Yu Dong and others do not agree that literature is dying, of course not because they are "vested interests". This is what they thought before they made any money.
After Dong finished speaking, others also spoke one after another.
After all the guests had finished speaking, the exchange session entered a more free interactive session.
At the beginning, the host asked questions first.
The host took out a few cards and said with a smile, "Three days ago, our school's official account posted a tribe on the Deep Space Tribe to collect questions from netizens, and finally selected three that attracted more attention from netizens.
I am here to raise this question to you on behalf of netizens. The first question is, can you recommend several works worth reading to readers of different ages?"
"What age groups?" Bi Feiyu asked.
The host smiled and said, "The questioner didn't say which age group it was. You can choose your own age group to recommend."
Bi Feiyu nodded, "Then let me answer first. Recently, I still recommend Yu Dong's new book "District 9". I think this novel can be read by middle school students. It is not recommended for younger children, because it
I can't understand it either. Of course, if you are gifted, you can read it in elementary school. In addition to "District 9", I recommend you to read another novel called "Footsteps", written by the Chinese writer Chen Mobai
, this novel should already have an English version, and you can buy it in bookstores. If you can’t buy it in bookstores, you can also go to Amazon to find it online.”
When they heard the name Chen Mobai, the audience was a little confused, because this name was very unfamiliar and they had never heard of it before.
It's normal that they haven't heard of it, because Chen Mobai is a student in the first writing class of the International Writing Center of Jinling Academy of Arts, and "Footsteps" is Chen Mobai's debut novel.
I have to say that Chen Mobai is a very talented person in writing, and many students in the same writing class with him have better foundation than him. However, Chen Mobai's "Footprints" was highly praised by all parties as soon as it came out.
"Footsteps", like Yu Dong's "Li Chao", tells the story of Taohu Village, but Chen Mobaijian takes a different approach, and the perspective of the entire novel is fixed on the road from Taohu Village to the foot of the mountain.
All the stories in the book all happened on this stretch of road, and people’s understanding of Taohu Village all comes from the stories that happened on this stretch of road. The stories are a bit scattered, but the main line is that villager Zhang Shangxi wants to build a road to Taohu Village.
The story of the road down the mountain also revolves around this main line.
The first sentence of the novel leaves a deep impression on people.
"From Zhang Shangxi's home to the door of Liu Blacksmith's house down the mountain, there are a total of 23,543 steps. Zhang Shangxi measured it with his own two legs."
Zhang Shangxi's idea was very bold from the beginning. He wanted to build a concrete road for the village that would go all the way down the mountain and be able to run two cars side by side. However, he soon gave up on this unrealistic idea and decided to quit.
The next best thing is to build a gravel road instead of a cement road.
But even a gravel road was impossible for Zhang Shangxi. After finding that he couldn't do it, he lowered his requirements. He only needed to shovel the grass on the side of the path and make a spacious dirt road.
.
When Zhang Shang was interested in building a road, the first thing he did was to put signs on the roadside and write numbers on each sign. These numbers represented the number of steps from the sign to his home.
The first half of the novel "Footprints" seems quite inspiring. Readers can easily imagine that Zhang Shangxi will go through all kinds of hardships to build a road, and then Taohu Village will rely on this road to get out of the mountains.
Or maybe the villagers were moved by Zhang Shangxi's persistence and picked up their shovels one after another to build the road with Zhang Shangxi. In the end, they united as one and built the road, which reflected the simplicity and unity of the working people.
But the ending of the novel is completely different from what readers thought. No one came to help Zhang Shangxi at all, and Zhang Shangxi himself couldn't persist. After all, he usually had farm work to do, and the weather was unstable, so he went underground from time to time.
A single rain could destroy the road he had just made, and the speed at which he shoveled the grass could not keep up with the speed at which the grass grew.
Many years later, Zhang Shangxi's road was not repaired. At first, everyone was still talking about it, but later the villagers didn't even bother to discuss it.
However, over the years, Zhang Shangxi's footpath signs have gradually been accepted by the villagers.
In the past, there were very few places that could be marked on such a long road from the village to the foot of the mountain. Everyone used a certain tree or a certain depression to express it. Now that there are footpath signs, it will be easier to express it.
Moreover, many villagers did not know Arabic numerals before, but they also knew Arabic numerals because of Zhang Shangxi’s brand.
In general, Zhang Shangxi's road construction project was not successful in the end, but it also achieved some unexpected results.
This story is of course fictional. In reality, there was never a Zhang Shangxi who wanted to build roads in Taohu Village.
After the novel was published, it was loved by many readers. Many readers said that although they were not particularly clear about what "Footprints" wanted to express, they could understand something from it.
Some people say that the author wants to tell readers that it is impossible for mountain people to get out of the mountains on their own, and it is useless no matter how hard they try.
Some people also say that the author wants to tell readers that if you do something, even if you fail to do it in the end, you can still have unexpected gains.
…
This novel sold very well in China, so Deep Space Company started to translate it into English and send it to the United States. It was just launched in the United States some time ago.
The sales performance of the work is not bad, it has sold 10,000 to 20,000 copies. For a new Chinese writer, the novel sold more than 10,000 copies in the United States in one month, which is of course not bad.
Although the students in the audience had not heard of the book "Footprints", they all silently memorized the title and thought of going to the bookstore to look for it after the exchange meeting.
Seeing Bi Feiyu recommending "Footsteps" to everyone, Yu Dong couldn't help but smile. Feiyu really spared no effort in promoting Chinese novels, and he also promoted the Amazon website.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After Bi Feiyu finished speaking, Yu Dong also took over the conversation and said, "I would also recommend a few books. One of them is one that many people have heard of.
But I haven't read "The Brothers Karamazov". This book is very long and may take more time. There is also "One Hundred Years of Solitude". This novel should be read by many people, but it is worth reading.
I recommend this to everyone again.”
When he said this, Yu Dong suddenly showed a sly smile. He glanced at Yu Hua and said, "In addition to these two novels, I would also like to recommend a novel to everyone. This novel is called "
brother"."
Seeing that Yu Dong did not continue, the host asked doubtfully, "Who wrote this novel?"
Yu Dong pointed at Yu Hua, "He is the author."
Everyone on and off the stage looked at Yu Hua.
The host had obviously done his homework and knew that none of Yu Hua's novels were titled "Brothers". He asked doubtfully, "Has Mr. Yu Hua released a new novel that hasn't been translated into English yet?"
Yu Hua was confused when he saw everyone suddenly looking at him. Bi Feiyu next to him whispered to him, "Yu Dong recommended your novel "Brothers"."
Hearing the word brother, Yu Hua twitched his lips.
"Isn't this nonsense?"
Yu Hua complained, but his voice was so low that even Bi Feiyu didn't hear him clearly.
"Brothers" is indeed his work, but the novel has not yet been written.
Several years ago, Yu Hua wanted to write a family novel.
I started writing at that time, but it just didn't feel right as I wrote it, because the country has been developing very fast in recent years, which was different from what he thought.
This delay lasted for several years.
Whenever Yu Dong had something to do, he would tease him about his low production and urge him to produce more works. Everyone knew this.
But he was not afraid of boiling water. No matter how much Yu Dong urged him, he just refused to write. Everyone knew this.
Ever since the novel "Brothers" became known to Yu Dong, Yu Dong would urge him to rewrite it when something happened, but he always took it lightly.
Last year, when Yu Hua was being interviewed in France, a reporter asked about the changes in China's times. He had some ideas. When he returned, he wanted to write "Brothers" again, but he couldn't continue writing.
, I didn’t expect that this matter would be brought up by Yu Dong on such an occasion.
Everyone was looking at Yu Hua, and he had to pick up the microphone and said, "The novel "Brothers" is just an idea for the time being, and it may not be available to everyone yet, so stay tuned... I think it's better not to look forward to it yet.
Otherwise, if I didn’t write it out later, your expectation would be in vain. You’d better wait until I finish writing it before informing everyone.”
After Yu Hua finished speaking, Bi Feiyu translated his words into English and said it again.
Then Yu Hua continued, "Well, they all recommend novels. I won't recommend novels. I'll recommend a movie suitable for all ages. This movie is called "Inception". It's very awesome. It's very good."
I recommend everyone to watch it. But unfortunately, this movie has not been released yet. If you want to watch it, you may have to wait for a while. As for how long you have to wait, you have to ask the screenwriter of this movie, Mr. Yu Dong."
While Yu Hua was speaking, Bi Feiyu was working hard as a simultaneous interpreter. By the time Yu Hua finished speaking, Bi Feiyu had almost finished translating.
Hearing Yu Hua's words, the students in the audience couldn't help but let out excited whispers.
No one expected that Yu Dong would reveal the name of Yu Hua's next novel, and no one expected that Yu Hua would also reveal the explosive news in order to retaliate against Yu Dong.
The host was very astute and asked quickly, "YU, is the movie "Inception" that Mr. Yu Hua mentioned true? Has the script for this movie been written?"
Yu Dong blinked his eyes. He wanted to ask if today was not a literary exchange meeting. Why did he ask about movies?
He glanced at Yu Hua again and regretted showing Yu Hua the script he had written.
In fact, it was not Yu Dong who took the initiative to show it to Yu Hua, but Yu Hua found it himself.
The script "Inception" was written by Yu Dong some time ago, and after finishing it, he put it on his desk.
Some time ago, Yu Hua visited his house and happened to see a script on the table, and then asked if he could read it. Yu Dong was reading a report at the time, and without much thought, he nodded and let Yu Hua read it.
It was only when Yu Hua read the script that he was so satisfied that Yu Dong realized that what Yu Hua was reading was the script of "Inception".
But it didn’t matter if I discovered it, I just read it. It was just a script, and Yu Hua was not an outsider.
The host stared at Yu Dong with bright eyes, waiting for his answer. Yu Dong nodded and said, "Yes, I did write a script, but after writing this script, it has not been sent to deep space, except for me.
Apart from my wife, only Yu Hua has read this script."
"Can you tell us about the theme of this script? The name sounds like it has something to do with dreams?" the host asked again.
Yu Dong smiled and said, "Actually, there was something wrong with Feiyu's translation just now. The Chinese name of this novel is Inception, but the English name should be "The Beginning". The theme of the movie is more science fiction."
"When can we go to the cinema and see this movie?"
The students in the audience looked at Yu Dong expectantly, waiting for his answer. The question asked by the host was also what they wanted to ask.
"Well, I don't have any plans. I just wrote the script for now and haven't thought about the rest yet."
Yu Dong didn't lie, he really didn't think about it.
Because there is no rush, Deep Space Company has many movie plans in the past two years, so there is no need to push "Inception" too early.
In fact, in addition to "Inception", he also wrote many books, but "Inception" happened to be placed on the table, and Yu Hua happened to see it.
Ting Yudong has no plans to film the script for the time being, and both the host and the students in the audience looked disappointed.
The host regretted, "What a pity. I think everyone would really like to see the movie written by you in the cinema as soon as possible."
Yu Dong smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We have a chance today. You will be able to see "Source Code" and "Heartbeat" soon. But today we should talk more about literature. Movies will be discussed later.
I will have a good chat with you when I get the chance."
The host nodded, knowing that Yu Dong was reminding him to slow down the pace of the exchange meeting, "Okay, thank you Mr. Yu Hua for your answer, let's continue with the question just now..."
The first question is relatively simple. Everyone recommended several books. It is worth mentioning that Philip Roth and Joyce Oates recommended a total of six books, five of which are novels by Chinese writers.
, and both of them recommended a novel by Yu Dong.
It is expected that Joyce Oates would recommend novels by Chinese writers. After Feiyu's novels were published in the United States, Joyce Oates strongly recommended them. It was also because of her that "Funny Fingers" and "Finger" were published.
Only then can "Go West" be included in Princeton's recommended reading list.
Chapter completed!