Literary Master 1978

"This question... I can't answer."

Mr. Ba Jin stretched his arms for a few seconds and said such a sentence, which made everyone who was expecting it feel disappointed. It was as if he had not said it.

Seeing everyone's reaction, the veteran comrade explained patiently: "It is appropriate for the award results to be made public, but the award process is the collective wisdom of the jury and involves all aspects, so we cannot tell everyone everything.

However, I would like to reassure everyone that our award process is fair and impartial, and there is absolutely no malpractice or abuse of power for personal gain. I can guarantee this with my personality. "

After Mr. Ba Jin finished speaking, the scene was silent for a few seconds. At this time, Liu Xinwu, who was sitting among the seniors, suddenly continued what Wang Meng said and asked: "Recently, there are rumors that the last work eliminated by the jury is Chaoyang." "The Death of Van Gogh."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Chaoyang could clearly feel that the atmosphere at the scene was stagnant, and everyone's eyes were focused in several directions.

One is Liu Xinwu who said something astonishing, the other is Mr. Ba Jin as the director of the jury, and the other is Lin Chaoyang, the person involved.

Lin Chaoyang ignored everyone's attention and couldn't help but cast his eyes on Liu Xinwu.

Even though Lao Liu is an honest person, he is really a good material for doing big things in a low voice!

Old comrades know what they mean, but they won't let you ask, and you won't say anything if you ask. Isn't it frustrating that you still want to get to the bottom of it?

In the eyes of everyone, Liu Xinwu's question was a bit meant to defend Lin Chaoyang.

Everyone present is a leader in the industry. Everyone can understand that Lin Chaoyang's two works were submitted for awards. "The Death of Van Gogh" is obviously higher than "The Chess" in terms of artistic achievement. Both "The Chess" can win the award. , then why not "The Death of Van Gogh"?

If there are too many winning works under consideration, and one work must be removed, it should not be "The Death of Van Gogh". This makes no sense whatsoever.

This has caused many people in the literary world to be discussing that the evaluation of this Mao Dun Literary Award is still politically oriented, not purely from a literary perspective.

Therefore, after Liu Xinwu asked this question, many people present wanted to watch the excitement.

"There's really no way to answer this question." Mr. Ba Jin pondered for a while, and finally adopted an evasive attitude.

The old man also knew that his attitude was inevitably a little unkind, so he said instead: "Since everyone is so concerned about the details of our awards this year, why not ask Comrade Jingzhi to talk about some of our award principles."

Mr. Ba Jin's words pushed He Jingzhi, the general of the Pianzuo faction, to the front desk.

This move immediately aroused the inner excitement of several comrades from the Xichun faction present. It was you, the faction that caused the incident, and now it's time for you to make things right.

Several leaders of the partial faction were full of criticism, angry at Ba Jin's lack of martial ethics. Everyone clearly recognized the results of the award, but when he was scolded, they only wanted to push his colleagues out of the way to block the gun.

But Ba Jin really did not push He Jingzhi out randomly. In addition to being a poet, He Jingzhi is also the acting minister of the Ministry of Culture, with a high position.

In the face of doubts from peers, it is definitely inappropriate for the jury to insist on not responding. It will only appear guilty, but they cannot speak too clearly.

It would be a good choice to let He Jingzhi come forward. His position is biased, but at the same time he has an official status. Through him, he can explain the general ideas and operations of the award. This can not only calm everyone's doubts and injustice, but also maximize the benefits. to reduce the impact of this matter.

Being pushed to the stage by Ba Jin, He Jingzhi did not panic.

"Everyone is very concerned about which work the jury finally eliminated. According to normal procedures, it is really inconvenient for the jury to reveal it.

As for whether what some people guess is "The Death of Van Gogh", we have no way to answer. This is restricted by rules.

But since everyone has asked, if we don’t say anything, it seems that our award evaluation is not fair and open enough.

Then let me talk about why the work "The Death of Van Gogh" was not selected. What do you think? "

In fact, what everyone wants to know is whether "The Death of Van Gogh" was the last work to be eliminated. If it is, it can be said to be the biggest regret of this year's Mao Dun Literature Award.

Although He Jingzhi did not answer the question directly like Ba Jin, his meaning was very clear. It was equivalent to responding to everyone's thoughts in disguise, and everyone's attention suddenly focused on him.

“From an artistic perspective, is The Death of Van Gogh good?

good!

I think everyone can see this, and we as judges cannot deny it. Several years after its publication, both the evaluation from the literary community and the feedback from readers have proved that this is a good work that can stand the test of time.

During the award evaluation process, many of our reading class members and judges also expressed their love and recognition for this work.

But why didn’t this work make the final list of winners?

The answer is actually very simple. I would like to ask everyone to consider a question:

If we now change the signature of "The Death of Van Gogh" to a foreign name, would you think it is a Chinese literary work? "

The question raised by He Jingzhi was like a bomb, which stunned everyone present.

Those who reacted quickly immediately understood what he meant. "The Death of Van Gogh" tells the life story of the foreign artist Van Gogh. Whether in terms of the story background or the creative style, it is an alternative in contemporary Chinese literature.

He Jingzhi paused for a moment and continued, "Although there is no premise for the Mao Dun Literature Award, the default is that it must first be oriented towards contemporary Chinese literary works, with the emphasis on the word "China".

The selected works must highlight national characteristics and regional colors, portray the style of the times, and reflect social issues.

If it is purely from the perspective of a novel, "The Death of Van Gogh" is of course an excellent work, but if we want to select an excellent work with the above characteristics, such a work is obviously not our target.

I hope my answer will satisfy everyone."

After He Jingzhi finished speaking, everyone present was still digesting the meaning of his words.

Lin Chaoyang shouted "fool" in his heart, the old comrade has such a tricky angle!

To be honest, Lin Chaoyang was not greedy enough to want both of his works to win the award, because it didn't make any difference to him which one won the award, anyway, he won the award.

But relatively speaking, "The Death of Van Gogh" should be stronger than "The Chess Master" in terms of hard power, so he also understood some of the voices from the outside world.

In the current award results, political stance plays a big decisive factor, which is something everyone knows.

When Liu Xinwu asked that question in public, he was a little worried about the judges present. If this kind of thing was brought to the table, it would inevitably cause a storm in the literary world.

After all, there are many years of precedents. Now the most sensitive thing in the literary world is the involvement of politics in literary creation.

But Lin Chaoyang never thought that He Jingzhi would find such a tricky angle to deny "The Death of Van Gogh".

In his opinion, this reason is too impeccable, because it completely abandons the usual judging criteria of literary awards and stands at a higher and more grand perspective to narrate. For the current doubts, it is undoubtedly a dimensionality reduction attack.

Even the author Lin Chaoyang feels this way, not to mention the others present.

After listening to He Jingzhi's answer, everyone was speechless. Even if they felt sorry for "The Death of Van Gogh" in their hearts, facing such a reason, no one could say that it was problematic for it not to win the award.

However, although He Jingzhi's answer did not directly answer Liu Xinwu's question just now, everyone can also hear from the side that "The Death of Van Gogh" is indeed qualified for the award.

Otherwise, the judges would not have to bother to give such a reason.

Therefore, He Jingzhi's answer is actually not important, because everyone has already tacitly accepted the level of "The Death of Van Gogh". It is an "uncrowned king" that has not won the award.

After the symposium, the Literary Association arranged a banquet for the award-winning writers.

During the dinner, Gu Hua mentioned the tradition of entertaining Lin Chaoyang at his home every year after winning the National Excellent Short and Medium Stories Award.

After three years of spreading, this tradition of entertaining has gradually become famous in the Chinese literary world and has been shrouded in mystery.

Zhang Guangnian smiled and urged: "Chaoyang, you can't be partial to one and ignore the other. The Mao Dun Literature Award is also a national award. You won the award again. You can't lose the tradition of entertaining!"

Everyone followed suit, and Lin Chaoyang laughed heartily, "Of course I can treat you, it depends on which day you are free."

Zhang Guangnian said very actively, "There are several media interviews tomorrow, why not schedule it for the day after tomorrow, and then I will take everyone to visit."

Lin Chaoyang looked at him deeply, the old comrade was very active in eating for free.

The day after the award ceremony, well-known domestic media such as "Wenyi Bao", "Guangming Daily", "China Youth Daily" and "Wenhui Daily" reported the grand award ceremony of the Mao Dun Literature Award. More than 600 guests from the national cultural circles gathered together to witness the first award ceremony of China's first novel award.

As early as the list of winners of this year's Mao Dun Literature Award was released, local news media had already had a round of reports, but the scale was far from comparable to today's reports.

Such a large-scale report is not only due to the dedicated contact and communication of the Literary Association, but also the influence of the award itself.

From the beginning of its birth, the Mao Dun Literature Award has shown its unique influence in the Chinese literary world. As time goes by, this influence will continue to strengthen. Even if it encounters various doubts in the future, its status in the contemporary Chinese literary world is already difficult to surpass.

Similarly, such status and influence have also made many works and writers who have won this award.

Seven winning works and seven winning writers are not unpopular in today's literary world and reader groups.

However, due to the popularity of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, these works and the names of the writers spread rapidly in a short period of time, and they became known to everyone in China, and their reputations spread all over the country.

Another day, Lin Chaoyang agreed to treat the guests to a meal, and he arranged the venue for the dinner in Mianhua Hutong.

Tao Yushu is now pregnant, and it is inevitable that there will be noise when treating guests to a meal. Lin Chaoyang does not want to affect her, but she insists on following Lin Chaoyang to help.

At around nine o'clock in the morning, the guests arrived one after another with gifts. In addition to several other award-winning writers, there was also Zhang Guangnian, the leader of the Literary Association.

Lin Chaoyang was busy in the kitchen, and everyone offered to help, so he asked Tao Yushu to rest aside.

Zhang Guangnian came to Lin Chaoyang and talked about asking him to join the Literary Association.

Zhang Guangnian had mentioned this to him two years ago, but Lin Chaoyang had never been interested in joining an official organization, so he didn't agree.

This time Zhang Guangnian brought up the old matter again, saying that he had even won the Mao Dun Literature Prize and was already a leading figure in the Chinese literary world, and he couldn't be so idle any longer.

While the two were arguing, Tao Yushu, who was sitting next to them, suddenly frowned with a painful expression.

"Ouch!"