Chapter 657: A good serious novel turned into a pornographic book
Fang Minghua was just about to joke: "Ximi, you used to be a teacher, how could you recommend such a book?"
But see the author's name.
Wang Xiaobo!
Wang Xiaobo’s book?
Fang Minghua opened the catalog and took a look:
"The Golden Age", "At Thirty" and "The Years Go By"!
It was indeed written by Wang Xiaobo.
In the 1990s, there were two outliers in the domestic literary world, one was Wang Shuo and the other was Wang Xiaobo.
Wang Shuo laughs and curses in the literary world, and is known to everyone.
Wang Xiaobo is the opposite of him. He is unknown and never interacts with people in the literary circle. In his words: "He is just a maverick pig."
He was unknown before his death, but gradually became popular after his death. He is a great writer known to the world and regarded as a god by countless literary and artistic young people. Some people even claim to be "Wang Xiaobo's lackey," and even published a book called "Wang Xiaobo's lackey"!
His "Trilogy of Ages": "Golden Age", "Silver Age" and "Bronze Age", and the most famous one is "Golden Age".
Fang Minghua had read this book "The Golden Age" before he came to the Times. It is a novella with about 30,000 words. It was conceived by Wang Xiaobo based on his experience of "jumping in line" in Yun Province. This novel.
The novel tells the passionate "love story" between Wang Er, an educated youth who jumped in the queue in rural Yun Province, and a female doctor named Chen Qingyang through the light and dark lines of the male and female protagonists.
Later, he won the "United Daily News" Literary Award Novella Award, "the most influential novel in the forty years of reform and opening up."
Fang Minghua still remembers one of the passages.
“The sky is getting slightly late, and there are lazy clouds floating in the sky. The lower half is sinking in the darkness, and the upper half is still floating in the sunlight.
I was twenty-one years old that day. In the golden age of my life, I had many extravagant wishes. I wanted to love, to eat, and to become a half-dark cloud in the sky in an instant.
Later I realized that life is a slow process. In the process, people get older day by day, and their extravagant hopes disappear day by day, and finally they become like a beaten cow. But I didn't foresee this when I celebrated my 21st birthday. I felt that I would stay strong forever. You can’t hit me either.”
He quickly opened the book and found this passage.
Reading it now still makes people full of emotions.
Wang Xiaobo also wrote a preface in this book, which mainly talks about the creation process of "The Golden Age".
After graduating from college at the age of thirty in 1982, Wang Xiaobo taught at the First Branch of Renmin University of China. His life as a teacher was the writing background for novels such as "Standing at Thirty" and other novels. During this period, Wang Xiaobo began to write "The Golden Age".
In 1984, Wang Xiaobo followed his wife Li Yinhe to study at the University of Pittsburgh. A history professor named Xu Zhuoyun met him and read the first draft of "The Golden Age". He found it very interesting and decided to provide guidance.
It was not until 1992 that this novella was completed.
Xu Zhuoyun, who Wang Xiaobo has always been grateful for, was a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Pittsburgh. He later had another identity: the great-uncle of the famous singer Wang Leehom.
Why did the publishing house in Xiangjiang choose this name?
"Ximi, I just flipped through it. Although there are erotic descriptions in this book, it doesn't seem to be related to the romantic culture in the Xiangjiang book, right? Why did you choose this name?" Fang Minghua felt strange. .
"Isn't the romantic culture popular in Xiangjiang now? It's probably a gimmick by the publishing house to make the novel sell better." Chen Ximi explained.
this?
Fang Minghua suddenly couldn’t laugh or cry.
What was a serious novel turned into a pornographic book.
Chen Ximi said that Wang Xiaobo was also very unhappy after knowing the news, but he had no choice. If he wanted to publish in Xiangjiang, he had to listen to others.
"Ximi, how about I take it back first, then show it to the editor at Shengshi Books, and finally give you a reply?"
"Okay, take your time and read it, no one will publish it anyway."
After leaving Shi Tiesheng's home, Fang Minghua took this book with him. Returning to the General Political Courtyard at night, lying on the bed, Fang Minghua read it again.
After reading it, I fell into deep thought.
"The Golden Age" is undoubtedly a piece of educated youth literature, but it is completely different from previous educated youth literature. The author did not reflect a lot of pain and distortion in the work, nor did he reveal his resistance to politics. Through pure and absurd description, using "sex" as the intervention point, we complete our thinking about individual existence and the essence of life.
But the problem lies in "sex". There is a certain reason why Xiangjiang Publishing House can classify this book into the "Feng Yue Series".
However, Jia Pingwa's "The Wasted City" has been successfully released before, so this book probably won't be a problem.
I wonder what Su Bin thought after reading this book?
Fang Minghua suddenly wanted to go to Shanghai to meet Su Bin.
Besides, Shengshi Book Company moved to Shanghai to acquire land and build buildings in Pudong. Zhao Hongjun kept asking him to come to Shanghai to have a look, but he was too lazy to run away. This time he agreed to Zhao Hongjun’s request to avoid his old age. Chatting on the phone.
Now that he had decided, Fang Minghua called Song Tangtang the next morning and said that he was going to Shanghai and would be back in a few days. Then he called Zhao Hongjun's eldest brother and said that he was now in Yanjing and ready to come to Shanghai.
"Haha, you are finally here, take a look at our Shengshi Building!" Zhao Hongjun was very proud on the phone.
It turns out that after the Spring Festival last year, Zhao Hongjun bought a 20-acre piece of land near Lujiazui, Pudong, and built an 18-story high-rise building as the headquarters of Shengshi Group Building, which is expected to cost 110 million yuan.
In Zhao Hongjun’s words, except for a small part of the entire building used by Shengshi Group, the rest is ready to be rented out as office buildings.
Fang Minghua agreed.
It's not a big deal to have hundreds of millions in cash in your account, and domestic inflation has been severe in recent years. In 1993, the inflation rate was as high as 13.4%!
Money has depreciated so much that spending it is the right thing to do.
From the time of land acquisition to the start of construction, Fang Minghua had never come to see it, so he went to see it this time.
Farewell to Song Tangtang’s grandparents, Fang Minghua took the travel bag and boarded the train heading south.
Fang Minghua took the express train 13/14, which was rated as a "national red flag train". The service attitude was very good, no less than that of later high-speed trains.
What's more important is that he bought a soft sleeper, and a 14-inch Venus brand color TV was installed in the carriage, which is a great deal.
However, Fang Minghua feels that watching those boring programs on TV is not as good as watching the scenery outside the window.
Although it was an express, it took sixteen hours to arrive in Shanghai. It was already two o'clock in the middle of the night.
The current Shencheng Railway Station is no longer the old one, but was newly built in the late 1980s. Although it was midnight, the station was brightly lit and people were coming and going.
As soon as Fang Minghua left the station, he heard someone calling him: "Chairman Fang! Teacher Fang!"
Turning around, I saw it was Jin Bo.
Jin Bo is the son of Lao Jin, the original editor of Shengshi Books. After being recruited, he has been following Zhao Hongjun from Xijing to Hainan. After establishing a real estate company, he was transferred to serve as deputy general manager. Now after the real estate company has been cancelled, he has returned to When he went to the group headquarters and served as the director of the group office, he still followed Zhao Hongjun all day long. Now his home is simply in Shanghai.
"Teacher Fang, Mr. Zhao asked me to pick him up at the station." Jin Bo enthusiastically took the travel bag from Fang Minghua's hand.
"The room has been booked, I will take you to the hotel now."
Fang Minghua took the Crown car driven by Jin Bo and went straight to the New Jinjiang Hotel.
(End of this chapter)