【Recommendation in Chinese version】 Dialogue between man and man, man and mountain, and self / Foreman Jian Mountaineering, and a novelist who is good at writing about gods and monsters These two seemingly unrelated themes have unexpectedly intersected with my life in the past few years. Let me talk about mountain climbing first. When I first switched careers to the tourism industry a few years ago, I started as a national tour leader in Taiwan for a whole year.At that time, the company I worked for was promoting mountaineering tourism. As a rookie practitioner who was cultivating the ability to lead a group, even though I had never had any interest or habit of climbing in the past, once a group trip took place, I gritted my teeth and smiled and had to take the climbers to the mountain. The alpine guide will take care of you along the way and complete the task of attacking the summit.

In this way, in just half a year, he climbed nine hundred mountains one after another.Although it is nothing to be proud of compared with regular mountaineers, it is undoubtedly a personal record. Among them, what impressed me the most was climbing the main peak of Yushan Mountain for the first time. It was a chilly March, and I led a group of reporters up the mountain for interviews.The temperature at the top of the mountain was below zero in the early morning, and the spring rain met the cold air and turned into grains of ice graupel. As the strong wind hit, it kept hitting the already soaked coat and face.In the last section of the nearly vertical route to the summit, I tightly held the frozen iron chain with both hands, tremblingly stepped on the narrow rock wall with frozen feet, and tried my best to stay in midair, waiting for the partner in front to move slowly.

At that moment, I suddenly laughed, very heartily. The reason for laughing is that I have only watched dramas or documentaries about other people's climbing peaks on movies and TV before, but I didn't expect that I was actually caught in such an ice storm situation, and I suddenly had the absurd illusion of challenging the Himalayas.Later, when I watched the same type of mountaineering videos, I could better understand (or at least imagine) the harsh situation and complex emotions faced by climbers. As for novelists: The first time I encountered the peculiar name of the Dream Pillow Tapir was the pen name of the original author of the novel that I saw in the early collection of works with the illustrator Yoshitaka Amano.After many years, I noticed that this author wrote a series of Onmyoji works, which not only set off a long-lasting frenzy in Japan, but also spread to the field of comics and movies, and also has many enthusiastic supporters in Taiwan.

Coincidentally, 2005 coincided with the millennium anniversary of the death of the protagonist of Onmyoji novels, Abe Seimei, and I became the leader of the Onmyoji Millennium Festival tour group by chance. A group of male and female fans, following the Heian Era Weird Tale World constructed by Dream Pillow Tapir, visited temples, historical sites and museums in Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and other places. It can be said this way: I may not have been a loyal reader of Mr. Dream Pillow Tapir, but after walking around the historical scene and getting along with fans day and night for a few days, I also entered the fantasy world carefully created by the writer. Abe Seimei and Minamoto Hiroya, two men travel between the yin and yang worlds, the plot of the novel between the friendship between sympathy and the seemingly non-existent same-sex affection (?), aroused strong interest.

I feel that this writer has a unique style of writing and insight in describing the delicate cultural aspects, scenes of the times, and the friendship between men. Therefore, when I received the manuscript of "Mountains of the Gods" from the publishing house, and knew that Dream Pillow Tapir had written such a novel about mountaineering, and it was two thick volumes, I was full of curiosity and doubts. : Will this be a fairy tale about mountains?It seems to be describing the story between two men again. Will they be the modern version of Seimei and Boya?How will the author, who has always been known for his fantastic and strange writing style, deal with such a seemingly ordinary subject as the mountain?

Once I started reading, I completely forgot about these doubts. Starting from an unsolved unsolved case in the history of Mount Everest's summit, and unveiling the prelude with reasoning, the writer uses his delicate style of writing to bring out one character after another, and tirelessly describe the details of preparations for climbing Mount Everest, The real feelings of human beings in the harsh environment of high mountains, some fictional legends of heroes in the history of mountaineering in Japan and the world, and the last part of Nepal's customs and customs, it reads as an excellent travel documentary literature.

To my surprise, Mr. Dream Pillow Tapir showed amazingly rich mountaineering knowledge in this novel.After checking Wikipedia carefully, I was surprised to laugh: It turned out that this slender scholar who was immersed in the world of classical literature and monsters in the past, his original personal hobbies were climbing the Himalayas, river fishing, Alaska wilderness adventure, and fighting skills. And follow Master Xuanzang's Journey to the West route! With such a diverse and solid professional background, it is no wonder that the writer describes the details related to mountaineering and survival in the wild, showing a rhythm with ease and detail, and supporting the good-looking flesh and blood of the whole novel.However, in such a background, the real theme is gradually introduced: the various aspects of friendship between men and men, and the real dialogue between men and their deep selves.

Undoubtedly, in "Mountain of the Gods", there are also frictions, conflicts, and mutual acquaintances between two men with different personalities, just like onmyojis, but the objects described by the author are plural intersections, so It constitutes a group portrait of many adult males.In contrast, the writer spent a very long time, presenting the plot of the man constantly asking and answering himself in the state of altitude sickness and hypoxia. Reflecting on the plot of interpersonal relationship and past life in the way of raving between others and self, reading in the eyes of the protagonist Makoto Fumachi, who is about the same age as the protagonist, has an indescribable purification effect: when you finish reading this book in one breath After the whole novel, it seems that he also experienced trials and rebirth on Mount Everest, and gained a light courage to continue on the road of life.

No wonder Dream Pillow Tapir finished writing "Mountains of the Gods" and said that I have no regrets!Such a sigh. Finally, I would like to point out that this is not a mountaineering novel specially written for mountaineering friends.It doesn't extol the health aspects of mountaineering and hiking like the usual eco-tourists who advocate nature.Even, the writer said through the mouth of another protagonist in the book, Hanyu Joji, who is known as a genius climber: I don’t know if I like (mountain climbing).Frankly, at this age, I still don't know. No, this is not just a mountaineering novel, but a wonderful and beautiful life novel.