1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 580 Liu Xinwu, who apologizes with thorns on his back
Feng Jicai remembered the feud between Liu Xinwu and Jiang Xian very clearly.

Back when he was still unknown and Jiang Xian was just starting out, his groundbreaking work "The Chess King" was criticized by Liu Xinwu as "hooligan literature".

When Liu Xinwu coined the term "hooligan literature," the criticism of Jiang Xian became unstoppable.

Only Jiang Xian was tough enough to write this "hooligan literature" on his own, turning it into literature that no one could question anymore. If this undeserved disaster had befallen other new writers, wouldn't half the sky have collapsed?

As a close "comrade-in-arms" who had gone through thick and thin with Jiang Xian, Feng Jicai knew this matter all too well and remembered it all too vividly.

Therefore, upon seeing that Liu Xinwu had actually written a literary review for Jiang Xian, I couldn't help but double-check it several times.

"It really is him?"

"Did the sun rise in the west?"

Feng Jicai felt a strange unease and deliberately flipped to the page containing the literary review. It wasn't Liu Xinwu with the same name, but the same Liu Xinwu who wrote "The Class Teacher." The article had a short author introduction at the beginning, which was very clear.

Feng Jicai looked down:

"That was more than a month ago. I went to work at the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building in the Agricultural Exhibition Center as usual, and I unexpectedly ran into Wang Yidi, the editor-in-chief of Children's Literature, downstairs."

Old Wang said he wanted to see Comrade Jiang Xian, so I took him upstairs and inquired around. It turned out he wanted to get a copy of Jiang Xian's children's literature. This was the first time I'd ever heard anything about "The Little Prince."

Liu Xinwu's frankness explained that due to disagreements with Jiang Xian over a certain novel, as well as a lack of understanding of him, he was initially not interested in the children's literature work that Jiang Xian had commissioned to write. Not only was he not interested, but he also regarded the novel as a meaningless work by Jiang Xian.

Feng Jicai couldn't help but feel even more curious after seeing this.

Given this situation, Liu Xinwu should absolutely not have written a literary review of Jiang Xiandu's "The Little Prince".

If it were him, and he felt that a novel was poorly written, even if the novel might not be that bad, he wouldn't write a review for it.

Or is this literary review actually an aggressive one?

"No way"

Feng Jicai initially believed that Liu Xinwu's literary review was not an attack because it was published in Children's Literature along with Jiang Xian's novel The Little Prince.

Simultaneous reviews are common in literary journals. This is to prevent readers from not understanding the brilliance of the novel, or to build hype for the novel and strengthen readers' impression of it. The editorial department will invite some well-known literary figures to write reviews in advance, which will then be published with the issue.

For this reason, these comments are naturally all positive analyses.

Who would publish this novel and then attack it?

Isn't this a slap in the face to one's own publication?

Because Feng Jicai never even considered attacking the target in the first place.

But it feels very strange to read it now.

Judging from the opening paragraphs, Liu Xinwu doesn't seem to have a good impression of this novel.

With a sense of surprise, Feng Jicai continued reading.

After recounting the events at the beginning, Liu Xinwu began to talk about how he accidentally borrowed "The Little Prince" from a children's literature magazine, and his feelings after reading "The Little Prince".

"The little man from planet B612 in the novel examines the absurdity of the adult world with his childlike, clear eyes, which reminds me of my own novel of scar literature, 'The Class Teacher'."

When I wrote "The Class Teacher," I also presented social issues from a child's perspective. The difference is that Jiang Xian went further; he directly created a fairytale-like interstellar journey, allowing innocence and worldliness to converse on a cosmic scale.

"The Class Teacher" is Liu Xinwu's most famous work and also his most influential work.

This novel was incredibly famous at the time, and together with "The Wounded," it was considered one of the two major representative works of "scar literature."

Feng Jicai has certainly read this novel.

He still vaguely remembered the content of the novel, and indeed, as Liu Xinwu said, the novel did come into the students' view:

In the spring of 1977, Lao Cao, the Party branch secretary of Guangming Middle School, asked Zhang Junshi, the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Grade 9, whether he agreed to accept Song Baoqi, a petty hoodlum who had just been released from the police detention center, into his class.

Zhang Junshi accepted the task without hesitation.

He first learned about the student's situation from the Public Security Bureau, and then discussed the matter of accepting Song Baoqi in the grade group office.

The math teacher objected, expressing incomprehension that Mr. Zhang was letting a hooligan in while he was focusing on improving teaching quality, fearing that "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch."

Teacher Zhang stated that it was impossible to send Song Baoqi back to the police station now. Since he was the homeroom teacher, he would take action after Song Baoqi arrived.

On the other hand, before Teacher Zhang could even begin his work, Xie Huimin, the class's Youth League secretary, came to report to him that the students were reacting strongly to Song Baoqi's transfer to their class, and some of the female students said they wouldn't come to school tomorrow.

Xie Huimin was a simple, sincere, and well-behaved student. However, due to the amount of time and energy she devoted to social work, her academic performance was mediocre. Before F4, she was the class's Youth League secretary. I remember that at that time, F4 sent a liaison officer to Guangming Middle School. The liaison officer often talked to her, and afterwards, Teacher Zhang and she began to show some seemingly inexplicable contradictions.

For example, questions arose about whether group activities could include hiking, and whether female students could wear short-sleeved shirts in the summer. Even after F4 disbanded, the conflict between the two had not been completely resolved.

Upon receiving Xie Huimin's report, Teacher Zhang, the homeroom teacher, immediately convened a meeting with the class officers.

Xie Huimin proposed holding a criticism meeting for Song Baoqi after class tomorrow, using Song's belongings that Teacher Zhang retrieved from the Public Security Bureau as evidence to criticize his pro-independence ideology.

However, Teacher Zhang and she disagreed on whether or not to criticize Song Baoqi's novel "The Gadfly," which was found during the investigation of her crime.

Xie Huimin thought it was "pornography," while Teacher Zhang thought "The Gadfly" was a good book. In addition, he also noticed that Song Baoqi's copy of "The Gadfly" had its cover torn off, and the female protagonist in the illustration had a mustache drawn on her face.

Meanwhile, at Song Baoqi's home, Teacher Zhang had her first conversation with the student who would be attending class the next day.

Song Baoqi is all muscle, his upper lip was split during a fight, and his eyes are filled with emptiness and stupidity.

During the conversation, Teacher Zhang felt that Song Baoqi lacked basic political awareness and his knowledge level was only about that of a first-year junior high school student. He pronounced "gadfly" as "gadfly death," said that the book was stolen and he couldn't understand it, but he still believed that it was "pornography."

This gave Teacher Zhang a lot to think about.

People like Song Baoqi are not necessarily poisoned by reading toxic books; rather, they fall into the abyss of ignorance because they read no books at all.

On the other side, Xie Huimin had a fight with class monitor Shi Hong. Teacher Zhang rushed to Shi Hong's house. Shi Hong came from a cadre family and was influenced by the family atmosphere from a young age. She was a "little bookworm".

She invited Xie Huimin and other girls to her home to study together, but Xie Huimin thought that the foreign novels Shi Hong recommended were not recommended in the newspapers, so they were idiots. She not only refused the invitation, but also had a fight with Shi Hong.

When Teacher Zhang arrived at the Shi family's home, Shi Hong was reading the Soviet Russian novel "The Watch" under the lamp. The five female classmates who were listening intently were the ones who had threatened to strike if Song Baoqi entered the class.

After reading a passage, they eagerly asked questions: "Xie Huimin said we read DC, can this book be called DC?"

"Compared to the little rascal in this book, is Song Baoqi better or worse?" Then they told Teacher Zhang that they would not strike tomorrow.

After leaving Shi Hong's house, Teacher Zhang rode his bicycle towards Xie Huimin's house. When he arrived, his plan was clear: he would leave "The Gadfly" with Xie Huimin, guiding her to analyze problems correctly, and he would also conduct guided reading activities for the whole class, educating students including Song Baoqi.
Anyway, it's very sharp.
In terms of literary merit, it certainly lacks depth. Scar literature was selected based on contemporary events, and therefore quickly lost its appeal after that period passed.

However, Liu Xinwu is indeed right. If anyone in China has ever tried to analyze social issues from a child's perspective, he is definitely one of them.

Feng Jicai had not yet read "The Little Prince," but he was quite surprised to see that Liu Xinwu was actually inferior in this respect.

He knew Liu Xinwu; Liu was an extremely arrogant person.

How good must Jiang Xian's writing be to earn his admiration at this point?
Feng Jicai became even more curious about "The Little Prince" and quickly finished reading Liu Xinwu's literary review.

"When I closed the manuscript I had borrowed from Children's Literature, my thoughts remained unsettled for a long time. I never imagined that Jiang Xian's simple fairy tale could contain so many profound reflections on the essence of life."

For example, Jiang Xian's interpretation of the concept of taming in "The Little Prince".

The fox said to the little prince, “If you tame me, we will need each other. You will be unique to me, and I will be unique to you.”

Feng Jicai hadn't read the story yet, but he saw Liu Xinwu take out this sentence, read it several times, and felt that it was very profound and revealed the essence of life.

Liu Xinwu said that Jiang Xian's words revealed the true essence of relationships between people:
Through emotional investment and time commitment, we build irreplaceable connections with others.

But this connection is not a utilitarian exchange, but a mutual nourishment of the soul.

Unfortunately, nowadays, many interpersonal relationships are becoming increasingly superficial and instrumental, and we seem to have forgotten how to truly "tame" others and be "tamed" by others.

After telling the story of the fox, Liu Xinwu then talked about the rose.

He said that the relationship between the Little Prince and the rose is the most thought-provoking part of the whole book.

That rose was delicate, pretentious, and even a little vain, but the Little Prince still took responsibility for her because "it is the time you have spent on your rose that makes your rose so important."

Liu Xinwu wrote the following sentence: Love is not about finding perfection, but about choosing to persevere even after seeing imperfections.

He felt that Jiang Xian's hidden meaning was that more and more people nowadays give up easily when they are slightly dissatisfied with a relationship, but they do not know that true connection is deepened by embracing imperfections.

Feng Jicai was completely confused.

But he could sense from Liu Xinwu's words that he had truly gained some insight from "The Little Prince".

As he said at the end:
"When reading 'The Little Prince,' I felt as if I saw some of the persistence in my own literary creation. What resonated with me most was Jiang Xian's ability to transform childhood experiences into eternal wisdom."

I often return to my childhood memories to find material in my own creative process, but Jiang Xian does it so effortlessly.

Through the story of The Little Prince's interstellar journey, he revealed the most profound truth of life: "What is essential is invisible to the eye; it is only with the heart that one can see clearly."

A children's novel, this profound?
Feng Jicai was dumbfounded.

They are all adults, and they all have their own fixed understanding of the world, so when Liu Xinwu's literary review was presented to him, Feng Jicai was really dumbfounded.

No matter how you look at it, this is just a children's novel published in "Children's Literature".

Even if the author is Jiang Xian, this is still just a children's literature work.

So Liu Xinwu was able to analyze so much?

If it were anyone else, Feng Jicai would have guessed they were just exaggerating.

But Liu Xinwu
Are you kidding me?
Feng Jicai dares to guarantee that Liu Xinwu would never and absolutely never be a proponent of Jiang Xian. He is the kind of person who would resolutely criticize anything Jiang Xian wrote that he couldn't stand.

There is no doubt about this.

Then this "Little Prince" would be terrible.

Feng Jicai couldn't help but frown.

Make even your opponents unable to resist praising it.

So you can imagine how well this novel is written!

"Damn it, didn't you tell me it was a children's novel and not suitable for publication in 'Chinese Writers' magazine?"

Feng Jicai gritted his teeth and said something.

At the signing event in Haidian, he asked Jiang Xian to contribute an article on behalf of "Chinese Writers", but the deal fell through.

It wasn't that he was complaining that Jiang Xian wasn't being fair.

He had nothing to complain about.

Jiang Xian said at the time that it was a children's literature work, and he would give it to you if you wanted it.

It was Feng Jicai himself who said it was fine.

After reading Liu Xinwu's literary reviews, Feng Jicai felt a sense of unease.

He suddenly remembered how he used to co-write popular novels with Jiang Xian and earn royalties.

At that time, he and Jiang Xian co-wrote a novel called "Huo Yuanjia" and submitted it to "Story Club," a small magazine in Shanghai where no one was known at the time.

Although more than half of that novel was written by him, Da Feng.

But in the end, the whole story was told to him by Jiang Xian; he merely acted as a writer to complete the story.

Therefore, the credit for the well-written "Huo Yuanjia" should actually go to Jiang Xian.

This also reminded Feng Jicai of his deep regret.

"I should have thought of that earlier."

"Popular literature is written so well."

"How could children's literature be bad?"

(End of this chapter)