Literary Master 1978

Just after New Year's Day, on a weekday morning, people were coming and going at the entrance of the Renwenshe compound at No. 166 Chaonei Street.

Li Shuguang parked his bicycle in the carport and greeted his colleagues one by one before entering the building.

He put down his briefcase, wiped the table with a rag, and went to get a pot of hot water to make some tea. Colleagues arrived one after another, and some held out their cups to ask him for water. Li Shuguang poured them for everyone one by one.

"Old Li's service is really good." Colleagues joked.

Li Shuguang chatted with everyone with a smile on his face.

After the prelude to work every day, he sat down and prepared to get into work mode. He took out the manuscript that he had not reviewed yesterday from the pile of manuscripts on the right side of his desk.

He turned to the page with the bookmark and was about to continue reading when he heard someone calling him.

"Old Li!"

As soon as Li Shuguang opened his mouth, he saw Chen Zhihe from the publishing department of the publishing house standing at the door with a smile on his face.

"Old Chen, what are you so happy about?"

"Of course it's good news." Chen Zhihe walked into the office, sat opposite Li Shuguang, and picked up the tea can that he hadn't put away yet.

"What good news?"

Chen Zhihe smiled but didn't say anything. Li Shuguang got up and made him a cup of tea. "Can you tell me now?"

Chen Zhihe sipped the tea proudly, but he was burned. He put down the teacup with a trembling mouth.

"Your tea is too hot."

"How can it not be hot with just hot water? Let's talk about business. What's the good news?" Li Shuguang asked.

"Lai Zi's Summer is selling well."

"That's it? I think you're here to get some tea?" Li Shuguang was a little dissatisfied after hearing this.

"Lai Zi's Summer" was originally published in "Contemporary", which helped "Contemporary" break the sales of 500,000 copies in one fell swoop. Although the sales have fallen in the past few issues, the sales are still stable at more than 350,000 copies.

Compared with the 130,000 copies before Lai Zi's Summer was published, this number is a far cry from the 130,000 copies before it was published. It is no exaggeration to say that Lai Zi's Summer has brought Contemporary Magazine from a semi-famous magazine to a famous magazine.

This is the magic of good works!

Lai Zi's Summer can bring the magazine that publishes it to such a high level. What's so strange about the hot sales of novels?

"Hey, what do you mean by mixing tea leaves? I have a basis for saying this!"

"What basis do you have?"

"The Yenching Publishing House asked us to prepare for more printing."

Hearing this, Li Shuguang finally took it seriously and asked with concentration: "How many will they order?"

"We are still counting. I guess we will be notified in two days. What do you think? I am not just talking nonsense, am I?"

Li Shuguang laughed, "Old Chen, you are well-informed."

The publishing house mentioned by Chen Zhihe is the publishing department of Xinhua Bookstore, which happens to be connected with the publishing department of Renwen Publishing House.

The printing volume of a book, especially the first printing volume, is not decided by the leaders of the publishing house on a whim. There must be a certain basis.

This basis is generally that the publishing house first mails subscription orders to the local distribution offices of Xinhua Bookstore, and then waits for the bookstores in various places to fill out the subscription orders and then summarizes the subscription volume. This subscription volume is the most important basis for the publishing house to print books.

Before the publication of "Lai Zi's Summer", Renwen Press spent more than a month to collect subscriptions, and the results were gratifying. The subscription volume of bookstores across the country was collected together, and it was more than 96,000 copies.

Renwen Press is a national publishing house, and it publishes hundreds of books every year, but only a handful of them can reach this subscription volume.

"Lai Zi's Summer" was first printed in 100,000 copies. Yanjing is the capital, and the sales volume of books has always ranked first in the country. One tenth of the 100,000 books are placed in large and small bookstores in Yanjing.

Now it has been just a week since the novel was launched. Even if the 10,000 copies are not sold out, it is estimated that they have almost sold out, otherwise how could the distribution office communicate about reprinting.

Chen Zhihe asked: "I heard that you are reviewing another novel by Lin Chaoyang?"

"Yes. "Parental Love", he wrote it under another pen name."

"What pen name will be used for publication?"

"This... We haven't discussed it in detail, we should still use the pen name when it was published."

"Well, no, no. You have to use the pen name "Xu Lingjun", his pen name has appeal.

He has published several novels, and they all sell well. He uses that pen name, how many readers know that this is his novel?

A large number of potential readers have been lost for nothing, affecting sales."

Li Shuguang said: "You have to discuss this with Mrs. Wei."

"I am a publisher, and if I tell her about book publishing, won't I be scolded? You go and tell her."

Li Shuguang understood and asked with a smile: "So you are here for this matter?"

Chen Zhihe smiled but said nothing.

"Okay, I'll tell her later, and I still have to communicate with the author about this matter."

After Chen Zhihe left, Li Shuguang came to Wei Junyi's office and told her about Chen Zhihe's proposal.

Wei Junyi only said "the author's opinion is the main thing", and it was easy for Li Shuguang to say that. He only needed to find the author Lin Chaoyang to confirm.

Just as he was about to leave, Li Shuguang's eyes suddenly noticed the manuscripts piled up on the upper right corner of Wei Junyi's desk, and the name of the top manuscript caught his attention.

"Is this the new novel written by Chaoyang?"

"Yes."

Wei Junyi's eyes fell on the manuscript, full of appreciation.

"The uproar over Contemporary a few days ago was because of this novel, right?"

Wei Junyi raised her head and looked at him quietly, her eyes saying: If you have something to say, just say it.

Li Shuguang immediately understood, "If you have finished reviewing the manuscript, can you lend it to me?"

"I have to return it to "Contemporary"."

"I will return it. You can lend it to me first and I will send it to them later."

"Then remember to return it to them as soon as possible."

"Don't worry."

Li Shuguang left Wei Junyi's office happily with the manuscript.

When he returned to the Contemporary Literature Editorial Office, a colleague saw the manuscript in his hand and asked, "Old Li, do you have a new manuscript?"

"No, I borrowed it."

"Borrowed it?"

Li Shuguang's words aroused the curiosity of his colleagues.

The Contemporary Literature Editorial Office is one of the editorial offices with the largest workload in Renwen Press. On weekdays, Li Shuguang is too busy reviewing manuscripts. How can Li Shuguang borrow a manuscript?

Someone came to him, curious about what kind of manuscript Li Shuguang took the initiative to borrow.

"The Death of Van Gogh?"

"Oh! Is this the novel by Lin Chaoyang?"

"It should be this one. Liu Yin of Contemporary was still talking about this novel yesterday, praising it to the skies."

Zhu Changsheng took the manuscript of The Death of Van Gogh from Lin Chaoyang more than a week ago, and first sent it to Qin Chaoyang's home at night.

Editorial review is a three-review system, divided into preliminary review, re-review, and final review.

According to the normal process, the responsible editor usually receives the manuscript and reviews it step by step, but Zhu Changsheng sent the manuscript directly to the editor-in-chief Qin Chaoyang in order to catch up with the first issue of Contemporary in January.

Qin Chaoyang also attached great importance to this novel. He stayed up for two nights to review the manuscript and agreed to Zhu Changsheng's request. He decided to publish the full text of The Death of Van Gogh in the form of a special issue of a long novel in the first issue of Contemporary, which was redesigned into a literary bimonthly.

Originally, the manuscripts, layout and cover of the first issue of the revised version of "Contemporary" had been prepared, but something unexpected happened, and the editorial department was inevitably busy again.

Colleagues in the editorial department were also full of curiosity about this novel that Qin Chaoyang had given the green light to. Although the novel had been confirmed to be published, it did not prevent everyone from competing to read it.

Needless to say, the professionalism of the editors of "Contemporary" is very high. Many of them have edited those famous works in the contemporary Chinese literary world.

For example, Rong Shihui, who loves to brag, edited "Song of Youth" and "Lin Hai Xue Yuan" which were popular all over the country in the 1950s.

Since the establishment of "Contemporary", Renwen Press has also strongly supported it. Any good manuscripts are given priority to this son.

It should be said that the editors of "Contemporary" are outstanding in the industry of literary editing in terms of professionalism and knowledge. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are knowledgeable.

But when reading the novel "The Death of Van Gogh", their inherent concepts were broken again and again.

First of all, the idea of ​​time travel is not uncommon in ancient Chinese literature.

For example, the Yellow Millet Dream in The Pillow Book, Tang Xianzu's Four Dreams of Linchuan, The Purple Hairpin, The Story of Nanke, The Peony Pavilion, The Story of Handan, Pu Songling's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, and Yuan Mei's Zi Bu Yu.

In these works, there are more or less stories of time travel between reality and virtuality, between ancient and modern times, and different spaces and times, which are mediated by dreams.

However, in the creation of contemporary Chinese literature, very few people use this idea.

The idea of ​​The Death of Van Gogh is rare at least in recent years, so when you suddenly see this kind of work, it will naturally give people a bright feeling.

Secondly, the structure and style of the novel, which has a heavy suspense element, is also very rare in the literary world dominated by realism.

The addition of this suspense element makes the novel far more readable than ordinary mainstream literary works. In the words of some editors of Contemporary, it is: addictive to read.

The plot of the novel is ingeniously designed. With Aaron's time travel and his encounter with Van Gogh in the tavern as clues, it gradually reveals a series of secrets about Van Gogh, the genius, hidden behind history.

There is a tight rhythm of fighting monsters and suspense of deciphering Van Gogh's tragic life, which firmly grasps the curiosity of readers and makes it difficult for people to put down the book during reading.

Moreover, Lin Chaoyang also integrated rich European historical knowledge and artistic analysis into the novel, allowing these editors to increase their knowledge while enjoying the fun of deciphering.

Even if the novel is mixed with a certain amount of stream of consciousness creation techniques, it does not affect the overall story of the novel at all.

Finally, the overall reading experience of the novel, although it is mixed with many elements such as stream of consciousness, science fiction, suspense, etc., the reading experience is still dominated by story.

The protagonist Aaron experienced a journey through time and space. Not only did he have a close communication with his idol Van Gogh, but he also deeply understood what art is and strengthened his inner persistence and pursuit of artistic beliefs.

Especially at the end of the story, Aaron's figure overlaps with Van Gogh across a hundred years. Looking at those intact works of art and listening to the infinite praise of Van Gogh by later generations, Van Gogh witnessed his greatness that he could not witness in person during his lifetime with Aaron's body.

The theme of the novel is fully sublimated at this moment. Talent that transcends the times is always accompanied by doubts and loneliness, and only art is immortal.