Schroeder was really startled by Yu Dong, so much so that he unconsciously raised his voice a little higher.
The people around who were chatting with each other all looked over here, wondering what was going on here.
Schroeder raised his hand and apologized to everyone. After everyone stopped looking at him, he lowered his voice and said to Dong, "YU, giving you a hundred places a year is too exaggerated. The most we can give you is
Twenty places are all for master’s degrees, what do you think?”
Of course Yu Dong also knew that Schroeder would definitely not be able to accept the figure of one hundred, but when it comes to business negotiations, asking for a high price on the one hand and paying back the money on the other, there must be a negotiation process.
"Schroeder, you are recruiting students, and you will also recruit international students from China. The international students you recruit yourself may not be better than the international students we send to you. If you think about it differently, this is equivalent to our
I'll help you solve the enrollment troubles, and you'll enjoy the benefits."
Schroeder is a shrewd person, and of course he will not be easily fooled by Yu Dong's tricks. He shook his head and said, "These are two different things. One hundred places is too many, so let's give you twenty-five places."
, all with master's degrees or above. No matter how many there are, you can't use them all."
Yu Dong waved his hand and said, "It's impossible not to use them all. Just rest assured about this. Well, since you took a step back first, I will also take a step back. We don't want a hundred more, so I'll give you a 20% discount."
, as long as eighty. Your Columbia University recruits so many students a year, it shouldn’t be difficult to find eighty places, and these places don’t take up your original places, so it’s just like finding eighty more students.”
"No, no, eighty is still too many. I can't agree to it. Thirty, we really can't have more. You have to know that we have to take a big risk by giving you dozens of places a year.
Yes, other students may also have opinions. The school is only so big and has so many resources."
"What opinions can students have? Eighty more students will only make everyone's living conditions better..."
…
The two people spoke not loudly, so only Yu Hua and Bi Feiyu sitting next to them could hear what they said, and Yu Hua didn't understand English, so only Bi Feiyu could understand.
Bi Feiyu was in a daze for a moment as he listened to the two of them bargaining over the admission quota as if they were buying vegetables at a wet market. Is it true that negotiations at this level are so simple and unpretentious?
It's a bit stigmatizing to say that shopping for groceries is the same as buying groceries. Normally, when buying groceries, you don't have to go back and forth to bargain dozens of times. At first, they would add or subtract five or ten like this. Later, when the bargaining got intense, it became
Added and subtracted one by one.
Yu Hua was also very curious about the content of their conversation and wanted to ask Bi Feiyu to help translate it. However, because he knew that Schroeder could understand Chinese, he did not ask Bi Feiyu to help. Without a translator, he
I could only stare at the two of them from the side.
Yu Dong talked with Schroeder for about half an hour before finally coming to a rough conclusion.
In the end, Yu Dong gave in a little more and dropped the quota from one hundred to forty-two.
That's right, it's all broken up and integrated, which shows how intense the battle just now was.
After the conversation, just when Schroeder breathed a sigh of relief, Yu Dong said, "I will talk to Jimmy about your idea later. Whether it can work out, I still have to see if he is interested."
Schroeder twitched the corner of his mouth. He thought that Yu Dong bargained with him like this, so he must have decision-making power. Now he heard that it meant that he had to go to Jimmy. But as long as Yu Dong is willing to help and tell Jimmy
, it’s not like I gained nothing.
"Well, then please go and talk to Jimmy. He should respect your suggestion, right?"
Yu Dong shrugged his shoulders, "When we have the same opinions, he respects my opinions more. When we have different opinions, he doesn't respect it so much."
Schroeder blinked and looked at Yu Dong with sharp eyes: Did YU tell me a cold joke just now?
…
After lunch and a short rest, Yu Dong and the others walked into the auditorium of Columbia University. They were about to hold an exchange meeting for students.
Because it is for students, it is not possible for all the writers in the visiting group to take the stage. Today, only six people, Yu Dong, Yu Hua, Bi Feiyu, Wang Xiaobo, Wang Anyi and Mo Yan, took the stage.
This literary visit is very long, and there will be many opportunities to perform on stage later. They have made arrangements in advance, and the list of people to perform on stage for each performance has also been made.
Since it is a literary exchange meeting, it is natural that there cannot be only Chinese representatives. Columbia University has invited two American writers to come here, one is Philip Roth and the other is Joyce Oates.
Both of these writers have signed contracts with the Deep Space Company, and can be considered as being from the "deep space system". However, Dudong and the others are more familiar with the latter, and this is their first meeting with Philip Roth.
In fact, Deep Space Company has been with Philip Roth for a long time. The first well-known writers Deep Space Company found in Europe and the United States were Alice Munro, Joyce Oates and Philip Roth.
At that time, Deep Space Company's signings with Alice Munro and Joyce Oates were very smooth. Basically, the negotiations were concluded shortly after contacting them. Only Philip Roth took a long time to sign the contract.
This is reasonable. Although the three are all well-known writers, their status is also different. Compared with Philip Roth, Alice Munro and Joyce Oates are still less famous.
Now Philip Roth has won the O. Henry Award, the National Book Award, the Faulkner Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He has basically won all the achievements that the United States can get in literature, and what is more?
Nobel Prize in Literature.
In fact, he is now one of the writers most clamoring for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the odds are still high.
Philip Roth is now almost seventy years old. As the years go by, if there is no Nobel Prize for Literature, it may be difficult. How long can a person live?
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In recent years, Philip Roth has been in a very productive stage, and will publish a novel every one or two years.
Some people joke that after Philip Roth signed with the Deep Space Company, he was influenced by the model worker writer YU, and his output also increased significantly.
Of course, this is a complete joke. No one really thinks that Yu Dong can make other writers more productive. Otherwise, Yu Hua, who is the closest follower of Yu Dong, would not be able to hold back a novel for several years.
However, everyone thinks that Deep Space Company’s signing of Philip Roth and the others is a good deal. Although Philip Roth was very famous and had a high status before signing the contract, after signing with Deep Space Company, he
Now on another platform, my works have become more and more solid in the past few years, and my influence in the literary world is also growing.
Similarly, Joyce Oates and Alice Munro are also developing better and better since signing with Deep Space Company.
If the current trend continues, at least one of these three people will win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Philip Roth almost arrived on time. Just when Yu Dong and the others were about to take the stage, he arrived belatedly.
He is sixty-eight years old. Apart from his bald head, his overall mental state is still very good. He is Jewish and has a typical Jewish face.
After arriving, he didn't say anything, he just smiled and waved.
Joyce Oates has a relatively straightforward personality and is about the same age as Philip Roth. She complained directly, "Philip, you should change your habit of being late. We are all waiting for you."
Philip Roth smiled awkwardly. He knew he was in the wrong, but he was unwilling to apologize. He pointed to his watch and said, "It's just time, and I'm not late."
Yu Dong smiled and said, "Since we are here, let's go up quickly. The students are still waiting for us. The theme of today's exchange meeting is relatively relaxed, so we don't have to be in a hurry."
Philip Roth nodded repeatedly, "Yes, let's go up quickly."
…
When everyone walked onto the stage, there was a burst of loud applause in the auditorium. There were many students present, whether they could sit or not, there were people everywhere as far as the eye could see, and even the aisles were crowded with people.
After they all sat down, the host gave a simple opening statement, and then introduced Yu Dong and the others one by one.
After the introduction, the host said with a smile, "The theme of today's exchange meeting is diverse writing and common interests. The writers here come from different cultural backgrounds. When describing the same things, they use different languages ​​​​that they are familiar with, but
At the same time, as human beings, we have things in common, such as life, ideals, nobility, love, etc..."
Diversified writing and common interests. This theme was provided by Columbia University. For this exchange meeting, Columbia University drafted several themes and gave them to Deep Space Company for selection. In the end, Deep Space Company retained this one.
After the host finished speaking, the first person to speak was Philip Roth.
Although Philip Roth arrived late, he got into the mood quite quickly. He held the microphone and spoke slowly, "With diverse writing and common interests, I seem to have some say in this topic. I was born in the United States, but I
My father is from Kolozlov, Austria, and my mother is from Kiev, Ukraine, so in my family, you can see several different cultures intertwined. I have always believed in the saying, as many pairs of eyes as there are.
There are so many worlds. Everyone sees the world differently. There is a huge gap in what people see in different cultures. This year I heard a voice of criticism about me. They said that I am not a unique person.
Distinctive writers, I think they are right. I have tried many things over the years, some of which I and the readers are satisfied with, some that neither I nor the readers are satisfied with, and some that I am satisfied with but the readers are not satisfied with.
Some of them I'm not very satisfied with but readers are very satisfied."
"And the reason why I heard these voices is thanks to my agent Jimmy James, who registered a Deep Space Tribe account for me."
The audience all laughed when they heard what Philip Roth said next. It turns out that you, a little old man, also surf the Internet.
Although Philip Roth likes to engage in nonsense literature when speaking, it is much calmer than in the books. The language in his novels is very playful but not indecent, sarcastic but not mean, and there are many people from the streets and Jews.
Family jokes. These jokes are completely integrated into the scenes and the actions of the characters. Their dialogues are short and consistent with the characters' age and personality, forming a colorful custom picture of the American Jewish nation.
In terms of language style, if you want to compare, Wang Shuo's language style is somewhat similar.
Philip Roth does have a say in today's topic. He has a complex family structure and has been exposed to various cultures since he was a child. This situation is also integrated into his novels.
There are many languages ​​that appear in his novels. Usually the narrative language is standard American English, but various characters in the novel use Yiddish at home and American slang often heard on the noisy streets of big cities.
and the Hebrew language used in Jewish religious ceremonies.
As for Philip Roth's statement that some people criticized him for not being a distinctive writer, it is also true, and this was not said by just one or two people, but by many people.
Throughout the decades of Philip Roth's writing, he basically integrates realism, postmodernism and neorealism that have been popular for decades.
His writing career can be roughly divided into three stages. The first stage is the realism stage, which is the same as that of many writers. Most novice writers do not play tricks at the beginning and start directly with realism.
The second stage was to imitate the modernist style. This stage was very short, and then it crossed over to the experimental writing stage. In this stage, his style became diverse, and he tried various styles and was able to master them.
In fact, some people criticize Yu Dong, which is similar to the criticism of Philip Roth. They say that Yu Dong is not a writer with distinctive characteristics because Yu Dong's works have too many styles and he is so productive.
Philip Roth first passed through the novice stage, then entered the exploration stage, and finally entered the "madness" state.
But Yu Dong is different. In several of his debut works, Yu Dong has touched on realism, stream of consciousness, and magical realism, and they have all been touched quite well.
Yu Dong didn't take this criticism seriously at all.
Literary criticism is like that. If you always write in one style, some people will say that you are stuck in the same style and don't seek change. If you keep trying, some people will say that you don't have distinctive features.
Chapter completed!