1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 133 Who will win the first place

No. 2, North Beach Street.

In 1978, after the restoration of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, its original office at No. 64 Wangfu Street was transferred to the Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book Company.

For a while, they couldn't find an office space, so they had to set up several rows of earthquake-resistant sheds in the courtyard of the former Red Flag magazine, and the two departments-level organizations squeezed into the earthquake-resistant sheds to carry out their work.

Today, this earthquake-resistant shed is even more crowded because the People's Literature magazine has also moved in.

This year, the China Writers Association's own publishing house, the Writers Publishing House, was finally re-established. The ownership of "People's Literature" was naturally taken back from Renwen Publishing House and handed over to the Writers Publishing House.

Naturally, there was no reason for People's Literature to have its office at Renwen Press anymore, so it moved to the earthquake-resistant shed at No. 2 Shatan North Street.

Many young editors were almost crying when they saw the harsh environment around them.

I heard from comrades from the Federation of Literary and Art Circles that the earthquake-resistant shed is not only cold in the winter and hot in the summer, but water and power outages are common. Once it is windy and rainy, it turns into a water curtain cave, making work very inconvenient.

The most difficult thing is the lack of toilets. They have to use the toilets of other nearby units. Several cadres said that on several occasions the toilets of nearby units were locked, and they, the cadres of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, had to hold their feces and urine while working, which was extremely miserable.

At this moment, the editors of "People's Literature" are busy calculating the final votes for this year's national short story selection.

"This year, we received a total of 257885 'evaluation forms'. Readers' enthusiasm for participating in this selection is much higher than last year."

"Last year's selection caused such a sensation across the country, how could the attention from the literary community and readers be lower this year?"

“It’s an unprecedented event!”

"It's much busier than last year." Wang Fu rubbed his temple tiredly. "Last year, we had comrades from Renwen Publishing House to help us, but this year, we are the only ones left with Renmin Literature."

The national novel selection activity is sponsored by the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and hosted by People's Literature. Previously, People's Literature belonged to Renwen Publishing House, so naturally Renwen Publishing House also contributed a lot of effort.

"Don't be in Cao's camp while your heart is with Han." Cui Daoyi reminded: "Don't we still have the help of the comrades from the Federation of Literary and Art Circles? Besides, the selection work has reached the last step, we have to make sure the last step is passed."

The National Excellent Novel Award is based on the readers' opinions and recommendations for the shortlisted works, which are then evaluated by the selection committee on this basis.

This year's selection committee is still luxurious, including Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Sha Ting, Feng Mu, Chen Huangmei, Yan Wenjing, Ding Ling, and Wang Meng. They are all well-known figures in the literary world.

What’s interesting is that this year Wang Meng is not only a member of the selection committee, but he also has two works of his own, “Grassroots Heart” and “Butterfly”, which have been shortlisted for the short story and novella awards respectively.

No one blames this matter because the literary trend at the moment is very positive!

"The top three short stories are out," an editor shouted.

“Who are the top three?”

"Among the first three, there are two works of reflective literature and one work of reform literature."

"Don't keep me in suspense. Reflective literature? Then there must be Ru Zhijuan's "The Story of the Wrong Editing", right?"

“This one is ranked third.”

"Ru Zhijuan's novel received a lot of votes and was well received by the jury."

"Who's in first place?"

"It's Jiang Xian's reflective novel "Fuxi Fuxi", which received just over 20,000 votes, which is comparable to "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office", but it has a higher voice in the jury."

"Alas, it's a pity for Jiang Zilong's novel. If Jiang Xian's "Fuxi Fuxi" hadn't been suddenly switched to the short story group, he would definitely have won first place." Tu Guangqun sighed when he heard the result.

In any case, "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office" is also the first novel published by their "People's Literature".

Cui Daoyi smiled and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Jiang Xian has already won two awards for novellas. We can't disqualify the novel "Fuxi Fuxi" from the selection. Otherwise, readers will destroy our "People's Literature"."

"There is no reason why "Fuxi Fuxi" should not be selected. As a reflective literature, this novel is very appealing and penetrating. When Jiang Xian wrote the disabled and paralyzed Yang Jinshan, I guess he must have referred to the beetle in Kafka's "Metamorphosis"."

"The Metamorphosis? Now that you mention it, it really makes that feel right." The Metamorphosis enjoys a very high status in the world literary scene. From beginning to end, this book never mentions what the protagonist, the beetle, turns into. Even on the cover and illustrations of the single volume, Kafka prohibited the publishing house from drawing the image of a beetle.

Kafka said: The central theme of the novel, the beetle, should not be depicted.

So the cover of the single volume published in 1916 was a door and a terrified human figure.

Of course, after Kafka's death, booksellers began to print books indiscriminately. They even wanted to print a cockroach on the book to attract attention. Many people who bought it thought it was a book about studying biological monsters or insects.

“Speaking of which, can realistic novels like Fuxi Fuxi be classified as reflective literature?”

"Reflective literature" is the development and deepening of "scar literature".

Compared with "scar literature", it has a longer-term vision, a longer historical stage of criticism, a deeper and sober vision, a more profound theme, and a stronger rational color.

"The storyline of Fuxi Fuxi spans from the 40s to the 60s, criticizing the traditional moral and ethical constraints of this period, and can certainly be classified as reflective literature."

"It is indeed very well written. Many of the descriptions of love in this novel are not inferior to those in Lawrence."

Lawrence is the most important and controversial British writer in the 20th century. His representative works include Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Rainbow and Sons and Lovers.

A group of editors were discussing, when suddenly a voice said faintly:
"This seems to be the second time that Beijing Literature and Art has snatched the first place from People's Literature."

"."

The editorial office suddenly fell silent.

Come to think of it, why not?
In last year's short story selection, Jiang Xian's "The Chess King" beat Liu Xinwu's "Class Teacher" to win first place.

This year, "Fuxi Fuxi" won the crown again, pushing Jiang Zilon's "The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office" off the top spot.

The key instigator was that kid Jiang Xian.

"Is this the second place that comes and goes, but the first place that never changes?"

"What a loss! Last year, this guy only contributed one article, "Furong Town", to our "People's Literature". It was a long novel, but he didn't even win any award."

“Even his manuscript for Harvest won second prize!”

"It also took up four of our issues, which is a big disadvantage for long novels."

The editors were so angry that they felt their teeth itching.

At this time, another voice said faintly, "At the symposium a few days ago, I chatted with Zhang Dening from Beijing Literature and Art. I heard that she wanted another short story from Jiang Xian."

"."

The editors were silent again for a long time before someone said:
"I have a feeling that they will be able to top the list next year with this novel."

"Jiang Xian has won first place for three consecutive years?"

"No way, last year's second place winner Liu Xinwu only won a second prize this year," said editor Fu Zhonghui.

No one answered him because everyone still thought it was really possible.

“Will we do it again next year?”

Cui Daoyi hesitated and said, "Now that this selection has such a high popularity in the literary world, it will definitely be held next year.

Jiang Xian is very creative, so why don't we go ask him to write a few more articles for us?"

(End of this chapter)