Chapter 276: A Cruel Life

Jin Shang had originally thought that Akiwara Yuto's work was an attempt at a new school style, so it would be difficult to escape the shadow of the original aesthetic literature.

It might be written somewhat "roughly."

But after reading the whole thing completely, his thoughts had been completely reversed.

Compared with *Snow Country*, this *A Personal Matter* had completely cast aside the shadow of aesthetic literature and dared to face the "cruelty of reality."

And this kind of cruelty is called life.

In this work, whether it was the protagonist or the supporting characters, or even the protagonist's child, their lives were broken and unbearable.

Bird, as the protagonist, interrupted his graduate studies due to alcoholism; although he became a foreign language teacher at a cram school with the help of his father-in-law, reality could not make him settle down.

He always felt that life had deficiencies, his marriage was unsatisfactory, and life was like a prison.

At the low point of his life, his wife gave birth to a son with a brain disability, which intensified Bird's spiritual crisis.

In pain, he fantasized about going to Africa to adventure in order to "peek at things on the other side of the stable and mediocre daily life of today."

Himiko, as a lover, was much the same.

She had had a relationship with Bird, but still married another graduate student.

However, a year after marriage, her husband discovered her homosexual behavior and committed suicide in anger.

From then on, Himiko lived in the original house, taking the living expenses given to her by her husband's father, and lived a life of sleeping during the day and going out at night.

She "indulged in mysterious meditation during the day, and at night, she drove a sports car to wander the streets, as if her life had lost its goal."

However, upon learning that Bird wanted the newborn disabled child to die, she not only actively thought of ways to help facilitate this matter but also appeared vibrant for the first time since her husband's death.

These two "failures of life" began another contact of life because of Bird's disabled child.

In the process of this contact, Bird had been trying to escape, to escape everything about his failure.

He wanted to kill the disabled child, he wanted to go to the free world of Africa in his dreams, he wanted to leave everything that was shackling him now.

To forget reality, he used alcohol and Himiko's body to pull himself away from the whipping of morality.

In escaping, he was like slowly drowning in water, tasting that suffocating, bitter, oppressive, and sticky, cramped entanglement.

In Jin Shang's view, compared with the protagonist of *Snow Country*, Bird's self-negative identification and his desire to sink into extremely ugly desires made him more like a real person.

He sighed deeply.

Akiwara Yuto's work was based on realism, featured psychological experience, and was styled with grotesque variations and exaggerated distortions.

It had completely broken away from aestheticism and could be described as "grotesque psychological realism."

It was truly surprising that Akiwara Yuto could achieve this step!

It seemed that he didn't need to worry too much about the future of traditional literature...

He put down the book and ordered his granddaughter to fetch a stack of manuscript paper, preparing to write a book review and a preface himself.

Besides that, he also had to write a letter to the Classical Literature Association.

Since Akiwara Yuto had already been able to give a "satisfactory answer," he should also lend him a helping hand.

The so-called spark is passed from one generation to the next...

Three days later, Akiwara Yuto did not wait for Jin Shang's reply but received an invitation to a lecture first.

On this invitation, the line "Department of Literature, University of Tokyo" was clearly written; besides specifying the time and place, there was only a phone number.

Akiwara Yuto pondered for a while and then dialed the contact number on the invitation.

"Professor Guanye? Hello, I am Akiwara Yuto."

"May I ask what the theme of this lecture is?"

"No specific theme, leaving it for me to decide?"

"Okay, I accept."

After ending the call, he hung up the phone.

The person he had just spoken to was Guanye Tuolang, who was the director and professor of the Department of Literature at the University of Tokyo, managing several literary journals under the University of Tokyo.

Besides this status, he was also Jin Shang's top disciple and had a certain status in the traditional literary world.

Out of these sentiments, Akiwara Yuto still agreed.

However, during the conversation, Akiwara always felt that Guanye Tuolang's tone was a bit cold, a bit heartless.

Perhaps this was his illusion?

Remember that the other party had written a book review praising him before?

Just as he was thinking, another phone call rang. Akiwara Yuto picked up the phone and discovered it was Ms. Qiushan Xiaozhi, the president of the Kyoto Literature Research Association.

After a simple exchange of pleasantries, Qiushan Xiaozhi quickly got to the point.

"Akiwara-sensei, have you received the lecture invitation from the University of Tokyo?"

Akiwara Yuto was a bit strange as to how she knew so quickly, but still spoke the truth: "Yes."

Qiushan Xiaozhi said in a polite tone: "I suggest you accept it, because this lecture is not an ordinary lecture."

"Not ordinary?"

Akiwara Yuto was a bit confused.

According to his previous experience at Kyoto University, the so-called lecture was just a sharing of his own insights and experiences, and an opportunity to make connections.

Besides that, there was nothing else.

He thought for a while and asked this question.

Qiushan Xiaozhi replied: "Akiwara-sensei, because of your *Snow Country*, many people in the traditional literary world have started to pay attention to you, and even in the Japanese Classical Literature Association, many members have proposed to accept you as a member."

After a pause, she added: "However, in this process, some problems have arisen."

"What problems?" Akiwara Yuto was a bit confused.

Because the traditional literary circle was too small, he didn't know much about the Classical Literature Association.

However, in his view, its status should be about the same as the Detective Writers Association, just an association working hard to promote traditional literature.

Such an academic association, what problems could affect him?

Qiushan Xiaozhi replied: "Jin Shang thinks highly of you, so he hopes to let you serve as a director directly, but other association members have raised some objections."

"In their view, your identity as a detective writer and your academic qualifications..."

Hearing this sentence, Akiwara Yuto frowned.

He had already proven himself through his works, and there were even a large number of traditional literary book reviewers and authors supporting him in public opinion.

But he didn't expect that in this association of the traditional literary world, there were still people using academic qualifications to discriminate against him.

Compared with this, such phenomena rarely appeared in the detective world.

Akiwara Yuto thought for a while and found the difference between the two.

Unlike the detective world, many people in the traditional literary world were often university professors or lecturers, and basically all had high academic qualifications.

So they were the same as the secular world, often valuing this "circle" of theirs.

To them, he was an "outsider" who only had a high school diploma.

While he was deep in thought, Qiushan Xiaozhi continued: "Akiwara-sensei, so the association side decided to invite you to give a lecture to prove yourself."

Akiwara Yuto nodded solemnly after hearing this.

It seemed that this time, he had to prepare well! ===== CHAPTER 277 =====