Compared with the Pacific Ocean, crossing the Atlantic Ocean is much faster.
Zhou Hexuan took the latest speed boat this time and arrived at the west coast of France in less than half a month.
Port of Le Havre.
Zhou Hexuan walked down the ship's ladder and couldn't help but look towards the nearby beach.
More than 20 years later, the beaches here will be filled with artillery fire and bullets. Allied soldiers who landed nearby will invade the city. The entire city of Le Havre will be beaten to pieces, leaving more than 80,000 citizens homeless.
Well, D-Day.
Zhou Hexuan did not stay in this city, and took Sun Yongzhen straight to the train station, and then hurried towards Paris.
The Goncourt Literary Prize was about to announce the winner and award the award. Zhou Hexuan had great hopes of winning, so he was hurriedly called over.
In fact, the process set up for this award is unreasonable. Judging from the traffic conditions at this time, if an Asian or American writer wins, there will be no time to attend the award ceremony in Paris.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is much more thoughtful and announces the selection results early, leaving more than a month for the winners to hurry up. The results will be announced in October and the awards will be awarded in mid-December.
But this year's situation seems a bit special. It has been delayed until November, and the Swedish Academy is still debating.
As early as August, the five final candidates were supposed to be selected. Members of the Swedish Academy suddenly had a seizure and a full list of 27 people was selected. Until October, the winners were supposed to be selected, but four consecutive rounds of voting failed.
Neither can pass.
The problem lies in the voting rules of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Only writers who receive more than half of the votes are eligible to win the prize.
Then a funny scene happened...
The first round of voting results: Thomas Mann (German novelist) 4 votes, Stephen George (German poet) 4 votes, Zhou Hexuan 5 votes. Invalid.
Second round voting results: Thomas Mann 5 votes, Stephen George 3 votes, Zhou Hexuan 5 votes. Invalid.
The third round of voting results: Thomas Mann 6 votes, Stephen George 2 votes, Zhou Hexuan 5 votes. Invalid.
In the fourth round of voting, the Swedish Academy eliminated other candidates and voted separately for Thomas Mann and Zhou Hexuan. The results were: Thomas Mann 6 votes, Zhou Hexuan 6 votes, and 1 abstention.
God abstained from voting. This has never happened in the selection of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The reason for abstaining from voting is very good, that is, it is impossible to judge which of the two candidates is better.
It was not until Li Shizeng sent a telegram to Zhou Hexuan that the Swedish Academy finally conducted the sixth round of voting: Thomas Mann had 7 votes and Zhou Hexuan had 6 votes.
With more than half of the votes cast, the results finally came out this time.
When China was praising Zhou Hexuan overwhelmingly, the Swedish Academy had actually announced the answer, but the news had not spread.
Winner: German novelist, Paul Thomas Mann.
Reason for winning the award: Because of his great novel "The Buddenbrooks", which has an increasingly consolidated classic status in contemporary literature.
Although Thomas Mann won the award, he publicly expressed his displeasure. Because he felt that the best novel he wrote was "The Magic Mountain", and the jury actually said that he won the award for "The Buddenbrooks". This is a disrespect for a person.
An insult to a great writer!
Several academicians at the Swedish Academy are also unhappy because they like "The Goddess" very much and think it is an epoch-making work. However, due to the stubbornness of some people, they cannot award the Nobel Prize for Literature to Zhou Hexuan.
This is really a pity.
People in later generations often joke that the Nobel Prize is a lifetime achievement award. If you don't have a lot of age, you will be embarrassed to accept the award.
Today's Nobel Prizes are slightly better, often awarded to young people, but candidates' qualifications and influence are still considered.
Thomas Mann began his literary creation more than 30 years ago, and his award-winning work is a novel that has been published for ten years. He is extremely famous in Europe and his influence is terrifying. Several people who participated in the vote knew him.
He can't even compete with Zhou Hexuan, who is a well-connected person.
Also, "The Buddenbrooks" is a novel about the bourgeoisie, which is easier for Western judges to accept and understand, while the Chinese society shown in "The Goddess" is not so attractive.
Therefore, after the results of the Nobel Prize in Literature were announced, no one questioned its fairness. Instead, it was considered very normal. Thomas Mann deserved the award.
As for Zhou Hexuan, although he did not win the final prize, he has gained great fame in the European literary world. Because rumors had spread long ago, a young Chinese writer delayed the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Literature by one month.
It is said that there are still two judges who are still aggrieved by this, thinking that "The Goddess" is far better than "The Buddenbrooks".
…
December 6, Paris station.
Before Zhou Hexuan walked out of the station hall, he saw hundreds of Chinese people standing outside. They held high a sign saying "Welcome Mr. Zhou" and each held a French version of "The Goddess". They stood in the biting cold wind and waited patiently.
Zhou Hexuan saw this and walked over quickly.
Li Shizeng was standing at the front of the crowd. When he saw Zhou Hexuan appear, he immediately came over to shake hands enthusiastically and said: "Mingcheng, you have given us Chinese face this time."
"I can't believe that everyone loves me so much," Zhou Hexuan said.
Li Shizeng introduced several more people to Zhou Hexuan, all of whom were well-known Chinese in France. As for those who held signs to welcome Zhou Hexuan, most of them were members of the Students' Union studying in France.
Zhou Hexuan did not dare to be arrogant and neglectful. After greeting Li Shizeng and the others, he immediately walked into the crowd and shook hands with everyone. He repeatedly said: "Thank you for your hard work, let everyone wait here in the cold."
"Mr. Zhou, please sign your name!" A boy wearing glasses said, holding up "Goddess".
Zhou Hexuan took the pen, put down the title page and asked: "What's your name?"
The boy replied: "My name is Fu Lei. I am auditing literature courses at the University of Paris and studying art theory and art criticism at the same time. I especially like your husband's "The Goddess" and I will definitely win the Goncourt Literature Prize this time!"
"I hope so." Zhou Hexuan glanced at the student in front of him twice, then wrote on the title page: Classmate Fu Lei Hui Jian Zhou Hexuan.
As soon as he saw Fu Lei's successful request for an autograph, the French students studying next to him followed suit, and Zhou Hexuan instantly fell into a wave of signings.
Li Shizeng smiled and looked at it for a while, then came over and said, "You should let Mr. Zhou go. He probably hasn't had lunch yet."
While signing his name, Zhou Hexuan said: "Mr. Shi Zeng, is there any good restaurant nearby? I'll treat you to it and we'll all go."
"I guess we can't sit down, there are too many people," Li Shizeng said with a smile, "I know there is a Chinese restaurant opened by French workers who came to Europe during the war. We can go there."
