Fantasy Writers 1860

Chapter 126: A Commentary with a Unique Perspective (Thanks to the War Economist for the donation)

The girl from a foreign land turned back to the beginning and savored this timeless novel once more, her fingertips tracing the rough paper and gently caressing the name "Dorian".

As a newcomer who has been unusually active in the Lontinion literary circle recently, Harue Natsuki has naturally paid attention to Dorian, and she has also read his two famous works.

This work is still a short story as always, with the kind of unexpected yet logical "Dorian-style ending," but like Dickins, she also sensed something different between the lines.

"I understand why this novel is so interesting to me—" A blush of excitement rose on the girl's fair cheeks.

"This work doesn't quite feel like Brittany; rather, it has a bit of a Sakura Country style—"

In the literary tradition of Brittany, or rather Europe, satire is an important component. However, upon closer examination, one will find that the satire here is more focused on specific people and events. Even when criticizing the system, there is always a clear target of criticism embedded in the story.

Brittanyans might unconsciously imbue a scene with more materiality, incorporate obvious irony or moral implications, and create a stronger sense of judgment.

But this novel is different. Its writing style is extremely clean and restrained, with a sense of subtlety and open-endedness. It doesn't present any character as a target; all the metaphors are hidden in that "hole," leaving room for different people to interpret them in completely different ways.

This gave her a familiar, mysterious feeling.

This transparent style is similar to the aesthetic of "stillness" in the literature of Sakura Country, allowing readers to experience the terror beneath the calm for themselves.

For example, in the ending, if it were written by a typical Breton writer, they might have described the horrific scene of countless pieces of garbage falling from the sky, depicted the miserable state of people, and then led to a religious spirituality such as divine judgment.

The novel ends with a "quiet collapse," conveying a minimalist and internalized sense of powerlessness. Crisis lurks in the everyday, and destruction comes quietly and calmly; this style evoked a sense of pathos from her hometown.

She herself lived in Brittany, translating literary works from both countries while also creating her own works in Breton. Her familiarity with both languages ​​and cultures made it easier for her to capture the subtle differences and commonalities between them.

She looked up at the few winter cherry trees in full bloom in the corner of the courtyard. The petals were gently blown down by the wind and landed on the bluestone slabs in the courtyard, like a layer of light pink snow that had fallen in advance.

She picked up the fountain pen on the corner of the table, took out a delicate blank notebook from the drawer, and wrote down her beautiful handwriting as she wrote down the fleeting thoughts that had just come to mind: "In the great literary tradition of Brittany, what would happen if a hole swallowed the sins of the whole city?"

I imagine Milton's hell roars, Swift's abyss mocks, and Strand's darkness accuses. Your cave has a mouth and a tongue; it will speak, curse, judge, or at least, emit a moral echo—"

"—The wicked are punished, the good are saved, and the justice of God is as precise as a clock, but this hole says nothing; the stone that fell from the sky did not strike any specific wicked person."

Upon seeing this, Dickinson felt as if she had been struck by lightning, and she understood where the strange feeling she had initially experienced came from.

"—I once introduced the Shinto worldview of 'purification' and 'impurity' in 'The Tale of the Cherry Blossom Country': Impurity does not disappear because of your identity or status; it accumulates and will naturally backfire at some point—"

"Great literature always transcends national boundaries. Perhaps Mr. Dorian never left Brittany, yet with a genius-like intuition, he touched upon a common human fear. But as someone who lives in the space between two cultures, I am probably more acutely aware than anyone else of this wondrous fusion."

"That's pretty fast—" Dickinson murmured to herself, slowly shifting her gaze from the New Review magazine in her hands.

She knew the author of this commentary, Natsuki Harue; in fact, it's rare to find someone who didn't know her.

As a beautiful young writer from the distant Sakura Kingdom, she traveled all the way to Lentinion and wrote the novel "Battle on the Carousel" in Lentinion language. At the time, such a gimmick caused a sensation throughout the city, and a large number of people followed suit and bought her book.

What's even more outrageous is that, living up to its reputation, this novel is actually of decent quality.

It's not top-tier, but it's not bad either, especially considering that it was created by a non-native speaker. If judged under these conditions, it can definitely be considered excellent.

That's a bit too much.

After that, although she did not continue writing new novels, she devoted her main energy to translating literary works from Sakura and Shun and introducing Sakura culture. However, she continued to write literary reviews, give speeches, and attend various salon events, maintaining a certain level of public interest.

Today, many people in Brittany have indeed come to know the unique culture of this wonderful country through her book, "The Story of Cherry Blossom Country".

In the past, when talking about the East, most people only had a vague understanding of the Shun Kingdom. Those who were slightly more knowledgeable knew that the founding emperor of the Shun Kingdom had led a large army to conquer the Ying Kingdom. Sinologists also knew that after being conquered, the Ying Kingdom was directly governed by the royal family in accordance with ancestral teachings and was considered a royal territory. In recent years, due to some complex political reasons, the restrictions were slightly loosened, and it became a nominally independent country.

But after nearly 200 years, this country has been almost entirely Sinicized, and it's hard to say that anything truly independent remains.

It was through Ms. Harue Natsuki's works that people learned that this inconspicuous vassal state also had such a wonderful culture.

Besides this foreign writer, various other opinion newspapers also published their own commentaries, including even the imperial state media, *Time*.

"Retract the article? You're telling me you want to retract the article now? Are you kidding me?!" At the same time, in the director's office at the Time magazine printing plant, the director, who was sitting in a high-backed chair, was so shocked by this outrageous request that he sat up.

As the official media of the Britannian Empire, "Time" has strict standards and a stable process for both news gathering and article selection. Over the years, even if there have been occasional mistakes, it has never made such an outrageous error.

The layout was all done, the proof was all proofread, and the order was signed and sent to print. Now they're saying they want to withdraw the manuscript?

If there was any content that couldn't be published, how come it passed through so many layers of review and proofreading in the editorial department? Why is it only now that they're saying they want to retract the article?

If a paper is retracted, a large section of the page will be empty. If there is no new content to fill it, all the subsequent content will have to be moved forward and the entire layout will have to be rearranged!

Such a huge change, and it still needs to be released as scheduled first thing tomorrow morning—how is that possible? The typesetters will kill me!

"I'm so sorry, we will fully compensate your factory for the losses caused by this—" The deputy manager of the editorial department of Time magazine, who was assigned to convey this matter, also knew that this was an unreasonable request. At this moment, he could only lower his head and apologize repeatedly, not daring to even look at the factory manager on the other side.

"Nonsense, utter nonsense!" The factory manager slammed his fist on the table. "I've already printed over six thousand copies, and the earliest batches are already en route. Do you expect me to recall and destroy them all?"

"Yes, sir—" The deputy manager who came to communicate lowered his head even further.

The factory manager took a deep breath, calming himself down slightly, and tried to appear as friendly as possible: "Why? Can you explain?"