The Voice in the Dark

I can open your eyes 

Take you wonder by wonder

"A Whole New World" (Brad Kane, Lea Salonga)

I think I have mentioned it before when discussing historical mysteries here, but I am not particularly strong in the subject of history. And I am even worse when it comes to details in history. However, ever since I was young, I was always interested in myths like the mythology of the ancient Greeks and the Romans, and also unsolved historical riddles and/or hidden meanings behind historical events etc. I loved watching documentaries talking about the "truth" behind topics like the pyramids, Stonehenge and Atlantis, or reading about interpretations of myths and folktales and learning what they (presumably) were really about. Of course, you can easily see the overlap with my love for mystery fiction here, a genre that is often about the appearance of "a story" (the apparent happenings of a crime) and a hidden truth behind that appearance. 

It is a reason why I really liked Kujira Touichirou's Yamataikoku wa Doko Desuka? ("Where is Yamatai-koku?" 1998) when I read it two years ago: it was a short story collection that wasn't like any other typical mystery book. The stories collected here were about historical mysteries, like the question of where Yamatai-koku was located or even how Jesus manage to rise from his grave. But while the questions were not typical of mystery fiction, the way the characters discussed these "cases", came up with theories and built on these theories to arrive at a "logical" conclusion would have felt familiar to any mystery reader. The fun part of these stories was that the conclusion was always completely bonkers from a historical point of view. When you were done with a story, you knew the "truth" they arrived at was absolutely not true because it would be incredibly far-fetched, yet at the same time it would have parts that sounded really convincing, precisely because the theories were built using actual historical sources, and then examined through the deduction process as we know from mystery novels: highlighting all clues (in this case historical sources and the contradictions found there), how to interpret and explain clues/discrepancies and finally construct, through the process of proposing ideas, examining and if necessary rejecting them) a theory that explains everything, while incorporating all the clues/sources discussed. While the book was about real history and used real clues and sources, it was an excellent case study to show that mystery fiction doesnt need to be realistic to be amusing.

It shouldn't come as a surprise I was interested in reading more of this series, so today we have Shin Sekai no Nanafushigi ("The New Seven Wonders of the World" 2005), the second book to bring us to the little bar Three Ballets. Here we find the bartender Matsunaga, the historian Shizuka, the reporter Miyata with a knack for coming up with outrageous theories and this time, we also find Shizuka's guest Professor Hartman: he's visiting Japan for a congress, and Shizuka has promised to go with him to Kyoto. However, every time some other reasons pops up to prevent her from going, so she keeps meeting with Hartman in the evening at Three Ballets, promising they'll definitely go tomorrow. Hartman is very interested in Japanese culture, but his presence at the Three Ballets always leads to discussions between Miyata, Shizuka and Matsunaga about Western history, and especially, unsolved mysteries. For example, where lies Atlantis? But was also the purpose of Stonehenge, and why do so many cultures have a myth of a Great Flood? Every time they argue about these topics however, it's Miyata who ultimately arrives at a completely crazy, but strangely convincing hypothesis about those historical mysteries...

In a way, this is the exact same book as the first collection. Sure, the first book focused more on Asian history and this one more on history outside Asia, but the way each story unfolds is basically the same between both volumes. Some idle chat early on leads to the characters focusing on a specific historical mystery, they discuss various theories and interpretations regarding that mystery and finally Miyata comes up with an entertaining, but rather far-fetched explanation. For those not familiar with Asian history however, this second volume is a more accessible work, considering its topics like Noah's ark, Stonehenge, pyramids and the Nazca lines. Some minor knowledge of Japanese history and culture is handy, as often Miyata does refer to those, but considering we also have Hartman as a non-Japanese proxy character, you'd almost think this book was written for an overseas audience in the first place, as a variant version of the first book. Not that I am complaining, as both books are very entertaining.

I am not going to discuss the seven stories seperately here because they are all quite short and all you really need to know is that each story is about a major historical mystery like the aforementioned Stonehenge, Altantis or something the Yellow Emperor and his terracota army or the Moai statues. What is great is how Kujira utilizes methodology from mystery fiction to come up with batshit insane theories that somehow sounds somewhat convincing, even though your mind tells you it can't be true in anyway. What's really clever is that Kujira even manages to find a common theme between these various historical mysteries, even though they come from completely different places in the world and are set in completely different time periods. It's bonkers, but oh-so-much-fun! 

I mentioned it the review of the first book, but people who like the Professor Munakata series, or Katou's Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuuryou and/or C.M.B. Shinra Hakubutsukan no Jiken Mokuroku will love this series too, I think. Sure, these stories look at "big history" so may lack the human drama angle of Katou's manga series, but the way these tales play with interpretation, and reinterpretation of a historical event should be very recognizable.

Shin Sekai no Nanafushigi might not be improving in any way on the first volume, but it's still a very entertaining short story collection that brings a lot of romanticism to these well-known historical mysteries and riddles, and it does that using methods we all know very well from mystery fiction. The book shows us once again that mystery fiction needs to be amusing and entertaining, and not necessarily realistic and that the joys of mystery fiction can be found anywhere, even in "hard history."

Original Japanese title(s): 鯨統一郎 『新・世界の七不思議』:「アトランティス大陸の不思議」  / 「ストーンヘンジの不思議」  / 「ピラミッドの不思議」  / 「ノアの方舟の不思議」 / 「始皇帝の不思議」  / 「ナスカの地上絵の不思議」  / 「モアイ像の不思議」