Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 185



Only Noblemtl

185.

Ernest Hemingway, a man who grew up to be a representative American macho man after experiencing ‘mommy issues’ as a child, left this famous quote in his novel ‘The Old Man and the Sea’.

[“But man was not created to be defeated,” he said. “Man may be destroyed, but not defeated.”]

I thought that this line symbolized Hemingway’s view of literature, which loved the human figure who always gets up no matter how painful and difficult things he goes through.

And through these words, I wanted to put my own emphasis on this ‘Country of Losers’, which each reader will have different thoughts about.

‘Everyone carries their own cross.’

Up until the first ending of Part 2, the novel showed the struggle of humans to find happiness in misfortune.

And from then on, through Lucy and the Book, I endlessly asked myself what happiness is, just like the readers who saw Part 1.

But the ending that I changed by writing it myself with a pen was almost the exact opposite.

Happiness and unhappiness are both rights that are not granted to the North.

Lucy noticed this and asked him if it wasn’t difficult and painful.

In this way, ‘suffering’ was born within the North, which had been fostering unhappiness and happiness.

So I found Simon’s words very charming and bitter at the same time.

Victory of the losers.

“I somehow felt sorry for ‘The Book.’”

“That may be the case for the author. But as a reader, I… Especially since I was prepared to endure misfortune, I feel more sympathy for Lucy, who suffered immensely until the end and forgave him, rather than sympathize with Dubuk. And wouldn’t her forgiveness allow us to move on to another level?”

With that, wouldn’t the North also be able to come up with its own answer?

I nodded silently, thinking that that was right.

“That’s right.”

Suddenly, the scent of Miss Brown’s cigarette lingered in my nostrils. This smell was Marlboro Red. Perhaps because I was having a serious ‘adult conversation’, the smell struck me as quite savory.

‘This was a time when smoking indoors was tolerated as if it were a given.’

Anyway, there was a moment when I thought, ‘Thank goodness the manuscript got a good response.’

“Author.”

Simon’s expression became very serious.

“There is one problem.”

“yes?”

“This novel is too difficult.”

“······yes?”

“I also listened to the author’s briefing and barely understood the author’s intention. Even I, who often talk to the author and understand his world, feel this way, so how much more so must the readers feel? I think that rather than calling it a problematic work by changing the ending, it will be a work that leaves a deep aftertaste.”

Oh, why?

Why does it seem like Simon is pushing up his glasses that aren’t there anywhere?

“This article seems to need some editing.”

“Uh, how is it?”

“I think I need to add some explanations while refining the sentences overall. There seem to be a lot of concepts that are too difficult to understand. For example, the part that describes ‘regeneration’ here.”

“There, the directing was intentionally reduced to stimulate the reader’s imagination······.”

“Can the reader imagine?”

I blinked.

······Oh, really?

“Even if the first part was a text that required interpretation, if the second part is even more difficult, I wonder if the readers will be able to endure it. If you don’t mind, please leave this part to me. I will check the revisions and send it back to you within a few days.”

“Yes, yes······. Please take care of me.”

For some reason, I ended up speaking with my hands clasped together politely.

Following Lucy, the queen of losers, was Simon, the king of readers.

***

There is a saying called ‘the curse of knowledge’.

This term refers to a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual communicates with another person and assumes that the other person also has the knowledge that he or she has.

God’s ‘Country of Losers: Part 2’ is a piece that fits that description perfectly.

‘Writer Shin doesn’t usually write like this.’

Of course, since it is SF, there are some parts that cannot be helped, but as the story expands and the scope that needs to be covered becomes endlessly wider, and on top of that, battle scenes are also covered in this second part, isn’t this problem becoming more prominent?

Simon couldn’t help but chuckle as he added the additional manuscript God had brought to the original manuscript, recalling his last appearance.

After a lively conversation about the novel until lunchtime, and Miss Brown joining them for a meal, Shin left, saying she had a date. Simon, seeing Shin’s shoulders slumping a little more than usual, consoled her, saying that there was nothing wrong with the novel’s content.

It was my first time seeing something like that, so it was quite new.

‘Still, I feel happy for some reason.’

I felt like I could really help.

The role of an editor is very diverse.

Basically, it is a job that helps writers to properly edit and publish their work, but there are also cases where they provide reviews as the first readers, participate in planning the work, planning related business plans, and marketing, and also perform work that is close to a service industry related to writers.

For example, in the case of writers who were very mentally sensitive, they sometimes had to receive intensive psychological care that was almost like psychiatric counseling. And that was Simon’s specialty.

‘I don’t think the new writer needs that at all.’

Rather, it feels like Simon has learned a lot from him since he was a rookie and has matured as a writer.

And the current situation where a writer I thought was mature needs my help with writing, honestly makes me feel good as a person involved, as I feel like I am contributing to the completion of a great piece of writing.

Simon sat transfixed on the manuscript of ‘Country of Losers: Part 2’, carefully analyzing it to see where the ‘curse of knowledge’ was causing problems.

The basic gist of the sentence he was thinking of was to add details to the list of actions. Here, the more details were omitted, the faster the sentence became and the more the reader’s imagination was needed. Adjusting the ratio to match the development is called pacing.

And Simon thought of himself as an editor who understood God better than anyone else.

‘It’s true that listening to the new author’s explanation, the novel feels different.’

The meaning of parts that required focused guessing because my imagination was not working well due to difficult concepts or depictions of the future that seemed ahead of its time became clearer, and I was able to become more immersed as the ratio of detail and pacing in my head changed.

Along with that, I began to understand why God had written this novel so quickly, and I began to wonder if I was killing the fun by needlessly messing with the work.

But I still had to do it.

As an editor who mediates between writers and readers.

‘This can’t go on.’

A novel must be novel-like.

In other words, a novel should not be a thesis. It should not require a great deal of prior knowledge or an understanding of the setting that makes it difficult to read. It should be explained in simple terms or explained with an analogy.

That was one of Simon’s philosophies.

Part 1 also had a precarious level of knowledge explanation and setting development, so without the help of reviews, interpretations, and radio broadcasts from various media, some readers would have had a hard time reading it all. And this Part 2 was even worse.

‘It’s your turn to be a force as an editor.’

With the hope that readers would read this wonderful novel in its entirety, Simon divided the chapters with a serious face and organized notes for parts that were difficult to understand.

“······.”

Square, square.

Only the sound of a fountain pen being used to embroider echoed through the quiet office.

***

‘I guess I need to reflect on myself.’

Returning to college, I came to this conclusion.

In fact, it is painful to hear harsh criticism from the editor who understands you the best, because a novel is the result of the writer’s efforts, thoughts, and life.

But if that painful evaluation was acceptable to you, it was true that you would laugh at yourself even though you were angry. It meant that there was someone who was trying that hard to understand you.

‘yes.’

Simon was my editor in charge, and we were approaching our fifth year of working together, ever since I returned to the past.

If such a person were to say that there was a problem with my novel, there was a high probability that he would do so.

That day, after I left the office of Hardboiled Publishing, I met Alexa and the whole time I was on a date, that thought kept coming to my mind. Then Alexa, upset that I was distracted, closed my lips for a moment, saying, “Ttejji ttejji,” but the thought kept coming to my mind again.

And then I realized.

‘I definitely didn’t take that part into consideration. I wrote it a bit hastily.’

As I expanded the world of The North, I unknowingly found myself writing with the emotions of the future I lived in. In the future, based on the genre database created by the accumulation of numerous works, both writers and readers became accustomed to writing and reading more materials and clichés.

Moreover, towards the end, I wrote like crazy, destroying the balance between schoolwork and work that I had maintained so thoroughly, so this tendency would have become even worse.

Even when I was writing additional notes, I wrote them by hand for the first time in a while to fit the time Simon requested, and I felt frustrated because my hands couldn’t keep up with the speed of my thoughts.

Fortunately, Simon said he would catch that part first and send me the corrections separately, so I decided not to worry too much and just wait.

‘As expected, writing a novel is not an easy task.’

I let out a long sigh.

Part 2 was more thought-provoking than Part 1, and it was difficult in many ways because I had a hard time figuring out what conclusion to draw. Even while I was plotting and writing, I thought that Part 1 alone, which left room for imagination and debate, would be enough for this work.

But as a writer, I clearly had a story I wanted to tell in this work.

I wanted to say something to all the wanderers like Kate Moore.

Past, present, and future.

Always, everyone is like that.

‘I feel like the topic has been twisted around a lot.’

As such, there is room for each person’s interpretation to differ.

And isn’t the original novel a story that expands on a certain theme and unfolds it in a broad way with exciting fictional imagination?

‘And, a good novel is never written alone.’

I was looking forward to seeing what kind of feedback Simon would give as an editor.

I leaned back in my chair with a smile and drank my coffee leisurely.

Just when I thought it was time to arrive, I saw the two people who had promised to meet in the distance.

‘How did it end up like this?’

The two people approaching each other while chatting away are Kate Moore and Rebecca Wong.

Just the combination of the two people reminds me of trauma from my childhood. If I had met those two in high school in my past life, I would have been bullied until I cried and said, ‘Please stop!’

But that’s not who I am now. I’m an old man who has returned after living a lifetime.

······Oh, but why is my hand holding the coffee cup shaking? Calm down. Me.

‘It’s definitely a combination that would never have suited me in a past life.’

Rebecca Wong, a serious person who spits out fastballs whenever she opens her mouth.

Kate Moore, who wears a mask and has a dark aura that suits others, with a smile that goes, “Hoo-hoo” whenever she opens her mouth.

Man, if I was stuck between the two of them in my past life, I would have lost 10 kilograms because all my energy would have been sucked out of me.

“Thank you for coming, Shin. Please give me your honest evaluation.”

Rebecca Wong approached first and extended her hand.

I shook his hand, smiled, and answered.

“Are you ready?”

“Of course! I will definitely try the genre!”

“Me, am I allowed to be in a position like this?”

Kate spoke from the side, wearing a mask.

I glared at her in disbelief, and she returned after ordering coffee for two, pretending not to care.

The purpose of our gathering today was to critique Rebecca Wong’s short story genre novel, ‘In the Woods’, which we discussed last time.

The day the three of us met by chance.

After talking about ‘Country of Losers’ for a while, Rebecca was naturally asked to give her review, and Kate, who was there at the time, showed interest and joined us.

Actually, at first I was thinking of just letting Kate be my editor and then sneaking out. But after thinking about it for a while, I changed my mind.

There are two main reasons.

Firstly, because I wanted to know what kind of work she would be evaluated and write, even though she knew nothing about the genre.

Second, if you happen to write a good novel in the future, please submit it to our hardboiled publisher… Hehe.

“God, your expression looks really sinister right now.”

Rebecca said something bad without any ill intentions. You shouldn’t say that to people.

“Haha, it seems like you were thinking of something strange.”

Even Kate wears a mask and spouts out poisonous words so casually that it breaks my heart.

“······Hmm, then let’s begin.”

Anyway, with the three of them seated, I opened my mouth as the storyteller.

This somehow reminds me of when I used to play TRPGs. I had so much fun back then. I loved the old days. Ahh, I miss Alexa.

“First, let me briefly summarize the contents of the novel······.”

‘In the Forest’ is a work that depicts the love between a city boy and a country girl who meet by chance in the forest.

A boy who suddenly moves from the city to the countryside feels uncomfortable with his situation. There are no facilities around him, such as game centers or skateboarding rinks that he used to frequent, and there are only mountains and fields.

The girl who appeared in front of the boy who was grumbling with such discontent taught him the beauty of the countryside.

And the story ends with the boy, who is not yet old enough to be in love, not knowing whether the overwhelming emotion he is feeling is love or whether it is because he feels the beauty of the countryside after hearing the girl’s words.

Well, it was reasonably well written.

“The story unfolded naturally as the description of nature overlapped with the psychology of the boy protagonist. Rebecca is definitely good at writing such sensitive stories. I should say that I also looked forward to the moment when I met the girl while imagining this scene together.”

The basic principle of the review was to ‘make the mood moderately dirty’.

What am I saying that I am saying Rebecca’s novel is the worst? No matter how much I think that, I cannot do that unless my standards are absolutely correct.

I first talked about the merits of the novel, and Rebecca eagerly took note of them.

“Well, thank you. ······How did Kate read it?”

Rebecca, who naturally took over the baton, asked Kate directly.

And at that moment, I felt a bit ominous. But soon I figured it was because Kate was wearing a mask, so I just let it go.

Kate asked cautiously, a big smile on her face.

“Can I just be honest about my feelings?”

“Okay. Just tell me as it is. No matter how harshly I say it, you won’t be hurt.”

“Then, before we speak, a question. Is this novel a romance novel?”

“······I guess you could say that? I basically wrote it based on romance. I tried to cover up the naturalistic scent based on the pure love between a boy and a girl. I was worried that the novel’s message might have been weak because it focused too much on romance. I’d like to hear your opinion on that.”

“Okay. Then I’ll be honest.”

Kate smiled brightly and opened her mouth.

“It wasn’t fun.”

······Hey, did you just take off your mask?