Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 141 I dare not even think about it (Monthly ticket plus more)

Tao Yushu was a little melancholy at first because she had just moved. But after they moved in the morning, Tao Yumo followed in the afternoon, and her melancholy immediately disappeared without a trace.

The first thing Tao Yumo did when she arrived was to take a hot bath. Hot water was available in the Overseas Chinese Apartment from morning to night, so taking a bath was extremely convenient. She no longer had to squeeze into a bathhouse, and she didn't even have to worry about how much hot water she used.

Tao Yumo was humming a song while taking a bath and was in a good mood.

Listening to his sister's movements, Tao Yushu smiled bitterly.

This girl has been spoiled since she was young, and she causes trouble wherever she goes.

The next morning, Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle to work, with Tao Yumo shouting behind him.

"Brother-in-law, wait for me a moment, wait for me a moment!"

When I arrived at school, I was supposed to be busy with library work on Monday, but I ended up being quite relaxed for most of the day.

It is said that there are foreign guests from Italy visiting Yanjing University today. The school organized an activity and all the students went to participate, so the library naturally became deserted.

After work, Lin Chaoyang walked out of the library as usual and headed north. It was not until he had walked more than 20 meters that he suddenly came to his senses.

Shaking his head, he returned to the library to get his bicycle. Before he rode out of the triangle, he heard a greeting.

He turned around and saw that it was Hong Zicheng, accompanied by two other teachers from the Chinese Department, Sun Yushi and Xie Mian.

"Brother Zicheng, Teacher Sun, Teacher Xie!" Lin Chaoyang greeted the three of them.

Hong Zicheng looked at his car and said, "Just bought it? Looks like he moved to a new house."

"Yes, we moved it yesterday. Do you have time this weekend? Please go and warm up the pot."

"That's great, we can go visit the Overseas Chinese Apartments." Several people said with a smile.

After chatting for a few minutes, Lin Chaoyang said hello to a few people and left.

Hong Zicheng looked at Lin Chaoyang's back and said enviously, "He became famous at a young age, has a beautiful wife and a luxurious house!"

Xie Mian smiled and said, "Why are you suddenly sour?"

"I'm not jealous, I'm envious. With Chaoyang's age and talent, who wouldn't be envious?" Hong Zicheng said with a laugh.

Sun Yushi nodded, "Indeed. If I hadn't heard about it from everyone, I wouldn't have known that he not only has the pen name Xu Lingjun, but he has also published two works under the pen name Wang Qinglai. He can still be published in authoritative publications under a different pen name, which shows his talent."

"I was reading 'Parents' Love' yesterday, it was quite interesting. He always seems to be able to find a different angle when writing novels, which makes people unforgettable at first sight," said Xie Mian.

Sun Yushi said: "I think the response to Parents' Love is very good. This month, reviews were published in October and Liberation Army Literature and Art."

It takes a certain amount of time for public media feedback on novels published in a magazine. "Parents' Love" was published in "Harvest" in January this year, and more than two months have passed since then.

Many reviews of this novel have appeared in many newspapers and magazines, and the overall evaluation of this novel in the literary community is relatively high.

For example, the article published in October, "Parental Love: Affectionate Watching and Life Poems in the Long River of Time", was written by Qin Baocai, an associate professor at Liaoning Academy of Literature.

The author himself does not have much fame in the literary world and literary criticism field, but his article has attracted a lot of attention because of its excellent quality.

The article says:

“The uniqueness of Parents’ Love lies in its profound exploration and unique interpretation of the theme of love. The novel does not over-exaggerate romantic encounters and passionate collisions, but instead delicately depicts the parents’ view of love with plain language and trivial details of life—a deep emotional bond formed by understanding, respect, and the hardships of living together.

Their love has no grand vows, but it shows unparalleled tenacity and perseverance in the daily necessities, children's education, and family conflicts.

This view of love transcends short-lived passion and presents a simple beauty that can stand the test of time. It is a powerful interpretation of the realistic view of love.

Through clever narrative structure and time jumps, the novel not only shows the long journey of parents' lives, but also highlights the emotional ups and downs at key nodes, creating narrative tension.

This narrative technique of finding something extraordinary in the ordinary allows the novel to maintain its fascinating artistic appeal while telling an ordinary story. "

The article "Parental Love: Affectionate Watching and Life Poem in the Long River of Years" gives a very high evaluation of "Parental Love", but it has won unanimous approval from many people in the literary world.

The literary world has continuously praised "Parental Love", and the novel has also caused a great response among readers.

The characters portrayed in "Parents' Love" are likable, the plot is smooth and natural, light-hearted and humorous, yet profound, and the values ​​​​are deeply in line with the concepts of contemporary readers.

Its popularity is justified. In later generations, many works of this style have become very popular, such as "The Passionate Years", "The Loud Military Song" and "Golden Wedding".

There are several reasons why these works are popular: realistic tone, appropriate light-heartedness, humor and sensationalism, and conformity to popular values.

At this time, other literary works of this style have not yet been born. The appearance of "Parents' Love" immediately attracted the readers' attention and gave readers a refreshing feeling.

As a novella published in the first issue of "Harvest" in 1980, the importance of "Parental Love" is naturally self-evident. After more than two months of feedback from readers and the literary community, the quality of this novel has also been proven.

Just a few days ago, the People's Daily reported on this year's National Excellent Short Story Award in a special article, mentioning Lin Chaoyang's other pen name "Wang Qinglai".

This naturally attracted the attention of the domestic literary community and many interested readers, and added fuel to the popularity of "Parental Love", causing many readers who had never heard of or read this novel to develop a strong interest in it.

On Saturday evening, Lin Chaoyang and Tao Yushu went back to Tao's house for dinner.

Compared with the meals on previous Saturday nights, it was obviously much richer, and even Tao's mother's attitude softened.

After dinner, the two went home. Tao Yushu talked about his mother's attitude, and Lin Chaoyang said with a smile: "This is probably the beauty of distance."

"Distance creates beauty?" Tao Yushu muttered a few words and laughed, "What a perfect summary!"

The next day was the first weekend after Lin Chaoyang and his wife moved into their new home, and it was also the day they invited friends to warm up the pot.

Early in the morning, the house was full of noise.

Tao Yushu invited several good classmates, while Lin Chaoyang invited more people, including teachers and students from the Chinese Department, colleagues from the library, and his brother-in-law also brought Li Tuo and Zhu Wei.

More than twenty people suddenly came into the house. Fortunately, the house was big, otherwise it would not be able to accommodate so many people.

When everyone entered Lin Chaoyang's house, their attention was immediately attracted by this big house.

A 120-square-meter house may be just the size of an average middle-class family in later generations, but in the eyes of people today, it is extremely luxurious.

Especially the large south-facing balcony, where you can take in the entire spring scenery at a glance, and everyone rushes to the balcony to enjoy the sunshine and spring breeze.

"This house in Chaoyang is too big!" Chen Jiangong exclaimed.

His family is from Yanjing and lives in Liujiayao in the south city. It is a house allocated by his parents' unit. Compared with most people's house, it is considered spacious, but compared with Lin Chaoyang's house, the difference is like heaven and earth.

Zhang Yaozhong and Liu Zhenyun came with him. The three of them toured the house with envy on their faces. "Jiangong, Zhenyun, when will you two be able to write novels at Chaoyang's level?" Zhang Yaozhong said.

What he called "level" was naturally measured in terms of houses. Both Chen Jiangong and Liu Zhenyun wrote novels.

"Even if I write for ten years, I can't buy such a big house." Liu Zhenyun said with a wry smile.

He is still an amateur writer and has not published any works in any magazine other than student publications.

Compared with Liu Zhenyun, Chen Jiangong entered the literary world very early. He started writing in 73 and published some works one after another. He never became famous and could only be considered a minor celebrity.

Because he could publish several novels every year, he could earn two or three hundred yuan in royalties, but when asked if he could afford to buy such a big house, Chen Jiangong could only shake his head.

I don’t dare to think about it, I don’t dare to think about it at all!
"Writing novels is still the way to make money, especially medium-length or long ones!" Zhang Yaozhong sighed.

Li Tuo at the side laughed at his words and said, "Young man, the novel is the cause and the royalties are the effect. Don't confuse the cause and effect!"

People rarely talk about money directly these days. Zhang Yaozhong blushed a little after being teased by him, but Chen Jiangong said, "Every cause has an effect, and the cause and effect are equally important."

Lin Chaoyang introduced them to each other when they entered the room just now, but they were not familiar with each other and had not spoken to each other. Now that they had a common topic, Li Tuo started chatting with Chen Jiangong.

Both of them had friendly personalities, and soon they were arm in arm with each other, as familiar as old brothers.

Liu Zhenyun looked at Chen Jiangong with some envy. He was born in the countryside and had some inferiority complex. Coupled with his introverted personality, it was difficult for him to feel free when interacting with others.

Several students from Yenching Normal University were talking about the play they were rehearsing, "The World's Number One Restaurant". Last winter, this play caused a huge response in Yenching universities. Liu Zhenyun also watched it when it was performed at Yenching University. He still remembers the plot and characters of the play clearly.

Hearing them chatting excitedly, he couldn't help but lean over to listen for a while.

There were many guests at home today, and Lin Chaoyang was busy greeting everyone. He chatted with colleagues at the library, and then talked to teachers and students from the Chinese Department.

Over there, the sisters Tao Yushu and Tao Yumo were busy in the kitchen. Today, everyone came to warm up the pot for their family. When they came, they brought some things, some were daily necessities, some were vegetables and meat, so they didn't even have to buy groceries.

Tao Yumo watched everyone chatting enthusiastically and felt like joining in the fun, but Tao Yushu was staring at her.

There are so many people at home today, it would be too much for one person to handle it all. How could Tao Yushu let her go?

Fortunately, several female guests came to the kitchen to help after chatting with everyone for a while, so Tao Yumo had an excuse to run out.

I came to Lin Chaoyang and listened to his conversation with several teachers from the Chinese Department.

Hong Zicheng asked Lin Chaoyang: "Hey, Chaoyang, I've observed that The Horse Herders, Little Shoes, and Parents' Love all have something in common in terms of style and core. You seem to attach particular importance to human touch? You spare no effort in shaping and handling the characters."

“There are three elements in a novel: characters, plot, and setting.

The environment shapes the characters, the characters drive the plot, and the characters are the link between the previous and the next. When I wrote these novels, the characters were actually the core.

This is also my personal experience. I am used to writing closely to the characters. "

Lin Chaoyang's answer aroused Hong Zicheng's interest. He pondered and said:

"Your mentioning that reminded me of something. I remember when I was in college, Yang Hui once said that Shen Congwen had a theory: novels should be written closely to the characters.

Shen Congwen believes that the characters in a novel are the main and dominant ones, and the rest are derived from them and are secondary.

The description of the environment, the author's subjective emotions and discussions can only be attached to the characters and cannot be separated from them.

The author's psychology and thinking must always be closely connected to the characters. If not, the writing will be floating, drifting, and slippery, appearing gaudy and pretentious. "

Xie Mian joked: "So, Chaoyang's current level should be on par with Shen Congwen."

Several people laughed and Lin Chaoyang waved his hand.

"Please stop mocking me, this is just my creative experience.

In fact, if you look at the rise of stream-of-consciousness literature in the Western literary world, you will find that many writers have this feeling.

One of the fundamental reasons for the emergence of stream-of-consciousness literature is that many writers are no longer satisfied with traditional narrative techniques and structures.

They believe that the author's overly subjective narrative and the practice of inserting comments into the novel at any time have interfered with the creation of the novel.

The characters in the book became tools used by the writer to illustrate and discuss, and bizarre and tortuous plots began to occupy an increasingly important position in the novel. Because the author constantly interrupted the reader's sense of immersion, he had to use this method to attract the reader's attention.

When I write novels, I haven’t reached the state of ‘writers quitting novels’ as they say, but I still try to use characters as narrators as much as possible, and reflect various forms of reality from different perspectives. I think the works produced in this way may have better effects.”

After Lin Chaoyang finished expressing his thoughts, Hong Zicheng and others looked thoughtful.

At this moment, applause suddenly broke out from the side. It turned out to be Li Tuo who had been chatting with Chen Jiangong.

"Chaoyang, what you said is very good. I think your creative ideas are ahead of most writers in our country."

Lin Chaoyang said modestly: "You are joking. My level is not good enough. I am just repeating what others have said."

Li Tuo joked: "Don't be so modest, you have become famous recently!"

"Haha! The literary world has been paying a lot of attention to Chao Yang recently. He has been very popular in the past two years. As a result, the National Excellent Short Story Award made everyone realize that he actually has a pen name, and the quality of his works is also very good."

The speaker was Hong Zicheng, who studies contemporary literature and has many opportunities to communicate with Lin Chaoyang. But like everyone else, he only learned about Lin Chaoyang's other pen name through the People's Daily article reporting on the National Excellent Short Story Award.

"I think the most interesting thing is that this kind of media coverage directly boosted the popularity of "Qiu Ju Goes to Court" and "Parents' Love".

Many people have been discussing these two works recently, and the People's Daily is also promoting Chaoyang in disguise this time."

Xie Mian said this with a teasing tone, which made the people around him couldn't help but laugh.

The National Excellent Short Story Award has always been very popular in the domestic literary circles and among readers. After the last award ceremony, many young writers became famous because of this award and attracted much attention in the literary world.

This year is the second year of the awards, and the public's attention to the awards has continued to increase. As a result, the news that Lin Chaoyang won two awards was revealed by the People's Daily, which immediately attracted most of the public's attention and made Lin Chaoyang receive unprecedented attention.

Not only him, but also his works are true. Many readers in the private sector are very interested in the works behind Lin Chaoyang's double awards. This has led to the situation in recent times where many readers have been scrambling to read Lin Chaoyang's works.

The topic lasted for half a day, always revolving around Lin Chaoyang and his works.

These teachers are the backbone of Yanda’s Chinese Department and the leaders in the field of national literary research.

Listening to their praise and compliments for Lin Chaoyang, Tao Yumo felt an inexplicable sense of pride in his heart.

(End of this chapter)