British writer

Chapter 159 This is not a court

Margarita's eyes wandered between Lu Shi and Pankhurst, and her head moved accordingly.

It looked like watching a fierce table tennis match.

At this time,

boom--

The door was pushed open.

Scott broke in and said at the same time: "Lu, good news! Yesterday, the sales volume of "Mirror" exceeded 20..."

He also noticed the cold atmosphere in the room,

The next words were frozen in my throat.

Lu Shi raised his hand,

"Mr. Scott, you should also notice that we have guests."

There was authority in his tone.

Margarita's eyes twinkled slightly,

She suddenly discovered that Lu Shi at this time was completely different from when they first met, with a unique calm temperament.

Her Royal Highness has only seen this kind of temperament in a few people.

Scott looked at Pankhurst;

"Ma'am, who are you?"

Pankhurst introduced himself in a friendly manner, and then repeated his request: "I came to your newspaper this time because I hope you can revise the content of the "Jane Eyre" comic for the sake of women."

Scott:? ? ?

His expression became extremely wonderful,

Surprised, ridiculous, speechless, overwhelmed...

All these kinds of things.

Pankhurst looked at Margarita with a serious face and said, "Is this Miss Leopoldina?"

Margarita waved her hand,

"Just call me 'Margarita.'"

In Great Britain, she doesn't like others to call her by her last name because her Rhine heritage is too obvious.

Pankhurst said: "If I understand correctly, among the authors of the comic, the original artist is responsible for the plot and the original artist is responsible for the painting."

Margarita nodded,

"yes."

Pankhurst continued: "Then, I would like to ask Miss Margarita, has your adaptation of the plot of "Jane Eyre" respected the original author's meaning? Have you added, deleted, or changed the plot?"

Margarita opened her mouth to answer.

But Pankhurst spoke first,

"I think, as the original author of the comic, Miss Margarita must know the plot of "Jane Eyre" better than I do."

Margarita: "Well..."

She didn't expect that the other party was so strong and didn't even give her a chance to speak.

Lu Shi coughed lightly,

"cough……"

The eyes of everyone in the room fell on him.

He knew very well that it would be unwise to let Margarita speak at this time;

Her Royal Highness the Princess is too young and has no "struggle" experience, so she can easily be fooled.

Lu Shi cleared his throat and said, "Mrs. Pankhurst, it seems you are well prepared?"

Pankhurst shook his head;

"It wasn't a deliberate preparation. I like "Jane Eyre" very much, so when I saw those comics, I realized the problem."

Lu Shi responded: "I'm all ears."

Pankhurst opened his backpack, took out a notebook, and opened it.

Inside were clippings from the Mirror.

Everyone looked over and found that it was the first few chapters of the "Jane Eyre" comic that had just been serialized last Thursday.

Pankhurst said calmly: "Professor Lu must have read the original work, so you should know that the reason for Jane's outburst was because she was bullied and bullied at Gateshead Mansion, right?"

Lu Shi raised his eyebrows,

Faintly, he realized what the other party wanted to say.

Margarita on the other side also felt something, and whispered: "Mrs. Pankhurst, the length of the comic is..."

Pankhurst raised his hand to interrupt.

"Miss Margarita, please listen to my statement before speaking, okay?"

Margarita: "Ugh..."

Her throat moved slightly, making a sound like swallowing,

Lu Shi looked at her and thought of an idiom——

Like a lump in the throat.

well……

Lu Shi sighed silently in his heart, secretly thinking that the little girl was still young.

He slowly stretched out his right hand, groped around behind his back for a while, and found a heavy armchair. Then he held the back of the armchair and slowly moved it to the side.

The armchair is tilted, the two front legs are tilted up, and the back two legs are rubbing against the ground.

Since the newspaper office had just been put into use, there was no decoration on the floor, whether it was wooden floors or carpets, so the chair legs rubbed directly against the ground, making an extremely harsh sound, as if it could pierce people's eardrums.

The others looked at Lu Shi in shock.

Lu Shi nodded to Margarita and said, "Go on."

As soon as these words came out, Pankhurst immediately said with dissatisfaction: "Professor Lu, my words have not yet been..."

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Lu Shi: "Mrs. Pankhurst, this is not a court. There is no rule that others must keep quiet before you finish speaking."

Pankhurst blushed, but did not know how to retort.

Lu Shi looked at Margarita,

"what you want to say?"

Margarita hurriedly said: "The form of expression in comics is destined to be impossible to create as many characters as in the original work. The reason is very simple. Comics have less words and more pictures, and it is difficult to describe the complex causes, processes, and results. Tell it all clearly.”

In fact, it can be introduced clearly, but it requires more space. It is difficult to implement it at low cost with current printing technology.

Lu Shi and Scott couldn't help but nod.

"There's no way the Mirror could have sold 200,000 copies with that many words," Scott said.

With that he turned to Pankhurst;

“It’s also impossible to have that many female readers.”

The words were full of sarcasm.

Pankhurst said: "However, some plots must be explained clearly! For example, in the example I just gave, in the original work, Jane broke out after being bullied by John Reed, but in the comics, the 'male' The character has been deleted!"

She added an accent to the word "male";

As soon as this statement came out, it was completely obvious.

Lu Shi touched his chin and thought,

There is indeed a character named John Reed in "Jane Eyre", and he plays a lot of roles.

John is a tall, fat man who was 14 years old when he first appeared.

He was spoiled by Mrs. Reed and had bad conduct. He often threatened, abused, and beat Jane.

When he grew up, he was unable to live independently and relied on his mother's financial support. He made many bad friends, but due to his stupidity, he was blackmailed, lost money in gambling, ruined his health and family business, was heavily in debt, and was imprisoned many times.

Such a male character must be what Pankhurst "needs most".

Because he is sarcastic enough.

Lu Shi smiled and said,

"Mrs. Pankhurst, you should know why John Reed became like that. There is an old saying in China, 'It is the fault of the father if a son fails to teach'. Do you need me to explain?"

This sentence is not difficult to understand literally.

However, Reed's father passed away a long time ago, so "the fault of the father" should be changed to "the fault of the mother."

Pankhurst didn't expect Lu Shi's mind to spin so fast.

She immediately changed the subject,

"Speaking of John Reed's father, Jane's uncle Mr. Reed, he never appeared in the original novel. Why did the comics of "Jane Eyre" have to be drawn? It also shaped him into a amiable character. .”

Lu Shi couldn't help but purse his lips after hearing this.

Mr. Reed showed up?

After thinking about it, he realized that the other party had made a mistake.

Because Mondrian used storyboard technology, he distinguished the virtual and the real in his painting method.

For example, the devil in Jane's imagination uses abstract painting methods.

Another example is Mr. Reed, because it is Jane’s vague memory and it is also an abstract painting.

Pankhurst didn't understand it at all.

However, she misunderstood Lu Shi's silence when he was thinking, and smiled like a winner.

"It seems that Professor Lu already understands."

She took out a piece of paper from her backpack,

"This is the list we made, and we hope that the "Jane Eyre" comics will be revised accordingly."

Lu Shi stepped forward,

I saw that there were forty-seven items on the list, everything was detailed.

It not only requested changes to the plot, but also made clear requirements for the clothes Jane wore and the injuries she sustained in certain frames, which was extremely ridiculous.

However, this is not over yet,

Pankhurst continued: "We also hope that after Jane Eyre is serialized, Wuthering Heights will be serialized next."

As soon as he said this, Scott laughed angrily.

"Pfft! Cough cough cough..."

He tried hard to hold back his laughter, which turned into a series of coughs. However, he did not express his position, but looked at Lu Shi.

In "Mirror", Lu Cai is the boss who always speaks the truth, and Scott has to obey.

Lu Shi showed a playful expression,

"Is this the end?"

Pankhurst couldn't help but be surprised and asked in disbelief: "Professor Lu, what do you mean?"

His tone was full of exploration.

Lu Shi said: "The Mirror also has a section called Gender. Do you have any requirements for the content of this page? By the way, there is also a people's livelihood section. We can compile and publish some employment data, which may also have a positive effect. .”

Pankhurst was ecstatic;

"Professor Lu, everything you said is true!? Even in my wildest dreams, I..."

Before the words fell,

"Yes, you are just dreaming."

Lu Shi's tone was calm.

For a moment, the room fell into an indescribable silence.

"..."

Suddenly, Scott laughed wildly: "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

He was out of breath and had to bend over. He covered his undulating ribs with his left hand and slapped the desk desperately with his right hand, making a series of noises.

Bang bang bang——

Is there any drum beat more mocking than this?

Pankhurst looked ugly and said, "Professor Lu, you seem to be dismissive of this."

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"You were the first to dismiss the Mirror."

After saying that, he waved his hand, as if trying to drive away the flying flies.

"Is there anything else?"

When Pankhurst stared at the landing, he shook his head regretfully and said, "Professor Lu, I didn't want to mention the copyright issue. The comics of "Jane Eyre" rashly modified the original work, misleading readers. I want to know, is this considered a problem? Isn’t it considered infringement?”

The topic of copyright law actually came up, which Lu Shishi didn't expect.

He thought for a moment and looked at Scott aside,

"Mr. Scott, isn't the original novel of "Jane Eyre" a public copyright?"

This question was a bit abrupt.

Scott was stunned for a long time before he understood what Lu Shi meant. He leaned over and replied softly: "Lu, "Jane Eyre" is indeed not a public copyright yet."

Lu Shi:? ? ?

"what happened?"

"You have to consider the current copyright laws," Scott said.

Lu Shi asked in confusion: "'current'?"

Scott immediately explained: "The current copyright law is the Copyright Act of 1888. For literary and artistic works in a general sense, the protection period of general works is the life of the author plus 50 years after death. And Charlotte Bronte is He died in 1855, even if he counted the date, he still had four years left."

Lu Shi waved his hand,

"No, you misunderstood me."

He lowered his voice,

"Charlotte's family isn't..."

As he spoke, he made a small downward gesture with his right hand.

Scott got it.

Except for her father, none of Charlotte Brontë’s family lived to be under 40.

Among them is the author of "Wuthering Heights"——

emily bronte,

And the author of "Agnes Grey" -

Anne Brontë.

The three Bronte sisters were equally talented, equally short-lived, and equally childless.

Scott frowned and thought deeply: "Indeed, from this point of view, "Jane Eyre" can be regarded as a 'public book' to a certain extent."

It is true that the Copyright Act of 1888 stipulates that the property rights of works can be transferred in the form of contract like chattels, or through wills, or by execution of law.

But what if there is no one to whom the will is made?

Lu Shi sighed,

"Mrs. Pankhurst, I hope you will not use your head on this matter."

Pankhurst snorted coldly,

"Professor Lu, no matter what you think, I should be the one to advise you to take care of yourself, right? The adaptation of comics is extremely irresponsible. The original work of "Jane Eyre" is the best evidence. But you turn a blind eye, so we can only take action."

This is the threat of Chiguoguo.

Lu Shi looked at each other,

"I repeat, this is not a court,"

He paused slightly,

"No evidence required here."

Pankhurst narrowed his eyes, turned around quickly, and walked towards the door.

She held the door handle,

"I hope Professor Lu can always be so tough."

After saying that, he pushed open the door and walked out.

Pankhurst's departure seemed to take away the chill in the room, and the atmosphere immediately softened.

"Huh~~~"

Margarita let out a sigh of relief.

Lu Shi looked over,

"What? Afraid? You don't think I really want you to modify the comic version of "Jane Eyre", do you?"

Margarita shook her head,

Just now, when Lu Shi mentioned the gender version and the people's livelihood version, she knew that Lu Shi was trying to spite him.

Lu Shi chuckled,

"Then why are you sighing?"

"I didn't expect this," Margarita said.

Scott asked, "What could it be?"

Margarita spoke out one word concisely:

"they."

"Tsk..."

Scott clicked his tongue and said nothing.

Margarita looked at Lu Shi and asked: "Professor Lu, do you think we should change it? I'm still worried that things will become very troublesome."

Lu Shi chuckled,

"What's the reason you deleted John Reed?"

Margarita didn't expect Professor Lu to ask such a specific question. She was stunned for a long time and then answered: "Actually, it's not deleted. The form of expression in comics is different, and the plot is more compact than the novel. Therefore, I removed the characters of the early villains. The plot is stitched together with Aunt Reed.”

Lu Shi nodded,

"Isn't that what it is? Your design is for the sake of the plot. What should you change? Besides..."

He waved the paper Pankhurst had left,

"There are forty-seven more items on this~"

"The Theory of Six Kingdoms" puts it well:

"Today we will cut five cities, and tomorrow we will cut ten cities, and then we will have a good night's rest. We will look around the surrounding areas, and the Qin soldiers have arrived again. However, the land of the princes is limited, and they have an insatiable desire to violently attack Qin. If they serve them more and more, they will invade more and more." urgent."

The mouth cannot be opened.

Margarita nodded silently,

"I see."

In fact, her idea was much simpler than Lu Shi's, and it had nothing to do with "Theory of Six Kingdoms".

She thought of Mondrian,

As a painter, Mondrian would never allow others to influence his paintings.

Even insignificant details such as what clothes the heroine Jane wore and what injuries she suffered were absolutely unacceptable.

Scott looked at Lu Shi,

"I tell you, Pankhurst is not easy to deal with."

This is for sure,

Although Pankhurst was quite crazy, he was also a true fighter. He was an activist who dared to organize, act and fight.

In this context of the early 20th century, she was indeed advanced.