1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 236: More letters than tickets?

East 44th.

There were many people in the yard, including Zhao Zhenkai, Jiang Shiwei, Shi Tiesheng and Chen Aige, and it was very crowded.

When Today ceased publication, they resorted to a trick and established a literary research society, and the publication became the literary material of the society.

"Today we are going to discuss the novel 'Xu Sanguan Selling Blood'," Zhao Zhenkai said, "Have you all read this novel?"

Cha Haiying raised her hand very enthusiastically, "I have read it. It is definitely a very good novel. Jiang Xian wrote this article just like making clothes. He used very little material to cut out a piece of clothing that fits the body very well. This piece of clothing makes the body look very full when worn."

Shi Tiesheng was also very enthusiastic, and then he said: "Jiang Xian's novel is written with clear longitude and latitude. The longitude is Xu Sanguan's eleven times of selling blood. This longitude makes the story clear, but the latitude of the novel is more important than the longitude of these eleven times of selling blood. This latitude is about family affection and the simplest life."

“My biggest feeling is that this is different from Jiang Xian’s previous articles.”

Jiang Shiwei shared: "When he wrote novels before, he wanted to write everything in it, and wanted every paragraph to be particularly brilliant. The overall novel looked like a tropical rain forest, very dense, but this article is a bit like that."

He thought for a while, and immediately showed his unique characteristic in choosing images when writing poetry.

“Like a field in autumn!”

When everyone heard this, they all thought the image was beautiful.

What does the field look like in autumn? The trees have lost all their leaves, the sky is clear, the branches are very clear, and there are basically not many side branches.

Isn’t this the story “Xu Sanguan Selling Blood”?

Li Tuo sat on the chair, flipped through the pages of the book, and thought as he spoke.

"When I saw the name Xu Sanguan, I felt that the name 'Sanguan' was very sophisticated. 'Sanguan' is a state of mind, which is called establishing three views, breaking three confusions, and achieving three virtues.

The three views are emptiness, falsehood and the middle way, which means: everything in the world is empty, everything is false, and everything is in it.

But I think Jiang Xian turned the meaning of the three views upside down. He wanted us to see the simple self-esteem that Xu Sanguan maintained in the secular world without knowing emptiness, falsehood, and the middle way. "

Li Tuo’s speeches were very profound, but not many people understood them.

Zhao Zhenkai's eyes lit up, "Everything is empty, everything is false, everything is illusory. For Xu Sanguan, there is only simple duty, only self-respect and dignity.

Xu Sanguan pursues equality, but in reality, nothing can be equal."

The more Zhao Zhenkai thought about it, the more ingenious it seemed to him, and the more he admired it.

"As expected of Jiang Xian, even an article as clear as this one actually has so many clever ideas hidden behind it!"

As one of the directors, poet Yang Lian quickly wrote down the content of the discussion. "I think our discussion today can be written into a commentary article. Do you agree?"

Others in the editorial department expressed no objection.

Yang Lian made up his mind, and when the discussion ended and everyone dispersed, he returned home, sat at the table, and unfolded his notes on the discussion.

After a little thought, inspiration comes to mind.
——"Simple equality in life - Thoughts after reading 'Xu Sanguan Selling Blood'", Today's Literature Research Association.

A review, written in one fluent and elegant stroke.

Yang Lian even planned to rank it last in this issue.

However, he did not know that this would be the last issue of literary material edited by the editorial department of Today. Coincidentally, this literary review became the "epitaph" of Today magazine.

No. 2, North Beach Street.

The editorial department of People's Literature is once again busy with the annual national outstanding novel selection event.

“There are so many good novels coming out this year.”

“Are there any popular ones?”

"Xu Huaizhong's "Anecdotes from the Western Front", Zhang Xianliang's "Soul and Flesh", and Chen Jiangong's "Phoenix Eyes" are all very popular among readers."

A single taste of the food can tell the coming of autumn. From the novel selection, we can see that this year's cultural circle has seen a large number of new talents and new novels emerge like mushrooms after rain, which makes the editors extremely excited.

Our literature is flourishing! "Jiang Xian didn't publish any short stories this year?"

"Yes, Beijing Literature submitted his work "Letter from an Unknown Woman" for the competition, but the number of votes was not as high as "Soul and Flesh" and "Phoenix Eyes". "Anecdotes from the Western Front" should be eliminated this year."

"Anecdotes from the Western Front" is a hot novel this year, written by military writer Xu Huaizhong.

Writers finally turned their eyes to the sensitive area of ​​military life. Xu Huaizhong changed the old way of writing military themes. Instead of writing about frequent victories, he wrote about the lives of soldiers, reflected on them, and added the influence of the environment.
The combined effect of multiple factors finally contributed to the novel's popularity.

"This kid can finally give other writers some chances this year," an editor sighed.

Jiang Xian always wins first place every year. Last year, he won three awards by himself. His hands are almost tired from winning so many awards.

Moreover, every year it wins first place under the name of "Beijing Literature", which makes its organizer "People's Literature" very embarrassed.

This year, we are finally free from the shadow of this big devil.

"It's just that there is no novel award, otherwise how could he not win it?" someone in the corner said quietly.

Everyone was silent.

They naturally knew that Jiang Xian's writing focus this year had been on novels. Just one piece, "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", was definitely the highlight of this December.

There is no reason why "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" would not be popular. After all, the treatment given to Jiang Xian by "People's Literature" is unprecedented.

You can see it by making a comparison.

"Anecdotes from the Western Front" was originally a 60,000-word novella, but because "People's Literature" only published short novels, Xu Huaizhong had to extract part of the plot from the novel and reorganize the manuscript, turning it into a short story of about 35,000 words, which had a chance to be published.

Later, he rewrote the extracted plot into a short story "Nguyen Thi Lilac", which was published in "October" as a sister piece of "Anecdotes from the Western Front".

"Readers' votes have arrived again?"

Seeing male editor Liang Xuan carrying a few sacks up, the editors hurried over to help.

"Vote?"

Liang Xuan wiped his sweat off his forehead and said, "These are the letters readers wrote to "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood". They are almost as many as the votes for the review. There are also several sacks of letters below. I am almost going crazy."

"It's only been a short time since it was sent out, but we've already received feedback?" a young female editor was surprised.

"We've put so much effort into launching a novel this time, and if there's really no response, that would be a big problem."

Someone joked, "Just now you said there was no way to compare, but now there is a comparison. It has only been published for a few days and we have received so many letters. If it were a voting ballot, I am afraid that Anecdotes of the Western Front would be suppressed with so many votes."

As the editor of "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", Wang Fu was naturally delighted to see that his article was so popular.

She opened several letters written by readers to the editorial department. Some of the letters contained food coupons. The one that impressed Wang Fu the most was a letter from Henan.

The reader sincerely told his own story, saying that he was Xu Sanguan himself, and this story was his story, including drinking eight bowls of water before selling blood, and drinking until his bladder was about to explode before selling it, so that the blood could be thinner and diluted.

[I am not afraid of selling blood, nor am I afraid of death. I am only afraid that I will no longer have the ability to protect my family from the storm.]
Wang Fu sighed endlessly.

Jiang Xian's article really touches the hearts of the people!

"I'm collecting manuscripts today, including a literary review of 'Xu Sanguan Selling Blood'," said an editor.

"Someone's making comments so soon?"

"I have collected them too. Some of them are contributions from veteran critics."

The editorial office was filled with joy and Wang Fu's face was also filled with excitement.

With her rich work experience, she naturally understands this simple truth.

"Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", it's done!

(End of this chapter)