1980 My literary era

This person is afraid of comparison.

Compared with someone like Mo Yan, who writes a novel in a month, Yu Hua, who holds back two words in three days, is no different from a salty hairtail fish.

Yu Hua was indeed a little depressed after receiving a call from Lin Weimin.

These little eyes are haunting!

Yu Hua made up his mind to write his next novel as quickly as possible.

Moyan is thirty-five days, right?

Thirty days for me!

"Hey, Yu Hua, do you want to go fishing this afternoon?"

"Fishing?" Yu Hua hesitated.

Forget it, thirty-one days is shorter than those little eyes.

When Yu Hua was conflicted about fishing or fishing, Lin Weimin, who was far away in Yanjing, received an overseas call from the United States.

The phone was opened by Arthur Miller. He didn't need to mail any package this time, so he called directly.

Arthur Miller told Lin Weimin on the phone that "The Intouchables" has been suspended.

From 1984 to 1988, "The Intouchables" played at the Barrymore Theater on Broadway for four years, performing 1,365 times. It won the recognition and love of countless theater audiences in the United States, and also won the recognition of the Tony Award.

In the final stage of the show, the occupancy rate of Broadway theaters was less than 30%, and box office revenue dropped sharply.

So "The Intouchables" started touring mode. Compared with theater performances, the tour ignited the vitality of this drama again.

After all, Broadway audiences are mainly New Yorkers, in addition to tourists from the United States and around the world. After several years of performances, the audience potential has almost been exhausted.

But the tour is different. In other big cities in the United States, the audience for dramas may not be as large as in New York. But similarly, this is the first time that "The Intouchables" has been performed in these cities. The audience is full of enthusiasm for this drama. A sense of freshness.

The tour of "The Intouchables" lasted for nearly a year, and there were nearly 150 performances. The most important thing is that the ticket prices for the tour are usually much more expensive than those for theater performances.

This wave, it can be said that there is a lot of money made.

But no matter how good the stage is, there is a time to say goodbye. Just yesterday, "The Intouchables" ended its nearly one-year tour plan and returned to Barrymore for a farewell performance.

During the last performance, the Barrymore Theater was crowded and the auditorium was full, but everyone understood that this was just a return to the past.

Many theatergoers who loved "The Intouchables" couldn't help but burst into tears on the night of the performance, and many media reported the suspension of the play the next day.

In four years and more than a thousand performances, "The Untouchables" has become one of the few longevity plays in Broadway history, accompanying millions of audiences.

In terms of box office revenue, plays usually cannot compare with musicals, but "The Intouchables" is an exception.

In four years, the cumulative box office has exceeded 100 million US dollars, of which nearly 30 million US dollars in revenue were brought by tours.

This box office revenue is nothing in the Broadway musical market, but in the drama market it is enough to rank among the top ten in history.

Lin Weimin, the original author, also received a box office share of tens of millions of dollars.

Of course, the one who made the most money was Arthur Miller, who was an investor, producer, screenwriter, etc. As the biggest promoter of introducing this drama to the United States, Comrade Lao Mi earned more than 20 million US dollars from one drama. .

Lin Weimin is not jealous at all about Comrade Lao Mi's income. When "The Intouchables" was introduced to the United States, he was making money on his own. Not only did Lao Mi do a lot, but he also took risks to invest in the drama himself, so he took his share of the profits as a matter of course.

The suspension of "The Intouchables" is indefinite. It does not mean that it will never be performed again, but it depends on the situation. Maybe in another ten or eight years, the audience will change, and it will have to be rerun. .

This is routine for a classic Broadway play.

Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" was born in the 1940s and has been revived twice.

After talking about "The Intouchables" which was suspended, Arthur Miller was inevitably a little melancholy. Lin Weimin then changed the topic to "The Kite Runner", and Arthur Miller's mood, which was low just now, became high again.

Compared with "The Intouchables", which was declining and had to be discontinued, "The Kite Runner" is at its peak.

Since its premiere in September of the previous year, it has received a lot of praise and box office revenue. Especially after winning several Tony Awards in the middle of last year, the box office revenue has exploded.

In just one and a half years, "The Kite Runner" has already generated nearly 50 million in box office revenue. The total box office is expected to surpass "The Intouchables". The only uncertainty is what kind of history it will create.

However, the most popular one on Broadway recently is "Phantom of the Opera" which was just moved from London's West End. As the latest masterpiece of the talented composer Andrew, "Phantom of the Opera" became a hit in New York City as soon as it premiered on Broadway.

Although there are many types of stage plays on Broadway, musicals are undoubtedly the strongest among them.

With the foundation of classic musicals such as "Evita" and "Cats", and more than a year of training in London's West End, "The Phantom of the Opera" conquered the New York City audience in just a few days.

When Arthur Miller talked about "The Phantom of the Opera", his tone was full of emotion and envy.

"Lin, I really didn't expect that "Phantom of the Opera" would be so popular."

When Lin Weimin wanted to invest in "The Phantom of the Opera," Arthur Miller had doubts, but now it seems that Lin Weimin's decision was undoubtedly the right one.

"Luck is also part of strength!" Lin Weimin joked.

"Haha, that's right!"

Laughing, the two hung up the phone.

After lunch, colleagues chatted in the editorial office and talked about a topic that has been hotly discussed in the literary world recently.

Hainan was established as a province in 1987. Logically speaking, this matter has nothing to do with the literary circle.

Coincidentally, "Zhongshan" went to Hainan Island last spring to organize a pen conference. After the pen conference ended, many writers who participated in the pen conference spontaneously promoted the grand scenery of Hainan Island after returning, as if it was a paradise.

The "Zhongshan" pen conference made Hainan Island famous in the literary circle. Originally, this matter should have ended here.

But no one expected that someone actually proposed the idea of ​​moving to Hainan Island. In their words, they wanted to "build a spiritual island."

The first person to propose this idea was the writer Han Shaogong. What is unexpected is that his unbridled idea actually won the response of many people.

This group of people gathered in Jingcong and were very capable of action. They not only moved their families, canceled their household registrations, transferred their children to schools, took their savings, and headed for Hainan Island resolutely and mightily.

For a time, it attracted the attention of the entire Chinese literary world, and countless people envied this group of people for their uniqueness and romanticism.

In the past year, Han Shaogong and others have vigorously promoted their ideas.

Need a newspaper, a magazine, a publishing house, a correspondence college, a farm.

But from last year to this year, the big moves they were planning never came to fruition, and many people who were originally envious and optimistic have gradually turned into doubts.

"Weimin, do you think they can accomplish this?" Liu Yin asked Lin Weimin.

Lin Weimin has heard a lot about the ideals of Han Shaogong and others in the past year. Their idea is to build an ideal paradise.

Start by running a magazine, and then use the benefits generated by running a magazine to run schools and farms.

All major matters are subject to a referendum by all members. The wealth acquired by the magazine, in addition to paying taxes, is jointly managed and distributed by all members.

Income distribution combines distribution according to need and distribution according to work. Everyone can receive equal basic salary, public medical care, and immediate family members enjoy semi-public medical care. Each working day is calculated as work points based on the labor input at different positions.

Sound familiar?

To put it bluntly, the idea of ​​​​this group of people is to build an idealistic commune, but it is not that big.

"Just listen to this kind of thing. Human nature is complex. If it could be so simple, a country as big as ours would not seek reform." Lin Weimin said.

"As the forest gets bigger, there are all kinds of birds. As the country gets bigger, there are naturally more problems and conflicts, so it's definitely not that easy to establish communes and communism. But they only have so few people and their scale is so small. If they do it well, That should be okay, right?”

This idea won the approval of many people.

Indeed, it would be extremely difficult for one billion people to engage in communes and communism.

But if ten people do this, it sounds like the difficulty will immediately be reduced by thousands of times.

"Haha, this has nothing to do with the large number of people and the small number of people. It has something to do with human nature. Human nature is selfish."

"Then according to what you say, communism cannot be realized?" someone asked.

Lin Weimin shook his head, "It's not that it can't be achieved, but the road is difficult. I can't answer this question. Maybe one day, social productivity will be extremely developed..."

"But we can't solve the problem of human nature!" someone interrupted.

At this point, everyone's mood was a little low. This is the gap between reality and ideals.

"I think this is just a good thing!" Lin Weimin said this when everyone bowed their heads.

"Why?"

"Society is developing and productivity is also improving. One day we will live a life without worries about food and clothing. The people will be rich and the country will be strong. By then,

It is very likely that the people will fall into the trap of hedonism, and even the government will lose its direction. What will we do then? Where is the way out for this society?

Communism, even if it is an unrealistic dream, can point out a direction for our society and allow us to keep moving forward towards the ideal sea of ​​stars, instead of being annihilated in the long river of time like those ancient civilizations that were once developed and prosperous. among. "

Lin Weimin's eyes were deep when he spoke, as if he had seen the rise and fall from ancient times to the present.

Tong Zhonggui was affected by his speech and stood up excitedly.

"Teacher Lin is right, such an ideal is destined to not be realized in a short time.

But this does not prevent it from becoming the consensus and long-term goal of our entire society. Maybe in a hundred years, maybe in a thousand years, as long as there is this consensus and goal, our society will burst out with a steady stream of power and move towards this grand goal. Keep moving forward with ambitious goals. "

Everyone couldn't help but applaud and praised: "Xiao Tong said it well!"

After being praised by everyone, Tong Zhonggui was freed from his excitement and scratched his head in embarrassment.

A debate like this in the editorial office of "Contemporary" might be ridiculous if viewed thirty or forty years later.

But there is nothing against it today. This is the age of innocence.