Back to 80: My Literary Life

After Jia Pingwa left, Fang Minghua began to collect avant-garde novels published in China in the past two years.

"You Have No Choice" by Liu Sola, "Transparent Carrot" by Mo Yan, "The Temptation of Gangdise" by Ma Yuan, and "The Cabin on the Mountain" by Can Xue. These pioneering works can be selected.

Fang Minghua flipped through a large pile of periodicals and magazines on the table.

These are magazines published by major magazines across the country in the past two years. Fang Minghua asked people to borrow them from the library of his unit and browse them one by one.

Su Tong has already published "Escape in 1934"?

Fang Minghua read a novel in the latest "Harvest", which told the story of a family's escape, expressing the historical background of the collapse of rural areas and their flight to emerging cities. This is a rather innovative work, and the extraordinary narrative contains the memories, fantasies, legends and all the mysterious atmosphere about Maple Poplar's hometown.

It can be regarded as Su Tong's early masterpiece and can be selected.

Where's Yu Hua's?

Fang Minghua flipped through the magazines published this year. Yu Hua's "Stars" originally published in "Yanhe" can only be regarded as his debut, but his writing style is still relatively immature. Later, he published "Bamboo Girl" and "The Moon Shines on You, the Moon". "Follow Me" is also not literary enough.

Since you have to choose, you must choose a better author.

Huh?

The novel "A Journey at the Age of Eighteen" was also published?

Fang Minghua looked at the latest issue of "Yanjing Literature" and wrote about the setbacks and gains in growing up through the fragments of life experienced by an eighteen-year-old boy on his first trip.

It seems that it was published after entering the revision class of "Yenjing Literature"?

Earlier than in history?

Anyway, with my own arrival, the timeline for these writers to publish their works is a bit messy.

No matter how many there are, as long as it is good, choose it!

Yu Hua and Su Tong, two avant-garde writers, have novels, but what about Ge Fei?

At the end of 1983, Fang Minghua met once at the "East China-Northwest Region Youth Symposium" held in Shanghai. At that time, he was still a student at East China Normal University.

I looked through all the magazines and found no novels published by Ge Fei.

Fang Minghua is a little disappointed, maybe he hasn't written it yet, right?

Among the three, Ge Fei is the youngest.

"Butterfly" written by Wang Meng is also good, a stream of consciousness novel, and of course Fang Minghua will not forget what he wrote.

"The Sun Also Rises" and "Roadside Picnic".

Doing the math, there are nearly ten short and medium-length novels, large and small, enough to produce a book.

Of course, these writers must obtain the other party's consent whether they are willing to publish their novels abroad. After all, the copyright is in their hands.

For example, Wang Meng, Liu Sola, and Yu Hua have corresponded with each other and know the address, so they write directly to themselves. However, Mo Yan, Su Tong, etc. have no correspondence, but it doesn't matter. They write directly to the editorial department of the publication they published, stating that the intention is forwarded to the author. Just in person.

Fang Minghua wrote letters throughout the afternoon, and they were all very similar. First, he introduced himself, and then briefly introduced that he went to the University of Iowa to participate in the International Writers Program, met the person in charge of City Lights Publishing House in Los Angeles, and would be the " Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the representative poet of the "Beat Generation", gave a brief introduction.

The other party is willing to publish books about pioneering works of Chinese writers. I will select XXX articles written by you. If agreed, I will mail them to the United States. The other party will be responsible for publishing. The royalties received will be returned to the author after deducting personal income tax. The details are as follows: Agent of Universal Computer Publishing Company in Chicago, USA.

Fang Minghua in the letter also emphasized that since avant-garde novels are also niche literature in the United States, it is unknown how many copies they will sell and how much royalties they will receive, so please consider it carefully.

In a word, I don’t know if I can make money. I am just an editor who wants to introduce good domestic avant-garde works to Americans. Don’t worry, I won’t charge you half a dime.

It took Fang Minghua a day to write these letters, send them out, and wait for a reply.

Now he has another thing to consider, which is the science fiction novel "The Wandering Earth" that Liu Cixin has published in "Science and Literature"

Since such a good novel has been published in advance, why not introduce it abroad?

However, the "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" in the United States only accepts English versions and has to find someone to translate them into English.

Fang Minghua was not familiar with the other person, so he had to trouble Li Li who was already studying in the UK.

In addition, you have to write a letter to Liu Cixin and obtain his consent.

In the office, Fang Minghua took out the letter paper and wrote two more letters. One was sent to Li Li in the UK, explaining the reason and sending it along with the novel "The Wandering Earth" that had been published in "Science and Literature".

The other letter was sent to Liu Cixin - according to history, Liu was already working at Niangziguan Power Plant, right?

I don’t know what unit he is in specifically?

But it doesn't matter, the power plant is probably not big, and the newly assigned college students are quite eye-catching.

In this way, Fang Minghua completed the last two letters.

Jin Province, Niangziguan.

Niangzi Pass is a famous pass on the Great Wall of China, located at the foothills of Mianshan Mountain northeast of Pingding, Yangquan, Shanxi Province.

Starting from Niangziguan Town, walk three kilometers westward along a road full of cinders and dust, and you will arrive at a small village called Podi Village, where Niangziguan Power Plant is located.

In the distance, you can see three huge condensation towers. Behind the condensation towers is the huge Taihang Mountains. At dusk, they look particularly solemn and desolate.

In the computer room of the power plant, a young man wearing black-rimmed glasses and blue overalls looked at the computer screen and typed on the keyboard with both hands.

Despite the desolate location of the power plant, the power plant itself is still very advanced.

Niangziguan Power Plant was once used as a war-ready power plant to ensure the power supply in Hebei Province, Yanjing and other places. Then it is not only one of the main power plants in Shanxi Province, but also one of the hub power plants of the North China Power Grid.

This young man wearing black-rimmed glasses is Liu Cixin, who was just assigned to the factory this year to work in computer software programming.

"Xiao Liu, your letter!" A staff member hurried in.

Liu Cixin took it and saw that the address above turned out to be the "Yanhe" magazine office in Xijing City!

He froze for a moment.

He once published a science fiction novel in "Science and Literature", so why did "Yanhe" magazine send him a letter?

To be honest, he doesn't like pure literature, only science fiction.

I opened the envelope and read it hastily, then I was stunned.

It turned out that the editor named Minghua wanted to recommend that the science fiction article he wrote be published in the American "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction"!

This is a great thing.

He suddenly became excited.

But, can my novel be adopted by an American magazine?

That was the magazine that published his idol, Arthur Charles Clark.

But no matter what, the enthusiastic editor-in-chief Fang Minghua in Xijing made suggestions to me, and he should still accept them.

Maybe, can it really be achieved?

Aren’t several of Fang Minghua’s science fiction novels published? And the article "Country Teacher" also won the American Nebula Award!