1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 291 Three Opinions, Each One Bite Bloody
What Ge You brought was the Reader's Digest from early March this year, which later became Reader.

This magazine was founded in April last year. It is a bimonthly magazine with 4 pages and a price of 48 cents.

The cover of the inaugural issue followed the footsteps of Popular Cinema and used a photo of a celebrity, Naren Hua, an actress from the Xi'an Film Studio.

Because I felt that she was not wearing any makeup and looked very clean, but I did not put her name in the painting and titled it "Yearning".

The format is to copy the American magazine of the same name and use the abstract approach.

In order to promote the sale, their people even placed an advertisement in the Guangming X Newspaper, attaching the catalogue of the first issue.

The first issue published several heavyweight articles: "The Death of "XXX", "The Last Eight Years of the "X Army", and "The First X Record of the X Committee".
After reading these articles, I was dumbfounded.

Are you guys so brave?
He immediately asked the following question, but it was a very clever one: What is the background of this new magazine, Reader's Digest?
Editor-in-chief Cao Keji was well aware that he had no background and immediately gave in.

First, he made a deep self-examination to his superiors on behalf of the entire company, took the responsibility on himself, and deleted all the sensitive articles. Only then was the magazine published.

However, there are still many tantalizing articles afterwards, such as "XXX's romantic affairs", "XXX's unsolved mysteries", and "XXX's unspeakable truth".
This type of article, combined with the form of digests, made Reader's Digest very popular with readers after it was launched. The circulation of the first issue was only 3 copies. By the seventh issue, the circulation had climbed from 3 copies to 14 copies, and continued to grow.

However, there is currently no intersection between Reader's Digest and Jiang Xian. Jiang Xian previously adhered to the philosophy of "the road is wide and each goes his own way" and never paid attention to this magazine.

“The Love Jiang Xian Has to Talk About: From Literature to Love.”

Jiang Xian sat on the sofa, holding Reader's Digest, and looked at the article with a confused look on his face.

He read it quickly. The article was indeed about Jiang Xian. It described several of Jiang Xian's love stories. It said that Jiang Xian, when he was sent to the countryside to work as a production team leader, started dating the daughter of a local farmer's commune. Later, they tasted the forbidden fruit and were unable to stop. After that, their relationship went through many twists and turns, and they broke up and got back together. The story was full of twists and turns, with ups and downs.

Later, it was said that in order to prevent Jiang Xian from being with her daughter, the fellow villager locked her daughter at home and did not let her out, and also lied to Jiang Xian that her daughter had died of illness.

Jiang Xian's hair turned white overnight.

Later, the two reunited, and he was so happy that his hair instantly turned black again.

There is also a fiery description interspersed in the middle.

It's completely virgin literature.

What a night of war.
Jiang Xian was sweating profusely as he watched.

No one can stand this!

In short, Jiang Xian's name was used.

In addition, the male protagonist loves literature, and the article is very misleading. When readers read it, they feel that this may be Jiang Xian’s secret.

"Is this me?" Jiang Xian put down the magazine and looked up at Ge You.

"Isn't this you?" Ge Yu asked back.

"This isn't me!"

"this is you!"

Ge You said, slapping his forehead, "Hey, Brother Jiang, I know this isn't written by you, but everyone believes it's you."

"."

Jiang Xian was speechless.

He had heard of this kind of thing before: fabricated biographies of famous people.

Among the old predecessors, Ba Jin had encountered such a thing, and so had Mao Gong. Even after Mao Gong's death, these people did not let him go. They fabricated records of their conversations with the old man and published them in miscellaneous magazines. The content was purely the author's personal imagination and fabrication.

In addition to these two veteran predecessors, there are also works such as: "Bi Shumin and her son travel around the world in 114 days: looking towards a higher life", "Shi Tiesheng runs with life, every heartbeat is a signpost", "Zhou Guoping returns to happiness: fate gave me the most suitable woman". There is even "Tengger's heavenly song in reincarnation, the eternal father-daughter love can never be sung".

The language in these articles is corny and the content is often inaccurate, mostly based on the author's imagination.

The magazine published the article so recklessly, which can be said to be a very irresponsible attitude.

"I think their sales are so good that they are so confident that they are inflated." Jiang Xian said unhappily.

He wasn't too surprised.

"Reader's Digest" even dares to write nonsense about him, so of course it has no worries about writing about him as "Jiang Xian".

"Brother Jiang, what they wrote can't be true, right?" Ge You asked tentatively with a sly look in his eyes.

"What do you think?" Jiang Xian glared at him.

Ge You immediately smiled and said, "I think it's possible. After all, you write every female character so well. It's probably because of your careful observation in life."

He covered the spot on his forehead where Jiang Xian hit him with a painful look on his face, and begged for mercy in a flattering manner: "I just think your writing is good, oh, Xiao Jinbao's writing is so charming."

Jiang Xian chuckled and said, "You are a man obsessed with evil. You are not honest at all."

Joking aside, the problem still needs to be solved.

Jiang Xian immediately went downstairs and called Gansu People's Publishing House which was far away in Gansu.

The call was quickly connected. After Jiang Xian revealed his identity, he went straight to the point and questioned the Reader's Digest article. Not only did it fabricate his life, but the content was also seriously inaccurate. Reader's Digest must publicly apologize to him in the next issue.

The people over there also took this matter very seriously, and soon a male comrade took the call and introduced himself as Lu Xinyu, an editorial board member of Reader's Digest.

In response to Jiang Xian's questioning, Lu Xinyu was completely vague.

It means that it is just a coincidence that the names are duplicated, and there is no need to make a fuss or make a big deal out of it.

The person on the other end was acting like a rogue, and Jiang Xian, who was answering the phone, had an expression on his face that was wondering "was it intentional or accidental?"

"Are you saying that it was a coincidence that you published such an article?"

“Yes, we didn’t expect it to cause you any trouble.”

"Fuck you."

This was the first thing Jiang Xian blurted out.

Lu Xinyu was completely stunned.

You, you, you are a great writer, how could you say such things.

Jiang Xian didn't care. He opened his mouth and launched into a series of Lei Jun's little tricks, scolding him.

The words are dirty and the conversation is dense.

Sister Wang hurriedly covered her son's ears, fearing that the flower buds of the motherland would grow crooked.

The more literary and refined a person is, the more likely he is to curse others.

Not to mention Zhuge Liang's debate with the scholars.

Take Mr. Lu Xun for example. He was angry with everything and was not polite to his old friend Lin Yutang. He cursed him, "Who do you think you are!" After cursing, he wrote in his diary: Your contempt is fully revealed!

Mr. Lin Yutang was not to be outdone, and wrote in his diary: "At the end of August, I had an argument with Lu Xun, which was quite interesting. This man has become a psychopath!"

"You like to play dirty with your name, don't you?"

Jiang Xian cursed to his heart's content, and finally said to Lu Xinyu, "Okay, you wait."

After that, the phone was hung up.

Thousands of miles away in Gansu, Lu Xinyu's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. Jiang Xian's scolding made his blood pressure so high. "Ball kid!" he muttered.

In the recent cultural circles, Jiang Xian is undoubtedly the writer who has attracted the most attention from readers.

His book "The Wreath at the Foot of the Mountain" won him numerous praises and flowers, and his book "Rock, Rock to Grandma's Bridge" showed his magnificent and solid writing skills to readers, maintaining his extremely high popularity among readers.

To put it bluntly, the reason Reader's Digest published this article this time is to attract traffic.

They could skirt the issue of duplicate names, and even if Jiang Xian himself had objections, they would have ways to explain it.

As for Jiang Xian telling them to "wait".

Lu Xinyu was a little apprehensive, but he didn't care too much.

there is always a solution to a problem.

As the old saying goes, there is always a way when you reach the mountain.

Jiang Xian wouldn't get so angry over such an article.

He has always had a good temper. If someone offends him, he would always kindly tell them to be more careful in their next life.

After returning, he paused the work of copying the novel, took out a few blank sheets of manuscript paper, held the pen, thought for a while, and then began to write quickly.

He spent a day writing the two letters, wrapped them separately, and rode his bike out the next morning to mail them.

After doing all this, he returned home with a relieved heart and continued copying the novel.

Xu Zhongyu came several more times. He was anxious to return to Shanghai, but Jiang Xian's novel was not even half finished.

The last time Xu Zhongyu came, he brought an old acquaintance of Jiang Xian

——Cui Daoyi.

As the mainstay of People's Literature and one of the "Four Famous Editors", Cui Daoyi helped Jiang Xian edit and publish Furong Town. It can be said that he has a good relationship with Jiang Xian.

"As soon as I heard Mr. Xu say you had a novel, I came here right away."

Cui Daoyi said, looking around and searching everywhere, "How about it? Give us People's Literature."

"Give it to People's Literature?"

Jiang Xian reminded: "Teacher Cui, your People's Literature wants short stories, and my novel is a bit long."

“Can it be longer than ‘Xu Sanguan Selling Blood’?” Cui Daoyi asked with a chuckle.

Xu Zhongyu smiled knowingly.

He knew that Cui Daoyi was talking about the unprecedented publication of the full text of the novel "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" in "People's Literature".

This incident caused a sensation in the entire literary world at that time.

The full text was published as a single article, and it is still the only copy available today.

At this moment, Xu Zhongyu listened to Cui Daoyi's meaning, and "People's Literature" seemed to be willing to give Jiang Xian another chance to publish his work.

What made Xu Zhongyu feel even more incredible was that Cui Daoyi had such great confidence in Jiang Xian even though he had not read his novel since he entered the door!
This is not blind trust.

It was the talent Jiang Xian displayed in the literary world over the years that gave Cui Daoyi such confidence.

"Teacher Cui, let's talk about it after I finish writing." Jiang Xian turned a blind eye and did not agree to Cui Daoyi immediately.

When Xu Zhongyu heard that People's Literature was begging Jiang Xian for his manuscript and even offered him the sweet treat of publishing the full text, Jiang Xian was surprisingly able to resist.

"Jiang Xian, I think you can submit this article to People's Literature."

Instead, he became anxious and advised:

“You have to know that it was People’s Literature that opened the door to scar literature and reflective literature. The rise of these two literary trends was due to the quality of the articles themselves and the promotion of the magazine People’s Literature.

If the trend of root-seeking literature is to rise, it needs to rely on the platform of People’s Literature to raise a literary banner. Only this journal has such power, and this is a foundation that other journals do not have. "

Xu Zhongyu tried to persuade Cui Daoyi earnestly, but he heard something unusual.

“Root-seeking literature?”

"What do you mean?"

He looked at Jiang Xian and Xu Zhongyu blankly.

The two looked at each other, and neither answered immediately.

Cui Daoyi scratched his head. The more Xu Zhongyu and Jiang Xian acted like this, the more curious he became.

He held their arms and said, "Jiang Xian, Mr. Xu, please stop fooling me. What is root-seeking literature? How come I have never heard of it?"

"It was proposed by Jiang Xian in an article a few days ago," Xu Zhongyu explained to him.

Xu Zhongyu briefly told Cui Daoyi about the process of writing the article "Return to National Tradition, Return to Real Language!", and also talked about the content of the article and the theory of "Root-Seeking Literature".

As a master of theory, Xu Zhongyu was able to explain Jiang Xian's definition of "root-seeking literature" in the article in an orderly manner even without a manuscript. Jiang Xian even heard him talk about some deeper derivative things.

"Wonderful!"

Cui Daoyi couldn't help but clapping his hands in joy.

"Literature should be based on 'cultural excavation'. Yes, that's right, what a good way to find the roots of culture!"

Cui Daoyi became more and more excited as he spoke.

The 1981 National Excellent Novel Selection has ended. Among the winning novels, there are some outstanding novels that won first prizes, such as Jiang Xian's "Wreaths under the Mountain", Lu Yao's "Life", Wang Zengqi's "Notes on Da Nao", and Lin Jinlan's "Portrait".
But overall, many judges felt that the overall quality of the winning works in 1981 was inferior to that of previous years.

This means that there has not been much progress in literary development in the past year.

Today, the concept of "root-seeking literature" has given Cui Daoyi a glimmer of hope, the hope of injecting vitality into the literary world.

"Is your novel about root-seeking literature?" he asked.

Jiang Xian did not hide it, "I wrote it with this idea in mind."

"Jiang Xian, could you please let me see it?" Cui Daoyi's tone was almost pleading.

Jiang Xian had no choice but to take out the manuscript and hand it to him. Cui Daoyi held the manuscript and sat on the sofa to read it eagerly.

At the same time that Cui Daoyi was reading this manuscript, a commentator's article appeared in the China Youth Daily, titled:

"'Reader's Digest' uses a lot of space to promote capitalist X-ideologies!"

The article mainly contains three opinions on Reader's Digest:

“1. There is an article about Charles de Gaulle that describes him as better than any party member;
2. An article said Nixon was the worst president, and considering that he was the main person in establishing diplomatic relations between China and Russia, this move was undermining diplomacy;

3. The magazine promotes humanistic and foreign things. ”

Three opinions, each one is to the point.

(End of this chapter)