Chapter 12 Naoko Anfang: A Master of Describing Dreamy Beauty

Naoko Anfang: A Master of Describing Dreamy Beauty Except for a few full-length novels such as "Tianlu", Naoko Anfang's works are very short, and most of her works are short story collections or short story series.Even she herself has publicly admitted that she is not good at writing novels.So some people say that Naoko Anfang is essentially a short story writer. Naoko Anfang's short stories are all written with great care and exquisiteness, just like ethereal and timeless short songs. No wonder some writers commented that Naoko Anfang's works are as detailed as embroidery, and even the shape of the needle marks is similar to that of this person. It fits like that.This description is indeed appropriate, and it also coincides with my feelings when I read Naoko Anfang - I can't help but wonder, if Naoko Anfang is not a graceful elf who does not eat the fireworks of the world, how can she bear the loneliness and write How about such a slender work?

Her works are not only short, but also always filled with a quiet feeling. Like a gentle breeze, like Zen rain... Maybe it's her personality? Naoko Anfang is a woman far away from the hustle and bustle. She lives indifferently all her life and even refuses to travel.In a self-written chronicle, she once wrote that when she was 29 years old in 1972, she built a mountain hut in Karuizawa in the east of Nagano Prefecture, and spent every summer there after that. Only such a woman with a calm mind can write such spotless works! The biggest feature of Anfang Naoko's fantasy novels is that she sinks reality into the bottom layer of fantasy, thereby blurring the boundary line between reality and fantasy to the greatest extent.She said that she likes Grimm's fairy tales. The first book she read was Grimm's fairy tales. She read them from elementary school to junior high school, and after becoming a writer, she continued to read them over and over again. No matter how she read them, she felt new.She said that perhaps, the forest of fairy tales in my heart is a fragment of the big dark forest in the collection of Grimm's fairy tales that I have read in the past.She also said that she was too much influenced by the Grimm's fairy tales, and liked to write about the down-on-his-luck hero being helped by something with supernatural powers, and that if it wasn't in the form of a Grimm or folk tale, she couldn't write it.

What Naoko Anfang pursues is an aesthetic world. Her style is harmonious and stable, but there is a faint sadness floating in the sweet fantasy. Where does this sadness come from?Some people say it was born with it, and some people say it's because Anfang Naoko is an adopted daughter... In any case, she always starts from the perspective of a gentle woman, and integrates this kind of slight sadness into her poignant, ethereal and dreamlike words, and writes one after another, which is so simple that it is almost transparent but makes people feel life. A story of pain and poetry. Loneliness, death, warmth, love and lingering nostalgia are the most common themes in Anfang Naoko's works.

The thoughts and implication of Naoko Anfang's works are profound. They not only describe the life beyond reality, but also let us see the abyss of life.Nishimoto Kosuke pointed out: "Although it is a sweet fantasy, it is fundamentally different from the sad fairy tales of the Hoshisumi school (referring to the romantic school that sings love in the Meiji era in Japan) and the folk fairy tales that escape reality. The fantasy world does not stop. In the longing, but with a deep and keen insight, explored the philosophical proposition of what a human being is. It seems to be an incredible fictional story, but it is not an absurd lie but a symbol of real life. Therefore, even adults It’s impossible not to feel empathy.”