Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 114: "Dwelling Narrowness", is it going to be banned?

Shan Yingqi of Chunfeng Press has been really “in high spirits” recently. After the release of Dwelling Narrowness at the end of January, although the book had a mediocre start due to the Spring Festival off-season, it achieved excellent results at the spring book ordering conference after the festival.

As of early March, the first print run of 3 copies of "Dwelling Narrowness" had been sold out, and orders for additional prints from booksellers from all over the country poured in like snowflakes to Chunfeng Publishing House. As the "number one contributor" to this novel, her status in the publishing house has significantly improved.

But on this day at work, Shan Yingqi was called to the office of the president Han Zhongliang, who handed her a copy of the "Literary Controversy" magazine and said, "Take a look at the editor-in-chief's recommendations for this issue."

"Literary Debate" is a heavyweight domestic magazine on literary criticism and literary theory. Its governing bodies include the Chinese departments of top universities such as Yanjing University, Fudan University, and Renmin University, and it has a certain weather vane significance.

Shan Yingqi opened "Literary Debate" and turned to "Editor's Recommendation", only to see an article titled "Snail House: Literary Mirror and Critical Blind Spots under the Nightmare of Urbanization".

The article begins with a threatening tone:

[Young writer Zhang Chao’s novel “Dwelling Narrowness” presents us with a disturbing literary landscape—a covert celebration of materialism, a vulgar deconstruction of the relationship between men and women, and an outdated criticism of urban life…]

[“Dwelling Narrowness” visualizes all the desires of urban youth into a house, ignoring the more complex and subtle aspects of human nature…]

The main part is a comprehensive denial of "Dwelling Narrowness":
[The couples in "Dwelling Narrowness" don't look like couples, and the lovers don't look like lovers. They are all like an accessory of the house, and they can give up family affection and love for the house...]

[In this novel, the only emotional description that makes people feel "settled" is the heroine Hai Zao and her lover Song Siming, because the bond between them is the strongest - house and money...]

[Zhang Chao tried to complete his literary "coming of age" by constructing a complex social narrative, but he inadvertently exposed his childish side. When he thought he had stood out from the array of youth literature, he was at a loss in the complicated maze of real society...]

The article also ends with a severe criticism of Zhang Chao:

[Zhang Chao, after he shed the immaturity on his literary face, what he revealed was not maturity, but vulgarity...]

[He is no different from his predecessors - Xiao Si and Han Han - except that he is more secretive...]

[From the novel "Dwelling Narrowness", Zhang Chao is still far away from the real "literary world". He is still an outsider. If he continues to regress, he will be further and further away from here...]

After Shan Yingqi finished reading it, Han Zhongliang asked, "What do you think?"

Shan Yingqi thought for a moment and said, "I think this is a relatively normal literary review. Although the criticism of Zhang Chao is a bit harsh, it doesn't seem to have an impact on our book sales, right?"

Han Zhongliang said with some regret: "You are still not sensitive enough!"

Shan Yingqi was confused and said, "Isn't it just a piece of literary criticism? Every writer has been criticized before. President, you are exaggerating a bit."

Han Zhongliang said: "It is normal for writers and their works to be criticized, but do you think it is normal for literary criticism to be negative without any positive criticism at all?"

Shan Yingqi was stunned, then realized that he had overlooked this point. Generally speaking, literary criticism also has to be principled. It is a basic social etiquette to affirm first and then deny. Even if 99% of the article is full of criticism, the first 1% should be polite.

In this article "Snail House: Literary Mirror and Critical Blind Spots under the Nightmare of Urbanization", the author seems to have some personal grudge against Zhang Chao, grabbing the hair and hitting him, with no moral ethics at all.

Han Zhongliang said, "Think about it again. Zhang Chao has been famous for a year. Has his name appeared in these mainstream literary theory journals before?"

These are the magazines that the company subscribes to for a long time. As an editor, I have to read almost every issue. Shan Yingqi thought about it and shook his head.

Han Zhongliang said: "It is very important for a writer to enter the field of literary theory with what kind of attitude. This article in Literary Debate is not an isolated case, but a direction. Zhang Chao will be impacted, and it is probably difficult for our publishing house to stay out of it. You should be prepared."

Shan Yingqi's face changed, and she trembled a little and said, "You mean, it might be... like in 99?"

Han Zhongliang nodded heavily.

1999 is a year that no one in Chunfeng Press wants to mention. That year, Chunfeng Press published the novel "Shanghai Baby" by Wei Hui, a female writer known as the "new generation of new humans". It sold 11 copies in just half a month, causing a sensation.

However, because "Shanghai Baby" contained some descriptions of human connections that were not excessive in retrospect, the book was soon banned from publication.

Chunfeng Publishing House was implicated and fined to suspend business for nine months. Suspension for nine months can be considered a devastating blow to a publishing house. Not only did all the books it was preparing to publish go to other publishers, but more importantly, it lost the trust of almost all the great writers at the time.

The trust of writers is truly the lifeblood of a publishing house.

At that time, Chunfeng Society owed tens of millions of yuan in foreign debt and had dozens of employees waiting for their salaries. It was in a precarious situation and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

After a few years, especially after signing Xiao Si and his "Fantasy City", Chunfeng Press gradually got rid of its difficulties. This also led to Chunfeng Press almost putting all its money on youth literature in recent years, and even established a special "Rag Tiger Studio".

In addition to Xiao Si, Chunfeng Press also signed Zhang Yueran's "Cherry Far Away", with a first print run of 20 copies, which sold out quickly. Although the final sales of this book were not as terrible as Xiao Si, it still made Chunfeng Press taste the sweetness.

Now Xiao Si has set up his own business. Although the publications of the "Island" studio are still placed with Chunfeng Publishing House, everyone knows that losing Xiao Si is only a matter of time.

Then selling Zhang Chao's novels naturally became the top priority of Chunfeng Press. "Dwelling Narrowness" lived up to expectations. After getting rid of the label of "youth literature", its sales volume still rushed towards one million. This was undoubtedly a relief for Chunfeng Press, which still had heavy debts. After all, Han Zhongliang didn't want to see a few debt collectors waiting in his office during the New Year.

However, this literary criticism cast a dark shadow over Chunfeng Society.

Shan Yingqi said hesitantly: "Are you...are you too pessimistic..."

Han Zhongliang sneered and said, "Pessimistic? Just wait and see. This criticism will only be the beginning, not the end."

Shan Yingqi said: "Well, then should we communicate with Zhang Chao and ask him to prepare."

Han Zhongliang sighed and said, "Don't put too much pressure on him... Maybe the matter is not that serious."

Shan Yingqi nodded, turned and walked out of the president's office, and began to consider how to call Zhang Chao.

"Literary Debate" was indeed just the beginning. In the following half a month, many domestic literature and art theory magazines and journals published a number of review articles against Zhang Chao, almost all of which were negative and aimed at "Dwelling Narrowness" -

[The narrow view of materialism in "Dwelling Narrowness" is a reflection of Zhang Chao's impoverished thinking...]

[“Dwelling Narrowness” is not worthy of being sought after by young people, and should not be…]

[Zhang Chao’s “anti-urbanization” thinking is causing great mental anxiety for the younger generation…]

[“Dwelling Narrowness” is merely Zhang Chao’s imagination and fabrication of society…]

……

When Zhang Chao received Shan Yingqi's call in early March, he had not taken the article in Literary Debate seriously. But the development of the matter was beyond his imagination. By the time he came to his senses, the literary theory community had already begun to criticize him.

Zhang Chao had to find time to re-read his own novel "Dwelling Narrowness". The more he read, the more confused he became. There was no extraordinary description in his novel that was worthy of such criticism in any aspect.

Even the part about connections between people is much smaller in scale than the works of many so-called serious literary writers.

But things were still getting worse - first, Zhao Changtian from "New Sprout" magazine called him and vaguely expressed his concerns about whether "Youth" magazine could be published smoothly, because he was also facing some pressure now, but he was not in a position to say what the specific pressure was.

Then came Chunfeng Society. On March 3, Zhang Chao welcomed an unexpected guest, Shan Yingqi, who appeared at his doorstep again. She was still dusty and exhausted.

Zhang Chao hurriedly welcomed her in, poured her a glass of water, and asked jokingly, "What brings you here? I don't have any books to sell recently."

Shan Yingqi took a sip of water, calmed down, and then said, "I want to show you something, don't be anxious after you finish reading it."

Then he took out a stack of papers from his bag and handed them to Zhang Chao. Zhang Chao took it and saw the bright title on the first line - Summary of Revision Suggestions for the Novel "Dwelling Narrowness".

As I flipped through the pages, I found one suggestion after another for revising the content of the novel, with details including page numbers and line numbers. There were more than 300 of them in total, which can be said to have been revised from beginning to end.

Some chapters even require direct deletion.

Zhang Chao only flipped through it briefly, then put it down and said with a gloomy face, "Are you going to force me to edit the book?"

Shan Yingqi sighed and said, "Our president was called to a meeting yesterday. When he came back, he gave me this document and asked me to come to Yanjing to discuss it with you."

Zhang Chao asked: "Whose idea is this? The relevant department?"

Shan Yingqi's expression turned strange at this time, and she said, "The president didn't say it explicitly, but I'm sure it wasn't. The president said that the other party meant that if you don't revise it according to the opinions here, then this book is likely, very likely to be discontinued."

Zhang Chao asked, "No follow-up, what does that mean? Can they ban the publication of this book? Are they that capable?"

Shan Yingqi said: "There are many ways to avoid this, not just the official route. It's okay, it's okay... For example, we can buy all the inventory of your book according to the expected sales volume and prevent it from being circulated on the market.

In short, they have many ways to do it, and we don’t know exactly what they will do when the time comes.”

Zhang Chao was stunned. He had never heard of this kind of operation before.

Shan Yingqi said: "If you modify it according to the suggestions here, the other party will give you a large reward. The other party didn't say how much, but it may be no less than royalties."

Zhang Chao asked: "So what does your Chunfeng Society mean?"

Shan Yingqi said: "We are under a lot of pressure now. The other party seems to have made a condition that is difficult for our president to refuse..."

(End of this chapter)