After my divorce, I became a Tokyo literary giant

Chapter 47 Mishima raised his palm and waited for them to move their faces closer.

"Hear the Wind Sing", "Pinball 1973", and "A Wild Sheep Chase".

These three books are the famous Haruki Murakami Youth Trilogy.

"Hear the Wind Sing": The dreams I had faded away like a summer shower on the sidewalk, leaving no trace.

"Pinball in 1973": Yesterday's events seem like last year, and last year's events seem like yesterday's.

"A Wild Sheep Chase": Maybe as you said, maybe it's not that my life is boring, but that I am pursuing a boring life.

In the third part of the story, "I" and my friends jointly run an advertising company and live with a call girl who is also an ear model.

At this time, a super-powered sheep that controls all of Japan has disappeared, and its host, a right-wing giant, is on the verge of death.

"I" accidentally got a photo of a sheep, but unexpectedly became the target of coercion by the underworld.

The right-wing giant limited "me" to find a sheep with a star pattern on its back within a month, so I had to start my "sheep-hunting adventure" to Hokkaido with my girlfriend, taking the photos sent by "Rat".

After going through many hardships, "I" finally found the "rat".

But he was already dead.

"I" and "the mouse" met in the dark.

It turned out that the rat chose to commit suicide in order to prevent the "sheep" from manipulating him, and "I" finally returned to his original peaceful life.

Yukiho Yonekura looked at the document on the computer and her breathing became increasingly rapid.

Throughout the Youth Trilogy, the theme seems to have not changed, all of which express the loss of the subjective spirit of modern people.

All the protagonists are trapped in the tranquility and warmth of the past, repeating their boring and tedious daily lives, silently searching for the precious things in their hearts.

In the process of searching, Mishima displayed an amazing ability to create atmosphere, a wild imagination, a good sense of dry humor, excellent details, and a keen sense of state.

The first two parts of the Youth Trilogy are already considered big sellers.

However, the shortcomings of these two works are also obvious. The most criticized one is the straightforward writing style, and the whole plot is about love. They are criticized by the mainstream literary world as eye-catching works without any depth and connotation.

Some extreme people even criticized Mishima for being vulgar and only using large-scale descriptions to attract people. In fact, it is essentially a shoddy third-rate story, and it is completely not worth mentioning without the pornographic content.

But in this film "A Sheep Chase", they may not be able to criticize like this.

What Yukiho Yonekura saw was a more mature plot structure and more clever metaphors.

The most important thing is the species "sheep".

Sheep were introduced to Japan as early as the Heian period, but raising sheep has always been unprofitable, so it has never been promoted, and most Japanese people don't know about sheep.

During the Meiji era, the government implemented a policy to encourage sheep farming and introduced a large number of Mongolian sheep breeds.

However, the cost of raising sheep locally is much higher than that of importing sheep from Australia, so this policy with no economic benefits was naturally abandoned.

In this novel, sheep are metaphorically used as a symbol of the Japanese government's reckless and blind pursuit of modernization.

At that time, Japan was in the rapid development of the 80s and officially entered a highly developed capitalist society.

In such a society lacking in humanity and with a high degree of social division of labor, people cannot be called human beings, but tools of production... People's sense of social existence is weakened. The protagonist embarks on a journey to find sheep, and also embarks on a journey of self-discovery and self-salvation.

Most people can only explain this much, but Yukiho Yonekura comes from a family of teachers.

She was gifted and intelligent, and after a little thought, she noticed a deeper and bolder metaphor.

In addition to being a metaphor for highly developed capitalist society and the blind policies of the Japanese government, do sheep symbolize something else?
When Yonekura Yukiho looked beyond Japan and toward neighboring countries, her doubts were suddenly cleared up. The Japanese ones were imported from Mongolia.

Mongolia was once a powerful regime spanning the Eurasian continent.

Therefore, sheep may also represent Mongolia’s will to power.

In the Taisho era after the Meiji era, Japanese militarism rose, and the government at the time began to boast about the "Asian Monroe Doctrine", placing Japan in the position of leader and decision-maker in the entire Asia.

Introducing sheep from Mongolia to Japan was actually a metaphor for Japan taking over the Mongol Empire's powerful rule over Asia.

If we understand this idea clearly, then "sheep" symbolizes a strong desire for aggression and occupation, and the metaphorical object directly points to "Japanese militarism."

The young "Rat", who lived in the peaceful post-war era, chose to commit suicide when he was unable to suppress the Sheep. In this way, he eliminated the "militarism" that represented evil in his body and finally completed his self-salvation.

As she watched, thought and savored it, Yukiho Yonekura's scalp gradually felt tingling.

She suddenly wanted to know what those literary veterans who had always criticized and boycotted her junior would feel when they saw this book.

It would be really fun to fight with their old faces...

When "A Wild Sheep Chase" hits the shelves on the first of next month, I wonder if those old bastards will dare to show up. I've already raised my hands, waiting for them to get close to me...

"How does it feel?" asked Tazaki Saku.

"It's beyond imagination. I think this will definitely help those classical guys get rid of their prejudice against you." Yukiho Yonekura said solemnly.

In response, Tazaki Saku just smiled faintly and didn't say much.

In fact, the situation she described is basically impossible to happen.

Although "A Sheep Chasing" has both a good theme and a deep plot, it is essentially not accepted by the mainstream academic school. Even in Murakami Haruki's original world, most of the old stubborn people in the Japanese literary world do not recognize him.

The first reason is that Murakami’s writing style is indeed not gorgeous.

Many Chinese readers feel that Haruki Murakami has a good writing style when reading his works, but that is actually the writing style of Lin Shaohua.

Murakami's writing style can only be considered average among pure literary writers.

Another point of criticism from the old stubborn guy is that Murakami Haruki's works are too similar.

The protagonists are almost all carved out of the same template, with almost no difference in personality, and their behaviors are always mechanically repeating the same things - listening to jazz, cooking pasta, swimming or exercising, etc.

After reading many books, I feel like I'm actually reading the first one... It's no surprise that it was criticized by the mainstream.

It is not enough to impress the old stubborn people in the literary world with the "Youth Trilogy".

Tazaki Saku didn't expect this to bring him any fame, let alone recognition from the mainstream literary world. Now that he was broke, he just wanted to make money and had no intention of wasting it on fame.

"I'll go back to the company now and discuss next month's publication with the editor-in-chief." Yukiho Yonekura looked at the USB flash drive with a slight smile on her face.

"Okay, I'll go see Professor Fujimiya too." Tazaki Saku nodded.

Yonekura Yukiho stood up with the USB drive. When she reached the door, she suddenly turned around, brushed her hair with one hand, took a deep breath, and said, "If you need to use my connections, just let me know."

"must."

Tazaki Saku replied with a smile.

(End of this chapter)