Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 954 Unfinished book, unfinished film
Yu Dong and the others do not agree that literature is dying, of course not because they are "vested interests", that is what they thought when they had not made any money.

After Dong finished speaking, the others also spoke one after another.

After all the guests finished speaking, the exchange meeting entered a more free interactive session.

It started with the moderator asking questions first.

The host took out a few cards and said with a smile, "Three days ago, our school's official account posted a tribe on the Deep Space Tribe to solicit questions from netizens, and finally selected three tribes that attracted more attention from netizens. I am here to raise this question on behalf of netizens. The first question, can you recommend a few works worth reading to readers of different ages?"

"Which age groups?" Bi Feiyu asked.

The host smiled and said, "The questioner didn't mention the age groups. You can choose your own age group for recommendation."

Bi Feiyu nodded, "Then let me answer first. Recently, I recommend Yu Dong's new book "The Ninth District" first. I think this novel can be read when you go to middle school. I don't recommend reading it if it's younger, because it's more difficult to read. I can’t understand it either. Of course, if you are very talented, you can also read it in elementary school. In addition to "The Ninth District", I recommend you to read a novel called "Foot Journey", the author is Chen Mobai, a Chinese writer , this novel should already have an English version, you can buy it in the bookstore, if you can’t buy it in the bookstore, you can also find it on Amazon.”

Hearing the name Chen Mobai, the audience in the audience were a little puzzled, because the name was very unfamiliar and they had never heard of it before.

It is normal for them to have never heard of it, because Chen Mobai is a student of the first writing class of the International Writing Center of Jinling Academy of Art, and "Foot Journey" is Chen Mobai's debut novel.

It has to be said that Chen Mobai is a very talented person in writing. Many students in the writing class who are in the same batch as him have better foundations than him, but Chen Mobai's "Foot Journey" was highly praised by all parties as soon as it came out.

"Foot Journey" is the same as Yu Dong's Li Chao, which tells the story of Taohu Village, but Chen Mobai takes a different approach, and the perspective of the whole novel is fixed on the road from Taohu Village to the foot of the mountain.

All the stories in the book all happened on this road, and people's understanding of Taohu Village all came from the stories that happened on this road.The story is a bit scattered, but the main line is that the villager Zhang Shangxi wants to build a road for Taohu Village to go down the mountain, and the story is also based on this main line.

The first sentence of the novel is very impressive.

"From Zhang Shangxi's house to the gate of Liu Tiejiang's house at the foot of the mountain, there are a total of 540 steps. Zhang Shangxi measured it with his own two legs."

Zhang Shangxi's idea was very bold at the beginning. He wanted to build a concrete road for the village to pass down the mountain, the kind that could run two cars side by side, but he quickly gave up this unrealistic idea and decided to retire. And secondly, don't use cement roads, just build a gravel road.

But even the gravel road was impossible for Zhang Shangxi. After finding that he couldn't do it, he lowered his requirements, as long as he shoveled the grass on the side of the path and leveled out a spacious dirt road. .

The first thing Zhang Shangxi did when building roads was to put signs on the side of the road, write numbers on each sign, and these numbers represent the number of steps from the sign to his home.

The first half of the novel "Foot Journey" looks very inspirational. Readers can easily imagine that Zhang Shangxi will go through untold hardships to build a road later, and then Taohu Village will walk out of the mountains by this road.

Or, the villagers were moved by Zhang Shangxi's persistence, and they took up shovels and followed Zhang Shangxi to build the road. In the end, they united as one and built the road, which reflected the simplicity and unity of the working people.

But the ending of the novel is completely different from what the readers imagined. There is no one to help Zhang Shangxi, and Zhang Shangxi himself has no way to persist. After all, he usually has farm work to do, and the weather is unstable. Just one rain can ruin the road he just made, and his speed of shoveling grass can't keep up with the speed of growing grass.

After many years, Zhang Shangxi's road was not repaired. At first, everyone talked about it when they had nothing to do, but later the villagers didn't even bother to discuss it.

But over the years, Zhang Shangxili's brand names have gradually been accepted by the villagers.

In the past, it was such a long distance from the village to the foot of the mountain, and there were few places that could be marked. Everyone used a certain tree or a certain sag to express it. It is easier to express it with the footstep sign.

Moreover, many villagers did not know Arabic numerals before, and it was also because of Zhang Shangxi's brand that they knew Arabic numerals.

In general, Zhang Shangxi's road construction did not succeed in the end, but he also achieved some unexpected results.

This story is of course fictitious. In reality, Taohu Village has never had a Zhang Shangxi who wants to build roads.

After the novel was published, it was loved by many readers. Many readers said that although they were not particularly clear about what "Journey" wanted to express, they could feel something from it.

Some people say that the author wants to tell readers that it is impossible for mountain people to get out of the mountains by themselves, no matter how hard they try.

It is also said that the author wants to tell readers that even if one thing cannot be done in the end, there will be unexpected gains.

……

This novel sold very well in China, so Deep Space Company began to translate it into English and send it to the United States, and it just started selling in the United States some time ago.

The sales performance of the work is not bad, and it has sold 1 to [-] copies. For a new Chinese writer, the novel sold more than [-] copies in the United States within a month, which is of course not bad.

Although the students in the audience had never heard of the book "Foot Journey", they all wrote down the title silently, thinking that they would go to the bookstore to look for it after the exchange meeting was over.

Seeing that Bi Feiyu recommended "Foot Journey" to everyone, Yu Dong couldn't help but smile. Feiyu really spared no effort in promoting Chinese novels, and he also promoted Amazon website by the way.

After Bi Feiyu finished speaking, Yu Dong also took over the conversation and said, "Let me also recommend a few books, one is "The Brothers Karamazov" that many people have heard of but haven't read. This book is very long. It may take a little longer. There is also "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which should be read by many people, but it is worth recommending to everyone here again."

When he was talking about this, Yu Dong suddenly showed a sly smile, he glanced at Yu Hua, and said, "In addition to these two novels, I would like to recommend a novel for you, this novel is called " brother"."

Seeing that Yu Dong did not continue, the host asked suspiciously, "Who wrote this novel?"

Yu Dong pointed at Yu Hua, "The author is him."

On and off the stage, everyone looked at Yu Hua.

The host obviously did his homework. Knowing that Yu Hua didn't have a novel called "Brothers", he wondered, "Mr. Yu Hua has released a new novel, and it hasn't been translated into English yet?"

Seeing everyone looking at him suddenly, Yu Hua was puzzled, and Bi Feiyu whispered to him next to him, "Yu Dong recommended your novel "Brothers."

Hearing the word "brother", Yu Hua twitched the corner of her mouth.

"Isn't this nonsense?"

Yu Hua complained, but the voice was so low that even Bi Feiyu couldn't hear it clearly.

"Brothers" is indeed his work, but the novel has not yet been written.

Several years ago, Yu Hua wanted to write a family novel.

At that time, he also started to write, but it felt wrong when he wrote it, because the country has developed rapidly in recent years, which is different from what he thought.

This delay has passed for several years.

Everyone knows that Yu Dong ridiculed him for his low productivity and urged him to produce more works.

And he is not afraid of boiling water, no matter what Yu Dong urges, he just doesn't write, everyone knows this.

Since the novel "Brothers" was known to Yu Dong, Yu Dong urged him to rewrite it if he had something to do, but he always took it seriously.

Last year, when Yu Hua was interviewed in France, a reporter asked about the changing times in China, and he came up with some ideas. After returning, he wanted to rewrite "Brothers", but he couldn't continue writing. , I didn't expect that Yu Dong would bring it up on such an occasion.

Everyone was looking at Yu Hua, so he had no choice but to pick up the microphone and said, "The novel "Brothers" is just an idea for the time being, and it may not be able to meet you, please wait... Otherwise, if you don’t write it later, you will be looking forward to it in vain, so I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

After Yu Hua finished speaking, Bi Feiyu translated his words into English.

Then Yu Hua continued, "Well, they all recommend novels, so I don't recommend novels. Let me recommend a movie that is suitable for all ages. This movie is called "Inception". I recommend everyone to watch it. Unfortunately, this movie has not been released yet, and you may have to wait a while if you want to watch it. As for how long you have to wait, you have to ask the screenwriter of this movie, Teacher Yu Dong.”

While Yu Hua was talking, Bi Feiyu was working hard at the side interpreting. When Yu Hua finished speaking, Bi Feiyu had almost finished translating.

Hearing Yu Hua's words, the students in the audience could not help but let out a low cry of excitement.

No one expected that Yu Dong would reveal the name of Yu Hua's next novel, and no one expected that Yu Hua would reveal the name of Yu Hua's revenge in order to get revenge on Yu Dong.

The host was very alert and quickly asked, "YU, is the movie "Inception" that Mr. Yu Hua said true? Has the script of this movie been written yet?"

Yu Dong blinked his eyes, he wanted to say, isn't today a literature exchange meeting, why did he ask about movies.

He glanced at Yu Hua again, regretting that he had shown Yu Hua the script he had written.

In fact, Yu Dong didn't take the initiative to show it to Yu Hua, but Yu Hua found it by herself.

The script of "Inception" was written by Yu Dong some time ago, and it was placed on the desk after it was finished.

Some time ago when Yu Hua went to visit his house, he happened to see a script on the table and asked if he could read it. Yu Dong was reading the report at the time, so he nodded and let Yu Hua read it without thinking too much.

Yu Dong realized that Yu Hua was reading the script of "Inception".

But it's nothing to find out, just read it after reading it, it's just a script, and Yu Hua is not an outsider.

The host stared at Yu Dong with piercing eyes, waiting for his answer. Yu Dong nodded and said, "Yes, I did write a script, but after it was written, it has not been sent to the deep space, except for me Apart from my wife, Yu Hua is the only one who has read this script."

"Then can you tell us about the theme of this script? The name seems to have something to do with dreams?" the host asked again.

Yu Dong smiled and said, "Actually, there is something wrong with Feiyu's translation just now. The Chinese name of this novel is Inception, but the English name should be "The Beginning". The theme of the movie is a bit more sci-fi."

"When can we go to the cinema and see this movie?"

The students in the audience looked at Yu Dong expectantly, waiting for his answer. The question asked by the host was also what they wanted to ask.

"Uh, I don't have any plans. I'm just writing the script for the time being, and I haven't thought about the future yet."

Yu Dong didn't lie, he really didn't think about it.

Because there is no rush, Deep Space has a lot of film projects in the past two years, so there is no need to push "Inception" forward too early.

In fact, besides "Inception", he also wrote quite a few books by hand, but it happened that "Inception" was placed on the table, and Yu Hua happened to see it.

Hearing that Yu Dong has no plans to shoot the script for the time being, the host and the students in the audience all showed disappointed expressions.

The host regretted, "It's a pity, I think everyone would really like to see the movie written by you in the theater sooner."

Yu Dong smiled and said, "It's okay, I have a chance today, and everyone will be able to see "Source Code" and "Pounding Heartbeat" soon, but let's talk more about literature today, and the movie will be discussed later." I will have a good chat with you when I get the chance.”

The host nodded, knowing that Yu Dong was reminding him to slow down the pace of the exchange meeting, "Okay, thank you Mr. Yu Hua for your answer, let's continue with the question just now..."

The first question is relatively simple. Everyone recommended a few books. It is worth mentioning that Philip Roth and Joyce Oates recommended a total of six books, five of which are novels by Chinese authors. , and both of them recommended a novel by Yu Dong.

It is expected that Joyce Oates recommends novels by Chinese writers. After Bi Feiyu and his novels were published in the United States, Joyce Oates strongly recommended them. It is also because of her that "Frantic Finger" and " "Westward" can be included in Princeton's recommended reading list.

As for Philip Roth's recommendation of novels by Chinese writers, he is more or less humane.

(End of this chapter)