The literary era since 1979

Chapter 281 The End of Science Fiction

Baker Beach is located in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Looking out, you can see the magnificent views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin Headlands, the Pacific Ocean, and of course, beautiful silhouettes.

The blonde beauty in a swimsuit, barefoot, stepped into the sea water, leaving footprints on the wet sand.

The sea is rough, and so are people.

Bai Ruoxue, Wang Anyi and others dressed relatively conservatively, but it couldn't hide their healthy figures.

Of course, the most eye-catching one is Li Zhi, wearing a warm red swimsuit and bright lipstick, like a ripe cherry in midsummer.

The girls were playing and frolicking in the shallow water, with bursts of crisp laughter echoing out.

Fangyan was shirtless, with his feet soaked in the sea water, facing the ocean breeze, absent-minded, with a myriad of thoughts swirling in his mind.

Suddenly, streams of cold water splashed on his face.

"Okay, okay, stop bullying Teacher Fang." Li Zhi shook her head and laughed when she saw Wang Anyi, Bai Ruoxue and others launching a collective attack on Fang Yan.

Fang Yan was soaked like a drowned chicken and wiped his face. "You have no moral principles and dare to launch a sneak attack! Watch me!"

"Yanzi, I'm here to help you!"

Seeing Pan Yaoming helping out, Li Zhi also joined in the fun: "Teacher Fang, I'll help you too."

Suddenly, water splashed everywhere, and everyone splashed water on each other without any scruples, making everyone feel chilled to the bone.

After playing for a while, Fangyan returned to the shore and saw Lizhi enthusiastically handing him a white towel.

"Thank you."

"Teacher Fang, are you thinking about your new book project?"

"Why do you think so?"

"I don't think there's anything else that could worry you so much except this."

"I have to say, I really kept you guessing."

Fangyan looked at the charming and seductive Li Zhi on the left and at the pure and beautiful Bai Ruoxue on the right and asked for their opinions.

"Teacher Fang is testing us."

Bai Ruoxue and Li Zhi looked at each other.

Li Zhi was the first to step forward and said that she knew very little about literature and that her words were just a starting point for discussion.

Fangyan listened patiently. Her suggestion was the same as Mike's, which was science fiction literature.

The reason is both simple and convincing. In the highly commercialized literary market in Europe and the United States, science fiction is popular while suspense novels are unpopular.

The former, because of the background of "Space Race", "Star Wars" and "Apollo manned moon landing", as well as the promotion of Hollywood movies such as "Star Wars" trilogy and "2001: A Space Odyssey", the entire science fiction literature market is thriving and masterpieces are produced frequently.

The latter has already declined in the European and American markets, and the golden age of suspense and crime novels has long passed.

"Teacher Fang, I don't recommend you write science fiction."

Bai Ruoxue thought it over again and again before speaking out.

“Why is that? Science fiction is also popular in China?”

Dialects are very curious.

As the editor of "October", I naturally pay close attention to the movements and trends of Chinese literature. Since 78, science fiction can be said to be the first category in popular literature to revive and even prosper. Ten science fiction magazines, such as "Science Fiction Ocean" and "Science Literature and Art", have been established.

Old writers resumed their creations and new writers continued to emerge, marking the golden age of Chinese science fiction literature.

For example, "Little Smart Wandering in the Future" written by Ye Yonglie is a best-selling novel with sales of up to 300 million copies.

In fact, even if Lizhi and Mike didn't say it, I prefer science fiction. A series of science fiction works such as "The Three-Body Problem", "The Matrix", "The Truman Show", "The Wandering Earth" and "Interstellar" have already emerged in my mind.

"Teacher Fang, as you know, I have been keeping in touch with my grandfather during my time in the United States."

Bai Ruoxue whispered that something big had happened in the domestic literary world.

Fang Yan realized that this topic was very sensitive, "Ruoxue, let's go for a walk over there."

…………“Huahuahua.”

The waves wash the shells on the beach.

Fangyan said nothing, just walked and listened to Bai Ruoxue's story, and gained a general understanding of "spiritual pollution".

In this storm, science fiction literature was labeled as "pseudoscience" and suffered a direct and positive blow.

Publishing management authorities have issued multiple documents prohibiting the publication of science fiction novels, and related magazines have also begun to undergo rectification.

For a time, all science fiction publishing houses were in a state of panic and remained silent, which meant that the golden age of Chinese science fiction came to an abrupt end.

No wonder in an era when global science fiction literature is booming, Chinese science fiction novels have failed to make any waves. I guess the root of the problem lies here!

"Science fiction" has become a forbidden zone in Chinese literature, and science fiction literature has lost the soil for its growth.

It was not until the rise of a new generation of science fiction writers such as Liu Cixin that Chinese science fiction literature experienced its second revival.

But that was already the 21st century, and we were more than ten years behind others.

"Teacher Fang, my grandfather said that there are more and more criticisms of science fiction now."

Bai Ruoxue said: "Even if your science fiction novel is published in the United States like Saving Private Ryan, it will be very sensitive."

"Ruoxue, thank you for your reminder."

Fangyan frowned and stood still.

Bai Ruoxue felt the heavy atmosphere and tried to ease it, saying, "Come to think of it, Mr. Fang, you just said you wanted to write suspense, science fiction, horror, etc. novels. I was really surprised. I didn't expect you would write about these themes!"

"I also want to give it a try. After all, popular literature is more popular among the people." Fang Yan said, "If we can develop one more genre, Chinese literature will prosper."

"Teacher Fang, I think you should write about suspense or horror." Bai Ruoxue suggested, "Yoko and Yui told me that this genre is very popular in Japan now."

"Well, think about it again, think about it more."

Fangyan looked towards the sea. The sea surface gradually returned to calm, but his heart was still unsettled.

Although the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish, but do you really want to brave this storm?

…………

The new book plan was soon temporarily suppressed.

Fangyan was making final revisions and improvements to the final draft of "Guns, Viruses, & Steel". Bai Ruoxue and Mike also began to diligently translate the script of "Saving Private Ryan". The entire trio was having a great time working in the foundation's office.

Every time Lizhi came to work, she could see them talking about something.

Occasionally, I would help Fangyan correct typos with Pan Yaoming.

After looking at his handwritten manuscript and listening to his glorious deeds at the University of Iowa, the teacher had a deeper understanding of him.

Time passes by quietly like this.

It was not until the end of July that the final manuscript was sent to the University of Iowa and the script was translated. Fangyan asked Lizhi to book a flight back to Hong Kong for them, thus ending the international writing plan ahead of schedule.

Before leaving the United States, Mike acted as a guide and took Fangyan and Bai Ruoxue on a shopping spree.

In particular, when they bought an electrical appliance, Bai Ruoxue naturally bought an IBM computer, while Fangyan chose an air conditioner.

At this time, you place orders and pay abroad, and then pick up the goods at the special counter in Yanjing Friendship Store after returning home.

In addition, Fang Yan also bought gifts and souvenirs for Yang Xia, Fang Hong, Zhang Guangnian and others.

Then, on July 7st, we returned with a full load.

The plane took off and flew above the clouds. San Francisco was below. Then another layer of clouds rose up, and the white clouds submerged the United States.

I read "The Maltese Black Falcon" in dialect. It is a representative work of American hard-boiled suspense novels, but I found it boring after flipping through a few pages.

North America seems to like tough detectives rather than armchair detectives. As for Britain, it has been a long time since a famous mystery writer emerged to inherit the mantle of Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

Sure enough, adhering to the Ten Commandments of Reasoning severely restricts creative thinking!
When I thought of this, a new idea suddenly popped up in my mind: Is it possible to combine science fiction, suspense and horror?
Trinity! How bold!

(End of this chapter)