1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 469 "Lu Xun Literature Award"

Jiang Xian was also helpless.

A few months ago, the Writers Association asked him to take charge of selecting the outstanding novellas and short stories of 1985.

This selection aims to select the highest level of novella and short story creation in China from among all the novellas and short stories published in that year.

This task is both arduous and easy. After all, the selection work has already formed an inherent model and is relatively mature, so he does not have to worry too much.

But as the readers' votes were collected and the judges counted the votes, they were dumbfounded.

"This year, we received a total of 357885 'evaluation forms'. Readers' enthusiasm for participating in this selection has not diminished at all compared to previous years."

"but."

Zou Xiaoyu from the jury paused, "Among the votes collected, the first place in the novella category is The Heavenly Game, and the second place is You Have No Choice, which is only slightly behind The Heavenly Game. The gap is very small."

The other members of the jury couldn't help but glance at Jiang Xian.

So cruel!

They are in charge of the selection, so they know very well that there is absolutely no inside information about the results. These are the real results cast by readers one by one.

Zou Xiaoyu then went on to talk about a few more novels, and the judges listened to a few familiar novel titles:

".The seventh "Disaster Star". The eleventh "Saint"."

"Cough cough."

Jiang Xian coughed twice, "Where's the short story?"

"In the Short Story"

Zou Xiaoyu hesitated for a few seconds, "The first one is "Fast Horse"

"Where's the back?"

"Oh, behind."

Zou Xiaoyu continued to tell stories one after another, including "Death Mystery" and "God of Gamblers".

“The readers were so supportive.”

Jiang Xian smiled awkwardly.

In the past year, Jiang Xian's works published or published were all medium-length and short stories. He originally only published "You Have No Choice" and "The Heavenly Game".

However, due to the publication of "Tian Ju" by Renwen Press, including "Kuaima", "Death Mystery", "Disaster Star", "Saint", and "God of Gamblers", a total of seven novels were published in one year.

And these seven novels all made it into the readers’ recommended vote rankings!
This time, we plan to include five award-winning novellas and short stories, and ten short stories, totaling fifteen in total.

If we really rank them based on the number of readers' recommended votes, Jiang Xian alone would have seven articles.

Half of the list is filled with his name!
This list is almost complete!

When the judging panel saw such a result, no one dared to make a decision, because this monster who monopolized the entire list was the main person in charge of this selection.

Seeing this, Jiang Xian had no choice but to speak up: "The main purpose of the Writers Association's selection of excellent novels is to give more attention to new writers. I think I will not participate. I will promote my style and leave more opportunities for other writers."

"Comrade Jiang Xian, Comrade Jiang Xian!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Kong Luosun interrupted him, "I cannot agree with what you said. Look at what you said. What do you mean by promoting style? This time, we are judging novels, not social skills! In this kind of thing, good is good, bad is bad, popular is popular, unpopular is unpopular. With the facts in front of us, how can we promote style? If everyone promotes style, then wouldn't literature be in chaos?

Although you are the person in charge, the votes are here and everyone has seen that your novel is far ahead in terms of votes. In my opinion, you should do what you deserve. You deserve these honors."

"Yeah." Jiang Xian nodded, "I see, what you said makes sense."

"Comrade Luo Sun is right."

Lu Ruicong from the judging panel also spoke up at this time: "If such a problem occurs, it means that there is something wrong with our selection mechanism, not with you, Comrade Jiang Xian."

This statement was recognized by many people present.

However, many people also felt that the scene before them was a little familiar.

In the past few years, Jiang Xian did not produce many works in the field of medium and short stories, so they all forgot about it.

Every time when the national outstanding novel selection comes, Jiang Xian is always the one who gives the judges the most headaches.

No wonder the hosting job was given to Jiang Xian this year.

Many people only realized it at this time.

Leaders are wise!
Knowing that Jiang Xian would give the jury a difficult problem, they simply threw the problem to Jiang Xian himself and let him solve it.

The trouble should end it!
"Well, I roughly know everyone's opinions."

Jiang Xian made the decision at this time:

"How about this, let's put the selection process aside for now. I'll go back and come up with a reform plan for this year's selection of outstanding novels and submit it to the Writers Association. I'll ask them to give me an approval as soon as possible."

"That's the only way." Everyone nodded.

Thinking about something, Jiang Xian took a car back to the courtyard of Jingshan East Hutong. Before he even entered the house, several people rushed over to stop him, speaking in the soft Wu dialect.

"Comrade Jiang Xian! It must be Comrade Jiang Xian!"

Xu Chenhui took a step forward and stood in front of Jiang Xian, his eyes exuding a murderous look that belonged to a soldier.

"What do you want to do?"

"Xiaohui, it's okay."

Jiang Xian waved his hand, signaling Xu Chenhui not to be nervous.

Then he walked around him and looked at those people.

"You are?"

The other party then remembered to introduce himself and quickly took out the letter of introduction, "We are editors of Zhongshan Magazine, my name is Ye Xiaoming."

"Zhongshan?" Jiang Xian took the letter of introduction and took a look at it.

"Zhongshan" is a publication from Jiangsu, with its base in Nanjing. It is also one of the earliest literary journals in the country. Although it is usually low-key, it is undeniable that this publication is definitely a big name in the literary world and one of the top publications in the country.

"It turns out you are comrades from Zhongshan. Please come in." Jiang Xian led them home and poured them a few cups of hot tea.

"You're looking for me?"

Ye Xiaoming didn't waste time and got straight to the point. "To be honest, I came here to visit you because I want to ask you to write an article for me."

"A manuscript request?"

"Aren't there still several novels in Tianju that haven't been published yet?"

Ye Xiaoming said, "We have read your book "The Heavenly Game". It has six stories and six dreams, each of which is about people and fate. Each story is full of the interweaving of wisdom and fate. It is written in a hearty and thought-provoking way."

"You're welcome."

Jiang Xian interrupted Ye Xiaoming.

Of course he could tell that Ye Xiaoming's praise came from the bottom of his heart, but he was still busy preparing for the novel selection and did not have much time to listen to Ye Xiaoming's words.

"Which one would you like to have?"

"Of course the more the better." Ye Xiaoming said with a shameless face.

"Please choose one."

Jiang Xian smiled and said, "Usually, there are too many magazines that ask me to contribute articles, and I have turned down most of them. However, I can't turn down this time. I will try to submit these five articles separately, submit them to more magazines, and do more favors."

"Understand, understand."

Ye Xiaoming thought for a moment and said, "Then let's take the chapter titled 'Saints'."

Of course, Ye Xiaoming chose "The Saint" because he had his own plans. Because "The Saint" is long.

Among the entire "Heavenly Bureau" published by Renwen Press, "Saints" is the longest, accounting for nearly a quarter of "Heavenly Bureau".

Their "Zhongshan" is a bimonthly magazine, and it is more fond of medium-length and long novels.

The Saint is a natural choice.

Moreover, the writing of "The Saint" is very much in line with Ye Xiaoming's taste.

The story of "The Saint" takes place in a city called "Huangxiang".

In this city, where people indulge in lust and extravagance, there was a Christian: an old lady who was almost demented.

The old lady said that a saint was going to appear in the "Huang Xiang" and she was looking for him, but she didn't know where he was.

Ironically, this saint turned out to be the old lady’s son Zhu Wei.

Zhu Wei is the epitome of "unconscionable".

He is an architect, and is popular with all developers and contractors in Huangxiang.

Because his design talent lies in cutting corners.

According to his design drawings, a large amount of steel bars and cement can always be saved, and the safety factor can always be reduced to a level close to danger.

He simply has the heart of a devil.

For a long time, he had been planning to let his mother pass away soon, and only gave the old lady a little food every day.

Such a scum, under the redemption of his mother, finally turned into a "saint" and was reborn.

He cut a long robe with wide sleeves out of bed sheets, which looked like ancient costume and also like a doctor's white coat.

Every family suffering from a serious illness or disaster would always find Zhu Wei appearing in front of them at the most desperate moment.

His deeds are vague and confusing, and the weapon that received the favor remains silent, and his attitude towards life takes a 180-degree turn.

The legends and miracles of the "saints" impact the hearts of everyone in the "magic city" of "Huangxiang" in a way that it is difficult to tell whether they are true or false.

No one can tell whether this seemingly mentally ill "saint" is pretending to be crazy or is truly holy.

The last miracle of the "Saint" occurred during an arrest.

He tried to touch the gangster with his palm full of "miracle", but the gangster's bullet pierced his chest.

At the same time, the gangsters were quickly shot by the police.

However, even so, the "saint" still reproached: "You are wrong, he could have been saved."

The suspense of the entire novel lies in whether the "saint" is crazy or truly holy.

However, until the end, Jiang Xian did not say in a clear manner whether the "miracle" was a real "miracle".

In Ye Xiaoming's understanding, "miracles" should not exist. In fact, there are no "saints". The only one who can save himself is himself.

And at the end of the novel, Zhu Wei took off his gloves, and there was no hole in the palms of his miraculous hands as mentioned in the legend.

And he also said:
“There are no miracles, only choices!”

It can be seen that the salvation of the saints is a spiritual salvation.

This also elevates the novel to a higher level, making it more shocking.

"Do you really want "The Saint"? " Jiang Xian was a little surprised.

During this period, many magazines came to him to ask for articles, but not many of them caught his eye.

Zhongshan, a top-tier journal known as the "Ivy League under the walls of Nanjing", has been popular from its inception to later generations and is known as the "living fossil of the history of contemporary Chinese literature". Naturally, Jiang Xian was happy to deal with them by writing a manuscript.

But Jiang Xian is very clear about the style of the novel "The Saint". Among the six novels in "The Heavenly Bureau", "The Saint" is probably the one with the least niche style.

Jiang Xian expressed his concerns, and Ye Xiaoming laughed.

“Can your work still be considered unpopular?”

"Besides, we at Zhongshan like unpopular novels."

"We at Zhongshan love those articles that are considered niche by mainstream literature."

"We have a column called 'He Han Stargazing', which is dedicated to salvaging unpopular masterpieces that have been ignored by the mainstream."

"."

Seeing that Zhongshan had its own considerations, Jiang Xian said nothing more, and in his heart he appreciated the publication a little more.

No wonder this publication’s literary status has been as solid as a rock for decades; its vision for publishing alone has surpassed so many magazines.

The next day.

As Jiang Xian's iconic black Volga drove into the yard of the Writers Association, it quickly attracted a lot of people's attention.

At this point, not many people don't recognize Jiang Xian's car.

There is no way around it. His current status in the literary world has made many people look up to him.

In the old society, that level would be the same as the popular people around the empress dowager.

"Change? How to change?"

Feng Mu looked at the stack of manuscript paper Jiang Xian handed over with a puzzled look on his face.

The national mechanism for selecting outstanding novels has been in use since its inception.

Even the selection of the "Mao Dun Literature Prize" uses this model.

In Feng Mu's opinion, this selection method is quite mature. Why does Jiang Xian want to change it?

"Please take a look first. I think what I wrote is already very detailed." Jiang Xian said.

After hearing this, Feng Mu opened the manuscript paper that Jiang Xian handed to him, read a few lines, and then stood up.

"Lu Xun Literature Award?"

"What?"

Tang Dacheng, who was standing by, came over and took a look.

Oops.

The first thing Jiang Xian proposed was to change the "National Excellent Short and Medium-length Novels Selection" to the "Lu Xun Literature Award."

"We already have a novel award in our country, the Mao Dun Literature Award. Novels were Mr. Mao Dun's forte, so we named the novel award after him.

As for short and medium-length novels, as well as essays, they have been selected as national outstanding novels for many years. Why not name them after a writer like the Mao Dun Literature Prize?

As for short and medium-length novels, as well as prose, Mr. Lu Xun is definitely a leader in this field. I think there is nothing wrong with establishing a new short and medium-length novel award in his name to commemorate Mr. Lu Xun and inspire other authors at the same time.”

"."

Feng Mu and Tang Dacheng looked at each other.

Everyone was a little dumbfounded.

How come this guy is so troublesome in everything he does? !
Not to mention the two of them, even Kong Luosun who followed Jiang Xian was stunned.

What is this for?

Let me ask you to change the selection mechanism.

You want to organize a Lu Xun Literature Award?!

(End of this chapter)