Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 306 Uncle, I can't tell

The old man who came was Yang Xianyi, deputy editor-in-chief of "Chinese Literature" and also a well-known translator in China.

Unlike other translators who translate foreign literary works into Chinese, the old couple dedicated their lives to translating Chinese literary works into English and spreading Chinese culture to the world.

Two years ago, Yang Xianyi came to discuss with Lin Chaoyang on behalf of "Chinese Literature" about serializing his "Lai Zi's Summer".

The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and Lin Chaoyang invited Yang Xianyi into the house and served him tea. Yang Xianyi took a sip of the tea and took the initiative to speak.

"Comrade Chaoyang, as you know, our Chinese Literature has been committed to introducing Chinese literary works to the world. Previously, your Lai Zi's Summer was serialized in our magazine and received a lot of praise from overseas Sinology circles and Chinese communities.

This year, under my promotion, our Chinese Literature launched the "Panda Series", which mainly publishes outstanding modern, contemporary and ancient Chinese literary works in English and French.

This time I came here to discuss with you about including the two works "Lai Zi's Summer" and "The Death of Van Gogh" in the collection. "

Yang Xianyi told Lin Chaoyang the purpose of his visit. Lin Chaoyang said with a relaxed expression, "It is of course a good thing that my work can be seen by more overseas readers through your publication's platform..."

Both "Chinese Literature" and "Panda Series" are promoted by the government and have obvious official colors.

Overseas, it mainly relies on distributors, and its distribution channels are special, mostly entering libraries in overseas countries. There is a lack of display in bookstores, and there are even fewer related reports.

It is unrealistic to say that it can have a big impact, but it is a form of official recognition after all.

Lin Chaoyang talked with Yang Xianyi for a few minutes and agreed to the publication of the two novels. However, the royalties offered by Chinese Literature were even lower than last time.

Wang Zengqi had complained to him before, saying that several of his short stories were translated into English and published in the magazine "Chinese Literature", but the remuneration was pitifully low.

"Six yuan per thousand words is indeed a little low. Comrade Chaoyang, please understand that our magazine relies entirely on government funding and does not make much profit."

It is true that Lin Chaoyang values ​​royalties, but he is not obsessed with money. In the case of Chinese Literature, it is not realistic to ask them to pay high royalties. Anyway, the magazine and series are not published in China, so it doesn't matter.

However, he still had a trick up his sleeve and told Yang Xianyi that the publication of his two novels was non-exclusive.

To put it bluntly, you can publish my novel, but if another publishing house wants to publish it, you can't stop them.

"That's natural, that's natural. Our magazines and series are more of a propaganda nature. Comrade Chaoyang, if your works can really be published and distributed overseas on a large scale, we will be happy for you."

After discussing the publication with Lin Chaoyang, Yang Xianyi said goodbye and left.

After the National Day, Chen Huaikai brought his son Chen Kaige to Lin Chaoyang's house.

"The Chess Master" has been confirmed to be adapted by Yanying Studio, and he is the director, so of course he needs to discuss the adaptation issue with Lin Chaoyang.

I brought my son Chen Kaige along for some selfish reasons, as I wanted him to have more contact with Lin Chaoyang.

The first time Chen Kaige came to Lin Chaoyang’s house, he was full of curiosity.

He is a senior literary youth. When he just entered college a few years ago, "Today" was very popular in Yenching University, and he participated in many activities with that group of people.

After greeting each other, Chen Kaige saw his father and Lin Chaoyang discussing the creative direction of the script, and he sat aside and listened obediently.

The story of "The Chess Master" is very complete in structure. Both the character creation and the design of conflicts are top-notch. From a textual perspective, there is almost nothing to complain about.

To adapt it into a script, you just need to follow the steps.

So Chen Huaikai and Lin Chaoyang discussed for a long time, but there were actually not many suggestions for improvement that he could come up with. He mainly explained to Lin Chaoyang his ideas about the storyboard script and future filming.

The two talked for a long time, and when they were almost done, they stopped to drink tea. Lin Chaoyang asked, "Does Kaige have any ideas?"

Chen Kaige's face lit up when he heard this. The day after his father came back and told him that he would be transferred to Yanying Studio as an assistant director for a new movie, Yanying Studio sent a transfer letter to Children's Film Studio.

In recent days, he has been free and has been studying the original work of "The Chess Master", and he seems to have a lot of ideas in his mind.

Seeing Lin Chaoyang asking for his opinion, Chen Kaige was about to speak excitedly, but he heard his father Chen Huaikai say: "He is a fresh graduate who has never made a movie before, what ideas can he have?"

Hearing his father's words, Chen Kaige's face darkened and he swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

Seeing this, Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but sigh that his parents were indeed strict. The Kaigo in front of him was so similar to Arthur forty years later!

"Chaoyang, how long do you plan to take to complete the script?" After they had almost finished chatting, Chen Huaikai asked Lin Chaoyang a key question.

Lin Chaoyang pondered. He was currently writing a novel, but he was not in a hurry. He could put it down at any time to write the script first.

In fact, according to his idea, it would be best if the movie "The Go Master" could be released in the second half of 84, because that would coincide with the craze of the first China-Japan Go Tournament, which could bring a lot of popularity to the movie.

The movie box office has nothing to do with him, but the popularity of the movie will help increase the popularity and sales of the original work, which is also a good thing for him.

"It should be after the New Year."

Chen Huaikai nodded when he heard this. He worked in a film studio. Many screenwriters took one or two years to write a script. Lin Chaoyang said that after the New Year, it would only take four or five months. This efficiency was already very high for him.

"Okay, then we'll discuss it after you bring out the first draft after the New Year."

Lin Chaoyang: ???

You still want me to change the script? The 10,000 yuan your studio gave me doesn't include changing the script!
Complaints aside, Lin Chaoyang felt that Chen Huaikai's attitude was correct, as slow work produces fine results.

Throughout October, the hottest news in the Chinese literary world was this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Prize has a long history of influence in China. As early as before World War II, this award, which has a significant influence worldwide, was highly praised by the Chinese cultural and scientific circles at that time.

After the reform and opening up, western culture spread to the East, and many things from developed Western countries were sought after and loved by the domestic people. Therefore, the annual Nobel Prize has become more popular.

The reason why this year's Nobel Prize in Literature has sparked heated discussions in the Chinese literary world is mainly because Guangdong's "Huacheng" magazine published the acceptance speech of the award winner Marquez.

In the magazine's "Genre Appreciation" column, he introduced what "magical realism" is, and also introduced Juan Rulfo's "Pedro Páramo".

"Huacheng" was founded in April 1979. The magazine has eleven columns, namely "Novels", "Film Literature", "Essays", "Memories and Reflections", "Poetry", "Hong Kong News", "Overseas News", "Foreign Literature", "Huacheng Forum", "Visits" and "Fine Arts".

In addition to a few regular columns, columns such as "Hong Kong News", "Overseas News" and "Foreign Literature" all publish content that domestic readers rarely read.

Huacheng quickly gained fame among readers by providing domestic readers with foreign literary trends and became a well-known literary magazine.

This time, Huacheng Magazine spared no effort to introduce Marquez and magical realism to the country, with remarkable results. It not only attracted readers' attention, but also made the literary world pay attention to Marquez, the new Nobel Prize winner in Literature, and the literary style he led.

This trend continued until November. Whenever young literary people who liked reading met, they would talk about "Marquez" or "magical realism". Even Chen Kaige would pull Lin Chaoyang aside to talk for a while when he came to visit his home.

Chen Kaige was arranged by his father to be the assistant director of "The Chess Master" and was seconded to Yanying Studio, but the film script is still in the writing stage and he actually has nothing to do.

In addition to reporting to Yanying Studio every day and visiting and learning from various crews, his favorite thing was to visit Lin Chaoyang's home on weekends, under the pretext of learning script writing.

On a weekend in late November, Chen Kaige did not go to Lin Chaoyang's house, but met Tian Zhuangzhuang early in the morning and headed towards East 40th Street.

In later generations, Tian Zhuangzhuang's reputation is inferior to Chen Kaige's, but at this time, Tian Zhuangzhuang is the leader of the Yanying Studio group, and Chen Kaige's participation in various activities of "Today" is basically led by him.

The two entered a large courtyard, which was Zhao Zhenkai's home and also the place where their small circle often organized activities.

It has been more than a year since Today was banned. During this period, the editorial staff and friends have tried hard to revive the publication, but unfortunately all efforts ended in failure.

Such setbacks also led to the gradual decline of the group of amateur poets and writers who originally gathered around "Today". As soon as Chen Kaige entered the courtyard today, he clearly felt that the atmosphere today was not as warm as when he participated in the activities two years ago.

But Chen Kaige saw Zhao Zhenkai, who was still as thin as before, wearing a beige windbreaker, standing at the door to welcome his friends.

To see if a person is crazy or not, look at the beige color; to see if a person is a bandit or not, look at the trouser legs.

Beige is the popular color in Yanjing now. In such a cold winter, the yellow windbreaker worn by Zhao Zhenkai gave Chen Kaige a strong visual impact.

So fucking crazy!

For young literary people who love poetry, regardless of gender, they always inevitably look at Zhao Zhenkai through an idol filter.

"Kaige!" Zhao Zhenkai greeted Chen Kaige with a gentle smile on his face.

"Zhenkai!"

Chen Kaige suppressed his inner excitement and greeted Zhao Zhenkai. He participated in many "Today" activities, but did not have many opportunities to talk to Zhao Zhenkai alone.

There are always many people around Zhao Zhenkai, just like the moon is guarded by stars.

Sometimes Chen Kaige would unconsciously compare Tian Zhuangzhuang, the leader of Yan Film Theater, with the gentle and elegant Zhao Zhenkai. Whenever this happened, Tian Zhuangzhuang, who usually looked like a big brother, would always be eclipsed in Chen Kaige's eyes.

At around nine o'clock in the morning, more than twenty people gathered in the room. The main force among them were people from the Today editorial department headed by Zhao Zhenkai, and students from various universities in Yenching. There were only five or six people like Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang who had already started working.

Today's meeting is not a poetry discussion, but a novel writing symposium, discussing the "magical realism" that has been popular in Yanjing City recently.

For most of the people present, the term "magical realism" is a term they have only heard in the past one or two months, all thanks to "Huacheng".

Therefore, for these people, it is undoubtedly a relatively difficult thing to participate in the discussion at the meeting. The speeches at the meeting were mainly given by several poets with wide reading range and fame, such as Zhao Zhenkai and Yang Lian.

They talked eloquently, and seemed to know all kinds of knowledge about magical realism at will. From time to time, they would draw comparisons with modern and contemporary Chinese literature. They were completely well-versed in both Chinese and Western literature, and many people present couldn't help but show admiration on their faces as they listened.

“…In 1954, Latin American American literary critic Angel Flores first used the term “magical realism” to describe contemporary Latin American fiction, which was undoubtedly an important step for magic realism to enter the world literary arena.

Since then, magical realism has entered the world literary arena, becoming the most important literary genre in Latin America, and has also widely influenced the development of world literary trends...

Just now someone asked me which works I should read if I want to learn about magical realism, so I will recommend some to you.

I won't mention Marquez, who is now a Nobel Prize-winning writer. Others include Borges, Rulfo, Mayea, Cortázar, Ernesto Salvatore, and Novas Calvo, all of whom are outstanding Latin American magical realist writers.

Their works have stood the test of time and readers and are worth reading carefully. I believe that everyone will benefit greatly after reading their works. "

Zhao Zhenkai stood in front of the crowd, chatting and laughing freely, and spoke for more than 20 minutes, making everyone present feel extremely benefited.

At the end, he did not forget to introduce everyone to some foreign writers of the magical realism school, which made everyone even happier. Many people secretly made up their minds that they would find and read all the works of these people after returning home.

While everyone was impressed by Zhao Zhenkai's performance, Chen Kaige's brows remained furrowed.

He often went to Lin Chaoyang's house these days. Magical realism was a hot topic now, so he asked for advice as a junior. Lin Chaoyang would teach him about this from time to time.

The content of Lin Chaoyang's speech was very rigid and far less vivid and powerful than Zhao Zhenkai's. The most important thing is that his interpretation of magical realism is very different from what Zhao Zhenkai said.

Chen Kaige couldn't tell for a moment who was right.

(End of this chapter)