Literary Master 1983

Chapter 199: Commissioned Work
Wang Meng and Feng Mu looked at each other and felt the long-lost passion!
The advanced training class of Lu Xun Academy of Literature cannot be composed entirely of old men. There must be a recognized young teacher to add some vitality.

Look at what Yu Qie is doing in the New Reality Society! He has a theoretical level.

After the meeting, Wang Meng, Feng Mu and others went straight to Yu Qie and told him that the training class needed young teachers.

Yu Qie was quite surprised: many writers returned from advanced training courses, such as Su Tong, Yu Hua, and even later ones such as Guan Moye, Chi Zijian, Liu Zhenyun and others.

If I act as a guest teacher, won't these people have to call me "Teacher Yu" from now on?

That would make him a big name in domestic literature. No matter what kind of novel he writes, all of them are Yu Qi's disciples.

It’s exciting just thinking about it.

Ma Shi Tu was so happy!

Feng Mu, a man in his sixties, originally graduated from Lu Xun Academy of Literature. He shook Yu Qie's hand excitedly and said, "I was wrong about you. I originally thought you didn't have much theoretical knowledge... Now I realize that you do have theoretical knowledge, but it's too radical to be published in a journal."

Wang Meng also said: "Yu Qie, you should pay attention when you teach - I only have one request, you can criticize anyone, but don't criticize us old guys!"

Feng Mu nodded immediately: "Yes, that's right!"

Then they discussed how to get Yu Che into the advanced course of the Faculty of Arts. It was somewhat shocking that Yu Che became a teacher at the Faculty of Arts before he even graduated.

Wang Meng had already thought of how to deal with it: "Our advanced training class will be open for half a year. You can be an assistant teacher first, and also a teacher! If you win a literary award, you can become a formal teacher and get a salary of 120 yuan a month... Yu Qie, although your novels sell well, you lack some heavyweight honors."

That's right. The Mao Dun Literature Prize was originally awarded every four years, and even the National Excellent Short Story Award has a history of being awarded every two years, while the Akutagawa Prize next door is awarded twice a year - it is conceivable that too many works are published in the mainland, but too few honors are given.

The Writers Association was also aware of this problem, so in the following decade or so, it quickly launched a series of awards, including the Novella Award (85), the Lu Xun Literature Award (97), the Beijing Literature and Art Award (98), and the Lao She Literature Award (99).

Because the creation of the awards lags behind the works, some world-famous writers received their first literary awards from foreigners.

For example, Yu Hua didn’t win the Italian Grinzane Cavour Literature Prize until 98, when he had already been famous for who knows how long. Guan Moye’s first major literary award was the “Feng Mu Literature Award” (01)… yes, it was established by this old man Feng Mu.

However, Guan Moye was already somewhat famous, and he had sent several of his novels to Zhongshan and Harvest magazines. Eventually, Guan Moye won all the sleazy awards in the United States, Japan, Italy and other places, and finally won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2011, and then the Nobel Prize the following year - equivalent to a person who has just been approved to get a driver's license and then won the F1 world championship.

This leads to a bug: among the new generation of writers, many did not win any major awards during their peak creative period, making it impossible to judge their status based on awards, because all of them were zero.

Sales volume is precisely the least important part of the traditional literary evaluation system, and sometimes even a negative factor.

Everything comes back to the original question: Can Yu Qie win a major literary award?
Wang Meng can be said to have good intentions: if he takes it, he will be a formal teacher; if he "takes it", he will be an assistant teacher, which is actually also a teacher, but this can save Yu Qie some trouble.

Feng Mu was still thinking about Yu Qie's literary theory. He said, "Yu Qie, we haven't seen such literary insights for a long time. Since you have your own judgment on scar literature, you should write a paper and submit it to the Literary Gazette... I will give you the green light. I will publish whatever you publish."

“Is it okay to curse?”

"Of course not." "Then I can't send it."

Feng Mu urged Yu Qie to write a paper and revise the wording. If that didn't work, he could continue to use the pseudonym "Yu Shi", just like Wang Meng often used the pseudonym "Yang Yu" and Ma Shi Tu used the pseudonym "Ma Qianmu".

Everyone knows that it was written by Yu Qie, but it was actually written by the literary theorist "Yu Shi".

If you want to settle accounts, go find "Yu Shi". I am Yu Qie, I have never offended you.

Feng Mu had one more thing to say: "Yu Qie, Wang Meng and I both think that you have never written a simple and touching story. There are no big events or big characters in it... I believe you can write such an article."

Wang Meng interrupted, "He's right! It's like a rock singer who writes a lot of big songs and then has one or two representative songs, which are ballads. Can you write that?"

Yu Qie asked, "Is this a formal commission?"

"This is a commission! People's Literature is crying out for talent. I hope there will be some great works that live up to the name of this magazine."

Wang Meng's words were so strong and sincere that Yu Qie could not refuse. He entered a new period of novel creation and wrote a review article titled "Why Scar Literature Must Die".

In mid-November, Yanjing had its first snowfall. It wasn’t heavy, but it already made people feel the bleakness of winter. Unexpectedly, the snow kept falling. Snowflakes hit the gray tiles of Gulou Street in the evening, and turned into goose feathers the next morning. By noon, the snow had accumulated to half a foot thick. Then, neighbors rushed out of the courtyard with honeycomb coal tongs in their hands, looking for people to borrow coal.

The coal truck from the coal factory was also stuck at the entrance of the alley. The driver put his military coat under the wheel and yelled at the apprentice who was curled up in the passenger seat to warm his hands: "Go borrow a shovel! The radio said there was a cold wave yesterday, but you didn't believe it!"

The tofu stall next to the alley had a plastic sheet set up. The stall owner poked the coal stove with a fire hook, and the blue flames licked the bottom of the aluminum pot. From time to time, he lifted the lid and shouted, "Selling soy milk, selling soy milk!"

Suddenly, the aroma of soy milk presented visible warmth in the cold wind.

The children were very happy, playing in the snow, making snowmen, and being asked by their parents to shovel snow. Some children had read the comic book "Letter from the Fiancée" and asked their parents: "Shoveling snow is a battle! Won't you stand with me, Mom?"

As a result, he got a slap in the face and went to shovel snow obediently.

Zhang Li went to Huangshan for filming last month, and this month she has been traveling between Zhengding in Hebei Province and the capital. Rongguo Mansion and Ningrong Street have been built in Zhengding, and she is currently filming scenes such as "Daiyu Entering the Mansion" and "Empress Yuan's Visit to Her Parents."

She had nothing to do with the previous scene.

In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Daiyu and Baochai entered the mansion separately.

Therefore, she temporarily separated from her good friend Chen Xiaoxu. After much thought, Zhang Li returned home for two or three days.

Yu Qi knew that Zhang Li had returned, so he also came out of school and stayed at home.

These days, they all live in one house.

(End of this chapter)