Chapter 259: Chapter 262: Literary Men's Mutual Contempt

Whether in the literary world or the mystery world, there exists a distinct chain of contempt.

Looking from within the literary world, pure literature or traditional literature often looks down upon popular literature.

And mystery, which is classified as popular literature, looks down upon light novels, which are also popular literature.

Even within the mystery genre, depending on the subgenre, a status quo has formed where the classical looks down on the modern, and the orthodox school looks down on the social school.

However, in the era where Akiwara Yuto lives, light novels are still in their infancy, and pure literature and mystery still occupy the mainstream of society.

And between the two, a kind of opposition has formed.

In terms of pretension, authors and readers of pure literature often hold mystery in disdain.

But in the market, works of pure literature are completely crushed, leading mystery writers and readers to despise them as "mass-produced reading material."

This also makes authors of pure literature and mystery "look down on each other" to a certain extent.

Therefore, after the news spread that the well-known mystery writer Akiwara Yuto was crossing over from the mystery field to the pure literature field, it caused quite a stir in both the pure literature and mystery circles!

Regarding this matter, writers of pure literature were divided into two camps.

One camp believed that Akiwara Yuto was just "dabbling" and that it was a sign of disrespect toward pure literature.

In their view, if Akiwara Yuto, as a mystery writer, could write decent works of pure literature, didn't that imply that pure literature was vulnerable?

But the other camp expressed a welcoming attitude, the exact opposite.

They believed that pure literature needed more fresh "blood," and that Akiwara Yuto's shift from the mystery field to the pure literature field was undoubtedly a move toward the light!

This could make the public pay attention to works of pure literature again! It could drive the overall sales of pure literature works!

Under such a divergence of opinion, many pure literature critics and authors published comments in academic journals or newspapers, exploring this topic from various angles!

Some thought Akiwara Yuto was arrogant, some thought this was a victory for pure literature, but others still thought Akiwara Yuto was just dabbling.

Under such heat, that piece of his, "Rashomon," attracted a large amount of outside attention before it was even published.

However, unlike the two camps in the pure literature field, the mystery world was generally dissatisfied.

In the eyes of many mystery writers, no matter what subgenre Akiwara Yuto wrote, he was still "one of our own."

Even if there were disputes over awards, it was at most an "internal" matter.

And now, every subgenre respects him; it was only a matter of time before he won the Uemura Prize!

But what is he doing now? He actually went to write a work of pure literature!

Is he planning to abandon mystery literature and go "kiss the feet" of that bunch of traditional literature people?!

For a time, young and middle-aged mystery writers expressed their "dissatisfaction," and even some senior writers expressed criticism in private.

Even Kawai Shinta and Seto Tamae called to ask if Akiwara Yuto was planning to give up on mystery.

Facing these questions, Akiwara Yuto had to explain one by one, only then making those around him believe that he was just "dabbling" and would not give up on mystery.

However, after being busy for half a day, he himself was very puzzled.

In his memory, many Japanese writers in his past life created works across both fields.

For example, the author of the "Monogatari" series, Nisio Isin, whose early works focused on light novels, while his later works increasingly took on a mystery style.

Or take Yonezawa Honobu, the author of "Hyouka," who started with mystery light novels, and later, the daily life elements in his works became fewer and fewer.

But now, didn't he just write one piece of pure literature? Why was there such a big reaction!

He thought for a long time and realized he might have thought about it wrong.

In his past life, compared to mystery, although the sales of light novels exceeded them by quite a bit, because the audience was all otaku, their social status was completely inferior.

This made many light novel authors afraid to let outsiders know their profession, let alone have any social influence.

But compared to pure literature, mystery not only far exceeds the former in sales, but also generally wins the respect of the Japanese public.

Even some literary awards in the literary world have only been awarded to mystery works rather than pure literature in recent years.

This gives mystery writers the confidence to go "head-to-head" with pure literature authors, and they are even more filled with disdain for the latter's contempt.

Akiwara Yuto frowned, suddenly feeling that he might have been a bit rash in writing this "Rashomon."

Now he hadn't seen any benefits yet, and he had inexplicably offended his old friends.

However, he also thought of a remedy, which was to "copy" a few more good mysteries later.

After all, as a man of letters, everything still depends on the work.

If he could prove that he still loved mystery and could write "masterpieces," he estimated that the mystery world would not have too much opposition.

In short, he should just wait and see for now.

Time passed quickly, and while the pure literature camp was "arguing" in the newspapers, the day for the official release of "Yuno" by Keihan Publishing soon arrived.

But this release left everyone in the editorial department of "Yuno" dumbfounded!

Less than half a day after release, the first printing of 10, 00 copies was completely sold out, setting the record for the shortest time to a reprint for Keihan Publishing!

So much so that for that whole day, the editorial department and the sales department kept receiving calls from various bookstores urging for more stock!

To cope with the huge market demand, Keihan Publishing reprinted another 30, 00 copies, and as a result, they were sold out in less than two days!

Then they printed another 60, 00 copies, and by the end of the week, they were also almost completely sold out!

So much so that Ichimura Kenta, as the editor-in-chief, put down his pride as a man of letters and specially called to express his "thanks" to Akiwara Yuto.

But when Akiwara Yuto learned of the multiple reprints, he didn't feel very surprised, and even felt that the sales were lower than he expected.

The total sales of his multiple works had already exceeded several million copies.

Even if only one-tenth of the readers were interested in pure literature, it could greatly boost the sales of "Yuno."

And what he cared about now was not the sales of this work, but the literary critics' view of "Rashomon."

However, perhaps because of the special nature of this work, many book critics did not publish reviews immediately, but only published corresponding reviews after a full week.

From a newspaper brought by Asano Aiko, Akiwara Yuto saw the corresponding book review.

"The story written by Akiwara Yuto makes it hard for me to imagine that this was written by a mystery writer. In his work, I see the weighing of human nature between survival and morality."

"Under Rashomon, a servant faces the choice of starving to death or becoming a thief, but no matter which one it is, he lacks 'courage'."

"And what Akiwara Yuto shows is the process of how he gains this courage from the mouth of an old woman."

"While gaining this courage, he also opens the Rashomon that represents hell!"

"But the question is, should this servant really be blamed by us? If we put ourselves in that situation, would we not make the same move?"

"Humans are essentially a kind of animal, and animality is one of human nature's traits, which cannot be shaken off."

"But for animals, good and evil are meaningless; the most fundamental problem is survival."

"Therefore, when the servant is placed in a 'life-and-death choice,' he abandons human conscience and turns to the 'evil' of animals."

"What surprises me is that Akiwara Yuto would have such a pessimistic view of human nature."

After reading the whole piece, Akiwara Yuto nodded with satisfaction. Then he read a few similar book reviews and found that, without exception, they were basically all praising him.

Even those who had jumped out to oppose him before had no one speaking out at this time.

This made him think that under the effectiveness of an excellent work, the dissatisfaction of the pure literature world toward him had disappeared.

But what surprised him was that a week later, this matter took another turn......