Chapter 794 The Person Closest to the Master
The exclusive interview with Newsweek took a whole morning. After the interview, Michael Isikoff specially gave Lin Weimin several envelopes.
"These are letters written to you by enthusiastic readers in the United States," Michael Isikoff said. "It's not easy to be an enthusiastic reader of a foreign writer. I can't even contact you. These letters were asked by my colleagues to pass on to you. They are all your loyal readers and viewers."
Lin Weimin accepted it with a smile. He had received many letters like this in the past few years, and each time he received several suitcases full of letters. Not only did they come from readers in the United States, but also from readers all over the world, including letters from China. He found a special house to store them all.
Over the years, his savings alone have taken up five of his houses.
Oh, it costs too much to build a house!
After sending Michael Isikoff away, Lin Weimin's work returned to normal.
"God Bless America" has been on the market for more than three months, and there are still many criticisms, but compared with the previous two months, the voices are much smaller.
As the criticism of him and his works faded, the voices of praise naturally stood out.
It wasn't that no one praised me, it was just that the overwhelming amount of criticism drowned out the voices of praise.
On the last day of mid-November, the latest issue of "Wenyi Bao" published a commentary article on the front page titled "Literature Shines into Reality, My View on "God Bless America"", signed by Chen Yong.
Chen Yong is an old acquaintance of Lin Weimin. He is a veteran literary critic who graduated from Yan'an University and has extensive experience. He is a leading figure in the field of literary criticism in China.
In the article "Literature Illuminates Reality: My View on "God Bless America", Chen Yong praised the novel and its author Lin Weimin generously.
"…Some people are discussing whether it is a satire or a science fiction novel. I don’t think it matters. The success of God Bless America is largely due to the fact that Lin Weimin provides us with a prophetic perspective. He uses his writing to outline a relatively realistic near-future world, providing us with a close-up view of the possible consequences of an important political form of human development to its extreme.
Satire and absurdity are the underlying tones of this novel, but its infinite closeness to reality is the most chilling aspect of the novel, which is also the biggest difference between this novel and previous political satire novels.
A week before writing this article, I read two recent review articles in the newspaper, both of which quoted dialogues from this novel in an appreciative tone. Although they were only excerpts, they were still impressive to read and to a certain extent fit the political ecology of the United States we are familiar with. Throughout the book, there are many places that are worth rereading, reciting and quoting. In this regard alone, "God Bless America" is successful enough...
The novel is an important literary genre. There are many masters of this genre in various countries around the world. France has Hugo, Britain has Defoe, Russia has Tolstoy, and the United States has Mark Twain. In the past, China also had Lu Xun and Lao She. It is difficult for me to determine whether Lin Weimin can be ranked among the above figures, but I think he should be the person closest to this group of masters in the Chinese literary world. "
As soon as Chen Yong's review article was published, it caused a huge response in the domestic literary circles.
In the first two months after the release of "God Bless America", it was severely criticized by many pro-American factions in China. If it were not for the fact that they could not use administrative power to ban Lin Weimin, this group of people would have gotten rid of Lin Weimin long ago.
Now, the overwhelming criticism has just died down for a few days, and Chen Yong, the "top stream" in the domestic literary criticism circle, suddenly expressed his position, singing praises for Lin Weimin, and even said such naked words of praise as "the person closest to the master". This immediately angered the pro-Ric faction who had just emerged from the combat state.
Over the past two months, they have slandered Lin Weimin to the point of being completely destroyed. Now you say that Lin Weimin is the person closest to the master. Doesn't that mean that we are blind?
In just a few days, the war broke out again. This time, the pro-Mike faction not only scolded Lin Weimin, but also did not let the critic Chen Yong go.
Three months after its publication, it still caused such a storm in the domestic literary world that even Lin Weimin didn't know whether he should be happy or sad about his new novel "God Bless America".
Just when the domestic literary world was caught up in a heated debate over Lin Weimin's novel and Chen Yong's commentary, the latest issue of the Yenching Youth Daily suddenly reprinted in full an interview from the U.S. newspaper Newsweek.
Since the reform and opening up, domestic media and publications have had the habit of reprinting various foreign news, but the Yenching Youth Daily rarely reprints foreign news. This time, the reprint of the article from Newsweek was a bit abrupt.
But only readers who have read this issue will know that the reprint of the Yenching Youth Daily was completely based on the recent hot news in the literary world, because the exclusive interview article they reprinted was exactly the interview with Lin Weimin by Newsweek.
The influence of the Yenching Youth Daily cannot be compared with that of national media such as the People's Daily and Reference News, but it is still very influential around Yenching.
Within two days after the article was reprinted, it quickly caused heated discussions in several provinces around Yanjing.
Afterwards, other provinces also reprinted the article. In just over a week, Newsweek's exclusive interview with Lin Weimin spread across the country, attracting the attention of countless cultural and literary figures and readers.
Newsweek is not very famous in China, not as famous as Time magazine, but the media these days have the habit of providing readers with popular science, and readers can see it.
Wow, it turns out to be one of the three major weekly magazines that is not inferior to Time Magazine. The value of this interview must be very high.
Although Lin Weimin had been on the cover of Time magazine before, there was not much publicity in the country that time, and readers would never think it was too much for someone to bring glory to the country.
In addition to the fact that it was featured in Newsweek, what attracted more attention was the content of the interview.
The first thing in the article that attracted the attention of the literary world and readers was the sales of "God Bless America". A Chinese writer like Lin Weimin, who wrote a satirical novel about American politics, actually sold 700,000 copies in the United States in one month. This number shocked countless Chinese people.
In the past, everyone only knew that Lin Weimin’s novels sold well, were popular, and won many awards abroad, but they did not have an accurate concept.
This time, Newsweek used precise figures to let everyone see the influence of the name "Lin Weimin" in the American literary world.
According to the article, "God Bless America" sold 700,000 copies in a single month, which is an extremely rare number even in the United States. Moreover, after the end of the first month, the sales of the novel remained high in the second month. It seems that this is not just a passing fad.
If the sales continue at this rate, I'm afraid the sales will easily exceed 10 million copies in two or three years, right?
Everyone feels a sense of oppression when they think of this number. In the literary world, novels that can exceed 10 million copies are all regarded as classics.
"God Bless America" is Lin Weimin's latest novel. Chinese people respect the past and despise the present. As Chinese people, when reading this novel, it is inevitable that we will feel a little contempt just because they are from the same family.
Especially for those pro-Rica people, many contents of this novel are outrageous.
However, in this interview article reprinted by newspapers across the country from Newsweek, Lin Weimin wrote a novel that harshly criticized the U.S. government, but it is still very popular among Americans?
People in the middle of the pack do not have any negative impression of the novel and they are very happy about the welcome the novel has received in the United States.
The pro-American factions in China were puzzled. They racked their brains to figure out why such a novel that exposed the American underpants was so popular among Americans? Why would a heavyweight American political magazine come all the way to interview Lin Weimin?
700,000 copies sold in a single month is definitely not just a sales volume that can be generated by the preferences of a certain class. It must have won the hearts of the general public to create this achievement.
After much deliberation and racking their brains, this group of people could only conclude that this phenomenon is due to the fact that the public opinion environment in the United States is relaxed and the American people have an open mind.
Yes, that must be the case.
The reprinting of Newsweek articles by media outlets around the country quickly attracted the attention of the domestic literary community and readers. The Yenching Youth Daily, which initially reprinted the article, benefited the most, with sales tripling. Sales of the most recent issues have easily increased by 50%, and the newspaper was ecstatic.
Li Xiangyang has now been promoted to deputy editor-in-chief of the Yenching Youth Daily. It was he who advocated the publication of the exclusive interview with Newsweek. Seeing that this operation achieved such gratifying results, he claimed that he had grasped the code for traffic and was determined to reprint more foreign reports and comments on domestic writers and works in the future.
Not only that, he also made a special call to Lin Weimin.
"Weimin, you have to thank me this time..."
When the familiar routine was used on him, Lin Weimin was a little dazed for a moment.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly and retorted Li Xiangyang with one sentence, "Did you pay them for the reprint?"
"Don't talk about this, don't talk about this."
Li Xiangyang awkwardly changed the subject and asked about the sales and reviews of Lin Weimin's novels abroad. Lin Weimin said warily, "Why are you asking these questions?"
"Just chatting casually. As a great writer, you should bring glory to our country from time to time. The more we know about these foreign situations, the better we can introduce them to our countrymen!"
"I don't usually pay attention to these things. I can only find out from some of the interviews I gave. For the rest, if you ask me, it's no different from collecting them yourself."
Li Xiangyang felt a little regretful when he heard this. It seemed that he could not get first-hand information. After chatting with Lin Weimin for a while, he hung up the phone.
After sitting there and thinking for a while, he suddenly had an idea. Lin Weimin was in China, and the evaluation and feedback of his works from abroad would certainly not be as fast as those from abroad. He could simply find people abroad to provide information.
Li Xiangyang's eyes subconsciously focused on a group of people - international students.
Hiring foreigners is too expensive. In recent years, the trend of studying abroad in China has intensified, and Chinese students are all over the developed Western countries. Find a few Chinese students who care about literature, and the editorial department will provide them with information consulting fees or royalties. In return, they will provide foreign evaluations and reports on Chinese writers and works, which is mutually beneficial.
Li Xiangyang was very excited when he thought of this idea.
(End of this chapter)
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