Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 121: Forum Contest

In the cold winter, the trees in Yanjing City are withered and there is no trace of green. Today is a windy day, the sky is gloomy and everything is bleak.

Tao Yushu was on holiday after his exams and didn't have to go to school. Lin Chaoyang rode her bicycle towards the city. The north wind was blowing, and it was chilling to the bone. He couldn't help but complain in his heart.

After riding for nearly an hour, with his nose almost frozen off, Lin Chaoyang finally arrived at the venue for today's symposium, the Yanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building, which is also the office of the editorial department of Yanjing Literature and Art.

After saying hello to Zhang Dening, Zhou Yanru, Li Qingquan and others and warming up for a while, he was taken to the conference room on the third floor.

When he walked in, he saw that there were quite a lot of people, more than Lin Chaoyang had imagined.

Li Qingquan led Lin Chaoyang to greet this group of people, which basically covered the fields of writers, critics, and editors, many of whom had direct or indirect connections with Lin Chaoyang.

For example, Yan Gang of Literary Gazette is not only an editor, but also a well-known critic. He once wrote a review for The Shepherd. In the third month after the publication of Little Shoes, he also published a review article in Yenching Youth Daily.
Wang Zengqi from the Yenching Peking Opera Troupe. The two had met before at the editorial office of People's Literature. His "Biography of Cavalry" was just published in People's Literature two or three months ago, which can be regarded as his official return to the literary world. Today he was invited by Li Qingquan;
Another acquaintance is Li Shuguang from Renwen Publishing House. He was responsible for publishing the single volume of "Little Shoes".

More than ten guests came to today's symposium, all of whom are influential and prestigious figures in the Yenching literary circle. This shows that "Yenching Literature and Art" has indeed put a lot of thought into this symposium.

After greeting everyone, everyone chatted with each other before the symposium started.

By almost nine o'clock, everyone realized that the time was almost up and lowered their voices consciously.

The symposium was hosted by Li Qingquan, the person in charge of Yenching Literature and Art, and Lin Chaoyang sat next to him.

A banner was hung just above the north wall of the conference room: Literary Symposium on the novella "Little Shoes". On the long table in the middle of the conference room were placed everyone's nameplate and tea cup, and a circle of literary figures listened to Li Qingquan's speech.

After Li Qingquan finished speaking, it was time for everyone present to perform.

The first person to speak was Yan Gang. He made a few polite remarks before beginning to communicate with everyone.

“I remember that I spent two nights reading the novel Little Shoes, which left a deep impression on me.

I think what touched me most about the novel was its spiritual core—the innocence, kindness and tenacity that are unique to children.

I read Comrade Chao Yang's "The Shepherd" before. The character Xu Lingjun had long psychological descriptions. In ordinary works, this kind of psychological description is usually rather boring, but Comrade Chao Yang handled it very well at the time.

When it comes to "Little Shoes", he plays to his strengths in this area, skillfully using inner monologue and psychological description to allow us to more deeply understand the children's thoughts and feelings, and also feel the mutual help and growth of the puppy and his sister in adversity.

The innocent smiles and determined eyes of the brother and sister in the face of poverty suddenly jump off the paper, which undoubtedly enhances the emotional resonance of the story and makes the image of Xiaogouzi and his sister more vivid.

Secondly, the novel depicts the social environment and character relationships. The poverty, crowding, mutual assistance and competition among neighbors in the mountain village in the story construct a three-dimensional social ecology.

At the same time, the character traits of parents, teachers, neighbors and other characters and their subtle relationships with the protagonist are fully displayed in the novel, making the social background of the story more full..."

Because of the process, the exchanges at the symposium seemed somewhat rigid.

However, the symposiums nowadays are much better than those in later times. At least everyone doesn't just gather together laughing and joking, and then end with a few compliments on a fancy sedan chair.

Yan Gang praised "Little Shoes" for a long time at the beginning, and then changed the subject and mentioned some of the shortcomings in the novel that he felt were lacking.

“But I think the novel’s structure is still a little loose, which may be due to the overall tone of the novel. The conflicts are not intense enough.

As a result, the handling of the character side plots was a bit hasty and stiff, and the logical connection with the main plot was not done in a coherent way. This treatment weakened the compactness of the story to a certain extent, and from the reader's perspective, it was less attractive. "

Yan Gang's comments were mixed with praise and criticism, and his attitude was objective, which made everyone present nod in agreement unconsciously.

After listening to his speech, Lin Chaoyang was also touched. "The Little Shoes" was adapted from the Iranian movie of the same name in later generations. The original movie itself is a heartwarming story, so it is indeed not so good in terms of the compactness of the plot and mobilizing the readers' emotions.

This is also a common shortcoming of this type of story. Especially compared with the scar literature that has been venting its feelings in the past two years, the shortcoming of "Little Shoes" is even more obvious.

However, everything has its pros and cons. Although the freshness, timeless elegance, warmth and healing of "Little Shoes" cannot arouse the readers' strong hysterical emotions, it can touch people's hearts silently, and this kind of touch is often more lasting and memorable.

When it was Wang Zengqi's turn to speak, he also mentioned this point.

"In the past two years, there have been many anti-Y novels in the literary world, many of which have had a great influence, such as Scars, Class Teacher, and The Shepherd.

I also occasionally try to write about this kind of thing, but after finishing, I find that there is neither great suffering nor great sorrow in the novel, no life-and-death, heart-wrenching plots, and it does not move people at all.

Sometimes I reflect on myself, wondering if I didn’t suffer enough persecution and hardship when I was buzzing, so why is it that when others write, they are filled with bitterness and tears, but it’s not the same for me?

Later I thought that this might still have something to do with personal ideas.

I feel that everyone has suffered a lot over the years, and now that we are finally able to live a more comfortable life, there is really no need to bring up those old accounts and make everyone feel depressed and uncomfortable.

Comrade Qingquan invited me to attend the symposium, so I will say a few words from my heart.

The novel "Little Shoes" is great because of its truth, goodness and beauty.

Staying kind and positive in difficult situations has a profound impact on cultivating young readers' empathy, sense of responsibility, and resilience in the face of difficulties.

The love between siblings, honesty, trustworthiness, and respect for others depicted in the novel are all virtues, and are values ​​that we should cherish and promote.

I agree with Comrade Chaoyang's creative concept and purpose. Works like "Little Shoes" are exactly what is most lacking in the Chinese literary world at this stage."

Wang Zengqi is a very unique figure in the Chinese literary world. He was active in the literary world at an early age, but he really became famous and renowned in the literary world after the 1980s when he was 60 years old. He is good at novels and essays. Many of his works, such as "Shoujie", "Da Nao Jishi" and "Three Friends in Winter", were widely welcomed by readers as soon as they were published.

His works do not pursue painstaking efforts, nor do they pursue profoundness or strangeness. They are plain and simple, told in a leisurely manner, like chatting about daily life. He always uses personalized, small and trivial themes to aestheticize daily life, and his works are full of frankness, beauty, optimism, and a carefree and open-minded attitude that is not burdened by external things.

But at the same time, his writing style has been criticized in the contemporary literary world.

"Beautify life", "empty suffering", "exaggerate true feelings", "avoid the truth and focus on the abstract" are labels that have been attached to Wang Zengqi by those self-proclaimed profound figures in the literary and critical circles.

In the eyes of these people, Wang Zengqi's thoughts and his aesthetic concepts are both vulgar and kitsch, and lack the profound insight and criticism of life and society that a literary creator has.

Therefore, it is not surprising that he is so fond of "Little Shoes", a work based on simplicity and beauty. This is also the reason why he agreed to let Li Qingquan attend the symposium.

There was nothing wrong with Wang Zengqi praising "Little Shoes", but his words intentionally or unintentionally made some people present feel unhappy.

The popularity of scar literature in the past two years has been a general trend in the literary world, representing not only the literary community but also the inner voice of the general public.

As soon as Wang Zengqi finished his speech, someone immediately expressed different opinions on his words.

“The novel ‘Little Shoes’ is certainly good, but we cannot simply attribute its popularity to the celebration of truth, goodness and beauty.

I think the greatest success of the novel lies in the author's meticulous portrayal of the overall social environment and outlook. In it, we can not only see truth, goodness and beauty, but also the complexity of human nature and the subtlety of interpersonal relationships.

The urban-rural gap and educational inequality reflected in the novel are also worthy of our attention and reflection.

If a novel is simply oriented towards praising truth, goodness and beauty, then it cannot bear the power and depth that literature itself gives it.”

The speaker was Zheng Zhiyuan, a middle-aged writer from the Yenching Writers Association. His tone was powerful and his speech was insightful, but it was obviously too targeted.

Due to the two people's diametrically opposed views, the atmosphere at the symposium suddenly became tense.

To be honest, Lin Chaoyang actually appreciates Wang Zengqi's point of view.

The source of literature is words and records, and no one has ever given it any lofty meaning or historical mission.

Wang Zengqi and Zheng Zhiyuan have opposite views, and it is hard to say who is right or wrong, but Lin Chaoyang has the perspective of later generations. He always feels that if literature overemphasizes depth, criticism, literary quality, and thoughtfulness, it is tantamount to pushing itself to the opposite side of the people.

Because you have to admit that once literature embarks on the path of pursuing profundity and criticism, it will easily become distant from the common people, thus lacking the environment and soil. In the end, it can only be appreciated by few people, or even bring about its own destruction.

Although Wang Zengqi's views are not comprehensive enough, they are at least close to life.

Literature can only have a bright future if it is close to life and the people.

The atmosphere in the conference room became quiet due to tension. At this moment, Lin Chaoyang suddenly chuckled, and his laughter immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"Comrade Chaoyang, what do you think?" Li Qingquan looked at his actions, knowing that he must have something to say, so he spoke to him.

"Comrade Wang and Comrade Zheng both made some sense. I am not laughing at your remarks, but I am thinking of the exchange I had with Mr. Wu Zuxiang a few days ago."

When everyone heard Wu Zuxiang's name, a look of cautious curiosity appeared on their faces.

As a Chinese writer who spans the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, although Wu Zuxiang has stopped writing in recent years, his influence cannot be underestimated, not to mention that his status in the academic world is much higher than his achievements in creation.

"At that time, we talked about Lao She. As we all know, since the founding of New China, Mr. Lao She has focused his main creative energy on drama creation. In 15 years, he created 23 plays, including such masterpieces as "Tea House" and "Longxugou".

Personally, I feel a little regretful about the choice of Mr. Lao She, because I think his talent in novel writing is far greater than that in drama.

But Mr. Wu's words at that time made me feel sincere admiration for Mr. Lao She's choice.

He said that the reason why Mr. Lao She chose the field of drama was because of his patriotic feelings. Mr. Lao She believed that with the cultural level of most working people at that time, reading novels was a barrier, but if it was to watch a play, there would be no such barrier.

When Mr. Lao She wrote "Longxugou", he wrote about the harm done to the common people by the old society, and also about the changes brought about by the new China. When he wrote "Teahouse", he wrote about the big society, and also about the little people.

The greatest beauty of literature is that it has thousands of facets not only in the readers' minds, but also in the hands of different writers.

Going back to what you two just said, everyone has different opinions on the usefulness of literature, but the consensus we can reach is that literature is very useful.

As for how to use it, it depends on each person's ability.

But what I want to say is that with Lao She's talent and achievements, he still knew how to make compromises in his creation. Who dares to be proud of being a 'people's teacher'?"

After Lin Chaoyang finished speaking, everyone looked thoughtful.

His words seemed to be vague, but in the end he put forward a very sharp point, which is -

No one can point fingers at the masses of the people in the name of literature.

Lin Chaoyang used a gentle attitude to ease the clash of opinions between Wang Zengqi and Zheng Zhiyuan, but at the same time he expressed his attitude in a soft yet firm manner, and it was quite insightful. Everyone present looked at him with a bit of caution and respect.

(End of this chapter)