Chapter 114 Evaluation

Media reviews of "Farewell My Concubine" came slower than Lin Weimin expected. The April issue of "People's Literature" had been on the market for more than half a month before newspapers began to publish reviews of "Farewell My Concubine".

Lin Weimin guessed that this was probably related to the publication in which it was published. If "Farewell My Concubine" had been published in a local literary journal, I am afraid these comments would have become louder by now.

It has to be said that the "People's Literature" brand is large enough to protect Lin Weimin and "Farewell My Concubine" from the wind and rain.

But no matter how big the umbrella is, it cannot block all wind and rain.

Late April, a weekday morning.

Colleagues in the office gathered around a desk. Lin Weimin went to the water room to fetch water. When he saw everyone gathered around, he asked, "What are you looking at?"

His colleagues turned to look at him with sympathetic expressions on their faces.

"What's wrong?" Lin Weimin was puzzled.

Everyone got out of the way. Lin Weimin walked to the desk and saw a newspaper spread on the table. It was today's "Guangming Daily".

"My views on "Farewell My Concubine".

The title is neutral, but the content is not friendly.

The commentary article is not long, just over 2,000 words by visual inspection, but for the commentary section of a media like Guangming Daily, it is already quite a lot.

The most critical thing is that the signature of the commentary article is not only a senior in the literary world, but also published in a national media like Guangming Daily. Such a clear-cut stand puts pressure on both the Chinese Literature Society and Lin Weimin.

"Oh, this comment is getting bigger and bigger!" Liu Yin sighed.

Everyone came over and patted Lin Weimin on the shoulder to express comfort.

Lin Weimin laughed, "Criticism is people's right!"

Zhu Changsheng gave Lin Weimin a thumbs up, "Weimin's mentality is okay, keep it up."

After everyone dispersed, Lin Weimin sat down and read the comments carefully.

The opinions contained therein did not surprise him, and they mainly focused on three points.

First, at the political level, there is suspicion of smearing.

Second, it is too dark on the human level and appears extremely deliberate.

The third is in terms of orientation, using novelty to attract attention.

After reading it, Lin Weimin put down the newspaper. There have been more and more comments in the past two days. The criticism from "Guangming Daily" is nothing unusual. The most important thing is that it has a higher status.

If you have too many lice, you won’t be itchy. If you have too many debts, you won’t have to worry.

After a while, Yao Shuzhi came over from the reception room in the front building to sort out letters and threw several letters to Lin Weimin, "They are all your letters."

Lin Weimin took it and read it. They were letters from Jiang Zilong, Huang Anyi, and Cheng Shixu.

He felt that Jiang Zilong's letter was very thick. There was no need to think that there was a manuscript, so he opened his letter first.

In the letter, Jiang Zilong first talked about his current situation. He is indeed very busy now. A lot of his energy is taken up by mundane affairs, and he has very little creative time every day.

Then he talked about his views on Lin Weimin's works. The play "Untouchable" was performed at Renyi. Jiang Zilong didn't see it, but he heard it from his friends and it was very good. As for "Farewell My Concubine", he had already watched it a few days ago and was full of praise for Lin Weimin's progress, saying that he had written a masterpiece.

In his letter, he also mentioned the reviews of this novel by the Jinmen critics. Objectively speaking, they were more positive than negative, which comforted Lin Weimin a little.

At the end of the letter, he mentioned his work, and attached his latest novella "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Blue and Purple" to the letter.

Lin Weimin felt somewhat comforted after reading Jiang Zilong's letter. He spread the manuscript invitation letter around, and Jiang Zilong's manuscript was the first to receive feedback.

Then he opened Huang Anyi's letter. Huang Anyi's polite words in the letter were a bit distant, which made Lin Weimin think of her at the Institute of Literature.

In her letter, she also mentioned the influence of "Farewell My Concubine" in Shanghai. Different from the criticism that was gradually rising in northern cities such as Yanjing and Tianmen, the media in Shanghai almost gave one-sided praise. The most explicit one was "Farewell My Concubine". Youth Daily" almost praised "Farewell My Concubine".

"I'm so happy for you" were the exact words Huang Anyi said in the letter.

This time she also sent Lin Weimin a manuscript. It was a novella "Epilogue" that she had just completed not long ago. She originally planned to submit it to "Harvest", but she happened to receive a manuscript invitation letter from Lin Weimin, so she sent the manuscript to Come over.

Lin Weimin thought he was lucky and almost missed it. This can be regarded as pulling out a tooth from the tiger's mouth.

Finally, there was a letter from Cheng Shixu. He said that he had recently been transferred to the Ganxi Provincial Institute of Literature and Art to engage in professional literary creation and research.

As for his works, he is still in the bottleneck period of creation. He has been unable to figure out any clues and cannot write anything decent.

Lin Weimin thought that he might have to work hard on this situation, maybe he would "suddenly open the gold rope and break the jade lock here".

After reading the letter, Lin Weimin turned his attention to the manuscript.

It took him most of the day to read the two manuscripts. It was not until he was about to get off work that he looked up from the pile of paper.

Yao Shuzhi waved the newspaper in her hand at him, "Hey, Weimin, here is another newspaper scolding you!"

Lin Weimin smiled and said: "There are many people who scold me, who is he?"

Yao Shuzhi laughed out loud, "You have such a big heart."

Lin Weimin handed her a cut-out newspaper, "Read more of the people who praise us, and don't blind your eyes."

This newspaper was cut out by Huang Anyi from the "Youth Daily" and mailed to him specially. Otherwise, she is a very careful lesbian.

Like Jiang Zilong, he said a lot of praise and disparagement in his letter, but he just doesn't believe it when he sees it.

Yao Shuzhi took the newspaper and read it for two minutes, "Oh, this almost makes you a flower! For the people, you won't give money to others, right?"

"Nonsense!" Lin Weimin scolded.

Other comrades also became interested after hearing what Yao Shuzhi said and came over to take a look.

Regardless of the criticism of "Farewell My Concubine" published by heavyweight media such as "Guangming Daily" today, the media in Yanjing are generally more positive than negative in their evaluation of "Farewell My Concubine".

But compared to the Yanjing side, the "Youth Daily" praise was indeed much stronger than the Yanjing side.

"No wonder Weimin is so calm and relaxed!" Liu Yin said with a smile.

Zhu Changsheng said: "To be honest, Farewell My Concubine is very well written and deserves such an evaluation."

"But some people don't see it that way. When people read books, they can always see politics, struggle, and intrigue, but they can't see literature itself." Yao Shuzhi said.

"Okay, okay, let's not discuss this topic."

Seeing that Yao Shuzhi's words were getting worse and worse, Rong Shihui quickly came out to interrupt him.

Lin Weimin put the two manuscripts he had just read on his desk, "Teacher Rong, help me look at these two manuscripts."

Rong Shihui said with a smile: "It's better to serve the people. I wrote two letters to my classmates and now I have this manuscript."