Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 408 Great Work

When Lin Chaoyang took the manuscript from Tao Yushu and saw the title of the novel on the first page of the manuscript, he already knew what the manuscript was about.

"You Have No Choice" is a novella written by writer Liu Sola.

The novel roughly tells the story of the colorful lives of a group of students with various personalities in a music conservatory. The overall atmosphere is relaxed and lively, but the underlying tone is tragic.

It should be said that this novel reflects to a large extent the psychological and emotional world of young artists in the 1980s. The world in the novel is full of restlessness, fanaticism, and even weirdness, but it is also very real, full of wildness and vitality.

The work draws on and absorbs Western modernism in art. It is full of black humor and makes extensive use of exaggeration, distortion, jokes, farce, symbols and other techniques to mock reality. It is full of a lawless rebellious spirit.

After the publication of this novel, it caused a great response in the literary world and among readers, and made Liu Sola, a young female musician, one of the most popular female writers in Chinese literary world in the 1980s.

The reason why Tao Yushu showed this novel to Lin Chaoyang and asked for his opinion was because this novel was a work that completely learned from Western modernism in terms of writing techniques, creative style, ideological connotation and aesthetic standards.

Moreover, its "modern" attribute also has a strong avant-garde color, which can be said to be completely at the opposite extreme of the "root-seeking literature" advocated by Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang thought for a long time before slowly opening his mouth.

"If many old comrades read this novel, they would inevitably criticize it as 'whining without reason' and 'pretentious', and this novel does have such shortcomings.

However, we cannot only look at the shortcomings, we must also look at the advantages. I think the advantages of this novel obviously outweigh its disadvantages.

Its modernist techniques, open structure, absurd characters, unique narrative perspective... these actually serve the novel itself.

This mixture determines the novel's outstanding style. I cannot say that it is necessarily the best, but such creation does have its own unique aesthetics.

The stream of consciousness and non-plot-based treatment in the novel seem a bit awkward, but the flaws do not outweigh the merits. On the contrary, it fits in with the overall style and has a flowing beauty..."

After talking for a while, Lin Chaoyang stopped and said, "Once I start talking, I can't stop. This novel is pretty good overall and should be loved by quite a number of readers."

When he spoke, Tao Yushu listened very carefully. Every time at this time, she always felt that Lin Chaoyang was full of charm.

After Lin Chaoyang stopped, she asked, "If you were the editor, would you publish this kind of novel that advocates modernism?"

"Why not publish it?" Lin Chaoyang looked at Tao Yushu in confusion.

“It is the opposite of root-seeking literature. My biggest feeling after reading this novel is its anti-traditionalism.

No, it cannot be said to be anti-traditional, it should be said to be abandoning tradition. "

Lin Chaoyang said with a relaxed expression: "Young people are not against tradition, so how can they be conservative? Besides, root-seeking literature is not about restoration. Don't just focus on inheriting the excellent traditional culture. Root-seeking literature has to discard more dross."

“It’s not that I’m staring at it, but that’s the trend.”

Ever since Lin Chaoyang proposed the concept of "root-seeking literature" in Zhuo County, Hebei Province in March, root-seeking literature has become the most fashionable literary trend in the Chinese literary world over the past six months, and everyone wants to join in the fun.

For a while, root-seeking literature flooded the pages of major literary magazines, especially in the second half of the year. As the term root-seeking literature became more and more popular, more creators and magazines joined in the fun.

In this way, it is inevitable that there will be a mixture of good and bad.

At the beginning, many people classified Jia Pingwa's "Shangzhou Chulu" published in 82 as root-seeking literature, and then A Cheng's "The Chess King".

Then Li Hangyu started publishing "Ge Chuanjiang Novels", and in the second half of this year, Zheng Wanlong ambitiously devoted himself to the creation of the "Strange Stories in Foreign Lands" series of novels...

These works are considered by the fans of root-seeking literature to be the first important achievements of root-seeking literature. It should be said that the start of root-seeking literature was very smooth, and it brought together a large number of excellent literary works and aroused considerable momentum.

But starting from the second half of the year, as the influence of this trend became increasingly greater, the quality of works published under the banner of "root-seeking literature" began to vary.

The most crucial thing is that the value orientation of some of these works does not actually conform to the core values ​​of root-seeking literature.

The root-seeking literature proposed by Lin Chaoyang is to explore the excellent parts of our national culture and inherit and carry forward them, rather than just using traditional culture indiscriminately.

Lin Chaoyang sighed helplessly, "When scar literature becomes popular, write about scars; when reflective literature becomes popular, write about reflections; when root-seeking literature becomes popular, write about root-seeking."

Tao Yushu has been an editor for several years and is no longer surprised by such situations.

“It’s their business if they want to write, but how many of them can actually write?

The writers who are truly remembered are those who can lead the trend and whose works stand the test of time."

At this point, she added, "Just like you!"

After hearing this, Lin Chaoyang felt as comfortable as if he had drunk a sip of iced soda in the dog days of summer. He put his arm around her shoulders and started whispering to her.

Before we knew it, New Year's Day 1985 had arrived.

It was snowing in Yanjing City, and it was also snowing in Tokyo, thousands of miles away.

“It’s snowing!”

Naoko Kondo opened the curtains, looked at the falling snow outside the window and sighed, her eyes filled with joy. This was the first snow of the new year.

With a "bang", Naoko Kondo turned her head and said, "Chocolate, don't be naughty!"

It turned out that the family cat had knocked over the vase. Naoko Kondo went to pick up the vase, then fed Chocolate some cat food and stroked its head while it was eating.

"Is it okay now?"

After eating the chocolate for a while, Naoko Kondo went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for herself.

She is a professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Nihon University. She is still unmarried and lives alone in the apartment arranged for her by the school.

After finishing her meal, Naoko Kondo went into the study.

Some time ago, she visited Yenching University as a visiting scholar for a two-month short-term visit and exchange. Her research direction is Chinese literature, with a focus on contemporary literature, so this visit and exchange benefited her a lot. In the last few days of the visit, she also met with Lin Sang, the most famous writer in China today, and had a friendly and cordial exchange, which made her feel that the trip was worthwhile.

Sitting at the desk, Naoko Kondo couldn't help but touch the manuscript of "Crossing the Guandong" given to her by Lin Chaoyang, and a happy smile appeared on her face.

She never thought that when she visited Lin Chaoyang, she would receive such a valuable gift.

These days, Naoko Kondo has been obsessed with reading manuscripts. Although she has read the novel "Crossing the Guandong" more than once, the feeling of reading the manuscript and reading the print is completely different.

When she was reading the manuscript, she seemed to be able to feel Lin Chaoyang's pen strokes when he was writing, and then feel his thoughts, which made her feel a great sense of happiness.

"Great Lin-san!"

Naoko Kondo recited a sentence softly, then opened the manuscript. When she visited Lin Chaoyang's home, she proposed the idea of ​​recommending "Crossing the Guandong" for publication in Japan.

However, Japanese publishing houses were not familiar with Lin Chaoyang and "Crossing the Guandong", so in order to let Japanese publishing houses know about the novel, she decided to translate the novel herself.

She believed that as long as she could translate the Japanese version of "Crossing the Guandong", those publishing houses would definitely be able to see the excellence of this novel.

"The mention of the 'Boxer Rebellion' here requires an annotation."

“How should ‘open the incense hall’ be translated?”

……

The work of translation seems simple, but in fact it tests not only the translator's language level but also his talent.

Many so-called influential foreign masterpieces in later generations would not be able to retain even a little bit of their brilliance without the translators' superb translations.

It is true that Naoko Kondo has studied many Chinese literary works, but asking her to translate them is another matter.

The translation work took two days, and she only completed less than three pages.

Looking at the results of her work over the past two days, Naoko Kondo couldn't help but sigh. She still needed Mr. Fujii's help!

Just as she was sighing, there was a knock on the door.

Naoko Kondo suddenly perked up, walked quickly to the door and opened it. It turned out to be a deliveryman in uniform, who brought a beautifully crafted safe, which was custom-made by Naoko Kondo the day after she returned to China.

She treasured the manuscript of "Crossing the Guandong" very much. After returning to China, she first photocopied the manuscript, then put each page of the manuscript in a transparent loose-leaf folder, and finally bought this safe.

However, the original appearance of the safe was too crude. Naoko Kondo could not bear to see such a precious manuscript placed in such a cold and lifeless metal container, so she had someone make an exquisite cover for the safe.

Naoko Kondo put the manuscript in the safe and tried it out. It was just the right size and a satisfied smile appeared on her face.

With a safe, we no longer have to worry about fire.

Suddenly, there was another knock on the door, and Kondo Naoko's smile grew even wider.

This time it should be right!

She went to open the door, and sure enough, there stood a handsome middle-aged man.

"Fujii-kun!" Naoko Kondo greeted the middle-aged man enthusiastically.

"Kondo-san, long time no see!"

"Please come in quickly!"

Shozo Fujii holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Tokyo and is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Letters and the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo.

Naoko Kondo met him at an academic conference. Both of them were researching Chinese literature, and both had a focus on Lu Xun, so they became good friends.

After returning to China with the manuscript of "Crossing the Guandong", Naoko Kondo originally wanted to fulfill what she had said to Lin Chaoyang and translate "Crossing the Guandong", but after a few days of progress, she found that this matter was far from easy as she had imagined.

It would be beyond his ability to complete such a huge work alone, so she asked Shozo Fujii for help.

After exchanging greetings upon entering the door, Naoko Kondo shared with Shozo Fujii her experience of visiting Yenching University, focusing on Lin Chaoyang and the novel "Crossing the Guandong".

Fujii Shozo said, "After you told me that day, I went to the Oriental Bookstore, but unfortunately they didn't have this book."

Oriental Bookstore is a bookstore in Japan that specializes in Chinese books.

Naoko Kondo said, "The Oriental Bookstore only received a few books, so they may have sold out."

She stood up and picked up the book "Crossing Guandong" she bought from the bookshelf, "You can read this first."

"Thank you."

Fujii Shozo took the book and asked, "What should we do if Kondo-san doesn't have the book?"

Naoko Kondo smiled, with a hint of pride in her smile, "I haven't told you yet that Mr. Lin gave me the manuscript of "Crossing Guandong"."

Upon hearing this, Fujii Shozo's face was filled with astonishment. "A manuscript? That's too precious!"

Naoko Kondo nodded heavily, "That's right! So I must not let Lin-san down."

Having said that, she looked at Fujii Shozo solemnly, then bowed and said, "Please, Fujii-kun!"

Shozo Fujii was surprised that Lin Chaoyang actually gave the manuscript of his work to Naoko Kondo. In this way, Naoko Kondo's translation of "Crossing the Guandong" also had absolute legitimacy.

He also said solemnly: "I understand. Kondo-san, let's complete this great work together!"

(End of this chapter)