Chapter 212 What hurts Feng Mutou
After New Year's Eve, from the first to the fifth day of the lunar month, the New Year celebrations were still the same. They put on new clothes and went shopping, and went back to my grandpa's house to visit relatives, but I didn't see Song Tangtang.
The girl went to Yanjing with her parents to celebrate the New Year.
Work officially starts on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, but there are only a few people coming to work from the workplace, and the New Year is not even over yet.
It’s like this every year, but watching the Lantern Festival Lantern Show on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month doesn’t end the New Year.
But the Writers Association Building in Taoranting Street, Xicheng, Yanjing, is very lively.
The reader voting phase of the 1984 short story selection event ended before the New Year, and now enters the next phase: members of the jury will review one by one, and combined with the reader voting, select the outstanding novels of this session. short story.
This is also a very arduous task. In order to announce the results of the awards in early March, except for director Palladium, the judges took sick leave. After the Spring Festival, everyone came to the Writers Association building and started working intensely.
The first is the short story awarding work. The judges analyzed the candidates one by one and put forward their own opinions. The discussion was very lively. Finally, the first, second and third prizes of this year were selected. Of course, readers’ votes are also very important. factor.
After five days of discussions and even arguments, 9 pieces including Shi Tiiesheng's "The Story of Queue Cutting", Tie Nian's "June's Topics" and Zou Zhian's "Oh, Little Stallion" won the Outstanding Short Story Award.
The jury decided to take a day off and continue with the novella selection event tomorrow.
During the afternoon meal, Feng Mu and Zhang Guangnian, deputy directors of the jury, each held porcelain bowls and sat at the dining table, chatting while eating.
The two are older, Feng Mu is 65 this year, and Zhang Guangnian is even older, already 73. The two have known each other for a long time. They knew each other during the "December 9th" student movement in the 1930s. Decades of friendship.
In January of this year (1985), at the 4th Chinese Writers Association Conference, he was also elected as the Vice Chairman of the Writers Association.
"Old Feng, the selection of short stories this year is going relatively smoothly. I hope the selection of novellas will also go faster. At my age, I have been like this for several days in a row, which is a bit overwhelming." Zhang Guangnian was eating. Said the side.
After hearing this, Feng Mu smiled bitterly and said: "Guang Nian, you have to be mentally prepared this time. The previous selections of novellas have been more fiercely debated than short stories. What's more, there is a very special novel this year?"
"Special?" Zhang Guangnian was stunned for a moment, raised his head and looked at the other party, and suddenly thought of something: "You mean the article "Rural Teacher", right?"
"Yes. There were many votes from readers, as high as 300,000. It has the highest number of readers' votes in history, but it doesn't look like a serious novel. Do you think it gives you a headache? This Fang Minghua always gives people problems. Among the top 20 most voted novels, three of his were included! It was a headache, and in the end I had to discard two of them, but it turned out to be a science fiction novel with the highest number of votes.”
Speaking of the latter part, Feng Mu couldn't help but shake his head.
Why do you have the highest number of votes?
This was a bit unexpected for him.
When the initial review committee asked him to decide whether this science fiction novel was eligible to participate in the competition, he agreed with a stroke of his pen, which resulted in the current situation.
Do you feel a little regretful?
Zhang Guangnian laughed after hearing this: "Don't tell me, this Fang Minghua can really mess around. You know, he was also one of the judges at the second new poetry collection selection meeting in October last year, and he criticized Lao Ai at the meeting I simply can’t stand down.”
Zhang Guangnian not only wrote novels, but was also a poet. He once wrote poems such as "Yellow River Cantata", "Flowers of May" and "Qu Yuan".
The "Yellow River Cantata" was composed by Xian Xinghai and became widely circulated in later generations.
Hearing what Zhang Guangnian said, Feng Mu said: "I have vaguely heard about this matter. Lao Ai is indeed a bit unethical. I don't like hazy poetry, but I can't use it for personal gain, right?" "Yes, The judges are all human beings, and they all have their own preferences, so they will inevitably bring these into the selection process. It’s normal.”
Feng Mu was a little silent after hearing this. He took a bite of the vegetable with a small spoon and put it into his mouth, eating it slowly.
After a while, he lowered his voice and said: "Guangnian, let's talk privately, what do you personally think of this science fiction novel?"
Zhang Guangnian just picked up a steamed bun, and after hearing this, he put the steamed bun away again Put it in a bowl and said: "To be honest, I haven't done much research on science fiction, and I don't know much about it, but I like this article very much."
"Why?"
"Because I used to be a teacher."
Feng Mu knew this part of his history. It was still in the 1930s. In 1931, he entered the Chinese Department of Wuchang Zhonghua University (now Central China Normal University), and later dropped out. He taught at Wuchang Anhui Middle School and wrote the famous patriotic song "Flowers in May".
"Our country is still relatively poor and has insufficient investment in education. In the central and western regions, there are many teachers like those described in novels. It can be said that they support the most basic education in our country! But how much does society care about and understand them? ? From this perspective, if this novel wins the award, it will undoubtedly be the best publicity for this group!"
Feng Mu nodded silently after hearing this.
Lowered his voice and said: "Guangnian, I mean the same thing, but you also know that there is a great prejudice against science fiction in society today, especially that person."
"That person." He is indeed a great scientist with outstanding achievements, but that doesn’t mean everything he says is right! If everything has to do with politics, it would be very naive! If it had been the year before last, I would have made a mistake." Feng Mu joked.
"But it's not 1983 anymore, it's 1985."
Both of them laughed.
The next morning, the awards for outstanding novellas began.
According to the rules, the 17 judges each commented on the candidate novels, and based on full discussion, the final vote was taken.
Then, a total of 20 outstanding novellas from the past two years will be selected based on the judges’ votes accounting for 70% and the readers’ votes accounting for 30%.
Acheng's "The King of Chess" Zhang Xianliang's "The Greening Tree" Zhang Jie's "Emerald" Feng Jicai's "The Divine Whip".
These popular novels have been published one after another in the past two years and discussed one by one. Although there are some disputes, everyone's Comments are still relatively centralized and unified, either selected or rejected.
The meeting lasted for five days. After repeated discussions and final voting, all candidate novels were basically passed through. Finally, the top 20 novellas will be ranked according to their comprehensive scores.
In the afternoon, the meeting continued.
“Comrades, now we discuss the last novel in this candidate list, "The Rural Teacher", and please express your opinions."
After Feng Mu, who was the host of the meeting, finished speaking, unlike other novels where someone immediately spoke, there was a quiet and strange feeling.
(End of this chapter)