Literary Master 1978

Lin Chaoyang promised Li Shifei to write a magical realism work in the style of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The previous novel had already been written, so the creation of this novel must be put on the agenda.

When people in later generations mentioned the domestic magical realism masterpieces, many people's first reaction was "White Deer Plain" written by Cheng Zhongshi.

This magnificent masterpiece of nearly 500,000 words took the author Cheng Zhongshi four years. If the preparation work is taken into account, it will take another two years.

For a long time, Cheng Zhongshi was buried in the pile of old papers, looking up the local chronicles of his hometown, and preparing for this work that he regarded as a "pillow coffin work".

After the novel was completed, it was first serialized in "Contemporary" in two issues, and then published by People's Literature Publishing House, which immediately caused a huge response among readers and the literary world.

"White Deer Plain" became popular in China, and Cheng Zhongshi's name also resounded throughout the Chinese literary world.

The reason why "White Deer Plain" is so popular is that, in addition to the countless efforts Cheng Zhongshi spent on creating this work, the most important thing is that this work has a strong national sentiment and deeply reproduces the historical and social landscape of the time.

With "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "White Deer Plain" as samples, Lin Chaoyang's creative ideas are very clear. His work must be rooted in history and national culture. It just so happens that there is such a simple work in the film and television works of later generations for him to write.

The idea is there, but he still needs to carefully carve out the specific plot. After all, it is not so easy to achieve a masterpiece.

When someone from his hometown invited him, he could take this opportunity to go back and check the local chronicles to accumulate materials and add details for the next creation.

The person from his hometown stayed at Lin Chaoyang's house for a morning and left happily. Their work goals were exceeded on this trip, so there was no reason to be unhappy.

Lin Chaoyang and they agreed to go back to their hometown after the New Year's Day.

"I'll be busy after the New Year!" Lin Chaoyang sighed after seeing the people off.

The novel he promised Li Shifei was just one of his jobs. He hasn't started writing the script for "The Chess Master" yet.

The novel will definitely take longer, so he plans to seize the time now to write the script first.

Before Laba, it is Xiao Dongdong's full moon day. According to custom, a full moon wine party should be held.

Lin Chaoyang arranged the venue in Fengze Garden. Ten tables were set up for the full moon wine party. Lin Chaoyang didn't have many relatives in Yanjing, and almost all the people who came were friends.

After Tao Yucheng brought his family to the hotel, he couldn't help but sigh when he looked at these people,

"Chaoyang has only been in Yanjing for a few years, why does it feel like there are friends everywhere?"

"Chaoyang's friends are all good friends, unlike your bad friends."

Tao Yucheng was mocked by his wife Zhao Li for no reason. He looked embarrassed and waved his hand to greet Du Feng who had just walked in.

"Brother!"

Du Feng greeted Tao Yucheng enthusiastically.

Tao Yucheng asked with a smile: "I heard that you made a lot of money this year!"

"Not bad, not bad." Du Feng kept a low profile, but his expression was full of uncontrollable joy.

After careful calculation, he has been in business for more than a year. During this period, there were two mistakes, and he lost three or four thousand yuan, but he still made a lot of money. Not counting the expenses of more than a year, he is already a real millionaire.

"Don't be modest, you can drive a car." Tao Yucheng joked.

"My car is made of spare parts." Du Feng explained.

As the two were talking, the Du family also came, and Du Feng drove himself.

He went to greet his father Du Ruolin with his bag, but Du Ruolin snorted coldly and didn't look at him directly.

Tao Yucheng asked secretly: "How did you offend the old man again?"

Du Feng touched his nose and didn't intend to elaborate, just said: "Well, it's about my girlfriend."

He and Feng Juan broke up a few months ago. It's okay for young people to break up after a relationship, but they are both in the art troupe, and they were too close when they were together.

After the breakup, it was inevitable that some rumors would spread in the art troupe, and somehow Du Ruolin heard them.

In addition, Du Feng bought himself a car just after making some money, which naturally made his father Du Ruolin dislike him in every way.

Du Feng chatted with Tao Yucheng for a few words, shook him off and went to congratulate Lin Chaoyang, and took something out of his bag again.

Lin Chaoyang said quickly: "No gift money."

"I know I don't accept gift money. This is a small gift for my nephew."

He took out a small gold lock from his bag. Lin Chaoyang couldn't accept it after seeing it, "It's too expensive!"

This year, the international gold price hit a new high, reaching more than 400 US dollars per ounce, and the domestic gold price has also risen a lot, reaching more than 30 yuan per gram.

The gold lock that Du Feng took out was specially for children to wear. It was not heavy, only about 20 grams, but it was also 600 to 700 yuan, which was equivalent to the income of an ordinary working class without food and drink for a whole year.

"Brother-in-law, don't be polite to me. This is what I should do."

Part of Du Feng's start-up capital for his business was borrowed from Lin Chaoyang and his wife. In addition, he would learn from Lin Chaoyang from time to time, and he was always grateful for the help of Lin Chaoyang and his wife.

After a long struggle, Lin Chaoyang couldn't resist him, so he accepted the thing.

Tao's mother, who was sitting not far away, looked at what Du Feng had taken out and said to her cousin, "This child is too wasteful!"

"I don't know how this kid can show off after making some money! But today's work was done well. I heard that Chaoyang and Yushu helped him a lot. This is what they should do."

"He has his own brains. I think he is doing a good business!"

Du Ruolin shook his head and said, "He was just lucky to catch a good time. What future can he have by reselling? If he had one-third of Chaoyang's ability, I would be relieved."

In Chinese society, everything is inferior except for reading. Merchants have been not on the stage since ancient times.

It's different for Lin Chaoyang, who is engaged in literature. Everyone will look up to him when they tell others about it.

Listening to her cousin's praise for her son-in-law, Tao's mother showed a hint of hidden pride on her face.

Since Du Ruolin and his table were sitting next to Liu Xinwu, Li Tuo and other acquaintances. The topic they were talking about was also related to Lin Chaoyang.

"This guy made all the money! No wonder there was no gift money for the full moon banquet in Fengze Garden today." Li Tuo muttered enviously.

The Mao Dun Literature Award has been over for more than a month, but the impact is still ongoing.

The most obvious impact is that the sales of several winning works increased sharply after the award was announced, and they became popular readings for domestic literature lovers.

Lin Chaoyang's "The Chess Master" sold well after it was published in June this year. After several months of hot sales, the sales have gradually declined. Before December, the monthly sales were less than 150,000 copies.

But with the blessing of this Mao Dun Literature Award, in the past month, "The Chess Master" has sold 300,000 copies, and the total sales have reached an astonishing 1.76 million copies.

If there is an annual bestseller list in this era, "The Chess Master" would not dare to say that it is the first, but it must have a place in the top three.

According to the publishing contract signed by Lin Chaoyang and Yanjing Publishing House, the novel has brought Lin Chaoyang more than 16,000 yuan in revenue just from the number of copies printed.

Several people talked about the sales and royalties of "The Chess Master" and were amazed.

Liu Xinwu sighed: "It's not just "The Chess Master". "The Death of Van Gogh" sold even better this month!"

As soon as he said this, everyone's expressions understood.

This year is the first time that the Mao Dun Literature Award has been held. The review process and the results of the awards have attracted attention from all levels of the domestic literary community.

Earlier, before the list of winners was announced, the rumor that there were eight shortlisted works had spread.

After the list of winners was announced, people were guessing which novel would be the unsuccessful work?

Many people looked through the list of works submitted this year and were surprised by the failure of "The Death of Van Gogh".

Even Liu Xinwu couldn't help asking at the symposium whether the unsuccessful work was "The Death of Van Gogh", let alone those ignorant people.

The Mao Dun Literature Prize Jury did not give a positive response to the outside world's speculation, but their evasive response deepened everyone's speculation.

When people cannot get public and authoritative information, gossip naturally becomes the authoritative channel that everyone believes in.

Regardless of whether "The Death of Van Gogh" is a real work selected by the tribe, it is true after people choose to believe the gossip.

The reason why so many people are willing to believe that "The Death of Van Gogh" is a work selected by the tribe and feel extremely sorry for him is that the level of this novel has been recognized by many people.

Especially in everyone's view, there are two or three works in this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize that are questionable, and this regret is even more prominent.

Many literary enthusiasts regard "The Death of Van Gogh" as a victim of the politically oriented selection of this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize, and many of the angry people have written to the jury to express their dissatisfaction.

As the Mao Dun Literature Prize has attracted widespread public attention, such gossip has continued to spread, making tens of thousands of readers interested in "The Death of Van Gogh" and rushing to bookstores to buy it.

Just a few days ago, a new issue of "Reading" magazine was published, which published an article titled "The Regret of Missing the First Mao Dun Literature Prize", which immediately attracted the attention of many cultural figures and readers.

"Reading" is a cultural review magazine, founded in April 1979, the same month as "Flower City".

Speaking of the origin of this magazine, it is a bit complicated. When it was founded, the editorial department of "Reading" was located in the People's Publishing House, and the organization was nominally under the National Publishing Administration. The sponsor of the publication was the Research Office of the National Publishing Administration.

The responsible leader was Fan Yong, the vice president of Renwen Press, the editor-in-chief Chen Yuan belonged to the Commercial Press, and the deputy editor-in-chief Ni Ziming came from the research office.

In the first issue of April 1979, Reading boldly declared that "there is no forbidden zone in reading", which attracted the attention of the cultural circle, which was still on the eve of thawing at that time, and quickly won the respect of the cultural circle and the love of readers.

In the following years, the sales of Reading hit new highs, and the sales of a single issue have exceeded 100,000 copies.

It should be noted that the style of Reading is much higher than that of ordinary literary magazines, so naturally the audience is not so large. The sales of a single issue of more than 100,000 copies is enough to show its popularity in the cultural circle.

The article "The Regret of the First Mao Dun Literature Award" counts the works on the final list of winners of the five selections, all of which are relatively popular long works.

The article objectively analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each of the five novels, and boldly guesses the reasons for the failure to be selected. It is well-written and immediately caught the attention of many readers.

As the biggest regret of this year's award, "The Death of Van Gogh" was naturally included in the list of missed pearls. When talking about its failure to be selected, the author said frankly that "The Death of Van Gogh" suffered from ideology.

It should be noted that among the readers of "Reading", cultural circles account for a considerable group. Before the article in "Reading" came out, the various arguments about the failure of "The Death of Van Gogh" were only spread privately.

Now inspired by this article, many fans of "The Death of Van Gogh" can't help but cry out for this novel.

With the help of these fans, this novel has not only become the biggest missed pearl of this year's Mao Dun Literature Award, but also the most profound victim of political participation in literature.

In just a few days, a large number of literature lovers began to cheer for "The Death of Van Gogh".

For a while, the public opinion was very popular.

More than a month after the first Mao Dun Literature Award was awarded, the momentum of "The Death of Van Gogh", a selected work, was even greater than those winning works.

It's really unbelievable!