British writer

Chapter 274——Lu

In the manuscript exhibition hall, a small group of people looked away from the exhibits and towards Riku Toki and Natsume Soseki.

They were all a little curious.

And the two of them were still staring at each other,

The atmosphere became somewhat strange.

Lu Shi pointed at the other party,

"you,"

Then he pointed to himself and asked again uncertainly: "Writing the paper, is it about me?"

Natsume Soseki said: "It should be a good topic, right? After all, you are now the most famous writer in Europe. From Lower Riba to Yangchun Baixue, from novels to dramas to academics, you are very popular in all fields. Moreover, I can I’m sure many people will write about you.”

This last sentence is indeed correct.

Niu and Jian have already published many papers analyzing Lu Shi's works.

It is interesting to note that the discussion of Yes! Prime Minister" has the most, even exceeding three digits.

He spread his hands,

"I have been creating for less than two years. Although I am very productive, I have not accumulated many works. You just said that there are many people writing about my works, so can you come up with new ideas?"

Natsume Soseki is very confident,

"Why not? Are they roommates with you?"

"Ah this..."

One sentence left Lu Shizheng speechless.

Natsume Soseki continued: "Of course, I still have to respect your opinion, so please help me take a look."

Lu Shi asked: "Just to take a look?"

As soon as these words were spoken, silence fell,

"..."

"..."

"..."

The two looked at each other again.

After a while, Natsume Soseki touched his nose in embarrassment.

"Lu, you know me. My English writing level is very average. When I was writing "I am a Cat", I often couldn't hold back eight words for seven days, and I often brought out Japanese usage habits, resulting in grammatical errors... "

Lu Shi raised his hand to interrupt: "The important point. Tell the important point."

Natsume Soseki continued: "So, I need your help with a little polishing."

Lu Shi said "Huh?"

"Write my paper. I'll polish it myself?"

Natsume Soseki chuckled and replied in the words of Professor Smith: "I am writing about the writer Lu. What does it have to do with you, Lu Shi?"

"Pfft! Cough cough cough..."

Lu Shi squirted,

"Okay, okay! This is how you play, right?"

I didn’t expect Natsume Soseki, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, to have so many tricks.

Natsume Soseki said: "You should take a good look at it first. Don't worry, I must have written something new."

He then sent the paper right under Lu Shi's nose.

Lu Shi: "..."

What more can be said?

"All right."

He took it as if resigned and looked down.

——

Lu's learning environment is not good.

In China, students have to write calligraphy with calligraphy.

Due to the high cost of inkstones and brushes, Lu had to think about how to improve them.

After repeated experiments, he discovered that he could write on a porcelain plate with a soft brush dipped in rice vinegar. After the rice vinegar dried, he could write more and faster with a brush dipped in a small amount of ink.

Later, he replaced the rough porcelain plate with a thin copper plate and found that the words written this way were clearer...

——

Lu Shi was confused.

Thought,

Have I practiced calligraphy like this?

I feel like I have no relevant memories at all.

He complained about the other party: "Brother, is this what you mean by 'all contents are true and verifiable, without any distortion, smear or slander'?"

Natsume Soseki nodded,

“First of all, ‘there is no distortion, smearing, or slander’. Is this correct?”

Lu Shi said "Uh...", unable to deny it.

This paragraph is almost a eulogy, how could it be wrong?

Natsume Soseki added: "Second point, are the stories about 'vinegar water character' and 'copper plate character' true and verifiable?"

"Tsk..."

Lu Shi was speechless.

The words "vinegar water" and "copper plate" are indeed a trick used by many scholars from poor families.

But I don’t know why, it just doesn’t feel right.

I can't say what's wrong.

He thought for a long time before he discovered Hua Dian and said: "This is not what happened to me..."

Natsume Soseki was surprised,

"Then why do the Chinese characters you write always look like 'Qujin Shaoliang'? It looks weird. It's obviously caused by practicing with hard pens and hard paper~"

Lu Shi coughed slightly,

"No, I'm used to writing like that."

Natsume Soseki scratched his head and asked curiously: "Just say the word 'love', you wrote 'love'. How can it be love without intention?"

This sounds quite reasonable.

Lu Shi spread his hands,

"Then I also said that love does not need to be careless~ Besides, this is the 20th century, a new era, love exists because of friendship, and you can't focus on the 'heart' or not. Wouldn't that seem very narrow-minded? "

Natsume Soseki looked very surprised.

After a long while, he replied: "Indeed, we have the love of family and friends."

Lu Shi coughed lightly and silently took half a step back.

The experience in France gave him some PTSD.

He continued: "Word games, language abuse, this kind of thing, the more you talk about it, the less interesting it becomes."

Natsume Soseki said "hmm" and took out his pen.

swish swish——

There was the sound of taking notes.

I saw him writing this sentence in his notebook:

"

Word games and language abuse, the more you talk about these things, the less interesting they become.

——Lu

"

While recording, he said: "When I go back to revise my paper, I will definitely add this sentence."

Lu Shi felt very prank,

"Write this too?"

Natsume Soseki nodded repeatedly.

"Of course I have to write it! Europe is now severely divided, and each country respects its own language, especially France and Germany. On the contrary, the UK does not promote these because of its strong culture. Writing this sentence can support my argument. "

Lu Shi:? ? ?

"What argument?"

Natsume Soseki took the paper and turned it over for a while.

"Here. You are an internationalist and a humanitarian. You wrote the previous "IPU Charter". Although it is a document, your literary talent is also outstanding."

Lu Shi found that he couldn't refute.

As a result, Natsume Soseki hadn’t finished speaking yet.

"Another point is that you are a master of phonetics and linguistics. You have your own mature theories on Russian writing and English phonetic symbols."

"hiss……"

Lu Shi took a breath of cold air.

He was so thick-skinned that he couldn't help but blush.

He coughed lightly,

"I think……"

As he said that, he looked around and found that everyone around him was paying attention here curiously.

He put his arm around Natsume Soseki's shoulders and walked out.

"Let's go back to Braiya Road."

The two quickly got into the carriage.

In the carriage, Natsume Soseki asked curiously: "Lu, wouldn't it be good for me to write about you? You have attracted the attention of the whole of Europe, but you have received very few interviews. This is just an opportunity for everyone to learn more about you."

It’s not impossible to understand,

But there’s no need to go too far.

Like the words vinegar and water, the words copper plate,

When I hear it, I feel like "the red light surrounds the room, and the strange fragrance lingers; the body is golden, and it remains unchanged for three days."

Too fake!

It's fine at the moment,

In the 21st century, it will definitely be ridiculed by researchers of literary history.

Although Natsume Soseki said: "I am writing about the writer Lu, what does it have to do with you, Lu Shi?"

But,

Lu is Lu Shi;

Lu Shi is Lu.

People who do research are not fools. When they saw Lu Shi borrowing his roommate's graduation thesis to brag about himself, why didn't he laugh out loud?

Lu Shi said: "Natsume, you don't understand Europeans."

In this regard, Natsume Soseki could only admit,

Because I really don’t understand.

Seeing that the other party was listening humbly, Lu Shi continued to deceive: "The vast majority of European civilizations emerged from sea power and trade, so they believe in strength and fists. The beginning of your paper is a sign of betrayal, betrayal, and acclimatization. of."

Natsume Soseki suddenly realized,

"It seems so."

"Huh~"

Lu Shi let out a long breath,

Finally...

As a result, Natsume Soseki said: "Then I will change the writing method. You can practice calligraphy casually under difficult conditions, and even simplify the Chinese characters yourself. This is really a strong person! Europeans are just I like this!"

grass!

Ten thousand grass and mud horses galloped past Lu Shi's heart.

I never expected that the other party would be the type who "will go up if there are difficulties, and will go up even if there are no difficulties".

He decided to give up,

"Okay, you can write whatever you like."

Just as he was talking, the coachman's voice came from outside: "Two gentlemen, we are here."

They jumped out of the carriage.

As soon as we entered the house, we rolled over and ran over.

Lu Shi looked at the fish tank,

I don’t know how the little guy did it, but he actually took off the wooden board on the fish tank and "rescued" the little turtle friend.

My generation: "Meow~"

Lu Shi bent down and touched its head.

"You're really a sperm."

He picked up the little lazi and put it back in the fish tank.

On the other side, Natsume Soseki organized the manuscripts on the desktop and said to Lu Shi: "Lu, continue reading? Ah...or should I read it to you? During this period, you are staring at it in the museum. You should be quite cool." tired."

We also join in the fun,

"Meow~"

Natsume Soseki said: "Look! It wants to hear it too!"

Lu Shi's face turned dark,

"You can do it soon!"

With that said, he sat down at the table and started reading the paper.

Natsume Soseki's paper is clearly organized,

That period of unreliable childhood is only briefly introduced. You can find anecdotes about calligraphy and essay writing.

For example, Kuang Heng in the Western Han Dynasty chiseled the wall to steal the light.

Lu Shi couldn't say anything.

Because he is a time traveler, he has no memory of studying as a child.

Maybe the original owner actually did such a thing.

After childhood, the content became more serious.

The second part is "On the Suspense Structure and Types of Lu's Detective Novels".

——

Traditional detective novels are all about telling stories. No matter what method is used, questions are always raised first and then the answers are delayed to attract readers.

And this narrative method of raising questions and delaying the announcement of answers is suspense.

This technique abounds in detective novels.

…

——

Lu Shi said: "These are my exact words."

Natsume Soseki spread his hands,

"Look at it, 'all the contents are true and verifiable, without any distortion, smear or slander'."

When Lu Shi heard this, his head was filled with black threads.

￣□￣｜｜

He said: "Brother, let's not say this."

Natsume Soseki chuckled and didn't answer.

Lu Shi continued to read,

——

The more secretive the suspense is, the more it will satisfy the reader's psychological needs, and the more surprising and joyful it will be when the mystery is finally revealed.

Therefore, we should try our best to achieve a situation where "the truth is broken" but "not broken".

This aspect is not done well in "Scarlet Study (A Study of the Letter in Scarlet)".

The novel opens with an uninhabited house standing alone at the end of a loess path in a damp garden, with a deceased person lying under the flickering red candles of the fire.

…

——

"Ah this..."

Lu Shi had a big head again.

"Brother Natsume, my dear brother! Why do you want to bully me? Just write about me. Why did you drag Dr. Doyle out to beat the corpse?"

Natsume Soseki said in surprise: "Whip the corpse?"

Lu Shi said: "Don't pretend to be confused with me. Don't you know Wu Zixu?"

Beating the corpse is an ancient practice with the purpose of humiliating the deceased.

The most famous corpse whipper in Chinese history was Wu Zixu.

Natsume Soseki spread his hands,

"I understand the meaning of 'whipping the corpse'. However, if you say that I compare Dr. Doyle to you as a whipping corpse, do you mean that his works are dead?"

Lu Shi: "..."

I really want to slap myself twice in the face.

Natsume Soseki continued: "It's okay to say that. After all, compared with your "No Survivor" and "Roger Mystery", the Sherlock Holmes series does seem to be very old. It almost sat in a coffin and was covered with dirt."

He took out his notebook again,

"

Comparing "No Survivor" and "Roger's Mystery" with the Sherlock Holmes series, they are classified as whipping corpses.

——Lu

"

Lu Shi spat out garbled words: "! @* # ￥%..."

He said: "Natsume, was it Professor Smith who taught you to compare me with Dr. Doyle?"

Unexpectedly, Natsume Soseki nodded,

"right."

Lu Shi had to make sure again,

"He really taught me?"

Natsume Soseki said: "Yes! Papers in this area generally have three directions: literary theory, comparative literature, and literary history. For an international student like me who only stayed in London for two years, comparative literature is definitely the most informative. thing."

There is nothing wrong with this reason.

Lu Shi was helpless and continued to look down.

The third part is "Lu, a translator who takes "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance" as his standards.

——

Translation is a cross-language and cross-cultural communication activity that converts the meaning carried by one language and culture into another language and culture.

The commonality of language and culture makes translation possible, while the individuality of language and culture brings many obstacles to translation.

Lu once criticized Mr. Gu Hongming: "The translation of one sentence at a time is extremely inappropriate."

——

After reading this, Lu Shi was really confused.

"Have I ever criticized Mr. Gu?"

He has a good relationship with Gu Hongming and helped each other solve many problems.

For example, the history textbooks of the Capital University.

Natsume Soseki spread his hands,

"Lu, you really just turned around and forgot? I don't know who made Mr. Gu faint from anger the first time we met."

Only then did Lu Shi remember that there was indeed such a thing.

But that was a conflict between the two people because of their different views on the Qing court. It was about political opinions.

What does it have to do with literature?

Lu Shi asked: "Have I criticized his translation?"

Natsume Soseki nodded,

"I criticized you. At that time, Mr. Gu was so angry with you that you asked me to visit him every day and accompany him to fight landlords. You criticized him when we were playing. You said that there was something wrong with the Four Books and Five Classics that he translated for Europeans, and that it was easy to cause trouble. Ambiguity.”

Lu Shi scratched his head after hearing this.

"I really have no impression. Can you explain it in detail?"

Natsume Soseki said: "The example you gave at that time was the one about 'distinguished guests and friends'."

Lu Shi couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

After about half a minute, he suddenly realized: "That's obviously a joke! It's a joke!"

When Gu Hongming translated "The Analects of Confucius" into English, he did sometimes translate it sentence by sentence without taking into account the context, resulting in ambiguities in the translation.

So, Lu Shi made a joke,

——

Host: Distinguished guests and friends,

Translation: Ladies and gentlemen,

Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen,

Translation: ...Good evening!

Host: Good evening, everyone!

translate:……

——

Admittedly, there are problems with making such a joke.

But you also have to consider the times.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was an urgent need for exchanges between the East and the West, especially the backward countries. They needed to understand the outside world and let the outside world understand themselves.

Therefore, even if there are a few flaws in the translation, there is no need to be picky.

Lu Shi reiterated: "That was indeed a joke."

Natsume Soseki pondered,

"Are you kidding? Lu, tell the truth, is there really something wrong with Mr. Gu's English version of The Analects?"

Lu Shi said: "There is indeed a problem."

This kind of thing must be admitted, and we cannot lie with our eyes open.

Natsume Soseki spread his hands,

"Is that serious?"

He picked up his notebook again and recorded,

"

Sometimes criticism can be given in a joking manner.

——Lu

"

Lu Shi was completely torn apart,

"Brother Natsume! Why don't you stop letting people talk! Anything I say now will be used as evidence in court, right?"

Natsume Soseki waved his hands repeatedly,

"How is that possible? I'm not suing you."

After he finished speaking, the guy next to me also let out a "meow~".

Natsume Soseki was surprised,

"Little one, it's rare for you to be on my side for once."

We continued to "meow, meow, meow," and put on a proud expression towards Lu Shi, probably because it was a novelty to see his master deflated.

One person and one cat are enough.

Lu Shi remembered the scene when he was interviewed by Roosevelt in the United States, but he looked away.

What else is there to care about?

Just lie flat.

He said: "Okay, okay, you can blow me as much as you want. I don't care anymore."

Unexpectedly, Natsume Soseki said with a serious face: "How can this be a boast? I wrote it truthfully. 'All contents are true and verifiable, without any distortion, smear or slander'."

It is indeed true, but there is obviously a big problem with the direction of truth.

Lu Shi didn't bother to correct himself and continued reading.

The following content is very long,

"On the View of Science and Technology in Lu's Science Fiction Novels";

"How to View Literary Works and Moral Hazard";

"The Charter of the IPU, Perspectives on Humanism and Internationalism";

…

There are quite a few chapters.

Moreover, I don’t know how Natsume Soseki did it. There are examples in every chapter.

"Lu once commented..."

"Lu thinks..."

"Lu's criticism is very sharp..."

…

Especially the part involving Nicholas II highlights the ruthlessness.

Lu Shidu felt sorry for the tsar in his heart.

He said: "Natsume, why don't you polish it a little and make it less sharp? After all, Tsar Nicholas has turned back as a prodigal son~ Look, isn't "The Rise of the Great Powers: Russia" already being printed and distributed?"

Natsume Soseki shrugged.

"It will only be printed and distributed in Russia, and it will be sold in limited quantities."

Lu Shi said: "If you look at problems from a development perspective, things will get better and better."

Natsume Soseki fell into deep thought,

After a long moment, he nodded,

"You're right. There's no need to write the criticism in such a way...wait...aren't those criticisms your exact words?"

Lu Shi said: "This... okay. I said it myself, and I have to admit it. But there is a background to it~ After all, he was the one who banned the short story collection "Chao Wen Dao" at that time, and now he has corrected it. "

Natsume Soseki thinks it makes sense,

"Okay, then I will revise it appropriately. Keep the main idea unchanged."

Lu Shi read the article.

I have to admit that Natsume Soseki does have something in literary research.

In addition, he summarized Lu Shilai's views a hundred years later, making the article even more meaningful.

This caused Lu Shi to feel disconnected from him.

The argument is very good because it quotes Lu Shi;

The argument, because it quoted Lu Shi, was outrageous.

This feeling is very subtle.

Lu Shi was speechless,

"For those who don't know, they think I'm the emperor. This paper is my daily annotation~"

Natsume Soseki laughed loudly,

"No, I only recorded your views and your remarks, and I didn't say anything about you...well...in fact, you can also write about it. For example, how you treat me and Xiaolan, if you write it down, it will be very vivid .”

Lu Shi waved his hand,

"It's not a novel, so there's no need. Just put this paragraph in your final thank you speech."

Natsume Soseki said "Yeah".

"So, what do you think of the article?"

Lu Shi could neither say it well nor say it poorly, so he could only say: "There are indeed some grammatical errors, and then there is the problem of translating Japanese usage habits into English. I can help you correct them."

Natsume Soseki asked again: "Then, do you agree with the quotation of your views?"

Lu Shi didn't want to admit it.

Can it be done? ?

He said: "I now understand that 'the strongest fortresses often collapse from within', and this is indeed true."

Natsume Soseki's eyes lit up,

"Lu, you are indeed a philosopher. It is a pity that "The Rise of Great Powers: France" does not have this sentence."

He took out his notebook again,

"

The strongest fortresses often collapse from within.

——Lu

"

Lu Shi closed his eyes,

tired,

Destroy it.