Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 370 Conception of New Work

"Teachers, look, the sunset here is so beautiful." Zhang Chao stood on the overpass at the intersection of East Street in Fuhai City, pointing at the sunset in the sky, and said to Hua, Su Tong, Kong Qingdong, Cao Wenxuan and others.

The four of them looked at the sunset that had turned a rosy red, and then looked at the hustle and bustle of the city's main road below, wondering why Zhang Chao asked them to meet here.

Zhang Chao patted the steel handrail of the overpass, pointed at the buildings surrounding the octagonal overpass and said, "This is Dongbai Department Store, this is Dayang Department Store, and the one in the distance is "Three Lanes and Seven Alleys"...

This overpass is also the first pedestrian overpass in the province. It was built 20 years ago. At that time, it had another nickname, "Lover's Bridge", because couples liked to come here for dates.

So at night, there are couples on the bridge..."

Several people still didn't understand Zhang Chao's intention, but Kong Qingdong joked, "Could your parents have also dated on this bridge?"

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "They were married long ago, and I was born. In fact, although Changfu County is very close to the city now, it was actually very far when I was a child. It took most of the day to come here.

There is a section of the road where you need to drive the bus onto the ferry to cross the river... Now the road is wider and the bridge has been repaired, and it only takes more than half an hour to get there without traffic jams. Sometimes I feel dazed, the world of my childhood and the world of today are completely different. "

Zhang Chao’s words reminded everyone of the past.

Yu Hua said with emotion: "Now that you put it that way, it's true. There was a song in the TV series Journey to the West that goes 'Five hundred years of vicissitudes'. Actually, now let alone five hundred years, even fifty years has changed the old look completely.

Especially in the past ten years, every year when I go back to Haiyan, I feel that the place is a little different from when I was studying there. After a long time, I even feel a little confused about which part was built later and which part existed before..."

Su Tong took over the conversation and said: "In fact, let alone other places, even Yenching - when I went to Yenching to study in 1984, I felt that there were so many high-rise buildings there that they could not accommodate so many people. How could they be stuffed in?

Now you see, the CCTV Color TV Center and China World Trade Center, which used to be so high, are now just "little brothers".

Cao Wenxuan said: "You are all children from the county or city. When I was a child, I had never seen a house made of cement... The first time I went to Yanjing, I felt dizzy when I saw such a wide road.

You're right, it's changed a lot."

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Yes. I had never seen an elevator before I was 8 years old. The first time I saw an elevator was in the Dongbai Building in front of me. It was so impressive before. People who come to the city must visit Dongbai if they have time.

Even if you don't buy anything, you can just look at it with your eyes, and you can talk about it for days after you go back home. Toy cars and Transformers, which are rare among children in the county, are displayed in a whole row on the shelves of Dongbai.

The salesmen at that time were so impressive, standing behind the glass counter, holding their heads high, looking at people with their noses and eyes..."

This sentence made several teachers laugh.

The impatient Kong Qingdong asked, "What do you mean...?"

Zhang Chao turned around and said to the teachers, "Why does Dongbai look so old and outdated now? Not to mention compared with the big shopping malls in Yanjing, even compared with the "Ocean Department Store" next door, it looks old and decrepit.

Time is not getting faster, but our own pace is getting faster. Writers always have the urge to record the times, whether it is "Dream of Red Mansions", "Human Comedy", or "Ulysses"... Whether it is a grand social scroll or a subtle personal soul, they are actually doing this.

But I always feel that the current era is too fast, so fast that when Chinese writers want to capture a silhouette, it disappears in the gap before they finish writing the work, leaving only a little reflection or echo. "

Yu Hua, Su Tong and others were silent for a while after hearing this. Su Tong spoke first, "Wouldn't it be easier to see some eras more clearly if we put them aside and then write about them again?"

Yu Hua echoed: "Your 'absenceism' means that you should let the material settle for a period of time, create a psychological distance from yourself, and then create? Why do you suddenly want to depict the present?"

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "In fact, if we start accumulating from the past two years, any 'present' will almost quickly become outdated. We are in an era of acceleration that will last for at least twenty years.

Our lifestyle, entertainment, work, communication, consumption, etc. will continue to iterate at an incredible frequency. At this speed, no record or memory is reliable.

Although we are in the era, we are often thrown out by the huge centrifugal force of the era and soon become "outdated."

Several writers and scholars looked at each other, wondering why Zhang Chao had such a judgment of the times.

Although China's social development in recent years can be described as rapid, it is by no means as exaggerated as Zhang Chao said. Overall, there are still traces to follow.

Finally, Cao Wenxuan asked half-doubtfully: "Why do you think so?"

Zhang Chao thought, this is not a question of whether I feel it or not, but that I have experienced it myself.

But of course he couldn't say that, so he simply took out an iPhone from his pocket - this was a test phone sent to him by Li Wandong. Not long ago, the first generation of iPhone could be jailbroken using Cydia and could install third-party software.

Under Zhang Chao's advance deployment, the IT department of "Chaotide Culture" started developing "Chaotide Reading" early and has now entered the testing phase.

Yu Hua was more interested in new things and asked, "Isn't this a phone made by Apple?"

Zhang Chao said: "Yes, teachers, this mobile phone will be the epitome and symbol of the accelerated development of this era. It not only opens the era of personal smart terminals, but also allows the 'mobile Internet' to change everyone's life.

Everything we see before our eyes is being overturned starting from this small screen.”

Kong Qingdong took the iPhone from Zhang Chao, stared at it carefully, and handed it back to Zhang Chao: "I still don't quite believe that this little thing has such great power.

After all, it is just a mobile phone, but with a bigger screen. Taking pictures, listening to music, surfing the Internet, Nokia can do it now.

But since you have made this judgment, you must have your reasons. I think if one day in the future, the development of this society confirms your prediction today, then we might as well come here again and take a photo. "

Cao Wenxuan was very interested and asked, "So we should take a picture now?"

Kong Qingdong said, "Why not use this phone to take the photo? Since Zhang Chao said it symbolizes the beginning of some era."

Yu Hua and Su Tong said hello, and Zhang Chao certainly would not spoil the fun - although he knew that in a few years, this overpass that carried the memories of countless people would be demolished - he unlocked his cell phones, and the five of them stood together and asked a passing lady to take a group photo of them.

Looking at the photos displayed on the 3.5-inch screen, Yu Hua said, "This thing is really good for viewing photos! And judging by the size, isn't it also convenient for reading?"

Zhang Chao showed a sly smile and demonstrated the beta version of the "Tide Reading" APP installed on his phone. The convenient touch operation immediately attracted the attention of several people. After taking turns to play with it for a few times, Yu Hua said: "I don't know whether this Apple phone can change the times, but your APP may change people's reading habits..."

Zhang Chao said, "I'll ask the IT department to send one to each of you later. It's just right for me to test the stability and functions. It would be great if you could give me some suggestions."

Kong Qingdong suddenly realized, "So you are waiting for us here?"

Seeing that the setting sun had already fallen behind the building, with only a little bit of sunset glow leaving a bit of tenderness for the people leaving get off work, Zhang Chao suggested, "It's time for dinner, let's eat first!"

In 2007, when we had a dinner party in Fuhai, if it was not a business banquet or we specifically wanted a high-end restaurant, we would naturally go to "Qiaoting Live Fish Town".

There was one at Dongjiekou, so Zhang Chao went there directly. Among the four teachers, three were from the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, and the only northerner, Kong Qingdong, was also from Harbin and grew up eating Morley's stewed fish, so it was just what they liked.

The main dishes here are boiled fish, pickled fish, spicy fish and Sichuan and Hunan specialties. The tastes of the people in Fuhai who cannot tolerate spicy food are also taken into consideration, so the main flavor is spicy and numbing, with spiciness as a supplement. Even people with light tastes can barely accept it.

But the most distinctive feature is undoubtedly the "Crispy Meat Wan" from Zhongshan, Guangdong. The meat is not as tender as ordinary grass carp, but rather chewy and firm. In 2007, it was considered a very fresh ingredient and several people were very satisfied with it.

After eating most of the fish, Yu Hua asked with a smile: "Have you started writing a new work?"

The other three put down their chopsticks and looked at Zhang Chao at the same time.

Zhang Chao was also stunned, then smiled and replied: "I can't hide anything from Teacher Yu. I do have some ideas, but I haven't started writing yet. I only have some rough scenes."

Yu Hua said to the others, "I told him that he wouldn't tell us so many sad and melancholy sentiments about the times for no reason."

Su Tong asked curiously, "What are you going to write about this time? Do you want to write about the changes of the times?"

Zhang Chao nodded first, then shook his head and said, "Yes and no."

"Oh? Tell me about it." Cao Wenxuan's interest also piqued. He was a writer of children's literature, and he was not particularly interested in works that were too contemporary - but if the author was Zhang Chao, it would be a different story.

Kong Qingdong, as a serious scholar of modern and contemporary literature, also urged: "Tell me something quickly. I just cured my gluttony, and now you've aroused the bookworm." Bookworms are insects that eat books, and bookworms often compare themselves to them.

Zhang Chao said: "Generally, works that depict the changes of the times are looking back after the passage of time. What I want to do is to stand on the fulcrum of today and outline the future."

Yu Hua asked uncertainly, "Science... science fiction? Like the "Homeland" you are going to publish?" Although "Homeland" will not be officially released in China for about a week, Yu Hua has already got a sample book from Zhang Chao and can have a sneak peek.

Su Tong said dissatisfiedly: "You don't even let me read the good books."

Yu Hua said proudly: "I wrote the preface after all. It has to be kept secret! If you want to read it, go to my house. I won't lend it to you!"

At this time, Cao Wenxuan said, "Don't interrupt me, just listen to Zhang Chao."

Zhang Chao continued: "It is not a science fiction novel, but it is based on the development trend that has already appeared, and writes about various different characters and the various choices they make when standing on the threshold of the times.

When they look back, they see their lives as a foregone conclusion; when they look forward, they see an uncertain future. Dawn seems to be just around the corner; it always seems to be around the corner. The dream formed by the interweaving of their destinies may be people’s daily lives in the next few years, or even a dozen years.

Zhang Chao's words silenced the other people at the table.

Whether it is Yu Hua, Su Tong, Cao Wenxuan, or Kong Qingdong, they are all knowledgeable in literature, but it is still difficult to imagine what such a novel would look like.

Generally speaking, novels that describe the "future" belong to the "science fiction" genre. The biggest feature of these novels is that they want to completely change the social form - whether it is a high-tech cyberpunk future or a doomsday future after a zombie outbreak or a nuclear war, they are all subversions of the existing world order.

Only on this almost completely fictional basis will the author's conception of the social form not be constrained by existing experience. Even if logical loopholes appear, they can be justified by settings and imagination.

Just like the "Dark Forest Theory" proposed by Liu Cixin in "The Three-Body Problem", and the social changes that the earthlings experienced before the arrival of the Trisolarans he imagined, in fact, cannot withstand rigorous sociological examination, but they can be assumed to be valid in the context of "science fiction".

But what Zhang Chao wanted to write was completely different.

The future he wants to "predict" will happen in just a few years or a dozen years, so it will be constrained by the powerful logic of real life, making the author's space for "exercising imagination" extremely narrow, which is even more difficult than dancing in shackles.

Because almost all readers will experience what is written in the book in the near future. If Zhang Chao’s “imagination” is proven to be absurd, wouldn’t that be a joke?
Yu Hua frowned and said, "It's a good thing to challenge yourself...but won't it be too difficult?"

Zhang Chao said: "It is because it is difficult that it is worth the challenge. If I were to write about the 'past', I don't think I could compete with you teachers. So I have to find another way."

Kong Qingdong suddenly tapped the table and praised, "I agree. How can you write without ambition? Our contemporary literature lacks groundbreaking literary creations and always repeats the routines that foreign masters have already explored.

If Zhang Chao succeeds in writing it, it will likely become the first novel paradigm that contemporary Chinese literature contributes to world literature.”

Cao Wenxuan said worriedly: "It's easy for you to say that, but if..."

Kong Qingdong said: "If you don't try, you will never fail - but you will never succeed either. It doesn't hurt to give it a try. Zhang Chao is only 23 years old, and he still has a long life ahead of him..."

After hearing this, the other teachers also felt relieved.

Yes, Zhang Chao is only 23 years old. Even if this work is not so successful, it may be just a small wave in his creative career which is destined to be very long. Why should he be timid?

Zhang Chao also grinned and said, "Thank you all teachers for your concern and encouragement. As you can see, this novel is really difficult to write. Maybe for a long time in the future, I will have to devote most of my energy to it.

Therefore, I am not qualified to be a distinguished professor or a writer-in-residence. Sorry! "

The four teachers looked at each other, and finally Yu Hua let out a long sigh: "This reason is too sufficient. Everyone, this trip is in vain!"

Su Tong said, "How can it be a wasted trip? After listening to such a wonderful novel idea, the ticket price is already worth it!"

When several people heard this, they all laughed.

(End of this chapter)