Tokyo Girlfriend Illustrated Book

《The Disaster of Neon Literature》

“I recently heard a piece of news from a friend - a new star in the literary world has sold one million copies of his second novel in the first print run. You know, my most popular book has only sold more than 600,000 copies. So after hearing this news, I was shocked and overwhelmed with emotions. I just felt that I really didn’t have any talent in literature.

Fortunately, although I don’t have much talent, I’m still good at learning. So I immediately asked my friend who the gentleman was and asked if there was a chance to see it first. Then I was surprised to hear a name from my friend [Kyosuke Hojo], and after thinking hard for a long time, I realized that I had no talent for literature. I didn't expect who this person was. It's well known that the literary world is an inclusive and close-knit circle. When we meet talented young people, we will share them, just like discovering a treasure.

After all, if we want to revive the increasingly declining literary world, we can't do without new forces, so I and you are very happy to provide help to newcomers to the best of our ability. For example, Arakawa Shoji, I invited him to practice writing in my column at that time, and then he wrote those masterpieces that everyone knows.

But this Hojo-kun, I have never found this name in my memory, it's really..."

Hikigaya Hachiman couldn't help rolling his eyes when he saw this.

"Ahhh, Onii-chan! Your dead fish eyes are even whiter! Now they are real dead fish eyes!" Komachi exclaimed.

Encouraged by his sister, Hikigaya rolled his eyeballs upwards more and more, until his eyeballs were a little painful, and then he returned to the normal dead fish eyes, and then looked at his sister complacently.

"How is it?"

"Great, although Komachi has no idea what's so proud of rolling her eyes, her love for her is very high in Komachi's eyes!"

Hikigaya Komachi clapped her hands, her expression was very vivid.

Yawata smiled proudly again and looked at the newspaper.

You old bitch, if you really haven't heard of my brother's name, I'll just turn my head off and give you a "blast"! My brother's "The Devotion of Suspect X" has such high sales and won the main house award. It's okay for ordinary people, but how could you, a person related to the literary world, not have heard of this name?

The old guy is obviously dragging down Minister Hojo!

Hikigaya suppressed his anger and continued to read. He knew that this was just the appetizer, after all, the sensational title had not been officially revealed.

"…But there are so many geniuses in the world, there will always be some hidden gems, so I asked my friend what Mr. Hojo's masterpiece was, and my friend just told me to go to the bookstore and see.

So I went to the familiar bookstore, and it was indeed clear at a glance. "The Dream and Death of Writer K", there were three posters of this work posted at the door of the bookstore. It was really amazing, I have only seen such a grand occasion in Kabukicho, those gigolos would use this trick when competing for customers, but this is the first time I have seen it done in the promotion of novels.

Walking into the bookstore, I was about to ask the boss about this book, and I was shocked again. Forgive me for posting it continuously The reason why he was so surprised was that the work of Mr. Hojo was so popular. There were many people lining up in front of the counter of the bookstore. I took a rough look and found that they were all customers who were ordering the book "The Dream and Death of Writer K". I think this grand occasion cannot be compared even when several literary masters who have left their names in history published new works.

I wanted to wait until the customers left before going up to talk to the store manager, but my legs were numb from standing there and the number of customers lining up did not decrease at all, which shocked me again..."

Hahahahaha

Hikigaya couldn't help laughing when he saw this. Although the old man didn't say a single good word and every word was full of bad intentions, he was still very happy. He immediately took out his mobile phone to take a photo and sent it to the chat room of the runaway angel for everyone to enjoy.

Komachi, who had already walked to the kitchen and tied a yellow apron, looked over and smiled when she saw her brother's energetic appearance. Then he hummed a light tune, turned on the gas stove, and began to prepare dinner for the brother and sister.

"… Because I was so curious about the charm of this work that attracted so many customers to buy it, I asked the store manager to let the staff register first so that I could talk for a few minutes.

Why is it so popular?

Faced with my question, the store manager pointed to the billboard next to the cash register, and then pointed to the poster on the glass of the store door, and said, 'Looking at such a beautiful poster, aren't you curious about the work? Many customers will come in and ask me about the book after seeing the poster, and then write down the reservation information.'

This is really shocking. Forgive me for being too old-fashioned, but just because the poster is beautiful, it can attract customers. For a traditional literary creator like me, It was really unbelievable for the author. Before I could continue to ask, a customer who was waiting in line to register for the reservation generously joined our conversation. She was a girl in her teens, still wearing a school uniform, and seemed to have rushed here after school. Her words also solved my doubts:

'Even the poster is so beautiful, how can the quality of the novel itself be bad? Just from the poster, you can feel the sincerity of Mr. Hojo! '

The quality of the novel and the sincerity of the author can be seen from the poster? I have never heard of such a novel statement in my many years of work, so I continued to talk to this girl curiously, wanting to know more of her views. Soon, my worldview was overturned again.

This Hojo teacher not only drew many exquisite posters for his novels, but also created special short comics. I know that in some niche circles, novels are often adapted into comics, but I have never heard of creating a comic to promote a novel.

The high school student generously answered my question. It turned out that before writing novels, this Hojo teacher was first a cartoonist, and a famous author in the comics industry.

Everything suddenly became clear. It turned out that he brought the publicity method of the entertainment industry to the literary world. "

Seeing this, Hikigaya knew that it was time to show his true colors. He had said so much nonsense before just for the current attack. He took the time to look at his mobile phone. The messages were dense. It should be his companions scolding him.

"... I originally wanted to read and learn from this Hojo teacher's masterpiece, so that I could create such a popular work in the future, but now it seems hopeless.

After all, I really can't do things that attract attention by exquisite posters and promotional comics.

Since I started my literary career, my teacher told me that although creation is a very personal thing, once a work is created, it no longer belongs to me but to the world, so writers should be cautious. What kind of ideas the work wants to express is the most important thing. If you can't become such a writer, you should at least be able to write a good story.

A true writer should rely on the core ideas of the work to make people empathize and attract people with excellent and interesting plots. This is the most important thing.

But today! I want to sincerely thank Mr. Hojo here, thank him for letting me see another way, a way that does not require good ideas, but good stories can also make the work sell well.

Just hire a few painters at high salaries, draw a few eye-catching posters, and then invite a cartoonist to draw a short story, and then a best-selling masterpiece with a first print run of one million copies is born!

To be honest, when this idea came into my head, I was scared and broke out in a cold sweat. This is no exaggeration. The store manager who was standing next to me at the time can testify to this. He asked me anxiously if I was feeling unwell. I told him that I was fine, but something was wrong with the Japanese literary world.

The great success of Mr. Hojo would probably set off a trend. What kind of trend would it be? A cold wind that scrapes the bones and cuts the flesh!

Writers who carefully observe society, try to figure out the core of the story and want to write good works seriously will be frozen into ice sculptures by the biting cold wind, while those who are attracted by Mr. Hojo's success will follow in his footsteps and use beautiful posters and dazzling publicity to trick readers into bookstores and take out their wallets.

Content? Thoughts? Stories? Presumably, as long as they can make money, they don't care about these things. They don't care whether what they create is beneficial to this society. They only care whether the royalties can be added with another zero.

Gentlemen, I am very worried!

As writers holding teaching sticks and entrusted with important tasks by society and the country, if even we are infected by the exaggerated social atmosphere, then does this country and this society still have a future?

As I wrote this article, my seventeen-year-old granddaughter came to my desk. I thought she was trying to persuade me not to publish this article. After all, Hojo-sensei is very popular now, and the Internet is almost full of followers who follow his crazy behavior. I must be unpopular if I go against the tide.

But I didn't expect that my granddaughter, who has always been well-behaved and cute, would say to me, "Why do you say bad things about my Hojo-sensei! Do you know how hard he works and how good he is to his fans! ? He drew all the posters and comics by himself. He could have not done these and we would have supported him, but he worked hard to improve his studies and created so many benefits for his fans. Why do you say that about him..."

Oh my God, I had already prepared to be insulted after the article was published, but I never expected that I would be scolded by my closest person before the article was written. What shocked me even more was that my granddaughter gave me a death notice on behalf of Mr. Hojo. She said:

‘Don’t think Mr. Hojo is easy to bully just because he is so handsome. He is the individual champion of the National Kendo Competition for two consecutive years. I am worried that he will chop off your head with one sword.’

My granddaughter, who always brought me hot tea and whispered to me to rest early and take care of my health when I wrote until late at night, when did she become like this?

Oh my God, I had already seen the future of the Japanese literary world being destroyed by Mr. Hojo, but I didn’t expect that my family would be destroyed first? ”

The article ended here. Behind the tearful words, Hikigaya seemed to see an old man with a bitter face.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha——"

A burst of laughter came out of Hikigaya's mouth. He finally knew why this old man could become a contracted writer for "Sankei Shimbun". His writing style was really good. Even if the content was disgusting, the article was really readable. Even someone like him who was so angry that he wanted to chop off the other person's head with a knife after reading it could read it with relish.

But laughing aside, Hikigaya was the first to realize the viciousness of the article.

The sales performance of the new work of the general manager is unquestionable. Even if no one can surpass his glory in the past 20 years, the first print alone is one million copies. The royalties can make all writers drool with envy. But in this article called "The Disaster of Neon Literature", this person named Matsumoto Motohiro attributed all the achievements of Hojo-kun to the crooked propaganda.

He even predicted that the performance of Minister Hojo's new work would get better and better, which was even more vicious. Anyone on Earth would know that the sales of Big Brother's work would explode more and more after seeing such exaggerated popularity on the Internet, but once this article by Motohiro Matsumoto came out, no matter how good Big Brother's performance was in the future, he would be questioned for relying on publicity deception rather than the quality of the work itself.

As expected of an evil writer for an evil newspaper, he is really black-hearted.

Hikigaya was a little worried, not because he was worried about whether this article would affect the sales of the novel. He used most of his monthly pocket money to buy games, and he knew that even if it was a shit work, as long as there were enough discussions, people would buy it. Curious people would also flock to the bookstore for the title of "a book that can destroy the Japanese literary world."

What he was worried about was whether this would affect the General Manager's impact on the Japanese Mystery Association Award.

The brilliance of a genius cannot be concealed. Even if he had a pair of dead fish eyes without light every day and collapsed in the club room like a dead fish after training every day, the brilliance of Hikigaya Hachiman was still discovered.

"People with dead fish eyes are not simple."

The military advisor said this and included him in the think tank of the runaway angel. Although the sequence is still very low, it is not his turn to participate in the publicity war for new books, but he still knows that the general is trying to win the Neon Mystery Association Award, and he also knows how much effort the military advisor and other companions have put in, including the current novel "The Dream and Death of Writer K".

Originally, he wanted to use this work to stir up public opinion to force the judges, but now with this article by Motohiro Matsumoto, the grand prize that was originally a sure thing seems to have changed.

Using unorthodox methods can make the work sell well, and using unorthodox methods can also win the Mystery Association Award.

Through this comment, such public opinion can be easily derived.

Now, even if he cuts off the head of Xiao Hei (the dog of judge Kurokawa Toyomasa) and puts it next to the judge's pillow, he may have to think again, right?

He is not surprised why "Sankei Shimbun" agreed to publish such an article. With such a large flow of traffic, not only the stars in the entertainment industry are drooling, but the newspapers are also envious. This kind of verbal battle between literati and writers in newspapers is what the masses love the most. Hikigaya is sure that the sales of "Sankei Shimbun" will increase significantly today!

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