Literary Master 1983

Chapter 380 Watson's Reddening

That's actually the case.

Watson was interviewed by Scientific American on Long Island, California, as scheduled.

Scientific American is a popular science magazine in the United States and a sister publication of Nature, one of the three top academic journals. Since its inception, hundreds of Nobel laureates have been invited to write articles for it.

This magazine has a circulation of over 500,000 copies across the United States, and its audience includes business owners, senior managers, and opinion leaders.

The person who interviewed Watson was also a well-known journalist named Adam, who was previously active in the Silicon Valley technology sector.

Another invited interviewee was Joseph Goldstein, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine two years ago and is currently an advisor to several research institutions.

The interview began with Adam posing the first question:
Chinese billionaire An Wang invested $500 million to set up a microelectronics assembly line in Shanghai, which was a great success. He planned to make further investments this year, but the plan was rejected by Congress because it involved technology transfer. The Wang family has hired a huge lobbying group to stand by in Washington... Why is An Wang so enthusiastic about China?

What potential does China actually have?
Mr. Watson, you just returned from China. What are your thoughts on GC China?

Watson first described himself: "First of all, I don't want to talk about politics; I'm just a biologist. What I'm about to say only reflects my subjective impressions of my trip to China."

The reporter and Goldstein expressed their understanding.

Watson said, "To borrow a quote from Márquez, China is a very promising place. We had many misunderstandings about the Chinese people before because of the long-term demonizing propaganda by the American media, which I used to think as well."

"When I went to China, I found that the situation was very different from what the American media described. The people there were hardworking and eager to learn, and they had their own opinions. They didn't always think about overthrowing the world... I distributed intelligence test questions at an elementary school in Beijing. Many children couldn't complete them, and they shed tears of disappointment. They affectionately called me Grandpa Watson and gave me little red flowers. I felt my heart was surrounded by love!"

The opening was so explosive that Adam and Goldstein were completely stunned.

Because Watson was considered a major villain in the United States. Although Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he worked, tried to protect his reputation, Watson's outrageous remarks had already been heard of in the 1980s, but had not yet spread to the public eye.

Now, Watson even had a somewhat kind and benevolent expression on his face.

Is this still Watson?

Adam further asked, "Besides you, do other scholars think so? Is Márquez still in China?"

“We all think so. Márquez… he went further than I did; he lived for a time in Wanxian, Yuche’s hometown, and wrote a novel about liberators there. He loved Chinese children more than I did.”

Has it reached the point of love?
“Oh, oh…” Adam was momentarily speechless, then asked, “You mentioned Yu Qie, I heard you and Yu Qie are very close?”

Watson's brow relaxed, and he immediately said, "I have a very good relationship with Yu. No one in the world understands Yu better than me. He rarely talks to me, but we have a kind of telepathic connection. He is a great man, and we are all such great men."

"In fact, when I left China, Yu gave me a copy of his novel. I believe it will be published in the United States soon."

So Watson naturally went on to talk about his groundbreaking discovery.

Watson, like a charlatan, asked, "Do you know the relationship between higher-dimensional civilizations and the continuation of humanity?"

Of course, no one knew this.

Next, Watson recounted a little-known interstellar war: a carbon-based civilization and a silicon-based civilization fought a fierce battle, needing to delineate a destroyed buffer zone. They chose a rural Chinese village as a detector for the planet's "level of civilization evolution." When the higher-dimensional civilization asked about Newton's three laws of motion, a village schoolchild answered correctly.

Therefore, Earth was spared the fate of being destroyed.

This is certainly romantic science fiction, but it is supported by facts.

"If this happened in sub-Saharan Africa, the whole novel would be a joke! We wouldn't want a higher-dimensional civilization to choose that place."

Watson stated that "humanity should invest its limited resources in rural education in China, at least to provide some beneficial assistance, such as investing in local factories and giving priority to hiring workers from remote areas of China... From a longer-term perspective, humanity will maximize its benefits as a result."

The other two were dumbfounded.

This is blatant racism, and it's bizarre. It's like Yu Qie talking about how to fund American students in China—it's hard to understand from a nationalistic perspective, because Watson is American, and white.

Goldstein knew more about Watson, including that Watson had a paranoia about intelligence.

He tentatively asked, "Are you saying that Chinese people have higher IQs than other people? So they deserve to be educated more?"

“Indeed!” Watson finally heard this, and he began to peddle his theory of intelligence.

“East Asia is the high ground of human intelligence. We see that Japan and South Korea have developed despite extremely scarce resources, while China, which accounts for a major share, has only just begun to embrace the world. We have a responsibility to help them.”

"Why? By what right?" Adam asked.

“Because it’s worth it!” Watson said in an unquestionable tone. “In my view, in the long run, all slogans, relations of production, and institutions are unimportant; intelligence is the key to the success of a group. It makes no sense to teach a group of apes communism or ideologies! They will only eat raw meat and keep having babies!”

"Some people will succeed in different ways, and some people will fail in different ways. It is all predetermined from the moment they are born."

Adam felt a chill run down his spine. He disagreed with Watson's idea: "Isn't that too absolute? Warren Buffett is one of the top ten richest people in the United States, a famous investor... He certainly isn't one of the ten smartest people."

"Oh, when it comes to an individual, there will certainly be some minor errors, but when it comes to the size of a country, intelligence is the most crucial variable."

Actually, do you know the difference in intelligence between dogs and humans? In that magical land of the Sahara and Oceania… Watson held back.

He didn't want people to think he was excessively discriminating against any particular group.

There were indeed Black interns in his lab. Watson didn't want to cause trouble for himself.

However, both interviewers were so shocked they were speechless, unanimously agreeing that Watson was a blatant racist.

His words contained a strong intellectual contempt, and the Chinese just happened to be permitted within Watson's model of intelligence.

Watson's interview in Scientific American caused a huge uproar.

Scientific American published a weekly magazine that serialized Watson's entire interview, which immediately sparked a nationwide academic backlash against him. People were shocked by the arrogance of a white man Watson displayed; his words were no different from those of a shampoo boy, and fundamentally, he believed that certain ethnic groups should not exist.

Back then, the Germans implemented the "Beautiful Aryan" program, systematically exterminating newborns who had obvious physical defects or intellectual disabilities, believing that this would benefit the optimization of the German population.

The result was clearly a failure. Watson then tried the same approach again, only this time the standard of measurement was absolute intelligence.

British biologist Clark laughed upon hearing this: "Watson has always been like this. He's the most vicious and arrogant bastard I've ever met!"

Clark was Watson's collaborator, and the two jointly won the Nobel Prize in 62. However, due to personality clashes, they gradually became bitter enemies. After Watson boasted about himself in "The Double Helix" and pointed out that Clark had won without effort, their relationship completely collapsed.

Clark seized the opportunity to frequently criticize Watson, but Watson didn't care: "He's like a pathetic dog who wants to bite off a piece of my flesh. He's jealous of me."

Clark was in a fit of impotent rage.

Moreover, Clark is quite controversial. He is currently researching "souls" at a research institute in California, which has offended most religious people and is one of the taboos in scientific research.

After that, Watson became the hottest academic star in the United States, even surpassing some actors and singers.

He frequently expresses his opinions and does not object to his words being quoted.

During an internal meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with pharmaceutical companies, Watson stated bluntly: "There's been some prejudice against me across the country lately, and we know it's all fake news! But this is an academic sanctuary, and we should acknowledge the differences between people."

One investor asked, "I don't care about racial discrimination; I only care about whether investing in China will make money. Do you have any thoughts on that?"

"To be fair, China is still quite backward. They have a long way to go. We are better off cooperating with neighboring Japan, but if we want to invest in Asia outside of Japan, China is the best choice."

"Why not South Asia? That's a large country with a huge population."

"The average intelligence of Indians is 82 to 85, second only to black people. If you want to gamble, go there."

"I see."

The Human Genome Project, a multinational organization of biologists, is in the works. Watson, as the project leader, hopes to allocate funds to study differences in intelligence among different races, rather than just researching immune diseases and cancer.

Intelligence is the future of newborns, while cancer is the past of the elderly.

That's what Watson thinks.

A Time magazine reporter interviewed Watson: "You've recently been the subject of a lot of controversy, with some people accusing you of racism. How do you view these opinions?"

"It's all fake news! I've always been an honest person, but the truth might hurt some people."

The reporter mentioned that Clark hoped to have a public conversation with Watson.

Watson scoffed, "Why should he talk to me? He's not worthy to be compared to me."

"The more he talked to me, the more people believed we were on the same level, which was incredibly rude to me."

The reporter sensed there was a story to be told and tried to fan the flames: "Mr. Clark said he wants this debate to be the final battle between you. Then dust to dust, ashes to ashes, and the matter will be settled between you."

“Sure!” Watson exclaimed with interest. “I’ll show him what the truth is! He’ll always be a pathetic wretch! One is one, and two is two.”

Upon hearing this, Clark flew into a rage: "You racist executioner! Yu Qie certainly doesn't want to know you, and I question every single word you say."

“Come on!” Watson said.

The entire nation then began to anticipate this debate.

Clark stated that he would reveal Watson's true colors later.

Watson stated that he is fighting for the survival of humanity.

He used "The Country Teacher" as a convenient excuse for himself: "I am not racist, I am for the continuation of the human race. Many people only care about my belief that East Asians are more intelligent, forgetting that I have also said that white people are only slightly less intelligent, and that our intelligence bias is greater, which means that we are more likely to produce some extreme geniuses."

Professor Watson, due to his extreme "intelligence theory," is experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the United States.

If Yu Qie were here, he would find that Watson attracted far less criticism than in another timeline. Back then, Watson was even stripped of his Nobel Prize.

Because the United States was still in the Cold War in the 1980s, various outlandish movements did not dare to be too radical. To some extent, Watson's remarks were accepted by the white American public.

It's okay to make some sacrifices in order to win.

Yu Qie, far across the ocean, received a transoceanic phone call from Watson. He hoped that Yu Qie could get "The Country Teacher" published in the United States as soon as possible, which might help him.

Helping me is helping yourselves!

At that time, Yu Qie had just finished translating Kunihiko Kodaira's autobiography, "I Only Know Arithmetic".

He approached People's Literature Publishing House to publish his autobiography, but the publisher said that the schedule for this year was already set and it would not be easy to change. Yu then approached Wang Meng, and with Wang Meng's help, pulp was transferred from next door, and Xinhua Printing Plant was put into use.

Within two months at the latest, Kunihiko Kodaira's autobiography will be available in mainland China.

This is probably the most classic version.

This inspired Carmen, a Spaniard who came to China to investigate the market. She felt that Yu Qie could perfectly translate several of Márquez's works. A translator like Yu Qie could make even mediocre works popular, let alone classics.

Yu Qie only agreed to translate Gabriel García Márquez's *The Colonel in His Labyrinth*, because this book is Márquez's representative work from the later years of his career.

"What about 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'? 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold'? 'Love in the Time of Cholera'? Aren't they all worth translating?"

Yu said, "It's all worth it. But my time is precious, and you can't offer me a price that satisfies me."

"Then why did you translate for the Japanese? What price did they ask for?"

“He is an academic leader of a country, and his resources cannot be measured in price. Carmen, I am not a pure writer. Many times I have to fulfill my social responsibilities, but I am more pure than Vargas Llosa, who is only interested in being an official.”

Carmen suddenly realized: she fully understood the difference between Yuche and Márquez.

(End of this chapter)