Chapter 183 Trend
The lush and green Sophora japonica trees on the street block out the scorching sun in July.
In the courtyard of the Guowen Society, none of the windows of the office building were closed. This summer in Yanjing was unusually hot.
The fourth issue of Contemporary has been on the market for more than a week, and feedback from readers' letters and questionnaires has begun to come in.
"Let's talk about "My Distant Qingping Bay" again!" Yao Shuzhi tore open a letter from a reader and said this after just reading it for a few seconds.
Rong Shihui exclaimed: "Shi Tiesheng has become famous this time!"
Yao Shuzhi sealed the letter from the reader, and the editorial department will hand it over to Shi Tiesheng when the time comes.
"The last time I received so many letters was for Lu Yao's Life," said Liu Yin.
Yao Shuzhi said: "This time it's not as exaggerated as "Life", but it's still quite a lot, much more than usual."
She said to Lin Weimin, "Weimin, you caught another big fish this time!"
Lin Weimin raised his head and said with a smile: "What do you mean by big fish? These are potential writers, and they are all precious treasures of our Contemporary."
Rong Shihui joked: "Look at his awareness of serving the people. He is indeed Director Lin."
Everyone burst into laughter.
The working environment of the editorial department of Contemporary has always been relaxed and harmonious, including when the authors who contribute to Contemporary come to the office. Everyone sits in the office and talks about literature, ideals, life, philosophy...
Here, no one will laugh at these things that sound mysterious, but will instead participate in them with great interest.
Liu Yin suddenly asked, "Weimin, have you read this issue of Huacheng?"
Huacheng was founded in April 1979. It is a bimonthly literary magazine sponsored by Huacheng Publishing House. In the 1980s, it was known as the "Four Famous Stars" of domestic pure literature journals together with mainstream literary magazines such as Contemporary and October.
"Huacheng" is published on the 5th of every odd month, and its latest issue has just come out.
"No, what's wrong?"
Liu Yin handed him an open magazine and said, "Take a look at this: the acceptance speech by the latest Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Gabriel García Márquez. Look how fashionable he is!"
There was a hint of teasing in her tone.
The style of Huacheng is unique among domestic pure literature journals. The reason for this can be attributed to the city where it is located. Guangzhou has always been an open-minded city. In this era, in the eyes of people in other parts of the country, Guangzhou represents all words related to fashion.
Bold, pioneering, adventurous...
Just look at the columns in "Huacheng" to get a glimpse of the atmosphere of the time and place. "Novels", "Film Literature", "Foreign Literature", "Poetry", "Hong Kong News", etc., reveal a positioning and style that is completely different from pure literary publications in the mainland.
In this issue of the magazine, Huacheng was the first to publish the acceptance speech of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Marquez.
Lin Weimin glanced at the contents of the magazine, expressionless, "You're also going to publish your acceptance speech? Is Huacheng running out of manuscripts? How about I recommend a few works to them?"
Liu Yin covered her mouth and laughed, "You're even more mean than me!"
Lin Weimin shook his head. In the early days of reform and opening up, many of the first group of people who opened their eyes to the world were Westernized. Lin Weimin could understand that a publication published some content about literary awards, but it was a bit outrageous for you to publish the speech of a winner. Shouldn't you just give him an immortal rank?
The most important thing is that Lin Weimin really has no good feelings towards Marquez.
Is Marquez awesome?
Awesome!
Both "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are excellent literary works. His attainments in literary creation are at the master level, and he deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature.
But Lin Weimin makes a clear distinction between professionalism and character. Professionalism is professionalism, and character is character.
In 1990, Márquez, a contemporary master who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, came to China. Like Tagore's visit to China during the Republic of China period, he was highly valued by the government and cultural circles at that time. Among those responsible for the reception was even a senior like Qian Zhongshu.
Mr. Qian invited Marquez to eat Yanjing roast duck, and then went to a bookstore together. He saw pirated copies of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" on the bookshelf.
Marquez was so angry that he publicly insulted all the reception staff present: "Everyone here is a pirated book dealer."
He also made a harsh statement: "I will never authorize the publication of Chinese books within 150 years after my death."
It was clearly an illegal act by some pirates, but this master cursed all the cultural figures who had kindly received him.
The most important thing is that readers who spend money to buy books become thieves who steal the "fruits of his labor" and are deprived of the right to obtain genuine works!
This is simply the outrageous grandma opening the door for the outrageous mother - the outrageous mother has arrived home!
What an insult and arrogance this is, and the implicit discrimination is even more infuriating.
What’s even funnier is yet to come. In the following ten years, Marquez kept his promise and refused to authorize domestic publishers to publish his works until a domestic cultural figure wrote an enthusiastic and flattering article to Marquez.
This article touched Marquez's heart, and he readily agreed to the domestic publication request. Of course, the full amount of money had to be paid.
Lin Weimin really hopes that this master will fulfill his promise and let Chinese people spend less money to support writers who show such disrespect for Chinese readers.
Unfortunately, some people have very weak bones.
Lin Weimin chuckled and said, "We must be vigilant against any attempt to turn humans into gods, because they are trying to control us spiritually and make us their slaves."
Lin Weimin's words have a hidden meaning.
Zhu Changsheng said: "Weimin, you are exaggerating."
Lin Weimin shook his head. "It's not an exaggeration. Now they point at this person and say, 'He is a master, you have to kneel down and worship him.' You kneel down. Tomorrow they will dare to point at a dog and say, 'This is the Creator, you have to kneel down and worship him.'"
Colleagues in the office were stunned by Lin Weimin's serious and cold tone and didn't know how to respond. They had never seen Lin Weimin like this before.
“Literature is not theology. We don’t need anyone to stand over our heads and give us orders, and we don’t allow anyone to be high above us. Being divorced from the people, singing praises to those above and brainwashing those below is not literature, but politics.”
After Lin Weimin said these words, the office fell silent for a moment, and his expression softened. “I’m not targeting you all, but I’m just expressing my concerns about this phenomenon.”
"good!"
At the office door, a slightly old but strong voice suddenly sounded, and colleagues in the office all looked towards the door.
It turned out that Meng Weizai was standing at the door. He should have heard everything Lin Weimin said just now.
"I usually see you being so careless, but I didn't expect you to be able to express such insights." Meng Weizai walked into the office and praised Lin Weimin.
The atmosphere in the office relaxed. Lin Weimin joked, "Leader, how much do you dislike me?"
"Did I say anything wrong about you?" Meng Weizai said in a serious tone, but his expression relaxed within a few seconds. "Let's talk business. Inform Lu Yao that 'Life' will be reprinted with 200,000 copies, and the royalties will remain the same as last time."
Lin Weimin said happily, "That's great. This guy still owes me 700 yuan. Now I finally have a place to go."
Hearing him say this, Meng Weizai couldn't help but smile, and even his colleagues in the office laughed.
The author borrows money from the editor, and the editor deducts the money from the royalties. This is very reasonable and very professional.
After Meng Weizai left, Liu Yin said to Lin Weimin, "You are really good at interrupting. I showed you Flower City just now because I wanted you to see that Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Doesn't your previous work, The Death of Euler, also have the flavor of magical realism? Did you learn that from him?"
Lin Weimin shook his head, "I haven't read his book."
He was not lying. The term "magical realism literature" first appeared in the 1925 monograph "Magic Realism, Post-Expressionism, and Some Issues in Current European Painting" by the German literary critic Franz Roh, which studied German and European post-expressionist paintings.
Later, this work was translated into Spanish by the Spanish magazine "Occidental", and the term "magical realism" entered the field of Spanish literature and art.
Venezuelan writer Petri was the first to apply this term to Latin American literature. By the 1950s, magical realism literature emerged in the Latin American literary world, with Marquez being the leader among them.
But before Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature, magical realism was not actually considered a very important style in China.
The great fame of Marquez in China in later generations was really directly related to certain flattering cultural figures. Once a foreign writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he would become a god. Not only would they kneel down themselves, but they would also drag the people of the country to kneel down with them.
Otherwise they are just mobs, vulgar, and lack culture and quality.
Therefore, Lin Weimin has indeed not read any of Marquez’s works.
But he is not the only one who writes magical realism, nor is he the only one who can write it. Lin Weimin has read works of this kind.
"So you don't plan to work harder in this direction? He won the Nobel Prize for Literature for this style?"
In the 1980s, when the spring breeze of reform had just blown in, in the eyes of most Chinese people, everything Western was a good thing.
As an authoritative award recognized by the Western scientific and cultural circles, the Nobel Prize in Literature is naturally highly respected by the Chinese people. This respect still had a very large market until the time when Lin Weimin traveled through time.
Lin Weimin feels that the Nobel Prize is indeed very authoritative. The Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine are all good and they point out the direction for the progress of human civilization.
But as for literature awards, that's a matter of personal opinion, not to mention the infamous peace prize.
"The Nobel Prize in Literature is great, but it's a pity that I'm Chinese."
Liu Yin was surprised, "Chinese? What's wrong with Chinese people?"
"nothing."
At that time, most people in the country were still very naive and viewed the Western world as a superior civilization.
"You always speak half-sentences." Liu Yin said dissatisfiedly.
Lin Weimin smiled and didn't dwell on the topic any more.
After get off work in the evening, Lin Weimin came to the People's Art Theatre. He came to see the rehearsal of Group B of "Farewell My Concubine".
It is very common to have A role and B role in a drama performance. In order to ensure the smooth performance of an excellent play, the entire performance will not be cancelled due to a sudden emergency of a certain actor. In principle, all actors have substitutes.
But there has never been a division into Group A and Group B. If the people of Yanjing had not been too enthusiastic, the People's Art Theatre would not have resorted to such a desperate measure. This decision can be regarded as a precedent for the People's Art Theatre.
The A and B roles of the "Farewell My Concubine" crew also cover almost all the characters, but in order to be as consistent as possible with the performance of the Capital Theatre, the People's Art Theatre still insisted on rehearsing for a period of time.
Present today are not only several main creative staff members of the crew, but also several deans of the People's Art Theatre. The rehearsal results of Group B of "Farewell My Concubine" are directly related to the performance at the Youth Palace and no mistakes can be made.
Fortunately, after the three-hour show, everyone applauded. From their professional point of view, the rehearsal effect of Group B was not much worse than that of Group A, and they could fully cope with the performance at the Youth Palace. Everyone present was relieved.
After the rehearsal, Han Zhuangzhuang followed Lin Weimin out of the rehearsal room and prepared to go home.
"Uncle, there is something I want to tell you."
"What's up?"
Han Zhuangzhuang said, "Aren't Dandan and Guanhua students in the actor training class? 1982 was the screening period for this batch of students. If they passed the final exam, they would stay and continue to study acting. If they failed, they would have to say goodbye to the People's Art Theatre."
Lin Weimin nodded. He had heard Ouyang Shanzun mention this screening period when they were chatting.
"It's almost their final exam time. Dandan and Guanhua are under a lot of pressure. They have to rehearse four skits every week, which they have to write and perform themselves..."
Lin Weimin said impatiently: "Speak to the point!"
Han Zhuangzhuang said shyly, "Uncle, can we give the skit "Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren" to Dandan and Guanhua as the finale of their exam?"
"What do I think of it? I wrote this sketch for you guys, so you can use it."
Han Zhuangzhuang was delighted when he heard this, "Thank you, uncle!"
He observed Lin Weimin's expression and said, "Uncle..."
"What's wrong?"
"Then can you write two more sketches for Dandan and Guanhua?"
I give you some color and you open a dyeing factory!
Lin Weimin was about to scold him when he suddenly had an idea and a look of suspicion appeared on his face. He stared at Han Zhuangzhuang.
Dandan and Guanhua?
Han Zhuangzhuang felt uncomfortable being stared at by him, "Uncle, why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's not impossible to write a sketch for Guanhua." Lin Weimin said deliberately.
Han Zhuangzhuang quickly corrected him, "Uncle, it's for Dandan and Guanhua..."
Before he could finish, a smile crossed Lin Weimin's lips.
I knew you had bad intentions. I guess you wanted to do your uncle a favor!
Lin Weimin really wanted to ask: Zhuangzhuang, do you know what the beautiful classmate Dandan will look like twenty years later?
(End of this chapter)
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