Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 406 Philosophy, understand a little bit
Looking at the street with light rain outside, Mo Yan was also very depressed. Before he came, he had a good idea and was ready to experience the exotic scenery with Yu Dong and the others.

He delayed going to the unit to report to Europe.

But after I came here, I realized that it would be better to steal cucumbers in Jinling and eat them.

Moreover, the three of Yu Dong and the others all brought their family members with them, and he was the only one. Against the background, he seemed particularly lonely.

If Yu Dong and the others hadn't brought their family, at least the four of them could have a table with them at night, and it wouldn't be too boring.

"Let's go to Paris tomorrow."

Seeing that everyone was not satisfied with the weather in London, Yu Dong proposed to go to Paris tomorrow.

In fact, they didn't plan to stay in the UK for a long time, and they had nothing special to do here. They had met Rowling before, so it didn't matter if they left sooner or later.

Yu Dong's proposal was quickly passed unanimously, and everyone else hoped to go to Paris as soon as possible.

Originally, Yu Dong planned to leave in the afternoon and go to Paris for dinner, but Mo Yan and the others argued not to waste time, so everyone boarded the car to Paris early in the morning.

At noon, they arrived at the hotel.

The summer in Paris is also not hot, and the sun is still hanging in the sky, and there is no rain, which is much more comfortable than London.

In fact, there are many rainy days in Paris, but it seems that they are lucky, and they encountered a sunny day just after coming here.

The hotel they stayed in was next to the Seine River.

After having lunch at the hotel, several female relatives took Yu Haiguo to bask in the sun on the hotel's large balcony.Standing on the balcony, you can see the boats passing by on the Seine River and the sparkling water, and when you look up, you can see the Eiffel Tower standing not far away.

This big iron tower, which was disliked by countless writers, is less than one kilometer away from the hotel. Sitting on the balcony, it feels like it is right in front of you.

Yu Dong and his men had no time to enjoy the beautiful scenery with the female relatives, so they rushed to Actes Sud Publishing House after lunch.

When seeing Yu Dong and the others, editor-in-chief He Biyu was very happy.

"I originally said I would have to wait a few days to see you, but I didn't expect you to come earlier." She said, looking at Mo Yan again, "When you came last year, you said you would bring Mo Yan, but I didn't expect this year really brought it."

He Biyu excitedly found chairs for Yu Dong and the others, and poured a cup of tea for each of them. After finishing her work, she sat down in front of the three of them, "The tea here is definitely not as good as that in China, so just drink it."

Yu Dong took a sip and said with a smile, "This tea is very good."

"It's really good." Mo Yan also nodded.

"Thank you for your compliments, but I don't believe it, haha." He Biyu smiled brightly, got up and took out a few books from the table.

Yu Dong and the others didn't understand French, but they still roughly recognized what these books were.

"Alive" is best recognized, because the cover is Gong Li.

Followed by "Red Sorghum", the cover is also Gong Li.

Publishers are very interested in movies. As long as it is a book that has been filmed, they all like to use the stills of the movie as the cover of the book, hoping to gain more sales by taking advantage of the movie.

He Biyu smiled while holding the book: "This is the design of the new edition of the series, and it hasn't been finalized yet. It just so happens that a few of you are here, take a look and give your comments."

Yu Dong and the others felt a little embarrassed when they took the book, because they didn't know French, so they couldn't produce anything except the picture on the cover.

So, soon Yu Dong and the others returned the book.

"We can't see anything." Yu Hua shrugged innocently, "I don't think it has changed much from before."

"Forget it, forget it, it's useless to show you." He Biyu put the book back on the desk with a smile again.

In fact, she didn't even think about what opinions Yu Dong and the others would raise. Although the design of this new series of books had not been fully finalized, it was almost done. Even if Yu Dong and the others raised any opinions, it would not be easy to revise them.

The reason why I showed them the book is to show them that the publishing house attaches great importance to their works.

In fact, Actes sud does take this series seriously.

It was He Biyu who decided to publish this series of books. The reason why the upper management agreed to publish this series of books was that He Biyu had just arrived, so she must not be chilled, and she must be given some support. Second, it was because of Yu Dong, After all, Yu Dong was already very famous in France at that time.

But they didn't expect that this set of books would sell so well, which completely exceeded their expectations.

Especially "To Live" and "Westward", these two books often squeeze into the top positions of the sales list.

The best-selling of "Xiang Xi" was within their expectations. After all, Yu Dong's reputation was there. As long as the fans of "Resident Evil" and "Second World" switched a little bit, it would be a lot of sales.

And "Alive" greatly exceeded their imagination.

Even though the novel has been published in France for more than a year, "To Live" still sold 10,000+ copies last month.

The sales volume of "Frantic Finger" and "Red Sorghum" is slightly weaker, but the performance is not bad. These two books are still selling tens of thousands of copies every month.

Sometimes when "Red Sorghum" breaks out, it can sell [-] to [-] copies a month, which is higher than the sales volume of many new books.

So overall, the sales volume of this series of Chinese literature is very impressive.As a result, the publishing house naturally paid more attention to this series of books, and they planned to publish more than ten books in this series within the next year.

For example, Yu Dong's "The Crowd" and Yu Hua's "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" are already in the plan, and the French versions are also being translated and will be released in a short time.

"This time you come to Paris, you should have a good time for a few more days. Would you like me to accompany you around?" He Biyu smiled.

Yu Hua waved her hands again and again: "How can this matter bother you, the publishing house is so busy, you can't leave."

"I'm not too busy..." After thinking for a while, He Biyu asked again, "How long are you going to stay in Paris?"

"I'm not sure yet, it depends on the situation. When we come to Europe this time, we mainly go to Rome. We will go there when Rome is almost done." Yu Dong said.

"I know, it's about the movie, I heard people from Deep Space Company say that you wrote a script for Giuseppe." He Biyu nodded: "If you can stay here for a week, you can Consider attending a literary exchange."

"Literary exchange meeting?" Bi Feiyu was a little surprised, "It's not the time for the literature festival, what kind of exchange meeting is it, and is it on a large scale?"

Most of the cultural activities in Europe are concentrated in spring, like March and May.

For example, at the St. Malo Literary Festival in May, the organizers invited Yu Dong and the others, but they were busy with the Deep Space Short Film Contest at the time, and they were about to graduate, so they declined because they didn't have time to come.

For example, well-known events such as the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Paris Book Fair are also held in spring.

"It's not a large-scale literary exchange meeting, and not many people participated, mainly writers and publishers from Paris and Oslo. Do you know Jostan Judd?"

"Of course I know, the author of "Sophie's World"." Yu Dong said.

"Well, he will also be present at this exchange meeting. I heard that he is planning to set up a foundation. They have already held one in Oslo. Of course, this exchange meeting is not specially opened for his foundation. There is no special theme, if you are interested in chatting, I will tell them about it." He Biyu said.

Yu Dong looked at Yu Hua and the others, they all shrugged and said they had no objection.

"Well, it depends on the situation. If there is nothing else at that time, let's go and have a look, how about it?"

"No problem, just go there when the time comes. Actually..."

He Biyu wanted to continue, but someone knocked on the office door.

Everyone turned their heads and saw a middle-aged man with brown hair.

He was surprised to see Yu Dong and the others, "Editor-in-Chief, you have a guest here."

He Biyu smiled and said to him: "Andrew, you came just in time, let me introduce you..."

Afterwards, He Biyu first introduced Yu Dong and the others to Andrew in French.

Hearing that it was Yu Dong and Yu Hua, Andrew showed a pleasant expression. The Chinese literature series is the main plan of their publishing house in the near future. Of course he knows the authors of the series. He has always wanted to meet Yu Dong and the others. Finally got this chance today.

He Biyu told him that Yu Dong and the others were going to come a few days ago, but at that time it was still a few days away. Andrew did not expect that Yu Dong and the others would come today.

"Hello, hello, nice to meet you."

After Andrew shook hands with Yu Dong and the others one by one, He Biyu introduced Yu Dong and the others in Chinese: "This is the new deputy editor-in-chief of our publishing house, Andrew, and I used to be colleagues, teaching at the Paris Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Cultures. .He is also very interested in Chinese culture. After he comes to the club this time, the Chinese literature series will also be entrusted to him to take full responsibility."

Hearing that Andrew was the new deputy editor, Yu Dong and the others all smiled knowingly.

They still remember that when they came to see He Biyu last year, a deputy editor came over halfway. At that time, the deputy editor's attitude was very indifferent, and he seemed to have conflicts with He Biyu.

Now it seems that in the struggle between the two, He Biyu won, otherwise there would not be a new deputy editor, and he would be from the Paris Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Cultures.

For Dong and the others, it is of course a good thing to have a professional who understands oriental culture in charge of the Chinese literature series.

……

Several people sat in He Biyu's office for about an hour, then got up to leave.

After leaving the publishing house, they chatted about the literature exchange meeting.

Mo Yan didn't know much about Jostan Judd, so he asked Yu Dong, "What kind of book is the "Sophie's World" you just mentioned? Has it been published in China?"

"It's published." Bi Feiyu helped to answer: "But it wasn't long after it was published. I only saw this book in a bookstore at the end of June. It was published by Writers Publishing House."

"That's no wonder, I haven't seen it. It seems that it should sell well abroad, otherwise the Writer Publishing House would not help publish it." Mo Yan said.

"It's really selling well." Yu Dong nodded, "As far as I know, millions of copies have been sold."

Yu Hua scratched her head, "I don't know if I've heard too much about Yu Dong's sales, but now I don't feel much when I hear about millions of copies. Isn't Yu Dong's several books selling millions of copies?"

Yu Dong smiled, but said nothing, "Sophie's World" has just begun its best-selling road, and it has a strong stamina. After more than 20 years, it still often appears on the best-selling list.

Rumor has it that the novel sold hundreds of millions of copies.

This data is very watery, but there must be tens of millions of copies.

It is not impossible for Yu Dong's novels to surpass "Sophie's World", but it is still very difficult.

Speaking of sales, there are two Norwegian writers who impressed Yu Dong very much, one is Jostan Judd, and the other is the author of "The Snowman", Jo Nesbo.

Compared with Jostan Judd, U Nesbow's experience is more dramatic.

Yu Dong also studied You Nesbo's resume before, and found it very interesting.

The guy wanted to be a professional footballer at the beginning, so he went to a team in the Norwegian First Division and planned to play in the Premier League, but he had to give up this dream due to injuries.

Later, because he played football every day and missed classes, his grades were not good, and he did not get a high school diploma, so he went to serve in the military.

When he served in the military, he revisited his high school courses and finally got his high school diploma with honors. Then he applied for a major in economics and management at a Norwegian university and passed it successfully. After graduating from university, he majored in finance.

Later, he felt that finance was boring, so he formed a band and made his debut.

In terms of his experience in making music, he is a bit like Dan Brown, but the difference is that Ju Nesb became famous as soon as he debuted, and he became a pop music superstar in just a few years, and he is very popular in Norway. Welcome, the concert tickets are sold out soon after they come out.

After becoming famous, he felt that being a star was boring, so he decided to take a long vacation for himself, wrote a novel on the plane to Australia, and started his creative career. Then, without accident, he became a best-selling author , all of his books have been bestsellers in Norway.

This is probably the winner in life.

This guy should still be giving concerts everywhere, and he hasn't started writing novels.

Yu Dong was thinking about You Nesbo, while Yu Hua said from the side: "I saw the book "Sophie's World" in the bookstore before, but I didn't read it at the time. After hearing what you said, I have to find it later. Check out this book."

Bi Feiyu smiled and said: "This book is related to philosophy, you may look tired."

"No, no, no." Yu Hua waved his hands, "I'm not good at literature, but I know a little bit about philosophy."

Yu Dong and the others ignored Yu Hua and walked forward with their hands behind their backs. The three of them all had the same thought in their hearts: Yu Hua knows shit philosophy.

　Thank you [hs] for the 100 tip
　　Thank you [Xiaoyao's brother] for the 200 reward
　　
　
(End of this chapter)