1980 My Literary Era.

Chapter 476 The Age of Innocence
This person is afraid of comparison.

Compared with someone like Mo Yan who can write a novel in a month, Yu Hua, who holds back two words in three days, is no different from a salted hairtail.

After receiving Lin Weimin's call, Yu Hua was indeed a little depressed.

Those little eyes are haunting!
Yu Hua made up his mind that he would write his next novel as quickly as possible.

Mo Yan 35 days, right?

I am 30 days!

"Hey, Yu Hua, do you want to go fishing this afternoon?"

"Fishing?" Yu Hua hesitated.

Forget it, 31 days is also shorter than that little eye.

When Yu Hua was conflicted about fishing or fishing, Lin Weimin, who was far away in Yanjing, received an overseas call from the United States.

The phone was opened by Arthur Miller. He didn't need to post any packages this time, so he called directly.

Arthur Miller told Lin Weimin on the phone that "Untouchable" has been suspended.

From 1984 to 1988, "Untouchable" went through the Barrymore Theater on Broadway for four years, and performed 1365 times. It has won the affirmation and love of countless drama audiences in the United States, and has also won the affirmation of the Tony Award.

In the final stage of the show, less than 30% of Broadway theater audiences attended the show, and box office revenue plummeted.

So "Untouchable" started the tour mode. Compared with the theater performance, the tour made this drama rekindle its vitality.

After all, the audience of Broadway is mainly New York citizens, in addition to tourists from the United States and all over the world. After several years of acting, the audience potential has almost been exhausted.

But the tour is different. Among other big cities in the United States, the drama audience may not have as many audiences as New York, but similarly, it is the first time that "Untouchable" has been performed in these cities. The audience is full of enthusiasm for this drama. of freshness.

The touring performance of "Untouchable" has lasted for nearly a year, and the number of performances has reached nearly 150. The most important thing is that the ticket price of the tour is usually much more expensive than that of performing in the theater.

This wave, can be said to earn a lot of money.

But no matter how good the stage is, there is a time to see you again. Just yesterday, "Untouchable" ended its nearly one-year tour plan and returned to Barrymore for a farewell performance.

For the final performance, the Barrymore Theater was filled with crowds and the auditorium was full, but everyone understood that this was just a flashback.

Many audiences who loved the drama "Untouchable" couldn't help but burst into tears on the night of the performance, and many media also reported the suspension of the drama the next day.

In four years and more than 1000 performances, "Untouchable" has become one of the few long-lived dramas in Broadway history, accompanying millions of audiences.

In terms of show box office revenue, dramas usually can't compare with musicals, but "Untouchable" is an exception.

In four years, the cumulative box office has exceeded 1 million yuan, of which nearly 3000 million yuan was brought by the tour.

This box office revenue is nothing in the Broadway musical market, but it is enough to rank in the top ten in history in the drama market.

And Lin Weimin, the author of the original work, also received a box office share of tens of millions of dollars.

Of course, the one who earns the most is Arthur Miller, who is also an investor, producer, screenwriter and other multiple identities. As the biggest promoter of the introduction of this drama to the United States, Comrade Lao Mi earned more than 2000 million dollars for a drama.

For Comrade Lao Mi's income, Lin Weimin is not jealous at all. "Untouchable" was introduced to the United States, and he was making money lying down. Lao Mi not only did a lot, but also risked his own investment in this drama, so he took it for granted.

The suspension of "Untouchable" is indefinite. It doesn't mean that it will never be performed in the future, but it depends on the situation. Maybe in another ten or eight years, if the audience changes, it will have to be rescheduled .

That's routine for a classic Broadway play.

Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" has been rehearsed twice since it was born in the 40s.

After talking about "The Untouchable", which was suspended, Arthur Miller was inevitably a little melancholy, so Lin Weimin changed the topic to "The Kite Runner", and Arthur Miller's low mood just now rose again.

Compared with "The Untouchable", which has been declining to the point where it has to be discontinued, "The Kite Runner" is in full swing.

Since the performance in September of the previous year, word-of-mouth has exploded, and the box office revenue has been gratifying, especially after winning several Tony Awards in the middle of last year, the box office revenue has exploded even more.

In just one and a half years, "The Kite Runner" has generated nearly 5000 million box office revenue, and the total box office will exceed that of "Untouchable". The only uncertainty is what kind of history it will create.

However, the most popular on Broadway recently is "The Phantom of the Opera", which just moved from London's West End. As the latest masterpiece of talented composer Andrew, "The Phantom of the Opera" became popular in New York City as soon as it was performed on Broadway.

Although Broadway has a wide variety of stage plays, musicals are undoubtedly the strongest among them.

With the foundation of classic musicals such as "Evita" and "Cats", and after more than a year of honing in London's West End, "The Phantom of the Opera" conquered the audience in New York City in just a few days.

When Arthur Miller talked about "The Phantom of the Opera", his tone was full of emotion and envy.

"Lin, I really didn't expect "The Phantom of the Opera" to be so popular."

When Lin Weimin wanted to invest in "The Phantom of the Opera", Arthur Miller once questioned it, but now it seems that Lin Weimin's decision is undoubtedly correct.

"Luck is also a part of strength!" Lin Weimin joked.

"Haha, that's right!"

Talking and laughing, the two hung up the phone.

After lunch at noon, colleagues chatted in the editorial department and talked about a hot topic in the literary world recently.

In 1987, Hainan was established as a province. It stands to reason that this matter has nothing to do with the literary circle.

Coincidentally, last spring "Zhongshan" went to Hainan Island to organize a pen meeting. After the pen meeting ended, many writers who participated in the pen meeting came back and spontaneously promoted the grand scene of Hainan Island, like a paradise.

The pen meeting of "Zhong Shan" has made Hainan Island a good name in the literary circle. Originally, this matter should have ended here.

But no one expected that someone actually proposed the idea of ​​moving to Hainan Island. In their words, they wanted to "build a spiritual island".

The writer Han Shaogong was the first to put forward this idea. What is unexpected is that his unconstrained ideas have won the response of many people.

This group of people gathered in Jingcong, and they were extremely mobile. They not only moved their families, canceled their household registrations, transferred their children to schools, but also took their savings and resolutely and mightily rushed to Hainan Island.

Suddenly, it attracted the attention of the entire Chinese literary world, and countless people envied the maverick and romanticism of this group of people.

In the past year, Han Shaogong and others have publicized their ideas.

Want a newspaper, a magazine, a publishing house, a correspondence college, and a farm.

But from last year to this year, the big moves they have been planning have never come to fruition, and many people who were originally envious and optimistic have gradually turned into doubts.

"Weimin, do you think they can do this?" Liu Yin asked Lin Weimin.

Lin Weimin has also heard a lot about the ideals of Han Shaogong and others in the past year. Their idea is to build an idealized paradise.

Run the magazine first, and then use the benefits generated by running the magazine to run schools and run farms.

All important matters need to be voted on by all members, and the wealth obtained by the magazine, in addition to paying taxes, is jointly managed and controlled by all members.

The distribution of income is based on the combination of distribution according to needs and distribution according to work. Everyone can get an equal basic salary, medical care at public expense, and immediate family members enjoy half-funded medical care.Each working day is calculated as work points according to the labor paid in different positions.

Does it sound familiar?

To put it bluntly, the idea of ​​this group of people is to build an idealistic commune, but the scale is not so large.

"Just listen to this kind of thing. Human nature is complicated. If it could be so simple, a country as big as ours would not seek reform." Lin Weimin said.

"When the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds. When the country is big, there will naturally be more problems and conflicts. Therefore, it is definitely not so easy to establish communes and communism. But they have only a small number of people and a small scale. If they are done well, It should be okay, right?"

This idea won the approval of many people.

Indeed, it is extremely difficult for one billion people to engage in communes and communism.

But if ten people do this, it sounds like the difficulty will be reduced by tens of thousands of times.

"Hehe, this matter has nothing to do with the number of people, it has something to do with human nature, and human nature is selfish."

"Then according to what you say, communism can't be realized?" someone asked.

Lin Weimin shook his head, "It's not that it can't be realized, but the road is difficult, and I can't answer this question. Maybe one day, the social productivity will be extremely developed..."

"But we can't solve the problem of human nature!" Someone interjected.

Speaking of this, everyone's mood is a little low, which is the gap between reality and ideals.

"I think this is precisely a good thing!" Lin Weimin said when everyone bowed their heads.

"why?"

"Society is developing and productivity is also improving. One day we will live a life without worrying about food and clothing. The people will be rich and the country will be strong. At that time,
The people are likely to fall into the trap of hedonism, and even the government will lose its way. What shall we do then?Where is the way out for this society?

Communism, even if it is an unrealistic dream, can point out a direction for our society, let us move forward towards the ideal star sea, instead of being annihilated in the long river of time like those ancient civilizations that were once prosperous and prosperous among. "

When Lin Weimin spoke, his eyes were deep, as if he had seen the rise and fall of history from ancient times to the present.

Tong Zhonggui was infected by his speech and stood up excitedly.

"Teacher Lin is right, such an ideal is doomed not to be realized in a short period of time.

But it does not prevent it from becoming the consensus and long-term goal of our entire society. Maybe 100 years, maybe 1000 years. As long as we have this consensus and goal, our society will burst out a steady stream of power towards this grand and far-reaching goal. Goals keep moving forward. "

Everyone couldn't help clapping their hands and praised: "Xiao Tong is right!"

After being praised by everyone, Tong Zhonggui pulled away from the excitement and scratched his head in embarrassment.

Debates like the one in the editorial department of "Contemporary" may be ridiculous if viewed three or forty years later.

But there is no violation in the present, this is the age of innocence.

(End of this chapter)