Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 153 Everyone’s style
Many people present fell into deep thought after hearing this.

"What I'm saying may sound a bit mysterious, so let's talk about something practical. The practical function of literature is to make the words heard well, so that others can understand the truth you want to convey and gain pleasure at the same time.

In the past few years, our literature was very political. This view cannot be said to be wrong, because literature does have the ability to publicize and guide public opinion, but it would be a bit extreme if literature only talked about politics.

But I think literature can accommodate Sha Jia Bang, as well as Records of the Grand Historian, Les Miserables, Diary of a Madman, and The Story of Laughter and Tears and The Legend of Swordsman in Shu Mountain. "

When Lin Chaoyang said this, the students around him showed some surprise on their faces.

The numerous works he just mentioned cover ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign, and there is nothing wrong with that in itself.

But he compared "Sha Jia Bang", "Tears and Laughter", "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and other literary works such as "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Les Miserables", which really surprised everyone present.

There is no need to talk about "Sha Jia Bang". Model operas are specific products of the buzzing period. Now they are like a rat crossing the street that everyone wants to beat.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Tears and Laughter" and "The Legend of Swordsman" were classified as popular literature and suffered a blow from the literary and art circles. Zhang Henshui and Li Shoumin were criticized to pieces before they even had time to write them, and their works, which they had worked so hard on, became DC.

Although the literary world has seen some light in recent years, discrimination against popular literature is still deeply rooted.

“Comrade Chaoyang, there are some things I don’t agree with in the works you just mentioned.

Model operas at least have a side that is close to the working people and have their own unique literary and ideological features, but how can such erotic works as "Tears and Laughter" and "The Legend of Swordsman in Shu Mountain" be called "literature"? "

When Lin Chaoyang paused, someone stood up and expressed his dissatisfaction.

Lin Chaoyang was very clear that the other party's dissatisfaction represented not only himself, but also that there were many people present who had such thoughts.

His pause was also a deliberate attempt to give the other party an opportunity, because he knew that when he got to this point, he would inevitably face criticism from some people who glorified literature.

Because of the sudden question, the originally relaxed and harmonious atmosphere of the symposium suddenly became a little tense. All the students focused their attention on Lin Chaoyang, curious about how he would answer.

Everyone saw Lin Chaoyang take a sip of tea, his expression calm, and speak slowly.

"This student's question just leads to what I am going to talk about next - the fun of literature.

Over the years, whenever we mention some literary works, the word "low taste" always comes to mind.

What is vulgar taste?

Some people say that talented men and beautiful women, and love between men and women are vulgar tastes.

Then I want to ask, "The orioles are singing on the island in the river. The beautiful lady is the ideal match for the gentleman." Is this considered vulgar?

Cui Hao has a poem that goes: Where is your home? I live in Hengtang. I moved my boat to ask you, maybe you are from the same hometown. Is this considered vulgar?

The great leader coined this word not for us to attack others, but for us to reflect on ourselves.

I personally believe that vulgar taste in literature is a form of noble conduct with despicable consequences.

Pan Renmei in "The Yang Family Generals" and Pan Jinlian in "Water Margin" are victims of such vulgar tastes. If we trace the source of these stories, we will find that they are nothing more than fabrications and creations by poor literati out of their own ugly mentality.

They talk about morality, but write about thieves and prostitutes. This is low taste!"

Compared with the gentle breeze and drizzle before, Lin Chaoyang's face was serious at this moment, and his tone was sonorous and powerful when he spoke the last sentence.

His remarks were quite original; people had never before considered the level of literary taste from this perspective.

If we carefully ponder what Lin Chaoyang said, we can probably sum it up in four words: unworthy of the reputation.

This is what Lin Chaoyang despises as "low literary taste".

His point of view is confusing at first. How can something that does not live up to its name be considered vulgar?

Everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang with doubts, and he continued what he had just said:

“I will give you a few examples to help you understand my ideas.

Take detective stories for example. People are born with curiosity, and readers' love for detective stories comes from solving puzzles. The process of solving puzzles is the readers' pleasure, and this process also includes the "suspense and surprise" mentioned in our novels and dramas.

But my story is going well, and suddenly at a critical juncture in the plot I insert an emotional exchange between the hero and heroine. No matter how well I have written it before, the readers will definitely be distracted.

This is the evil consequence of vulgar taste.

Another example is SQ description. Literature expresses life, and love is a major proposition in life. In novels, it is natural for characters to express their deep emotions.

But some writers are unrestrained in this kind of description, or they pursue weirdness and seek sensory stimulation, which is also low taste. "

After giving two examples, Lin Chaoyang's tone softened.

"I give this example to tell you that it is true that the author is the master of the world he writes about during creation, but once this world is formed, it has its own rules of operation, and even the author who created it cannot speak nonsense.

A work is born from the author's thoughts, but human thoughts are complicated. The author must have the ability to examine himself and the ability to empathize with the readers.

If the emotions and thoughts expressed in a work are to be accurately conveyed to readers so that readers can understand and be moved, the author must guard his own thoughts.

In conclusion, we must avoid whining without reason, putting on airs, being silly and stinky, speaking in a slick manner, waving the flag and shouting slogans, ganging up on others, being pedantic, shouting slogans and dogmas, putting on makeup, and showing off our charm.

Of course, the above ten points are just my superficial understanding. It is inevitable that there are some biases in my opinion. I welcome your criticism and correction. "

Having said everything that needed to be said, Lin Chaoyang took another sip of tea.

Everyone finally reacted and there was a burst of warm applause in the cafeteria.

Lin Chaoyang spoke for half an hour, and everyone could feel that what he said was not empty talk or clichés, but the truth based on his own thoughts and ideas, and it was also the truth that had substance.

The students reflected on themselves and found that most of them thought about how to conceive the story, how to make the characters vivid, and how to choose words and sentences accurately when creating.

All he thought about was what his novel should reflect, what he should expose, and what he should criticize. On the other hand, Lin Chaoyang's thoughts and ideas seemed to have never been seriously considered by anyone present, and they were just thinking about problems in different dimensions.

There is a reason why he can write so many excellent and influential works.

Based on this point alone, it is difficult for everyone not to admire Lin Chaoyang.

After the applause, Teacher Tang Yuqiu briefly summarized Lin Chaoyang’s speech, and then the symposium entered the exchange session between students and guests.

"If you have anything you want to discuss, please feel free to speak up," Tang Yuqiu encouraged the students.

Everyone present looked at each other, and they were all eager to try.

Chen Shixu, who had met Lin Chaoyang at the National Excellent Short Story Award Ceremony, was the first to raise his own questions:
"Comrade Chaoyang, I have a question for you. I find that the most difficult part of writing is not finding materials, but how to select and arrange them after we have them. Do you have any experience to share with me in this regard?"

After hearing his question, Lin Chaoyang nodded and spoke after pondering for a moment.

“I think everyone has encountered the problem you raised to some extent when creating.

British novelist Swift once said: The best words are at the best level. Finding the best words depends on selection, and finding the best level depends on arrangement.

This is like deploying troops and with proper planning, one man guarding the pass can be effective in preventing ten thousand from getting through.

We can reverse the process and find that there are two common problems that arise in this type of situation: not knowing how to choose and not knowing how to arrange.

Stevenson said that literature is the art of tailoring, and tailoring means choosing and making trade-offs.

This requires the author to maintain an objective and calm attitude, especially the ability to be rigorous in self-criticism. I have just explained this point, so I will not emphasize it again.

As for the arrangement, Aristotle discussed in Poetics that the structure of a drama must be complete. We can define "complete" as having a beginning, a middle and an end. In Chinese writing theory, it means a beginning, a middle, a middle and an end.

Good writing must follow its internal rules and layout. If a piece of content can be discarded without harming the whole article, it is redundant. If it is moved and still harmless, then the layout of the whole article is not well considered.

So what is the internal pattern and layout? I think it can be a time sequence, a space sequence, or an emotional line, which has a lot to do with the content of the article.

Creation is a very personal process, and many things cannot be generalized. I don’t know if my words can answer your questions.”

Lin Chaoyang answered his question with quotations from classics, and Chen Shixu felt very inspired.

As the other party said, it is impossible to generalize about creation. The fact that Lin Chaoyang could answer his question briefly in just a few sentences shows that he is mature in creation, which is at least beyond the reach of Chen Shixu.

"Does anyone else have any questions?" Tang Yuqiu asked again.

Jin Ying raised her hand and asked, "Comrade Chaoyang, we have discussed the innovation of novel form in class before. Jia Dashan, a student in our class, even wrote a stream of consciousness essay..."

At this point, she pretended to recite: "Straw hat, straw hat, straw hat, big straw hat, small straw hat, undulating straw hat, spinning straw hat, sunshine-shining straw hat..."

She did not continue her recitation because the people around her were already laughing so hard. Jia Dashan, the classmate who was being joked about, did not take it seriously, but Tang Yuqiu had to interrupt her joke.

"Jinying, just ask the question, why are you talking so much?"

Jin Ying was scolded and stopped joking. He asked, "'Stream of Consciousness Literature' is a very new concept for us. I read your "Lai Zi's Summer" and found that you are very familiar with this form of creation. I would like to ask what works in this area you have read?"

“The books I read are probably familiar to everyone, such as Marcel Proust, William Faulkner, and Virginia Woolf. They are all works by these famous writers.

But I want to remind you that you just said that you discussed the innovation of novel form. In fact, stream of consciousness literature is already an "old thing" over 60 years old.

The essence of novel writing is narrative, and form is just a technique. It doesn’t matter whether the technique is new or old, as long as it works well.

Stream of consciousness literature is not something profound.”

Lin Chaoyang writes stream-of-consciousness literature, but that doesn’t mean he regards it as some kind of martial arts secret book. The creation of "Lai Zi's Summer" was because he believed that this story was just right for the techniques of stream-of-consciousness literature.

Chinese people always subconsciously think that foreign monks are better at chanting sutras, so he couldn't help but remind Jin Ying.

If someone else said something like "stream of consciousness literature is not something profound", I'm afraid everyone present would think he was showing off.

But the person who said this was Lin Chaoyang, who wrote "Lai Zi's Summer". When he said this, no one thought he was pretentious.

Instead, I felt a strong sense of confidence, a calmness based on strength and talent.

After answering Jin Ying's question, Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but glance at her.

The future F country-level literary and artistic leader had a youthful look on his face at this time, but his personality was really cheerful.

Just as he was distracted, a soft voice in Wu dialect rang out, "Comrade Chaoyang, I just heard you talk about some literary works. You put them together for discussion and it seems that there is no distinction between the high and low."

Lin Chaoyang turned around and saw another familiar writer - Wang Anyi.

Wang Anyi, who later became famous all over the world, was just an inconspicuous little girl in the Institute of Literature at that time. Compared with many of her already famous classmates, she was very inconspicuous. Now when people talk about her, there is a prefix - the daughter of Ru Zhijuan.

"Hundreds and thousands of years have passed, but writers still seem to be obsessed with categorizing literary works into different levels.

If we were to debate this matter, it would probably take three days and three nights.

I am only stating my opinion. There has never been a unified standard for literary judgment and aesthetic standards. We must also be wary of those who practice cultural hegemony by claiming that "literary works are of different levels."

There is no conflict between highbrow literature and lowbrow literature. The development of literature is not a choice between one or the other, but a harmonious coexistence and prosperity. "

Lin Chaoyang's words were powerful and his attitude was clear.

In everyone's eyes, that was clearly a face that was too young, but as he sat there, he looked dignified and majestic, with the demeanor of a great man.

(End of this chapter)