Quote:
Originally Posted by Renall
Are you seriously trying to argue that Ryukishi is acting in good faith? Dude. The things I could tell you about bad faith...
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I think we can safely say that Ryűkishi merely overestimated what his readers would (like to) do. He didn't write a novel, he was more or less writing a challenge without selecting a proper circle of receivers.
If a famous detective-mystery author does that (like Ayatsuji and Arisugawa with 想看"綾辻行人・有栖川有栖からの挑戦状) they basically have their audience beforehand, because they've written so much in that field. Ryűkishi was basically expecting to play in the big league from the beginning.
In Japan most of his fans were Otaku with a slight taste for mysteries, but no actual interest in engaging in mysteries. They are used to stories by Type Moon or Nitro (who write good stories, but no actual detective-mysteries) and didn't even start with the idea to engage in the story.
Adding to that is how few people in the West have any understanding of international detective/mystery fiction, the whole Western community wasn't even at the point where he started at.
In the latest interview he stated what I assumed for quite some time. He wanted to write for people who read mystery fiction in order to solve them themselves, people who want to beat the detective to the solution, not wait for him to solve the case. I like it how he compared this to the reading of a hero-novel instead of a detective-mystery.
His interview partner Ôta is probably not even that wrong when he says that there might only be a few select thousand people who actually engage in mysteries AND are open to new approaches like Ryűkishi expected his audience to do.