The next day.

After Lu Shi got up, he began to pack his luggage,

I have already done all the things I need to do in the United States, and it's time to go back to London.

Goodman sorted out the documents on the side,

"Sir Lu, you'd better finish it now, otherwise when you go back to London, you can only rely on the parcel, which will be very troublesome."

Lu Shi looked at it roughly,

Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Parker Brothers, Lee Jay Circus, ......

There are really a lot of their own Party Bs.

He asked:

"What about AAAS?"

Goodman said: "I sent a telegram saying that I would send a representative over today for one last consultation. Alas...... I don't know what they think, didn't they all discuss it last time? ”

Lu Shi can understand,

Matters involving the entire academic circle should indeed be cautious.

The two continued to work with their heads down.

After a while, there was a knock on the door outside,

Lu Shi went to open the door,

Theodore Welty, vice president of AAAS, stood at the door,

He was followed by O. Henry and Mark Twain.

Welty took the initiative to say: "The two gentlemen and I happened to meet outside, and we came to visit together. ”

LOOK AT HIS APPEARANCE, INSIDE AAAS, THE "777 PROJECT" SHOULD HAVE PASSED,

Therefore, the matter to be discussed this time is not top secret, and it does not hurt to be known by outsiders.

Sideways when landing,

"Three of you, please come in."

The trio entered the room and sat down,

Goodman poured them tea.

After sitting down, Welty cut straight to the point, took out two envelopes from his briefcase and handed them over, saying, "Professor Lu, we're also worried about it now." However, it is the trouble of happiness. ”

The letter came from two people,

Boris Waxman, president of Dartmouth College;

Oluphilus Whitman is president of Brown University.

Lu Shi is puzzled,

"What does this mean, Mr. Welty?"

Welty was a little helpless,

"At that time, we agreed to change 'Project 666' to 'Project 777', so that we needed to add a school. Unexpectedly, AAAS sent telegrams to colleges and universities across the United States, and received an extremely enthusiastic response. ”

He put on his glasses and pulled out his briefcase,

"Look at this table."

Everyone was curious and came up.

The table is divided into three columns, each of which contains the name of the university.

Most of the names also have "√" painted next to them,

Roughly sweeping, you can count it with one hand if you don't hit "√".

Lu Shi was a little confused,

"So many schools are responding?"

Welty clicked on a few places in the form with his finger, and said helplessly: "It's not that these universities don't want to respond, but ...... The University of Chicago, for example, was founded by oil magnate John Rockefeller, who recently ...... with Mr. President Hehe......"

He smiled awkwardly and touched his nose,

"After all, the headquarters of AAAS is in Washington, D.C., and I have my own national conditions. Professor Lu, you know. ”

This is very true.

As a result, before Lu Shi could open his mouth, Mark Twain next to him laughed,

"Understood! Of course Professor Lu does! ”

My brother writes humorous and satirical literature every day, and he likes this kind of thing the most.

Welty spreads his hands,

"However, the impact is not huge. The first bachelor's degree was awarded five years ago, and the qualifications were not enough to support him to join the '777 Project'. ”

Lu Shi is clear.

The two schools selected by AAAS at the end,

Dartmouth College was founded in 1769,

Brown University was founded in 1764.

The history is long enough.

Interestingly, they are all members of the future Ivy League.

Lu Shi picked up Wexman's letter and began to read,

——

Dear Sir Luk,

I heard that the American Association for the Advancement of Science is planning a new support project, and you will be in charge.

This American blessing, academic blessing,

I would like to extend my best regards to you.

Here, I will succinctly elaborate on some of the advantages of Dartmouth College,

Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded on December 13, 1769, as one of nine colonial colleges founded before the founding of the United States.

……

——

Say it is "concise and to the point",

But he wrote three full pages.

After reading it, Lu Shi felt like an HR reviewing resumes.

"It feels like Dartmouth is pretty good."

"Don't jump to conclusions, Brown isn't bad at all," Welty said. ”

As he spoke, he pushed another letter over.

Lu Shi has one head and two big,

"Don't don't, I still don't look at it. It's up to AAAS to decide which school to join. Both schools are good. ”

Welty was also distressed,

"It's because it's all good that we can't make a choice."

He glanced up at Lu Shi,

"Or ......"

It's all like this, how can Lu Shi not understand?

He said: "Then let the two schools join together and become the '888 Project'." ”

Welty was overjoyed,

"Then it's decided!"

Lu Shi said: "In this case, let's start drafting a specific charter." I'll be back in London in a few days, and I'll try to get it done before then. Otherwise, a lot of time will be wasted passing the documents by mail. ”

Welty nodded,

"I've got the charter ready."

When the land is full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

Obviously, AAAS has already made up its mind,

666→777→888，

Every time you add a university, it's outrageous enough.

Lu Shi gestured to Goodman's chin,

The latter understood, took the documents sent by Welty, and began to review them one by one.

Welty smiled,

"From now on, Professor Lu is the head of the department of the '888 Project', and also has a position in the Public Programs Office. Of course, you're just in name, but the headquarters in Washington will definitely leave you an office. ”

Lu Shi doesn't care about these identities,

As long as you don't work specifically.

Welty continued: "Since Professor Lu is already in a high position in AAAS, there is one more thing you have to participate in deciding. ”

Lu Shi was curious,

"How?"

"We're going to ask Thomas Wickley to start a new journal," Welty said. ”

Thomas Wickley,

Lu Shi has an impression of this person,

"Founder of the integrative medicine journal The Lancet?"

Welty laughs,

"This Wickley is not Beckley, the one you speak of died in 1862. Of course, this is not to blame, there are many people in Europe and the United States who inherit their father's name. I'm talking about the fourth editor-in-chief of The Lancet in the Wickley family. ”

Therefore, Europe and the United States during this period were also very feudal.

For journals that attach so much importance to the level of scientific research, the position of editor-in-chief can also engage in the inheritance system of the son inheriting the father's business.

Lu Shi was curious,

"Doesn't AAAS have Science?"

Welty smiled slyly,

"After all, Science is comprehensive, and the impact factor is not necessarily high. We invited Mr. Wickley to come over mainly to create journals in biology, genetics, and medicine. ”

Lu Shi suddenly realized,

Thought

These Yankees are also going to take advantage of loopholes.

Biology is not without theoretical research, but it is relatively small, and most of the results are dominated by experiments.

This makes this type of discipline require a lot of cattle and horses,

The more cattle and horses, the more papers,

The more papers, the more citations,

The impact factor of the journal in question will naturally climb.

AAAS is trying to overtake Europe in terms of academic reputation~

But this may be a bit of a superfluous,

According to history, the two journals "Nature" and "Science" have always been the leaders of the scientific community, and the ranking of impact factors will always occupy the first and second.

Mr. De is not moral,

Mr. Sai does not compete.

Whether a journal is top or not depends on who is willing to submit and who will read it.

The strength of the United States in the academic circles is an external manifestation of the strength of the country.

Lu Shi said: "Of course I support the new journal. ”

Welty said: "It's good if you support it. To be honest, we even had a name for the journal in mind, and it was called Cell. ”

"Tsk......"

Lu Shi was speechless when he heard it.

The three top journals in the academic world,

Nature, Science, Cell,

All appeared.

It's just that, according to history, "Cell" should have been founded in 1974 and published by Elsevier.

Now it's 70 years early,

Even the distribution place has moved from Europe to the United States.

Welty said, "Professor Lu, these are these two things that I came to you. If that's all right, I'll go through the charter of Project 888 with Mr. Goodman first. ”

Lu Shi made a gesture of please.

Welty and Goodman sat down at the desk next to them and began to review the documents one by one.

Mark Twain looked at their backs and sighed,

"Alas......"

He shook his head and said, "I don't like Americans the most, they don't follow the rules." ”

"Poof! cough cough cough ......"

Lu Shi burst out laughing on the spot,

Unexpectedly, Mark Twain actually has modern public knowledge attributes, and he can send reflection coupons at every turn.

Welty apparently heard it too,

"What do you mean?"

Mark Twain said, "You came to Professor Lu for two things, which one of them kept the rules?" Originally, there were seven schools, but now there is one more; There is already "Science", and it turns out that there is still some "cell" for the impact factor. ”

Welty "forehead......

"You don't understand academics."

Mark Twain raised his eyebrows,

"I don't understand?"

Welty said in a low voice: "The new journal is also for the sake of young scholars. ”

O. Henry didn't understand either,

"With an authority like Science, where young scholars publish and get into the classroom right away, why bother starting from scratch?"

Welty pouted when he heard this,

"Let's just say that the editorial department of AAAS's "Science", for many expert reviewers, they can't understand or read the new things made by others, especially the things made by young people, and they can't distinguish between good and bad, in this case......"

The rest of the sentence was not finished.

Actually, there is no need to say more.

Those experts, disciples, and grandchildren, in the academic circle, the use of "mountain" is no longer enough to describe, but "mountain range",

They will inevitably regard projects, topics, and reviews as their own rights, and then tacitly exchange interests.

Can young people get ahead?

The eerie silence in the room,

“……”

“……”

“……”

Everyone looked at each other.

After a long time, Welty muttered: "I have said it a long time ago, my Ami has its own national conditions in ......"

Mark twain:

“Fxxk！”

Welty shrugged,

"You don't have to be too pessimistic. Europe is also rotten, and it has long since been rotten, such as the "Lancet" mentioned above, and the four editors-in-chief are all surnamed 'Wickley'. On the contrary, we are more energetic. Otherwise, there wouldn't be as many U.S. universities in the Global University Rankings. ”

He counted on his fingers:

“

the University of Chicago, founded in 1890;

California Institute of Technology, 1891;

Georgia Institute of Technology, 1885;

……

”

These are all well-known prestigious schools in the future.

At the beginning of the 20th century, they were still so young and vigorous.

In general, this era has not yet reached the point of being worse than that.

Welty chuckled,

"Forget it~ Forget it~ Don't talk about this."

He buried himself in the business with Goodman again.

Lu Shi asked Mark Twain: "Mr. Clement, you came to me to discuss drama?" ”

Mark Twain nodded,

"Yes. Recently, I've been thinking about adapting Million Pounds into a screenplay, and the novella has been very popular. ”

"Million Pounds" is a cool article in this era,

The protagonist Henry is poor and white, and his pocket is cleaner than his face,

He happened to get a special edition banknote worth a million pounds (which does not exist in reality), and although the banknote still had to be returned to the owner after a month, he relied on the banknote investment to become a real millionaire and marry Bai Fumei.

Moreover, Bai Fumei's father is the owner of the million-pound bill.

There's a plot in it,

Henry's first use of huge bills was in a small restaurant,

The bartender was cold when he saw that he was in rags, but when he saw the legendary banknote, he immediately flattered him, did not dare to accept the money, and lent money to Henry to spend.

This is a proper pretending to be X slap in the face.

Of course, in modern times, this kind of routine will not even be used in Xiaobaiwen,

But at the beginning of the 20th century, it was brutality.

Interestingly, Mark Twain even wrote a time-traveling essay -

"Connecticut Yankees in Arthur's Dynasty".

In the story, the American Hank Morgan travels back to the Arthurian period, people block people, Buddha blocks and kills Buddha, and by the way, he fights with Merlin.

Crossing + pretending to be X slap in the face,

belongs to the ancestor of the Shuangwen world.

Lu Shi was curious: "Did you encounter any problems when adapting the script?" ”

Mark Twain replied: "Although it is a bit immodest to say this, it must be admitted that I am a person who is good at satirizing with humor. But this kind of humor is much less effective when put into drama. Far inferior to Yes! Prime Minister. ”

That's certainly not comparable,

"Yes! After all, "Prime Minister" is a modern TV series, and it is a dimensionality reduction blow to literary and artistic works in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lu Shi groaned,

Actually, there's no need to force the two to be consistent. American humor and British humor are inherently different. ”

American humor?

British humor?

Mark Twain was a little confused.

It's not that he can't perceive that the two cultures are diverging, otherwise he wouldn't have emphasized the "American dream" in his works.

He just didn't expect that Lu Shi would say this in a conclusive tone.

Obviously, in Lu Shi's mind, humorous literature has become a system.

Mark Twain sat up straight,

"Professor Lu, can you please tell us the difference?"

"Ah......h

Lu Shi fell into deep thought,

For a long time, he said: "Multi-ethnicity leads to relatively open and straightforward American humor, and that feeling is like ...... Doing serious things is not serious, so the joke is usually the word 'silly'. For example......"

He began to imitate a certain celebrity,

“

No one

than me,

Better,

United States.

”

The crowd was quiet at first.

subsequently

"Hahahahahahaha

Laughing maniacally.

Lu Shi continued: "Let's talk about the British side. I've watched "Yes! Prime Minister", it will be found that Sir Humphrey is particularly fond of doing serious things. Therefore, compared to the 'silly' of American humor, the joke is 'bad'. ”

Mark Twain said slowly, "It seems like this. ”

Lu Shi said: "Therefore, if "Million Pounds" wants to be adapted into a drama, it must speed up the pace of the plot, and at the same time, the performance must be more outward. ”

In short, one word –

Refreshing!

Mark Twain hesitated: "But the pace of "Million Pounds" is already very fast. How can you speed it up? ”

The corners of Lu Shi's mouth are hooked,

"It's very simple, the first act, in five minutes, leads to conflict; Within ten minutes, Henry was going to have an X-...... in the restaurant Clip of the abduction. ”

"Huh?"

Mark Twain was stunned,

"Can you see this?"

Lu Shixiao,

"Absolutely."

Ten minutes is enough to play the return of the five-stage Dragon King.

He took a pen and paper, and in a few minutes he roughly wrote the fragment according to the plot of "Million Pounds",

"What do you think?"

Including Goodman and Welty, several Americans came together.

After reading it, they didn't speak for a while.

Moments later,

"Cool!"

O. Henry said in a low voice: "This plot is refreshing!" ”

Mark Twain agreed: "Indeed, there is a refreshing feeling when you look at it." But if you put it in the UK, it will be treated as a clown drama, right? ”

He thought for a while, and said: "No way, the humor is different, my Ami is free and the country is in the country." ”

My brother will say this too.

But there is some truth to this,

If it were Churchill or Wardhouse, he would have been full of disdain when he saw this clip.

The two of them may think: "Our comedy, try not to show emotions, don't exaggerate expressions, don't learn from Americans, humor is to be as cold as us." ”

But

"King Edward might like this."

Lu Shi said.

Mark Twain was surprised,

"What kind of person is King Edward?"

Lu Shi didn't talk about this topic again, and instead said: "In short, I think this way of writing is more appropriate." ”

Mark Twain thought for a moment,

"Can you tell us a little bit more about that?"

(End of chapter)