1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 698 Don't Engage in a Personality Cult
On November 1993, 11, the first anniversary of the death of American writer Richard Yates, FSG held a press conference in New York and officially published "Richard Yates Collection".

The press conference was an unprecedented success and aroused strong repercussions in the American literary circles.

As more and more news media follow up and report on the life of Richard Yates, this writer who became famous in the 60s and focused on realism is becoming familiar to many people little by little.

Richard Yates and Joseph Heller, who wrote "No. 20 Catch-[-] Rules", were similar in age and active in the same age, but the treatment they received in the United States was very different.

Even within half a year after Richard Yates' death, his remaining works in very few bookstores in the United States were also taken off the shelves.

When some people saw the news media reports, they couldn't help being moved by the writer's sufferings during his life and after his death.

At the same time, many media publicized the touching and great friendship between Chinese writer Lin Weimin and Richard Yates, which made the publication of "Richard Yates Anthology" attract more American people's attention.

Only seven days after the anthology went on the market, the first printed 2 sets of the anthology were snapped up by enthusiastic readers.

This situation caught FSG Publishing House off guard, and urgently printed another 5 sets of anthologies.

The best-selling "Richard Yates Anthology" has finally made Richard Yates, who has been neglected for decades, be valued and recognized by the mainstream literary circles and readers in the United States.

Many literary journals rushed to publish Richard Yates's works during his lifetime. In a short period of time, a "Richard Yates trend" was formed, sweeping the American literary world and reader groups. American readers We finally saw the charm of Richard Yates.

After another signing session, Lin Weimin's shoulder and arm were so sore that he died.

The staff at the side handed him a bottle of water, and while he was drinking, Roger Strauss walked up to Lin Weimin.

"Lin, look!"

Roger Strauss waved the magazine in his hand and said excitedly.

Lin Weimin took the magazine, which was a copy of The New Yorker.

"Any new news?" he asked with a smile.

More than ten days have passed since the release of the anthology of "Richard Yates". In the first week of the anthology, Lin Weimin has been cooperating with FSG Publishing House's various anthology promotion activities, press conferences and speeches. , readings, interviews...

After a week like this, there are more and more reports about Richard Yates, some of which focus on the life of Richard Yates, and some focus on Lin Weimin and Richard Yates. Chad Yates' friendship has aroused strong repercussions from the American literary circles and the public.

The sales volume of "Richard Yates Anthology" did not disappoint such a large-scale media coverage. It sold 2 sets a week, exceeding 20 copies. Not so many sales.

Roger Strauss has been particularly excited these days, partly due to the popularity of "The Collected Works of Richard Yates".

What made him even more excited and fulfilled was that he brought Richard Yates, an excellent writer who was almost obliterated in the public eye, back to the public eye, and achieved what Richard Yates had achieved before his death. No visibility and influence.

In the past two days, Roger Strauss would bring Lin Weimin two newspapers or magazines from time to time, which were basically reports or comments about Richard Yates and him, and Lin Weimin was used to this.

"Not reporting, but commentary. George Steiner wrote an opinion piece in The New Yorker, "Richard Yates Will Live On," in which he praised you for writing The New York Review of Books '' review."

"The Lost World of Richard Yates" is a long review of 2.5 words written by Lin Weimin in four nights after he came to the United States, and it was published in the "New York Review of Books" a few days ago.

The New York Review of Books, founded in 1963, is one of the most important book review magazines in the American literary world and plays a pivotal role in the minds of senior American intellectuals.

In the comments, Lin Weimin generally commented on the 9 novels created by Richard Yates, and gave them a very high evaluation.

Finally, he didn't forget to sell a wave of misfortune for Richard Yates at the end.

"While he was alive, his work was long ignored. After his death, nine books to his name were quietly removed from the shelves and completely disappeared from the shelves of American bookstores.

It is heartbreaking and regrettable that such an excellent writer has been forgotten by the people of the United States. "

After the publication of "The Lost World of Richard Yates", it aroused great repercussions in just a few days.

George Steiner was one of many senior intellectuals affected by this review article.

He is one of the most famous literary critics in American literary circles in the second half of the 40th century. He is a Frenchman and became a citizen of the United States in the [-]s. He has worked in famous universities such as Princeton University and Cambridge University.

He is the author of "Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky", "The Death of Tragedy", "After the Tower of Babel", "Martin Heidegger", "What is Comparative Literature" and other works.

He has superb attainments in the fields of literary translation and literary criticism. He has been writing articles for magazines such as "The New Yorker" and "The Times Literary Supplement" for many years. He has been widely praised by the intellectual circles of English-speaking countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, and has been praised by many people as " "One of the greatest figures in today's intellectual world" and "a Renaissance giant who came too late."

Lin Weimin was a little surprised to hear the name of George Steiner. These days, there have been many reports about him in the American media, including many people in the literary world who have written some commentary articles, but the comments of famous critics like George Steiner , the portion size can vary.

Lin Weimin carefully read the article "Richard Yates Will Continue to Exist" in The New Yorker. It was a long article, mainly composed of comments. Lin Weimin and him were mentioned at the beginning and end. An article for the New York Review of Books.

"...There is no doubt that Lin Weimin is not only an excellent writer, but also an outstanding critic. He keenly discovered the preciousness of Richard Yates' many works, and he sought after and achieved success before the world. This is the writer who has been buried for many years.

The friendship between him and Richard Yates will become the most acclaimed story in the American literary world in the [-]th century, and it will also accompany Richard Yates' literary achievements, and it will always exist in the American literary world with brilliance. "

After watching George Steiner's Rainbow Fart, Lin Weimin was refreshed, and even the pain in his shoulders and wrists was relieved a lot.

Returning the magazine to Roger Strauss, he then said: "Lin, the article you wrote for the New York Review of Books was very influential. I think if you don't write novels in the future, you should write one." Literary criticism may also become a generation of masters."

Compared with George Steiner's rainbow fart, Roger Strauss' flattery seemed a bit blunt, but Mr. Lin still accepted it calmly.

In the evening, Roger Strauss invited Lin Weimin and several staff members to dinner.

Lin Weimin's main work in the first week of coming to the United States was the promotion and publicity of "Richard Yates Anthology", and the main work of the second week was his own signing session.

The sales volume of "Spirited Away" in the United States has gradually approached 200 million copies. Coupled with the readers he has accumulated over the years, readers are almost everywhere he goes.

Lin Weimin lives in China all the year round, and the time and frequency of appearances in the United States are very small, so many readers cherish his autograph sessions, and some even drive hundreds of kilometers to attend the autograph sessions.

Roger Strauss was full of pride when talking about the situation of the autograph sale these days.

The writer's signing event tests the appeal of a writer among readers.

Obviously, Lin Weimin's appeal among American readers is top-notch.

In the past, it was difficult for Roger Strauss to imagine that a foreign writer, especially a Chinese writer, would have such a strong appeal among American readers.

After he sighed, when talking about this incident, Lin Weimin analyzed it rationally and said: "I think this has a lot to do with the fact that several of my works have been staged on Broadway."

Roger Strauss nodded in agreement, and said: "Indeed. In the United States, Hollywood's influence is terrifying. But Broadway's influence is equally huge, and most importantly, Broadway's influence on intellectuals It’s unique in that Broadway’s audience overlaps with Ni’s readership.”

He then asked, "By the way, the Farewell My Concubine movie is coming out after awards season, right?"

"Yes."

December is less than half a month away, and the awards season in Hollywood is about to start again.

Hollywood's awards season is held from December to February of the following year. During this period, awards such as the Golden Satellite Awards, Annie Awards, Producers Guild, Directors Guild, Screen Actors Guild and other film industry guild awards are held. , as well as the three forms of major film critics association awards such as New York and Los Angeles, and even the final Golden Globes and Oscars will be held one by one.

In many film awards events, the judges are highly overlapping and the time is very close. If it can achieve good awards results in the Sentinel Awards, it means that the film has great hope in competing for the Golden Globe Awards and Oscars.

Therefore, even if the influence of many outpost awards in the awards season is not great, many films that are interested in competing for Golden Globes and Oscars will spare no effort to participate in it.

This has also created the miracle of awarding awards in the American film industry for two months every year.

"I bet, the box office of this movie will not be less than 1 million dollars." Roger Strauss said firmly, his expression revealed a strong superstitious color.

Lin Weimin smiled and said: "1 million meters? Roger, you can really joke. This movie is different from "Untouchable". It is a pure Chinese movie. The director and actors are not well-known in the United States. I haven't heard of any Chinese-language film that can generate a box office of 1 million yuan in the United States."

"Why not? Lin, don't forget, "Farewell My Concubine" has millions of readers in the United States, and the play has been on Broadway for four years, right? It also has millions of viewers."

"Come on, a movie ticket is 5 meters, and 1000 million moviegoers are only 5000 million dollars."

It's not that Lin Weimin doesn't like "Farewell My Concubine", it's just that he knows the nature of this movie and it's not a commercial film.

Movies are mass entertainment. To put it bluntly, the lower the threshold, the higher the box office. "Farewell My Concubine" has inherent shortcomings in this regard.

However, Lin Weimin is not pessimistic. In his estimation, it should be no problem for "Farewell My Concubine" to get 3000 million meters.

If he wins the Golden Globes and Oscars, maybe 5000 million meters won't be a problem, and he won't dare to think about more.

Roger Strauss was superstitiously certain that the movie "Farewell My Concubine" would do well at the box office. Regarding his superstition, Lin Weimin could only attribute it to his blind admiration for himself.

Lao Luo is good at everything, but this is not good.

Don't engage in a personality cult!

(End of this chapter)