Back to 80: My Literary Life

In fact, Fang Minghua knew in his heart that Palladium wanted something from him, and it was probably the "The Legend of Wukong".

Sure enough, Fang Minghua followed Palladium to a lounge next door, and Xiao Dai, the deputy editor of "Harvest" magazine, also followed in.

After a few brief greetings, he went straight to the topic. Xiao Dai said: "Xiao Fang, the feedback from Xiangjiang about your book "The Legend of Wukong" is very popular, the sales are very good, and part of it has flowed back to the mainland. The response has been good. I discussed it with Mr. Palladium and thought it could be published in the Mainland, so I’m asking for your personal opinion.”

"Editor Xiao, when do you plan to publish it?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Of course, the sooner the better. We are about to publish a special issue of novels in the second half of Harvest, and we are going to include your novel in it. What do you think?"

After "Harvest" resumed publication, the magazine published two special issues on novels every year, featuring some influential domestic novels, and the response was very good.

Like "Wasted Years", "Northland Grass", etc., the reverse direction is very good.

However, Fang Minghua hesitated after hearing this.

Is the time not right?

It’s not even 1983 yet.

This "The Legend of Wukong" is not only a stream of consciousness work, but more importantly, it subverts the original work. Since it was not published at the beginning of the year, I might as well put it out again.

Seeing Fang Minghua's hesitant expression, Xiao Dai immediately asked: "What? Do you think it's inappropriate?"

"Mr. Palladium, Editor Xiao, I still suggest you put this novel away and publish it next year." Fang Minghua expressed his opinion.

"Why?"

Xiao Dai was surprised.

Before, you were in a hurry to publish and we wanted to suppress it. Now it's better, we want to publish, but you are not in a hurry.

And as a writer, who doesn’t want to have his work appear in front of a broad audience as soon as possible?

"I think the time is not ripe, and the atmosphere is not very good recently." Fang Minghua spoke hesitantly.

Not a good atmosphere?

Palladium, who had been silent just now, frowned, and he seemed to hear some overtones.

"Okay, let's let it go first." Palladium decided immediately.

After the matter was done, Fang Minghua left, leaving Xiao Dai and Palladium talking in low voices.

"Mr. Palladium, why do you think Xiaofang postponed the publication?"

"Didn't he say that the atmosphere has been bad recently?" Palladium Youyou said.

"Atmosphere? That's a public security issue. What does it have to do with culture?" Xiao Dai replied, suddenly thinking of something, his expression suddenly changed: "You mean it will involve the cultural field?"

"There are signs of this, but I'm not sure, but it's better to be cautious. Magazines should also pay attention."

"I see."

Fang Minghua continued to attend the meeting.

He originally thought that a seminar like this, where the writers would talk about their creative experiences, discuss writing techniques, etc., would be peaceful. Unexpectedly, the group discussion in the afternoon would be full of quarrels and gunpowder.

According to the meeting charter, Qin Province, Ningxia, Gan Province, Shencheng, Zhejiang Province and some editors were divided into a group in the afternoon. The topic discussed was "The role of Western modernist literature in today's domestic literature field."

When Fang Minghua saw this topic, he knew:

broken

I think everyone is going to have a huge quarrel today.

There is a social background here.

In the early 1980s, there were three major controversies in the field of domestic literature, and each time the literary world was full of quarrels.

The first of these is "The Debate on Western Modernist Literature"

What triggered the debate on Western modernist literature and art was the publication of the article "Modernization and Modernism" written by Xu Chi in the "Foreign Literature Research" magazine in 1982.

The focus of this article is on how literature adapts to and creates "modern" literature that matches today's large-scale modernization drive in our country. Because Xu Wen directly combined Western modernism with the future development of Chinese literature and art in the new era, it naturally aroused great interest.

For a time, supporters and opponents came to the battle one after another, and the domestic literary world was lively for a while.

Last year's "The Sun Also Rises" written by Fang Minghua, a stream-of-consciousness novel also belongs to the category of modern Western literature, has undoubtedly added fuel to this debate.

The controversy over his novels is actually part of this controversy, but as far as he is concerned, he only discusses writing skills and nothing else. He cannot avoid this kind of literary debate that will rise to a political level if he is not careful.

The same is true today.

The writers and editors who participated in the meeting were calm at first and quoted classics, but by the end they were red-faced.

Fortunately, there was no national abuse. After all, this was a seminar, not a market.

Fang Minghua and Lu Yao sat in the back row and listened to everyone arguing without speaking.

Old Qin people are not good at words, especially Lu Yao. Although his articles are sincere and his acceptance speeches are eloquent, he is not good at this kind of live debate.

Of course, it would be different if it were Jia Pingwa, who was very eloquent.

Fang Minghua decided not to participate. He didn't like this kind of argument.

What's there to argue about?

If you like it, just write it, if you don’t like it, just take it. Why do you have to convince others?

It's physically damaging and strenuous.

While drinking tea, he observed the debate among the participants. He quickly divided into two groups, one was in favor of this point of view, and the other had reservations or objections.

He discovered a very interesting phenomenon.

Most writers in Shanghai and Zhejiang Province agree with this view, while many writers in the northwest hold an opposing attitude, especially Zhang Xianliang, who has the clearest attitude.

A writer named Wang Weiming from Shanghai was very fierce in his words.

"Editor Zhang, I think you are biased against Western modernism! The modernist literary trend that is now popular in the domestic literary world in the West is by no means the product of a group of monsters making trouble, but an inevitable phenomenon in today's literary world. It is a symbol of literary history. A revolution!”

"Yes, I call it revolution!" Wang Weiming emphasized his tone and looked around with eyes that became more and more fierce.

"Modernist literature not only originates from reality, but also reflects the spiritual connotation of the sum of various material relationships. In a word, the future of domestic literature must belong to Western modernism!"

"Bah bang bang!" There was warm applause in the conference room.

"Sister Wang, what does Wang Weiming do?" Fang Minghua quietly asked Wang Anyi sitting on the other side.

Just like her name, Wang Anyi is gentle and quiet. She only occasionally speaks a few words and does not participate in the quarrel.

After listening to Fang Minghua's question, Wang Anyi glanced at the man wearing glasses and replied in a low voice:

"He is currently an employee of a state-owned factory in Shanghai. He likes writing and has just joined the Writers' Association. He has written the reportage "Our Generation" and the novel "Tonight I Can't Reject". He is very talented. He is deeply influenced by Kafka. "

oh.

The name Kafka is no stranger to writers in the 1980s. The Czech, along with French writer Marcel Proust and Irish writer James Joyce, is known as the pioneer and master of Western modernist literature.

Many domestic writers are deeply influenced by his writing style, such as Yu Hua, Liu Sola, Can Xue, Mo Yan, Ge Fei, etc.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Wang Weiming has such a view.

Kafka was originally a master of Western modernist literature.

Zhang Xianliang seemed a bit overwhelmed. He glanced at Fang Minghua, who was sitting silently in the back row, and motioned him to stand up and say a few words.

His tiny expression was caught by Wang Weiming, so he said with a smile: "Editor Zhang, did you ask Editor Fang to help? I'm afraid you asked the wrong person? Editor Fang is a recognized representative of avant-garde writers in our country, and avant-garde is originally Western Part of modern literature, he definitely agrees with me!”

Everyone looked at Fang Minghua sitting in the back row.