Chapter 470: Fictional Song

"Of course." Yu Hua then said, "Only if I can read the second half of the novel."

Liu Zhenyun nodded, "I agree with you this time, and the sooner I read the latter part, the higher my evaluation will be."

Shi Tiesheng asked with a smile, "What song is the lyrics of 'Don't Let Me Go' mentioned in the novel?"

"It's a fictional song." Zhou Yan smiled.

"Don't Leave Me" also appeared in Ishiguro Kazuo's original work. Zhou Yan didn't know which song it was. He only knew that it was a jazz song, which seemed to be a jazz song from the 1950s reinterpreted by Dashun Xizi.

"It's actually a fictional song..." Mo Yan raised his eyebrows, "I thought it was an old song."

"Because the novel is always about memories, it gives you this feeling." Shi Tiesheng smiled, "In fact, this novel does not have a specific time point."

"The background should be the 1990s, and it mentions the 1960s and 1970s." Liu Zhenyun guessed, "I mean, when the protagonist was 31 years old, it should be the 1990s."

"In addition to the time, I am more curious about where this Haier Xiangshe School is. At first, when I saw that the protagonist was called Yang Kebei, I thought it was in China, but later I felt like it was in Europe. Some places give people a British feeling, and some descriptions of buildings in it have a British style." Yu Hua said.

"Yes, there will be no school called Haier Xiangshe in China." Mo Yan nodded.

In Ishiguro Kazuo's original version, it was actually a British coastal city, but Zhou Yan made some changes in this version.

He combined several cities he had visited and created a fusion city.

The environment around Haier Xiangshe is all cities that Zhou Yan has experienced. For example, the farmhouse mentioned in it is fictionalized by Zhou Yan based on the scenes he saw in Plymouth, Devon, England.

Some buildings that appear in it may have the shadow of cities such as Houston and Dartmouth.

The world in this novel is completely virtual, a combination of many countries in the East and the West.

Another point that Zhou Yan made some improvements is the knowledge of "cloning".

After all, Kazuo Ishiguro is not a real science fiction writer, and he knows very little about the technology of cloning.

But Zhou Yan is different. Zhou Yan has experienced the era of "cloning fever" and "genetic modification fever", and also the era of information explosion. Although he is not a person in the relevant profession, he knows more about cloning than Kazuo Ishiguro.

Of course, the improvement in this aspect is also limited, after all, he is indeed not a person in the relevant profession.

Moreover, this is not a popular science book, or even a real science fiction novel. It is problematic to write these things too detailed.

"The environment here is all fictionalized by me based on some cities I have visited." Zhou Yan said.

"What about time?"

"The city is all fictional, is time still important?"

Mo Yan nodded and said, "Zhou Yan is right. When readers read this work, they will definitely think that the background is the current era, and they will feel the emotions conveyed by the characters more deeply."

Liu Zhenyun pondered for a moment, "What will Yang Kebei and others face later? What will they donate?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said nothing.

He didn't speak, Liu Zhenyun didn't ask again, and others tried not to talk about the story later. Keeping this sense of mystery is a kind of respect for the later reading.

If you spoil it now, the later reading will be less interesting.

Many things need to be explored by yourself to be more interesting.

"You said that song is fictional. Are you going to write it yourself later?" Shi Tiesheng brought the topic back to this song.

Before Zhou Yan could answer, Mo Yan smiled and asked, "Tie Sheng, why are you so interested in that song?"

Mo Yan was puzzled because in the manuscript they saw, "Don't Let Me Go" only appeared once, and the length was not long, and there was not much description of the song. After all, even the lyrics only appeared in one sentence.

Shi Tiesheng smiled and said, "I always feel that this song is very important."

Mo Yan looked at Zhou Yan, "Is he right?"

Zhou Yan nodded with a smile, "Yes, because I was going to name this book "Don't Let Me Go"."

After hearing Zhou Yan say the title of the book, several people looked at each other, and they all felt that the title was a bit ordinary.

Few domestic writers nowadays actually name their books like this.

But at this time, they didn't bother about the title of the book. Besides, even if they were bothered, what could they do?

A work is like a child to a writer. Naming a child is the author's own business. How can others easily interfere?

"Since this song is so important, should it be written later?" Mo Yan asked.

Zhou Yan smiled, "It's uncertain whether this book will be published, let alone the song."

Yu Hua rolled his eyes, "If you say you don't have time to write the last 100,000 words of this novel, I can still believe you, but if you say you don't have time to write a song, I don't believe it at all. I dare say that if I give you a piano now, you can play that song."

Seeing Yu Hua's certainty, Mo Yan was surprised and asked, "Is it really that fast?"

Yu Hua nodded affirmatively, "In this regard, he is so fast."

Liu Zhenyun turned to look at Zhou Yan, "Is he right? Are you fast?"

Zhou Yan couldn't help but roll his eyes. When Liu Zhenyun said this, he always felt that something was wrong.

"If it's just the melody, it won't take too long. Popular melodies are very simple. Of course, I can't guarantee whether the public can accept it."

"You are too modest."

Shi Tiesheng said, "Let's write the song as well. I feel that this novel should be accompanied by a song."

Yu Hua also nodded and said, "Well, the writing style of this novel has a sense of musical narrative."

Liu Zhenyun opened his mouth, "Yu Hua, when did you start studying narrative methods, and what is this musical narrative? Can you explain it to me?"

"Anyway, this novel has a sense of polyphonic counterpoint."

Even Zhou Yan was surprised, "You even know polyphonic counterpoint?"

"Of course."

Zhou Yan nodded. It seems that Yu Hua did spend time studying music theory.

He looked at Zhang Shouren who was still reading the manuscript seriously, and said with a smile: "I don't know when Mr. Zhang will finish reading the manuscript. I have to go to the canteen to talk about the time to serve the food."

It was already past five o'clock. If Zhang Shouren was slow to read the manuscript, they would have to eat later.

Originally, Zhou Yan asked the kitchen to start serving the food at 5:30, but now it seems that it may not be possible.

Yu Hua smiled and said, "I guess he will finish reading it in less than an hour."

Mo Yan also nodded, "About that."

Since they all said so, Zhou Yan nodded, "Okay, I'll tell the canteen to let them start serving the food at 5:50."

Mo Yan waved his hand, "No hurry, let's wait a while, wait until Editor-in-Chief Zhang finishes reading the manuscript."

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. This was the first time that Mo Yan took the initiative to give suggestions since he met him.

He didn't ask why, and nodded in agreement.

...

For the rest of the time, everyone suddenly stopped talking about the novel manuscript.

The main reason was that they had only read less than half of it, and there were many things that could not be discussed.

It is very uncomfortable to read a novel halfway through, because the novel sets up a vague suspense from the beginning.

What exactly do these students of Haier Xiangshe do?

What does the donation mentioned by "I" mean?

In the book, because of the ideas instilled in the children since childhood, they have always been in a vague stage of "knowing and not knowing" about their future.

They know that they have a special mission, but they don't know what this special mission is.

Mo Yan and his friends can guess that it is not a good thing, but they can't figure out what the bad thing is.

They are in a state between knowing and not knowing, just like those students.

If readers read this book more than 20 years later, they may find clues from the clues in the text and guess that these students may be clones.

The so-called donation should be to donate organs to the prototype of the clone.

Because this plot setting often appears in later novels and literary works, there is a movie called "Escape from the Island of Clones" specifically about this.

But now it is 1996, and people's ideas about cloning are completely different from those of later generations. For no reason, it is difficult for Mo Yan and his friends to think of cloning.

They may not even know what "clone" is.

…

After about forty minutes, Zhang Shouren on the sofa suddenly exhaled a long breath.

The sound of his exhalation was very loud, attracting the attention of others.

Yu Hua smiled and said, "Editor Zhang, have you finished reading?"

Zhang Shouren nodded, "I have finished reading."

"How is it?"

Zhang Shouren pondered for a moment, then asked, "Is this a science fiction novel? Where is the science fiction point?"

After reading the manuscript, Zhang Shouren was very confused about where the science fiction of this novel was.

He also thought that science fiction was in the later part.

But the question is, will a science fiction novel have no science fiction elements in the first tens of thousands of words? Can such a science fiction novel still be called a science fiction novel?

When Zhang Shouren asked this question, the other few people couldn't help but nod their heads. When they were discussing just now, they didn't regard this novel as a science fiction novel at all.

They purely discussed this novel as a serious novel.

Zhou Yan smiled and replied, "The science fiction elements are in the back."

Zhang Shouren held the manuscript, looked at the others, and suddenly said to Zhou Yan, "Zhou Yan, is there a place where we can talk for a while?"

Before Zhou Yan could answer, Yu Hua stood up and said, "Don't borrow a moment, let's go out and leave the place for you. I just want to go to the recording studio to watch them rehearse."

After that, Yu Hua went to push Shi Tiesheng's wheelchair, and Mo Yan and Liu Zhenyun followed him out.

When they went out, Zhang Shouren said, "Zhou Yan, your manuscript is too short. I'm afraid I can't put it in our magazine for serialization. There must be a lot more to this story."

This made Zhou Yan a little confused. He didn't say that he would put the manuscript in "October".

When Zhang Shouren came before, he also said that he just wanted to see his manuscript as a reader. What's the situation now?

"Teacher Zhang, actually I..."

As soon as Zhou Yan opened his mouth, Zhang Shouren interrupted him, "But, I want to talk to you about the following story, which will help me judge. In fact, I am very optimistic about this manuscript. At first I thought it was a bit long-winded, but after reading it After about 20,000 to 30,000 words, I suddenly felt that this wordiness was just right. If what I saw today was a complete story, then I think "October" would definitely publish it."

This time, before Zhou Yan could speak, Zhang Shouren continued, "It seems to me that you have no intention of finishing the manuscript. This is of course your personal wish, but as an editor and a reader, I think it is a pity."

Zhou Yan pursed his lips and said, "Editor Zhang, is this novel suitable for your magazine?"

"What's not suitable?" Zhang Shouren smiled, "You don't want to send this novel to a science fiction magazine, do you? I'll tell you the truth, just send your novel to a science fiction magazine. It’s impossible for anyone to want it.”

Zhang Shouren's words are very direct, but they are also true, because the science fiction flavor is too shallow.

Not to mention the first half, even after reading the entire novel, I won’t feel that it has a strong science fiction flavor.

And now domestic readers’ understanding of science fiction is basically spaceships, robots, or “talking computers” and the like.

If "Never Let Me Go" is placed in a science fiction magazine, no one will read it.

"What about the length?"

"October" generally only includes novels of novella or below.

“It’s not like we haven’t serialized novels. Although we are not as good as Harvest and other publications in terms of novels, we have also serialized some well-known novels.”

Zhou Yan was silent for a while, and then said, "This novel is mainly about cloning."

"clone?"

Zhou Yan thought Zhang Shouren didn't know what cloning was, so he was going to give him some knowledge, "Cloning is..."

Zhang Shouren waved his hand, "I know, it's just copying, right? This is not a new concept, it has been around for a long time abroad."

In fact, it is also available in China. For example, "Science Fiction World" published a novel called "Clone City" in July this year. For science fiction fans, cloning is certainly not a novel concept.

"Well, it's cloning, which is also the science fiction element in this novel."

"Oh, what I should have thought of is that the protagonist is indeed a clone trapped in the Halcyon House? So, in the second half of the novel, did the protagonist resist? Did he try to escape?"

Zhou Yan shook his head, "No."

"I should have thought of this, otherwise Yang Kebei would not have become a caregiver. She has already accepted her fate. This novel of yours has a dystopian feel." (End of Chapter)