Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 402: All the gifts of fate have already been secretly marked with a price (seeking votes at the end of the month)

Thanks to the influence of CCTV and the ratings of the "Face to Face" column, the popularity of "Letter from an Unknown Woman" has once again reached a new high.

The magazine "Contemporary", which published this novel, also asked the printing factory to work at full capacity to print more copies, just like the previous "Harvest", so that readers from all over the country could buy this issue of the magazine.

Of course, the most widespread platform for this novel to spread is the Internet.

Unlike "Zhang Chao" in "The Last Lesson", "Xiao Yang" has more typical negative characteristics of the next generation of youth:

Addicted to the Internet, escaping from reality, fear of socializing, emotional alienation...

This made many netizens identify themselves with "Xiao Yang" and regard him as a mirror of their own life, which made people feel relatable.

Some psychologists even summarized this psychological phenomenon as "Xiao Yang type personality" and had a lot of fun talking about it on TV shows.

Of course, medical experts also participated, and explained to the people clearly what the "kidneys" are used for.

Many assembly line workers, casual laborers, and day-paid workers in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Foshan have also read this novel.

But the reactions were quite consistent: "What idiot would sell a kidney for a mobile phone? You look down on us so much!"

In fact, during their casual discussion, the fate of some people was changed forever.

……

In a dormitory in an industrial park in Longhua, Shenzhen, a girl from western Hunan was holding a magazine and reading the novel over and over again.

Unlike other people, she only had one thought in her mind: What if I had insisted a little longer?

There is no medicine for regret in the world. When she wandered in the streets and alleys of Longhua Industrial Zone again, she could no longer see the bookish figure. Instead, she often saw two sloppy uncles in their forties who were not working and hanging around in the streets and alleys.

She wanted to change her fate, but she didn't know which straw to grab.

……

Where some are sad, others are happy, and the happiest one is undoubtedly Xu Lizhi.

Since he published his poems in "Youth Non-Fiction" in June and sparked huge discussion, the gears of his fate have quietly changed.

First, the factory leader had a long talk with him, asking him for his opinions and suggestions on the factory's treatment, and then patiently asked him what plans he had for his career.

Xu Lizhi had never thought that the Taiwanese supervisor who was usually so fierce could be so amiable and even gave people the illusion that he was the leader of the greasy-faced fat man opposite him.

The young Xu Lizhi was a little nervous. Like many poets, his sharpness was only on paper.

But soon his treatment was different - a transfer order allowed him to work as an editor for the factory's internal magazine. From then on, he no longer had to work on the assembly line, but could sit in a bright and clean office with air conditioning.

Even the dormitories were moved to the management area and turned into single apartments with complete appliances and bathroom facilities.

Back to work, Xu Lizhi sat in front of the computer at his desk. A young lady next to him was gently and patiently teaching him how to type and how to operate word documents.

But he felt that something had left his heart.

……

"Tsk tsk, 'Letter from an Unknown Woman' is no longer just a novel, it has completely become a 'social phenomenon'!"

In the compound of the Writers Association, Wang Meng, wearing reading glasses, held a brand new iPhone 3G in one hand and swiped it with his index finger in the other hand, looking very interested and focused.

This time, Zhang Chao asked someone to bring back a lot of iPhone 3G phones from the United States. He gave them to everyone he met, and his parents, teachers, and friends have all used them.

As the saying goes, “seeing is believing”. Everyone was skeptical about how the iPhone could become an “identity symbol” in “Letter from an Unknown Woman”, and thought what kind of mobile phone could be so magical?

After receiving this generous gift from Zhang Chao, he used it without saying a word.

Even a serious and straightforward person like Chairman Tie Ning had big bags under his eyes when he arrived at the office the next day after using an iPhone.

If you don’t play “Kung Fu Fruit”, don’t you still need “WeChat” to chat? If you don’t chat with “WeChat”, don’t you still need to use the built-in browser to check forums and browse websites?

Things that used to have to be done on computers can now be transferred to mobile phones so conveniently for the first time. Combined with the huge 3.5-inch screen, it is simply impossible to stop.

Even Wang Meng, who is already in his 60s, has started to get used to checking the news on his mobile phone.

Zhang Chao was sitting opposite him, with a mountain of books in front of him.

Nearly 12 works were shortlisted for the "First Mao Dun Literature Newcomer Award" after being selected through online popularity voting in December last year and a preliminary review by a panel of judges composed of literary magazine editors.

Since each part is at least a book, the review cycle was extremely long. It took us more than half a year to barely complete 80% of the progress.

This is because the works of most young writers are relatively light and not bulky, making them not difficult to read. This is even the case with collections of essays that do not require reading in their entirety.

You should know that the 2002th "Mao Dun Literature Award" was also being evaluated at the same time. The selection scope was novels published between 2006 and 1. The preliminary selection took one year, and by the end of 2007, more than 130 works were selected.

The formal selection process will take another year and will not be finalized until the end of this year (2008). Due to the heavy workload, in principle, the judges of the Mao Dun Literature Prize do not participate in the review of the Youth Prize.

Since Chairman Tie Ning is the chairman of the main award jury, he naturally cannot serve as the chairman of the youth award jury concurrently, so this adds more burden to veteran comrade Wang Meng.

Wang Meng decided to give Zhang Chao more responsibilities and take advantage of his stay in Yenching to help him solve some important problems.

Zhang Chao said with a bitter face: "How long will it take for me to see this? Won't this delay the award ceremony?"

Wang Meng laughed and said, "This time, novels, poems, essays, reportage, literary criticism, scripts, and yes, online literature... all need to select their best newcomers. Isn't novel the one with the most workload? Especially since you insist on including online literature. Oh, how can those online writers write so well? They can easily write more than one million words, and some even write two or three million words.

If you were nominated, everyone would be relieved, and no one would have to read other people's novels...but you just want to give out awards. No, you have to come and help solve the problem."

Zhang Chao: "..." As the chairman of the jury, can you be more reserved? Even if the fact is like this, you can't just say it directly!
But what Wang Meng said makes sense. The workload is indeed a bit heavy. Not only do we have to watch all the works, but we also have to discuss and vote. It may be a bit rushed to catch up with the award ceremony in September. Of course, it’s not that it can’t be completed, but the work is inevitably a bit rough.

Zhang Chao pondered for a moment and asked, "The biggest problem at the moment is still reading efficiency, right?"

Wang Meng nodded and said, "There are too many books. Everyone has their own writing plans and daily lives. There is not much time to read together in the office. It is not convenient to take the books home to read."

Zhang Chao nodded and asked, "How about I ask my colleagues to scan all the books into electronic files so that they can be read on the computer..."

Wang Meng quickly waved his hand and refused, "I've tried it before, and tears start to flow after watching it for less than half an hour. We are all old, and we can't compare to you young people."

Zhang Chao thought for a long time, and suddenly said to Wang Meng with a smile: "Mr. Wang, do we still need a sponsor for this award?"

Wang Meng: “Huh?!”

……

A week later, the news that Amazon China sponsored the First Mao Dun Newcomer Literature Award was all over the media.

In the news photo, the president of Amazon China and the chairman of the jury, Wang Meng, shook hands warmly, with a Kindle between them - but Director Wang's face looked a little serious and he didn't seem very happy.

The report wrote:

[…Amazon China specially presented 20 of the world’s most advanced e-book readers to the judges. It is reported that this e-book reader itself does not have any backlight and relies entirely on external light sources for illumination, which can give readers a reading experience similar to that of real paper.

Such an e-book reader, which is thinner and lighter than a real book, can actually store high-definition electronic versions of all the works nominated this year, which makes the judges' review work more convenient and greatly improves reading efficiency.

With Amazon's e-reader, our judges can maximize the use of fragmented time to evaluate works, whether they are walking, sitting, lying down, going out or going home. I believe that with its help, the first Mao Dun Literature Newcomer Award will surely be a complete success.

At the same time, we also hope that this lightweight and portable reader product can enter the domestic market as soon as possible and bring a brand new reading experience to Chinese readers! 】

Zhang Chao did not appear at the sponsorship signing ceremony, but he asked Wang Meng with a smile afterwards: "Mr. Wang, what do you think of this? We can kill two birds with one stone. It not only attracts sponsorship for our award and expands its influence, but also solves the problem of insufficient reading time for teachers!"

Wang Meng fiddled with the Kindle in his hand and cursed with a smile: "You are such a little rascal! Now we old men and women can make the best use of it."

The original intention of bringing Zhang Chao into the team was to lighten the burden. Especially in the area of ​​youth literature and youth novels, Zhang Chao can be said to be more professional than them. Even if he does not serve as a judge, his introduction and preliminary evaluation of some works can help everyone sort out the priorities.

Who knew that Zhang Chao deliberately pretended not to understand Wang Meng's subtext and directly asked Amazon to sponsor the newcomer award. Not only did it not reduce the burden, but because he had Kindle, he no longer had any reason to be lazy. The workload was directly increased. I'm afraid he has to take this thing with him even to the toilet.

But the benefits are, as Zhang Chao said, there are more sponsors for the awards, more funding, and the award ceremony can be more decent; the other thing is that everyone has one of these new gadgets, and the experience is pretty good.

Since Zhang Chao had made great contributions, Wang Meng had no reason to keep him and could only let him go back.

Only then did Zhang Chao take a breath.

Even though he has only written two short stories in recent months, the energy he put into them is no less than that of a novella or even a novel.

Many people may think that a short story is a shortened version of a novel, or that a novel is an expanded version of a short story. This understanding is completely wrong.

The difference between the two is not just the length, the internal creative mechanisms are also quite different.

In terms of information density, short stories are far superior to novels. For writers who are strict with themselves, such as Maupassant, they simply cannot tolerate any waste of words or sentences. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" has only 15 pages of manuscript, but it condenses Emily's years of tragic life.

He then visualized time as a tangible entity through details such as the decay of houses, the accumulation of dust, and the oxidation of silver.

Chekhov's "The Anguish" shows another kind of condensed art - the coachman confides his grief of losing his son to others four times, and each time he encounters a different indifferent response. This spiral structure accumulates emotional potential energy in repetition, and finally bursts out the absurd sadness of a human being who can only confide in a horse.

The structural aesthetics of an excellent short story requires that each narrative unit has multiple functions, like the gears of a precision clock, meshing with each other to push the story towards its inevitable end.

The "room for error" in a long novel is much larger. In a text space of at least 100,000 words, the author is bound to slack off, and even a great writer like Tolstoy had some unsatisfactory chapters.

Few novelists are able to handle different lengths at the same time. Good short story writers are often at a loss when it comes to long stories due to their obsessive-compulsive disorder about writing.

Lu Xun never left behind any long works in his life - although he had some large-scale writing plans - probably because of his obsession with literary cleanliness.

Apart from a game piece published in a Hong Kong newspaper, Zhang Chao's previous shortest novel was tens of thousands of words long, belonging to the category of novellas, and there were very few of them, so writing two short stories this time was exhausting.

But he was also extremely excited and just wanted to continue writing this series.

He had a hunch that if he could finish writing the seventeen novels he had planned, his creative ability would reach a new level!
However, both "The Last Lesson" and "Letter from a Stranger" are a bit too heavy.

Readers always say that Zhang Chao "leaves sadness to readers and leaves money to himself", but as the first person to immerse himself in the story, he is actually the one who is most "hurt".

While writing "The Last Lesson", Zhang Chao woke up from nightmares of his previous life more than once.

After waking up, he always took a few minutes to confirm where he was and what era he was in - sometimes he would not come to his senses until he saw the bathroom that was bigger than the entire room he rented.

While writing "A Letter from a Strange Woman", memories of his past life about "selling kidneys to buy a cell phone", "Sanhe God", and "forcing sons to donate bone marrow" continued to wash away his mental defenses.

On the one hand, his heart is filled with irrepressible sympathy for the characters he writes about, but on the other hand, he has to suppress this emotion and try to make his writing style appear cold and realistic.

So when he was conceiving his third novel, Zhang Chao decided to give himself and his readers some slack and write a novel with a cheerful and joyful tone. The title of the novel was also taken from those famous short stories of the past.

Only this time, Zhang Chao wanted to draw inspiration from Chinese novels...

(End of this chapter)