Chapter 114 Evaluation
The media reviews of Farewell My Concubine came slower than Lin Weimin had expected. The April issue of People's Literature had been on the market for more than half a month before newspapers began to publish reviews of the book.
Lin Weimin guessed that this might be related to the publication. If "Farewell My Concubine" was published in a local literary magazine, these comments would probably have been widely circulated long ago.
It has to be said that the brand of "People's Literature" is big enough to protect Lin Weimin and "Farewell My Concubine" from wind and rain.
But no matter how big the umbrella is, it can't block all wind and rain.
It was a weekday morning in late April.
The colleagues in the office gathered around a desk. Lin Weimin went to the water room to get some water. Seeing everyone gathered together, he asked, "What are you looking at?"
His colleagues turned to look at him with sympathy on their faces.
"What's wrong?" Lin Weimin was puzzled.
Everyone made way for Lin Weimin, who walked to the desk and saw a newspaper on the table. It was today's Guangming Daily.
"My opinion on Farewell My Concubine".
The title is neutral, but the content is not friendly.
The commentary article is not long, estimated to be only about 2,000 words, but for a media outlet like Guangming Daily, it is already quite a lot.
The most crucial thing is the signature of the commentary article. It is signed by a senior literary figure and published in a national media such as Guangming Daily. It is so clear-cut that it is a pressure for Guowen Publishing House and Lin Weimin.
"Oh, the origin of this comment is getting more and more powerful!" Liu Yin sighed.
Everyone came over and patted Lin Weimin on the shoulder to express their comfort.
Lin Weimin laughed and said, "It is their right to criticize!"
Zhu Changsheng gave Lin Weimin a thumbs up and said, "Weimin, this attitude is good. Keep it up."
After everyone dispersed, Lin Weimin sat down and read the comments carefully.
The views in it did not surprise him, and mainly focused on three points.
First, at the political level, there is suspicion of smearing.
Second, it is too dark in terms of human nature and appears extremely deliberate.
Third, in terms of orientation, it attracts attention through curiosity.
After reading it, Lin Weimin put the newspaper down. There have been more and more comments in the past two days. There is nothing strange about the criticism from Guangming Daily. The most serious thing is that it has a higher status.
Too many lice won’t itch, and too many debts won’t worry you.
After a while, Yao Shuzhi came over from the front building's mail room sorting out the mail and threw a few letters to Lin Weimin. "They are all your letters."
Lin Weimin took the letters and took a look. They were from Jiang Zilong, Huang Anyi and Cheng Shixu.
He felt Jiang Zilong's letter and felt it was very thick. He knew there must be a manuscript in it, so he opened his letter first.
In the letter, Jiang Zilong first talked about his current situation. He is indeed very busy now, and a lot of his energy is occupied by mundane affairs. He can spare very little time for creation every day.
Then he talked about his opinion on Lin Weimin's works. The play "The Intouchables" was performed at the People's Art Theater. Jiang Zilong didn't see it, but he heard about it from his friends. It was very good. As for "Farewell My Concubine", he had watched it a few days ago and praised Lin Weimin for his progress, saying that he had written a masterpiece.
In his letter, he also mentioned the comments of the Tianjin critics on the novel. Objectively speaking, there were more positive comments than negative ones, which comforted Lin Weimin a little.
Only at the end of the letter did he mention his work, and attached his latest novella "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple".
Lin Weimin felt somewhat comforted after reading Jiang Zilong's letter. He sent out letters requesting manuscripts, but Jiang Zilong's was the first one he received feedback on.
Then he opened Huang Anyi's letter. Huang Anyi's words in the letter were polite yet a little distant, which made Lin Weimin think of her at the Institute of Literature Research for a moment.
In her letter, she also mentioned the influence of Farewell My Concubine in Shanghai. Unlike the criticism that was gradually emerging in northern cities such as Yanjing and Tianjin, the media in Shanghai were almost unanimous in their praise. The most explicit of them was the Youth Daily, which almost praised Farewell My Concubine.
"I'm so happy for you" are the exact words Huang Anyi said in the letter.
This time, she also sent Lin Weimin a manuscript. It was a novella called "Epilogue" which she had just completed not long ago. She had originally planned to submit it to "Harvest", but happened to receive Lin Weimin's letter of invitation, so she sent the manuscript over.
Lin Weimin felt lucky as he almost missed it. This was like pulling a tooth from a tiger's mouth.
Finally, there was a letter from Cheng Shixu, in which he said that he had recently been transferred to the Ganxi Provincial Institute of Literature and Art to engage in professional literary creation and research.
As for his works, he is still in a bottleneck period of creation. He has no clue and can't write anything decent.
Lin Weimin thought that he would probably need some more patience in this situation, and who knows when he would be able to "suddenly break the golden rope and tear the jade lock."
After reading the letter, Lin Weimin turned his attention to the manuscript.
It took him most of the day to finish reading the two manuscripts. He only looked up from the pile of papers when it was almost time to get off work.
Yao Shuzhi waved the newspaper in her hand at him, "Hey, Weimin, here's another newspaper that insults you!"
Lin Weimin laughed and said, "There are many people who scold me, who is he?"
Yao Shuzhi burst out laughing, "You are really magnanimous."
Lin Weimin handed her a cutout newspaper and said, "Look more at the people who praise us, don't be blinded by just one leaf."
Huang Anyi cut out this newspaper from the Youth Daily and mailed it to him specially. It's no wonder that female comrades are so thoughtful.
Like Jiang Zilong, he said a lot of praise and criticism in the letter, but he didn't see it with his own eyes.
Yao Shuzhi took the newspaper and read it for two minutes. "Oh, this is simply praising you like a flower! Weimin, you won't give them money, will you?"
"Nonsense!" Lin Weimin scolded.
After hearing what Yao Shuzhi said, other comrades also became interested and came over to take a look.
Even though today, important media such as Guangming Daily published criticisms of Farewell My Concubine, the media in Yanjing generally gave more praise than criticism to the film.
But compared with Yanjing, the praise from Youth Daily is indeed much greater than that from Yanjing.
"No wonder Weimin is so calm and composed!" Liu Yin said with a smile.
Zhu Changsheng said: "To be honest, Farewell My Concubine is very well written and deserves such praise."
"But some people don't see it that way. When they read books, they always see politics, struggles, and intrigues, but they cannot see literature itself," said Yao Shuzhi.
"Okay, okay, let's not discuss this topic anymore."
Seeing that Yao Shuzhi's words were becoming more and more distorted, Rong Shihui hurried out to interrupt him.
Lin Weimin put the two manuscripts he had just read on his desk, "Teacher Rong, please help me take a look at these two manuscripts."
Rong Shihui smiled and said, "It's still good for the people. I wrote two letters to my classmates and this manuscript came into being."
(End of this chapter)
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