Chapter 21 Section IV: The End of "Elegant Literature" and the Non-Mainstreamization of "Pleasure Literature"

Mori Ogai wrote a preface to "The Tale of the Floating City" with the title "Reporting the Strange Story". Because it is the birthplace of "romantic" in Europe, the princes and aristocrats of Mancha lost their minds because of this. Commentators also said that Jules Verne is like an unofficial history. It is said that Jules Verne is like an unofficial history because of its natural origin The layout of the story shocked the common people." Mori Ogai also wrote that "most European writers now despise Jules Verne, because Jules Verne made the protagonist of his novels go to the sky or into the sea", so he was called Naturalistic literature is looked down upon.In addition, Mori Ogai has the following statement:

"In other words, novels are poems. Is reporting knowledge and strange news really valuable as poetry? Yes, novels are actually poems and narrative poems, but the definition of novels is by no means as narrow as the world thinks (abbreviated in the middle). The first part of the story cannot be used as a reason to read the whole story, but in the world of his poems, this novel is undoubtedly worth reading." This can be said to be the earliest statement in favor of science fiction in Japan.As expected of Mr. Hoshi Shinichi's uncle (brother of grandma Kimiko Koganei).At the same time, Tokutomi Sufeng and translator Morita Sixuan also praised the novel.However, Uchida Luan and Shiqiao Renyue gave the novel severe criticism.

Yano Ryukei wrote in the preface of "The Story of the Floating City": "The key to unofficial history novels is to please readers, to make the worried happy, the poor prosperous, and to relieve readers' sorrows and boredom. This is popular. Ships are strong and cannons are invincible , gallop the world with great ambitions, science and academics can do things that the world cannot do, and voyages and trade benefit overseas, this is what is recorded in this book. Chinese people read it like joy, and then they know where they are depressed." Yano Ryuki emphasized The value of a novel is to please the reader, which can be seen as an entertainment manifesto.

However, Yano Tatsuki's claim that "the key to unofficial history novels is to please people" has been severely criticized by Uchida Roan, the owner of Shibuan.Uchida Luan believes that "novels reveal the fate of people and analyze people's temperament. The most advanced novels should express contemporary human feelings, and others are not novels. (Obmitted in the middle) The so-called heroic stories or allegorical novels are fictional novels, and they must not Call it a novel." ("Reading "The Story of the Floating Castle"" Part 1, "Kingmin Shimbun", May 8, Meiji 23)

Ishibashi Renyue also criticized Yano Tatsuki's works, and pointed out that "(the novel) must be aimed at describing people's lives. , is purely a clumsy trick of a petty literati. I feel sad that the news does not abide by the 'beauty', and I feel sad that its works do not aim at people's lives." ("Friends of the Nation" April 3, Meiji 23 ) From this point of view, the controversy surrounding "The Story of the Floating Castle" can be regarded as a kind of opposition between the literary view of pure literature and the literary view of popular books.Here, sensitive sci-fi fans can understand why sci-fi works have been repeatedly criticized for decades after the 1960s.In Japan, although many years have passed, criticisms of science fiction such as "it cannot be written by humans" continue.

Although he wants to "please the readers", the "pleasure" Yano Ryukei refers to is the pleasure brought to people by lofty ideals.National power adventure novels are not only entertainment books, but also political novels that motivate people to act through reading. "The Story of the Floating City" does still retain pre-modern literary views, but this does not mean that it is completely equivalent to pre-modern reading materials and unofficial history. Whether it is civil rights novels or national power novels, they are all political novels that use the form of novels to discuss major events in the world. From this point of view, they all belong to the category of Zuo Guoshi Han.Although it adopts the Meiji language consistency in style, its spirit is still the same as that of pre-modern Chinese literature, and it belongs to "elegant literature".From the point of view of pre-modern literature, scripts and readings describing low-level human conditions and customs can at best be regarded as "lower Liba literature" in literature.Because Western literature tells people that the works that describe the world and daily life are the real literature.Uchida Roan, who criticized Yano Ryukei, was influenced by Dostoevsky and quickly accepted the modern literary concept.

A notable change brought about by the controversy of "The Story of the Floating City" is that the previous values ​​such as elegant literature and lower Riba literature have gradually faded out, replaced by pure literature and popular literature (such names were not established at the time), and have since become Criteria for evaluating literary works.In this context, many novels with clear propositions or aspirations like elegant literature are gradually regarded as popular literature. But pure literature does not absolutely reject the values ​​​​of elegant literature, and this is the problem that the protagonist worries about.People in elegant literature are troubled by the affairs of the world and the country, and they are generous with grief and indignation, and they act accordingly.In contrast, pure literature mostly describes the distress in people's hearts. The protagonist hides all the distress in his heart, but the distress cannot be vented.