Chapter 183 Customs

The Sophora japonica trees on the street are lush and green, blocking the scorching July sun.

In the courtyard of the Chinese Literature Society, not a single window in the office building is closed. This summer in Yanjing is extremely hot.

The fourth issue of "Contemporary" has been on the market for more than a week, and readers' letters and questionnaires have received feedback one after another.

"Let's talk about "My Distant Qingping Bay" again!" Yao Shuzhi tore open a letter from a reader and said this after reading it for a few seconds.

Rong Shihui sighed: "Shi Tiesheng is famous this time!"

Yao Shuzhi enveloped this letter from readers, and the editorial department will forward it to Shi Tiesheng.

"The last time I received so many letters was from Lu Yao's "Life"," Liu Yin said.

Yao Shuzhi said: "This time it's not as exaggerated as in "Life", but it's 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 is a big fish? These are potential writers, and they are all valuable assets of our "Contemporary"."

Rong Shihui joked: "Look at the consciousness of serving the people, he is indeed Director Lin."

Everyone laughed.

The working environment in the editorial department of "Contemporary" has always been relaxed and harmonious, including when the authors who contribute to "Contemporary" come. Everyone sits in the office and talks loudly, about literature, ideals, life, philosophy...

…

Here, no one will laugh at these mysterious-sounding things, but will participate in them with great interest.

Liu Yin suddenly asked: "Weimin, have you read this issue of "Flower City"?"

"Flower City" 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" domestic pure literary journals along with "Contemporary", "October" and other mainstream literary magazines.

.

"Flower City" is published every fifth of the month, and its latest issue just came out recently.

"No, what's wrong?"

Liu Yin handed an open magazine to him, "Look at the acceptance speech of the latest Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Márquez. Look at this guy, he's so good at following the latest trends!"

There was a bit of joking in her tone.

The style of "Flower City" is unique among domestic pure literary journals. This reason can be attributed to the city in which it is located. The atmosphere of Yangcheng has always been open. In the eyes of people from other parts of the country in this era, Yangcheng represents everything related to the new trend.

words.

Bold, pioneering, adventurous...

If you look at the columns of "Flower City", you can get a glimpse of the customs of that time and place. "Novel", "Film Literature", "Foreign Literature", "Poetry", "Hong Kong News", etc., reveal a sense of connection with the mainland.

Pure literary publications have a completely different positioning and style.

In this issue of the publication, "Flower City" took the lead in publishing the acceptance speech of this year's Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Márquez.

Lin Weimin glanced at the contents of the magazine and said with a blank expression, "Is there a speech too? Is the team of "Flower City" unable to submit manuscripts? How about I recommend a few works to them?"

Liu Yin covered her mouth and smiled: "Your mouth is worse than mine!"

Lin Weimin shook his head. In the early days of reform and opening up, among the first batch of people who opened their eyes to the world, there were many people who worshiped foreigners. Lin Weimin could understand a publication publishing some content about literary awards, but it was a bit outrageous to publish a speech by a winner.

Now, should we simply give him a ranking of immortality?

The most important thing is that Lin Weimin really has no good impression of Marquez.

Is Marquez awesome or not?

Awesome!

Both "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are excellent literary works. His attainments in literary creation are master-level, and he is well-deserved to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

But Lin Weimin makes a very clear distinction between professionalism and character. Professionalism is professionalism, and character is character.

In 1990, Marquez, a contemporary master who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, came to China. Just like Tagore's visit to China during the Republic of China, he received great attention from the officials and cultural circles at that time. Among the people responsible for the reception, even Qian Zhong

There are seniors like Shu.

Qian Lao invited Marquez to eat Yanjing roast duck, and then went to the bookstore together. He saw pirated books of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" on the shelves.

Marquez went crazy with anger and publicly insulted all the receptionists present: "Everyone here is a pirated book dealer."

And he put down harsh words: "I will never authorize the publication of Chinese books within 150 years after my death."

It was obviously a violation of law and discipline by some pirates, but this master scolded the cultural circles who received him kindly.

The most critical thing is that readers who spend money to buy books become thieves who steal the "fruits of their labor" and are deprived of the qualification to obtain genuine works!

This is simply outrageous. His grandma opened the door for outrageous mother - outrageous mother is home!

This is so insulting and arrogant, and its implicit discrimination is even more infuriating.

What’s even funnier is yet to come. For more than ten years, Marquez kept his promise and refused to authorize domestic publishers to publish his works until a domestic cultural person wrote a letter to Marquez.

A passionate and flattering article.

This article touched the heart of Marquez, and he readily agreed to the domestic publication request. Of course, the money had to be paid in full.

Lin Weimin really hopes that this master will fulfill his promise and let the Chinese people spend less money to support writers who disrespect Chinese readers so much.

Unfortunately, some people's bones are extremely soft.

Lin Weimin chuckled and said: "We must be wary of any attempt to mold people into gods, because they are trying to control us mentally and become their slaves."

Lin Weimin's words have a clear meaning.

Zhu Changsheng said: "For the people, what you said is too exaggerated."

Lin Weimin shook his head, "It's not an exaggeration. Now they point to this man and say, he is the master, you have to kneel down to worship him, and you kneel down. Tomorrow they will dare to point to a dog and say, this is the Creator, you have to kneel down."

Please worship him."

The colleagues in the office were stunned by Lin Weimin's serious and cold tone. They didn't know how to answer the conversation. They had never seen Lin Weimin like this.

"Literature is not theology. We don't need anyone to stand above us and give orders, and we don't allow anyone to be above us. Being separated from the people, singing praises upwards, and brainwashing downwards, this is not literature, but politics."

After Lin Weimin said these words, the office became silent for a while, and his face softened, "I'm not targeting everyone, but I'm just talking about my concerns about this phenomenon."

"good!"

At the door of the office, a slightly older but tough voice suddenly sounded, and all the colleagues in the office looked towards the door.

It turned out that Meng Weizai was standing at the door. He must have heard everything Lin Weimin said just now.

"I usually see you acting like a fool, but I never thought you could express such an opinion." Meng Weizai walked into the office and praised Lin Weimin.

The atmosphere in the office relaxed, and Lin Weimin joked: "Leader, how much do you usually dislike me?"

"Did I say something wrong about you?" Meng Weizai pretended to be serious, but his expression relaxed after a few seconds, "Let's get down to business. Please inform Lu Yao that "Life" will be printed 20 times more.

Ten thousand copies, the manuscript fee is still the same as last time."

Lin Weimin said happily: "That's great. This guy still owes me seven hundred yuan. This time he is finally settled."

Hearing what he said, 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 money from the manuscript fee. This is very reasonable and very professional.

After Meng Weizai left, Liu Yincai said to Lin Weimin: "You can really interrupt me. I just showed you "Flower City" because I wanted you to see that Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The article you wrote before "Flower City"

Doesn't "The Death of Yura" also have a flavor of magical realism? Did you learn it from him?"

Lin Weimin shook his head, "I haven't read his book."

He was not lying. The term magical realism literature first came from the 1925 treatise "Magical Realism·Late Expressionism·Current European Painting" by German literary critic Franz Royu, who studied German and European late expressionist paintings.

"Some Issues".

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 Petrie was the first to apply this term to Latin American literature. By the 1950s, magical realism literature emerged in the Latin American literary world, and Marquez was the leader.

But before Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature, magical realism works were not actually a great style in China.

Marquez's great reputation in China in later generations is really directly related to some flattering cultural figures. Whenever a foreign writer wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, he becomes a god. Not only do they have to kneel down, but also

Pull the people in the country to kneel down together.

Otherwise, they are just a mob, vulgar, without culture and quality.

Therefore, Lin Weimin has indeed never read Marquez’s works.

But he is not the only one who writes about magical realism, nor is he the only one who can write about it. Lin Weimin has read works in this area.

"Then you have no plans to work hard in this direction? But someone won the Nobel Prize in Literature for this style?"

In the 1980s, when the spring breeze of reform just blew through the door, in the eyes of most Chinese people, all Western things were good things.

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 kind of recognition 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 physics prize, the chemistry prize, the physiology or medicine prize are all very good, and point out the direction for the progress of human civilization.

But the literature prize is a matter of opinion, let alone the notorious Peace Prize.
To be continued...