Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 134 Becomes Reflective Literature Again
"Oh my! I said that Contemporary Magazine is indeed a famous journal. The editors all have sharp eyes and unique vision.

What a coincidence, Lao Li came to me right after I finished writing my novel. This novel was really prepared for your magazine."

"Haha, you're right!" Zhu Changsheng laughed heartily.

When he got home that night, Lin Chaoyang told Tao Yushu, "My novel was accepted by Contemporary Magazine and will be published in the second issue this year. The fee is 10 yuan per thousand words."

"Ten yuan for a thousand words?" Tao Yushu blinked his eyes. "So that means the manuscript fee is two thousand yuan?"

"That's right!"

Tao Yushu hugged him and said, "We don't have to worry about the house payment this time!"

The foreseeable sales volume of "The Garland under the Mountain" will definitely be explosive, and the royalties from the print run will not be small. Together with the royalties from this novel, they will not only be able to pay off their house this year, but may even be able to save some money.

"Are you happy?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

Tao Yushu nodded with a smile on his face.

Two days later, No. 2 Shatan North Street.

This was originally the Red Flag magazine. In 1978, the Federation of Literary and Art Circles was restored. Since the original office building was occupied by the Commercial Press and the Zhonghua Book Company, there was no office location, so they had to build several rows of wooden houses in the courtyard at No. 2 Shatan North Street as temporary offices for the Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

The Literary Association is a group member of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, so its office is also located here.

This year, the Writers Association took back the publishing rights of "People's Literature" from Renwen Publishing House and handed it over to its own publishing house, Writers Publishing House.

Naturally, the editorial department of People's Literature was also arranged to work here.

Compared with the working conditions at Renwen Press, the working conditions of the editorial department of People's Literature are undoubtedly much more difficult than before.

The National Excellent Short Story Award was sponsored by the Writers Association last year and hosted by People's Literature. Before that, because People's Literature had not yet separated from Renwen Publishing House, Renwen Publishing House was nominally also the sponsor of the award.

However, this year, "People's Literature" was taken back by the Writers' Publishing House by the Writers' Association, and the organizer no longer had anything to do with the People's Publishing House.

Last year was the first time the award was given. As the first national literary award in China's literary world, the National Excellent Short Story Award caused a sensation in the domestic literary world.

Liu Xinwu's "Class Teacher", Mo Shen's "Window", Li Tuo's "Wish You Hear This Song", Lu Xinhua's "Scars", Zhang Chengzhi's "Why Riders Sing about Their Mothers", Jia Pingwa's "Full Moon"...

This award made a large number of young and middle-aged writers famous. This year is the second year of the award. With the influence created last year, the literary community and the public's attention to the award is naturally self-evident.

The National Excellent Short Story Award is hosted by People's Literature, and the editorial department has launched the award selection activities since October last year.

After the announcement of the selection, it quickly received enthusiastic responses from all sides, and the momentum was even greater than the first session.

According to statistics as of February 2 this year, the editorial department of People's Literature received a total of 10 "selection opinion forms" and recommended 257885 novels. This is a significant increase compared to last year's award data, fully demonstrating the readers' enthusiasm for participating in the award activities, which is unprecedented.

In the past few months, the selection of the National Excellent Short Story Award has always been the top priority of the editorial department of People's Literature.

According to the award procedure, the National Excellent Short Story Award will be shortlisted by readers recommending works through the selection opinion form of "People's Literature", and then experts will evaluate the works based on the recommendations of the masses.

The first selection committee consisted of 25 famous writers and critics, including Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Liu Baiyu, Feng Mu, Sha Ting, Yan Wenjing, Chen Huangmei, Zhang Tianyi, Zhou Libo and other well-known figures in the domestic literary world.

This year, some old judges withdrew and new judges joined, such as Ding Ling and Wang Meng.

Today, the editorial department of "People's Literature" summarized the judges' opinions, which also means that the results of the Second National Excellent Short Story Award have basically been released.

The reason why it is "basic" is because the result will eventually be sent to the judges for careful revision, and the selected articles will be finally determined on March 3.

“As expected, ‘The Horse Shepherd’ is far ahead with 25910 votes, and it is also the most popular film among the jury.” Wang Fu exclaimed as he looked at the list.

After this change, the trend of scar literature that was originally rampant in the literary world gradually shifted.

The concept of "reflective literature" proposed by Lin Chaoyang in his article "The Inevitable Rise and Fall of Scar Literature" has been brought up again by some people.

But this time is different from the previous situations. Previously, Lin Chaoyang was severely criticized by a large number of people in the literary world because of this article, but this time, his article was regarded as a benchmark by many people.

The trend of reflective literature is gradually rising. As the first person to propose this concept in the public media, Lin Chaoyang's "The Shepherd" has naturally been classified by many people as reflective literature.

Other works include Ru Zhijuan's "The Story of the Wrongly Edited Film", Zhang Yigong's "Prisoner Li Tongzhong", Fang Zhi's "The Traitor" and so on.

In less than a year, Lin Chaoyang went from being criticized to being praised again because of an article. This incident was full of both realistic irony and magical absurdity, making everyone who was familiar with the ins and outs of the matter couldn't help laughing.

"However, there is nothing wrong in saying that "The Shepherd" is reflective literature. The reflective spirit of this novel goes beyond simple venting and accusation. Even in the field of reflective literature, it deserves to be a banner." Cui Daoyi praised.

It is difficult to say which one is better or worse, but the popularity of both does, to a certain extent, have a touch of the alternation between the old and the new.

Lin Chaoyang's novel "The Shepherd" spans two literary trends, which is considered quite legendary by many knowledgeable people in the literary world.

Of course, even the author himself may not have noticed this change.

It’s just that there are always some busybodies in the literary world, and most people have a spectator mentality, which makes this kind of discussion have a market.

"Based on this insight alone, Chaoyang is a level higher than most people in the literary world today," Cui Daoyi said with emotion.

Wang Fu nodded, "He is indeed knowledgeable, and most importantly, he is courageous and dares to express his views. He is really a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers!"

She added, "Yesterday I heard Rong Dabiao say that they got Lin Chaoyang's new novel, and it's a long one."

The Rong Dachui mentioned by Wang Fu is Rong Shihui, the editor of Contemporary Magazine and a senior editor of Renwen Press. He got this nickname because of his love of bragging.

"Ah!" Cui Daoyi exclaimed in surprise, "Long novel? It's only been a few months?"

"I was also puzzled at the time. It was said that it was written in less than a month."

Cui Daoyi was surprised again, "Less than a month? Plagiarism can't be that fast, right? Just listen to Rong Da's bragging." But when he thought that Lin Chaoyang had written a new novel and he didn't know about it, and it was snatched up by "Contemporary", he felt uncomfortable.

"Too fast, too fast!" Cui Daoyi muttered to himself for a long time, and then asked Wang Fu, "Do you know what the novel is about?"

"I don't know. Rong Dachui just said it was stream of consciousness literature."

"Stream of consciousness? Why did he write about this? No one in China writes about this genre, right?" Cui Daoyi felt that he was constantly surprised today.

"Who knows? Young people absorb knowledge quickly and always have some new ideas."

Cui Daoyi was chatting with Wang Fu, sighing and feeling full of regret.

A few days later, Zhang Dening ran to the Yanda Library with a happy face.

"Chaoyang, your "The Horse Wrangler" won an award!"

"What prize?"

"The National Excellent Short Story Award, the one held by People's Literature!"

Zhang Dening's words did not surprise Lin Chaoyang. The good news she came to announce at this time could only be the National Excellent Short Story Award.

"Why are you unhappy?" Zhang Dening couldn't help asking when he saw Lin Chaoyang's expression was calm.

"I'm not unhappy. I'm quite happy." Lin Chaoyang said.

He was indeed very happy to win the award, but because he had predicted that "The Horse Shepherd" would most likely win the award, the joy and excitement he felt when he first heard about the award was greatly reduced.

His face showed a somewhat calm expression. In Zhang Dening's eyes, Lin Chaoyang was pretending to be reserved.

"You are producing a lot of excellent works now, I'm sure you will win many awards in the future!"

“Awards are not that easy to get.”

"The Shepherd" was published in "Yenching Literature and Art". The award results had just come out, so naturally Zhang Dening, the editor-in-chief, had to inform Lin Chaoyang.

"Just talking about winning the award, are there bonuses or prizes?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

"I guessed you would ask." Zhang Dening boasted that he had figured out Lin Chaoyang's temper and preferences.

"If the first-prize winning works have not been published in People's Literature, People's Literature will reprint them, and People's Literature Publishing House will subsequently compile the winning works into a single volume.

Also, we will invite the award-winning authors to come to Yanjing for a meeting and give each of them a commemorative certificate..."

Zhang Dening mentioned that the reprinting of Lin Chaoyang's works by the People's Daily and the publication of them in a collection were good news for him, as he could receive two consecutive royalties. However, a commemorative certificate was meaningless.

"Pick out the key points," he reminded.

Zhang Dening rolled his eyes at him, knowing that what he meant by "focus" was material rewards.

"The winning works will be awarded prizes or books worth 100 yuan, 80 yuan, and 60 yuan respectively for first, second, and third prizes."

Zhang Dening fell silent after he finished speaking. Lin Chaoyang waited for a long time and asked, "Is that it?"

"It's over."

"It's a national award after all, is the prize money just this small?"

Zhang Dening said, "Isn't there still money for the manuscript?"

"The manuscript fee is the manuscript fee, the bonus is the bonus, and it is a national award anyway."

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, his face full of disappointment.

Zhang Dening looked at him with disdain and decided to change the subject, "Have you written any new works recently?"

"I've written it." Lin Chaoyang said happily.

Zhang Dening was immediately delighted and asked, "Where's the manuscript? Let me see it!"

"To Contemporary Magazine!"

A bolt of lightning struck from the blue, and the smile on Zhang Dening's face froze there.

"Give it to Contemporary? Why give it to Contemporary again?"

Not to mention that I gave "The Wreath under the Mountain" to "People's Literature" last time, how can I give my new novel to "Contemporary" this time?

Before she could start to question him, Lin Chaoyang said, "The payment is high, ten yuan per thousand words!"

While speaking, Lin Chaoyang also made a gesture to Zhang Dening, emphasizing the importance of this remuneration standard.

"Ten yuan per thousand words. It's not like we won't give it to you!" Zhang Dening said with his eyes wide open.

"You didn't give it to me last time."

Zhang Dening felt like vomiting blood. "Last time I raised your salary to nine yuan, so this time it's ten yuan, right? There has to be a gradual process."

"Contemporary Magazine doesn't have a step-by-step process, and neither does Harvest." Lin Chaoyang said confidently.

(End of this chapter)