Chapter 642: Misty Rain in Jiangnan

The weather in Xijing is getting colder day by day.

The mourning for Gu Cheng in the literary world soon came to an end. What everyone was interested in was the great discussion on "humanistic spirit". Various opinions were argued happily. Not long ago, the annual meeting of the National Society of Literary and Art Theory was held at East China Normal University. About 200 writers, literary critics and famous editors from all over the country came to discuss this issue.

The momentum was so huge that it was unprecedented in the past few years.

Shen Changwen, the editor-in-chief of "Reading" at the time, was also invited to Shanghai to participate in the discussion. He published 6 consecutive discussion drafts in "Reading" to report the content of this discussion.

The continuous discussion articles immediately aroused a warm response after being published in "Reading". The impact of this discussion was thus pushed to the whole country and soon became a "media event". Domestic and foreign newspapers and periodicals widely reprinted it, and Japanese newspapers also reported it.

Fang Minghua also received an invitation to attend the meeting, but he declined it because he was not feeling well recently.

However, at the same time, an invitation letter from Nanjing "Zhongshan" magazine aroused his interest.

The letter said that a "Realistic Literature Works Seminar" was planned to be held in Nanjing in mid-November, and Fang Minghua was invited to participate.

Zhao Benfu, then editor-in-chief of Zhongshan Magazine, personally called Fang Minghua, hoping that he could attend and invite him to make a keynote speech.

Zhao Benfu himself is also a writer. He has written novels such as "Swordsman and Woman", "Chaos World", and "Black Ant Blue Eyes", but his short story "A World Without Thieves" is familiar to later generations.

The copyright was bought by Feng Xiaogang and made into a movie of the same name, which received a huge response. Of course, this novel has not been written yet.

"Chairman Fang, I read the book "The Piano in a Factory" you wrote, and I like it very much. It is not just the writing method and narrative skills. I care more about the characters and stories in the novel. It strongly reflects the current reality. It is a rare realistic work, so I hope to participate in this meeting and discuss how to carry out realistic creation at this stage. ”

This is a good topic, much better than the empty talk of those people in Shanghai.

Fang Minghua accepted the invitation.

On November 10, Fang Minghua said goodbye to his family with his travel bag and boarded the train to Nanjing.

The train was running on the plains of Jiangnan.

After running for a day and a night, it was not far from Nanjing.

Although the current location is still north of the Yangtze River, Fang Minghua feels that he has arrived in Jiangnan.

It is early winter now, and the land in the north is always gray, like the color of the sky, but here it is still green, and it is drizzling outside the window, and it is blurred.

Under the mist and rain Jiangnan.

Although it describes spring, it is still very suitable for early winter.

The meeting place is Nanjing Hotel in Gulou District. It is said that the hotel was built in the mid-1930s. At that time, it was called International Party Club and designed by the famous architect Mr. Yang Tingbao.

Fang Minghua got off the train at Nanjing Station and took a taxi directly to the hotel. The hotel is not tall, only three floors, simple and elegant, and the name of the store is the inscription of Guo Moruo.

Fang Minghua went to the conference affairs group to report and stayed in a standard room. He took the room key given by the conference affairs group and went up to the second floor, and found that there was already a man inside.

"Teacher Fang, Minghua!" The man saw him come in, was stunned, and immediately greeted him with a smile.

It turned out to be Yu Hua.

"Yu Hua, what a coincidence? I didn't expect you to come to the meeting too." Fang Minghua greeted.

"Yes, I didn't expect it either. I heard that this seminar is mainly aimed at literary works that describe today's real society. I haven't written such a novel." Yu Hua said: "But since you sent me an invitation letter, I want to come and take a look. ”

“Your novel “To Live”, which was written in the 1980s, can barely be counted as a novel.” Fang Minghua said.

“Maybe. I have been writing novels for almost ten years, and this is the only novel that everyone knows.” Yu Hua said with a smile.

“To Live” became popular.

Since Zhang Yimou won the Golden Lion Award in Venice, the novel “To Live” immediately attracted the attention of domestic experts and readers.

Shengshi Books promptly launched promotional activities, held work seminars, reader meetings, and launched large-scale book signing and sales activities. The book became popular all of a sudden.

I heard Song Tangtang hold an internal meeting at Shengshi Group. Su Bin told her that “To Live” sold 100,000 copies in just two months, setting a record.

“Husband, the sales speed of your book “The Piano in a Factory” can’t catch up with Yu Hua’s book.” Song Tangtang said with a smile.

There is no way. These days, the effect of winning a foreign award is too strong, and Fang Minghua is ashamed of himself.

Of course, the book itself is also good.

“Hey, Yu Hua, have you bought a house? "Fang Minghua asked jokingly.

"I haven't bought it yet, but I've already picked one. It's in the Fangzhuang community you mentioned. It's a 90-square-meter three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment. Chen Hong and I are very satisfied. "Yu Hua's face was full of smiles.

Having my own home in Yanjing, this dream has finally come true.

"Minghua, thank you." Yu Hua's voice was full of gratitude.

"Thank you for what? You wrote the book, and the royalties are given by Shengshi Books. You don't have to thank me."

"Thank you for your guidance on the road of literary creation."

"Not to mention that you can still write well without my guidance, Yu Hua, I'm here for a meeting today, not to listen to you flatter me." Fang Minghua hurriedly stopped him.

Yu Hua smiled and didn't continue.

"Minghua, I just ran into Wang Anyi." Yu Hua suddenly thought of something and said.

"Sister An Yi is also here for the meeting? Where's Su Tong? Is he here this time?" Fang Minghua asked again.

Yu Hua shook his head: "I didn't see his name on the roster at the registration office."

Oh.

But that's true.

Su Tong's writing style changed from the avant-garde literature in the 1980s to the new historical novel after the 1990s.

Like the published "Wives and Concubines" and the later "Rice", they all belong to this category.

There are also Chen Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain", Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum", Ye Zhaoyan's "The Story of the Date Tree", Liu Zhenyun's "Revisiting 1942" and "Hometown Yellow Flowers" all belong to new historical novels.

Strictly speaking, Yu Hua's "To Live" also belongs to this genre, but I don't know why he was also invited to this meeting.

Is it because "To Live" is very popular now?

Of course, this is just Fang Minghua's personal guess.

At dinner in the evening, Fang Minghua met Wang Anyi.

"Minghua, this seminar should invite writers like you, I don't know why I was called here." Wang Anyi was a little helpless.

Wang Anyi's published works have obviously decreased in the past two years. It is said that she is writing a long novel behind closed doors.

After listening to Wang Anyi's complaints, Yu Hua smiled and said, "Sister Anyi, I am still the same. Whether in the past or now, what I write has nothing to do with reality."

After listening, Wang Anyi glanced at him and said, "Who made your book "To Live" so popular recently? I envy it."