British writer

the next day.

Lu Shi started packing his luggage after getting up.

All the things I need to do for my trip to the United States have been taken care of, and it’s time to return to London.

Goodman was sorting documents nearby.

"Sir Lu, you'd better do it now if you need to sign the authorization. Otherwise, when you return to London, you'll have to rely on mail to resolve the matter, which will be very troublesome."

Lu Shi took a general look and said,

Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon, Parker Brothers, Li Jie Circus...

I have so many Party Bs.

he asked:

"Where's AAAS?"

Goodman said: "I sent a telegram before, saying that representatives will be sent here today for the last consultation. Alas... I don't know what they think. Didn't everything get discussed last time?"

Lu Shi could understand,

Things that involve the entire academic circle should indeed be cautious.

The two continued to work hard.

Not long after, there was a knock on the door outside.

Lu Shi went to open the door.

Theodore Welty, vice president of AAAS, stood at the door.

Behind him were O. Henry and Mark Twain.

Welty took the initiative and said: "The two gentlemen and I happened to meet each other outside and came to visit together."

Judging from his appearance, within AAAS, "Project 777" should have been passed.

Therefore, the matter to be discussed this time is not top secret, and it does not matter if outsiders know about it.

Lu Shi turned sideways,

"You three, please come in."

The three of them filed into the room and sat down.

Goodman offers them tea.

After sitting down, Welty got straight to the point, took out two envelopes from his briefcase and handed them over, saying, "Professor Lu, we are also worried now. But they are happy worries."

The letters come from two people,

Boris Waxman, president of Dartmouth College;

Olphilus Whitman, President of Brown University.

Lu Shi was puzzled.

"Mr. Welty, what does this mean?"

Welty was a little helpless,

"At that time, we agreed to change 'Project 666' to 'Project 777', so that we would need to add another school. Unexpectedly, AAAS sent a telegram to colleges and universities across the United States, and received an extremely enthusiastic response."

He put on his glasses and took out his briefcase.

"Look at this form."

Everyone was curious and came forward.

The form is divided into three columns, and each column contains the name of the university.

Most of the names still have "√" drawn next to them.

After a rough sweep, you can count the ones that are not marked "√" with one hand.

Lu Shi was a little confused.

"So many schools responded positively?"

Welty tapped several places on the form with his finger and said helplessly: "It's not that these universities don't want to respond, but...for example, the University of Chicago was founded by the oil tycoon John Rockefeller, and Rockefeller recently had an affair with Mr. President... …hehe……"

He smiled and touched his nose,

"After all, the headquarters of AAAS is in Washington, and we, Ami, have our own national conditions. Professor Lu, you know."

This is so true.

As a result, before Lu Shi could say anything, Mark Twain next to him burst out laughing.

"Understood! Of course Professor Lu understands!"

My brother writes humorous and satirical literature every day, and I like this kind of thing the most.

Welty spread his hands,

"However, the impact is not huge. The University of Chicago has only been established for 12 years, and the first bachelor's degree was awarded five years ago. The qualifications are not enough to support its participation in the '777 Project.'"

Lu Shi understood.

The two schools finally selected by AAAS,

Dartmouth College was founded in 1769.

Brown University was founded in 1764.

The history is long enough.

Interestingly, they are both future Ivy League members.

Lu Shi picked up Waxman's letter and started reading it.

——

Dear Sir Lu,

I heard that the American Association for the Advancement of Science is planning a new support project and you will be the person in charge.

This is the blessing of America and the blessing of scholarship,

I would like to extend my sincerest greetings to you.

Here, I will briefly elaborate on several advantages of Dartmouth College,

Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded on December 13, 1769. It is one of the nine colonial colleges founded earlier than the founding of the United States.

…

——

Said to be "concise and to the point\

,"But Yang Sansha wrote a full three pages.

After Lu Shi finished reading, he felt like an HR reviewing resumes.

"Dartmouth feels pretty good."

"Don't jump to conclusions," Welty said. "Brown is not bad at all."

As he spoke, he pushed another letter over.

Lu Shi had one head and two heads.

"No, no, no, I still won't read it. It's up to AAAS to decide which school to join. Both schools are very good."

Welty is also troubled,

"It's just because both are good that we can't make a choice."

He raised his head and glanced at Lu Shi,

"or……"

It's all like this, why doesn't Lu Shi understand?

He said: “Then let the two schools join in and become the ‘888 Project’.”

Welty was overjoyed,

"Then it's settled!"

Lu Shi said: "That being the case, let's start drafting the specific charter. I'm going back to London in a few days, so try to get it done before then. Otherwise, delivering documents by post will waste a lot of time."

Welty nodded,

"I've prepared the charter."

Lu Shi's head was full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

Obviously, AAAS has already made up its mind.

666→777→888,

Adding one college at a time is outrageous enough.

Lu Shi nodded to Goodman.

The latter understood, took the document sent by Welty, and began to review it item by item.

Welty smiled,

"From now on, Professor Lu is the department head of the '888 Project', and he also has a position in the Public Project Office. Of course, you are only in name, but the headquarters in Washington will definitely leave an office for you."

Lu Shi didn't care about these identities.

As long as you don't do any specific work, that's fine.

Welty continued: "Since Professor Lu already holds a high position in AAAS, there is one more thing that you have to participate in the decision-making."

Lu Shi was curious,

"how?"

"We're going to ask Thomas Weekley to start a new journal," Welty said.

Thomas Weekley,

Lu Shi had an impression of this person.

“The founder of the general medical journal The Lancet?”

Welty smiled,

"This Weekley is not the other Weekley. The one you are talking about passed away in 1862. Of course, this is not your fault. There are many people in Europe and America who take their father's name from their sons. The person I am talking about is from the Weekley family. The fourth editor-in-chief of The Lancet.”

Therefore, Europe and America during this period were also very feudal.

For a journal that values ​​scientific research level so much, the position of editor-in-chief can also create an inheritance system where sons inherit their father's business.

Lu Shi was curious,

"Don't AAAS have "Science"?"

Welty smiled slyly,

"Science is comprehensive after all, and the impact factor is not necessarily high. We invited Mr. Weekley to come here mainly because we want to develop journals on biology, genetics, and medicine."

Lu Shi suddenly realized,

Thought,

These Americans are also good at taking advantage of loopholes.

It’s not that there are no theoretical studies in subjects like biology, but there are relatively few, and most of the results are experimental.

This requires a large number of cattle and horses for such subjects,

If there are more cows and horses, there will be more papers.

The more papers there are, the more citations there will be.

The impact factors of relevant journals will naturally rise.

AAAS is trying to overtake Europe in terms of academic reputation~

But this may be a bit unnecessary.

According to history, "Nature" and "Science" have always been the leaders in the scientific community, and their impact factor rankings always occupy the first or second place.

Mr. De is immoral;

Mr. Sai doesn’t compete.

Whether a journal is top-notch or not depends on who is willing to submit articles and who will read them.

The subsequent strength of the American academic community is an external manifestation of the strength of the country.

Lu Shi said: "Of course I support the new journal."

Welty said: "As long as you support it. To be honest, we have even thought about the name of the journal internally, and it is called "Cell"."

"Tsk..."

Lu Shi was stunned when he heard this.

The three top journals in academia,

"Nature", "Science", "Cell\

,"All showed up.

However, according to history, "Cell" should have been founded in 1974 and published by Elsevier.

Now it is 70 years too early,

Even the place of distribution has moved from Europe to the United States.

Welty said: "Professor Lu, I am here to come to you for these two things. If there is no problem, I will first approve the charter of the '888 Project' with Mr. Goodman."

Lu Shi made a gesture of invitation.

Welty and Goodman sat at the desk next to them and began to review the documents item by item.

Mark Twain looked at their backs and sighed,

"well……"

He shook his head and said, "What I dislike most about Americans is that they don't follow rules."

"Pfft! Cough cough cough..."

Lu Shi burst out laughing on the spot,

Unexpectedly, Mark Twain actually had the attributes of modern public knowledge and frequently issued reflection coupons.

Welty obviously heard it too,

"What do you mean?"

Mark Twain said: "You came to Professor Lu for two things, which one followed the rules? There were originally seven schools, but now we insist on adding one; there is already "Science", so what else are you doing for the impact factor? "cell"."

Welty said "Uh..."

"You don't understand academics."

Mark Twain raised his eyebrows,

"I don't understand?"

Welty whispered: "The new journal is also for the sake of young scholars."

O. Henry doesn’t understand either.

"With an authority like Science, young scholars can publish in it and get a job immediately, so why bother starting a new one?"

Welty curled his lips when he heard that.

"Let's take the AAAS Science editorial board as an example. For many expert reviewers, they cannot understand or appreciate new things made by others, especially those made by young people. They cannot tell whether they are good or bad at all. This kind of Under the circumstances..."

The rest of the words were not finished.

In fact, there is no need to say more.

Those experts, their disciples and their disciples and grandsons all praised it. In academic circles, the word "mountain" is no longer enough to describe it, but "mountain".

They must regard projects, topics, and reviews as their own rights, and then tacitly exchange interests.

Can young people get ahead?

There was an eerie silence in the room,

"..."

"..."

"..."

Everyone looked at each other.

After a long time, Welty muttered: "As I said a long time ago, I, Ami, have my own national conditions..."

Mark Twain:

"Fxxk!"

Welty shrugged.

"You don't have to be too pessimistic. Europe is also very bad, and it has even been finished a long time ago. For example, the Lancet mentioned just now, the four chief editors are all named 'Weakley'. On the contrary, we are more energetic. Otherwise, we are more energetic. , "Global University Rankings" will not have so many American universities on the list."

He counted on his fingers:

"

University of Chicago, founded in 1890;

Caltech, 1891;

Georgia Tech, 1885;

…

"

These are all famous schools that will be familiar to you in the future.

At the beginning of the 20th century, they were still so young and vibrant.

Generally speaking, this era is not bad enough.

Welty chuckled,

"Forget it~forget it~don't talk about this."

He was back to work with Goodman.

Lu Shi asked Mark Twain: "Mr. Clement, did you come to me to discuss drama?"

Mark Twain nodded,

"Yes. Recently, I was thinking about adapting the novella Million Pounds into a screenplay. This novella was very popular."

"Millions of Pounds" is a refreshing novel of this era.

The protagonist Henry is poor and white, and his pocket is cleaner than his face.

He happened to get a special edition banknote worth one million pounds (which does not exist in reality). Although the banknote still had to be returned to the owner a month later, he relied on the banknote investment to become a real millionaire and married Bai Fumei. ,

Moreover, Bai Fumei's father is the owner of the million-pound banknote.

There is a plot in it,

The first time Henry used huge bills was in a tavern.

The bartender was indifferent when he saw his ragged clothes, but when he saw the legendary note, he immediately flattered him and lent Henry money to spend without even daring to accept the money.

This is a complete act of pretending to be a slap in the face.

Of course, in modern times, even novice writers would not use this kind of routine.

But at the beginning of the 20th century, it was violent murder.

Interestingly, Mark Twain even wrote about time travel——

"Connecticut Yankees in King Arthur."

In the story, the American Hank Morgan travels back in time to the Arthurian Dynasty, where he kills people and kills Buddhas, and he also has an affair with Merlin.

Time travel + pretend to be X and slap in the face,

He is the founder of the literary world.

Lu Shi asked curiously: "Did you encounter any problems when adapting the script?"

Mark Twain replied: "Although it is a bit immodest to say this, I must admit that I am a person who is good at using humor to satirize. But this kind of humor has a much less effective effect in drama. It is far less effective than "Yes! Prime Minister" "."

That's definitely incomparable.

"yes! After all, "Prime Minister" is a modern TV series, and it is a dimensionality reduction attack on the literary and artistic works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lu Shi pondered,

"Actually, there is no need to force the two to be consistent. American humor and British humor are inherently different."

American humor?

British humor?

Mark Twain was a little confused.

It’s not that he couldn’t sense that the cultures of the two countries were diverging, otherwise he wouldn’t have emphasized the “American Dream” in his works.

He just didn't expect that Lu Shi would actually say this in a concluding tone.

Obviously, in Lu Shi's mind, humorous literature has become a system.

Mark Twain sat up straight,

"Professor Lu, can you please tell me the difference?"

"Ah this..."

Lu Shi fell into deep thought,

After a while, he said: "Multi-ethnicity makes American humor relatively open and straightforward. It feels like... doing serious things without being serious, so the punchline is usually the word 'silly'. For example..."

He started imitating a certain celebrity,

"

nobody,

than me,

understand better,

USA.

"

Everyone was quiet at first.

Subsequently,

"Hahahahahahahahahaha!"

Laughing wildly.

Lu Shi continued: "Let's talk about the British side. Those who have watched "Yes! Prime Minister" will find that Sir Humphrey particularly likes to do informal things seriously. Therefore, compared to the 'silly' American humor, his laughter Point is 'bad'."

Mark Twain said slowly: "That seems to be the case."

Lu Shi said: "Therefore, if you want to adapt "One Million Pounds" into a drama, you must speed up the pace of the plot, and at the same time, the performances must be more open-minded."

In short, one word——

Cool!

Mark Twain hesitated and said: "But the pace of the novel "One Million Pounds" is already very fast. How can we speed it up?"

Lu Shi raised the corners of his mouth,

"It's very simple. In the first scene, the conflict will be triggered within five minutes; within ten minutes there will be a scene of Henry pretending to be aggressive in the restaurant... cheating and abducting."

"ah?"

Mark Twain was confused;

"Can you see this?"

Lu Shi smiled,

"sure."

Ten minutes is enough to play five parts of Return of the Dragon King.

He took a pen and paper, and in a few minutes he roughly wrote the fragments according to the plot of "Millions of Pounds".

"how do you feel?"

Several Americans, including Goodman and Welty, joined in.

After they finished reading, they didn't speak for a while.

After a while,

"Cool!"

O. Henry whispered: "This plot is so exciting!"

Mark Twain also agreed: "Indeed, it is refreshing to watch. But in the UK, it will be regarded as a clown show, right?"

He thought for a while and then said: "There is no way, the humor is different, I am a free country."

My brother would also say this.

But there is some truth in saying that.

If it were Churchill or Wodehouse, they would definitely be filled with disdain when they saw this clip.

The two of them might think: "In our comedies, we should try not to show emotions, don't have exaggerated expressions, and don't imitate Americans. The humor should be as cold as us."

but,

"King Edward might like this."

Lu Shi said.

Mark Twain was surprised,

"What kind of man is King Edward?"

Lu Shi stopped talking about this topic and said instead: "In short, I think this way of writing is more appropriate."

Mark Twain thought for a moment,

"Can you go into more detail?"