Chapter 279: A Newcomer Writer's Lecture

Hearing Yuanshan Xiuyi's statement, Akiwara Yuto was confused.

During the lecture just now, everyone clearly performed very seriously. And regarding the theory part, Yuanshan Xiuyi also indicated there was no problem before.

What problem could such a lecture have?

Yuanshan Xiuyi thought for a while and explained: "Don't you think the students' attention was too deliberate?"

He continued: "Everyone was listening and applauding attentively, looking very serious, but have you noticed that it seems no one was interested in the content of your speech?"

"At the final question session, there were not many people asking questions, and even the questions asked were not particularly related to your theme."

Akiwara Yuto didn't expect it to be said like this, so he stopped his steps and turned to deep thought.

After a while, he said in an uncertain tone: "Could it be that the theory part was too difficult?"

Yuanshan Xiuyi nodded and said solemnly: "Akiwara, I understand you want to prove yourself to those people in this lecture, but you have to think clearly, the fundamental purpose of a university lecture is still for the vast majority of the audience to accept it!"

Akiwara Yuto fell into hesitation upon hearing this statement.

He discovered that he might indeed have been too utilitarian!

In order to prove his knowledge, he specifically went to get some profound theories to try to convince others, but forgot that most of the people at the lecture site were clearly just university students who were still just beginning to feel interested in literature.

Was such an approach really right?

In an instant, many emotions surged into his heart.

After being silent for a long time, he sighed and bowed to Yuanshan Xiuyi, "Thank you for your advice."

At this time, he made his decision to specifically modify his lecture draft after returning!

And Yuanshan Xiuyi looked at his actions and showed a gratified expression.

Akiwara Yuto rejected Yuanshan Xiuyi's invitation to go drinking again and took the Shinkansen directly back to his home in Tokyo that night.

After returning home, he took out paper and pen again.

After repeated deletions and modifications, he finally organized a draft that satisfied him one day before the lecture.

August 3rd, which was the day of the lecture, Akiwara Yuto arrived at the University of Tokyo as promised.

After contacting Guanye Tuolang, who was the person in charge, he was led to the auditorium of the University of Tokyo.

Looking at the bustling crowd below the stage, he was a bit surprised for a moment.

"Are there too many people?"

On the invitation he originally received, it only wrote the lecture of the Department of Literature, so he thought it was the same as the one at Kyoto University, arranged in a large classroom or auditorium.

But looking at it now, there were at least several thousand people at the scene.

Guanye Tuolang said politely: "Because the number of applicants was too large, it was arranged here. Besides students from the Department of Literature, there are also students from other departments."

"In short, please don't hesitate to teach us, Akiwara-sensei; you can talk about some content that is appropriately deep."

Although he didn't like Akiwara Yuto in his heart, the latter was after all the person his Sensei valued, so he still had to do the surface work.

However, he was still surprised by Akiwara Yuto's influence, actually being able to expand a departmental lecture to a school-wide lecture.

Out of a different kind of mentality, he still specifically dug a hole and emphasized the tone word on the word "deep."

But Akiwara Yuto didn't notice this point, just nodded in response, and walked onto the podium.

He looked down and discovered that many people from the traditional literary world were sitting in the first two rows, including Jin Shang, Qiushan Xiaozhi, and some other old writers he couldn't recognize.

Judging by age, the average might be three or four times his age, which made him feel a bit of pressure.

"Hello everyone," Akiwara Yuto took a deep breath, then bowed to the audience, and continued: "I am Akiwara Yuto, a high school graduate, and also a newcomer writer."

"Everyone here today has higher academic qualifications than me, so please don't pay too much attention to some places where I speak wrong."

Hearing Akiwara Yuto's words, whether it was the industry insiders sitting in the first two rows or the dense students sitting behind, they were all a bit surprised.

Japanese lectures have always paid attention to seriousness and restraint, and it is extremely rare to use such a humorous way to speak, and Akiwara Yuto actually exposed his own shortcomings.

So many people's attention was attracted at once.

However, upon hearing the word "newcomer writer," many people sneered in their hearts.

If having sales as high as millions of copies still counts as a newcomer writer, then how are other writers supposed to live!

After simple pleasantries, Akiwara Yuto entered the main topic, saying: "As a newcomer writer, I don't intend to talk about any profound literary theory this time; I hope students can learn these in class themselves. But I still hope everyone can understand some simple things, such as what is the essence of literature?"

He picked up a black thick marker and wrote the five big characters "Essence of Literature" on a white explanation board that had been brought over.

No way, there was no PPT in this era, so he had to make do with writing like this.

However, he didn't know that when he didn't intend to talk about profound literary theory, some people with ulterior motives showed an annoyed expression.

Many students, after seeing the content Akiwara Yuto wrote, raised their heads one after another, showing thoughtful expressions.

Some of them were students from the Department of Literature, and some were from other departments.

But it was inevitable that their understanding of literature was limited to many works, and they rarely thought about what literature itself was.

Akiwara Yuto continued: "In many textbooks, it is believed that literature is created by writers, using language and characters as tools, relatively vividly reflecting objective reality, and expressing the art of the writer's inner world, including genres such as poetry, prose, novels, scripts, fables, fairy tales, etc."

"But I have another question, is literature really just monopolized by writers?"

Everyone in the audience heard this statement and showed puzzled expressions one after another. If what writers write is not literature, then wouldn't everything anyone writes count as literature?

"Or let me change the way of saying it, what should be the definition of a writer?" Akiwara Yuto asked again.

Some people showed thoughtful expressions.

Akiwara Yuto said again: "In the eyes of many people, writers are literary creation workers who take cultural creation as their profession and writing as their main focus, but besides them, can the things others write not be called literature? For example, a reporter's news, does it not count?"

This set of statements by Akiwara Yuto actually had some historical nature.

In his past life, some people pointed out that the content of news reporters should also belong to literature, and it is non-fiction literature.

But this viewpoint has always had very large controversy in the academic circle. Until he traveled, there were still many people arguing.

But Akiwara Yuto believed that since literature is the art of language and can arouse social attention, then news drafts based on reality can naturally count as a kind of literature.

However, Akiwara Yuto throwing this point out today was not to show off his knowledge, but just to enhance everyone's interest in literature.

He looked around at everyone and raised another seemingly "self-contradictory" question.

"Is it literature first, or is it writers first?"

Hearing this question, whether it was the old writers listening or the students, they all felt deep confusion... ===== CHAPTER 280 =====