Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 276: It’s a good thing to have dreams, maybe they will come true?

Liang Siqiao burst out laughing when she heard this. Although she didn't know what "中二" meant, she knew it was not a good word. So she turned around and looked at the boy in the shadows and asked, "Do you want to go in and join the discussion?"

The boy waved his hand and said, "No, I'll just stand there and listen. It's good to be a good person. It's good to have dreams, maybe they will come true someday."

Liang Siqiao only felt that the boy looked familiar, and his voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember which senior in the department he was. However, her attention was quickly attracted by Wang Zhenxu in the field.

"Isn't it? Jiang Feng, his narrative structure is monotonous; Liu Jiajun, he doesn't dare to make any social criticism, even the most superficial one; Zhang Jiajia, Han Han, Xiao Si, they only see business, not literature; Zhang Yueran, Zhou Jianing, they only repeat themselves, and their themes are always the same..."

"Many of them are still at the stage of poorly imitating Haruki Murakami. Their literary consciousness is not even as good as Japan's Hitomi Kanehara, so how can they have any ambition?"

It seems that Wang Zhenxu did put some effort into studying Chinese writers born after 80. Whether his judgment is correct or not, it at least hits the nail on the head. However, many people are still keenly aware that he missed one person.

"Where's Zhang Chao? Why didn't you mention Zhang Chao after all you said?"

"Yes, if the 'post-80s' writers don't mention Zhang Chao, what's the difference between that and not mentioning him at all?"

"After all that, you left out the most important thing."

"Did you really leak it? You don't dare!"

……

For a moment, there was a lot of discussion. Liang Siqiao, who was at the door, turned around and said to her bestie, "Why don't you mention Zhang Chao?"

My best friend thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's because Zhang Chao has repeatedly said that he is not a 'post-80s' writer? He thinks every writer is an independent individual and cannot be defined by a single label."

Liang Siqiao nodded thoughtfully.

The boy behind him couldn't help it and said, "Maybe he thinks Zhang Chao is not that good and doesn't deserve to be mentioned together with the others? It's normal to have different tastes in literature.

Tolstoy still despises Shakespeare!"

Hearing this, Liang Siqiao could not help but retort: ​​"Are you saying he is Tolstoy, or Zhang Chao is Shakespeare? Even if Zhang Chao is Shakespeare, he is not worthy of being compared to Tolstoy!"

The boy was frustrated and shut up.

In the classroom, Lan Ting couldn't help asking, "Since we are discussing the '80s' writers from China and Japan, Zhang Chao is a name that cannot be avoided. Since you are so familiar with the other writers, it means you must have read Zhang Chao's works.

Why did you go out of your way to bypass him?"

Wang Zhenxu glanced at Lan Ting. He really admired this girl, but he would not compromise on such a principled issue as "literature".

After thinking for a while, Wang Zhenxu said, "A writer who has fallen to the point of writing "light novels" cannot have his works placed on my bookshelf!"

Everyone in the classroom fell silent, looking at each other, wondering what Wang Zhenxu was talking about. The concept of "light novel" is a market segmentation product after the highly mature Japanese literary market. It was only noticed in the early 21st century and was not yet a popular literary concept.

For Chinese readers, "Your Name" is a novel written by Zhang Chao with unique imagination, easy reading and special structure, and they did not realize that it is a "light novel".

Even though Zhang Chao went to Japan to receive the "Dengeki Bunko Award" early last year, it was too obscure and not as well-known as the "Akutagawa Prize" and the "Naoki Prize", so the domestic news reports did not cause any splash.

Due to their unfamiliarity with the Japanese literary ecosystem, even students from the Chinese Department could not understand why Wang Zhenxu was so contemptuous of Zhang Chao's writing of "light novels."

Although "light novels" have high sales, they are almost at the bottom of the "food chain" in the Japanese literary world. In the mainstream cognition, "light novels" cannot even be considered an independent novel type, and must be incorporated into ACG as a subculture or subculture. Even many "light novel" writers look down on "light novels". As long as they are a little famous, they will try to rewrite popular literature or even pure literature.

Once they become successful, they will basically never return to the "light novel" track, and they are even very averse to others mentioning that they were once "light novel" writers.

This situation continued until nearly 10 years later, when the sales of "light novels" finally increased to the point where any self-proclaimed orthodox Japanese writers and critics took notice.

In particular, the huge cross-field commercial success achieved by Kamachi Kazuma's "A Certain Magical Index" has forced the literary world to treat this type of novel with caution.

But in 2007, "light novelist" was definitely not a good title. For Wang Zhenxu, who had to "learn from a famous teacher" and had huge ambitions in literature, writing "light novels" meant degeneration.

Seeing that no one spoke, Wang Zhenxu thought that his point of view had convinced everyone, and he felt proud, and continued: "In Japan, only "light novel writers" transform into writing pure literature, and there has never been a "pure literature" writer who transforms into writing "light novels."

Although he has written some good works before and has a great influence, I think it is not worth pursuing a writer who abandons literary principles for commercial interests. "

Lan Ting thought for a long time, and suddenly asked: "When you say "light novel", do you mean "Your Name"? "

Wang Zhenxu was stunned and said, "...Yes, what? Don't you know?"

Lan Ting spread her hands and said, "I'm sorry, we don't have the concept of "light novels", let alone the idea that "light novelists are inferior to other writers", so I have no idea what you were talking about just now."

Wang Zhenxu trembled and didn't know what to say.

Lan Ting continued, "After Your Name, have you read any other works by Zhang Chao? Dwelling Narrowness, which reflects the material desires of young people in the city, The Great Doctor, which pioneered a new style of historical writing, The Lost Lover, a thriller mystery novel about family, and The Glory of the Criminal Police, a pioneering pure literature...

You haven't seen it?"

Wang Zhenxu shook his head awkwardly. He was in Japan most of the time, focusing on his own creation and academic research with Professor Iizuka, so he had little exposure to information from China.

Once an author is excluded from his reading range, he, with his highly proud and conceited personality, will naturally not pay attention to the subsequent development of the author, let alone read his works.

So although he knew that Zhang Chao had a huge influence, it was common in the literary world for "degenerate writers" to gain extraordinary fame and material wealth. He did not find it too strange and did not delve into it further.

But he was still quite embarrassed when Lan Ting pointed it out to him in person, especially since Zhang Chao actually wrote so many books afterwards, and none of them seemed to be "light novels".

But even so, he didn't think there was anything wrong with him.

So when Lan Ting questioned him, "How can you draw a conclusion if you haven't read it?", he had already adjusted his thinking. Looking at the girl in front of him, he said confidently, "Maybe he is back on the right track of literature? But it doesn't matter. Judging from his previous two works, "Youth Like You" and "Young Babylon", he has not shown any more outstanding talents than young Japanese writers.

"Youth Like You" uses a very common realistic approach, but it is only because it was one of the first in China to describe the marginal theme of "school violence" and thus attracted special attention. This theme is already very common in Japan, and he did not write about the profound side of it.

Although the writing style of Young Babylon is unique, it is essentially a stereotyped repetition of China’s avant-garde literature of the 80s, and does not demonstrate any unique literary value.”

Seeing the unconvinced looks on everyone's faces, he became more and more excited and said loudly: "The reason why Zhang Chao is so popular is because contemporary China is a country with backward literature. He is like a student who got high scores in public schools but is only average in private schools!"

“Japan is the pinnacle of modern Asian literature. Only by conquering this pinnacle can we conquer Asia; and only by conquering this pinnacle can we advance into the world.

This is my ambition, my goal!"

Just as he was excited, there was a burst of applause from the door, and a boy's voice came in: "Well said! But why don't I remember that when the Japanese people introduced young writers to me, you were one of them?"

(End of this chapter)