A widower's entertainment

Chapter 295 [A breathtaking display of skill] (Subscription required)
Lin Youcheng's novel "Atonement" was published in "People's Literature" and it instantly caused a huge discussion.

Although it is now the end of the 1990s and is approaching, the influence of literature is still strong, not to mention that this is a novel published by Lin Youcheng. It can be said that the response is unprecedented and the entire literary world is shocked.

It was definitely a literary earthquake. Literary critics were well aware that what People's Literature magazine said about the work being at the level of the Mao Dun Literature Prize was not an exaggeration.

On November 11, the magazine "Young Critic" was the first to reprint and comment on Lin Youcheng's "Atonement". Literary critic Xiang Hui did not hesitate to praise it, saying that the novel "Atonement" was a show of Lin Youcheng's skills. The review wrote: "Lin Youcheng's conception is amazing, genius conception, perfect details, delicate and moving text, and extremely impactful. Under Lin Youcheng's cold and sharp writing, the heroine Lin Xue is a creator's life that is close to extreme. Her fascination with the fictional realm has accompanied her throughout her life. The so-called atonement is to magnify moral aesthetics and cultivate splendor in the gaps of life. It is to make the truth difficult to judge. This is the cruelty of Lin Youcheng. The characters are immoral, and the readers are painful judges."

"Lin Youcheng's certain realistic style, or the seriousness of the human theme of atonement, rejects deliberate modern techniques. This novel explores the very act of fiction. Readers know that novels are fictions of the writer, but readers tend to forget that they are fake, and are willing to be hypnotized and sink into the world of this story. Narration is an art, and writers are constantly exploring its boundaries. Therefore, any offense is a breakthrough in the boundaries, and readers gain a subversive and unprecedented reading experience. Lin Youcheng is obviously the creator of this narrative exploration. He not only uses words to bring us into the fictional world, but also awakens readers halfway through, making people think about fiction itself."

“To think about fiction is to think about the art form of novels. Here, Lin Youcheng has made higher demands on readers. Therefore, "Atonement" is a rich novel, and different readers can get what they need from it. Readers who like to read stories can read heart-wrenching stories, while more professional readers will get a different reading experience and will have a deeper thinking about fiction and novels.”

Obviously, this review from "Young Critics" directly reveals Lin Youcheng's amazing conception in the novel "Atonement". The different texts contain both real and imaginary elements. This alone is worth it for literary critics to write long analytical articles.

But this is just one of the shocking parts of the novel.

On the same day, Yenching Literature also published a review of the novel Atonement, praising Lin Youcheng as a true literary master. The review wrote: "Countless tragic destinies fill the entire story of Atonement. The tide of war and the tragic fate of individuals form an ingenious maze. The narrative itself is also very ingenious, with layers upon layers, using dramas to metaphor stories, and novels to metaphor novels, nesting layer by layer, allowing readers to walk into a Möbius strip."

"The novel also contains a kind of questioning of literature and art. Lin Xue lives in a dramatic fantasy, and fantasy is her antidote to resisting her lonely life. Luo Yang relies on the fantasy of the victory of light and his love for Lin Yu to support himself. The part where the novel editor replies is particularly wonderful, giving the story an Ouroboros-like structure..."

The next day, on November 11, Zhang Chao, a critic for the magazine Literary Review, bluntly stated that Lin Youcheng's novel "Atonement" is a perfect novel of human atonement. He wrote in his review: "Human jealousy and shadows, no lovers finally get married, no innocence is restored, one dies of sepsis, the other dies under a shell, and there is not even atonement, only the sinner's self-consolation."

"Lin Xue, the author-like character, gave nothing but self-righteous atonement. Luo Yang suffered for years because of the atonement that he should not have borne. Lin Yu waited until his death. The cousin and his wife enjoyed a life of honor, fame and prosperity until the end of their lives. And then, with Lin Xue's light pen and the tampering of the last traces of their lives, it was called "Atonement"? This is really ridiculous. What happened cannot be denied or refuted. We can only bear the sin and walk barefoot on the thorny road until forever..."

Similarly, on December 12, People's Literature magazine also published a review article by former editor-in-chief Wang Meng on Lin Youcheng's novel Atonement. It can be said to be a praise, saying that this is a novel about thinking about human nature, a novel about the essence of narration, and a novel about the inheritance of novels. The review article also praised: "I am amazed at the author Lin Youcheng's design of the plot, the ingenuity of the conception, the maturity of the writing technique, the control of the characters' psychology and the superb rhythm of rendering, which make this work quite fascinating. Whether it is the picturesque summer before the conflict, the cruel war, or the contradictions and entanglements between the three people, they are all concretely expressed in words."

"From the misty hormones to the cruel smoke of the battlefield and then to Lin Xue's aging mind, there is Lin Xue's desire to express herself that she has nowhere to vent, her somewhat morbid personality influenced by her family, and the evil in her bones that is either out of revenge or out of lack of love. Even if she repented for her whole life, it would be useless. On that summer night in that chaotic moment, she just moved her lips, and then Luo Yang's life was ruined first, and then everyone's life was completely ruined. It is obvious that Lin Youcheng is carefully protecting Lin Xue, so that the story can continue to go on so that she can gradually develop and complete the transformation from human to god. Unfortunately, until the end, when the truth that Luo Yang and Lin Yu had already died was restored, their words "I will wait for you, you have to come back" were just lying on the letter paper, melting in the ashes of war, and staying in history that no one knows whether it is true or false."

"A text about multiple narrative perspectives and narrative nesting. The core of the novel is not so much the love story between Luo Yang and Lin Yu, or Lin Xue's atonement, as it is about the relationship between reality and fiction in the novel. Can the novel really help Lin Xue atone for her sins? What readers want is the bloody reality, or the beautiful fiction and imagination? Lin Xue's excessive imagination destroyed Luo Yang, but she also used this excessive imagination to reunite Luo Yang and Lin Yu after the war and live together. How to measure the faults and merits of imagination..."

Obviously, just as the former editor-in-chief Wang Meng raised the question of how to measure the author's fictional atonement, this has also caused heated discussions, not only in literary magazines, but also outside the literary circle, school literary clubs, and young readers who love literature are all discussing and communicating fiercely.

After the publication of "Atonement", it quickly received close attention and follow-up selection from major domestic literary anthologies. It can be said that overnight, literature lovers from all over the country were discussing Lin Youcheng's "Atonement".

Literary journals such as "Works and Debates", "Selected Novels", and "Xiangjiang Literature and Art" all reprinted the articles as soon as possible...

It's really quite hot.

It can be said that in this year when the literature of the 1980s was about to end, Lin Youcheng's "Atonement" really made countless literature lovers crazy.

Lin Yu and Luo Yang's love is so brave and transcends class. It can be said that when I fall in love with you, I am innocent and brave. However, the ending of the story is so cruel and realistic that both of them died on the battlefield.

These young literary people never thought that Lin Youcheng would have such a novel, such love, such humanity, and such a literary structure.

In addition to literary magazines, various opinions about "Atonement" are colliding wildly!

Yu Hua and others in the creative writing graduate class of Lu Xun Academy of Literature were also having heated discussions about Lin Youcheng's "Atonement". It was obvious that the novel had a great impact on them and they were all shocked.

"I must say that this is a book that makes me feel very depressed. The depression is not just sadness or regret, but also an emotion that is difficult to express."

Cheng Hong was still feeling a little depressed. She said in a deep voice, "I wanted to cry several times while reading the novel. Luo Yang and Lin Yu were so miserable, and all this was just a misunderstanding of a thirteen-year-old girl. Sometimes people really choose to ignore or simply refuse to admit the jealousy and malice in their hearts. How should I put it? Not all mistakes can be forgiven. It's really a very sad story."

Xie Shuhua listened to Cheng Hong's words and nodded repeatedly. She had been looking forward to this story when she heard it in Xinghua Hutong. Now she was also very heartbroken after reading it. She even cried more than once. She kept crying since she saw Luo Yang in handcuffs. It was too sad. Of course, Xie Shuhua really admired Lin Youcheng and was fascinated by Lin Youcheng's writing. After seeing the love tragedy between Lin Yu and Luo Yang in the end, she was shocked, but she had a different opinion in her heart. She said: "Although the ending is too real and cruel, I also think it is beautiful. That beauty may be the beauty of the beautiful and perfect ending of the novel and the tearing of the cold and cruel reality, or it may be the beauty of death itself. Maybe this is the best ending."

"In the novel, the two finally arrived at the blue house by the sea that they had always dreamed of and lived a carefree life. The two have always lived in the readers' imagination and memory, but in reality, they died in two different places because of the war. Only the letters that were preserved still preserved the evidence of their love."

Xie Shuhua said honestly: "It was the two opposite and complementary endings that gave me that kind of soul-shaking beauty."

Yu Hua listened to Xie Shuhua's words and agreed with them. He seemed to have thought of something and said, "This is the beauty of tragedy."

"I have to say that this novel by Lin Youcheng is really amazing. A girl's unintentional mistake can bring about such a disaster. The feelings between the sister and her lover are hesitant to express, but a misunderstanding, a joke, and a villain make everything irreversible. The only thing left is the sister's eternal atonement."

"I was deeply impressed by Lin Xue's words in the novel, which are really worth pondering: I deeply feel that the fact that the lovers in my novels finally get together and live forever is by no means cowardice or escape, but the last great act of kindness, a countermeasure against oblivion and despair."

After hearing Yu Hua's words, the other people around nodded one after another. They were also deeply impressed by that sentence.

Because everyone present were authors, they all knew very well how Lin Youcheng wrote in his novel about an author who fabricated an ending to atone for his mistakes. However, there was no answer as to whether such atonement could really be forgiven.

Mo An, who was standing by, couldn't help but say, "The structure is clever, the story is moving, and the details written by Lin Youcheng are so accurate. The part about people's feelings is also the evaluation that Lin Xue received from the editor in the novel. Language can ruin a person's life. Is it considered atonement to write a happy ending for them with a pen? Is the thirteen-year-old girl really evil? Lin Youcheng's novel also seems to say that language and words have great potential for evil, reminding us to be vigilant against language."

"Yes, it is not only evil and scheming that makes people unhappy, but also confusion and misunderstanding, and most of all, the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you are. Only in stories can you enter the inner worlds of these many different characters and show that they are all equally valuable. This is the only moral a story needs to have. I like and agree with this passage. In my opinion, it is a good answer to a very important and complex question, which is why we need literature."

When Yu Hua heard what Mo Yan said, he nodded repeatedly and agreed: "I think Lin Youcheng's novel is about exploring the limits of writing and literature."

Su Tong also nodded repeatedly, unable to resist expressing her inner thoughts, and said directly: "I had heard the outline of the story before reading this novel, but I was still shocked when I read it. Perhaps each of us is on our own path to redemption. In addition, I don't think that the reason why Lin Xue committed that irreparable crime in this story was because of jealousy. It is the same as the critic Zhang Zhi's opinion, but it comes from her desire to create, her preference for fiction, and her innate sense of order. It is all these that made her a famous novelist, and finally created a happy ending for the couple in the story she wrote."

Others like Liu Zhenyun also expressed their opinions.

"In fact, I think Lin Youcheng is worthy of being a master of war literature. His descriptions of war are so real that they make people feel painful."

"Yes, the war written by Lin Youcheng in "Atonement" is also very real and cruel. Of course, what is even more cruel is the love between Lin Yu and Luo Yang. Lin Xue has lived in guilt all her life and has spent her entire life atonement. But no matter how long this time is or how deep the guilt is, the harm caused is ultimately unforgivable.

"In fact, the most exciting part is the change of perspective in this novel by Lin Youcheng. In Luo Yang's memory, he recalled the love confession of 13-year-old Lin Xue, but in Lin Xue's description, he always thought that she was upholding justice and helping her sister. This may be because human psychology and the dark side are impossible to detect, even for a 13-year-old child."

……

This constant exchange of views was even somewhat exciting, and this was just one corner of the Lu Xun Academy of Literature.

Such literary exchanges and collisions also take place in the literary corners of other colleges and universities, in magazine editorial departments, and in reading corners, and they also attract many people, whether they are readers, authors, editors, directors, or actors who are about to become directors. Their hearts are beating wildly for Lin Youcheng's novel, feeling sadness, heartache, horror, or excitement.

Among them are Zhang Guoshi, who won the Golden Bear Award, a poet director who is determined to win an award, and actor Jiang Wen, who had previously thought about directing Lin Youcheng's "Tengu", and...

Everyone was completely attracted by Lin Youcheng's "Atonement".

The whole novel is so moving and has a captivating appeal that makes them want to own it.

Because such a story is so unique and so fatally attractive!

(End of this chapter)