novelraw Chapter 128 The Masterpiece of Genesis
Chapter 128 The Masterpiece of Genesis
Chapter 128 The Masterpiece of Genesis
The second issue of Top Hat magazine has been "fermenting" in the market all night.
Finally, at noon on January 22, the peak was reached!
The statistics were compiled by Yasunori Mikoshiba and the staff led by Miri Eri.
The second issue of Top Hat magazine, with a total circulation of 800,000 copies, did not sell out completely, but at least 600,000 copies were sold!
Based on the ratio of two out of ten readers voting, this vote should have at least 50,000 votes!
With such a large share of votes, there's virtually no need to worry about other publishers manipulating the vote count.
However, according to the plan, the vote count will begin on Sunday.
Therefore, the number of votes each of the twenty authors whose works have been published is still unknown.
Although the number of votes cannot be used to observe the readers' level of liking.
But the market's opinions and comments have clearly told everyone who the real champion of this competition is!
Kiyoshi Kasai is the number one fan of Kyosuke Maijo, a mystery critic, and a mystery writer, known as the "pioneer of philosophical mystery."
After reading "The Conclusion" in the second issue of Top Hat magazine yesterday.
This afternoon, I immediately began to express my praise and admiration for Kyosuke Maijo in various channels, including mystery commentary circles and newspapers!
""pack"
The exquisite skill needs no words! The brilliance of Master Maijo Kyosuke needs no further explanation!
"The ability to incorporate elements such as 'quantum entanglement,' 'Schrödinger's cat,' and 'the planks of the Caneades' into detective novels."
"Further supplemented by 'flashback reasoning'"
The use of unconventional writing techniques such as "multi-narrative" and "logical flow reasoning" ultimately resulted in the groundbreaking masterpiece, *Convergence*!
"Kyosuke Maijo's 'Convergence' has become a great work that can stand shoulder to shoulder with 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'!"
"With 'The Convergence,' Ms. Mai Cheng has shown us another path for mystery novels!"
"Finally, let me borrow a line from my own work, 'See You, Angel,' to praise my god, the only supreme god of deduction, 'Dance God'!"
"The 'Dance God' doesn't need deliberate hype from others, nor does it need market validation. From the moment of its debut, the 'Dance God' had already determined the future of Japanese mystery fiction!"
While Kiyoshi Kasai may not be as famous in the mystery commentary world as the master commentator Manji Gonda, his bold remarks have still garnered him a considerable following.
Kasai Kiyoshi's undisguised praise for Maijo Kyosuke has sparked a bit of interest in the author among many people who were not originally interested in mystery novels.
In particular, Kiyoshi Kasai exaggeratedly referred to Kyosuke Maijo as the "God of Dance" in the newspaper!
This exaggerated title led many people to decide to buy a copy of the second issue of "Top Hat" magazine to see the style of Maijo Kyosuke's "Conclusion".
I want to see if this so-called "God of Dance" title is truly well-deserved!
After all, Kasai Kiyoshi had just recently published a commentary on Edogawa Ranpo, and in that commentary, Kasai Kiyoshi did not refer to Edogawa Ranpo as a god—
Following the release of Kasai Kiyoshi's review, Gonda Manji, a renowned critic who had long associated with Maijo Kyosuke, also shared his thoughts on the short mystery story "Convergence."
It's important to understand that mystery critics in Japan are a unique profession that emerged under Japan's special market and environment.
The origin of this profession can be traced back to December 1887, the same time that Sherlock Holmes appeared, and the most important pioneer in Japanese detective fiction, Mr. Kuroiwa Ruika, also appeared.
Kuroiwa Ruika has translated many European and American literary works, as well as detective novels, and has provided detailed commentary and analysis on these works.
He eventually became the progenitor of mystery critics, influencing masters such as Fumio Sakai, Edogawa Ranpo, and Saburo Koga, and also creating the unique profession of mystery critic.
Since this profession mostly involves dissecting and evaluating works, it sounds glamorous, but in reality, the mystery critic community is rife with flame wars.
Basically, every new mystery novel that appears on the market is thoroughly analyzed by mystery critics from beginning to end!
Then they got into a fierce argument between the two sides, and engaged in a war of words in the newspapers!
Compared to the mutual attacks within the Japanese mystery fiction commentary community.
The rap battles that were popular in Europe and America in the 70s seemed much milder.
Less than two hours after Kasai Kiyoshi called Maijo Kyosuke "the God of Dance" and praised "The Convergence" as a great work, mystery critic Gonda Manji followed suit with his own evaluation.
All the readers thought that the real show was about to begin!
The opening act of the mystery commentary world is about to be ignited by Kiyoshi Kasai and Manji Gonda!
But to everyone's disappointment...
The expected mutual attacks did not occur.
Manji Gonda is a commentator who often stands in opposition to everyone.
This time, I actually reached a high degree of ideological agreement with Kiyoshi Kasai!
He not only expressed extremely high praise and appreciation for Kyosuke Maijo's "Conclusion"!
He even wrote a perfect review, recommending everyone to read it: "An inactive, unscrupulous detective with no bottom line, a bizarre murder case on a strange island, brilliant logical deduction—even God couldn't pinpoint the final killer!"
"Want to see a story like this? Then buy the second issue of *Top Hat* magazine! *Convergence* is there, waiting for your challenge!"
"Kyosuke Maijo's 'The Convergence' is very likely to be a logic-driven work that no one will be able to surpass for the next fifty years, and it will surely be a masterpiece that will be recorded in the history of mystery!"
"Mr. Kiyoshi Kasai's evaluation is not an exaggeration at all. If 'Conclusion' is Mr. Kyosuke Maijo's masterpiece, then 1980 was Mr. Maijo's year of becoming a legend!"
"I am very fortunate to have been born in this era, because I am fortunate to be able to see how the mystery supernova, Kyosuke Maijo, is rewriting the future of the Japanese mystery genre step by step."
Once Gonda Manji's commentary was published in the newspaper, it immediately caused a sensation in the mystery fiction world!
After all, it was described by a master of mystery commentary like Manji Gonda, who had read countless books, as "even a god could not pinpoint the final culprit!"
This clearly shows that Gonda Manji is completely convinced of Maijo Kyosuke's abilities!
1980 1 Month 22 Day.
A very rare scene unfolded on the streets of Tokyo, where snow was still falling.
Bookstores, newsstands, supermarkets—anywhere magazines are sold.
People were standing on the snowy streets, holding magazines with a blood-stained black top hat on the cover, flipping through them.
Clearly, the magazine they were holding was the second issue of Top Hat magazine.
The work they were looking at was, of course, the currently unparalleled masterpiece, "Convergence," written by Kyosuke Maijo, which was hailed as a "god" by mystery critics Manji Gonda and Kiyoshi Kasai!
A young man, who liked to follow trends and join in the fun, bought the book out of curiosity and a "let's give it a try" attitude.
Top Hat Magazine, Issue 2.
I began reading "Conclusion," a work hailed as a masterpiece.
When the young man turned to the last page of "Conclusion".
Upon seeing the last page, which read that Mibukuro Sanjo, as the detective's assistant, went back to her room to sleep against her conscience.
The young man's face showed an expression of utter disbelief, as if he had been tricked!
"Huh?! No wonder Mr. Gonda Manji said that even a god couldn't pinpoint the final culprit. It turns out there wasn't a culprit in the story of 'Convergence' at all!"
"Only when 'tomorrow' arrives, based on the names of the dead, will we know who the murderer is!"
Many readers felt cheated after reading Maijo Kyosuke's "Convergence".
But after everyone had read all nineteen other articles published in the second issue of Top Hat magazine, they found that the only one that could truly surprise them was "Conclusion"!
As a result, a large number of readers marked the voting cards with the name of Maishiro Kyosuke and returned to the bookstore to cast their precious vote for Maishiro Kyosuke!
Mystery critics and general readers alike have praised Kyosuke Maijo's "Conclusion".
This has caused great distress to a group of mystery writers in Japan.
Or to be more precise, it was a source of great distress for the Japanese mystery writer who had recently submitted a manuscript to Kodansha's magazine department.
Since they read Maijo Kyosuke's "Convergence," they were all amazed by its greatness and innovation.
They never expected that Kyosuke Maijo could write such an ingeniously structured and completely unpredictable work!
The groundbreaking nature of "Convergence," its lingering aftertaste, the character designs of McCato and Mibukuro, and the logical reasoning used in the cases are all unparalleled!
Many Japanese mystery writers who were previously aggressive and wanted to teach Kyosuke Maijo a lesson have now chosen to remain silent!
Because "Convergence" is just too powerful.
Want to beat Convergence?
This is almost impossible for non-top-tier Japanese mystery writers!
As for the rumors circulating before, they were all rendered into fabricated rumors because Maijo Kyosuke's "Convergence" was simply too powerful!
What do you mean, Kodansha's magazine department is maliciously hoarding manuscripts and protecting Kyosuke Maishiro to the death?
Hoarding manuscripts just to manipulate the competition? To let Maishiro Kyosuke take first place?
This is a completely unfounded rumor!
Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, inside the Otowa Town Kodansha building.
Jiang Liumei was sitting in the magazine department of Kodansha, arranging staff to prepare for the third issue of the magazine "Top Hat".
The main task is to review all the more than 500 submissions that accumulated last week.
Nineteen of the best articles were selected and published in the third issue of the magazine "Top Hat".
This way, it can both prevent other publishers from playing tricks and claiming that their magazine departments are maliciously manipulating the competition, and it can also replicate the glory of the second issue, allowing "Top Hat" magazine to successfully secure its position as the third best short story mystery magazine in Japan!
Just as everyone in the magazine department was focused on reviewing the manuscripts, a piercing telephone ring broke the silence of the department, where only the sound of turning pages could be heard.
"Ding! Ding! Ding!"
The operator, who specializes in handling follow-up calls, quickly answered the phone: "Hello, welcome to your call. This is the Kodansha Magazine Department."
"How can I help you?"
The operator had barely finished speaking when a somewhat impatient voice came through the phone: "Excuse me—is Jiang Liu, the editor-in-chief of your magazine department, available?"
"I have something very important to tell Editor-in-Chief Jiang Liu!"
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