1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 81 Jealousy

Chapter 81 Jealousy
On September 9, bursts of autumn rain fell from the sky from time to time.

Going east from Tiananmen Square and walking along Chang'an Avenue for more than 200 meters, you will reach the Working People's Cultural Palace. It was built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, it was the Taimiao of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and now it is a place for cultural activities for the people.

Today, in the cypress forest inside the South Gate, 7 exhibition and sales offices are lined up among the towering ancient cypresses with vigorous branches, displaying and selling books from 108 publishing houses across the country in a classified manner.

"We hold this national book fair to enrich the spiritual and cultural life of the people of Beijing, meet the needs of readers from all walks of life, and showcase the fruitful results achieved in national book publishing since F4!"

The staff of Xinhua Bookstore introduced Jiang Xian to them.

It is now called the National Book Fair, and later it was renamed the National Book Trade Expo, abbreviated as Book Expo.

"This time, in order to strengthen the relationship between writers, publishers, bookstores and readers, comrades from magazines and publishers in Beijing and other places will also go to the book market in batches to listen directly to readers' opinions and voices."

Of course there is no "Reading", "Qing", "Yi" or "Zhi" here, as they have not yet been published.

The earliest one was "Reader", which was founded in Gansu. From the beginning, it followed the path of the old American magazine "Reader's Digest". Not only were the content sections similar, even the name was "Reader's Digest". Later, it was sued by the United States and changed its name to "Reader".

At that time, Xinhua Bookstore was the main sales channel, but the person in charge of Xinhua Bookstore was not optimistic about Reader's Digest and asked directly: "What kind of magazine can you publish in Gansu?"

"Reader" particularly likes to mention this matter, making itself look like a victim and wanting to slap someone in the face, because the bookstore manager is a native of Gansu.

Facts have proved that this person really has a pair of golden eyes and can see through this group of monsters at a glance.

"Teacher Jiang!"

"Teacher Dening!"

Zhang Dening squeezed through the crowd and said, "Long time no see, are you feeling well?"

"I'm fine, how about you, Mr. Dening?"

"Me too." Zhang Dening smiled. "Your article "Furong Town" is really well written. Many editors in our magazine have read it and think it's good. They are all looking forward to the next issue."

"Really?" Jiang Xian scratched his head shyly, and suddenly he saw Editor Wang Fu standing not far away, with his arms folded across his chest, glancing over here from time to time, his eyes as if he was guarding against a thief.

"Writer Jiang, hello, hello." A young man next to him extended his hand.

Zhang Dening introduced: "This is our new editor of Beijing Literature and Art, his name is Liu Heng."

This guy Liu Heng is talented not only in writing novels, but more in screenwriting. "Assembly" and "The Flowers of War" are both works written by him.

"Hello, hello." Jiang Xian shook hands with him and learned from the conversation that Liu Heng was one year younger than him.

"You're so young, and you've already been hired as an editor for Beijing Literature and Art?"

"Don't praise me. You have already written The Chess King at your age, and it has destroyed a large part of the literary world. My work is nothing."

Liu Heng was also a good talker. Later, he was promoted to the chairman of the Beijing Writers Association. He gave a speech at the closing ceremony of the Writers' Congress, which was considered an inaugural speech. Many people were stunned and said: I only knew that Liu Heng was good at writing, but I didn't expect that this guy was so good at speaking as well.

What’s even more amazing is that later, a leader of the municipal party committee held a symposium, took out a notebook, and read aloud what Liu Heng had said, and said: Liu Heng has already said it very well, I just need to repeat what Liu Heng said.

"During your absence, our Beijing Literature and Art magazine has undergone quite a lot of changes." Zhang Dening revealed: "Teacher Wang Meng is now the deputy editor-in-chief of our company. He said that he would definitely ask you to write an article for him later."

"Cough cough." Editor Wang Fu coughed twice unhappily.

Just when I was feeling jealous, the book fair became chaotic, with crowds of people jostling each other just to catch a glimpse of the old writers.

Ye Shengtao, Zang Kejia, Xie Bingxin, Yan Wenjing, and Ding Ling. These five people probably need no further introduction.

The order of their names also represents the current status of these five people.

Ye Shengtao is 85 years old this year, but he is still in good spirits. After he spoke a few words, readers couldn't help but applaud him warmly.

The revolutionary poet Zang Kejia happily wrote a poem for the book market: "Looking at the enthusiastic smiling faces one after another, it's like the morning sun just rising. Although some of us are already in our seventies or eighties, we still want to live and write for another twenty years."

This old man is also a living fossil. When he was young, he had a relationship with the great "poet" Zhang Zongchang. Later, he served as the editor-in-chief of "Poetry Magazine". There is a famous poem in which the word "Yuan Chi La Xiang" was originally written as "La Xiang", which was changed by him.

In addition, as an old-school poet and a leader in the literary world, he opposed, and severely opposed, Misty Poetry.

In the 80s, Xie Mian Te admired Misty Poetry. This person, as a direct predecessor, wrote him a long letter, criticizing him fiercely. Most people probably don't know what happened later. The key word is cleaning up pollution.

Xie Bingxin, a 79-year-old children's literature writer, also wrote a poem for the book fair: "The book fair held by Xinhua Bookstore is a great encouragement and spur to readers, especially authors."

I won’t talk about this one anymore, it’s hard to discuss.

Finally, Ding Ling was left. She had been away from the literary world for 20 years and rarely appeared in public. However, many readers still recognized her and asked with concern, "How are you?"

The staff came over and gave each writer three commemorative bookmarks, and then said that they would give each writer a book for free.

Of course there is no payment for attending this event.

Signing autographs for readers is a way of getting close to the people.

Still want money?

Tui!

At this book fair, many books newly imported from abroad were sold, such as the Russian version of "The Complete Works of Lenin".

Jiang Xian looked at the translation labels and picked and chose, and finally chose a Russian version of "Crime and Punishment", printed by a Soviet publishing house, with a large cloth cover, illustrations, and a very exquisite reprint.

"Crime and Punishment" is a novel by Russian writer Dostoevsky. Although Dostoevsky is not a mainstream writer in China, his literary level is definitely among the best in the world, even slightly higher than Tolstoy.

33 years after this novel was published, the famous philosopher Nietzsche suddenly burst into tears while hugging a whipped horse, then fainted and went crazy, and never returned to normal until his death.

Strangely enough, in Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky's protagonist, Raskolnikov, once had a dream with the same scene.

"Writer Jiang, can you sign an autograph for me?"

"No problem." Jiang Xian took out a pen and quickly wrote a line of "I wish you good health".

Readers soon lined up in a long queue. This was Jiang Xian's first appearance in public, which caused quite a stir and the attention he received was in no way inferior to that of the five veteran writers.

"Writer Jiang, Writer Jiang, why do you write novels?"

“Because I don’t want to go to work.”

"Writer Jiang, I also want to write a novel. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I suggest you don't write it. You'll starve to death easily. Really."

"Writer Jiang, which novel's beginning do you like best?"

“Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.”

"Which novel's ending do you like best?"

“The Colonel Who Has No One to Write to, by Gabriel García Márquez, a Colombian writer.”

Just two words at the end: Eat s!

After signing for a while, the staff came to organize the writers to leave.

Jiang Xian was chatting with Zhang Jie when suddenly a woman in her thirties came up to him with a polite attitude and a sincere voice.

"Jiang Xian, can I talk to you?"