Chapter 262: Aestheticism

"Akiwara-sensei, sorry, your *In a Grove* does not meet the requirements of our journal..."

Akiwara Yuto read this rejection letter while frowning in confusion.

He was a bit puzzled and even felt that the *Jewel* editorial department of Toei was "crazy".

One had to know that his previous cooperation with its competitor *Yuno* easily made the other party's book and journal reprint multiple times and sell out!

Besides this point, this work of his was also one of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's works before his death, and was even highly praised by many writers at that time.

He thought for half a day without coming up with a reason, so he let Asano Aiko send this manuscript to the *Literary Travel* of the Keikokan through an acquaintance relationship.

Although the sales of *Literary Travel* were only 10,000 copies, this was his only choice for now.

And judging from his relationship with Keikokan, he didn't think his submission this time would fail.

But what was surprising was that three days later, the editor-in-chief of the *Literary Travel* editorial department called and said in an apologetic tone, "Akiwara-sensei, sorry, we cannot publish this manuscript."

"Why?" Akiwara Yuto was even more puzzled.

"We also have our reasons here, in short, I hope you try other journals."

After apologizing repeatedly, the editor-in-chief hung up the phone in a hurry.

Akiwara Yuto was silent for a while and could only pick up the phone again to call his only "acquaintance" in the traditional literary circle, that is, Toyama Shuichi.

After informing him of the ins and outs of the matter, Toyama Shuichi gave an explanation, "Akiwara-sensei, you should have been boycotted by the traditional literary circle."

After a pause, he continued to add.

"Compared to detective fiction, the traditional literary circle is a very small circle; in this circle, although there are divisions of literary schools, they basically won't have obvious struggles like detective fiction."

"So after you refused to apprentice to Yoshikawa-sensei, many people in the traditional literary circle might put colored glasses on you, thinking you are not 'one of us'."

After listening to this, Akiwara Yuto thought of his identity as a detective fiction writer.

Presumably his encounter was inseparable from this identity.

It seemed that the contradiction between pure literature and detective fiction in this world was even greater than he had imagined.

"Thank you."

After thanking him, Akiwara Yuto hung up the phone and thought about what he should do next.

Originally in his plan, he was going to find a pure literature journal, and through constant submission, break into this circle, thereby obtaining various pure literature awards.

Just like some famous Japanese writers in his past life, debuting to win the Gunzo New Writer Award, the Bungei New Writer Award, the Tanizaki Jun'ichiro Award, etc., then achieving success and fame to win the Naoki Prize and the Akutagawa Prize, and finally becoming a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

But he didn't expect that in the first step, like Murakami Haruki, he would be boycotted by the traditional literary circle.

In Akiwara Yuto's memory, although Murakami Haruki had won many domestic and foreign fans and won some well-known awards in the 40 years since his debut.

But it was undeniable that he had never won the Naoki Prize and the Akutagawa Prize, which best represented the highest level of the Japanese literary world, and was even repeatedly criticized by authors and critics in the traditional literary circle.

For example, for the work *Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World*, it was criticized by someone named Endo Shusaku as follows: "First, the female characters are too similar, second, the story content is too bloated, third, the description of daily life is too long."

In his speech, he even called it not "regardable as a true sense".

After his speech, many literary critics also published criticisms one after another, thinking that he had abandoned Japanese traditional literature.

These successive criticisms made Murakami Haruki very uncomfortable, and he even self-mockingly said, "I am an abandoned child of the Japanese literary world, an ugly duckling, and can never become a goose."

For the reason of being boycotted, there were many claims.

However, there was a relatively unified opinion, which was that he read too many foreign detective fiction works, so that his work style was incompatible with Japanese traditional literature and was full of a large amount of magical realism and surrealism.

In the "closed-door" Japanese traditional literary circle, such works were naturally unwelcome.

Speaking of which, what should he do?

Akiwara Yuto frowned and considered, should he learn from Murakami Haruki and turn a blind eye to these? Or continue to go back to write detective fiction?

No!

He couldn't just admit defeat like this!

He stood up and walked back and forth twice, and finally made a decision.

The exclusion of him by the traditional literary circle now was nothing more than his identity as a detective fiction writer and his refusal of Yoshikawa Yuichiro's invitation.

Then if he could take out a long-form traditional literature work that could be counted as a masterpiece, rather than a short story like before, it would surely make these people notice.

Once this work could prove that his literary foundation was not weaker than Yoshikawa Yuichiro's, he estimated that quite a few book reviewers would change their views, and even stand on his side.

Then, what work should he take out?

Akiwara Yuto took out paper and pen and began to recall Yoshikawa Yuichiro's identity, that is, the representative of aesthetic literature.

So if he wanted to prove he was not weaker than the other party, he must take out a work that could represent aestheticism.

Just at this time, a name popped into his mind—Kawabata Yasunari.

Kawabata Yasunari, a "leading figure" in the Japanese literary world, his three works *Snow Country*, *Thousand Cranes*, and *The Old Capital* won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968.

In his creative career, he had always insisted on the direction of aesthetic literature, and his "aesthetics" took a path different from ordinary people.

General aesthetic writers believed that the mission of art lay in providing sensory pleasure to humans, rather than conveying some kind of moral or emotional information.

So they pursued the "beauty" of art, believed that "beauty" was the essence of art, and advocated that life should imitate art.

But Kawabata Yasunari's aestheticism often expressed beauty in "adversity".

He was often good at describing young women at the bottom of society, and the content mostly expressed their miserable life encounters and their pursuit of love and art.

Through truly expressing the contradictions and entanglements in the life and emotions of people at the bottom, he expressed the pain and struggle in their hearts, and expressed deep sympathy and pity for their fate.

So his aestheticism could be said to be a work different from others, or a breakthrough to previous Japanese aesthetic literature!

Then which one should he write?

Akiwara Yuto hesitated for a while, suddenly remembered the heavy snow that fell last year, and immediately started writing furiously.

"Passing through the long tunnel at the county border, it was the snow country. Under the night sky, it was all white. The train stopped in front of the signal station."

"A girl stood up from the opposite seat and opened the glass window in front of Shimamura's seat. A stream of cold air rolled in. The girl leaned her body out of the window, as if calling out to the distance..." ===== CHAPTER 263 =====