When people reach middle age, the taste is a bit back to the basics, whether it is the specific taste of diet or the abstract taste of reading. Even novels with such a heavy taste of suspense and reasoning have gradually begun to appreciate the "small freshness" of the early days.
Suspense mystery novels are the most popular genre of novels in more than a hundred years, and the earliest is orthodox based on the original reasoning of Europe and the United States. The so-called "benguet" actually seems to be a concept proposed by the Japanese, this genre focuses on solving the puzzle, the puzzle must not be solved, and the puzzle must be solved skillfully. Especially the Chamber of Secrets killing, there is not a single Chamber of Secrets in the work that is simply embarrassed to mix in the Benguet world. Some writers have a special puzzle, and readers can't think of how to solve it if they want to break their heads, but once they get to the solution, they are all destroyed, either shaking their wit or exploiting loopholes.
As a representative figure of Japan's early reasoning industry, Edogawa Chaobu should have played a very important role in the development of Japanese reasoning "shiyi long skills to strengthen himself".
In the inheritance and development of European and American works, the Benge school gradually found a unique development path in Japan, and developed into a transgression school in the Edogawa River, and even laid the foundation for the subsequent social school and the new Benge school. The transfiguration sect is to feel that the Benge sect is too serious and boring, and began to add some elements of horror and curiosity to it. It is vividly reflected in the middle of this "Ghost of a Lonely Island".
Of course, the Yokogou Masashi of the same era as the Edogawa is more excessive, and the style is more sinister than that of the Edogawa. The limited number of books I read—"Eight Tombs Village" and "The Devil Blows the Flute"—were basically in that backward and ignorant village, where serial murders occurred, and the death method was tragic and terrible, accompanied by a panicked killing nursery rhyme. How about Port? Can it also be regarded as a kind of inheritance and development of Grandma's "No One Survives"?
Pulling away, continue with "Ghosts of the Lonely Island". There are two murders in this book, with a very original beginning: one died in a closed chamber and the other died in a generalized chamber of secrets—although in public, in full view of the public, next to someone else, the murderer has completed an impossible crime. Very authentic, very authentic. To be honest, the two mysteries come out very attractive.
The answer, on the other hand, is somewhat unsatisfactory.
The first secret room, the solution is to say that this closed secret room is actually a traditional Japanese building, the seemingly closed house in the kitchen there is a floor sliding door, through which it can be connected to the corridor. Big brother, I can only say that the police did not even consider this door, it is really a bit brain-dead.
The second chamber of secrets is even more unreasonable. It is not that the structure of the chamber is irrational, but that the victim's motives are enigmatic. Why is the victim in a generalized chamber of secrecy? Because he received a death notice, someone predicted that his life would be taken at 12 noon. So he was with a lot of people, on the beach, playing with a few children.
Please, he has received a death notice, he also knows that he has learned a major secret, the possibility of being killed is very high, at this time his choice is not to tell the protagonist the information he has as soon as possible, but to play?? Just like the most criticized death message in speculative fiction/film and television works, the victim often leaves some twisted information before dying. Please, you're all going to die, can't you write the murderer's name generously?
The most unreasonable thing is that he has solved the first case, basically can determine that the murderer used the child to commit the first crime, in this case, he is still playing with 4 children at the scheduled time to be killed, this is not a dance with wolves What is it?
But then again, the murderer is also quite confident, why does the murderer think that the detective will be alone at 12 o'clock, so that he is so sure that he can kill him? What if he hired a very strong bodyguard? What if he locked himself in a real chamber of secrets? The handling of this puzzle is also too sloppy!
No matter which genre, at least the foundation of suspense and reasoning must be built a little more solidly, right? The foundation can determine whether the superstructure is crumbling or not!
But then again, from the Benguet to the Transfiguration, and then to the Socialism, although the element of reasoning is weakening, the literary component is strengthening. Especially the early three giants: Edogawa Chaos, Yokomizu Masashi and Matsumoto Kiyoharu, the writing is not what the gang of cats and dogs who write reasoning now can look forward to. It can be said that no matter what genre, the master or your master.
Now in Japan, speculative fiction has developed into a mature literary category. The social school has become an old antique, the new Benguet school has also been a precursor wave, SF reasoning, Baga reasoning, light novel reasoning, etc. have flourished, and strange things have emerged in an endless stream. Some works focus on subterfuge (such as "The Fall of the Knockout Suspension Bridge"), some focus on reversals (such as "Disintegration of The Causes"), some works begin to pretend to be crazy and stupid (almost all of Higashikawa's works), and some writers begin to write some inexplicable sports works in order to reimburse their own invoices for eating, drinking and having fun (it's you, Keigo Higashino!). ）。 Not only is there no innovation in trickery, but the literary nature is also lost, the whole looks like a small white text, and it is enough to write a speculative novel so much.
No matter what genre it is now, I hope that speculative fiction will not forget its original intention, consolidate the core tricks and solutions, and pay attention to the text, so that this ancient (?) And the young literary category can move more steadily towards the mainstream literary temple.