The literary era since 1979

Chapter 103: Welcome Love to the Palace of Literature

Chapter 103 Bringing Love Back to the Palace of Literature

"Haha, Yanzi, your method worked!"

"Many newspapers reported our movie viewing event for The Horse Herder, and the reviews were positive!"

In the office, Tian Zengxiang was flipping through the newspaper with a smile on his face.

"It's just to temporarily suppress the public opinion about "Bitter Love"."

Fangyan waved his hand.

Tian Zengxiang put down the newspaper. "But anyway, compared to the previous period when the newspapers were full of criticisms of Bitter Love and our October, it's much better now."

"Don't be too happy yet. Didn't you see that some newspapers also used The Shepherd to criticize Bitter Love and us?"

He Xin said worriedly: "This is far from over."

"Teacher He is right."

Fangyan asked Tian Zengxiang and his colleagues how their film reviews were going.

At that time, although there were no places like Douban, Weibo, and Tieba to discuss movies, the film review culture was very active.

Almost every city, from provinces and cities to counties and districts, has a film review group.

There is no venue, no funding, some are private amateur organizations, and some are loose organizations under the umbrella of a film company.

The most professional ones are the authoritative film magazines "Popular Movies" and "Film Art". Since the release of "The Horse Wrangler", they have set up a film review column to publish comments from movie fans across the country.

It was simply packed with viewers and received rave reviews.

After the patriotic film-watching event at Yenching Publishing House ended, members, especially those from the editorial department of October, were asked to write a review or film impression and submit it to these publications.

"My, you've seen it, haven't you?"

Tian Zengxiang smiled and said, "He even helped me revise the title, changing it to 'Faith and Love in the Age of Innocence'."

He Xin smacked his lips and said, "Yanzi is the author of The Horse Herder after all, so her level of understanding is higher than ours."

"High awareness too!"

Tian Zengxiang said, "Yanzi, when the matter of "Bitter Love" is over, let's have a celebration party and make you a professional writer. Also, we will promote you to deputy team leader, and make up for these two happy events."

"We are also one of the happy events like this."

Suddenly, Su Yu and Lu Yuanchi appeared at the door.

"President Lu! Editor-in-Chief Su!"

The three of them stood up and greeted each other politely.

Seeing Fang Yan being called away alone, He Xin's face darkened. When he thought about losing his position as deputy team leader, he felt empty in his heart.

Eyes, constantly staring outside the house.

Walking in the aisle, Lu Yuanchi said in a kind tone:

"Xiao Fang, this time it's all thanks to you."

"Don't ever say that."

Fang Yan said: "I just provided some suggestions. The main reason is that newspapers such as the Literary Gazette are willing to stand on our side."

Lu Yuanchi said, "Yes, without the sympathy and support of Zhou Yang, Feng Mu, and Guangnian, so many newspapers would report on patriotic film viewing activities. I'm afraid the editorial department and the publishing house would continue to be passive because of "Bitter Love."

Fangyan asked, "What's the situation now?"

"The Ministry just praised us."

Lu Yuanchi let out a soft laugh.

"praise?"

Fangyan was stunned. Why are they still being criticized?
"What is good is good, what is bad is bad, one thing is another, the matter of 'Bitter Love' must be investigated, but those who deserve praise should still be praised."

Lu Yuanchi said that the higher-ups were planning to promote the "The Horse Herder" movie viewing education activity nationwide and wanted them to come to the ministry.

"I'm going too?" Fangyan asked in surprise.

"Yes, the department leader specifically asked you to make a report."

Lu Yuanchi said: "Guangnian, Comrade Zhou Yang and the others are here."

…………

Chaoyangmen, North Street.

The cultural bureau at this time is no longer the poor government office at that time.

Including the Film Bureau, film studios, film projection companies, etc., are all within its jurisdiction, and naturally it is also one of the relevant departments handling the "Bitter Love" incident.

This was Fang Yan’s first time here, and thanks to the presence of Lu Yuanchi and Su Yu, he felt a little relieved. When he saw Zhou Yang and Zhang Guangnian, his nervous heart finally relaxed and he shook hands with the leaders one by one.

"This must be Mr. Mao's disciple."

Huang Baizhi stood straight, looking intimidating without even getting angry.

"Hello, Leader Huang."

When he came, Lu Yuanchi introduced him to Fang Yan, and he recognized this capable man at once.

"I've read your book The Great Qin: Fission at least ten times. It's well written!" Huang Baizhi praised him. "You also talked about 'China's Renaissance' in China Youth. I heard that the movie viewing and education activity for The Horse Herder organized by Yenching Publishing House was also your idea? Is that true?"

Fangyan smiled and said it was just a trivial matter, not worth mentioning.

"Tell me about this experience later."

Huang Baizhi patted him on the shoulder and walked into the meeting room.

Everyone followed closely, and Fangyan prepared the report materials in advance and distributed them just like he had done in the meeting in his previous life.

These days, there is no such thing as film-watching education activities.

Although the unit organized movie watching, there was no such goal in mind. Most of the time, free movie tickets were distributed and employees were free to watch the movie or not. The patriotic movie watching activity of Yenching Publishing House was equivalent to setting an example for future agency movie watching to be booked in theaters.

It also sets the stage for future movies.

After a while, Fang Yan finished the report and Q&A session, and then left the meeting room, leaving the leader with enough room for discussion.

Zhang Guangnian followed out with a kind look on his face.

"Brother, why did you come out?"

The dialect was a big surprise.

"I am only attending the meeting this time."

Zhang Guangnian took him to a remote corner where no one was.

"Are you here for the matter of 'Bitter Love'?"

Fangyan suddenly understood.

Zhang Guangnian nodded and said that Zhou Yang, Feng Mu and others did not agree to make such a big fuss about "Bitter Love". Fortunately, the editorial department of "October" and Yenching Publishing House had a good attitude of admitting their mistakes. With the strong support and mediation of many parties, the Film Bureau is considering organizing a symposium to specifically discuss how to save "Bitter Love".

"Really!"

Fangyan was surprised and happy.

"President Lu talked about the ins and outs of the creation of The Horse Herder. You told him this, right?"

Zhang Guangnian narrowed his eyes into slits.

Fangyan looked into his eyes and smiled without saying anything.

"You did the right thing!"

Zhang Guangnian reminded: "But it's best not to do it again."

Fang Yan knew his senior's good intentions, and after chatting for a while about the follow-up of "Bitter Love", Zhang Guangnian suddenly changed the subject:
“After Insidious, have you thought about what to write next?”

"I am planning to publish a novel on the theme of love."

"Love theme, how could you think of writing about love!"

"Brother, this is it."

Fangyan told his younger sister about the story of reading Qiong Yao's novel.

"Other comrades have also reported this Qiongyao."

Zhang Guangnian frowned. "The content of the novel is indecent, and even contains a teacher-student romance. It's simply poisonous."

"But the problem is that simply banning it will not work. It will be counterproductive. The more it is banned, the more popular Qiong Yao's novels will be. I think the fundamental solution is to let 'love' return to literary creation."

"You want love to be liberated in literature and thought?"

"You could say the same thing."

Fang Yan said: "If we don't occupy the cultural and ideological position, others will. If we continue to regard love as a forbidden area for literary creation, the consequences will be disastrous."

Zhang Guangnian pondered for a moment, "Yes, it is precisely because the spiritual needs of the people are not met that Qiong Yao and others have taken advantage of the opportunity to allow these poisonous weeds to spread."

“So let love return to literature!”

The dialect was spoken with absolute certainty.

"Especially for a work like The Shepherd that describes pure love." Zhang Guangnian understood and agreed, "Which journal do you plan to submit this manuscript to?"

Fang Yan shook his head and said, "I haven't thought about it yet."

Zhang Guangnian said: "If a romance novel is published in literary journals such as People's Literature, Contemporary, and October, it may cause a sensation for a while, but if there are no subsequent works to follow up, it is difficult to form a lasting trend of thought."

"I'm also having a headache about this, so I haven't made a decision yet."

Fangyan sighed.

"In my opinion, instead of publishing it directly in a journal, it would be better to publish it serially in newspapers," Zhang Guangnian suggested.

Fangyan thought this was a good idea. It could maintain popularity through serialization and also take advantage of the popularity of "The Horse Shepherd" to increase exposure. But which newspaper would be suitable to put it in?

"How about the Literary Gazette? There is no other literary newspaper that is more authoritative, more mainstream, and more popular than the Literary Gazette."

"Indeed, being able to serialize a romance novel in the Literary Gazette is itself a vindication of romance novels. However, Senior Brother, will the editorial department of the Literary Gazette agree to publish it?"

"Of course!"

Zhang Guangnian said that, not to mention that the Literary Gazette is now under the auspices of the Writers Association, just the idea of bringing love back to literature would be something that the editor-in-chief Feng Mu would never refuse.

"That would be great."

Fangyan decided to publish his article in the Literary Gazette, which could be regarded as a reward for the Literary Gazette's support for October.

"But once this is published, it will definitely cause a huge uproar in the literary and art circles, and you will inevitably be in the middle of the storm again."

Zhang Guangnian gave a reminder.

"Brother, I have survived all the storms in "Bitter Love" and "The Great Qin: Fission". Why would I be afraid of this little bit of wind and rain?"

The dialect said in a firm tone.

"Haha, that's right, you've been through a lot!"

The two of them laughed heartily and walked back to the meeting room.

At this point, the discussion is over.

When leaving, Huang Baizhi called Fangyan over:

"Xiao Fang, I heard from President Lu that you play bridge well."

“Just a little bit.”

"Then let's find an opportunity some other day and play a few games."

"No problem, any time is fine."

"Once the time is confirmed, I will ask my secretary to pick you up. Then, we will go to Yangfeng Lane together."