1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 368 [Reality Show] + [Survivor]

The venue was crowded with people.

Jiang Xian took a special look and saw that all the faces were foreigners, and very few Chinese people. Even Wang Anyi, who was always keen on participating in various literary reports, did not show up.

in the country, science fiction is not yet mainstream.

The magazine Science Fiction World, which later became famous, could not survive in the early 80s and could only operate in a dismal manner.

After all, the spaceships, wormholes, aliens and time travel in science fiction are too far away from China, which is now in a state of disrepair.

Imagination? This thing is far less important than the more realistic things of having enough food and clothing.

But in the United States, with the post-war economic recovery, the development of science fiction reached a real climax starting in the 1970s.

According to statistics, between 1972 and 1978, the number of hardcover science fiction novels increased from 103 to 412 per year, and the number of paperback novels increased from 235 to 777, of which about half were new works and half were reprints.

In addition, 1976 science fiction novels were published in the United States in 1189 alone.

This means that for every eight or nine new books published during the year, one is science fiction.

Jiang Xian found it very interesting when he thought about it.

It is now 1983, and the country is studying how to film "Dream of Red Mansions". But who would have thought that six years ago, in 1977, the United States had already released the greatest science fiction movie in history, or even the greatest movie - "Star Wars".

Also in 1977, a legendary director Steven Spielberg completed his science fiction tribute "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

There is no doubt that the 70s in the United States was an era when a craze for science fiction was sweeping the country, an era when individuals went crazy for science fiction.

"Hey, Jiang!"

Danica, a female writer from East Germany, greeted Jiang Xian and said, "I didn't expect you to come. Are you Chinese also interested in science fiction?"

"Of course, we also have science fiction novels, but most of them are popular science novels," said Jiang Xian.

The most famous science fiction writer in China today should be Mr. Ye Yonglie.

Mr. Ye Yonglie knows all about it, right?
He is the main author of "70 Whys", which is a national reading material for those born in the 80s and s.

Ye Yonglie was not satisfied with writing "One Hundred Thousand Whys", so he later wrote another article "Little Smart Wandering in the Future".

As a result, because the future life described in the novel did not match reality, it was delayed for more than ten years until it was finally published in 1978.

However, we cannot directly classify Mr. Ye Yonglie as a science fiction writer. After all, he writes more biographical novels.

"Heinlein is not something I'm interested in."

Danica sat down next to Jiang Xian. "I've read his novels a few times. They're long and boring. I'm more interested in Jules Verne. Do you know Jules Verne?"

“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Mysterious Island, Around the World in Eighty Days.”

"Yes, that's him."

"His works are really beautiful," said Jiang Xian.

These three novels were such a chore that he couldn't put them down when he was a child.

Jiang Xian and Danica arrived relatively early, and soon, most of the seats in the venue were occupied. A white guy carrying a bag walked to the seat next to Jiang Xian. He wore glasses and had many freckles on his face.

"Hello, is there anyone here?"

"of course not."

The young man sat down next to Jiang Xian and Danika. He looked a little shy, like a stranger. This surprised Jiang Xian. It seemed that not all Americans were social bullies.

Jiang Xian and Danika talked in low voices, and the young man silently took out a book "Time Enough for Love" (Robert Heinlein) from his bag.

Jiang Xian took a glance and took the initiative to talk to him.

"Crab No Meat, are you a student at the University of Iowa?"

The young man nodded, "Yes, my name is Adam."

"Hello, Adam, I'm Jiang, and this is Danica." Jiang Xian introduced.

"Hello, are you international students?" Adam asked naturally.

"I'm not." Jiang Xian said with a smile.

“Then you must be loyal readers of Heinlein,” said Adam.

“Actually, no.”

Jiang Xian smiled and shook his head. "I've only heard of his name, and haven't read much of his work. I just came here to listen."

"I see."

Adam scratched his head with a grin, "I have been reading his novels for many years. I have read all of Robert's novels."

"Really? Oh, I guess you must be very familiar with Heinlein." Jiang Xian complimented with a smile.

"so far so good."

"Adam, please introduce him to us." Danica winked.

"As you can see, we don't have much insight into science fiction," Jiang Xian said with a smile.

Adam swallowed hard, unable to hold back his desire to share any longer. He had wanted to talk about it ever since he heard Jiang Xian and Danika discussing science fiction novels. Now that he had the chance, he immediately started talking to them nonstop.

"Heinlein is the greatest science fiction writer, and his writing style is epoch-making!"

"While other novelists still spent a lot of space introducing the setting, Heinlein began to directly present a future world as if it really existed."

"All science fiction writers today are consciously or unconsciously imitating Heinlein."

"."

Jiang Xian and Danica listened with great interest.

Both of them were relatively new to science fiction, but after listening to Adam's introduction, they had a better understanding of the writer Heinlein.

After a while, the venue fell silent, and a white-haired old man appeared on the stage. He was wearing a jacket, had a hunched back, and bright eyes. He looked more like a soldier than a writer.

"Robert!"

Adam clapped excitedly.

As the applause died down, Lambert began to greet the students and then talked about what he would be talking about today - futuristic novels.

For a long time, the public has been confused about the definition of science fiction.

Let’s just talk about Star Wars. Is the supernatural power called The Force considered science fiction or fantasy?

Strictly speaking, this type of work should be classified as space opera.

However, the public is accustomed to calling it "science fiction."

As for futuristic fiction, it was very popular in the 50s and 60s and it led to the development and changes of science fiction.

Previous novels tended to set the background in a supernatural world, while futuristic novels describe the future extensively and directly predict the future society. Speculation about future things is the core of this type of novel.

"Let me give you an example."

Heinlein smiled as he sat in his seat and said, “In late 44, a futuristic novel was published in the United States.

This is a fairly mundane novel, but it contains an accurate description of an explosive that can release enormous amounts of energy through a nuclear fission reaction, causing enormous damage and destruction.”

"Atomic bomb!" someone shouted.

"That's right." Heinlein continued, "This novel immediately caused a strong shock in the military, and the military quickly launched an investigation. The conclusion of the investigation was that there was no leakage of secrets in the Manhattan Project, and the description in the novel was just a lucky 'guess' by the author."

"."

There was a burst of exclamations from the audience.

After Heinlein finished speaking, the students in the audience began to ask questions. Because it was about science fiction, the questions were rather fanciful, and they even asked about time travel.

On the topic of time travel, Heinlein told his students about the grandmother paradox.

"Grandmother paradox? What does that mean?" Danica was confused.

"If you go back in time and kill your grandmother, then who will be your mother in the future? Then who killed your grandmother? These questions are logically inconsistent, so they are called the grandmother paradox." Jiang Xian explained to her.

"Jiang, you know a lot." Danika was surprised.

"Anyone who knows a little bit about science fiction knows all of this."

Jiang Xian glanced at Adam with a smile, "Adam must know more about this."

"Ah? Haha." Adam was suddenly praised like this and felt quite uncomfortable. He scratched his head awkwardly, "I also learned about it not long ago. I just wrote a futuristic novel not long ago."

"Is it?"

Danica looked at Adam in surprise, "What are you talking about?"

"It's related to time travel, and I submitted it to Simulation Science Fiction and Reality. They held an essay competition, and the first prize is a full 30,000 US dollars!"

"what? What?"

Jiang Xian suddenly became interested. "What do you mean by 30,000 US dollars? I mean, what essay contest?"

"'Simulation of Science Fiction and Reality', don't you know it?" Adam asked back, "My God, it's one of the most famous science fiction magazines in the United States."

"I'm not American." Jiang Xian shrugged.

Adam then introduced him to the magazine "Simulation Science Fiction and Reality".

This magazine was called "Amazing Stories" in the past. It has cultivated a large number of science fiction writers. Many science fiction masters became famous by contributing to this magazine, including Heinlein on the stage.

Unfortunately, in the late 50s, many magazines disappeared, the book market continued to shrink, and with the Soviet Union's artificial satellite launched into space, science fiction was suddenly surpassed by reality.

At the same time, the creations of those science fiction masters also reached a period of stability. Heinlein's works began to express a lot of social and political views, Asimov began to write popular science articles, and the taste of "Amazing Stories" magazine in selecting novels gradually failed to keep up with the times and went into decline. It changed its name to "Simulation Science Fiction and Reality".

Starting from the 70s, a new trend of science fiction emerged and a large number of science fiction magazines began to emerge.

This essay contest is a means for the magazine "Simulated Science Fiction and Reality" to improve its quality and inject fresh blood, which is also what most science fiction magazines are doing nowadays.

Jiang Xian was very interested in this essay contest. After the report, he asked Adam some more details before saying goodbye to him.

"Jiang, are you going to write a science fiction novel?" Danica asked curiously, "Don't waste your time. You just heard Heinlein talk about it. He was an engineer, so he was very familiar with the forefront of science. This was the basis of his creation."

"I don't think this is a category that cannot be written. Do only scientists can write science fiction? Yes, I don't understand these things, but I can learn about them."

"You're so stubborn." Danica rolled her eyes.

Jiang Xian chuckled, "Danica, science fiction is not written for scientists, just like ghost stories are not written for ghosts."

“You Chinese people always seem to be full of confidence.”

not far away.

Heinlein, who had just finished a lecture, was walking down the stairs, thinking about his report at the University of Iowa tomorrow. He was not going to just come here to give a lecture and leave, but would stay in Iowa for quite a while.

At this time, I heard a conversation between a man and a woman.

".
Science fiction is not written for scientists, just as ghost stories are not written for ghosts.

"

Heinlein turned his head and looked down the stairs, catching a glimpse of a young Chinese face.

"Interesting." He murmured.

On the way back, Jiang Xian still took the school bus.

Danica sat with Jiang Xian. She was a chatterbox and complained about those West German writers.

Jiang Xian was absent-minded, looking at the round setting sun outside the car window and thinking about the essay competition.

Of course he couldn't miss this competition. The 30,000 yuan first prize alone was enough to tempt him to write a science fiction novel.

That’s a $30,000 bonus!

He has never earned so much from all the novels he wrote in the country!
But what to write?

When it comes to science fiction novels, Jiang Xian is most familiar with "The Three-Body Problem", but the story of "The Three-Body Problem" is obviously beyond the current era.

Thinking about Heinlein's futuristic novels.

“Future society.”

Jiang Xian had a flash of inspiration and immediately thought of a best-selling science fiction novel.

So I immediately used the independent synthesis times that I had saved for several months.

Start experimenting in your mind.

When I typed in the two inspirations "reality show" and "Survivor", a crisp sound came into my mind.

"Synthesis successful!"

nailed it!
He was determined.

With the quality of this novel, Jiang Xian felt that he would easily win the first prize in the essay competition held by the magazine "Mock Science Fiction and Reality".

You know, the novel he compiled was once selected as the best read by the New York Times that year.

After being adapted into a movie, the pre-sale box office exceeded that of "Twilight" and the box office on the first day exceeded that of "The Dark Knight", breaking many records and finally grossing $700 million worldwide.

"River!"

As soon as he returned home, Jiang Xian saw Hamilton sitting in the living room.

As soon as Hamilton saw him, he stood up excitedly and walked towards him, "I've read your novels. The Drifter is really amazing. Your talent is amazing."

The literary talent revealed in the novel "The Castaway" is rare in Hamilton's life.

This reminded him of Stephen King.

It's a pity that Stephen King's talent is now controlled by his agent.

American writers' writing has been ruined by this agent mechanism.

This is something that made Hamilton very angry.

These agents will control the author's plot direction, down to the specific page where a climax or a punch line will appear, and all turning points, laugh points, and tear points must be planned.

The story is very "routine".

"Hi, Hamilton."

Jiang Xian greeted him warmly.

"It looks like we can have a good talk about royalties this time."

(End of this chapter)