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Naoki Hyakuta: "Entertainment has the power to captivate people of all generations" Part 2
Naoki Hyakuta
True appeal is only real when it resonates across generations
When attempting to convey a story, an author's "ability to communicate" is put to the test. For me, the most crucial element in "communicating" is that it simply must be interesting. While theme is often emphasized as vital, from my perspective, it ranks fifth or sixth in importance. If the sole theme is anti-war, there's no need to write 500 or 600 pages. If you want to say love is important, writing just that one line suffices.
Engaging with a novel means reading it so deeply you lose track of time. Moving the reader is important, and making them think deeply is important too, but I believe the starting point must be that it's interesting.
So, what is interesting? It's hard to pin down in a single word. Ten people will have ten different ideas of what's interesting.
But if I may say one thing: I don't consider something "interesting" if it only resonates with a limited generation. I firmly believe an interesting work is one that can be enjoyed by teenage boys and girls, middle-aged men and women in their fifties, and elderly grandparents in their seventies. That's why the sales pattern I mentioned earlier was such a joyful thing for me.
With TV, there are ratings, so naturally, the focus on what's interesting is broad. You naturally lean toward what as many people as possible will find interesting. In contrast, novels have a much narrower target readership. Somehow, this has been accepted. Selling 20,000 or 30,000 copies is considered a success. Proportionally speaking, it's a world where if just one in 5,000 people says it's interesting, that's enough.
I find that incredibly wasteful. Why not aim to entertain at least one in a thousand? It baffles me. People are spending a thousand or so yen to buy your book; surely you could aim a bit broader? Of course, that means more pressure and hardship for the writer. That's only natural.
I don't harbor any grandiose ambitions of tackling universal themes, but since I write, I want to keep writing things that are thoroughly interesting. Even if novels decline in the future, I'll keep writing what I believe in. If the day comes when everyone says, "I'm done with novels," then I'll simply stop writing cleanly. (Talk)
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Author
Naoki Hyakuta
writer
Born in Osaka in 1956. As a broadcast writer, he worked on popular programs such as "Detective! Night Scoop." He made his literary debut at age 50. His novel "The Man Called Pirate" won the 2013 Bookstore Award.