Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 292 Being misunderstood is the fate of the expresser (asking for double monthly tickets at the beginning of the month)
Xu Zhiyuan said: "When a writer is creating, shouldn't he pour his or her understanding of the world into it? I think such a 'metaphysical' person is the real you."

Zhang Chao asked in return: "An egg contains the DNA information of the hen that gave birth to it. So, by eating the egg, can we infer the breed, age and color of the hen?"

Xu Zhiyuan was stumped by the question and didn't know how to answer for a moment. He could only look at Zhang Chao, hoping that he would continue speaking.

Zhang Chao did not hesitate to elaborate, “Looking at eggs, you can tell the difference between chicken eggs, duck eggs, goose eggs and quail eggs. Even picky eaters can tell the difference between free-range eggs and feed eggs when eating eggs.

But that’s basically all. A more detailed description than this is beyond the scope of tasting the flavor. The same is true for reading - speculating on the author’s cultural background, gender, and personality may make sense.

But I always think that trying to reconstruct the author's "person" through his works is arrogant and stupid... at least not smart. It is not even a healthy aesthetic behavior.

When Mr. Qian Zhongshu declined the request of a French female book fan to visit him, he said, "You don't need to know the hen that laid the eggs to eat them." I think this is probably the reason."

After all, Xu Zhiyuan was his senior at Yan University, so Zhang Chao restrained his tone a little.

Xu Zhiyuan took a while to digest Zhang Chao's point of view. He didn't feel offended by Zhang Chao. He was just thinking about how to guide Zhang Chao into the context he had preset.

He suddenly turned to Zhang Yueran and asked, "Yueran, what do you think of the relationship between a work and its author?"

Zhang Yueran, who was watching the play, didn't expect the topic to be thrown to him so early. He was a little flustered. After a while, he said: "Most writers have their own relatively fixed style. I think this style itself is a part of personality.

The 'writer' in the novel should be a part of himself, even if it is not really himself. "

After saying that, he looked at the other two people with some uneasiness.

Zhang Chao quickly asked, "There is a saying in communication science that 'partial truth is not the truth'. Could that part of the personality be the real personality?"

Zhang Yueran was also speechless. For the first time, she felt Zhang Chao's quick response and pressure in a serious conversation. She had spoken moderately enough, but he still caught her.

In fact, it is not that Zhang Chao is strong, but that he is not used to giving the power to "define himself" to the other party, and then pulling out a "reconciled self" from the other party's definition to maintain the superficial friendliness of the conversation.

The audience below was a little "excited" - Zhang Chao was indeed a "natural quarreller", as it had only been a few minutes since the show started and he had already criticized the host and the guests.

However, Zhang Chao did not press on the opportunity. After all, he had no conflicts with Xu Zhiyuan and Zhang Yueran, and he had his own purposes and ideas for participating in this salon.

Zhang Chao slowed down his tone and said, "The characters in the novel can't even live up to their own 'truth', let alone the author's 'truth'?"

This sentence was a little difficult to understand, so Xu Zhiyuan subconsciously asked, "You mean that not only does the 'real truth' not exist in novels, but even the 'fictional truth' does not exist, right?"

Zhang Chao spread his hands and said, "From a certain perspective, of course it doesn't exist.

Do you see the characters in the novel eating, drinking, defecating and urinating every day? Do you hear them grinding their teeth and farting in their sleep? Do you smell the undigested food when they burp?
This is my real life every day, right? Apart from other things, how many people here secretly hold back their farts in their intestines in consideration of the people around them?
If you can't hold it in any longer, you should just hold your butt and release a silent mine, right?"

The last question was a bit too down-to-earth. Not only did the hosts and guests on the stage dare not respond, but the audience below also did not dare to show any expression, for fear of being considered as the perpetrator of "holding in a fart" or "setting off a bomb" as Zhang Chao mentioned.

Zhang Chao looked at the audience with a half-smile - these were all the best of Yenching's literary and artistic youth, and they all sat here with many dreams and even illusions about literature and art.

Today, he will break this illusion!

After waiting for a long while, Zhang Chao said, "These trivial but necessary physiological instincts and acquired social etiquette that is almost instinctive happen all the time as long as we are alive. Why is there so little portrayal in literary works?

Even if there is, it is of some symbolic nature, similar to sexual descriptions in novels - the latter is much more common than the former.

Therefore, the essence of a novel is a "continuum" of many aspects of the character's life arranged in sequence. We often don't realize that the author has quietly removed most of the aspects, but only uses techniques to make us feel that the life of the character, especially the protagonist, is coherent and real. "

Seeing that many people were still puzzled, Zhang Chao made an analogy: "Everyone has seen movies and cartoons, right? The principle is very simple. They are essentially a series of individual images played continuously.

As long as the playback speed reaches 1 frames per second - that is, 24 frames - the human eye and brain will automatically "interpolate frames", thinking that the actions and movements are continuous and there are no gaps.

But in reality, 24 frames per second is not enough for real-world movement, even thousands or tens of thousands of frames are not enough. The same is true for novels.

Therefore, there are no 'real' fictional characters. This illusion comes from the 'laziness' and 'supplementation' of our brain, which is commonly known as 'brain supplementation'.

"There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people", which just shows the uncertainty of subjective consciousness in literary aesthetics. Why has no one ever said "There are a thousand different answers to what 1+1 equals in the eyes of a thousand people"? "

Most people understood these and let out an exclamation of "oh", feeling as if they had been enlightened.

There has always been a rumor in the literary circle that if Zhang Chao were to engage in literary theory and literary criticism, he might be better than writing novels.

This rumor was confirmed to some extent today.

Zhang Chao continued: "In this case, instead of speculating about myself through novels, or even constructing a 'metaphysical' me, it is better to communicate directly with the more concrete me in front of me.

Don’t you think so? "

“Yes~~~~” A long and unified voice sounded, blocking Xu Zhiyuan who was about to say something.

After the noise in the small square died down, Xu Zhiyuan had the opportunity to ask: "Is this a form of self-protection? Or is it a gesture of resistance to the prevalence of deconstructionism in modern society?
If a writer wants to protect his spiritual territory, he must be reserved in his works. Or do you not trust your readers? "

Zhang Chao frowned. Xu Zhiyuan had indeed been immersed in his own world. No wonder he made the talk show "13 Invitations" so awkward at the beginning.

But he has a strange, uneasy sincerity that makes the interviewees feel that he has no malicious intentions, but is simply curious and stubborn.

Zhang Chao said: "I don't believe there is such sincerity as completely opening up oneself in this world - if there is, it must be some kind of performance with ulterior motives. As for whether my work will be deconstructed, it has nothing to do with whether I resist it or not; whether I trust readers or not has nothing to do with readers reading my books.

So whether I answer 'yes' or 'no', it is essentially a form of self-protection."

Xu Zhiyuan asked: "Are you afraid of having so many fans?"

Zhang Chao: "..." But he still patiently asked one more question: "Of course not - why do you ask that?"

Xu Zhiyuan explained: "The more fans you have, the more complicated the expectations you face, and the more you need to pay attention to your image in public. You may be the embodiment of the dreams and even fantasies of many people.

You may become unfree because of this. And freedom is the noblest nature of human beings. Isn’t it worth fearing to lose this freedom? "

Zhang Chao was silent for a while. Xu Zhiyuan's question was quite profound, but he quickly came to his senses and said with a smile, "If you hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have thought about this, nor would I have felt any sense of unfreedom or fear.

But because you reminded me, I suddenly realized that this could indeed become a specific obstacle that troubles my life. You succeeded in making me anxious. "

There was some good-natured laughter at the scene.

Zhang Chao paused before continuing, "I would be troubled by this at times, but it has not risen to the level of 'fear'. Most of the time, so many book fans only make me feel excited."

Xu Zhiyuan was stunned: "Excited?" Zhang Chao nodded and explained: "Yes, excited. Man is a social animal. Engels once said, 'Man is the sum of all his social relations.' Book fans are one of the author's social relations.

Therefore, the more fans a book has, the closer the author is to society and the times, and the more he becomes a ‘person’.”

Xu Zhiyuan looked a little confused and asked, "But many good writers try to keep a certain distance from the times, and even choose to stay away from the crowd. For example, Salinger bought a large farm in the countryside of the United States and lived in seclusion there. He hardly left the farm until his death."

Zhang Chao said: "First, Salinger was a mental patient - or at least mentally unstable - who drank his own urine for no reason; second, after he retired, he never wrote any outstanding works.

Third, I think that "keeping a distance from the crowd" does not mean "keeping a distance from the times." The crowd is a very specific organization or non-organization composed of people. The times is an extremely macro and imaginary concept, which is the product of people forcibly slicing and defining history.

Whenever we try to describe the times, it is like cutting off a section of the river, taking samples of the water and putting them in the laboratory to observe the biological samples and test the chemical composition.

But can such a report really be called a "specimen" of that era? Time and life have flowed away like water. What you intercept is no longer the water of that time.

The reason why we are obsessed with slicing history is that we essentially hope to find a mirror that can reflect our current life from these slices - "all history is contemporary history."

After all, people are in the torrent of time, so how can they "keep a certain distance from the times"? This is an overly narcissistic and self-aggrandizing behavior.

In plain words, isn't it just 'I don't fit in'? "

Zhang Chao's incisive comments made Xu Zhiyuan very uncomfortable. Whether in every salon or in daily communication with friends, he tried to maintain an elitist standard in his expression.

Zhang Chao, however, repeatedly trampled on this standard. He clearly understood what he was saying, but he didn't care and summarized it in the most vulgar language.

But Zhang Chao was clearly not like this in previous interviews and articles! He was able to use very advanced, academic, and elite vocabulary, just like the other guests who came here to participate in the salon before.

Just when Xu Zhiyuan fell silent for the third time, Zhang Yueran spoke up. She asked Zhang Chao, "So you think there is no such thing as 'era'. Everything is in flux. When we are born, we flow along with the tide we are in."

Zhang Chaoxiao agreed: "Yes, 'the essence of the world is movement'. I am a materialist. I believe that matter determines consciousness, not the other way around."

Xu Zhiyuan finally found an opportunity to interrupt and said, "So you particularly like to use science and engineering as metaphors, such as DNA, projectors, river water, and laboratories."

Zhang Chao said: "I am a science enthusiast who is very bad at math, physics and chemistry."

Xu Zhiyuan said: "Is this the reason why you 'refuse to rebel'? Young writers like Yue Ran who are older than you and became famous earlier are basically famous for their 'rebellion'.

Although you have written articles before about why you "don't rebel", I am still very curious, how can you resist this impulse? You know, rebellion during adolescence is the instinct of almost all advanced animals. "

Zhang Chao smiled and asked back: "Am I really not rebellious?"

Xu Zhiyuan said: "Compared to Han Han and the others, at least you are not labeled as a 'rebel' in your public image."

Zhang Chao asked: "Are they really rebellious?"

Xu Zhiyuan said: "Everyone says so."

Zhang Chao then said: "Brother, you are also 'following the crowd'. This is not the attitude of 'keeping a distance from the times'."

Xu Zhiyuan smiled awkwardly, but still said: "If I can make you speak out the true answer in your heart, then I don't mind being vulgar this time."

Zhang Chao suddenly understood why Xu Zhiyuan's interview was so awkward, but the show was still able to run for several seasons, and why so many celebrities, including Woody Allen, accepted it.

Behind Xu Zhiyuan's seemingly sharp and offensive questions lies a clumsy but sincere heart.

He doesn't like the era he lives in, resists integration, and refuses to identify. But this resistance and rejection is more of a way of "hurting" himself. He can't understand the "mediocrities" in his own values, but he has a simple, non-discriminatory pity - even if the "mediocrities" don't need it.

In essence, he will not like or identify with any era or society in which he lives, or he will be angry in any era and society - this is an extremely classical characteristic of an intellectual.

……

Zhang Chao thought about it and answered casually: "Since they are 'rebellious', what did they 'betray'? Did they betray their families like Ba Jin and Cao Yu, or betray the court like Lu Xun?
Aren't fathers and sons very loving now? I don't think that taking advantage of the energy of adolescence to flutter a few times is "rebellion". I am not "rebellious", but I think this attitude is more like flirting, and has no enlightenment significance.

As for why I don't "rebel" - it's simple. The literary and art world has already prepared enough "enemies" for me, and I don't need to create them through my imagination.

My label is 'aggressive', which is worse and more advanced than 'rebellious'.

The audience burst into laughter. Apart from anything else, Zhang Chao's reputation for being "combative" has spread far and wide abroad. He has been engaged in rounds of high-intensity battles for more than three years, so there is no need for him to actively look for opponents.

Xu Zhiyuan said: "So in fact you are also 'rebelling', rebelling against the definitions, norms and constraints of this era - oh, you don't like this word, but I really haven't found a more appropriate word - on you.

You refuse to be what many people, even many in ‘power’, want you to be.”

Zhang Chao asked cautiously: "For example?"

Xu Zhiyuan hesitated for a moment and said, "For example, those critics, those doubters."

Zhang Chao secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he was his brother after all, so he was not prepared to end the conversation. So he thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that they don't actually have any 'power', but just have a 'desire for power'? So they hope to achieve their 'desire for power' by controlling me.

Many times, I didn’t ‘resist’ them, I just didn’t cooperate with them in their performances, and as a result, their pretense fell off by itself.”

Xu Zhiyuan said: "Because you see through it, you are never afraid of them being right, right?"

Zhang Chao said: "What's so scary? The 'power' they can actually manipulate is always much smaller than they imagine. But if you are afraid, their 'power' will be infinitely magnified according to your imagination."

Xu Zhiyuan said: "You seem to have revealed a great secret."

Zhang Chao said: "It's not a secret, but a rule."

Xu Zhiyuan said: "You are indeed very strong in your heart. But I have a question. You are the writer I have ever met, especially the young writer, who is the most deeply involved and the most determined in this era.

But are you really not afraid that in the end, you will be defined or even polluted by this vulgar era? Or do you think that you are powerful enough to define and change this era? "

This question was not sharp, and even grand enough to "flatter" Zhang Chao, but it also made the audience fall into a suffocating silence. They were eager to hear what the most outstanding and representative "literary youth" of this era would say.

Zhang Chao was silent for a long time before he said, "I have my own thoughts, but I am not sure whether they can be accurately received and understood after I express them."

Xu Zhiyuan quickly added: "If you feel hesitant, you don't have to answer."

Zhang Chao shook his head and said firmly: "Being misunderstood is the fate of those who express themselves. I will not escape..."

(There may be another update in the evening. I wish you all a happy new year! (ω`), and by the way, I ask for double the monthly tickets!)
(End of this chapter)