Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 433 Scrambling to be the first
"'A Joke'? What you mean is that readers should not take the stories in this collection of novels seriously. It's a joke between you, the author, and the readers?" David Miller asked after listening.

Zhang Chao smiled and said, "Do you know Dream of the Red Chamber?"

David Miller nodded and said, "Of course I know. I've read its English translation. It is the greatest novel in China! Whether it is classical or modern, its height is unmatched!"

Zhang Chao said: "In the first chapter of this novel, there is a poem - 'When the false is made to appear true, the true becomes false' - I don't know how to translate it, so I translated it literally. I hope you can understand it."

David Miller suddenly realized: "You mean, when more and more readers regard these novels as the future that is really possible, then the possibility of it actually happening is reduced, and the truth becomes false?"

Zhang Chao raised his head, indicating that he didn't want to answer this question.

David Miller's interest grew, and he continued, "This is a wonderful sentence. We can use it as the subtitle of this book, or as a reminder on the cover.

It’s a wonderful response.”

Then he asked, "'Running for Governor'...Are you interested in this US election?"

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "The results have already come out. I am not interested. But while I am writing this article, "Running for Governor," you can give me some background information about the U.S. election so I don't have to look it up again."

David Miller said quickly: "It's my honor! What do you want to know?"

Zhang Chao thought about it - he had actually come up with this novel on the spur of the moment during their conversation, and it only had a rough outline and was very incomplete - and said, "Just talk about it in general terms, whatever comes to mind."

David Miller pondered for a moment, then said, "Okay. Then I'll start with my own experience of voting - you remember, I'm from Illinois, born in Chicago..."

As a "senior American", David Miller grew up in Chicago, a city with a deep political tradition, so he knows everything about elections at all levels in the United States. He talked about everything from basic systems to interesting stories.

Zhang Chao listened carefully, asked for paper and pen to take notes, and asked David Miller to stop from time to time to further explain some details.

David Miller became more and more serious as he introduced the novel. He was sure that Zhang Chao was not just talking about writing "Running for Governor", but really wanted to write this novel as a future letter to American readers.

Then your own introduction is very important, because if there are any factual errors, the novel may be ridiculed, and then not only Zhang Chao's reputation will be damaged, but even the publishing house will be embarrassed.

A sense of responsibility prompted this international literary editor to treat this introduction with extreme caution.

Before they knew it, more than two hours had passed. However, neither of them had any intention of stopping. They went to the hotel's buffet restaurant to have a simple meal, and then returned to the room to start introducing and recording.

It was not until late at night, when David Miller's mouth was dry and his eyes were black, that Zhang Chao was willing to let him go. He folded a thick stack of papers, stuffed it into his pocket, and said with a reluctant look: "That's all for today, we'll continue tomorrow!"

David Miller was startled and said repeatedly, “I have said everything I know. If you need more professional content, I can let my colleague Yusuf, who is in charge of political and economic books, talk to you.

He is an expert on relevant issues and once served as an advisor to Kerry’s campaign.”

Zhang Chao was overjoyed and immediately finalized the matter.

It was broad daylight in the United States at that time. David Miller immediately called the publishing house to express his request, and it was quickly agreed.

Only then did Zhang Chao go back to rest contentedly.

For the next week, Youssef from Simon & Schuster gave Zhang Chao two hours of American election knowledge courses every day.

And they also have to answer all kinds of strange questions from Zhang Chao.

For example, "You said that the Help America Vote Act passed in 2004 requires that the rolls be cleared four years after a registered voter dies. Does this mean that voters who died in the 4 election can still participate in the 2004 primary?"

"If I set up a 'Starbucks Lovers Association' and require members to buy $4 coffee every day as 'membership dues', does that constitute a special means of circumventing soft money fundraising? How does the Federal Election Commission define the boundaries of bribery?"

“Could the use of ‘mobile polling buses’ to transport voters in minority communities be charged with violating the ‘indirect pressure’ provision of the Voting Rights Act?”

“If there are multiple time zones in a state, can candidates manipulate public opinion and influence the psychology of voters in areas where voting has not yet ended by strategically delaying the release of vote counts?”

“If the electronic voting machine system uses closed-source software, how can independent poll watchers verify that it is not affected by the vendor’s backend data tampering?”

……

One question after another made Youssef dizzy and he couldn't help complaining to David Miller who had just returned home:

"What does this Zhang Chao want to do? Does he want to run for president of the United States?"

David Miller could only shrug his shoulders and say he could do nothing to help. The content of the novel was top secret and he could not reveal it to anyone irrelevant.

However, the results he brought back did make the boss of Simon & Schuster Publishing very satisfied - originally they only wanted to sign the four novels that Zhang Chao had already published, but they didn't expect that David Miller would actually negotiate out the fifth one, and it was specially created for American readers. This was undoubtedly great news.

David Miller also brought back the English translation versions of the first four novels directly - now any work of Zhang Chao will be handed over to the translation department of "Chaotide Culture" as soon as it is published (even before it is published) and translated into English and Japanese as soon as possible.

Anyway, in a few days, people from the United States and Japan will come to negotiate.

David Miller also brought back the official release date of this short story collection, which is January 2009, 1, local time in both China and the United States.

Now that the deadline is very close, other things must be settled as soon as possible - including cover and binding design, publicity and promotion, and which celebrities to invite to write recommendations.

The first person David Miller thought of was Zhang Chao’s “old friend” Stephen King.

Not only did he admire Zhang Chao, but he also had a deep cooperative relationship with Simon & Schuster, so there should be no problem - it's just a bit expensive, a recommendation of more than a dozen words would cost at least 1 US dollars.

But Stephen King alone is not enough, this time David Miller also wants to write a recommendation for Dan Brown's book "A Joke".

Since 2003, Dan Brown has been the hottest novelist in the world, with The Da Vinci Code alone having sold over 6000 million copies worldwide.

The only living author who has outsold him is J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has sold around 8000 million copies).

Even for someone like Zhang Chao, none of his books has a total global sales volume of more than 1000 million copies - of course, this is also related to the fact that the types of works created by Zhang Chao are different from those of the two.

However, Dan Brown, like all writers, began to be careful about his reputation after he became rich and was reluctant to recommend books easily.

With a try-it attitude, David Miller sent the English drafts of the first four novels to Dan Brown through his connections with senior executives of the publishing house, hoping to get a formal response. At the same time, he also invited Orhan Pamuk and others to write a recommendation for Zhang Chao - this is in line with the positioning of this collection of novels as "appealing to both the elite and the masses"!
Unexpectedly, within a week, David Miller received a reply from Dan Brown. The content of the letter was very concise, with only one line:
【If possible, I would like to write a preface for this masterpiece. 】

David Miller was overjoyed and prepared to reply immediately. Unexpectedly, before he finished writing the email, he received a reply from Stephen King, which also contained little content:

[This time I want to write the preface for my little brother's collection of novels. His masterpiece deserves to be read by every American! ]

And then there is Pamuk:

[I think that just one sentence cannot describe my feelings about this masterpiece. I think it is not only a prophecy for the Chinese, but also a prophecy of the profound and decisive changes that will inevitably occur in the spiritual world of all mankind. Please let me write the preface to this collection of novels.]

David Miller was numb.

Among these three people, one is the world bestseller, one is the American bestseller, and one is the Nobel Prize winner in literature. He can't afford to offend any of them.

As a senior international literary editor, David Miller's theoretical level is absolutely not inferior, and his vision is even better than that of other writers in the industry. However, since he is not a professional writer, he is always separated from the works by a layer, and cannot see the huge potential of "A Joke" like some top writers.

There are actually many similar examples.

For example, Lu Yao's "Ordinary World" was originally submitted to Contemporary, and the reviewer was Zhou Changyi. He thought that the story of "Ordinary World" was too complicated, without suspense or surprise, and it was hard to read and too long-winded...

How can readers continue reading a work with so many shortcomings?

In this way, after going around in the literary magazines of the time, the novel was barely published in "Huacheng" - but the second part of "Ordinary World" was rejected even by "Huacheng", and finally could only be published in the more marginal "Yellow River".

The fundamental reason is that in the mid-80s, modern styles of novels such as "magical realism", "stream of consciousness", "surrealism", "existentialism", etc. were popular in the Chinese literary world. Traditional realist works such as "The Ordinary World" were considered outdated in the editor's subconscious.

So much so that Lu Yao couldn't help but follow suit in the third part and wrote a plot in which the protagonist Sun Shaoping encounters and talks with aliens, trying to make it "magical" and "surreal".

But Lu Yao was so poor at this that this plot is generally recognized as a flaw in "Ordinary World".

The situation with "A Joke" is the opposite for David Miller - he feels that these four novels are a bit too "advanced", a creative technique that has never appeared in literary history and is extremely "dangerous" for the author.

Just as Zhang Chao’s teachers worried, the future is too close to the present and it is easy to be slapped in the face.

But I really have to reply to these three emails, even if I reply late.

David Miller was scratching his hair until it was almost bald. Finally, he came up with a solution and quickly started typing on his computer:
[Dear Mr. Pamuk: As you wish, this collection of novels is still missing a wonderful preface...]

[Dear Mr. Brown: We are honored that you are willing to write a preface for A Joke. However, these novels with Chinese backgrounds may be a little difficult for American readers, so we urgently need you to write an introduction for each novel, which may be more important than the preface...]

[Dear Stephen: I am so excited that you want to write a preface for A Kind of Joke, but given the particularity of this collection of stories, I hope to have a conversation with you about them, and then put our conversation into the book as an "easter egg" of this collection of stories...]

David Miller reviewed it again and again, making sure there were no problems with the wording or writing before he clicked the send button.

At the same time, Simon & Schuster Publishing House has officially started the promotion and marketing work for Zhang Chao's new book. The homepage of the publishing house's official website has placed a picture of a book with a big "?" on the cover in the most conspicuous position.

At the bottom of the picture is the author's name. The simple letters "Zhang Chao" attracted the attention of all American readers and immediately appeared on the hot search homepage of "Weibo".

In response to the United States, Huacheng Publishing House also released a preview of Zhang Chao's new novel collection, which also featured a picture of a book with a big "?" on the cover and the words "Author: Zhang Chao", which aroused the excitement of Chinese book fans.

Unlike American readers, they have already learned that this is a collection of four already published novels, including "The Last Lesson", but there is a mysterious rumor - the collection will include Zhang Chao's fifth novel.

This has whetted everyone's appetite.

Now everything is ready, except for the "east wind" of Zhang Chao's latest work.

In mid-November, one week before the Mao Dun Literature Prize award ceremony, the first part of Zhang Chaoxin's novel was finally sent to editors Zhu Yanling and David Miller via email.

It’s just that one was received during the day and the other was received late at night.

At two o'clock in the morning, under the desk lamp, David Miller yawned, mumbled, took a sip of coffee, and started reading.

I didn’t expect that the first part of the novel would be a press release—

[He said "freedom is good", I cried three times]

From: Kathryn Milley

Published on: September 2020, 9, "Spectrum Voice" Weekly Headline

"He said nothing, but his silence was the most powerful protest of this era." - said an eyewitness.

Yesterday evening, in the central square of Babel City in Honshu, an unidentified Asian man stood silently on the street. His clothes were simple, and his face was full of traces of time and labor. But such an inconspicuous "nobody" shocked the entire Babel City with one action.

The incident happened around 6pm, when a young person who identified as non-binary, "Zelina" (pseudonym), was verbally humiliated by three white men. The insults were so offensive that we won't repeat them here. Most of the onlookers were silent, and some even left quietly.

At this moment, the Asian man came up. He didn't say a word, but just stood in front of her slowly, blocking the attackers' view. He didn't seem to understand anything and didn't say anything. But at that moment, he stood on the front line of history.

Zelina later choked up in an interview and said: "I felt him not with words, but with instinct. His body was a gesture of defiance. He stood there, as if to say: 'You can't do this to her (or he said, them)!'"

The onlookers began to applaud. Someone filmed this scene and uploaded it to the Internet. As of press time, the video has been viewed more than 370 million times, and comments have called him "the guardian of Babel", "the silent justice of the new era" and "the body language of freedom".

After much effort by the reporter, it was learned that the man's name was Wei Laosan, and he might be a decorator at a construction site in the north, but his specific identity was unknown.

He doesn't speak English. Facing the camera, he only slowly uttered four letters with extremely unstandard pronunciation: "Free...dom...good."

We are looking for this "free silent man" whose identity may be unclear, but who represents the clearest values ​​of our country.

Freedom does not need language, freedom is a posture!
That night, I cried three times. 】

(End of this chapter)