1980 My literary era

The activities after winning the Goncourt Literary Prize were scheduled for three days. These three days of activities were arranged by the Goncourt Institute. If you win the prize, you must give honor to the organizer!

For three days, Lin Weimin had almost no rest time except at night.

While he was busy attending events and accepting interviews in France, Xinhua News Agency's interview materials had been couriered back to Yanjing by reporters.

The edited video material was broadcast on CCTV's "News Network" that day and lasted for a full minute.

The news that Lin Weimin won this year's Goncourt Literary Prize for his novel "The Lover" immediately spread throughout the country.

On the second day after "News Network" was broadcast, "People's Daily", "Reference News" and many other authoritative media followed up and reported the news. Among them, "People's Daily" even published on the front page a report by a Xinhua News Agency reporter in France Interview with Lin Weimin at the award ceremony.

It is rare for a long article of thousands of words and a personal interview to be published on the front page of the People's Daily.

The reason that prompted the "People's Daily" to make such a big move is naturally the strong influence of the Goncourt Literary Prize.

Lin Weimin felt that it was an exaggeration for Ms. Edmond Charles Roux to say that he had become a world-class writer after winning the Goncourt Literary Prize. From the difficulty of obtaining the award, it seems that this is indeed the case. After all, the world changes every year. The quality of literary writers is indeed low.

But he did not take into account the filtering effect of domestic people on Western countries and literary awards in this era.

Previously, Lin Weimin had won many foreign awards, but relatively speaking, his popularity in China was not high.

For example, the best screenwriter at the Cannes Film Festival won a screenwriting award. In these days, people rarely receive information from foreign film festivals.

For example, the Tony Awards in the United States are no longer in the film field, but in the drama field. People still don’t pay that much attention. Although the official publicity is vigorous, the sensational effect is always a little less.

The National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States is a literary award. It has a large audience, but the problem is that it is not well-known in the country, let alone ordinary people. Even many literature lovers have never heard of the name of this award, even if you are from the United States. How about several major literary awards?

However, the Prix Goncourt is completely different from the above awards. It can be said that it gathers all the points of interest in media communication and public attention.

First of all, this is one of the most prestigious literary awards in France, one of the great powers of Western democracy, with a long history. You must know that before the 1960s, French literature had always had the largest status in world literature, and no one would be dissatisfied when it was mentioned.

Well, Maozi may have some opinions.

Secondly, the lineup of judges in previous years is frighteningly strong, including Flaubert, Daudet... Such a lineup of judges is destined to have a high value for the award.

Furthermore, the global influence of the award is huge, not only in foreign countries. Nowadays, any young literary person who is even slightly interested in literature knows the name of the Prix Goncourt.

In the hearts of domestic literary youth in this era, the Goncourt Prize for Literature is a world-class award second only to the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Bringing together the above three elements, from the official to the literary world to the public, the reaction to Lin Weimin's award was even more exaggerated than the last time Zhang Yimou won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear.

The domestic film industry was indeed booming in the 1980s, but it was nothing compared to literature. This was the era of literature.

As soon as the news came out that a domestic writer had won the Goncourt Literary Prize, domestic public opinion was completely ignited almost within a day. The momentum was so huge that it directly matched the scene in 1984 when the domestic Olympic delegation participated in the Los Angeles Olympics and won the gold medal.

The issue of "national self-confidence" mentioned in Lin Weimin's exclusive interview published by "People's Daily" has also aroused widespread concern among knowledgeable people in China.

In recent years, the trend of worshiping foreign countries has been prevalent in China. Everyone says that Western countries are good and they all go to Western countries. Then who will build the motherland?

The calm and confident attitude that Lin Weimin showed in the interview, which was neither humble nor arrogant, made many people admire him. There are really only a few far-sighted intellectuals like him.

What's interesting is that just ten days ago, Lin Weimin was criticized by many media and people because of the problems in "Hunting".

A few days ago, Lin Weimin published an article in "Literary News" announcing that "Hunting" would no longer be published within ten years. Many people were happy because of this, thinking that their pressure had achieved results.

Then the news came out that Lin Weimin had been suspended. This group of people even celebrated, as if they had defeated a heinous criminal.

Just a few days later, the news came that Lin Weimin had won the Goncourt Literary Prize. While the whole country was cheering, a small group of people fell into an eerie silence.

Not to mention the reactions of these people, the news of Lin Weimin winning the Goncourt Literary Prize spread throughout the streets in a short time with the help of many authoritative media such as "Xinwen Network", "People's Daily", and "Reference News".

Suddenly, more and more readers came to buy Lin Weimin's works in the bookstore. The panic buying caused by "Hunting" a few days ago has entered a stable stage, and a new wave of panic buying has arrived again.

These readers are not scrupulous about meat and vegetables, not only newly published works, but also works that have been published for many years, such as "Latent" and "Cliff". As long as they are Lin Weimin's works, they will sweep them away.

Only a small number of these people are Lin Weimin's loyal readers, and the vast majority of people purchased it entirely because of Lin Weimin's award.

For several years, the sales of Lin Weimin's works have remained high, easily starting at one million copies.

But compared to the real existing readers in China, such sales are negligible.

This bombardment of public opinion has greatly expanded the audience range of Lin Weimin's works. It is not only limited to literary youths, but also spreads more widely to ordinary people.

It’s not that these people don’t read books, they just read relatively few mainstream literary works.

Entertainment publications such as "Popular Films", "Story Club", "Martial Arts" and "Wulin" or popular literary publications can easily sell millions of copies. This time, it is this group of readers that has stirred up a frenzy of public opinion.

In the past two days, the phone of the Chinese Literature Society has been ringing non-stop. The staff has been unable to answer the calls. Even if they missed the call, it doesn’t matter. You can guess the content. It is nothing more than urging the Chinese Literature Society to print or republish Lin Weimin’s works.

Except for the newly published works in the past year or two, Lin Weimin's other works have basically entered the long-tail sales stage. The total stock of each novel in sales channels across the country ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 copies.

As soon as the news of the Goncourt Literary Prize came out, the number of readers who came to buy Lin Weimin's works suddenly increased, and the inventory that could have been sold for several months or half a year was quickly consumed in a short period of time.

If we don’t print more books, bookstores and post offices will have no more books to sell!

Compared with the anxiety of bookstores and post offices, the Chinese Literature Society is even more anxious.

Although the club learned that Lin Weimin might win the Goncourt Literary Prize earlier than anyone else in the country, everyone didn't take it to heart.

After all, when Lin Weimin won the award in the past, the sales of his works only had a short burst and then quickly returned to normal. The inventory of the channel could fully cope with it.

The Chinese Literature Society did not expect that this time when the news of the Goncourt Literary Prize came out, the enthusiasm of readers to buy would be so rapid and enthusiastic.

Cheng Wanchun was so regretful that his hair was almost bald. He had been arguing with Lin Weimin a few days ago and didn't even think of getting down to business.

The panic buying wave came and went quickly. If hundreds of thousands or millions of books were sold less because of the delay of these few days, he would have thought that he would be killed by buying a piece of tofu.

This is all money!

The subscription information from all over the country came so suddenly. These bookstores and post offices now don't even write letters, but contact them directly by phone.

Every few hours, the number of book subscriptions will explode.

Cheng Wuchun contacted the printing house, and all non-essential printing tasks in the company were stopped, and all efforts were made to print Lin Weimin's works.

The rush to buy is only for a while. Printing one more book is a huge gain for the Chinese Literature Society, but you must not miss this great opportunity.

The bonuses and benefits at the end of this year are all thanks to Lin Weimin!

During the meeting, Cheng Wuchun presided over the meeting and was discussing the issue of rewards for Lin Weimin. After all, he had won an international literary award. The Chinese Literature Society must express it, and even the Yanbing Literary Award in China had to express it. Goncourt Literature The prize cannot be so shabby.

Suddenly someone came up with an idea - to publish a collection of essays for Lin Weimin.

There was a brief silence in the office at this suggestion.

It’s no problem to publish an anthology of essays. Which great writer doesn’t publish an anthology of essays?

This is a symbol of status in the literary world!

But the problem is...

This guy is only twenty-seven!

Not to mention Lin Weimin, big names in the literary world like you, Bala, Bala, Lu, Guo, Mao, Lao Wan, etc., didn’t get this kind of treatment at the age of twenty-seven!

"Zhang Ailing said that you should become famous early. This is probably the benefit of becoming famous early!" The person who made the suggestion said weakly in the face of everyone's doubts.

National Literature Publishing House reprinted Zhang Ailing's novel collection "Legend" in 1986, and the person who spoke was the editor-in-chief.

It does make sense to say that you should become famous as early as possible. In fact, literary giants such as Lu Guo, Mao Ba and Lao Wan were not very old when they became famous. However, one flaw of these people is that the stock of their works at that time was not enough. Anthology, hardware conditions are not enough.

Lin Weimin was different. From the age of 20 to 27, he kept writing and produced works every year, sometimes even two a year.

After so many years, he has produced more than a dozen novels with millions of words. To say it is a full-length work is a bit exaggerated, but it is true. It is more than enough to publish an anthology.

After hearing what he said, everyone in the conference room looked at each other in silence, then turned their attention to Cheng Wanchun, the president and editor-in-chief.

"this……"

Cheng Wuchun hesitated for a long time and said: "Let's discuss this matter later when Weimin returns to China. Compiling an anthology is not something that can be done in a while. Besides, he is still in the rising period of his creation. We will consult him first when he comes back. Let’s talk about his opinion.”

Cheng Wuchun's speech was the final word, and others did not dwell on this issue anymore.

After the meeting, everyone dispersed, not forgetting to whisper to each other.

Everyone unanimously mentioned "Hunting", which Lin Weimin announced would not be published within ten years. If it were published, how many copies would it have to sell to catch up with this wave?

For the sake of the people, you are a waste of money!