British writer

Is Lu responsible for Dr. Doyle?

"hiss……"

Scott took a breath, and his eyes changed when he looked at Lu.

grass!

Ten thousand grass and mud horses galloped past Lu Shi's heart.

He coughed lightly and said to the clerk: "Go and ask Dr. Doyle to come in."

The clerk obeyed and left.

Not long after,

Squeak——

The door to the editor's office was pushed open.

Doyle burst in furiously and looked at Lu Shi with eyes so intense that he almost breathed fire.

Scott's eyes wandered between the two, full of suspicion.

Lu Shi was also confused.

"Dr. Doyle, long time no see."

Although he and Doyle often competed with each other, they had not met each other for more than a year.

This relationship is also strange.

Doyle shook hands with Lu Shi,

"Sir Lu, I... I used to dismiss you when you pointed out many unreasonable things in the Sherlock Holmes series. Looking back now, at that time, I was really looking at the sky from a well, and I didn't know how high the sky was."

Given Lu Shi's current status in the European literary world, the two have different offensive and defensive positions.

Lu Shi waved his hand, not wanting to say more about this.

"Please take a seat."

He poured tea for the other party and asked curiously: "Dr. Doyle, you said that I am responsible for you. Is it because my book affected the sales of Sherlock Holmes?"

Doyle was startled, then laughed.

"Is that called 'influence'? It was clearly you who pushed me to the ground and beat me violently."

This is half a joke and half a fact.

Lu Shi also joked: "That was more than a year ago. You wouldn't come to me to accuse me now, would you?"

Doyle shook his head.

"Don't worry, I'm not so ungentlemanly."

The implication is that he is not a loser.

Lu Shi was noncommittal;

According to history, Doyle's character is average.

The reason why he can accept failure calmly now is simply because the two works "No Survival" and "Roger Mystery" were so successful that they convinced him.

However, a gentleman does not care about his heart when discussing his deeds.

Lu Shi stretched out his hand to avoid hitting the smiling man and changed the subject: "In that case, why do you ask me to take responsibility?"

Doyle sighed,

"look."

He took out the manuscript of "Gradient" and handed it over, and said at the same time: "Today's book review page of "Mirror" completely exposed the tricks of my mystery novel."

Lu Shi was curious,

"Are you talking about "Looking at Humanity from "Brain in a Vat"?"

When Doyle heard the name of this article, he suddenly became depressed, and his whole body sank into his chair, as if his essence, energy, and spirit had been sucked away.

Lu Shi probably guessed what was going on.

To put it simply, it’s a bit like the chores in a cross talk show.

Because the suspense or burden is told to the audience in advance, the appeal or effect of the work is greatly weakened.

This is different from spoilers,

After all, "Gradient" hasn't been published yet, so where can I say it's a spoiler?

Lu Shi began to read the manuscript.

On the other side, Scott also came over curiously.

The story of "Gradient" is very complete,

Moreover, it is organically combined with the previous Sherlock Holmes series, and the adventure elements and reasoning complement each other.

Unfortunately, the narrative trick is used very mediocrely;

Scott said halfway through reading: "Is 'I' in the novel the murderer? Is 'I' color blind?"

Doyle: "! @* # ￥%..."

I couldn't help but utter garbled words.

He looked at Lu Shi,

"That's why I said, you have to be responsible for me! How can I publish my novel when so many people have read that book review? Readers will know everything after reading it halfway through."

It is better not to use this kind of narrative trick.

Lu Shi coughed lightly,

"Dr. Doyle, frankly, you made a lot of factual errors."

"Ah this..."

Doyle was depressed;

"Sir Lu, Sir Lu, if there hadn't been the article "Reflecting on Humanity from "The Brain in a Vat"", where would I have made so many factual errors?"

Lu Shi waved his hands repeatedly,

"No, no, it's different."

He pulled out the book review page of the Mirror and said: "Dr. Doyle, the color blindness paradox mentioned by Mr. Bergson is philosophical, not biological. Even from the perspective of biology and pathology, This paradox is ridiculous."

Doyle pondered for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead,

"I am an ophthalmologist after all, but I would make such a mistake!"

Scott was stunned,

"What is wrong?"

Doyle explained: "It is very simple. The actual color blindness is not a cognitive swap of color vision, but a blurring of color vision."

Scott:? ? ?

Still don’t quite understand.

Doyle thought for a moment, took a piece of paper from the side and said, "This is what normal people see."

As he spoke, he wrote two words on the paper:

Red丨Green.

Doyle continued,

"This is what you think someone with color blindness sees."

Then he wrote on the paper:

Green丨Red.

Scott said "Yeah" and said, "That's what I think. In the eyes of color blindness, shouldn't red be green and green be red?"

"No."

Doyle wrote on the paper again,

"You misunderstood."

Scott cast his gaze,

I saw the two new words Doyle wrote on the paper:

Gray | Gray.

Scott said "Huh?" and asked, "Is that so?"

Doyle nodded,

"In the 18th century, the chemist and physicist John Dalton bought a pair of 'brown-grey' socks for his mother on Christmas Eve. After his mother saw it, she thought the cherry red was too bright and not suitable for old age. People wear it. As a result, Dalton became the first person in the world to discover color blindness. Later, in order to commemorate him, people called color blindness Dalton's disease."

Scott pondered,

"Brown gray and cherry red...that's true."

He understood and looked at Lu Shi curiously,

"Lu, it doesn't matter that you know history and literature, how come you even know these things?"

As a liberal arts student, Lu Shi knew this because of a novel——

"The Mystery of the Greek Coffin".

Author Ellery Quinn made the mistake of assuming that people with color blindness would reverse red and green.

Many book reviews pointed this out,

As a liberal arts student, Lu Shi also accumulated science knowledge.

Interestingly, because Quine has a high status in mystery literature and has influenced countless younger generations,

Even in modern times, many people are still using this wrong trick.

Doyle said: "However, this incident also fully illustrates the existence of the paradox of color blindness. After all, Dalton was already quite old at that time, and he had been among normal people for decades without finding any problems."

Lu Shi shook his head,

"You still think of it as biology or pathology. The paradox of color blindness is a cognitive problem. 'Red' and 'Green' are abstract, just two code names. They can also be replaced by 'Banana' and 'Apple', 'A' and 'B'..."

A word to wake up the dreamer,

Doyle suddenly realized,

"Yes, I do think complicatedly."

As a result, as soon as he finished speaking, Scott next to him said: "No, no, Dr. Doyle didn't think complicatedly, but Lu, you think too much."

Lu Shi said "Huh?"

"What's the meaning?"

Scott said: "Would Mirror readers think the color blindness paradox is philosophical?"

Lu Shi was stunned for a moment,

"Most people don't."

As a tabloid, "Mirror" mainly focuses on entertainment.

Readers are not experts or scholars, how can they understand such a profound proposition?

Scott spread his hands,

"Bingo! They don't think that deeply. When they see the paradox of color blindness, they think of color blindness. Of course, Mr. Bergson's book review will affect the core plot of "Gradient". So, you still have to ask Dr. Doyle Responsible."

"Ah this..."

Lu Shi was speechless.

There is a saying in China that the highest state of life is "Looking at mountains is still mountains, looking at water is still water."

Maybe it’s also a color blindness paradox?

Doyle also reacted,

"Editor-in-Chief Scott is right, Sir Lu, you are still responsible for me!"

Lu Shi was speechless,

"..."

Scott smiled playfully,

"Lu, you just made a few factual mistakes by Dr. Doyle. In addition to color blindness, is there anything else?"

Lu Shi said: "The remaining problem is not the facts, but the technique."

Doyle was surprised,

"Are you talking about techniques? You previously published "A Brief Discussion on Narrative Trickery and Mystery Works", and I created them according to what was mentioned in the article."

"Tsk..."

Lu Shi couldn't help but be speechless.

"That's the problem. You should understand what 'shallow talk' means."

He has already classified narrative tricks in his article,

However, in the past year, mystery novelists using narrative and mystery have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain, but they have not written anything new.

They are all still imitating "Roger Mystery\

,"Including Doyle's "Gradient".

Lu Shi said: "Dr. Doyle has many kinds of narrative tricks. The most original one is "Roger's Mystery". The narrator of the incident narrates it in the first person, but hides it from the readers. Or, even worse, it should be told. He is the murderer."

Scott nodded in agreement,

"Yes, the narrator deceives the readers~"

Doyle couldn't help complaining: "Sir Lu, do you think this is primitive? "Roger Mystery" is a ground-breaking work that countless writers can't even think of!"

Lu Shi was embarrassed,

That's because Sha Po is great, and it has nothing to do with me.

He shook his head,

"Don't flatter me, let's talk about business~"

Doyle then asked: "In addition to the narrator deceiving the reader, what other type is there?"

Lu Shi counted on his fingers.

"That's a lot. For example, the narrator narrates in the first person, and the characters in the book conceal this first person, thereby deceiving the reader. In other words, the reader is deceived by deceiving the narrator."

Doyle's eyes lit up,

"This is great! The first person could be a detective, but he was also deceived."

Lu Shi continued: "For another example, the narrator narrates in the first person. There are some things that the readers and the characters in the book know, but the first person does not know. This writing method is very unique and can achieve the goal without deceiving the readers. Don’t deceive the characters, but deceive the narrator.”

Doyle:? ? ?

Scott:? ? ?

Both of them were stunned and looked at each other.

Doyle asked: "Sir Lu, can you give an example?"

Lu Shi nodded,

"Simple. Let's just...well..."

He searched the room with his eyes, and suddenly thought of a book.

"Take an example. The narrator narrates in the first person, that is, 'I'. 'My' friend saw a corpse and asked me to call the police, but 'I' saw nothing where he pointed. Later , another friend of 'my' did some reasoning, and I actually saw the corpse. The reason is that 'I' had been mentally traumatized before, and would deceive myself when I saw something, that thing did not exist, and the murderer was also This was taken advantage of to complete the crime.”

This plot comes from the mystery novel "The Summer of the Bird" written by Natsuhiko Kyogoku.

The cool thing is that this is Natsuhiko Kyogoku’s first work.

It's quite outrageous that the first novel has such a level of quality.

Doyle pondered,

"Other characters have already told 'me' that it was a corpse, and the reader also knew that there was a corpse there, but 'I' turned a blind eye. It is indeed possible to deceive the characters in the book without deceiving the readers. 'I'."

When he looked at Lu Shi, his eyes were full of reverence.

"Sir Lu, how did you come up with this idea?"

Lu Shi shook his head,

"That's not important. What's important is whether what I said has any impact on your work."

Doyle didn't answer.

Frankly speaking, after talking to Lu Shi, he realized that mystery novels are profound and profound.

Looking back at the original manuscript of "Gradient", it's just a mess.

He sank into the chair a little slumped again.

Scott came closer,

"Lu, I think you should help him."

Lu Shi rolled his eyes at the other party,

"Help him? Brother, I didn't write that book review, so you still want me to be responsible for him?"

Scott shook his head and whispered in Lu Shi's ear for a while.

After Lu Shi heard this, he was doubtful.

"Is this okay?"

Scott said: "You are also in the media. Isn't what you are best at diverting attention?"

He nodded to the window again,

"Besides, it's like this outside, and you don't want to add more updates, so you can only use some off-the-chart tricks."

Lu Shi looked out the window,

The readers who requested additional updates of "Harry Potter" have not dispersed yet.

"Additional update!"

"Additional update!"

"Additional update!"

…

The momentum is getting louder and louder.

If they continue like this, if someone shouts "Gun in hand, follow me", they will rush in and capture Lu Shi alive.

Lu Shi thought for a while and patted Scott on the shoulder.

"You're absolutely right. As a media person, there's no shame in using extravagant tactics."

Scott said: "Come on~ I didn't teach you that. When it comes to black heart, you are blacker than me."

Lu Shi coughed lightly and pretended not to hear.

He turned to Doyle,

"Dr. Doyle, regarding "Gradient", how do you plan to change it?"

Doyle was extremely frustrated;

"Change it? I no longer want to write about this subject."

Lu Shi smiled and said, "That's not the case. You can completely change the way you use narrative trick~ Stop playing the same old trick and let the first-person 'I' be the murderer."

Doyle couldn't help but ponder,

"You mean, let 'me' be the one being used?"

After saying that, he shook his head repeatedly.

"However, with that book review here, everyone will think that 'I' am color blind halfway through reading it."

Lu Shi shook his head,

"Then change the structure of the novel! Let 'I' be wrongly accused of color blindness and imprisoned before the story is halfway through. In this way, when readers think about it, this book is cliché again When I was telling the story, I turned to the next chapter and was immediately slapped in the face."

Doyle was stunned for a moment, then became excited,

"It works! It works like this! In other words, use the kind of narrative trick you talked about at the end - without deceiving the readers, not deceiving the characters in the book, but deceiving the narrator."

After saying that, he wilted again,

"But it's difficult. I really can't think of what to do...sigh..."

His brows almost furrowed into the character "Chuan".

Scott smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, Doctor Doyle, Lu will take action anyway."

Doyle looked at Lu Shi,

"Sir Lu?"

Lu Shi glared at Scott, and then said: "Let me give you an example and see if it inspires you."

As a result, Doyle nodded as if he was pounding garlic.

“Inspiring!”

Lu Shi: "..."

I haven’t said anything yet~

He asked: "Dr. Doyle, compared with red-green color blindness, are more color blind patients unable to distinguish between blue and green?"

Doyle said: "That's right. Because the wavelengths of blue light and green light are inherently close, it is difficult to distinguish them in most people's eyes. In particular, if a person likes to cry and stay up late as a teenager, it will cause changes in visual cells and affect blue and green light. Green would be less sensitive.”

The changes in visual cells he mentioned are actually the ratio of cones and rods.

Moreover, due to cultural factors, many people have misunderstandings about these two colors even if they are not color blind.

For example,

"Green grass" and "blue sky\

,"The two "greens" are actually not the same color at all.

Even in modern times, general color vision tests do not test for abnormalities in blue and green vision.

If it were really tested, there would definitely be many people who failed.

Lu Shi asked: "Dr. Doyle, why can people with abnormal color vision see a light green carriage?"

Doyle thought for a while and replied: "It's very simple, contrast."

He walked to the window and pointed out the window,

"Color blindness knows that the sky is blue and the grass is green, just find a closer color."

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"But the sky in London is gray 300 days out of 365 days a year~"

Doyle said: "The gray sky will lead to the lack of blue contrast, which is really troublesome. But everyone has life experience. People with abnormal color vision can analyze the color of the carriage through experience. However, when he looks at it, It takes some effort, you may have to squint your eyes...hmm..."

Doyle seemed to have thought of something and repeated:

"Squint your eyes...squint your eyes..."

This seems to be easily applicable to narrative!

Just as a left-handed character would wear a watch on his right hand, there is no need to explicitly tell the reader that the character is left-handed.

Lu Shi smiled and said, "It seems that you already understand."

Doyle pondered,

"But, what should I do..."

He couldn't find the right words.

Lu Shi continued to remind: "The carriage can be repainted. Today it is green, but tomorrow it will be changed to blue for some reason. Coupled with the foggy weather in London, if you are color blind and talk about the color of the carriage with others, the secret will most likely be revealed. "

Doyle narrowed his eyes, lost in thought.

Time passes slowly,

Suddenly, he stood up abruptly,

"Sir Lu, you are indeed a responsible person!"

After saying that, he walked towards the door,

"I will revise "Gradient" when I get back today. I estimate that it will be completed in three to five days. Since you were the one who suggested the core trick, I will sign you as a co-author. Don't refuse!"

Without giving Lu Shi a chance to refuse, he pushed the door open and walked out.

Lu Shi let out a long breath,

With this kind of news attracting firepower, there should be fewer readers asking for more updates.

"I wish Dr. Doyle would move faster," he said.