Chapter 175: Opponents and Supporters

Time quickly reached early December, and some different voices from the outside world began to emerge regarding the work "The Invisible Guest."

Many readers wrote letters to "April Youth," arguing that the work was too obscure and difficult to understand, which gave them a poor reading experience.

However, a small number of readers expressed in their letters that they supported Akiwara Yuto's work, believing he should continue writing this way, though they hoped the story would be sufficiently exciting.

After receiving the letters, the editor-in-chief of "April Youth," Daicheng Lixiang, thought it over carefully and decided to withhold all the letters containing negative viewpoints.

Besides that, she instructed Sujin Xiushu to bring the letters with positive feedback to Akiwara Yuto.

As an editor-in-chief, Daicheng Lixiang knew deeply how reader opinions could affect a writer personally.

In her view, although Akiwara Yuto had experienced some turmoil, he was, after all, only a writer who had debuted half a year ago.

If he were influenced too deeply by the outside world, it might, on the contrary, affect the performance of his own work.

She still believed that as long as Akiwara Yuto could continue writing according to his own outline, the subsequent exciting content would still be able to attract readers!

By that time, the sales of "April Youth" might even break through the 150, 00-copy limit and continue to rise!

Although Daicheng Lixiang still had confidence in Akiwara Yuto, some book reviewers in the market had different opinions.

So-called book reviewers are also known as literary critics.

Regarding literary works, they would not only offer praise, but more often than not, they would also offer criticism.

Before this, because Akiwara Yuto had won the Mystery Literature Newcomer Award and had had a falling out with the Man Tan Society, many book reviewers were unwilling to express any opinions.

But now that this work had been serialized for four issues without any improvement, and there was even a group of readers posting online in opposition, the situation had changed.

This allowed many book reviewers with ulterior motives to see an opportunity—an opportunity to gain greater fame for themselves by criticizing a "talented writer."

Setagaya Ward, "Morning Business," Cultural Features Department.

Xidao Youhui bit the end of his pen, looking at the "April Youth" in his hand, and began to weigh whether he should write a critique of Akiwara Yuto's "The Invisible Guest."

The serialization of this work was not yet finished, so he did not know how the subsequent plot would develop, but many people had already suggested that this work was too boring and gave readers a poor reading experience.

Since that was the case, as long as he went with the flow and published a book review criticizing the other party before his peers, he could gain a certain amount of fame.

However, this was not absolute. After all, if the subsequent development of this work was interesting enough, such a critical book review would instead make him a laughingstock.

Xidao Youhui thought for a long time and finally decided to take a gamble and write a critical book review.

In his view, this work had already been serialized for four issues, and the possibility of a turnaround later was relatively small.

But what title could he use to attract readers?

He thought for a long time and finally settled on a title—"Akiwara Yuto, the Fall of a Literary Talent!"

While Xidao Youhui was writing furiously, Yuan Shanxiu, a professor at the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University, was looking at "The Invisible Guest" and fell into deep thought.

Kyoto University, referred to as "Kyodai," is a long-established, top-tier liberal arts school in Japan.

As a top-tier liberal arts school, the strength of its Faculty of Letters was naturally second to none, and it had even produced many authors who had won well-known awards.

In addition, Kyoto University had established different research systems for different literary characteristics.

Depending on the country, there was German literature, Chinese literature, American/English literature, local literature, etc.; depending on history, there was classical literature, modern literature, contemporary literature, etc.; depending on the type of literature, there was mystery literature, poetry, film literature, etc.

And the field that Yuan Shanxiu researched was precisely film literature among these literary types.

Regarding so-called "film literature," many people believed it was an expression of "literary things within film," but in Yuan Shanxiu's view, it was "a high-level expressive technique in literature that can be embodied through film techniques."

In layman's terms, it meant that when readers read a literary work, they often had the feeling of watching a movie.

Although many people would think that literary works and films were merely different forms of plot expression and that it made little difference which one one watched.

But in fact, in order to satisfy the needs of readers, literary works often expressed things more explicitly, thereby lowering the reading threshold for readers.

In other words, most literary works, unless adapted by a screenwriter, were far from being able to embody the feeling of a cinematic experience for the reader.

However, a graduate student he supervised had contacted him recently and informed him that there was a work that might meet the standard of "film literature."

And this work was the "The Invisible Guest" in his hand.

To be honest, Yuan Shanxiu was still a bit skeptical.

Although his research field was only "film literature," many areas of film literature and mystery literature overlapped.

Therefore, he had a certain understanding of this work, which had polarized reviews in the mystery literature circle.

His colleague, another professor who studied mystery literature, had criticized this work in private, believing it was too unorthodox and even deviated from the writing techniques of traditional Japanese mystery works.

Since that was the case, how could this work give readers a cinematic experience?

Perhaps his student had misjudged it?

He did not know much about Akiwara Yuto, but he had heard some news about him from previous news reports and understood that the other party had won the Mystery Literature Newcomer Award.

But in his view, Akiwara Yuto was still too young, and he hadn't debuted for long; it was undoubtedly very difficult to keep writing works that satisfied readers for more than half a year.

Perhaps he needed to experience a failure? Only then could he climb further on this path of the literary world, right?

Yuan Shanxiu thought for a moment, then lowered his head and continued reading.

Time passed bit by bit, and after three hours, he finished reading the nearly four issues of "The Invisible Guest," and then, he fell into hesitation...

Although the plot had not yet fully unfolded, the descriptive technique of this story indeed gave one the feeling of watching a movie, and it was even a "memory narrative technique" used in film shooting.

The so-called "memory narrative technique" refers to cross-narrating reality and memory through the memories of the protagonist or non-protagonist, and gradually revealing the true face of a story through constant narration.

For example, these four issues of "The Invisible Guest" revealed one past event after another through the constant dialogue between the female lawyer and the client.

To be honest, this narrative technique was not rare, and there was nothing that could surprise Yuan Shanxiu.

But when this narrative technique was combined with mystery, it was a completely different concept.

Traditional memory narratives often involved the male and female protagonists recalling the past, and their memories were often true, without any difficulty in viewing.

But Akiwara Yuto's work revealed facts that the client was unwilling to admit or even concealed through the mouth of the female lawyer.

In other words, were the memory contents told by the client, Xuxiang Shenzhi, really true?

A very obvious point in it was Xuxiang Shenzhi's inconsistency regarding his lover, Faji.

When the accident happened, his lover Faji immediately arranged how to handle the car accident scene and dispose of the accident vehicle, looking very rational.

But such a rational person acted panicked at the home of the deceased's parents? And even made the wrong move of putting the mobile phone under the sofa cushion?

If it wasn't that the author's character design had deviated, then the character in the plot, namely Xuxiang Shenzhi, had lied!

Besides this point, did that young driver really die because he hit a roadside stone?

And what other lies were contained in Xuxiang Shenzhi's other words? What was the final truth?

Yuan Shanxiu was involuntarily attracted to the story, and he even discovered a fact.

Although he could see through and guess these true and false clues, many readers might give up further reading due to the high reading threshold.

In that case, readers who liked this work would probably like it very much, and readers who hated it would probably hate it very much!

This Teacher Akiwara's work seemed to have his own ideas in it!

Yuan Shanxiu held his pen, remained silent for a long time, and then took out paper and pen, preparing to write a review in the literary journal of Kyoto University to support this young "talented author."

After crossing out several titles, he finally wrote a title that satisfied him—"Akiwara Yuto: The Pioneer Who Created the Combination of Mystery Literature and Film Literature!"