Chapter 414 “What’s a Surprise?”

“The most restless being?”

Li Tuo found Ma Yuan’s statement very interesting.

Of course he understood the restlessness in Ma Yuan’s words.

Looking back on Jiang Xian’s writing experience, there are heavy themes of the first generation of writers, socially responsible themes of the second generation of writers, educated youth novels of the third generation of writers, and modernist writings of the fourth generation of writers.

It doesn’t mean that every generation of writers will confine themselves to the writing of their generation.

Occasionally there is a leap.

Most of the time, they stay in their own fields and work hard.

“No other writer is like Jiang Xian, whose works cover all the topics explored by writers of every generation,” said Ma Yuan.

He always looks people straight in the eye when he speaks.

People would mistakenly think that Ma Yuan is very gentle.

But if you look closely at Ma Yuan’s eyes, you will find that those two eyeballs are so cold that they seem to be artificially installed.

“Jiang Xian didn’t limit himself to any particular scope.”

“He doesn’t even limit himself to the new era literature created by four generations of writers.”

“You can see it from his work on Castaways and The Hunger Games.”

“Jiang Xian’s vision is the whole world.”

Hiss.

Li Tuo was surprised.

He originally thought that Ma Yuan was extremely arrogant and wanted to see what kind of status the writer Jiang Xian had in the eyes of this madman.

I didn’t expect Ma Yuan to give Jiang Xian such a high evaluation and directly regard him as a world-class writer.

“Jiang Xian has been writing for many years after all.” Xie Xiang muttered as he sat aside.

After hearing what Ma Yuan said, he felt very complicated.

Ma Yuan is the writer he admires most.

In private, he highly respected Ma Yuan and even wanted to regard Ma Yuan as the number one figure in domestic literature.

But at this moment, hearing Ma Yuan’s evaluation of Jiang Xian, hearing Ma Yuan rank Jiang Xian so highly.

Xie Xiang felt as if something was blocking his heart.

Although Ma Yuan did not say it directly.

But he definitely expressed in a tactful way that his literary level was not as good as Jiang Xian’s.

This made Xie Xiang feel a little uncomfortable.

People who often watch table tennis may understand his feeling. Will Sun Yisha’s fans allow her to say that she is not as good as a certain player? Of course not.

If she really said that, her fans wouldn’t believe it and would even come up with conspiracy theories.

“His article ‘Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen’ is really well written. It is really well written.”

Ma Yuan finally talked about the novel:

“I have never met Jiang Xian. We have never met, let alone known each other. We have never made a phone call or exchanged letters.”

“But when I read this novel, I began to wonder if Jiang Xian had spied on my life in some way. He completely wrote about my feelings. This person completely wrote about my life.”

“I am 31 years old.”

“More than a decade ago, when I was 18 years old and graduated from middle school, I left home and responded to the call to work in a commune in Jin County, Liaoning Province.”

“It’s not a journey, but it’s better than any journey.”

“That’s exactly what Jiang Xian wrote.”

Ma Yuan had a look of nostalgia on his face:
“All the mountains and clouds remind me of familiar people. Even if I walk for a whole day, I don’t feel tired at all.”

“At the age of 18, I was exactly as he wrote, curious and passionate, persistent in pursuing a distant ideal, and unwavering in going far away to find my own future.”

“On that journey, I experienced joy and sorrow, hesitation, confusion, and self-abandonment. In the end, I accepted reality, and then sought self-comfort in reality, and gradually became calm.”

“When I was 28 years old, I graduated from Liaoning University. After graduation, I chose another distant place and went directly to Tibet.”

“I particularly like life in Tibet. I think I have learned much more there than what I have written. Tibet lacks oxygen, seriously lacks oxygen, and lacks all the elements of life. But the thing that Tibet lacks the most is joy. There are more than 100 days of festivals in a year.”

Ma Yuan couldn’t stop talking about Tibet, but fortunately he still wanted to talk more about the novel “Eighteen Years Old”, so he quickly changed the topic.

“I particularly like this trip when I was 28. All my novels are about this trip when I was 28. I have never written about the trip when I was 18 because I can’t write about it anymore.”

“At 18, I didn’t have the ability to write a novel like that, and at 28, I don’t have the mindset of an 18-year-old to write a novel like that.”

“This is where Jiang Xian’s deity lies.”

“In my opinion, this novel is as profound as the sentence written by Mr. Lu Xun in Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk – ‘They may deceive me for my whole life, making me look back from time to time.'”

Li Tuo nodded in agreement.

“When I wrote a review of this novel, I wrote: If a person is not an idealist at the age of 18, he must be terribly vulgar; if he is still an idealist at the age of 28, he is ridiculously naive.”

“I think this passage may be the most perfect commentary on you and Jiang Xian’s novel.”

Ma Yuan nodded seriously, “Your comment is well written. I have to take back my previous evaluation of you. You do know a little about novels.”

“Humph.”

Li Tuo sneered, “Then I should thank Jiang Xian? Thanks to his novel, I was able to regain some face in front of you.”

Ma Yuan said nothing.

Li Tuo guessed that maybe in this guy’s heart, he really thought so.

But Li Tuo didn’t care anymore.

Today, thanks to Jiang Xian’s novel, he was able to come out and compete with Ma Yuan in boxing.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for this guy to suddenly restrain himself so much.

“That’s enough.” Li Tuo pointed at the book “The Temptation of Gangdise” in front of him, “Comrade Ma Yuan, leave your manuscript with me first. I will try to get it published for you.”

“it is good.”

Ma Yuan had no objection.

It is often said in the world that Ma Yuan’s sign of trust in others is that he is able to hand over the manuscript of his novel to them.

The fact that he was willing to leave the manuscript to Li Tuo showed that after talking with Li Tuo for a while, he had begun to trust him.

“Thank you for your help, Master Tuo.” Xie Xiang kept thanking him.

At this moment, he no longer said anything about Ma Yuan being the best in the world.

How can you say this?

As far as Ma Yuan himself is concerned, he doesn’t think he is the best in the world.

At least Jiang Xian was put in front.

How could Xie Xiang have the nerve to say such things?

Li Tuo is a very loyal person. When asked to help Ma Yuan publish a manuscript, he really put in the effort to research it.

He first read all the recent domestic literary journals, intending to feel the degree of flexibility of the major publications. This is what Li Tuo has to do every month.

However, as he continued reading, Li Tuo unexpectedly gained something else.

He was surprised to find that Jiang Xian’s article “Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen” had actually received a large number of commentary articles.

Perhaps for a long time, Jiang Xian disappeared from the domestic literary scene.

After such a long time, although Huacheng has published “Drifter” and “The Hunger Games” before, they were not first releases, but reprinted from abroad. This time, “Eighteen Years Old Going Out for a Long Journey” is the real first release.

Almost the entire domestic critic community focused their attention on this novel.

What attracted Li Tuo the most was the review article “Jiang Xian took me to an eighteen-year-old dream – reading ‘Eighteen Years Old'” written by critic Li Jie to Jiang Xian in Shanghai Literature, one of the top best-selling domestic magazines.

“Jiang Xian has reached the forefront of contemporary Chinese literature.”

At the beginning, Li Jie highly praised Jiang Xian with this comment. In his opinion:
“The novel “Eighteen Years Old” is very simple and pure, without any fancy words. The narrative is straightforward and without any strong emotional color. It is this extremely simple method and this state close to nothingness that gives his writing infinite possibilities.”

“When I read this novel, I felt as if I was in a dream, but this dream was sometimes so real. I don’t know what it is telling us specifically, but it somehow resonates with the depths of our souls.”

Few people in later generations may have heard of Li Jie.

This person is not some unknown person.

His current fame in Shanghai is almost equivalent to Han Han’s in 20 years.

He was the number one talented teacher in Shanghai. Su Tong, Wang Anyi, Ge Fei and other famous writers in Shanghai were basically his younger brothers in the 1980s.

In the eyes of many people, perhaps only Mu Xin can be compared with him. Mu Xin is good at words and style, while Li Jie is good at thoughts and aesthetics.

His review articles are considered by many writers to be more exciting literary criticism than the works themselves.

Unfortunately, this person particularly likes to play tricks on others in terms of politics, and often says some jaw-dropping things. As a result, he has been ostracized in later generations and has basically lost his voice. He has been marginalized. Many students majoring in literature don’t know him, and have never even heard of his name.

This is not to speak up for him, this guy is really asking for death. I won’t comment too much on him here. Anyway, at the moment, Li Ke’s review is undoubtedly a bombshell, adding luster to the novel “Eighteen Years Old”.

In addition to Li Ke, there are also a large number of writers and critics who are highly regarded in the literary world who have published articles.

Wang Meng published a commentary in People’s Literature about the novel “Eighteen Years Old”, praising the novel for describing “the simplicity, confusion, frustration, embarrassment and contentment of young people in life.”

Lei Da commented in the Literary Gazette that “this novel is not just a novel, but also a revelation about growth, which triggers readers’ deep thinking about growth and makes us reflect on our own growth process.”

The most interesting thing is that there is also an article by a 16-year-old middle school student from the Eighth Middle School in Beijing, which was published in the magazine “The Ugly Duckling”:
“This story undoubtedly had a huge impact on me when I was 16 years old.”

“I have also fantasized about how wonderful the outside world is, and I have also wanted to get rid of the mechanized study life as soon as possible, but the cruel and ruthless world presented in this story makes me doubt whether I have the courage to step into the threshold of the adult world in the near future.”

[“Where are you going?”

“Anywhere.”

“Where are you going?”

“Go ahead and take a look.”]
“I don’t know how many turns the road ahead will take, nor do I know whether the scenery ahead will be pleasing to me. I will only know when I walk past it.”

The sixteen-year-old student wrote with sincerity and honesty, and it also allowed Li Tuo to see a different voice.

Most critics think about this novel from the perspective of someone older than 18.

This sixteen-year-old student, however, reads from the perspective of someone younger than eighteen.

This made Li Tuo feel that the editors of “The Ugly Duckling” were really creative.

It provides the literary world with more perspectives on reading “Eighteen Years Old”.

Such an overwhelming campaign is just the tip of the iceberg of the popularity of the novel “Eighteen Years Old” in China.

Beijing, Yanjing Hotel.

Today, Huacheng held a work discussion meeting here, and the topic of discussion was Jiang Xian’s novel “Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen”.

As for the lineup, it is no exaggeration to say that it is a gathering of all the talented people. Wang Meng, Jiang Zilong, Chen Jiangong, Wang Zengqi, Zhang Jie, Xu Chi, Shi Tiesheng, these mainstays of the literary world today, almost all came to support Jiang Xian. It would be impossible for any other writer to put together such a lineup so easily.

Jiang Xian has been abroad for so long and has not participated in domestic literary activities for a long time. When he attended the symposium again this time, he suddenly noticed that there were many new faces in the literary world.

For example, the military writer in military uniform: Mo Yan.

This year, he became famous with an article “Transparent Carrot”. Feng Mu personally organized a Mo Yan writing seminar for him at the Overseas Chinese Building in Beijing.

Mo Yan’s evaluation of the novel “Eighteen Years Old” is very interesting.

When it was his turn to speak, he nervously described Jiang Xian as
——“The first sober dreamer in contemporary literary world.”

The term was very unique, “lucid dreamer”, which immediately attracted the attention of the participants.

In his subsequent speech, Mo Yan praised the novel “Eighteen Years Old” without reservation.

It is believed that “Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen” is a “clearly organized dream-like novel”.

Being able to come up with such an evaluation, no one would think that Mo Yan is flattering Jiang Xian. He must really like the novel “Eighteen Years Old” from the bottom of his heart.

The symposium lasted for an entire afternoon. As it was drawing to a close, Huacheng’s Su Chen suddenly attacked Jiang Xian:

“Commander Jiang, we have been talking about your novel for so long. We are tired of talking about it. In the end, how about you talk about it yourself?”

This statement was immediately responded to by other comrades, who all clamored for Jiang Xian to speak himself.

This is understandable.

At a work discussion meeting, it is reasonable and logical for writers to talk about their own works.

Jiang Xian was of course well prepared. He leaned forward very relaxedly and said calmly:

“If you ask me how I would evaluate my own article “Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen”?”

“I want to say”

“Well written, really well written!”

This statement immediately caused a group of people to laugh.

His self-admiration is mixed with a sense of humor that pleases everyone, so no one thinks Jiang Xian is conceited.

“Let’s wrap this up briefly.”

Jiang Xian said in a relaxed tone:

“I told Comrade Su Chen that I quickly wrote this short story, “Going on a Long Journey at the Age of Eighteen,” based on a news report about an apple robbery incident.”

“In fact, I am a little reluctant to hold a discussion meeting on my works today.”

“Because in the eyes of most avant-garde experimental novelists, what the text is about is not important, but how it is written is important.”

“So, isn’t it putting the cart before the horse to explore the profound meaning of the novel?”

“It took me a few days to figure out the answer to that question.”

“The answer lies in this novel:”

“The superficiality of human beings comes from the limitations of experience and the neglect of spiritual essence. Only by breaking away from common sense and abandoning the order and logic provided by the current world can we freely approach the truth.”

The whole audience was silent.

The next moment, there was a wave of applause.

After the discussion, Jiang Xian and Wang Meng chatted leisurely in the corridor.

“Are you going to watch the military parade on National Day?” Wang Meng asked.

“Watching the parade?”

Jiang Xian thought about it, and was a little tempted, but waved his hand again, “Forget it, it will probably be very crowded, and I don’t like crowds.”

“.”

Wang Meng looked at him strangely and said, “If you want to go, of course I can arrange a place for you.

After all, you are also a deputy department official.”

“I had totally forgotten about this.” Jiang Xian slapped his forehead.

He spends so much time at People’s Digest every day that he almost forgets that he is the deputy editor-in-chief of People’s Literature.

“You go and take a look. There’s a surprise for you.” Wang Meng deliberately kept the secret.

(End of this chapter)