Hello, I’m the author. This is the Bunko edition of a book I wrote called GOTH. For reasons I don’t quite follow, it was divided into two volumes for this release. My editor, A-san, said, “Write an afterword—something interesting and easy to read.” I get requests like this because I used to enthusiastically write funny and interesting afterwords. I’m starting to get fed up with it.
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Anyway. I wrote GOTH the year after I graduated from college; I believe I was twenty-three at the time. I wrote the short story called “Goth,” collected in Yoru no Sho, and my editor really liked the characters; suddenly, I found myself creating other stories with them. The short stories that resulted from this all have the main characters getting involved with gruesome murders. Together, they formed the work known as GOTH collected here. Killer after killer appears, secretly taking lives—and the more I wrote, the more worried I become that these events just seemed terribly unrealistic. In the real world, it’s absolutely unthinkable that so many crazy people could live in the same town.
I was trying to write a dark fantasy, like the series Youma Yakou, published by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. In that series, each story involves a unique youkai causing trouble, and I was trying to write my own version of that without the consent or permission of Group SNE (the company that created the series). I do apologize, SNE-san! So the killers that appear in GOTH are not human, but youkai. And the male protagonist is also a youkai, with the same power as the enemies, whereas the female lead has a powerful psychic gift that attracts youkai. As I didn’t use any items or jargon to suggest that this was not our world, people tend to believe the book is set in reality; but in my mind, it absolutely is not.
Because I wanted to write about killers as if they were monsters, I wasted no time talking about their reasons for killing or traumatic pasts. If I wrote about their motives, I would be writing about humans, and that seemed to be rather missing the point. Writing about what led them to the desire to kill sounds inherently fascinating, but that seemed like something I should do in some other work. This was a battle between monsters. Clash of the youkai. Add a little romance, and you get the rather slapdash work known as GOTH.
I named the book GOTH for the entirely arbitrary reason that the lead female seemed to be sort of Goth-y. When I was a teenager, I had Goth friends, and we often loaned each other that kind of book, so Goth culture was as familiar as air (to me). But at the same time, it wasn’t well-known (among the general public), and any number of people asked me to explain it. I nearly panicked when I saw someone post on a friend’s home page, asking if I had made up the word. Of course not! And if I gave the impression that I had, I must sincerely apologize to everyone who loves Goth culture.
It was not a well-considered title. As you will understand once you read the book, there is little to no description of Goth culture in the work itself. As a result, I have created a connection between Goths and murders. Paying no attention to the soul of Goth culture, I’ve simply added a superficial aspect of the fashion as a selling point for my book. I knew I would have to write something apologizing for that eventually, as I’ve received a letter telling me off for it. Everything written in that letter was absolutely true, and I found myself bowing apologetically as I read it. I wanted to write back, but there was no return address, so I’ve been forced to use this space to offer my apology. I am extremely sorry for having taken advantage of Goth culture.
There is one other thing I must not forget to mention: This book was awarded the Honkaku Mystery Award. I never imagined that a book like this would win an award, and I didn’t even know that the Honkaku Mystery Award existed. I received a letter informing me that my book had been selected for the final round but had been so convinced I wasn’t the type to win awards that I completely forgot about the letter, and I never even mentioned it to my editor.
That bears further explanation. GOTH was originally written as a “light novel.” Defining the term “light novel” is fraught with danger, but the point is that, at the time I wrote it, there were no prizes for which light novels would even be considered. In other words, the possibility that GOTH would win an award was absolutely out of the question. All light novelists are writing under the assumption that their work will never win any prizes, and I was just one of those.
So I may be forgiven for completely forgetting the date on which the prize was announced and going to see a play with a friend of mine. It was completely impossible, after all. The judges were all die-hard mystery fans and would never vote for a light novel. Yes, it was published as a nice hardcover with no manga-style illustrations, or any illustrations at all—but the stories “Goth” and “Wrist-Cut” (collected in the other [Bunko paperback] volume) were originally published in a light novel magazine, so it seemed like everyone would assume the work was a light novel.
I went to see a play with the writer Y-san. I have only just remembered, but the play we went to see that day starred Yukiko Motoya-san. I’ve spoken to Motoya-san four times since then, and her conversation speed is frighteningly fast; for someone like me, who rarely speaks, it’s rather like being caught in a tornado. At the time, however, I hadn’t met her, nor even seen her on stage, and she hadn’t yet become a radio personality, nor had I ever heard her on the radio.
At any rate, I was headed to the spot where I’d agreed to meet Y-san. On the way, my cell phone rang. “You appear to have won the Honkaku Mystery Award,” my editor said, sounding quite perplexed. My editor had been unaware the book was even up for the prize until she was informed that it had won, so she was naturally quite unprepared. “Get over here, now.” I was forced to abandon plans to see a play and hurried directly to where the prize was being awarded. All kinds of astonishing events awaited me there—but what, exactly? You’ll have to read the afterword in the other [second paperback] volume of GOTH to find out.
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—Otsuichi
June 2005