Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 210



Only Noblemtl

210.

“I think this way.”

“Dupe said as he moved Batman’s piece forward according to the rules of the game.

In this ‘DC Comics Chess’, Batman’s piece can move freely in a straight line across any square, but must return to its original spot. And while it cannot knock down an opponent’s piece in the process, it is possible to neutralize the opponent’s villain for one turn by naming three weaknesses of the opponent.

······This was the character game of the 80s.

It was old, the rules were complicated, and it wasn’t fun, but it was strangely enjoyable once I did it.

“People no longer worship ‘perfection.’ Even Superman has come to enjoy seeing his absolute goodness tested rather than his superpowers. In that sense, Clark is truly pitiful. He is a total ‘alien,’ whether in reality or in fiction.”

“That’s right.”

I moved my piece, ‘Two-Face’. I moved it forward two spaces and then flipped a coin while it was diagonally one space. Tails. Damn, that would mean my move was a failure and I would return to my original position.

“People no longer accept superheroes as characters with symbolic meanings like words. They want deeper drama and character development. In other words, the deconstruction of superheroes is gradually taking place in superhero films.”

“That’s quite an interesting opinion. As expected, Shin. Just like you.”

“Haha, it’s embarrassing to hear something like that from the Nerd Master.”

I came to Dupi’s house to play for the first time in a long time.

It was to continue organizing the ideas for the novel I’m currently working on, and to take a break and have a good time meeting my best friend.

Doofy welcomed me, and as the only people who knew the rules of the complex character chess game together, we hit it off and started talking about all sorts of things, starting with DC Comics chess and continuing to play.

Meanwhile, a possibility came to mind.

‘Everyone leaves, maybe······.’

Aren’t people getting bored with superheroes?

It certainly didn’t seem like a completely impossible story.

If we look closely at all cultures, we can see that they have the nature of progressing through thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

The ‘Golden Age’, an era in which superheroes were treated as such, the ‘Silver Age’, on the other hand, in which ‘humans’ and the ‘science’ they created became the mainstream subject matter, and the current ‘Bronze Age’, which has fused the two and brought ‘superheroes’ themselves into reality.

‘Furthermore, in the future, work will be done to dismantle ‘supers’ and ‘heroes’.’

Works that deconstruct ‘super’ include works like ‘Kick-Ass’, and works that deconstruct ‘hero’ include dramas like ‘The Boys’.

Of course, this work was just an example. At the same time, works that kept to tradition sold well, and works that beat the heat also sold well.

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

Formation, maintenance and development of markets.

“······.”

“You look deep in thought.”

“Oh, sorry.”

It was my turn.

As I tried to count the number in confusion, the scalp blocked my hand.

“Don’t worry. I’ve stopped time on the chessboard for a moment.”

“Scalp······.”

I was moved.

And then I realized I had something to ask a guy who was probably a lot more mature than I am now.

“Dupe, what do you think would happen if the world was controlled by superheroes?”

“Superhero control? By the government?”

“Yes, it is censored and controlled by the government.”

“Ohhh······ That’s quite an interesting idea.”

The eyes of the scalp flashed for a moment.

“The superhero genre has been subject to government censorship and control. If your new work contains such implications in its story, I can’t help but be excited after analyzing all your previous writings.”

“Thank you. I feel like a piece of the puzzle has fallen into place just from our conversation!”

“Haha, I’m glad I could help.”

“Scalp.”

“god.”

“Scalp.”

“god.”

The men’s warm friendship captivated us.

***

The collaboration between DC Comics and Hardboiled Publishers has been happening at a rapid pace.

Simon Carver, head of Hardboiled Publishing, pitched the idea to DC Comics, who made the proposal as they had heard from the new writer. A number of copies of the idea were printed and given to each editor, who read them all and discussed them in regular meetings.

“Okay, then. Let’s talk about what the Hardboiled Publisher has proposed.”

Each editorial team leader gave their opinion in response to Robert’s remarks as editor-in-chief.

“I think it’s a very interesting idea.”

“me too.”

“I wonder if there is any disagreement.”

“If you’re talking about a new writer, aren’t they the ones who are likely to win the Hugo or Nebula Awards? If they make such a great offer, there’s no reason for us not to accept it.”

Four editorial team leaders, and an editor-in-chief above them.

Everyone found the hardboiled publisher’s proposal interesting.

Here’s what they proposed:

Joint production of ‘new novels’ and ‘comics’ to be written by God.

“Plus, the author said he would take charge of the entire story of the novel and comics.”

“It must be difficult to coordinate each other’s schedules.”

“But it will make money.”

The editor-in-chief smiled and tapped the document containing the ideas with his fingertips.

Everyone sitting here was a comic kid who grew up reading all kinds of hero comics. However, as they grew up, they also became equipped with the reality that they wanted to be recognized for the tangible value of ‘money’ through the things they liked.

Perhaps it was the influence of these people that made superhero movies so quickly become a reality.

“Anyway, it seems like an interesting plan, so let’s go ahead and give it a go. Then next… ‘the work’.”

The editor-in-chief’s forehead furrowed slightly.

Everyone followed him and turned the pages to check out the proposal from Hardboiled Publishing.

“The title is······’Kung-fury’.”

“Kung-Fury. I thought the character name was a bit too cheesy.”

“That’s what I mean. These days, the times are demanding diversity. I thought it was time for us to have at least one more Asian hero.”

“Until I read the clear plot······.”

Everyone laughed as if they were dumbfounded and naturally talked about how they felt when they received and read the plan.

When these five comics-savvy editorial executives saw the title “Kung Fury,” they envisioned a story featuring an interesting Asian kung fu master, like movie star Bruce Lina or Marvel superhero Shang-Chi.

Although DC Comics already had some Asian characters like Rising Sun and Katana, most of them were Japanese and none had a Chinese “style.”

In such a situation, what greeted them as they opened the pages, anticipating what the setting of the Asian character Kung Fury would be like, was an incredible level of ‘black comedy’.

Kung-Fury was of Korean descent.

His name is Jonathan Joe. People around him just call him Joe.

A superhuman created through biological experiments, he served as a soldier in the Vietnam War, but became disillusioned with his life as a dog of the state, gave up all his glory in Korea, and immigrated to the United States.

He wanted to live quietly in a new land while hiding his identity, and he deliberately avoided places like Koreatown, choosing to live a peaceful life alone in an apartment in a slum.

However, having spent most of his life as a soldier, he has difficulty adapting to normal society and gets into all sorts of trouble.

For various reasons, his personality was twisted, making it difficult for him to get along with people at work and he was repeatedly fired. Then, he met a Chinese-American.

Introducing himself as ‘Shifu’, he takes interest in Joe, who has a tall stature and a muscular body, and makes him a proposal.

‘Become the master of our kung fu school!’

‘Kung fu is bullshit. I’m Korean.’

‘Americans don’t care about that. They’re stupid.’

‘oh.’

He is immediately convinced.

Just then, a white boy and a black boy passed by, their eyes tearing.

As a kung fu master, he did some fake punching as he had learned in the military, and as a way to train his body and mind, he talked about yin and yang and taught breathing techniques. Those who came to learn kung fu because they were interested in oriental culture that they had only seen in movies or media were enthusiastic about it.

‘This is crazy!’

‘Ah, I feel like yin and yang are in harmony within me.’

‘Whew······ My soul is being filled.’

Joe feels guilty at their innocent appearance and tells Shifu that he will quit his job.

But Shifu convinces him again with these words.

‘What we do is service! We give them a nice uniform, we give them a belt, and most of all, we give them the mystique of the East! That’s what all Americans do! Selling fakes as if they were real! This is modern society, and let’s leave the old kung fu in the past! Oriental! Exotic! We just have to make people believe they’ve had some kind of spiritual experience!’

‘oh.’

Sounds plausible?

“······.”

“······.”

The editor-in-chief, who had read that far, was once again at a loss for words.

The editor-in-chief opened his mouth, touching his forehead.

“This is so much fun. This is so much fun.”

“······If we laugh like this, isn’t that racism?”

“Well, so what? We’re the only ones here.”

The wind that had been blocking my teeth leaked out, scratching my throat.

I had a feeling that it would be a very enjoyable and absurd piece that comically portrays the discrimination prevalent in American society. It was just a simple list of plots, but I could feel what kind of flow it would be just by reading it.

But there was one problem that naturally arose here.

‘How on earth is this a superhero movie?’

What happens to the protagonist to become a real superhero?

The moment that question occurred to us, all five comic nerds here simultaneously thought:

‘This works.’

It was a time when realistic dark stories like The Dark Knight Returns were popular.

The outrageous story, which seemed to overturn a newspaper cartoon, stimulated tremendous interest. It completely changed the image of ‘Orientals’ that people had secretly understood and passed over.

“I really want to ask you this.”

Why were Asians portrayed as such vicious and cunning beings?

That’s why the five of them decided to immediately sign the contract and pester the new writer to hurry up and get the next story······ No, they decided to proceed quickly since the topic of the writer, Shin, was at stake.

***

[······They say.]

Simon Carver on the other end of the phone seemed barely able to contain his laughter.

As I stood at the public phone and listened to that conversation, my lips twitched slightly.

‘That’s exactly the reaction I was hoping for.’

In its approach to racism, it was a response that had not been portrayed in American media to date.

As an Asian who was born and raised in the United States, there are three main types of discrimination I have experienced.

One is the subtle discrimination due to ignorance. For example, “Where are you from?” If you answer, “Los Angeles, USA,” the answer will be, “No, that’s not it. I mean the country where your culture is rooted!” “I said Los Angeles, California, USA?” In the end, they don’t understand.

The second was discrimination between individuals. In my previous life, and not long ago, during my college years, I experienced this. In the end, when people meet one-on-one, when they become emotionally agitated, they tend to attack what they consider to be the other person’s weaknesses. At that time, they would use very harsh racist language because no one else could hear.

The third group, on the contrary, was extremely careful to portray Asians as completely good. Underlying this discrimination was the idea that Asians were weak. That’s why, even though I couldn’t say anything, I ended up feeling strangely bad.

When these three types of discrimination are intertwined and experienced, the reality is that people become extremely narrow-minded and narrow-minded.

I, too, was distrustful of people and obsessed with my identity as an Asian just before I regressed because of that. To be honest, I still haven’t completely let go of that.

In the first place, it may be a problem that cannot be put down.

But one thing was certain.

‘I do it, we all do it. So let’s just let it out cheerfully.’

And I had conceived a story that combined the themes of ‘superhero’, ‘censorship’, and ‘control’.

Right into the superhero genre.

[Author?]

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking.”

[What should I say in response?]

“What exactly was your question?”

[Is it okay to portray Asians as evil like this?]

“It’s not that I’m portraying Asians as evil. It’s just that I’m showing that Joe and Shifu have evil sides.”

And its evil side was terribly ‘capitalist’.

It’s not ‘Sob sob~ Don’t discriminate against us~. We’re Americans too~’ but ‘You damn nosed bastards. I’m going to teach you fake Asian martial arts and steal your money.’

I quite liked the narrative of these two characters starting out that way.

‘Because, after all, heroes start from ignorance.’

[I guess that’s the answer. Oh, and how much of the plot have you written? The company said they wanted to see how the next story goes before deciding.]

“I have already finished writing the draft.”

[······yes?]

“Wow, that word processor has some really great features.”

My new weapon, ‘Hardboiled Nine Million’.

Even if you make a typo, you can just erase the text right away. You can just write whatever comes to mind without worrying about the inscription or anything.

This has resulted in work efficiency that is incomparable to that of using a typewriter.

‘Until now, I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated because my equipment hasn’t kept up with my thinking.’

Although the response speed is slow compared to what was used in the future, this in itself feels like a few shackles have been released.

I was able to work at a much faster pace than before, which is why I declared that I would take on writing comic stories and novels simultaneously.

“I’ll fax it to you tomorrow, so please pass it on to DC Comics.”

The main character, ‘Joe’, who tries to make money by exploiting racial prejudice, goes through a certain process to become a superhero.

······If I may give a spoiler, it would have to be done purely for the sake of ‘promotion of the dojo’.