? A cold wind that scrapes away bones and flesh!

Writers who carefully observe society, try to figure out the core of stories, and want to write good works seriously will be frozen into ice sculptures by the biting cold wind, while those who are attracted by the success of Mr. Hojo will follow in his footsteps and use exquisite posters and dazzling publicity to trick readers into bookstores and take out their wallets.

Content? Ideas? Stories? As long as they can make money, they don't care about these things. They don't care whether what they create is beneficial to society. They only care whether the royalties can be increased by another zero.

Guys, I'm worried!

As writers who hold the teaching stick and are entrusted with important responsibilities by society and the country, if even we are infected by the extravagant social atmosphere, then does this country and this society still have a future?

As I was writing this, my seventeen-year-old granddaughter came to my desk. I thought she was trying to persuade me not to publish this article, after all, Hojo-sensei is very popular now, and the Internet is almost entirely filled with followers of his crazy behavior. I would definitely be unwelcome if I went against the tide.

But I didn't expect that my always cute granddaughter would say to me, 'Why do you say bad things about my teacher Hojo! Do you know how hard he works and how good he is to his fans!? He drew all the posters and comics by himself. He could have not done these and we would have supported him, but he worked hard to improve his studies and created so many benefits for his fans. Why do you say that about him...'

Oh my god, I had already prepared myself to be insulted after the article was published, but I never expected that I would be scolded by my closest people before the article was even written. What shocked me even more was that my granddaughter issued a death notice for me on behalf of Mr. Hojo. She said:

"Don't think that Hojo Sensei is easy to bully just because he looks so handsome. He is the individual champion of the National Kendo Championship for two consecutive years. Don't worry that he will chop off your head with one sword."

My granddaughter, the well-behaved granddaughter who always brings me hot tea whenever I write late at night and whispers to me to go to bed early and take care of my health. When did she become like this?

Oh my god, I had already seen the future of the Japanese literary world being destroyed by Hojo-sensei, but I didn’t expect that my family would be destroyed first? "

The article ends here. Behind the heart-wrenching words, Hikigaya seems to see an old man with a bitter face.

"hahahahahahahahaha--"

Hikigaya burst into laughter. He finally understood why this old man could become a contracted writer for Sankei Shimbun. His writing was really good. Even though the content was disgusting, the article was really readable. Even someone like him who would get so angry after reading it that he wanted to chop off the other person's head with a knife could read it with relish.

But even though it was funny, Hikigaya was the first to realize the viciousness of the article.

The sales of the new work of the general manager are unquestionable. No one can surpass his glory even in the past 20 years. The first print run alone is one million copies. The royalties can make all writers drool with envy. However, in this article titled "The Disaster of Neon Literature", the man named Matsumoto Motohiro attributed all the achievements of Hojo-kun to the crooked propaganda.

It even predicted that the performance of Minister Hojo's new work will get better and better, which is even more vicious. Anyone on Earth knows that the sales of Big Brother's work will explode after seeing such exaggerated popularity on the Internet, but once this article by Motohiro Matsumoto is published, no matter how good Big Brother's performance is in the future, it will be questioned whether it is based on publicity deception rather than the quality of the work itself.

As expected of an evil writer for an evil newspaper, he has such a dark heart.

Hikigaya was a little worried, but not because he was worried about whether this article would affect the sales of the novel. He used most of his monthly pocket money to buy games, and he knew that even if it was a piece of shit, as long as there was enough talk about it, people would buy it. Curious people would flock to the bookstore for the title of "a book that could destroy the Japanese literary world."

What he was worried about was whether this would affect the president's bid for the Neon Mystery Association Award.

The brilliance of a genius cannot be concealed. Even though he had a pair of lifeless eyes and slumped in the club room like a dead fish after training every day, the brilliance of Hikigaya Hachiman was still discovered.

"People with dead eyes are not simple."

The military advisor said this and included him in the think tank of the runaway angel. Although his sequence was still very low, and he was not involved in the publicity war for the new book, he still knew that the general was trying to win the Neon Mystery Association Award, and he also knew how much effort the military advisor and other companions had put in, including the current novel "The Dream and Death of Writer K".

The original intention was to use this work to stir up public opinion and pressure the judges, but now with this article by Motohiro Matsumoto, the grand prize that was originally a sure win seems to have been changed.

You can make your work a big hit by using unorthodox methods, and you can also win an award from the Mystery Association by using unorthodox methods.

This comment can easily lead to such public opinion.

Now, even if he had to chop off Xiao Hei's (the dog of judge Kurokawa Toyomasa) head and put it next to the judge's pillow, he might have to think again, right?

He was not surprised why Sankei Shimbun agreed to publish such an article. With such a large amount of traffic, not only the celebrities in the entertainment industry were drooling over it, but the newspapers were also jealous. The people loved this kind of verbal battle between literati and writers in the newspaper. Hikigaya was sure that the sales of Sankei Shimbun would increase significantly today!

Thanks to the big guys for their monthly tickets, recommendation tickets and reward support, thank you.

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(End of this chapter)