Shige, Saya, and Mido chat and grin while looking at tweets about 'The Nameless Kingdom'
Shigeru Kurakazu's 'The Nameless Kingdom' was released on the 5th of this month. After he gave an interview about the work at Poplar Publishing, we took some time with Kurakazu-san and two of his editors to look at the impressions posted on Twitter and talk about how happy we were. *We have read all the impressions, including those not picked up here, with great joy. Thank you so much.
*Below, 'Shige' = Kurakazu-san, 'Saya' = Obara from Poplar Publishing, and 'Mido' = Yajima from Poplar Publishing. ↓This is based on the vibe or flow of this... I am very humbled...!
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Shige: It makes me happy when people say they get a 'sense of colors and smells coming out of the text.' 'The Neverending Story'—there are certainly commonalities there. The eternal champion of the metafiction department of children's literature.
Saya: Forgetting to eat and sleep—that's a serious way to get hooked. I'm happy to share that feeling! We also abandoned all our administrative work to read the galleys, didn't we, Midori-san?
Mido: I was sitting cross-legged on my desk chair reading the final chapter, 'The Phantom Garden'... But to do it in one day... That is truly amazing.
Mi: W-what is this!! (Who could those people be...!?)
Sa: Since the next tweet mentioned 'that person (M-sensei's side),' I wonder if it's Hiroko Minagawa-sensei. They continued by writing, 'I thought it was a love letter to Borges, Casares, Taeko Kuzuhara, etc...' Ah, I feel like they really understood it. The phrase 'a love letter to the readers of a secret society' is also great!
Shi: That's passionate. I'm very happy to see this excitement.
Sa: That's right, that's right! Every scene that Tatsuta-san chose has such beautiful imagery and leaves an impression, doesn't it? I'd love to see it on screen...
Shi: 'The Garden of Summer Cornelian Cherries' was actually a working title I had while writing it. It wasn't adopted because the character for 'Cornelian Cherry' was too difficult. People sometimes tell me that my writing is very cinematic. However, despite that, I am a person with very weak visual memory, and I can't remember people's faces at all.
Mi: The scene in the final garden also relies on auditory information... It hit me so hard that I envy those who haven't read it yet.
Shi: I read Haneko Takayama's 'Objectam' the other day. I wasn't conscious of it, but it was the influence of this tweet. It was very interesting.
Sa: The combination of these two books is exquisite. But, the readers of 'The Nameless Kingdom' are all so good at writing, aren't they?
Mi: And the three of us grin as we confirm the final sentence of 'The Kingdom'.
Mi: We also received some harsh criticism! I understand exactly what you are saying. We struggled with it a lot, too. I think many of those who are drawn to 'The Nameless Kingdom' are people who are used to reading novels and books, but we made the decision with the hope that people who aren't would also pick it up and (without being discouraged by the complex structure) see this story through to the end.
Shi: So that's how it is.
Sa: Your scolding is well-deserved. It is tactless, isn't it... I would like to take this opportunity to deeply apologize to everyone who was offended. We simply mobilized every hook we could, regardless of appearances, just to get as many people as possible to pick it up. I hope that if you read it to the end, you will find a sense of satisfaction that outweighs your anger...
Sa: I'm honored that you felt a spark at the bookstore! We met, didn't we (laughs).
Mi: It's truly a happy thing to have someone feel a spark from the visual information and be satisfied with the content. And they understand the story even more deeply than I do.
Shi: They really read it thoroughly. Since novels of various styles appear, I'm happy if they can enjoy each one.
Shi: As expected, the musician's impressions are poetic.
Mi: Even without a bookmark feature, they read the whole thing on note...
Sa: Wanting to reread it to solve the mysteries little by little is the highest compliment!
Mi: Narano-san, what reading comprehension. I'm glad I didn't spoil the fun for them...
Sa: Another person hoping for a 'Sawatari Akira Collected Works' has appeared! I am currently releasing unpublished short stories on note one by one; I wonder if they have read them. If a Sawatari Akira collection were to be realized, it would likely be a book with a very beautiful appearance. If 'The Nameless Kingdom' sells a lot, or perhaps... (daydreaming)
Shi: 'Specimen box'—what a wonderful expression. I am truly grateful. Come to think of it, there is an artist named Joseph Cornell, and his works are things where small, detailed items are packed into a small box in a somewhat dollhouse-like fashion. If we could publish a book by Sawatari Akira, I would want it to have that kind of image.
Mi: There were also people who described our unusual email exchanges like this. Thank you, Toku-san...
Shi: I was surprised too. I hadn't been told about it (laughs).
Sa: I was writing it desperately... I didn't even have the leeway to let you know.
Mi: I had decided that if I couldn't write it in an interesting way, I would shelve it...
Sa: This email exchange really received a lot of feedback, didn't it? Thank you to everyone who read it. After that, through 'Saya-Mido Correspondence Part 2' on Messenger, we arrived at this 'Shige-Saya-Mido Three-Way Conversation' (?), didn't we?
To everyone who tweeted such wonderful impressions, thank you very, very much. The last summer of the Heisei era is almost over. I hope you will step into the kingdom of stories.