Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 315 You should have said it earlier (Thanks to Zhang Wuji 000000000)
Lin Chaoyang thought that Li Shifei came to solicit an article, but he didn't expect that he actually came with a "topic essay".

Márquez's winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature has made magical realism, a literary genre that originated in Latin America, a prominent genre in the international literary world today.

This is even more so in China. As soon as the results of the Nobel Prize in Literature were announced in October, young literary people from all over the country started talking about "magical realism" and "Latin American literary explosion".

This phenomenon itself is magical realism, but it is the most normal thing in this land.

"Huacheng" was the first literary magazine in China to report on Marquez's acceptance speech. During this period, they also reprinted magical realism works by writers such as Delfoe and Marquez, but the effect they caused always made the magazine feel a little lacking.

Because the influence of introduced and reprinted works is more limited to the group of literature lovers, if magical realism is to truly take root and flourish in China, a local work with significant influence must appear.

One of the purposes of Li Shifei's trip to Yenching University was to build relationships with many writers and to solicit their manuscripts. Another more important purpose was to find writers with the potential to cooperate with them in achieving this grand goal.

Some people may ask, magical realism is just something written by foreigners, so why does Huacheng spare no effort to promote this literary genre?
In fact, the reason is very simple. Literary genres are just things summarized by insiders or researchers. According to the current definition of magical realism, "Journey to the West" is actually a work of magical realism.

Therefore, a hero does not care about his origin. Since it is a good thing and makes readers find it interesting and beneficial, what's wrong with "borrowing it"?
Secondly, Huacheng has to consider its own development. If any literary magazine wants to develop and form a strong influence, it must rely on something.

For example, "Harvest" has Ba Jin's golden signboard, and "Contemporary" has the backing of the Humanistic Publishing House.

In addition, being able to publish works with significant influence and introduce talented young and middle-aged writers are good ways for literary magazines to quickly expand their influence.

"Huacheng" has been famous for its "Western style" since its founding. After several years, the influence of the magazine has reached a bottleneck period, which can be seen from the sales of the magazine.

One year after its founding, the sales of Huacheng reached 60 copies per issue, but there has been little change in the two or three years since then.

Li Shifei said that Lin Chaoyang seeks innovation and change in his creations. Isn't it the same for him and Huacheng magazine?
Lin Chaoyang has been in the literary world for more than four years. He has made a name for himself with his works step by step. Now with the support of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, he has become the number one young writer in China.

It can be said that among the young writers in today's literary world, there is no one who can surpass him.

Looking at his creative achievements over the years, he has involved many literary genres and styles, such as realism such as "Qiu Ju Goes to Court", stream of consciousness such as "The Death of Van Gogh", and revolutionary romanticism such as "The Chess Master".

In today's literary world, there are many people who stick to one style and write until they die, but there are very few writers like him who constantly seek innovation and change.

Now "Huacheng" hopes to use their power to give birth to magical realism works with local characteristics. Li Shifei thinks Lin Chaoyang is a very good partner.

Lin Chaoyang not only possesses strong creative ability, but also has an enterprising spirit that constantly seeks innovation and change. He has both ability and motivation, making him the perfect candidate.

Listening to Li Shifei's request, Lin Chaoyang looked thoughtful.

Li Shifei saw that he seemed to have concerns and thought that he was unable to let go of his pride and was afraid that his creation of magical realism works would be accused of plagiarizing others.

Then he persuaded her: "Magical realism is not exclusive to Latin American literature, and domestic readers have a strong demand for works of this genre.

Our magazine always wants Chinese people to read foreign works, so it would be better to promote more magical realism works with our own national characteristics. "

Little did he know that Lin Chaoyang was not thinking about these things at all. Li Shifei was the company's purchasing manager. How could he not get a quote when purchasing goods from him?
What's the point of just saying these nice things? Can I give you the manuscript for free?
Zhang Guangnian has been working and living in Yanjing for many years. He has always heard about Lin Chaoyang's calculations on royalties. Seeing that he was reluctant to speak, he had a rough guess in his mind.

He jokingly reminded Li Shifei, "Old Li, your magazine's requirement is a 'propositional essay', so you have to pay more for it."

Upon hearing this, Li Shifei immediately had an idea. He had also heard something about Lin Chaoyang's style before coming.

“Our Huacheng has always been generous in terms of manuscript fees, and this time when we came to Chaoyang to invite an article, we also showed our utmost sincerity.

As long as the manuscript can pass the review, we are willing to pay 20 yuan per thousand words. "

Hearing Li Shifei say the number "20 yuan per thousand words", Lin Chaoyang's eyes lit up.

You should have told me earlier!

20 yuan per thousand words, which is much more generous than Renwen Press and Yenching Publishing House.

Li Shifei did not give this price randomly. Lin Chaoyang had just won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, and this was the first time that Huacheng magazine had asked him to write an article, so it was reasonable to increase the fee.

After talking about the manuscript fee, Li Shifei noticed the change in Lin Chaoyang's expression and asked with expectation: "Chaoyang, what do you think..."

Lin Chaoyang finally spoke at this time, "What a coincidence. I am currently working on a work with a strong sense of magical realism. I can show it to you first."

Li Shifei was overjoyed when he heard this. "Oh, this is fate! Maybe your novel is tailor-made for our magazine. Can I take a look now?"

Lin Chaoyang got up and went to the study to get the manuscript. "It's a long novel. It's expected to be 240,000 to 250,000 words. There's still a part left to be written."

Hearing that it was a novel of 240,000 to 250,000 words, Li Shifei became even happier. He took the manuscript and wanted to read it immediately, but when he felt the thickness of the manuscript, he realized that it was at least 170,000 to 180,000 words and could not be finished in a short time.

"Chaoyang, I have a request. Can I take this manuscript back to the guesthouse and have a look at it first?"

Writers generally rarely show their unfinished works to others, let alone take them away.

If this happens to be damaged or lost, it will be a major blow to the writer's creation, and such things happen from time to time in the literary world.

But Lin Chaoyang has always been a person who is very willing to serve the client. After a brief thought, he said, "How about this? You can stay at home for the next two days. We can discuss this after you finish reading the manuscript."

"This..." Li Shifei hesitated, "I'm afraid this will cause you trouble."

These days, people have much less sense of distance when interacting with each other than in later generations, and it is very common for friends to stay at each other's homes.

Many editors will stay at writers' homes when they go to commission them to write. Or vice versa, when writers come to the editorial department to revise their manuscripts, they will also stay at the editor's home.

"It's no trouble. Just don't mind the poor conditions at home."

Having agreed to stay overnight, Li Shifei couldn't wait to flip through the manuscript. He had to stay here tonight, no matter how late it was, but Zhang Guangnian was by his side.

Lin Chaoyang looked at Zhang Guangnian, and the meaning in his eyes was probably: I'm going to see you off.

Zhang Guangnian ignored his gaze and pulled him aside, "I have something else to tell you."

"what's up?"

"What else could it be? Joining the Literary Association."

"Didn't I tell you? I'm not interested in this stuff."

"Is this something you are interested in or not? We need unity. Unity, do you understand?"

Seeing that Lin Chaoyang was a bit stubborn, Zhang Guangnian simply played the emotional card.

"I was so busy taking care of your childbirth these past few days, I am an old man!

I got home after 10 o'clock that day, and I was so exhausted that I had to rest for several days before I recovered. "

On the day Tao Yushu gave birth, Zhang Guangnian and a group of award-winning writers stayed in the hospital with Lin Chaoyang waiting for most of the day.

Lin Chaoyang muttered, "Did I make you wait?"

"What are you talking about?"

"nothing."

Zhang Guangnian put moral pressure on Lin Chaoyang again, "How can you let an old man like me, who is almost 70 years old, run around in the cold weather? If you tell others about it, people will criticize you."

As the saying goes, a gentleman can be deceived by tricks. Zhang Guangnian's previous persuasion was useless, and his current action just happened to take advantage of Lin Chaoyang's weakness.

"You still want to blackmail me?" Lin Chaoyang said helplessly.

"Is this blackmailing you? This is to encourage you to make progress!" Zhang Guangnian said righteously.

He added: "Joining the Cultural Association is not as troublesome as you think. You don't have to come to meetings. You can just participate in the occasional activities that you can't avoid, just to relax and meet friends."

"In addition, our literary association does not only hold meetings, but also organizes a lot of field trips and interviews, which can help you broaden your horizons and help your creations."

Zhang Guangnian seemed to have made up his mind when he said this, "Our Cultural Association will be visiting Hong Kong next year, so I'll give you a spot."

Visiting Hong Kong?
Lin Chaoyang disagrees. Putting aside the filter of Hong Kong movies, this city is really disappointing for tourists.

But he also understood that this was his perspective from the future.

Nowadays, being able to travel abroad is a rare experience in a lifetime for most people. If any unit has such an opportunity, the people will be beaten to death.

Going to Hong Kong is not strictly speaking going abroad, but it is no different from going abroad. After all, it is still under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

Zhang Guangnian's offer of the opportunity to visit Hong Kong was a sign of great sincerity. Adding to that his recent use of seniority and moral pressure, Lin Chaoyang felt that it would be too unkind to refuse again.

"Ok."

After talking for a long time, Lin Chaoyang finally gave in, and Zhang Guangnian smiled happily.

"That's right! Our Literary Association is not some terrible thing. There are only benefits and no harm in joining us.

You are really a man who doesn't want to see the rabbit before you release the eagle. You should know that the visiting quota in Hong Kong is very popular!"

Lin Chaoyang said: "It doesn't matter whether we go to Hong Kong or not, it's you who said it!"

"You are taking advantage of others!"

After making a sarcastic remark to Lin Chaoyang, Zhang Guangnian discussed with Lin Chaoyang the specific procedures for joining the Literary Association.

According to normal procedures, joining the Federation of Literary and Art Circles has to be done one level at a time, from districts and counties to cities, then to provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, and finally to the whole country.

Writers with outstanding qualifications can also directly join the provincial-level literary association and then join the National Literary Association.

Lin Chaoyang's situation was special. He was invited by Zhang Guangnian, the second-in-command of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and became a member of the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

Given his creative achievements and the power of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, these things are certainly not a problem.

But the procedures cannot be neglected and must be carried out as required.

After Zhang Guangnian left, Lin Chaoyang saw that Li Shifei was still concentrating on reading the manuscript, so he went to tidy up the room for him, said goodbye to him, and went back to sleep.

When he was sleeping soundly, he heard Xiao Dongdong's loud cry again. Tao Yushu tried to feed the baby but to no avail, so he touched his body.

"Your son is pooping again!"

Lin Chaoyang sighed, and after Tao Yushu had cleaned up his son, he went to wash the diaper. When he passed by Li Shifei's room, he found that the light was still on.

The next morning, he got up feeling a little depressed. As soon as he walked out of the house, he ran into Li Shifei, who was also feeling depressed.

(End of this chapter)