Literary Master 1983

Chapter 290 Defection

The truth that people eventually learn may just be in your novel!
Yu Qie has seen this concept many times since he embarked on the path of becoming a writer.

What Márquez meant was that Yu Che's book is like *One Hundred Years of Solitude*. The ultimate truth will be replaced by the story recorded in his *2666*, and people will accept Yu Che's version of events.

The continuous torrential rains had washed away the entire country of Colombia, and the air was filled with an unpleasant odor. When the plane took off from El Dorado Airport in Bogotá, the members of the delegation felt that there was a smell "like rotten eggs" when they boarded the plane.

Qian Zhongshu looked terrible and said, "Yu Qie is right! Colombia isn't as good as we think! At least our capital's airport wouldn't have this smell; the air stinks!"

Liu Shahe also complained: "I saw that after the rainstorm, the houses of those disaster victims were washed away, and it took several days to clean them up... I wonder if there was a lot of garbage, tattered clothes, and dead animals inside."

Qian Zhongshu couldn't help but say, "Their government can't do anything. That smell... that's the kind of smell it has."

At this point, Qian Zhongshu's face turned deathly pale. Although he didn't explain it clearly, everyone knew what he meant: it was probably the smell of a rotting corpse.

"How did you know?" Yu Qie also asked.

It turns out that Qian Zhongshu personally experienced the Yellow River flood 38 years ago. In order to resist the Japanese invaders, the authorities arbitrarily caused the Yellow River to breach its banks at Huayuankou, creating a flood-prone area that was difficult to navigate.

As a result, the Japanese invaders were not stopped, but instead caused millions of people to be displaced. Nearly 90 people drowned directly, and countless others went missing or died from serious illnesses.

“Back then, I was still at Southwest Associated University. I saw this news in the newspaper. It said that both sides of the Yellow River smelled like rotten eggs. The entire county was wiped out, and there was no trace of them. It was as if they had vanished into thin air… I remember it very clearly! Almost fifty years later, I smelled that smell again.”

"A restaurant massacre also occurred in Bogotá, on a commercial street in the city center! This shows how many people have died behind closed doors!"

Qian Zhongshu's words silenced everyone.

This is even more horrifying than the restaurant massacre. At least there were 29 people killed there, which at least gave a count. This one, however, seems impossible to count...

Who knows, there might be a mass grave or even a burial site for thousands of people right under the airport!

Seeing this, Qian Zhongshu realized he had said too much and added, "You've all forgotten what I just said, haven't you? Anyway, we've already left Colombia, haven't we?"

Everyone laughed, but they weren't really in the mood to play cards anymore, and the plane landed in the United States.
-
Boston University. There's a literary event here, funded by a bookseller.

Boston is the art capital of the United States. This small city has produced Harvard and MIT, two of the most prestigious liberal arts and science universities, as well as Northeastern University and Boston University, among others.

Márquez's earliest publishing partner in the United States was HarperCollins, which specialized in publishing history, novels, and popular science books. At the time, it was the second-largest bookseller in the US. Although *One Hundred Years of Solitude* had already made a name for itself in Latin America, it was still a distinctly niche work in the developed world.

The first edition of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was printed tentatively with 3,000 copies, which unexpectedly sold out immediately, and then began Márquez's remarkable life of flying first class.

Harper's Press has also printed Yu Qie's "2666" and placed it on the Boston University campus for elite intellectuals to see. The book was released hastily, with a poorly designed cover and illustrations, featuring only the bare words "2666" and the author's name, "Yu," an initial of Yu Qie.

This was Carmen's specific request.

Westerners like to call Easterners that because they can't pronounce the complicated pinyin. If Yao Ming goes to play in Houston in the future, everyone will just call him "Yao," unable to pronounce the last character.

The book's biggest selling point is its huge red book jacket, which features Márquez's own assessment: "He is a magician, a master of time, and a pioneer of the future."

This is probably in response to Yuche's speech at Bogotá's largest theater.

In addition, Carmen also inspired Vargas Llosa, a Latin American writer, to write on it, "This is a conscientious Easterner."

If Yu Qie were to see Vargas Llosa's evaluation, he would probably be in a very difficult position: they had only met once, so why did Yu Qie have a conscience?

It's possible that although Yu Qie wrote Latin American novels, he didn't have any designs on his cousin Vargas Llosa.

Nobody knows who Yu is.

However, Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez are very famous. Because of their fame, many people at Boston University picked up the book "2666" and were immediately drawn in by the opening of the story: the story begins with a group of young men and women who embark on a journey to find 'Gabriel García Márquez'. As they talk about their own stories, they also encounter other things... which leads to hundreds of subplots.

At the end of the first volume of the novel, the group encounters a massacre that takes place in the Colombian capital, and the story ends there.

The novel itself is typical of Latin American style, with a rather disjointed storyline and quite explicit content, yet it is very popular among Boston students. Latinos later surpassed African Americans to become the largest minority group in the United States, and today there are many Latino students at Boston University.

They thought the book was pretty good as soon as they saw it, and word spread, making the novel "2666" one of the most popular books in literary activities.

This was originally Harper's intention.

The books "2666" are placed together with "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"... this is a deliberate attempt to promote this book.

Several media outlets paid by publishers came to Boston University for interviews, and they would grab any reader they could and ask, "Why are you reading this book?"

"Because of Márquez," the reader honestly replied.

"Isn't there anything about this book that appeals to you?"

"Yes, this author knows Latin America very well and has written about the recent restaurant massacre. I can't help but want to see how a writer views the massacre in Colombia."

The restaurant massacre is the climax of the book, which meticulously foreshadows the events, vividly depicting the horrific state of the corpses and the killer's madness. The killer was originally an English teacher who had fought bravely in the Vietnam War, bearing numerous scars, but upon returning home, he was not hailed as a hero and was ostracized by society.

Next, the murderer went to a prostitute, but she refused to serve him; he also ran into a female classmate from high school, who also looked down on him, ultimately leading him to pick up a gun and start a killing spree...

No one in the story is absolutely good, nor is anyone absolutely bad. Even prostitutes have a sense of national responsibility, and an English teacher is ruthless when killing children... It fits the eccentric tone of Latin Americans.

With its various folk customs, magical realism, gangsters, and drugs, Latin Americans find it incredibly appealing, like stepping back into their own homes.

The natives of America also found the novel interesting, as it fit the stereotype that "Latin Americans are all promiscuous and drug traffickers," so they thought the novel was quite good.

Sure enough, the novel was well-received at Boston University and subsequently spread to other schools. Its depiction of the "restaurant massacre" outshone the superficial and insincere investigations of journalists. Within a week, the book had become another form of non-fiction, with its stories resembling a pilgrimage for readers to "Márquez" and to witness various Latin American tragedies.

Local newspapers and television stations covered the story. "2666" was a success in its debut and went on to its second printing.

When Yu Guangzhong and his group arrived in Boston, they encountered this very scene: Yu Qie had actually published a book in the United States, and with a resounding success. Yu Guangzhong was incredibly envious: "What is the relationship between Márquez and him that he would praise him so much! Magician, time controller, forerunner of the future..." Yu Guangzhong blushed as he read it aloud, "Latin American writers are so passionate, they dare to use any adjective!"

Li Ao was also jealous, but he insisted on his point of view: "Yu Qie must have found a Japanese mistress for Márquez, otherwise Márquez wouldn't have worked so hard."

Subsequently, Li Ao saw a news article about the book in the Boston Globe, which featured an American investigative journalist who traveled to Colombia to investigate and whose conclusions were basically similar to the Holocaust descriptions in 2666.

The reporter then connected Yu Che's childhood experiences with the Union Fruit Massacre with the Boston Globe, and the Boston Globe stated directly: "If you want to know the truth about the Bogota Restaurant Massacre, just read this book!"

Li Ao slapped his thigh, realizing with keen insight that a bookseller was behind this.

He had worked in the newspaper industry, and because of his literary background, many people came to his newspaper to advertise their books. Then he discovered that what looked like news was actually soft advertising, and the key to the success of many books was their effective advertising...

Don't you see how the book "Lurking" became a scandal in the news, but it actually sold very well in Taiwan!

Li Ao's newspaper business later failed, but he was well-versed in the art of hype when it came to selling books, and he understood it all too well.

He then flipped to the printed pages of "2666" and discovered that it was published by Harper. Now he understood everything, but he deliberately didn't reveal it. Because of his poor relationship with Yu Guangzhong, and to some extent, he wanted Yu Guangzhong to lose face.

When Li Ao was in prison, Yu Guangzhong was enjoying great success on both sides of the Taiwan Strait because of his close ties with high-ranking figures, which Li Ao already disliked. Now, thanks to Liu Shahe's praise, Yu Guangzhong is the most famous Taiwanese writer on the mainland, and his poems are circulating there, so naturally Li Ao is unhappy with him.

Liu Shahe is an old guy nobody cares about anymore! Yet he managed to make Yu Guangzhong famous all over the mainland! It's true what they say, when there are no heroes, even a nobody can become famous.

If Yu Qie could say a few good words about me, wouldn't my books sell like hotcakes in mainland China?
The thawing of tensions is now a certainty, and in the future, everyone's books will be sold throughout the entire Chinese-speaking world. Taiwan has only tens of millions of people, while the mainland has over a billion.

Yu Guangzhong asked him, "I don't understand Latin American literature, what do you think of his book?"

Li Ao said, "I don't understand Latin American literature, so I won't comment on it, but I think we must be careful when dealing with Yu Qie and not offend him."

"We're already half fans of Yu Qie's books, how could we possibly offend him?"

"That's not enough. You can't publicly stand against Yu Qie. We have programs and interviews. Don't publicly refute anything Yu Qie says. Just talk to him privately."

"why?"

Writers from Taiwan all ask Li Ao.

Yu Guangzhong was even more puzzled: "Although we are brothers, it is difficult for us to have the same views on everything. How can we not have any disagreements at all?"

Li Ao said, "Márquez won the Nobel Prize, but I don't like him because he portrayed his country's people as too bad! He may not have had any bad intentions, but his novels exploited them to the fullest extent, so everyone thought Colombians were a bunch of troublemakers!"

"I believe that you can't win a Nobel Prize without betraying your country, but why do I say Yu Qie is so amazing?"

"Because he actually took a different approach, he made his way into the American market by writing Latin American literature, which is something I've never heard of before. And then there's his fame in Japan and Southeast Asia... He's an unconventional freak. If you encounter someone like that, just don't provoke him!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Guangzhong pondered Li Ao's words for a moment, but still shook his head: Wasn't he being overly cautious?

Communication means everyone has to speak. How can we play if we only listen to one person?
If a disagreement really arises, we can coordinate it then.

The mainland delegation also arrived at Boston University. However, because they arrived two or three days later than the mainland delegation, they missed the grand occasion of the three thousand copies of "2666" being welcomed in Boston University town.

I only heard that Yu Qie wrote a novel and submitted it to the United States for publication. I don't know the details, but he must have already received the royalties.

Gu Hua, who was in the group, was even more unhappy. He went to Zhang Xianliang and said, "Yu Qie won't let us write books, but he writes novels and sends them to America. Who knows what he's writing?"

Zhang Xianliang didn't dare to respond to anything, but instead advised, "Why did you provoke him? Didn't you already apologize?"

Gu Hua said, "Are you out of your mind? What kind of place is this? America!"

What's wrong with America?

"The United States is the strongest country in the world, and everyone here has to behave themselves! What about the poet Bei Dao? He came to the United States and disappeared without a trace; nobody reads his poetry! How does Yu Qie's status in the novel world compare to Bei Dao's status in the poetry world? Well, it's better, but we can't have a one-man show!"

Gu Hua's eyes practically lit up: "When I came to America, it was like a fish from a lake entering the sea. No matter how powerful he is, can he possibly drain the seawater?"

Zhang Xianliang calmly said, "Freshwater fish will die of thirst if they go into the sea. It's good to be a fish from the Yangtze River."

Historically, Zhang Xianliang also had the opportunity to go to the United States, but he ultimately gave it up and instead built his film and television city in mainland China, becoming a very wealthy man. Although his reputation was quite poor, at least he didn't compromise on his principles.

Upon hearing this, Gu Hua was speechless. He gave Zhang Xianliang a cold look.

Why does Gu Hua keep talking to Zhang Xianliang?

Because the delegation was still subject to restrictions on traveling in pairs after arriving in the United States, Zhang Xianliang and Gu Hua were a pair. They both looked after each other and kept an eye on each other. Moreover, due to the special nature of their status as writers, they were not subject to the same strict travel restrictions as ordinary people.

Putting aside other aspects, Yu Qie, as the head of the delegation, was very considerate of everyone's ideas regarding travel: "When I visited Japan before, Ba Jin was the head of the delegation, and he never deliberately restricted my travel... As a result, I was able to travel and study in many places and also made a group of Japanese writer friends."

"I am very much in favor of communication."

In this regard, Yu Qie has an excellent reputation.

Zhang Xianliang initially didn't think much of it; he was used to Gu Hua's complaints. But after dinner, Gu Hua said he was in a bad mood and wanted to take a walk alone. Zhang Xianliang became wary and said, "Why don't I go with you? You're unfamiliar with America; you need company!"

“Americans won’t hurt me! American donuts are so sweet!” Gu Hua said. “I’m going downstairs to buy a donut, you stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Zhang Xianliang waited and waited, but Gu Hua still hadn't returned after ten minutes!
Zhang Xianliang immediately sensed something was wrong and rushed to Yu Qie to report, explaining the whole situation. "I suspect he has already betrayed us."

"Teacher Zhang, don't worry, I'll handle it."

Unexpectedly, Yu Qie wasn't shocked at all; instead, he smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

(End of this chapter)