Li Tuo became famous earlier than Lin Chaoyang. He was among the first batch of writers to become famous since the new era, and he had a wide circle of friends among writers.

Unfortunately, these external factors cannot determine the sales volume of his works after they are published. He has been writing half-heartedly for many years since his debut, so the output of his works is not large.

I have never written a single novel, and very few novellas. Most of my works are short stories, which have been published several times individually or in groups.

Sales volume, that's all. From the publisher's perspective, it's definitely a money-losing product.

This situation is also very common in today's literary world. Even though there are many readers who buy books, they mostly buy literary journals, masterpieces and well-known best-selling works.

As for those works that are not so influential, sales have never been high.

"Then you have to reflect on yourself. Have you worked hard in writing for so many years? Why are the sales of your books so poor? You only earn so much royalties?"

Lin Chaoyang said the most heart-wrenching words in a joking tone, and Li Tuo couldn't help but feel angry.

"You have high sales, you are amazing! You even get royalties, it's really a drought and a flood!"

How do you say that? I'm not only afraid of my brother's hardship, but also afraid of my brother driving a Land Rover.

Of course, just kidding.

After joking for a while, Li Tuo said: "You have opened Pandora's box this time by receiving royalties. I said last year was the 'Lin Chaoyang Year', which was a bit premature.

Look at the things you have seen this year: "Root-seeking literature" was advocated, "Crossing Guandong" was published, and now he has become the first writer in New China to receive royalties...

Each of them is a major event that shocked the literary world! I think this year should be called the ‘Lin Chaoyang Year’.”

After he finished speaking, he retorted: "No, no, last year was the 'Lin Chaoyang Year' in the film industry, and this year is the 'Lin Chaoyang Year' in the literary world."

Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but sneered after hearing his words, "Okay, okay, what's the point of not being young?"

He forcibly stopped talking about royalties, and Li Tuo took out another copy of Yanjing Daily, "Read this article carefully."

Lin Chaoyang took a look at the article in the newspaper. It was a commentator's article titled "Beware of the Restoration of Feudal Culture—On the Fallacy of 'Root-seeking Literature'".

Without reading the content of the article, Lin Chaoyang felt a strong sense of interpreting root-seeking literature from a political perspective. He then looked down and found that the content was indeed similar to what he thought.

"... Root-seeking literature is ambiguous and complex in terms of ideological tendencies and value evaluations. While showing admiration for feudal culture, it also rejects the feudal tradition normed by Confucian culture.

Fundamentally speaking, this complex and contradictory attitude is the lack of scientific dialectical vision and the ideological swaying caused by an unstable political stance.

…

They focus on remote areas such as villages, frontiers, and deserts, and regard certain disadvantaged cultures as the "roots" of literature, while abandoning the vast mainstream culture of the Central Plains. This argument is absurd.

At the same time, the idea of ​​treating marginalized and disadvantaged cultures as advanced cultures is also foolish.

…

All literature has a certain correlation with politics. Root-seeking literature is a trend in literary development. It is impossible to completely get rid of the influence of politics, let alone affect our firm pace of taking the road of socialist culture..."

Lin Chaoyang read a review article of more than 2,000 words for nearly ten minutes.

Seeing him raise his eyes, Li Tuo asked, "What do you think?"

"I sit and watch."

A witty remark made Li Tuo glare, and Lin Chaoyang could only say seriously: "Some of the arguments in the article are correct, but people like them always seem to be accustomed to over-interpretation."

Lin Chaoyang pointed to the content of the article and said: "The attitude is complicated and ambiguous because we don't even think about proving for anyone or carrying someone's banner. We pick up good culture and throw back bad culture.

,is this difficult to understand?

Abandoning the mainstream culture and promoting the weak culture is an even more groundless accusation. I just gave two representative examples in the article.

In the end, if he insists on sublimating to politics, that is his business. If I talk about culture and he talks about politics, then everyone can talk about their own things, why bother to criticize them all the time?"

Hearing the complaint in Lin Chaoyang's words, Li Tuo felt a little relieved.

"Hey, you have moments when you feel uncomfortable too."

Lin Chaoyang glanced at him, his eyes full of disdain for him trying to find balance in this way.

Li Tuo cleared his throat and continued: "We need to be more vigilant. At the beginning, those voices criticizing root-seeking literature focused on the literary level, but I found that recently some people have begun to interpret it from a political perspective."

Ever since Zhou Yang launched an attack on himself at the National Outstanding Short Story Award Dinner, Lin Chaoyang knew that the development of root-seeking literature in the literary world would inevitably be subject to pan-politicized discussions.

In the past few months, the discussion on root-seeking literature in the literary world has been in full swing, and has even begun to spread to the cultural and ideological circles. The two sides were going back and forth, and the quarrel was very happy.

However, the publication of "Crossing Guandong" suddenly gave supporters of root-seeking literature an upper hand in this great discussion.

No matter how good everyone talks and no matter how happy they are, it is not as good as the effect that the release of a widely representative work can produce.

"Crossing the Guandong" has a strong historical and cultural tone. Although only half of the more than 600,000 words are published, the large number of descriptions of northern folk culture all interpret the concept of root-seeking literature.

It should be said that "Crossing Guandong" has set a benchmark for root-seeking literature for the literary world and the majority of readers.

If someone compares the root-seeking literature of later generations with Lin Chaoyang's version of root-seeking literature, he will find that under Lin Chaoyang's contextual interpretation, some subtle changes have occurred between his so-called root-seeking literature and the root-seeking literature of later generations.

The root-seeking literature of later generations is urgent to a certain extent. It is the result of a group of literati whose national and cultural self-confidence have been shattered and who are eager to find self-confidence in traditional culture.

But there is no such urgency in Lin Chaoyang. First of all, he is confident. The so-called "searching for roots" is to "find people in traditional culture who can use it for me", just like those modernists' appropriationism and cultural transfer.

Although the two are very similar in form, they are fundamentally different.

Therefore, Lin Chaoyang is not afraid of some people's pan-political interpretation of root-seeking literature, but there are too many such articles, which is really annoying.

He obviously didn't mean it this way, but these people insisted on misinterpreting it. He couldn't keep justifying this kind of thing.

Li Tuo sighed again: "These people are trying to trouble us from a different angle. Chaoyang, how about you write another article to refute their remarks?"

Listening to his words, Lin Chaoyang did have such an impulse in his heart.

But when he calmed down, he thought that there was probably nothing in this world that was more difficult than changing other people's minds. No matter how colorful his article was, he might not be able to achieve the desired effect.

So he waved his hand half-heartedly, "Forget it, let them keep arguing. It will be fine when they get tired of arguing."

Li Tuo couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, "I was counting on you to carry the banner for us!"

"I think you have evil intentions and want to put me on the fire." Lin Chaoyang teased him.

Li Tuo retorted aggrievedly: "How could I put you on the fire to roast? You were already on the fire."

Lin Chaoyang was immediately speechless. What Li Tuo said was true. Who was it that he came up with root-seeking literature?

"Chaoyang, you should express some opinions after all. After all, you are the leader of root-seeking literature!" Li Tuo said expectantly.

Lin Chaoyang pondered for a while, then took out a piece of manuscript paper and wrote a powerful line of words on it with a pen.

"Only what belongs to the nation belongs to the world!"

Li Tuo's eyes fell on the paper, and he softly read this line of text in his mouth, chewing it continuously, and looked thoughtful.

After a while, his eyes became brighter and brighter, and his expression became more and more excited.

"Only what belongs to the nation belongs to the world! Only what belongs to the nation belongs to the world! Wonderful! Wonderful! This sentence is wonderful!

This sentence is really the beauty of a Buddhist sermon. It is just ten words long, seemingly concise and easy to understand, but it conveys the ultimate truth."

Li Tuo excitedly held the manuscript paper in his hands, and became more and more delighted as he read it. This sentence can be said to have laid the theoretical foundation for root-seeking literature!

After being happy for a long time, Li Tuo asked: "Chaoyang, these words look familiar to me. Didn't you think of it yourself?"

"Lu Xun, "Collected Essays of Qie Jie Ting"." Lin Chaoyang answered in a concise and concise manner.

Li Tuo slapped his head, "Ouch! I didn't even think of this."

Didn’t you remember it? Haven’t you seen it?

Li Tuo said to Lin Chaoyang again: "You think this sentence well, use this sentence as the core argument, write an article and let those people read it!"

Lin Chaoyang shook his head, "Everything that needs to be said is contained in this sentence. Those who object can't understand it, but they are deliberately playing devil's advocate and criticizing me. No matter how much you write, it's still nonsense."

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Li Tuo also felt that it made some sense.

He thought for a while and asked Lin Chaoyang: "Then write it for me again, this time with a brush and big characters."

"What are you doing? You still want to put up big-character posters?" Lin Chaoyang joked.

"What kind of big-character posters are you posting? You'll know later."

Li Tuo got away with Lin Chaoyang, urged him to finish the calligraphy, and left happily with the calligraphy.

A few days later, a piece of gossip suddenly spread in the literary circles of Yanjing.

According to rumors, Li Tuo gathered a group of people and sent it to the Yanjing Daily with a framed large Chinese character. The content of the Chinese character was only ten words: only what belongs to the nation belongs to the world.

This outrageous operation stunned the Yanjing Daily Newspaper. At first, no one understood what it meant.

Until Li Tuo talked about the commentator's article "Beware of the Restoration of Feudal Culture - On the Fallacy of 'Root-seeking Literature'" published in their newspaper a few days ago.

The newspaper immediately understood that Li Tuo sent this picture as a refutation of the article. They felt dumbfounded and wanted to refuse the gift, but Li Tuo and the others begged for it and refused to accept it at all.

Given the opportunity, I gave this “gift” away.

The fact that they sent "words" is of course not the key point. The key words are the content and the person who wrote the words.

After this publicity, in just a few days, everyone in the Yanjing literary and cultural circles became aware of the commotion, and it was further spreading to other fields and regions.

The impact of this incident does not seem to be as great or direct as directly publishing an article in a well-known newspaper or magazine to counterattack, but it uses an alternative and almost performance art method to give the whole incident a strange and vigorous atmosphere.

vitality.

The vitality of an article lies in the people who read it, while the vitality of gossip and rumors lies in the mouths of meddlers. The audience of books and newspapers is destined to be far less than those of meddlers. Li Tuo's operation can be regarded as a thorough understanding of the essence of communication.
To be continued...