Chapter 62 gorgeous utopia

Ranpo Edogawa, as he himself once described it: "I have an impatient nature, so it seems that I am only suitable for short stories or novels written in one go." Most people would not classify him as an essentially long-form writer.In fact, from his debut to his later years of "The Deceiver and the Air Man", all the works that are regarded as masterpieces and masterpieces are almost all short or medium-length.For Ranpo literature, this evaluation is quite consistent. However, in Ranpo's creative career, he actually wrote nearly thirty novels.And whether it is the pre-war version of "The Complete Works of Edogawa Ranpo", the Shinchosha version of "Selected Works of Edogawa Ranpo", and the post-war version of "Edogawa Ranpo Library" by Chunyangtang, and the version of "Edogawa Ranpo Library" by Taoyuansha. The Complete Works of Edogawa Ranpo", the editorial policy is to regard these novels as signatures and publish them at the front of the volume, while short stories and novellas are included later.In other words, the literary evaluation of Ranpo is completely contrary to the editorial policy of these complete works (which can be said to be the latest indicator of reader popularity).There is such a huge gap in the evaluation between critics, professional readers and the general public, such a writer should be very rare.

Not long after the war, Ranpo once expressed his feelings: "Before the war, the term 'sensationalism' was popular, and my mystery novels, as one of the representatives, were severely criticized by interested people." , mainly aimed at popular long-form works serialized in popular entertainment magazines at that time.In fact, Ranpo's long-length works are almost like the author's self-deprecating, "popular martial arts drama", which describes the unrealistic dealings between bad guys (mostly people with extreme personality abnormalities) and good guys (mostly the famous detective Akechi Kogoro) Wits novels.Although the standard is quite low, the thrilling and suspenseful plots are amazing, and the almost absurd eroticism and horror details are embellished, so this series of works has indeed become the darling of the public at a certain period before the war. .This is also the reason why various magazines are vying to publish long-form works in disorder.When it comes to mystery novels, readers at the time directly equated it with provocative and novelty novels.In fact, in addition to Ranpo, there are quite a few reasoning writers who serialized long stories in popular entertainment magazines, such as Koga Saburo, Oshita Utaku, and Henggou Masashi. The crowd is overwhelming, and it pales in comparison.

Having said that, when it comes to how popular and long works like Ranpo are written, it is like people commenting on each work afterwards, borrowing Ranpo's own words: "If you want to be serialized in this kind of magazine, this work is not the best choice , it doesn’t matter if you don’t have an overall outline when you write—frankly speaking, the overall coherence of the content published every month is not important, but the plot must be fascinating, which can please readers and editors. The works all appear fragmented.The overall structure of the story has been fixed in "Vampire" (1930) and "Blind Beast" (1931), and the subsequent works almost repeat the same structure, only making changes in details .From this point of view, it can be concluded that what the public readers enjoy is not the content and plot of the stories in the long novels of Luanbu, but tirelessly appreciating the unique eroticism and horror atmosphere in the stories.

Of course, Ranpo also feels disgusted with his own inadequacies, even to the point of inferiority complex.Ranpo once recalled that before the war, he would take the initiative to ask Ying to write the mystery novel and mystery writer project of the "Dictionary of World Literature and Art" (1935-1937) published by the Central Public Press, "It can almost be said that it was for me. Apologize for the popular long and vulgar mystery novels".When serializing the only full-length novel "The Great Dream" during the war, Ranpo mentioned in the "Author's Words": "I want to describe a dream. Of course, it is not the nightmare of the past." In addition, in the war just ended In the essay, Ranpo also reflected: "I regret it very much. I really shouldn't write erotic and scary mystery novels in a low-level mass entertainment magazine that even children can read. I will never repeat the same mistakes in the future."

In the past, Ranpo's popular novels were almost never regarded as the object of formal comments, perhaps because of the author's guilt for his own works.Since Ranpo's popular novels are regarded by him as the dross of the past, is it not worth reading for us now?I don't think so.As mentioned above, Ranpo's popular martial arts novels are a treasure trove of wit and action, thriller and suspense.I think there are still many people who aspire to create espionage thrillers or martial arts action works. For these people with lofty ideals, if they want to learn how to create horror scenes and how to write to attract readers' attention, the popular novels of random steps are again. Inappropriate teaching material.From this point of view, although the perspective is quite different from the short stories and medium-length novels, there are still many things worth studying in the future.For this purpose, I try to review all of Ranpo's novels according to the year of publication. The objects of review are not only popular martial arts works, but also more serious works.

1. "Still in the Dark" Regarding this novel, Ranpo once made such an evaluation: "I want to create an erotic atmosphere in this novel." Regarding the description of female nudity, the thrill of peeping at the women’s bath, the fear of being imprisoned in a dark cave, in the end, the author puts the cannibal under the microscope. In short, this novel can be called the ultimate expression of eroticism and horror s work. In this work, the "all deceptive" reversal endings in strange short stories such as "The Red Room", "The Actor with Hundred Faces", and "The Chair in the World" have completely disappeared. It is vividly described with an indescribable sense of reality.This kind of commercial courage should be the driving force behind Ranpo's ability to create a series of popular novels like "Spider Man".

2. "The Lakeside Pavilion Incident" Perhaps considering the overall style of the serialized magazine, compared to "Still in the Dark", "The Lakeside Pavilion Incident" is far more ordinary in terms of eroticism and horror, and cannot be compared equally at all.The plot setting of the story is the same as the short story "The Two Wasted People". The protagonists in the story have designed a seamless criminal plan that takes the other person's feelings into consideration.Structurally, in the second half of the story, the prisoners explained the cause and effect of the incident to each other.This structure has also been used in the novella "Yin Beast" and "Yin Beast".

The protagonist brings the voyeurism mechanism combined by the principle of perspective into the hot spring hotel, installs it in the dressing room of the bath, and puts the viewing lens in his own room, secretly peeping at the behavior of the woman alone in the dressing room, and enjoys it , This is a desire hidden deep in the human heart, a psychological weakness, as long as it is human, it is inevitable.But Ranpo focuses on this point and concretizes it into a novel. This is the boldness that only Ranpo can do.There is even a mirror in the article to present the bloody killing scene in a close-up manner, and the effect can be scored full marks.The first half of the novel, even now that sexual taboos have disappeared and sexual descriptions are free, is still interesting.This is because voyeurism and voyeurism have a lot in common with sexual curiosity, but they are still different in nature.

In addition, while creating "The Lakeside Pavilion Incident", Ranpo also serialized the long story "The Fraudster and the Air Man" on "Photo Hochi", but the serialization was interrupted after several times due to the closure of the magazine. 3. Ranpo once said that in his serialized novels, only He was "slightly conceived in advance".He even said that in this work, he "wrote a wishful dream spontaneously", so "it can be said that he enjoyed writing it". From the whimsical first half of digging up the grave, removing the corpse, and pretending to be resurrected from the dead, to the gorgeous fantasy of Panorama - the Utopian country - are all unique worlds that can only be constructed by relying on Ranpo's imagination .It's a pity that if we can further describe the woman's suspicion of "Is this man really her husband?" in the novel, the whole work will be more complete.In this way, the final killing scene should be more vivid and tense.Ranpo was probably praised by Hagiwara Sakutaro. He once said that this work "feels like the one with the least flaws in my serialized works", but I think that there are not many flaws, but it does not mean that it is outstanding.

All in all, the author's detailed description of Panorama Island, which is full of imaginative beauty and immorality, is completely a world of special effects if it is presented in a movie. From the perspective of realistic prose poetry, it is also very interesting.Regarding the ending of the final mystery novel, Ranpo thinks that it is the same as the reasoning part of "The Walker on the Ceiling", which is superfluous.But such a statement is completely wrong. If there is no plot to reveal the truth, this work will lose its finishing touch. 4. "One Inch Master" This is the first time that Ranpo's novel has appeared in front of two million readers across the country.From this point of view, it can be said that this is an epoch-making work.In any case, Ranpo is facing the readers of "Asahi Shimbun" at this time, and he can no longer write the appalling content of "Still in the Dark", so that the creative process is very difficult.Ranpo wrote in the preview that the content of this story will "try not to write a purely original work, and the style must be low-key and restrained", but after the completion of the work, it does not hurt to classify it as an ordinary mystery-solving mystery novel .

However, Ranpo's novelty-seeking style is still embellished in it.Depictions of obscene scenes in Asakusa Park, a strange one-inch mage wandering around with a living arm, a living arm hanging on a mannequin in a suit in a department store, a corpse put into a Cupid doll, a secret base with three entrances and exits Wait, all kinds of tricks that will be used freely in "Spider Man" and "Blind Beast" in the future can find traces of their germination in this work.The strangeness that makes people exclaim again and again, and the intricate mystery make people sweat. In the end, the famous detective Akechi Kogoro "the famous detective called all the staff and explained the cause and effect" to give a long speech that is profound and simple. Revealing the "Mafia"-style tenderness, how can such a work that thoroughly entertains the public be unpopular? Regrettably, Luanbu racked his brains and finally finished writing "One Inch Master", and then "finally couldn't squeeze out any more ideas. I feel ashamed of my own works. I hate myself and others. To describe it as funny, I I really want to dig a hole in the ground and get in." From then on, Luanbu entered his first pen break. 5. In the third year of Showa (1927), Ranpo returned to the literary world due to the success of the novella "Yin Beast". Under the persuasion of Morishita Umura, he began to write this novel.Ranpo said: "...I had a little idea beforehand, but I found out that the vague idea might be wrong when I actually started writing. As a result, I still have to worry about the deadline every month. In the end, I can only write works of this level. "However, for this thriller novel, which is based on basic reasoning in the first half, strange adventures in the second half, and a variety of styles and structures, critics agree that this is the leading work among the many novels of Ranpo. The inspiration of this work is said to come from the two or three lines of descriptions about disabled people made in China involved in the "Complete Works of Ogai", and the psychological process of the protagonist wandering in the underground cave maze, and also quoted the section "Improvisational Poets" translated by Ogai . The structure of stories such as "Psychological Test" and "Mirror Hell" are also reflected in this work. From this, it can be confirmed that the method of studying writing in the early stage of Ranbu is very worth exploring.However, regarding the protagonist's homosexuality, although Ranpo himself has done in-depth research on homosexuality, as he himself said, "Because it is a mystery novel, it is a pity that I didn't have the opportunity to write this unusual love to my heart's content."Having said that, it is by no means "even becoming an obstacle to the development of the story" as Ranbu said. Same-sex love still adds thickness and sense of fulfillment to the work, but it is not described in detail to the point that all readers can accept it. The "cloisonné vase" used in the secret room murder trick in this work is tantamount to the forerunner of today's Fuutaro Yamada's ninjutsu works.There are also code words in the story, but compared with the code words of "Mafia", it is much inferior, perhaps because it is published in popular magazines, and this restrictive factor must be taken into account. "Hachiman I don't know Yabu" is also often seen in Ranpo's later novels, and it becomes the theme of the second half of this work.Ranpo once mentioned that this work is "the beginning of literaryism", and also said that "this novel ended without going through the obsession with cleanliness in the past. One of the motives of "Spider Man", it can be seen that this tear-scented masterpiece is of great significance in the series of Ranpo works. 6. "Spider Man" From August 1929 to June 1930, it was serialized in "Talk Club". This is the first work in a series published by Kodansha.This work has received unprecedented praise, resulting in a blowout growth in the number of popular novels created in the next ten years.In this sense, regardless of whether the work itself is good or bad, this is a memorable work. Talking about the motivation for writing this work, Ranpo once said: "I picked up my pen again after going out of business, and published "Yin Beast", "Smoke Insect", "The Man Traveling with Stickers" and "Insect" one after another, writing along the way. Later, although it was praised by some readers, the author himself has no confidence at all... Simply put, because I am extremely lonely, I am becoming more and more self-defeating." He admitted that he was moved by Kodansha's beliefs and ethos. It worked", "I really don't know how to write the 'novels suitable for all ages' advertised by Kodansha, so when I obtained permission to appear mildly cruel descriptions, I used the mixture of Tears and LeBron Style is the goal of writing".As a result, "to the readers of mystery novels, this is just an absurd adventure novel, but it is unexpectedly popular. Countless innocent words of appreciation flooded the author's ears".Afterwards, this novel also "received the highest number of votes in the reader's vote, and many reporters kept touting it. I must be a little bit ecstatic."Such was the case with the popularity of the work. Nakajima Kataro said in the commentary of "Edogawa Ranpo Bunko" in the Chunyangdo edition: "Indeed, for readers who have some research on reasoning, the tricks used in the book are quite old-fashioned, but the author uses only a few The charm of mystery novels that readers can understand--whimsical tricks and the unexpectedness of the murderer--is the skeleton, described in plain and expressive words, and it is only natural that it has received such an astonishing response." And commented on this work "easy It perfectly reflects the sophistication of mystery novels", "established the unshakable position of mystery novels in the entertainment magazine industry, and has a groundbreaking significance", I think this evaluation is very pertinent and hits the point.In short, at that time, many famous reasoning writers actively wrote long works. At the same time as this "Spider Man", there were masterpieces "Dr. Hirukawa" by Oshita Utaku and "Ghost Murderer" by Saburo Koga.But in terms of popularity, it seems that they are no match for Ranpo. As a writer, Ranpo, if he is not constantly appreciated, will immediately lose his confidence and be unable to write.Probably because this "Spider Man" is the first work of a popular novel. To be honest, I think it is much inferior to the following ones and "Golden Mask", but maybe because this is the first work that makes a mess. This popular popular work, Luanbu was quite confident in it until his later years - the editor of the World News Agency who republished this work after the war once mentioned to me: Indeed, the extremely cruel and obscene evil karma of the peerless murderer, With Kogoro Akechi, the famous detective who can see through his true colors in just two or three fights, this is a work that fully presents the "endless hatred and endless struggle" between the two.The author exaggerated the various tricks in "One Inch Master", borrowed the idea of ​​the essay "The Horror of Movies", and added the inspiration of the artificial paradise in China, colliding with the random steps in "Yin Beast", which has a random writing structure The meaning of great integration, just from this point of view, it can be said that it is indeed a masterpiece.And the plot and structural patterns in "Spider Man" also appeared repeatedly in later works. 7. "The Result of Curious Hunting" From January to December 1930, it was serialized in "Literary Club". This work is considered the most unique among Ranpo's long works.Ranpo's original trick was to play two characters. It seems that he intends to draw on the horror stories of "Twins", "The Robbery", "One Person, Two Characters", "Doubt", and "Kissing" to create short stories, but there is still a way to solve the problem. Another person who is exactly like himself, I don't know how the author originally set up such a terrifying truth.In short, as far as the first half is concerned, this is a thrilling and interesting work.However, Ranpo does not seem to intend to give a clear and reasonable explanation for this impossibility.The editor-in-chief Henggou Zhengshi really couldn't bear to see the pain of Ranpo writing the following, so he extended a helping hand: "Just imitate the style of "Spider Man." Ranpo followed his suggestion and changed the title of the second half For "White Bat", the style of the subtitle, the plot, and the context are completely new, and even wise detectives appear on the stage, transforming it into a story with political conspiracy as the core and interspersed with fighting scenes. The utopian scientific trick of "Human Transformation Technique" is obviously borrowed from Laixiang's "Ghost Tower". Ranpo himself may also feel deeply guilty, and specially apologized at the end of the complete works for "the half-heartedness every month, which led to the loose plot and many other shortcomings".I once imagined that if the first half of this work was used as the basis before the war, and the second half was solicited through different forms with prizes, a very interesting and unique novel might be born, but up to now, this has been lost. It's an impossible dream.In short, only this novel, no matter how you look at it, can only be said to be a failure. 8. Ranpo takes pride in the critically acclaimed Spider-Man. After the serialization of "Spider Man" ended, he started writing immediately, and set the time after the "Spider Man" incident. The author didn't even let Akechi Kogoro take a good rest, and immediately let him go out again, which seems to reflect from the side The voice of the author.The inspiration and tricks of this work obviously come from Van Dyne's "Grimm Murder". The idea in this work is bizarre and the plot twists and turns. It is a typical chaotic popular reading, which only he can write.However, although each issue has climaxes, twists and turns, and interlocking plots full of dangers and impeccable structure, the foreshadowing clues in the middle are too weak, which is a major failure of this work.As Saburo Koga once pointed out, even if the murderer knew that he was replaced in his infancy, it is really against human nature to join the gang of revenge ghosts for this reason, to help the evildoers, and to avenge their parents and brothers.If some more convincing foreshadowing can be added to this part, the reader's acceptance will be higher.All in all, the defect of Luanbu not having a good outline in advance was exposed. Despite these shortcomings, this work is still very interesting.Among Ranpo's popular martial arts works, this work and "Golden Mask" can be called "Shuangbi".The plot of the short story "The Dancing One-Inch Mage" to kill people in full view is also used in the story, and the circus is also used as the stage, with full effect. 9. "Golden Mask" This is a masterpiece that established Ranpo's place in popular fiction. "The King" was the most widely published entertainment magazine before the war. It advertised that it was suitable for the whole family to read. It was the signature of Kodansha and the veritable king of the magazine industry.Therefore, Ranpo said that he tried not to write indecent content such as cruelty and perverted sexual desire in his works. The protagonist of this work is very different from the murderer and vengeful ghost of "Spider Man". The famous detective Akechi Kogoro is the protagonist, but in fact, the cruel murderer who often changes his tactics and repeatedly appears on the scene is the real protagonist. Akechi is just the second protagonist to add fun to the story. Although the same There is a wise appearance, but this is the fundamental difference between Ranpo's popular novels and short stories such as "Psychological Test").Let the French phantom thief gentleman with completely different hair and skin color be the protagonist, and the usual disguise method is not useful at all, so Ranpo came up with a bitter plan to make him wear a golden mask.It is said that this was inspired by Marcel Schwob's "Le Roi au masque d'or" (Le Roi au masque d'or).The golden mask described in the work is expressionless, like a Noh mask, a smear of bright red liquid flows from the corner of the mouth to the chin, and the whole body is wrapped in golden clothing like a loose cloak, and the crack in the mask is crescent-shaped. It looks like he is grinning, but he can indeed hear the strange laughter of '咻咻'", and the performance is full of effect. From the point of view of the author of traditional mystery novels, the use of tricks in this work can be said to be unprecedented, and the ideas are absurd.After all, even Horyuji's national treasure, the jade worm cupboard, was turned into a fake. This kind of plot is simply dumbfounding.The trick of transforming the entire room into an elevator has long been precedent, but the plot of using a large hollow Buddha statue made of cement as a secret base is inspired by the "Hollow Needle" in "L'aiguille Creuse", but here it is excellent. It is Japanized.Arsen Robin's decisive battle between the wise and the false, the plot seems ordinary, but the chaotic and vivid narrative writing undoubtedly plays the role of icing on the cake. Even if I read it today, it is still extremely tense and wonderful.What we should learn from Ranpo today is this kind of miraculous narrative writing.This must be the basic skill he learned from the lecture books in the past. 10. "Vampire" Perhaps because of being serialized in newspapers, this work has become the most ambitious novel of Ranpo structure.The length is the longest, and the incoherence of the plot can also be listed as the most in Ranpo's works.Ranpo himself once mentioned: "As readers know, the content I wrote is fragmented and nerve-wracking." Indeed, the twists and turns of the plot of "Vampire" are easy to come by, and the bizarre jumps can only be described as fragmented.This work is also "as always, written according to an ambiguous outline", but Luanbu has to add a certain amount of suspenseful plots to the fixed length of each day to create a fiery atmosphere. When creating in random steps, there is a feeling of being restricted everywhere.After reading the whole article, I didn't feel the hearty enjoyment, and the prisoner's motivation for revenge was also very artificial and unnatural. The daily nature of the newspaper could not escape the blame for this result. In terms of tricks, it can be said that it is a large collection of tricks that Ranpo has used, and it is very lively.Starting with the man without lips playing the role of a triangle, the tricks of the short stories "Ghost", "Walker on the Ceiling", and "The Chair on Earth" are successively quoted. In addition, the corpse treatment in "Daydream" changed from wax figure making to freezing ; the location of the place becomes the haunted house of the National Technical Museum, and the burial of the living in "The White-haired Ghost" becomes the cremation of the living, all of which are transformed and used in various ways.Not only that, but the tricks in "Spider Man" and "One Inch Master" also appeared again, and ideas such as wax figures and wax masks were added, like a carnival of chaotic creative techniques.In the end, the murderer fled in an advertising hot air balloon. This absurd trick also appeared repeatedly in subsequent popular works, and it appeared for the first time in "Vampire".In addition, the assistant Kobayashi boy who later showed his talents in the "Youth Detective Team" series also appeared for the first time in this work. In short, it is entirely conceivable that when this work is serialized in newspapers, readers must sweat every day after reading it. In the popular novels of random steps, this work may be called a strange work together with "The Result of Hunting for Strangeness" . 11. "Blind Beast" This is a strange thing among the popular novels of Ranpo. It is not an ordinary action novel, and there is no detective. From the beginning to the end, there is only one pervert called "Blind Beast" by the author. , killing, amputating his limbs, and exposing his body to the public in all kinds of strange ways", this novel is the chronicle record of this terrible and frightening event.I mentioned earlier that the protagonist of Ranpo's popular novel is not the famous detective Kogoro Akechi, but a variety of vicious and brutal criminals. I think this "Blind Beast" is the most intuitive proof. In short, this work can be said to have reached the peak of Luanbu sensational novels, and the whole story is only erotic horror.In the history of Japanese literature, it may be difficult to find "indecent and wretched" novels that can be compared.Even the author himself seems to have lost the motivation to continue writing about the various evil deeds of the blind beast, "... Then, maybe here is a detailed description of how he plays with and disposes of different types of women, but that is superfluous. The author has long been bored, I'm afraid readers are tired too. Through the above description, at least the readers have a good understanding of our ugly protagonist Blind Beast's behavior, sickness, and evil deeds, even to the point where he wants to wave his hand and say, "I know, that's enough". ", so hastily concluded with the so-called "sensual art". This kind of sensual art performance is full of ranpo style, which is very interesting.But the problem is that at the beginning and in the process of writing this work, although the author has written a large number of miserable and obscene sensory stimulation content, he only stops at description, which seems to be beyond the so-called art theory. Be creative with sensual art.If there was an excellent idea of ​​"sensual art" from the very beginning, the way of writing the whole story would naturally be different, and perhaps it would be able to develop into a comparable, unique and unprecedented world of sensual beauty. people regret. 12. "The White-haired Ghost" From April 1931 to April 1932, it was serialized in "Fuji". This is the first full-length novel of Ranpo's adaptation.Obviously, this work is adapted from the novel "The White-haired Ghost" by Ms. Marie Corelli translated by Heiyan Leixiang.In addition to this work, Ranpo also has four adaptations of novels, namely "Shadow Killer", "Ghost Tower", "Ghost Tower" and "Terror of the Triangle Pavilion". Why did Ranpo think of rewriting or remaking these existing works?This is an interesting question.Of course, part of the reason is that Ranpo was attracted by the amazing charm of Leixiang's works that he loved to read in his youth.However, at that time, Ranpo was serializing monthly magazines and daily newspapers such as "Golden Mask" and "Vampire" at the same time, and the serialization of "Blind Beast" started after the three major serializations here.Although there are so many works that need to be carried out at the same time, he still cannot refuse the continuous invitations of "Fuji" magazine. However, there are no available ideas at hand, and coupled with the need to connect the serial plots of each issue, the chaos is on the verge of limit.Out of these difficulties, the extreme will change, so the idea of ​​adapting Leixiang's works will come up.Since there are original works, there is no need to worry about the plot of each issue."White-haired Ghost" translated by Lei Xiang, as the title of the original work indicates, is a special popular novel with the theme of revenge against close relatives. Since the structure is not a mystery-solving detective novel like "Ghost Tower", if you want to reinvent the work, try to be bold and free Unrestrained style, this is indeed an original work that couldn't be more suitable.Moreover, Laixiang's translation was in classical Chinese, which was bound to be difficult to read for the public at that time. Although it was also included in the complete collection of detective novels published by Chunyang Edition in the fourth year of the Showa era, the significance was not as great as imagined.From this point of view, it is of great significance to modernize and Japaneseize the vernacular. From this point of view, "The Blind Beast", which was created earlier than "The White-haired Ghost", did not adopt the structure of a mystery novel, but an ordinary chronicle novel genre, which also reflected from the side that the other three serials alone were enough to make Luanbu Overwhelmed by the plot of mystery novels every month.The puzzle-solving elements and consistent structure of mystery novels, under such circumstances, are extremely difficult creations for anyone.It's the same today. After a lot of creations by popular reasoning writers, the structure of their works will gradually loosen and be full of flaws. Even though there are all kinds of self-justification and exaggerated plots, the real reason is that it is not easy to have a rigorous structure in reasoning novels Bar.In short, Ranpo succeeded again in this Ranpo version of "White-haired Ghost".This kind of creative attitude is said to be sloppy, and it is indeed sloppy, but at the beginning of writing Kodansha's works, Ranpo has revealed this tendency to despise readers on the one hand, and try to entertain readers on the other hand.The reckless self-confidence brought about by this reborn success caused Ranpo to flee to Phil Potts, Lai Xiang or Simenon to adapt their works when he encountered a situation of exhaustion of inspiration in the future.This situation has evolved again and again, and it has been popularized in "The Great Dark Room", and "Spider Man" has been reproduced in "The Emblem of the Devil", and the habit of re-copying old works has been formed, and it is easy to live in peace. 13. "King of Terror" From June 1931 to May 1932, it was serialized in "Talk Club". After the serialization of "Talk Club" ended, Luanpo was not allowed to have a moment to breathe, and immediately asked him to continue serializing the third work in the same magazine.Ranbu seemed exhausted and bored at this moment.The inspiration for popular novels seems to have completely dried up.As a result, "The King of Terror" after "The White-haired Ghost" became a bland, anticlimactic work.The wise Kogoro that readers expected in the novel did not appear; the number of words in each serialization is the same as that of "Blind Beast", only about half of it; King of Terror" is the worst work of popular martial arts fiction in Ranpo. The biggest failure of this work is that it uses too much ink to describe the ugly orangutan man, but the protagonist who claims to be the king of terror is almost completely invisible behind the scenes.Therefore, even if there are many cruel and extremely murderous scenes in the work, or interspersed with various ingenuity, such as the bold contrast between the rice grain-sized text and the huge high-altitude aerobatic flying text, etc., it still cannot make people feel the slightest bewitched. Shocking thriller.The ending is also, who is the king of terror?What happened to the escaped orangutan man?Readers have no clue.To put it more clearly, the author did not intentionally end the story. As a popular long-form work aimed at the public, it can be said to have seriously violated the spirit of entertaining readers. By the way, the reasoning writer who appeared in this work is named "Oe Rando".This is also the name of the novelist who later appeared in the first book of the series "Evil Story" (1954).The reasoning writer of the novella "Yin Beast" (1928) is named "Oe Haruni". Compared with it, "Oe Rando" and "Edogawa Ranpo" are closer.Later, the reasoning writer who appeared in "Shadow Killing" is called "Dajiang Baihong".It seems that Ranpo likes to give the reasoning writer in the work the surname "Oe".I don't know if it is affected by this, but in "The Tower of the Curse", the new work of the complete collection of mystery novels (1933), Henggou Masashi named the protagonist reasoning writer "Oe Kuroshio", which is quite interesting.When mentioning the name of the main character, Ranpo was in charge of writing the first chapter of the series "Jiangchuan Lanzi" (1930), just as Ranpo himself described, "I will change my pen name a little bit, as the villain in the story. The name of my wife, and simply used it as the title, must be my usual bad habit again." However, the name Jiangchuan Lanzi was also used for the characters (victims) in "Leopard in the World".It can be said to be a very interesting arrangement. The thirteen works above, from "Still in the Dark" to "King of Terror", are all included in the "Complete Works of Edogawa Ranpo" published by Pingfansha from May 1931 to May 1932. "In the thirteen volumes, the titles of these works also become the titles of each volume accordingly. Originally refers to stories adapted from supporting characters other than the main storyline, here it specifically refers to related works other than the main works of Ranpo, including ghostwriting works. 14. "Wriggling Tentacles" Unserialized, the first volume of "Complete Works of New Works and Buried Novels" published by Xinchao Society, the sixth supplement, published in November 1932. This work is listed as a side story because Ranpo himself admitted after the war that it was just a ghostwriting work, neither the pre-war Xinchaosha edition anthology nor the post-war Chunyangtang edition complete works, Taoyuanshe edition complete works were never included .When I read this work for the first time, it was written on the back of the heavy catalog of complete works, "When writing this article, I was greatly assisted by my friend Takehei Okado, and I would like to thank you", and I explained it literally: when creating this work, Get help from friends.After reading the content, I felt that compared with the previous Ranpo works, the plot setting and writing style were quite different. However, this work was also included in the Shincho Bunko edition later, and it became a bestseller.战后光文社还为它设计了一个非常夺人眼球的封面，重新出版，因此我完全想不到这竟会是代笔作品。乱步后来也曾忏悔道：“当然，大部分的情节是两人讨论决定的，完成后的稿子我也看过，并修改了几个地方，但还是不能说这是我自己的作品。”不过作品中切割女人尸体，把不同的躯干缝合在一起，玩弄一番，这种说不出是残忍还是滑稽的描写，依然保有部分乱步的通俗风格。这么说来，我突然想起这本书在报纸上打的广告，森下雨村的推荐文似乎写得相当暧昧：“'蠕动的触手'是只有乱步才想得出来的标题吧。” 这部作品中，在两大报社进行八卦论战的背景设定下，以复仇和杀人淫乐相互纠缠为主要目的的犯罪接连发生，文中明智小五郎化身为戴墨镜的怪异男子，挑战罪犯，若将整体结构重新整理，并更进一步掌握描写的节奏起伏，应该会是一篇妙趣横生的作品，可惜完稿不尽如人意，不过这也暴露出代笔作者的实力水准吧。 15.《妖虫》 一九三三年十二月至一九三四年十一月，在《国王》上连载。 《妖虫》及其后的、《人间豹》这三部作品，是《恐怖王》半途而废一年半后、乱步试图（被迫？）卷土重来的通俗长篇作品，当时与《新青年》的本格作品《恶灵》同时连载。结果最被看好的《恶灵》意外夭折了，总之这三部作品写得相当辛苦，但总算坚持下来了，勉强完结。不过故事情节里已不见和《黄金假面》中那种对通俗武打小说的热情，令人强烈感觉到乱步不过在虚应故事。换句话说，就是了无新意，陈词滥调。 这部《妖虫》也不例外，开头做了很多铺垫。主角在餐厅通过读唇语，意外得知两名奇怪的男子正密谋杀人，过程惊悚万分。可是接下来的情节就毫无新鲜感。又是八幡不知薮的鬼屋、又是尸体在银座大道上展示，就算是乱步迷，也不禁有些腻了。凶手的红蝎子印记虽然是个相当有效果的小道具，但可能是处理得不好，反倒成了累赘。这部小说算的旧瓶换新装，但为了避免旧调重弹，乱步并没有让明智小五郎登场，而是塑造出另一名老侦探三笠龙介，这个创意倒是成功了。可惜犯罪动机是源于容貌丑陋的自卑感，委实缺乏现实感，显得没有说服力。 在杂志上连载时，另一个意外给这部小说添加了一个致命的缺点——插图。这么说，绝不是插图的水平不够，相反绘者下了极大的工夫，画出了神秘的氛围，是无可挑剔的推理小说插画。但作者一开场就把真凶描绘成一名体型胖硕的人物，而他乔装的墨镜男子则被画成骨瘦如柴的人物，在最后一回揭露凶手的真面目时，没有一名读者能够接受这样的一人二角。当然，一开始就应该跟插画家沟通作画时应注意的地方，但或许直到接近最后一回连载时，乱步自己也还没明确决定该由谁担任真凶。 16. 一九三四年一月至十二月，在上连载。 在这三部作品中，应是这个时期的代表作。就乱步的通俗长篇系统来看，它算是《黄金假面》改头换面的作品。在夜总会表演冶艳脱衣舞的黑街女王，左臂上有一块黑蜥蜴刺青，觊觎着宝石“埃及之星”。她想把它和美男子、美女的标本一起装饰在自己的“恐怖美术馆”里，这名绝世女贼与名侦探明智小五郎之间周旋对抗斗智斗勇的描写，多少算是有点儿新意。《人间椅子》的诡计在此被用在犯罪上，这个前所未见的新奇创意也就此堕落了。 总之，这部作品没有依循传统道德观念中犯人必定伏法的原则，而是从女贼的视角切入，使得整篇作品的节奏、情节利落痛快。乱步尽量避开过去作品中浓重的残虐风味，这一点也和《黄金假面》共通。因此期待乱步独特强烈感官刺激的读者，应该不太能欣赏这部作品。 17.《人间豹》 一九三四年五月至一九三五年五月，在《讲谈俱乐部》上连载。 乱步或许是构思不出任何新创意了，竟想出一个人人闻风丧胆的半人半兽的怪物，并将其命名为“人间豹”。这个名字应该取自比斯顿的短篇，与过去“蜘蛛男”这种比喻式的命名不同，“人间豹”等同于伦敦的狼人，如字面所示，是个似乎存在于传说世界中的豹人。“这个怪物，双眼绽放出诡异的磷光、牙齿如野兽般锐利、舌上有猫属尖刺”，他拥有人类的智力，尤其擅长邪智，有时还会穿西装，有时像只四脚兽似的敏捷奔跑，完全是二十世纪的天方夜谭。明智面对的不仅是执著于美女的豹人，他的父亲——那位真正爱着豹类的人，向他提出邪恶的挑战，明智只能偕同夫人文代与其展开殊死搏斗，是一部惊悚悬疑的作品。可惜天马行空到了这种地步，也实在太荒诞了。这类情节应是其他人绝对想象不出来的吧。 这部作品致命的缺点，在于作者没有解释清楚人豹是如何诞生的，这一点常理无法解释。常理无法想象的豹人何以诞生在世上的谜团一直没有解开。故事中虽然暗示“人兽交媾”，但这理由未免太牵强，经不起推敲。若乱步能把这个疑团解释得更详尽些，或许可把这部推理写成一部空想科学小说，或变成现今流行的东宝制片怪兽电影的脚本，真叫人遗憾。这么说来，最后豹人乘坐热气球飞往天边，生死不明的结局，与东宝制片怪兽的末路殊途同归，这样的联结十分有趣。此外，文代夫人披上熊皮，在杂技团观众面前与被染成老虎斑纹的豹在栅栏里格斗的残酷场面，应是继短篇《跳舞的一寸法师》后首次出现的公开杀人诡计的变奏版，但就算只是铅字堆积而成的世界，也叫人不由得佩服起作者竟能构思出如此荒诞不经的情节。无论是主角豹人还是血腥厮杀的场面，插画家要将其形象化时，肯定伤透脑筋吧。 18.《影子杀人》 一九三六年一月至十二月，在《讲谈俱乐部》上连载。 这篇作品的原型是伊登·菲尔波茨的《红发的雷德梅因家族》，经乱步改写而成。对于这部《影子杀人》，我个人有些不满。之所以这么说，是我在阅读原作之前，由于不知情而先读了乱步的改编作品，之后再读众人誉为名作的《红发的雷德梅因家族》时，才翻阅没多久就发现凶手的真面目，当下阅读兴趣大减。与我有相同遭遇的读者应该不少。 这部《影子杀人》一开头就充满强烈的乱步风格。探照灯强烈的光线投向一座大厦，大厦前一个手持短剑的人物大剪影，影子手起刀落，经过大楼下方马路的年轻女子登时倒地，这样的开头真是惊悚刺激。乱步的每一部长篇皆是如此，故事一开始总是引人入胜的，让人联想到电影的第一幕，充满视觉效果。随着故事情节推进，菲尔波茨的构想被乱步式地通俗化——绿衣鬼诡谲的飞扬跋扈、追踪他的推理作家大江白虹的活跃及随后出场的侦探乘杉龙平精彩的推理。这场乱步式改写最有趣的一点，在于侦探乘杉直到最后都被大江白虹误认为凶手的设定。这也可当成没有让明智小五郎出场的意外收获吧。总之，情节前后一贯，深具解谜结构，算是一部可读性颇高的作品，这应是改编小说的优势吧。 此外，阅读这部作品的连载时，曾让我深入思考插画在推理小说中扮演的角色。因为在大结局的前一回连载里，理应要在大结局才解开的幻灯机诡计，居然在插图中泄底了。这么一来，就算第一章再怎么强调机关多么稀奇古怪，也达不到预定的效果了。这可能是原稿完成得较慢，先将插画构图交给插画家才会这样，但这种插画先行于文本的状况，使得悬疑气氛瞬间荡然无存。 19.《大暗室》 这部小说与下一部《幽灵塔》同为长度仅次于《吸血鬼》的作品。说起《大暗室》这个标题据说还有一段来历。起初，出现在《国王》杂志结束《黄金假面》连载的当期（一九三一年十月号）预告文章上。没想到预告并未实现，下一期的连载被这部中篇取代。当时乱步究竟想用《大暗室》这个标题写下什么样的内容，令人十分好奇，但如今乱步已逝，也无从确定了。不过我们猜想得到，应该不是像五年后动笔的一样那么通俗的内容。 关于这部《大暗室》，一如既往，故事开头相当精彩，效果十足。故事氛围与以往的通俗长篇开端不同。当时的侦探杂志《侧写》等还特地在月评中刊登了本作的第一回，表达了十分期待后续发展的愿望，但随着第三回、第四回的刊载，接下来再次沦为乱步那种支离破碎的武打小说风格，让人感到相当惋惜。追根究底，所谓“大暗室”的具体结构，在作者提笔之初和连载一段时间后，仿佛依然没有在作者心中成形，执笔一半左右，乱步才想到可将“大暗室”塑造成地底的帕诺拉马王国，再次重现的作者梦想。在这之前，同母异父的兄弟们在各自的父亲互为仇敌的宿命之下，为了争夺美女，展开爱恨情仇纠缠不清的正邪之战，简直就是中世纪骑士故事现代版的乱步式武打小说。主角憧憬邪恶化身的暴君尼禄，冀望化身为恶魔之国的拿破仑，在地下创建黑暗帝国，使全东京陷入火海，作风跋扈。这样的设定，虽然都是性格变态者的反常行为，构思和篇幅都宏大得叫《蜘蛛男》及《盲兽》望尘莫及。若一开始就以这个构想贯穿全篇，不知会是一篇多有趣的武打小说，着实可惜。我想，除了乱步以外，今后也绝对没有人能够描写出如此光怪陆离的犯罪了。 20.《幽灵塔》 这是将黑岩泪香翻译的《幽灵塔》改编为乱步式的作品，在《讲谈俱乐部》杂志上，接续改编作品《影子杀人》的连载。故事的年代改为大正初年，场景设在长崎县的偏远乡区，并将南蛮趣味加入鬼屋故事中，如此创新的构思使得这部古色古香的推理小说被成功本土化了。事实上，这部作品在乱步的通俗长篇中，无论在情节或旨趣上，都可以与并列第一。当然，这部作品以翻译到位的泪香译本作为基础，因此与不同，评价时不能将两者相提并论。 这次译作的改写成功，皆因于乱步始终压抑自己的笔法，极力克制一贯的冶艳风格。相对地，虽然应该是试图将译作通俗化，但各个角色的感情起伏和背景描写都渗透出乱步独特的精巧，原作的紧张悬疑亦替换成纯粹的日式元素。两相影响之下，使得这部改编作品意外成功。将时间点设在大正初年，地点在交通工具只有人力车的乡下，而不是电话铃声大作、汽车来往不绝的昭和十年。这也是成功的一大要素。 泪香的译作，不管是侦探小说、传奇小说或冒险小说，由于译文过于文言化，如今已难以直接阅读。从这个意义上来说，如果有更多乱步流的泪香改编作品，对读者而言，实在是一大福音，可惜最终仅《白发鬼》和《幽灵塔》两篇留世。 21.《恶魔的纹章》 这是一部将《蜘蛛男》和相加再除以二的武打小说。将隐形复仇者的象征设定为三重螺旋指纹的构想很不错，但实际上和《妖虫》里的红蝎子一样，运用失当，导致完全失去恐怖感。故事的开端以乱步的通俗长篇而言，罕见地落入俗套，完全是失败之作。复仇鬼预告将杀害富豪及其一对千金，把小女儿的尸体放在卫生博览会的人体模型陈列室、大女儿的尸体陈列在鬼怪大会的八幡不知薮鬼屋中的一室，这些构思早就是陈腔滥调、了无新意了，至此，乱步已无法营造出让读者的心脏都忍不住紧缩在一起的紧张感了。 不过这篇故事里还是有一些新的手法。例如富豪本人完全不明白自己为什么会遭到报复，在地下洞穴目睹残酷的杀人场景后，他才知道自己的父亲犯下的罪恶，悟出凶手的意图是要让他们断子绝孙。此外，实际上富豪同父异母妹妹的手指上也是三重螺旋指纹，让人误以为只要杀掉她，便能拨开谜团，这样的诡计别出心裁。只可惜，最后揭露凶手遗留在各处的特异指纹，其实只是明胶制成的伪造品，实在是相当不成熟的设想，根本没把读者放在眼里。 总而言之，这部作品不管怎么看，都只能说是熟极而流的陈腔滥调。不过战后这部作品重新出版时，我在杂志《宝石》的投书栏看到读者推举它为十大日本推理小说之一，当下大感惊讶。入围理由是作品中错综复杂的谜团和精巧的伏笔令人拍案叫绝。看来乱步的长篇只从其中抽出一部来读时，就不会有老调重弹的千篇一律感，评价也会因此大幅改变。 22.《暗黑星》 这部《暗黑星》和下一部《地狱小丑》及《幽鬼之塔》，都是在中日战事方酣之时问世的。那时候战争文学大受欢迎，而推理小说受到打压，短篇《烟虫》被当局命令整篇删除，也是一九三九年三月的事。这时候，鬼才小栗虫太郎已转而创作传奇小说和魔境小说。过去乱步的通俗长篇中明目张胆的煽情·猎奇成分也不再被允许，残虐的描写也被迫收敛。处于这样的时代，每个月的写作量随之锐减。作品篇幅虽然没有先前敷衍塞责的《恐怖王》那么短，但这三部作品以长篇而言，篇幅算相当精简了。 话说回来，这部《暗黑星》可说是的完全变奏版。之所以这么形容，是因为以范·达因的《格林家命案》（The Greene Murder Case）的通俗版来说，这部《暗黑星》远比更近似《格林家命案》。因此虽然称其为通篇连贯，没有破绽，但换个角度来看，也可说少了许多乱步独特的毒艳风味。故事一开始写到由于放映机故障，导致银幕上的特写脸部烫伤定格了，出现了血流满面的画面。一如往例，这样的开头引人入胜。可是接下来作者又故伎重演，仍是以连续杀人事件为中心，展开明智小五郎决战复仇鬼的故事。 这部作品的点睛之笔，是明智的一个譬喻，书中凶手近在眼前却又远在天边，他的真面目不可掌握，在此，大侦探把他喻为没有光芒的“暗黑星”，标题和这个桥段遥相呼应，实在妙不可言。 23.《地狱小丑》 一九三九年一月至十二月，在《富士》上连载。 这部作品与《暗黑星》同时动笔，开端完全是《蜘蛛男》的变奏版，可是接下来的发展就有些不同了，主角看到打扮成小丑的化装游行宣传员出现，下一刻又收到小丑人偶的礼物。小丑的确很逗趣，但小丑杀人就会酝酿出一种诡异的恐怖感，十分不可思议。这该说是对比产生的效果吗？不过这种恐怖感已在昭和九年的系列作品《黑虹》第一回中使用过。之后的情节如同以往，内容以明智决战神秘小丑的打斗故事为主。但这部作品开头部分就埋下了伏笔，从这层意义来看，体裁勉强可以归类为推理小说。 故事中最异想天开的情节是凶手被逼到阁楼上时，用硫酸毁容，佯装成被害人这一段。这是过去未曾尝试的新诡计，从这个角度来看，算是略具新意。这篇作品也和《暗黑星》一样，篇幅较短，因此破绽较少，不过只是将前篇的构思加以淡化重构，这使得故事本身的存在意义大幅锐减。 24.《幽鬼之塔》 这部作品脱胎于西默农的《圣福利安的吊死鬼》，原作中的教堂被上野公园的五重塔替代。乱步与西默农，这两位作家的作品无论从哪个角度看，风格都完全不同。乱步若尝试改写《一个人的头》（La tete d'un homme）还可理解，没想到他竟改编《圣福利安的吊死鬼》，相当有冲击感。不过这或许是因时局致使他无法随心书写乱步式残虐犯罪导致的吧。 这部作品的开端，以乱步擅长的《一寸法师》变奏曲开始，接着徐徐转变成西默农风格的风格，无法否定乱步式一贯的情节与特色在这部作品里显得极其薄弱。话虽如此，疯女和玄学描述则完全是乱步式的风格。本作中出场的业余侦探河津三郎被设定为“犯罪案件钓客”，他的怪癖和行动，反映了乱步自身大半的梦想和愿景。 总之，这部小说的完成，受益于原作的巧妙结构，改写笔法虽然低调，但也添加些许乱步独特的色彩，算是值得一读的作品。 25.《伟大的梦》 这部暌违四年再次执笔的长篇，是乱步在太平洋战争期间唯一的一部作品，这部作品从侧面表现了乱步爱国的一面。尽管如此，它却没有被收录到任何一套全集中，也没有成为单行本发行。原因是“故事把美国人描写为敌人，而战败后的日本顾虑到这一点而未成书，直至今日”。 这部作品一开始就意图写成谍战小说。连载第一回的报纸广告上宣传为“科幻小说”，但乱步对这些宣传内容似乎完全不知情。侦探主角也符合谍战小说，取代明智小五郎，刻画出望月宪兵少佐这号人物。此时，推理作家已不被允许撰写过去那类以杀人命案为题材、怪奇趣味浓厚的作品，有些人逃往谍战小说、科幻小说和冒险小说，有些人则遁入以江户为舞台的捕物帐小说中。这个时期的长篇谍战推理小说，先有甲贺三郎的非连载作品《雪原的谋略》（主角依然是狮子内俊次，却失去昔日的飒爽风采），以及兰郁二郎的非连载作品《南海的毒杯》，这部作品除了推理风格外，还具有知性风格，算是当时最大的成就，最后则是乱步的作品。 由于许久不曾创作，感觉乱步对这部长篇倾注了相当大的心血。当然，时局迫使乱步不能使出他的看家本领——煽情·猎奇，因此他索性在剧情结构及诡计上浓重着墨。第三者与真凶共同经历、目睹自己的犯罪过程，这种充满创意的出色诡计，战后亦三番两次出现，比如长篇《化人幻戏》和短篇《月亮与手套》。虽然还是有首尾不连贯的缺失，但乱步以谍战为素材，尝试写出与甲贺三郎等人相较，推理因素更丰富、水平更上一层的推理小说，这种热情令人尊敬，值得肯定。 战后好长一段时间内，这部作品都见不到天日，实在令人遗憾。的确，连载第二回的后半部揶揄美国总统罗斯福因小儿麻痹而造成的肢体障碍非常不妥。可是，只要删除或修改类似于此的两三处情节，便足以作为战时本格推理小说的范本，并流传后世。如今战后又过了二十年，总算被收录到讲谈社版的《江户川乱步全集》里，真是令人欣慰。 26.《三角馆的恐怖》 如同前述，这是罗格·斯卡莱特的《安吉尔家的命案》的乱步式改写。乱步深受原作吸引，当时《趣味俱乐部》不便提出长篇连载的请求，乱步既没有可用的构想，也不想再像战前那样重炒旧作，每个月敷衍了事，权衡各方条件后，只好再次尝试《幽鬼之塔》以来的手法——我们可推测私底下应该有这样的原委。 用不着说，原作是一部纯粹的本格推理小说。而且这次明确取得翻译权而执笔，所以就算是乱步式改编，也不能以采用把《红发的雷德梅因家族》改编为《影子杀人》的方式，随心所欲地改写。整部作品对原作的情节与诡计相当忠实，从这个层面来看，完全脱离了战前所谓的乱步调，全篇以逻辑为中心展开，是一篇韵味极深的长篇推理小说。如此严谨的乱步风格，是昭和四年的短篇《何者》之后的再一次尝试。战后停止创作的乱步，肯定是想以这样的风格东山再起，因而这部作品也具有热身的意味吧。 遗憾的是，显然这种风格的长篇不宜每月连载的方式。当时的读者养成了每个月阅读一部分连载文的方式，可惜这部作品的情节太一气呵成了，理性的解密情节太多，插入的图表也有点儿多，肯定让许多读者觉得厌烦。连载时完全没有获得好评，也是基于这个缘故吧。可是，至少在战后出版的全集里，这部作品算是堪读的长篇之一，同时也提供了一个泪香以来的推理小说改编范本。 27.《化人幻戏》 这部作品可说是乱步唯一的本格长篇，它继承了中篇《阴兽》和的系统。乱步曾感慨：“大纲我记下来了……但实际动笔，不管是物理方面或心理方面都出现了矛盾，怎样都无法完结……我勉强补齐前后不一的情节，好不容易才写完。”如同这段话所表明的，故事整体的确有着缺乏高潮起伏、头重脚轻的失衡感，却是一部难得的深思熟虑过的作品，从这个角度来说，非常值得一读。这么说来，这部作品感觉上像是从过去乱步的各种写作倾向中，只挑选出理想的知性面加以整理，性质恰好与《阴兽》有共通之处。 故事由《湖畔亭事件》中的透镜嗜好揭开序幕，但这次的小道具是望远镜。利用望远镜，率先登场的诡计是作者在《伟大的梦》里所设计——凶手目睹自己的犯罪过程，接着利用铜线制造物理密室的诡计，还使用录音机，将同一个广播节目延后四十分钟在另一个地方播放的诡计。凶手利用日记将嫌疑转嫁到自己丈夫身上，这样的手法是将《阴兽》里的构想进一步深入吧。开端描写观察螳螂被望远镜放大的恐怖，其实是一段铺陈新奇犯罪动机的精巧伏笔。凶手的潜意识里知道自己与螳螂是同类，这让凶手对螳螂产生极端莫名的厌恶和恐惧——明智小五郎这段明快的精神分析，是比《心理测验》及《天花板上的散步者》更深入的心理式侦探法。追根究底，这是乱步的知性推理手法的总梳理。 先前提到这部作品的弱点在于失衡，此外，凶手与明智以外的人物——包括刑警在内——形象都太单薄。我认为这是作者过分追求让故事成为纯粹的推理小说，于是在人物个性描写的深度方面稍显欠缺的结果，真希望作者能多点用心，让整部作品更妙趣横生一些。不过这点姑且不论，乱步的知性推理小说系统中，首次加入一部长篇，真是值得庆贺，这部作品应该能毫不费力的进入乱步的最佳作品前十名吧。 28.《影男》 与《化人幻戏》同时进行的这部长篇，几乎是讲谈社作品的旧调重弹。从风格来看，可以归入、《大暗室》这个系统。将异常罪犯设定为三个人算是这部作品出彩的地方。不过，乱步也曾提到，“写得比战前更没劲，看来不受读者好评”，通篇全然看不到倾注于往年通俗武打小说里的热情，或许，乱步比任何人都厌倦了煽情·猎奇的噩梦，也从这类小说中毕业了。 这部作品虽然不断铺陈地底帕诺拉马王国的怪奇幻想，却无法将那种奢华的梦境一并传达给读者，感觉像看了场闹剧。过去乱步曾说，连载中篇《地狱风景》是的戏谑化，但较之《地狱风景》，这部