I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 13 Maybe It Can Overturn History
8:55 am, Building 1, Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo, classroom 102 on the first floor.

"It's okay, I was almost late!"

Under the gaze of several boys, Jabami Rei sneaked into the classroom through the back door, threw her bag on the table, and sat down next to Agatsuma Yumeko.

She pressed a beautifully packaged novel in front of Mengzi.

Yumeko blinked at her in confusion.

"A signed limited edition of Mr. Hikaru Oshima's newly published novel, Thirty Years in the Human World. A thank-you gift for you."

Jaburi Rei glanced at the pile of documents scattered on the table and asked curiously,

"what is this?"

"The latest group portrait newcomer award has just announced the judges lineup, selection time and location, and the shortlist."

When talking about literature-related topics, Mengzi, who is usually introverted and shy, seems like a different person and starts to talk nonstop.

"Oh, I saw this this morning at Maruzen Marunouchi Bookstore." Jabami Rei took her copy from Yumeko and looked up at Professor Takeuchi who was sitting upright in front of the podium and reading the manuscript carefully. "Isn't this a modern literature appreciation class?"

"Professor Takeuchi has also been selected for the judging committee." Mengzi pointed at one of the A4 papers with her slender fingers and whispered, "The professor said that in this class we will show us the excellent works shortlisted for this year's Group Portrait Newcomer Award, and then each of us will write a long review as homework."

"Oh my, the people at Group Portrait are so annoying. Why did they choose this old stubborn guy as a judge?"

Jabami Rei slapped the documents on the table in frustration. She had a strong prejudice against Professor Takeuchi, but not because the professor had poor teaching ability.

On the contrary, Professor Takeuchi is well-known at the University of Tokyo for his profound knowledge and profound attainments in the study of modern and contemporary Japanese literature.

But he is too pedantic and old-fashioned. He is always ruthless when evaluating literary works and teaching students. When you deserve 59 points, he will never give you 1 point more no matter who you are!
I heard that he is like this in his daily interpersonal interactions, which results in him not being able to make a living in the publishing and literary circles despite his strong academic ability and long experience.

Not to mention popular awards like the Five Major Newcomer Awards, many ordinary literary awards would not invite him to be a judge, for fear that he does not understand the "ways of the world" and would directly criticize the winning works.

Last year, Jabami Rei failed one of his subjects and now she still has psychological trauma from it.

"Rei-chan, you can't say that about Professor Takeuchi." The good girl and top student Mengzi gently patted her best friend's head with the information and whispered.

Just then, the class bell rang.

The old-fashioned Professor Takeuchi stood up abruptly and, following the custom of the Showa era, asked the students to bow respectfully and only started the class after listening to his instructions.

One after another, printed manuscripts were passed down from above.

Of course, it is impossible for Professor Takeuchi to show the full texts of the 50 shortlisted novels to his students, so only the first two chapters of these novels are excerpted here.

After publishing the novel, he sat down and picked up the new manuscript by a new author, "Listen to the Wind Sing", which is widely discussed today.

Since his last criticism of the Akutagawa Prize for becoming increasingly commercialized, Takeuchi Osamu has not received any invitation to be a judge for any literary award in two years.

As a professor who has worked in the Faculty of Literature at the University of Tokyo for about 20 years, this situation is undoubtedly very embarrassing for him.

But even if it happens a hundred times, he will still criticize that Akutagawa Prize!
Why is pure literature gradually declining?

It is because of this group of business practitioners and business writers who are doing whatever they want and making readers more and more disappointed!

This time, Akira Yasuhara from the editorial department of "Gunzo" called and invited him to join the review committee. At first, Osamu Takeuchi wanted to refuse.

Because An Yuanxian was exactly the kind of profit-seeking businessman he described. In just a few years, he used cheap star-making methods to make several writers of average ability famous, making the literary world a mess.

But later he thought that after all he was his former favorite student, Takeuchi Osamu agreed.

After receiving the review information, Osamu Takeuchi was immediately attracted by Hide Kitagawa's "Hear the Wind Sing".

He was not attracted by the novel - he had not had time to read the text carefully - but he was attracted by the identity of Kitagawa Hide, a pure blank slate writer, and the fact that he was promoted to the shortlist.

A blank paper writer, nominated internally, and invited judges. Such a familiar operation made Takeuchi Osamu frown.

If this novel is poorly written, don't think that I will say good things about it just because I am invited to be a judge!
Takeuchi Osamu coughed and spread out the manuscript paper.

“There is no such thing as a perfect article.”

He recited the beginning softly, and the writing was not as poor as he had imagined.

As he continued reading, some of the following content made him a little angry.

Takeuchi Osamu could clearly feel his breathing becoming heavy, not because of anything else, but because of the writing style and content of the novel.

First, he was almost certain that there was no American writer called Hatfield.

According to the article, Hatfield should be an absurdist author, and he is familiar with most of the American writers of this genre. If he were a completely unknown person who had not even had a single translation, he would not have the kind of awe and obsession with words described in the article.

If such a writer really existed and was ignored by the American literary world, he would wonder if the readers on the other side of the ocean had lost their brains!
And so on.

Section 01 mainly describes the dialogue between "I" and "Mouse", using a writing style different from all the pure literary novels in the current literary world, and expressing the author's literary thoughts very concisely and clearly.

The sentences were quirky and concise, without any cumbersome embellishments, and occasionally mixed with some "American humor", which further confirmed Takeuchi Osamu's previous idea.

Hatfield is fictional.

The formal plot begins in Section 02.

The story begins with "I" picking up a hungover girl who only had four fingers on her left hand, and then she suspected that "I" had violated her last night while she was unconscious.

The story ends abruptly after "I" send her to work.

After reading this short section carefully, Takeuchi Osamu let out a long sigh.

How long has it been since you read a novel with such fascination?

He couldn't even remember.

With only less than 10,000 words, it is hard for him to say what heights this novel can reach.

But what is certain is that being shortlisted for a mere newcomer award is not a problem at all.

There is not much to talk about the plot of the novel. We can't reveal much about the content. The content seems to be a youth romance story which is rarely touched upon in pure literature.

The key is the writing skills and style he demonstrates.

For Japanese literature at this stage, it is like a ray of light that pierces the muddy sky and suddenly illuminates the entire dark earth.

Over the past few decades, especially in the past decade, Takeuchi Osamu has been studying a topic.

Does today's Japanese literature have to be serious and complicated in order to achieve the level in the minds of readers and writers?

Of course this topic will not be recognized.

Researching this thing is equivalent to the physics community researching to overturn "Newton's Laws", and will be ridiculed and dissatisfied by people in the industry.

But in the end, weren't "Newton's Laws" proven to be incomplete?
He believes that the same path will be followed for Japanese literature.

Now, through this novel, his doubts seem to be answered.

Holding the manuscript paper in his hand, Takeuchi Osamu thought a lot and pondered a lot, and did not notice that the bell for the end of get out of class had passed for a long time.

Jabami Rei, who was really tired of waiting, ignored Yumeko's attempts to stop her, trotted over to him, and called out softly, "Professor Takeuchi."

Takeuchi Osamu came back to his senses in an instant: "What's the matter, Jabami-san?"

"Professor, um, the next class is about to start." Jabami Rei actually didn't want to be the first one to stick his head out, but her next class was Literature and History Research. She just failed once last year, and she didn't want to fail again!
"Is the get out of class over already?" Takeuchi Osamu looked at the clock behind him in confusion, realizing that he had been in class for a long time for no reason. Looking at the students below who were anxious but did not dare to remind him, he stood up and said with full of apology, "Dear students, I am very sorry. The get out of class is over now, please go to the next classroom!"

"Yes! Thank you for your guidance, professor!" The students hurriedly bowed in return, then picked up their materials and rushed towards the door one by one.

Jabami Rei breathed a sigh of relief and was about to run away, but was stopped by Takeuchi Osamu.

"Jabumi-san, which novel did you choose for your homework?" Takeuchi Osamu adjusted his glasses.

"That "Hear the Wind Sing."" Jabami Rei answered truthfully, because this novel was a new work by a new author, and after reading it for a few times, she found it quite interesting.

"Well, after you finish writing the review, please hand it directly to my office tomorrow." Takeuchi Osamu glanced at her.

He wanted to see what the students thought of the novel.

Although Jabami Rei is a bit eccentric, she actually has a high level of literary literacy and is a good potential.

“Ah——” Jabami Rei’s face suddenly turned dark.

Why should I be the first one to stick my head out?
Mengzi was also walking slowly towards them with some information in her hand. She didn't have any class next period.

Jabami Rei pulled her over as if she had seen a savior: "Professor Takeuchi, this is the novel that Yumeko also selected!"

"Well, then both of you can come together tomorrow." Takeuchi Osamu said and stood up. His mind was now full of "Hear the Wind Sing". He wanted to see if the subsequent content would still be of such high quality. He couldn't wait any longer and was ready to go directly to Kodansha to get the manuscript.

Confused, Mengzi hugged her friend's arm, not realizing that she had been tricked.

(End of this chapter)