1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 474 "[Redundant People] + [Inner World]"

"I am honored to receive the 'Lu Xun Literature Award' today. I would like to thank all the readers and the judging panel for their recognition of me and my novels 'The Heaven's Game' and 'You Have No Choice'."

"Just now I heard Ba Jin and several other gentlemen recalling their experiences of meeting Mr. Lu Xun many years ago. Compared with them, I am just a young kid, with little experience and little reputation. Of course, I have never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Lu Xun. I can only talk about my experience of reading Mr. Lu Xun's works."

“I grew up in an era without literature.”

"At that time, only the Chinese textbooks still had a hint of literature, and in the textbooks from elementary school to middle school, I only saw the literary works of two people:"

"Lu Xun's Novels, Essays and Miscellanies."

"That person's poetry."

"So I used to naively believe that there was only one writer named Lu Xun and only one poet named that person in the world."

"From primary school to middle school, I have been reading Lu Xun all the time, but I still don't know what Lu Xun wrote."

"I even arrogantly and ignorantly thought that Lu Xun was a bad writer."

"His great reputation is just boasting."

"I find Lu Xun's works dull, gloomy and boring."

"And, most of the time, Lu Xun's works are basically incomprehensible to me."

“But I can’t put down Lu Xun’s works.”

"For various reasons, I was forced to read Lu Xun over and over again."

"Therefore, Mr. Lu Xun is the only writer I have ever hated in my life."

Listening to Jiang Xian's story, the literary workers in the audience all smiled knowingly.

Of course, no one would think that Jiang Xian’s words were disrespectful to Lu Xun.

Because everyone understands that a child may not be able to understand Lu Xun, but an adult will definitely understand the greatness of Lu Xun.

Among the huge crowd of audiences, there was one figure who was particularly excited.

"He used my words!"

Yu Hua's hair was disheveled, but his whole body was trembling with excitement.

Yu Hua felt that Jiang Xian was his confidant, because when he was a child, he had the same understanding of Lu Xun as Jiang Xian.

He also naively believed that there was only one writer, only one poet in the world.

He also hated Lu Xun's novels very much in his early years.

On the rostrum, Jiang Xian continued to speak calmly:

"What was the only thing I liked about Lu Xun when I was a child?"

"I remember it was during a lunch break, and a classmate and I started arguing about when the sun was closest to the earth."

"She and I each had our own opinions, and it was hard to tell which one was better. In order to prove ourselves as quickly as possible, we both started to seek other people's opinions. As a result, most people agreed with that classmate's opinion and disagreed with mine."

"Seeing that I was about to lose, I added 'Lu Xun said' to my answer in a hurry."

"Once this was said, no one dared to question it."

"Later, when I went to work in the countryside, I was bored and couldn't find any way to relieve my boredom. Then someone handed me a copy of Lu Xun's Stories."

"I was disdainful of it, and the stubborn young man in me didn't change. I kept it in my pocket for three days, but in the end I didn't even have a cigarette butt to smoke. I was really bored, so I turned on the kerosene lamp and opened this volume of Lu Xun's Stories."

“I’ve been unable to stop since then.”

"I am deeply impressed by your skills."

"A single sentence from the gentleman can actually drive a person insane! It's like creating mountains and peaks with words."

"I even forgot my original work and read all the works of Lu Xun eagerly."

"The villagers said, 'This young man has gone crazy.'"

"They didn't know that he was just an ignorant child who was disturbed by the abnormal world described by Lu Xun."

"They don't know that it was the teacher who was teaching me to identify the wolf's footprints in the wilderness of human nature."

"Until now, I still long to be like you, and write about characters trapped in the maze of fate. To this day, the characters in my works also have some of the blood of Ah Q, Runtu, and Xianglin Sao flowing in their veins."

"I think our generation is so lucky that we can open the book every time we have doubts, because the warmth under the gentleman's frown is still shining a light for those who are lost."

"This award is like a homework assignment for you, sir."

"Although my handwriting is crooked, I have never forgotten what the teacher taught me."

“Perhaps literature is a Sisyphus’s hard labor, but fortunately we have the spark left by Mr.

Jiang Xian's speech was brief, but every word was carefully chosen, sonorous and powerful, humorous and profound.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was warm applause from the audience.

In the eyes of many people, the speeches made by Zhou Yang, Feng Mu and others just now were highly official in nature, while Jiang Xian's speech was as sincere and heartfelt as Ba Jin's, and full of personal color.

Especially the last sentence, "Perhaps literature is a hard labor of Sisyphus, but fortunately we have the spark left by the teacher", which can be said to be the finishing touch and thought-provoking, making many people present excited after listening to it.

This sentence is worthy of being passed down as a famous quote both in terms of its literary and ideological nature.

After finishing his speech, Jiang Xian's mission was accomplished. Under the gaze of almost the entire literary community, he walked down the podium holding two medals and returned to his seat on the podium.

The distance between them was less than twenty meters, and everyone's eyes were closely following his figure.

At today's "Lu Xun Literature Award" award ceremony, no one was more prominent than Jiang Xian, not even the literary giants present here.

"Very well said."

As soon as he sat down, he met Ba Jin's kind gaze.

Jiang Xian smiled and exchanged a few words with him.

Although a large part of this speech was borrowed from Yu Hua, for Jiang Xian, isn't this his true feeling?
When I was a student, young and ignorant, and knew little about the world, I was tortured by the endless writing and memorization of Lu Xun, which made my scalp numb. His status as a "nail house" in the Chinese textbook and his serious and dull writing troubled people, and some even regarded it as a "nightmare."

But at a certain moment of growth, you will suddenly understand Lu Xun. Those sentences that you once tried so hard to recite seemed boring when you were young, but as time goes by, their profound meaning gradually emerges and you benefit a lot from them.

Jiang Xian smiled and exchanged a few words with the judges beside him, but the eyes of the writers below the stage were still all on Jiang Xian.

Everyone knows that Jiang Xian is the director of selection for this year's "Lu Xun Literature Award". This identity already makes him the focus of attention.

His novels "The Heaven's Game" and "You Have No Choice" won first place in the short story and novella categories respectively. They were the works with the highest votes and the highest recognition from expert judges in this year's awards. With both works winning honors at the same time, he became the brightest star at today's award ceremony.

The award ceremony for the first "Lu Xun Literature Award" was over. When Jiang Xian had just stepped off the podium, he was surrounded by several old comrades.

"Director Hu, Director Xu, Director Wu, what are you doing?"

Those who surrounded him were none other than the director of Beijing Film Studio, Hu Qiming, the director of Shanghai Film Studio, Xu Sangchu, the director of Xi'an Film Studio, Wu Tianming, and leaders of several studios, including the Bayi Film Studio and Emei Film Studio.

Literature and art do not separate families.

The domestic film industry and literary circles have always been close, and many classic film works are adapted from novels.

Therefore, today's "Lu Xun Literature Award" award ceremony is a grand event in the literary world and has also received widespread attention from the film and television industry.

Important leaders from major film studios were present at the award ceremony.

"Comrade Jiang Xian, congratulations." Xu Sangchu, wearing glasses, congratulated Jiang Xian, "I have read both award-winning works and was deeply moved. In a word, as long as you want to adapt them into film and television works, our Shanghai Film Studio will definitely help you. We are also old partners and have collaborated on so many works before."

Old partner?
Hu Qiming felt uneasy when he heard what Xu Sangchu said.

Didn't the Beijing Film Studio know Jiang Xian earlier? !

But Hu Qiming also understood that their previous actions of the Beijing Film Studio had left a negative impression on Jiang Xian, especially the incident with Zhu Lin. Although Jiang Xian did not say anything explicitly, Hu Qiming knew that he must have some opinions about the Beijing Film Studio.

On the contrary, Shanghai Film Studio has been working closely with Jiang Xian in recent years. The first one was "The Garland under the Mountain" and the second one was "Furong Town", both of which were phenomenal movies. Once released, they quickly became a sensation in the entire film industry and became popular all over the country, making Shanghai Film Studio earn a lot of copies.

"Director Xu, you, the Shanghai Film Studio, have filmed so many of Comrade Jiang Xian's novels, you have to give us some of the spoils." Wu Tianming from the Xi'an Film Studio raised his opinion at this time.

"Yes."

The leader of Emei Film Studio followed suit and shouted, "Comrade Jiang Xian, you can't be too partial to one and ignore the other. We are not much worse than Shanghai Film Studio."

"Yes, yes."

Jiang Xian greeted the leaders of various film studios with a smile, but of course, they didn't chat much.

Today's main purpose is to meet and send out signals.

Besides, there will be a symposium later, so there is no time to really discuss anything in detail.

The afternoon seminar was more like a meeting.

Different from the grand event in the morning, the symposium in the afternoon was mainly focused on the jury and award-winning writers, and the topics of the symposium mainly revolved around the award judging process and the winning works.

"There was a big problem when judging the awards this year."

Kong Luosun, deputy director of the jury, recounted, "When the readers' votes were tallied, Comrade Jiang Xian actually had seven works at the top of the list! Each award is so valuable, and the public's voice is so loud, but it stumped our jury."

"Seven articles?!"

Many writers present gasped.

There are only fourteen works winning awards this time. If we really listen to the voices of the masses, wouldn't Jiang Xian alone take half of the awards?

"It is said that Comrade Jiang Xian, the selection director, is not afraid of the outside world's comments at all because he won two awards. In fact, Comrade Jiang Xian has made great sacrifices. If it were not for his style, we would have five fewer comrades sitting here."

At this moment, in front of many award-winning writers, many judges reviewed the judging process at the time, not shying away from their personal subjective opinions, and talked about the facts, which made many writers present listen with great interest. Even many writers who lost out did not feel resentful at all.

After hearing about the selection process and such inside information, I had great respect for Comrade Jiang Xian.

I originally thought that it was exaggerated and ostentatious enough for him to win two awards.

Only now do I realize that he can actually get seven!
Seven became two, that was a huge sacrifice and a great style.

"Will there be a collection of the winning works of our Lu Xun Literature Prize?" asked the youngest Tie Ning at this time.

She has only a few influential works and has published a limited number of works, so she is naturally very concerned about the opportunity of publishing each work.

"Of course it will be published." Cong Weixi, the head of Writer's Publishing House, replied.

It has become a common practice at every award ceremony to publish a collection of the winning works.

"Since you are all here, I also have an idea."

Cong Weixi said: "Our Lu Xun Literature Award is different from the Mao Dun Literature Award. We don't have as much prize money as the Mao Dun Literature Award. I wonder if we can find another way to compensate the winning writers."

"Another way?"

Everyone was stunned and looked towards Cong Weixi.

"When Comrade Jiang Xian published a novel at our Writers Publishing House, he suggested a method to me called the royalty system. This is a common payment method for the use of works in the international publishing industry. That is, the author is paid according to the sales volume of each book."

“Royalty system?”

Most writers are still very unfamiliar with this term.

When I heard the word "royalties", I thought it was some kind of tax. After listening to Cong Weixi's explanation, I realized that this is a way of settling royalties.

To put it simply, the publishing house gives you money based on how many books you sell.

Cong Weixi continued:

"I'm thinking that for this collection of award-winning works, why don't we also learn from Jiang Xian's royalty system and use the royalty method to settle the royalties for the writers? I wonder if everyone agrees?"

“Using the royalty method?”

The writers were stunned because they were unfamiliar with the royalty system and didn't understand whether this change was a good or bad thing.

Wang Meng, who is familiar with the royalty system, explained: "It depends on the sales volume of the work. Royalties are a risk-sharing between the publisher and the author. If the sales performance is good, the author can earn much more than the existing royalty settlement methods."

After Wang Meng's explanation, everyone quickly understood the account.

The better you sell, the more you earn!
The income level is simply not comparable to the existing basic remuneration plus the remuneration for the number of copies printed.

How could the sales performance of the winning collection of the first "Lu Xun Literature Award" be bad?
If it is changed to a royalty system, it will definitely make a lot of money!
The writers looked at Jiang Xian with gratitude again.

There's no way I can't be grateful.

They also gave up the award-winning spots to everyone and proposed a good thing called the royalty system.

However, Jiang Xian didn't care about these gazes at all at the moment.

All my attention was focused on the familiar sound in my mind.

"New synthetic routes revealed:"

“【Superfluous People】+【Inner World】=Short Story “???””

(End of this chapter)