Chapter 427: Progress

Chapter 427: Progress

Chapter 427: Progress

Yu Xinyao is an old friend. It can be said that Gu Lu’s fame in the literary world started with him.

He has a very high opinion of The Little Prince, and of course he also has criticisms of Hyouka. Even though this work, which is currently hailed as Gu Lu's semi-autobiography, has sold more than three million copies in China and over one million copies in Japan, Yu Xinyao still does not approve of it.

Let me explain the background of Yu Xinyao's writing——

There is no such thing as a column in People's Literature magazine, and Yu Xinyao, as the country's top literary critic, has sufficient value and does not need any gimmick.

He was pointing at some of the sarcastic writers on the Internet, such as Chen Xiaolong from the Northwest Circle. They dared not say harsh words, but only said some sarcastic things behind their backs.

Things like "As China's premier literary magazine, People's Literature has never had a writer appear in four consecutive issues. It's too much praise" and "Question: what kind of background do you need to have a column in People's Literature?"

Yu Xinyao has a very bad temper.

[A clown in a circus was a dwarf, who woke up and found himself a handsome young man "Dwarf"; Daermusi killed an entire family for a record, and he refused to plead guilty in prison until he turned into a baby "Daermusi"; the protagonist of a detective novel escaped from the established plot of the book and wanted to be a good person "The Repentance of a Thief". The battle between children and adults "Falling Back to Childhood". "

This issue's new work is "Multiple Turtles". In a strange village, the villagers have two bodies. What will happen if they lose one body?
Nabokov said, "Any great work of art is a fantasy, because it reflects the unique world as seen by a unique individual."

Gu Lu's short stories have been recommended by People's Literature for four issues because he broke the boundary between absurdity and reality. It is not only absurdity, not only fantasy. He blends absurdity with reality. The difference between his works and folk fantasy stories is that his works can always see the truth in absurdity and the absurdity in reality.
Yu Xinyao did not just praise, but also gave a preliminary analysis of how this art was achieved.

After all, it is an article published in the People's Literature Daily, and it cannot be published simply to diss or praise people.

Omit the long analysis at the beginning and only take out the key parts.

[Gu Lu fictionalizes and absurdizes the story through deformation, alienation, facialization, anti-alienation and other techniques. Roland Barthes called it "catalysis". Through this description that strips away reality, he grasps the development and direction of the story, and integrates reality and unreality, forming a dialectical unity of "overall absurdity and detailed truth".

All absurd techniques are intended to show the bloody truth, and all the truth is intended to reveal the absurdity of the times.

Whether it is from absurdity to reality in terms of writing skills, or from reality to absurdity in terms of writing intentions, Gu Lu uses strong contrast to lead readers to think about social history. Camus believes in The Myth of Sisyphus that what is important is not to live the best, but to live the most. Therefore, it is difficult to say what is the best way to live, and "more" or richness has become a standard for measuring life. To measure the eight novels published by Gu Lu, we should not look for them in real life, but look for the imagination of life in each story...]
It’s enough to just look at Fei Shen’s remarks. I will just skip the subsequent analysis of the language styles of these articles.

Yu Xinyao believes that it has reached the highest level of humor, that is, Mr. Lu Xun's "spitting out half of his anger" and Shaw's "laughter with thorns".

Finally, Yu Xinyao also gave some recommendations at the end.

[The one that surprised me the most among the four issues and eight chapters was "Walking Through Walls" serialized in this issue. The protagonist Dutilleux accidentally discovered that he had the ability to walk through walls. He went from playing pranks to doing evil, and finally trapped himself in the wall forever.

If you simply regard "Walking Through Walls" as a fantasy story, it is not difficult to understand this article at all, but only by grasping the real words hidden in it by Gu Lu, the work will make readers respect it. On the surface, this is a tragic story about the protagonist Dutilleux, who discovered that he had the ability to walk through walls and was accidentally trapped in the wall. But when I read "Dutilleux seemed to be cast in the heart of the wall. To this day, his body and the stone wall are still integrated." I suddenly discovered the core of the story...

This series of works reminds me of Mr. Lu Xun's "New Stories", which uses mythological stories as the background and uses the same absurdity and reality to reflect China in the early twentieth century.

Gu Lu's series of works are new versions of stories for the new era. If anyone has doubts about my evaluation, please go and watch "Walking Through the Wall" and you will agree with me. ]
From this comment, we can understand why Aimée is the number one short story in France in the 20th century. He was writing about 20th century France, but when he wrote about China in the 21st century, he was still considered to be reflecting the current situation. Just like the theme of "Multiple Turtles" that modern urban men and women need to get used to loneliness.

Classic works are like this. They are divided into two categories. One category is groundbreaking, such as The Decameron. If you don't know the background, you will think it is a rubbish work. How can it be called a masterpiece? But it is the first short story collection in Europe, which set the tone for Italian prose and short stories.

The second category is an incisive description of human nature and society, which is a mirror in any era, such as "New Stories" and "Selected Short Stories of Aimee".

Of course, there are also combinations of the two, which will basically be included in textbooks.

Yu Xinyao's influence is beyond words, and his high praise instantly caused a sensation in the literary world. And it was a bigger discussion than the "praise for the Little Prince" a few years ago, because Gu Lu is now one of the most famous writers in China.

Comparing Gu Lu and Lu Xun, are you kidding? !

"Walking Through the Wall" can be compared to "A New Story", are you kidding?

Those who know Mr. Lu Xun know that New Stories is a very special work.

Some people started cursing without even going to see him, saying that Yu Xinyao was old and his eyes were blurry.

More people still went to see it, with the mentality of "I have to see what's so wonderful about "Walking Through the Wall" that deserves such high praise."

Even with preconceived hostility, I was conquered!
The Wall Walker is Aimé's best work, bar none. The French actor Jean Marais carved a bronze statue in memory of Aimé, which is the author's influence. On the high wall of Aimé's former residence, there is a person with one arm stretched out and half of his body sticking out. That is Dutilleul who is forever trapped in the wall, which is the influence of the work.

This work has been remade and adapted countless times in Europe, it’s just that good!

"Gu Lu... I also want to write a work like "Walking Through the Wall"."

"Before reading: Teacher Yu Xinyao must have received money. After reading: Teacher Yu Xinyao's praise is still too conservative."

"Recently, Gu Lu seems to be writing martial arts novels online. Some people say that his writing style is overflowing. If he writes seriously, he may be able to create a new work that is comparable to Jin Gu Jue. With this in mind, I read The Wall Walker again. It is indeed overflowing."

"I have always believed that Gu Lu is a genius in popular works, even though his Diplomatic Trilogy is a classic work of popular narrative. It turns out that I was blinded by one thing. Gu Lu's works, which have accumulated for five years, have already become so profound. It really opened my eyes."

"Gu Lu should be able to become the youngest winner of the Lu Xun Literature Prize next year."

Wait for discussion.

The Northwest Circle disappeared.

Of course, for that circle, the serious problem is not disappearing from the public eye, but that writers like Chen Xiaolong who made sarcastic remarks have been hated by the editorial department of People's Literature.

Some things can be said in private or in person, because as long as you don't tag me, I can pretend I didn't hear them. But you can't make it a big deal for the whole world to discuss.

Now the whole world knows about your weird behavior towards Gu Lu and People's Literature. Unless you write something shocking, you will never be able to appear in a People's Literature publication again in your lifetime.

It will also be more difficult to get published in other literary journals. After all, no one likes people with loud voices.

"Should I pay a visit to Mr. Yu?" Gu Lu thought. The last time he wanted to pay a visit was a few years ago, and he asked Uncle Jian to be the middleman to introduce him. The reply he got was: Literary critics should keep a sufficient distance from writers. Whether the personal relationship is good or bad, the evaluation will lose objectivity. Without objective comments, it will only be emotional noise and have no effect.

It seemed to make sense, so Gu Lu went back home.

"Even though I know that Yu Xinyao's evaluation is due to the excellent quality of the plagiarized work itself, I still want to thank him because the benefits brought by the evaluation are real." Gu Lu sent a message to Uncle Jian. He estimated that if he wanted to meet again, he would be rejected, so he asked Uncle Jian to help express his gratitude.

For example, this time, not to mention that helping to avenge Chen Xiaolong caused serious damage to writers, with Yu Xinyao's support, Gu Lu has made another step forward in the field of serious domestic literature.

Look carefully, in the field of serious literature, Gu Lu is the ceiling price in the field of popular novels. In the annual novel sales list, Gu Lu's works have been in the top 3 for six consecutive years, and there are more than one in the top 10, showing full dominance.

"The chances of winning are very high." Gu Lu doesn't have any particular pursuit for literary awards at the moment, but the Lu Xun Literature Award is different. Even if it's just to use Mr. Lu Xun's name, he still wants to get it.

Speaking of serious literary novels, he currently has only one book, To Live. The rest were not selected. This also proves that the Golden Finger is mainly based on bestsellers.

drip-

Oh? Did Uncle Jian reply? Gu Lu's phone rang, and he opened it to see that it was a message from Guo Dafa.

The report on book market sales in the third quarter of 2019 is out.

"The Devotion of Suspect X" ranked first in the quarter with sales of more than 1.7 million copies in two months.

Then "The Little Prince", "Hyouka" and "Yesterday's Park" also entered the top 29. Due to the promotion of the spiritual sequel to "From the New World", Algernon ranked 25th with sales of copies in the third quarter.

The top level of popular novels that I just mentioned has become more concrete now.

"Whether a person has ability or not can actually be seen from his words and actions." Gu Lu thought of what Yu Xinyao said in an interview many years ago.

The fact that the top few books on the book sales chart are fixed just goes to show the shrinking creativity of the market and the fact that most people no longer read books.

Take The Little Prince for example. Is it really because there are new readers every year? Not at all.

When Gu Lu was distracted, his cell phone rang again. This time it was President Jian.

[Uncle Jian: No problem. Lao Yu, this guy, made such a comment without telling me. Also, Xiao Gu, remember our agreement.]
It’s no problem to reply immediately. Gu Lu must not have forgotten the agreement.

Forgetting what he was doing, Gu Lu looked at Durant's preface to The Gloom of Weymouth. His English was pretty good, so he could barely read it, and he could just look up the dictionary when he came across a word he didn't understand.

Gu Lu is the author and does not need to consider too much. He just needs to work hard on plagiarism. On the contrary, Yao Xiaoju has to consider a lot more.

"Mr. Tom, you..."

Before Kane's nervousness broke out, Yao Xiaoju quickly pulled out his trump card, "Mr. Kane, please look here, this is the thank-you letter that Gu sent not long ago."

It felt like Kane had already summoned Cthulhu in his heart. Yao Xiaoju stared at him closely.

Hearing Gu Lu, Kane retracted seventy or eighty words, "What thank-you letter?"

[Thanks to Mr. Kane Van Zestone for his outstanding contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos.

There is no clear mythology system or framework in my works, but Mr. Kane successfully depicts a mythology system with a dualistic concept of good and evil, blurring the background environment without distinction between good and evil, and creating another route for the series.

Part of the Cthulhu genealogy I compiled also comes from Mr. Kane's framework. The ancient gods are the Old Gods, the old gods who once dominated the earth are the Old Ones, and the gods from alien planets are the Outer Gods...

Mr. Kane Featherstone is the true King of Cthulhu."

That's right, when Gu Lu and Yao Xiaoju held a video conference, they received a request for help. The only way he could think of was to flatter.

The Father of Cthulhu seemed much more powerful than the King of Cthulhu, so Gu Lu gave one away.

Moreover, speaking of facts and reason, Gu Lu only wrote a dozen or so Cthulhu articles, while Kane has been writing continuously for several years and has created more than fifty articles in the Cthulhu series, including two long novels. It seems that there is nothing wrong with him being hailed as the King of Cthulhu.

"Cough cough..." The edges on Kane's face softened, and his temperament changed from a wolf to a husky. He wanted to say something, but his throat was not prepared, and he choked.

"King of Cthulhu, this evaluation is too high. I am ashamed." Kane took a long time to organize his words before responding.

"No, no, no, Mr. Kane, since Gu said so, he must have a reason." Yao Xiaoju said, "You are the King of Cthulhu!"

"There is still a lot of room for improvement in the Cthulhu series," Kane said.

Look, it really works. Kane calmed down instantly and talked normally.

But after chatting for a while, Kane suddenly asked a question that was a bit off topic.

"The Chief of the Outer Gods: Azathoth, the blind and foolish god, the core of primordial chaos, the chief of demons, the lord of all things. He is the god that appeared in Mr. Gu Lu's "Night Devil" last week and now." Kane said.

"Oh, yes." Even though Yao Xiaoju is very busy, he will always be the first to read every new manuscript from a writer.

[In the center of the chaos grows the blind and foolish god, Azathoth, the lord of all things. He is surrounded by a horde of beings without minds or fixed shapes...] So far, this is the highest-ranking deity described in the Guru Cthulhu series.

"Azathoth is described as having no wisdom, so he is blind and foolish. This characteristic also makes him have no believers." Kane changed the subject and asked, "Excuse me, is he the way of heaven? The way of heaven in Chinese mythology."

Are you speaking Chinese? Oh no, are you speaking English? For the first time, Yao Xiaoju doubted his English level.

(End of this chapter)