A healing writer? No, it's a depressing writer!

Chapter 288 Literature should open its eyes to the world! The art of language! The first confrontation between new and old writers!
In fact.
The current situation is quite embarrassing?
Perhaps it was a coincidence that the British writers' delegation arrived in France at the same time as the Chinese writers' delegation.

There is an old saying that goes well:
"It's not a big deal to wear the same clothes as others, but it's embarrassing for the ugly one."

Even though the current situation is that no one wears the same clothes, it is obvious that writers don’t care about this kind of thing. What do writers care about?
That's fame, of course.

Even though the group of writers headed by Tie Ning is quite well-known in the country, any one of them can be included in the Chinese textbooks.

But
You are popular in China, what does it have to do with me in France?
Even so, in order to welcome the Chinese writers' delegation to France, the French government specially arranged for someone to pick them up at the airport. In order to prevent fanatical book fans from doing anything extreme upon seeing the author himself, they even arranged for a group of staff to maintain order at the scene.

But the embarrassing thing is.
The Chinese writers delegation was at an airport. Except for the staff sent by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it seemed that there were no other people.
There was no one to pick me up at the airport?
Forget about the fanatical book fans. Even those who came up to the author with signs to ask for his autograph were not seen at the scene. The scene was so deserted that it was in stark contrast to the departure ceremony held at Beijing Normal University before everyone set off.

On the other hand, when the British writers delegation came to France, they walked out of the airport security exit.

A flood of French book friends rushed towards them. Among them were white people, black people, and even Asian people:
"Mr. Edward, I really like your "The Other Side of the Morning". Mr. Edward, look here, look here."

"Mr. Ian McEwan, Atonement! I have read your Atonement five times. I have a question I want to ask you."

"JK Rowling, please give me an autograph, thank you, thank you so much."

"Excuse me, has Mr. Naipaul arrived? Where is Mr. Naipaul?"

They are also a delegation of writers.

One was so lively and bustling, with the sound of gongs and drums, the blast of firecrackers, the waving of red flags and the huge crowds of people almost hanging over his face.

The other one is so deserted.

This creates a stark contrast.

If you say that the writers' delegations from the two countries arrived at different times, and the two sides did not see each other, then out of sight, out of mind.
Then maybe you won’t have any idea.

Maybe it won’t be so uncomfortable?

Can be biased.
The two delegations of writers just happened to come together?
How can this not make everyone feel some other emotions?

Looking at the delegation of British writers who were kept delayed by readers and constantly taking photos with them.

Look at yourself again.
Tie Ning, who witnessed all this, said with deep emotion:
“This is the influence between writers at the international level.”

“That’s the gap”

Some people may find it strange that they are all writers, so why is there such a big gap between them?

Logically speaking, this group of top-notch writers in China should not be so unknown when they go abroad.
You shouldn't be so shameless, right?

The doubts are understandable.

But the truth is cruel, that's the reality.

Let’s pick a writer from each delegation as an example:

Jia Pingwa is a leading figure in the literary world of Northwest China, a inheritor of local literature, and a well-deserved literary giant in China.
Should it be enough to represent the overall level of the Chinese writers' delegation?

Jia Pingwa's famous work is Qin Opera, which won the 70th Mao Dun Literature Award. It is called an epic novel by domestic critics, describing the contemporary Chinese countryside under the impact of modernization and urbanization. It was selected into the "Collection of 70 Long Novels in the Years of New China", and is a well-deserved literary treasure in the traditional Chinese literary world!

This epic novel, which is said to describe Chinese rural literature, ultimately sold only a million copies.

Even Jia Pingwa’s best-selling and most controversial literary work, Wasted City, had a final sales volume of

It just barely broke through 10 million copies!
Among them, readers in Asia, or more precisely, readers in China, account for more than 95% of the purchase rate and are the main force of best-selling books.

The remaining 5% can be exported to Europe and America, and they can also find readers who like this type of content.
That can only be said to be surprisingly little!

On the other hand, the British writers' delegation, not to mention the top writers in the past, such as Maugham, Dickens, Shakespeare, etc., just talk about the famous writers who are still alive and also came to France with the British writers' delegation -

JK Rowling!

JK Rowling's famous work is the Harry Potter series. There is no need to elaborate on the classic degree of this literary work. We will only discuss the sales of this book in the global region. In the past 70 years, the Harry Potter series has been translated into more than languages ​​and has been on sale for years. The sales of this classic bestseller in the world are -

It reached an astonishing 500 million copies!
Yes, the subsequent measurement units are calculated in [100 million] instead of [10 million].

Let's not discuss the literary quality of the work, let's just discuss how popular the work is.
The best-selling literary works by the country's top writers only had a final purchase volume of tens of millions, reaching only 12 million copies.

On the other hand, let's look at the UK.
Count directly in billions?
Don't even mention Jia Pingwa. Just count the twenty or so writers from all over the country and all schools of thought present here, even if you add Jiang Hai, the influence and popularity of their literary works are...
No one can compare to JK Rowling alone?
"I heard that when the Japanese writers' delegation came here, they were not as embarrassed as we are." A man in the crowd, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, who looked like an author who had studied abroad, looked at Liu Zhenyun next to him, "At least, there were a few readers who came to greet them at the airport."

In fact, when it comes to literature, Japanese literature is not weak at all in the world literary arena.

In terms of traditional literature, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is famous in the world literary world.

without any exaggeration
Even though he is not a Nobel Prize winner in Literature, there are many Nobel Prize winners in Literature. When it comes to fame, none of them can compare to Haruki Murakami?

Apart from traditional literature, Japanese authors are also very well-known in the world literary scene when it comes to best-selling mystery detective novels and horror stories.

The English translations of Higashino Keigo's "White Night Walk" and "The Devotion of Suspect X" are also very popular in Europe and the United States.

"I heard that when a delegation of Japanese writers arrived at the Paris airport three days ago, it caused quite a stir at the scene."

Chinese people don’t really like to compare with others. For example, when they saw that the British writers’ delegation was so popular among readers, their first reaction was not jealousy, but to stand there and sigh silently:

“The gap, this is the gap.”

"We still have a long way to go, and we still have to learn from others."

However, this is only for other countries
Whenever the people he faces are Japanese, the militant emotions hidden in his genes will be activated instantly:
"Why?"

"What are we inferior to in our daily lives?"

Even though everyone said they were not convinced, they knew it in their hearts.
There is still a big gap between the Chinese and Japanese literary circles.

And this gap cannot be made up in just one or two days.

There is an old saying that goes well:
When people are anxious, they can do anything.

But I can't do math problems.

The same is true.

No matter how anxious you are, no matter how unconvinced you are
Aren’t you still unable to write the words you should write?

Other people's traditional literature is awesome and is loved by foreign readers.
What can you do?
Other people's mystery novels and horror books are written in a very interesting way, and they are popular all over the world.
So what if you don’t like it?

"Don't worry about the length of the moment, and don't care about the gains and losses of the moment." Tie Ning took a deep look at the crowd in front of him, then led the team and walked straight to the business bus outside the airport, "Let's go back and rest first."

When it comes to a book, should we focus on its literary quality or its popular value?
Literary works are bound to not be very popular, which is also the mainstream of today's Chinese literary world.

The vast majority of Chinese writers try to tell readers those unfathomable and obscure truths by narrating a trivial matter and then looking through the phenomenon to see the essence.
Reason is reason.

But the same thing -

Everyone is already tired enough after working or going to school all day, who the hell has the time to listen to you talk about reason all day?
I have been educated for 364 days a year. Finally, the Spring Festival Gala is approaching and I want to watch a comedy to relax. But the comedy also gives you a happy beginning and a sad ending, which makes you neither laugh nor cry.
It's hard to watch the Spring Festival Gala. Everyone wants to read a book to relax and have some fun. But you have to educate me and preach to me just for reading a book?

"It is precisely because domestic literature is too didactic that the sales of traditional literature cannot be boosted, and therefore cannot have such a great influence."

On the way to the hotel.

Jiang Hai analyzed his views on traditional literature:
"You see, Japanese literature is completely different from ours. No matter whether it is a mystery novel or a horror novel, they all focus on the story itself. As long as the story itself is exciting enough, they can even abandon a certain degree of rationality and literary quality. That's why their books are so popular abroad." Jiang Hai's analysis is not without reason, and everyone understands it.

But
You want a group of old men over fifty to abandon the style of writing they have been familiar with for half their lives.
Want to compete with foreign authors in terms of imagination?
To compete with foreign authors in imagination?

Isn't this a little inappropriate?

"I don't think so." Chi Zijian, a poet and writer who specializes in writing prose, expressed his own views on Jiang Hai's speech, "Literature should not please anyone. As a writer--"

“All we can do is write down every word we write.”

“As for whether a book is a bestseller, can the text move people?”

"I don't think these should be considered by a scholar. We don't need to please anyone, we just need to please ourselves."

Jiang Hai is a new-school writer. The new-school writers believe that they should be market-oriented and write a wonderful story. In order to write this wonderful story, they should abandon the general principles of whining and start from [reasoning] to [storytelling] itself.

For example, Keigo Higashino's "White Night Walk".

For example, Yusuke Kishi’s horror novel “The Thirteenth Personality”.

Why can other people’s stories become popular all over the world?
The essence of it is that other people's stories are interesting enough, without so many disgusting and cumbersome truths.
However, veteran writers, led by poet Chi Zijian, believe that literature should not please anyone. The so-called literature -

It should be noble.

It should be that one is not understood by the world and is self-admiring.

"I don't think tediousness is a bad thing." With the pride of an old-school writer, Chi Zijian also expressed her own reasoning, "Look at Dream of the Red Chamber. Wasn't it not understood by the mainstream literary world of the Qing Dynasty? But what about now?"

"Didn't it still become one of the four famous classics?"

“Good wine needs no bush. Good works should be far ahead of their time and should not be appreciated by people of this era. The reason why classics are called classics is that—”

"Because it takes time to settle, you should spend more time on it."

How can we understand this conversation between the two people in a simple and easy way?
Compare [books] to [chasing girls].

Jiang Hai tells you:
"Chasing girls is all about first impression. You should chase after the girl you like at first sight. After all, only when you like someone will you have the desire to get to know them better."

"If you are halfway into pursuing a girl, you realize that you don't understand her, she doesn't reply to your messages, and she ignores you when you ask her out for dinner. She is very cold and aloof."

"At this time, don't hesitate, you should give up decisively and move on to find the next girl."

Chi Zijian tells you:

"When courting a girl, you can't just look at her appearance. Why do ugly girls not deserve sweet love?"

"She didn't reply to your message? Then you should send her a few more times until she is willing to pay attention to you and talk to you."

"Girls often reject you? It doesn't matter. You should get to know her nature in depth, see what she likes to eat, wear, and play. You should take her to eat delicious food and buy her beautiful bags. As long as you persevere and keep going -"

"You will definitely understand her, and she will definitely choose to be with you."

There is nothing wrong with what they said.

But the problem is.
This is a fucking fast food age!
When you lack the subject matter and are born ugly, do you still expect others to see the purity and innocence of your heart through your ugly appearance?
Why?

No one cares about this
There are three steps to stuffing an elephant into a refrigerator:
“Open the refrigerator, put the elephant in it, and close the refrigerator.”

Chasing a girl also only requires three steps:
"Add her on WeChat and ask her if she wants to date you. If she doesn't, I'll pick the next one."

If you can't even finish reading the beginning of a book and feel confused, you still have to suppress your doubts and read it from beginning to end.
So you came here to read a book?

Or are you here to get bullied?

Neither of them could convince the other.

After repeated arguments, Jiang Hai could only shake his head helplessly:

"Awesome, you are really awesome."

Why is this debate happening?
The reason is that tomorrow, delegations of writers from various countries will witness the raising of the national flag at the Elysee Palace in Paris, which is also the French presidential palace. This represents the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and has great historical significance.

After witnessing the raising of the national flag, the Chinese writers delegation will follow the writers delegations from various countries to have lunch at the Palace of Versailles, the iconic palace of France.
The International Federation of Literary and Art Circles will then provide a literary theme, giving writers from all countries an opportunity to create and communicate.

It was precisely because they knew the specific schedule for tomorrow that the two of them had a fierce confrontation on the topic of "Should literature be realistic or impressionistic?"

Neither of them could convince the other, and they felt like they were talking to a cow.

Seeing that there was no way to reason with the argumentative person, Jiang Hai was too lazy to explain. He just took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth, then started to complain.

"I think you are still too young, your ideas are too immature and you need more experience."

"you're right."

"I think you are really too eager for quick success and instant benefits, which seems to be desecrating literature."

"you're right."

"What's with your attitude? Can you please straighten it out? I'm your elder and we're discussing serious matters. I feel like you have an inexplicable sense of superiority."

Wait until the person in front of you finishes saying what he wants to say in an aggressive manner.

Jiang Hai then replied to him slowly:

"Whatever you say, as long as you add the words 'you feel' or 'you think', then you are right, and everything you say -"

“All true.”

"Because in this world, nothing is more important than a person's subjective individual cognition. Others don't have to change your mind. As long as you add the three words 'you feel', no matter what you say, then you are right."

At this point, Jiang Hai exhaled a thick white mist from his mouth, and then made a gesture of invitation to the person in front of him:
"Don't just stand there, please continue your performance."

It would be better not to say this.

As soon as he said this, he almost fainted from anger at the old man opposite him.

"You, you you you you you"

Qi and blood surged in an instant.
The old man who was arguing with Jiang Hai seemed unable to bear the provocative remarks. He immediately took two steps back and then fell down.

"Puff-"

This sudden scene scared everyone around.

Around them, everyone's exclamations suddenly rang out:
"Send him to the hospital, send him to the hospital quickly."

Just when everyone was in a panic.

See this scene.

Jiang Hai laughed and looked directly at Chen Hanying who was standing beside him with a look of astonishment:
“Look, he’s anxious.”

(End of this chapter)