I’ve read many writers’ creative writing, but I’ve read a lot in earlier years, but I’ve read less in recent years. What impressed me most in reading creative writing was the American writer Carver’s novel, which has attracted more and more attention in China in recent years. Some people don’t think it’s important, and others don’t. Anyway, although he’s dead, people are still talking about him. Although he has nothing left, we can still say that this is his family success.
Carver’s creative topic is called creative talk. When I was teaching in colleges and universities, I used to read it to the students in class. It came from a lecture given by Carver when he was writing a class. It was very short, about 3,000 words, and it was very simple and touching. Carver’s novel style was consistent. I recommended it to many friends and asked their opinions seriously. No matter how we evaluate Carver’s novel, I don’t think there is anything wrong with reading that short article. Do we know that an honest man and a loving scholar should always be like him? Second, because I read Carver’s article, I feel that many people are showing off when they are writing creative talks. They are either raising themselves emotionally or belittling themselves emotionally. Of course, belittling is to make others feel that it is a curve elevation. When can we throw away the mask completely? We can throw away both the mask of monarch and the mask of self-protection. That is to say, it is not a minor problem that cannot be removed.
I have seen a picture of Carver, who is clumsy as a rough worker. I can very well imagine sawdust accumulating in his forehead wrinkles. When the children are playing in the pile of wood powder, he stops his work and watches quietly. I have also seen Carver write an impression of Carver. I smiled when I read that impression. I believe that he is the kind of person who is kind everywhere. He is a teacher who welcomes students. He is usually very serious and teaches meticulously. His practice may not be worth popularizing. I don’t know if his students have felt the hardships of life before, but there is no doubt that he respects each of them. No matter how superficial his career is, he can’t stand others laughing in class. I have been a teacher for many years. I know that people like Carver are rare in China, and many teachers in China universities always admit that they hold the truth in their hands even if they are jokes in the eyes of others.
It’s the same impression. It records two details that I can’t forget. One is that Carver spent a long time staring at the roses in the flower bed on the balcony the night before he died. I think he may not be able to see the rose branches and leaves clearly through the night fog, but that kind of staring attitude, that kind of person who has fully experienced all kinds of difficulties, and his last glimpse of life is really amazing. The second detail is that Carver described champagne in his last novel. Carver’s spiritual mentor was Chekhov. Chekhov wanted to drink champagne before he died. When Penang was brought over, the champagne bottle stopper suddenly popped up, so a ward was filled with champagne fragrance. Carver knew that he would die soon. He wrote such a detail in his novel to show his spiritual mentor’s secret gratitude and quietly spit out the last fragrance like a rose.
Carver’s novels are usually short. You can’t see religion and politics in his novels. You can’t see Updike’s colorful genre paintings. Compared with Updike, Updike is spreading and spreading a vast expanse of wild feelings, while Carver is narrowing others’ minds. Hai Wei thinks of writing a small town freak Anderson and Joyce when writing a Dublin man. However, his narrative is not so big, but he is limited to expressing the hardships of people’s lives. Although his narrative tone is usually indifferent, he is very impressed. His hero’s deep sympathy and deep love can still reach his heart. Joyce is different from other characters, who are not mentally intoxicated. He says that his characters are numb, not that they appreciate the nuanced pain in the simplest life. The title of bellow’s novel shows that more people die of heartbreak. Carver certainly saves them as he saves himself.
Carver’s narrative art has reached a high level. He emphasizes some basic elements and carefully arranges the plot of his novel. We say that his novel has no plot, which seems to make sense. After years of hard training, his novel has found a novel zone in the dark and faint light. In the simplest life scene display, it is a shadowy effect. At the same time, in that reflection, we may hear deep suspicion.
I admire the man who wrote it. I can’t remember his name for a moment. He said something about Carver’s novels. Carver’s simplicity actually means it’s not simple. Yeah, he wrote those heartbreaking scenes. What did the blind man who tried to describe the church spire in front of the video screen stammer to us?
I know that many friends already think that Carver is not so enjoyable. There are obviously many differences in the concrete world of Carver’s life. We may have experienced more contradictions and difficulties in examining the human structure of history, which is beyond Carver’s imagination. It is more complicated and fuller. The novel is possible for us to pick it up and put it down. Should Carver take this responsibility? I mean, how high should Carver take it? It is also an ambition to write. He probably rarely considers his position in literature and history. He is a loyal man who wrote in his early years and then became famous. Then he died in the courtyard.
Funnily enough, I haven’t read the Buddha card for many years. One reason is that Carver’s novel couldn’t come back after I borrowed it. I think I didn’t write this short article to say anything. I wanted to wake myself up and remember those words that should be remembered. That bottle of champagne made Carver stare at the rose.
The second dialogue between critic Liang Hong
Liang Hong’s dialogue on the naming of daily life poems
Virtual Doubt Context Novel Changed to Liang Hong Dialogue II
Encyclopedia Novel Narrative Liang Hong Dialogue III
The difficulty of writing Liang Hong dialogue 4 in the 1990 s
Daily life poem named Liang Hong 1 dialogue 1
Discovery of daily life poems
Liang Hong, as early as 1998, you once said that in a sense, modern novel is a miraculous discovery of daily life. In those most ordinary and ordinary daily lives, the novel found its narrative before talking about it. This new narrative is not a theme change, but a profound beauty change. When the legitimacy of ideological morality is questioned, it once arranged our life order and gave everything a value orientation, giving everything a terrible face. Everything no longer has a single truth and becomes a model. Ambiguity explains that novelists have lost the foundation of constructing the world’s trust, and daily life has been given profound philosophical or poetic significance. Does this mean that daily life rather than value life is more representative of contemporary experience and more authentic?
Li er should say that in the fifties and sixties, Zhao Shu and Zhou Libo’s novels also narrated daily life, and it was also very wonderful. But that kind of daily life was attached to the big ideological plane. Now look at them again. You have to remove those ideological things. Although we deny that in the final analysis, it is a combination of ideas and facts, but that idea was not born by individuals, but was forcibly added to it. Even if it was true, it was false in writing meaning. Most of them did not write it for a long time after the Cultural Revolution. Daily life is more intense than scar prose, which has a strong anti-emotion, and regards the future as the anti-Cultural Revolution novel. The image is negative. Now I will write them down. The daily life of the novel is actually attached to the ass of a main ideology. The real contribution to the novel art in the new era is the pioneer of root-seeking prose, but whether it is root-seeking or pioneer, they actually don’t write daily life. They write mostly historical stories or imaginary life, although they are dated. Can you wonder why China’s novels have nothing to do with the daily life of China people for such a long time, but it is a fact, whether people admit that a basic fact is true or not, writing daily life should be from "late generation", of course, one of the new realism is Liu Zhenyun’s novels, and he also writes daily life. After he portrays the character named Kobayashi, he will continue to be remembered, but these novels have not caused any response for a long time, because many of them are more trivial than people have never seen before.What does the medicine say?
Liang Hong’s pre-generation theory of late generation is a pioneer, or an earlier search for roots, or an earlier Zhou Libo’s prose of the times. Even writing daily life did not give it independence. There is still greater symbolic order or national image or eternal human nature behind it. Now the life experience in your generation has been dragged from symbolic order, including moral order and national fables, and it is of course of certain significance to put it in the sun. It is also commented that the late generation is late for contemporary life. I think this word means that what part of life is missed here, and this missing thing has led them to look at the world differently.
Li er: Oh, no, I haven’t heard of this statement. It seems to me that it is said that contemporary essays are late for contemporary life, so it may have to be put another way. In fact, it can’t be said that contemporary essays are late because they were written at a later time, which critics will say.
Liang Hong said that avant-garde literary form and thinking focus on escaping from history. If rebellion is not divorced from the category of sexual criticism of historicism, then the post-modern narrative of the late generation is negative. The starting point of criticism is to deny the lofty thoughts of historical people, and so on. Nominalists simply declare that people are fictional and turn to the reality of analyzing or disintegrating the real narrative to make it show its former meaning, that is, it is difficult to give it a shape. How do you structure it? Its significance lies in.
Li er, you have learned a lot of concepts, and every concept needs a lot to say. I can say something about my feelings. I don’t think that writing about daily life is a denial of history, a denial of people’s lofty ideals and other representative values. It is very likely that a real family writes about daily life on the basis that he believes that daily life belongs more to personal life and can reflect personal values. His daily life subjectivism, politics and non-personal sex life constitute some kind of confrontation with daily life. Of course, you say that life is objective, but life is objective. To make matters worse, if you can’t recognize the purpose, it will be worse than the purpose, and the value will be lower. Of course, it takes a lot of space to clarify these problems. I tend to think that the new generation of economists put a lot of energy into their daily life because they believe that daily life is meaningful, that is to say, it actually implies respect and affirmation for personal life.
Liang Hong, my understanding is a little different from yours. I think people have discovered daily life, not its physical meaning, but its poetic status. When life is dragged from the symbolic moral order and exposed to the sun, what is it again? It is not a mess of meaning, which is boring and confusing. In other words, it is broken, inhuman and unprovable. This generation of economists have discovered this unnamed state of daily life, which is not full of meaning but amazing. Amazing virtual decadence is different from thinking in a chicken feather that the value is lost and then virtual decadence, but enjoying it. It is the preparation process before the old lady’s luck in Zhu Wen’s novel pounds and ounces of meat, but it is also in this sense that the righteous man is accidentally discovered in the situation. In other words, people can find out that people are in the state from daily life, or it may be that the state is virtual and absurd. It is a beautiful discovery, not a qualitative discovery.
Li er, I can understand all this, but I still can’t agree with you that daily life is meaningless, right and wrong, and very inhuman. So when it lasts for decades or more, the symbolic moral order is complete, legal and human. Obviously, this is not the case. Even Xiao Lin, a chicken feather in the same place, lives a meaningful life. You can’t say that his life is meaningless. Further, even if daily life is meaningless, it is meaningful for this kind of life. But I agree with you that people can really write in this way when they are in the state.
I might as well give you an example. Compared with Pasternak doctor zhivago, the daily life in zhivago has also been given a high status and value. The daily life in corresponds to a revolutionary flood and utopia. I think it’s cruel killing and class struggle. They are probably the symbolic moral order. Of course, it’s an extreme expression. But if you look at a China novel in doctor zhivago at the same time, you will find that our family hardly writes about the daily life of a character, but that character must be negative, not a bully, a landlord or a small knowledge. It’s either Zhou Pipi or Yu Yongze.
I already feel that writing about daily life is actually trying to win by taking risks. Of course, whether you can win or not is another matter. Why do you say this? You want to make the characters move, and you want to be able to write about his pursuit of a certain value and meaning in daily life. Then you are actually challenging the limits of Chinese writing. For writing, you want to write well, write truly and reliably, and write with a little penetration. You must have a broad vision, carefully analyze all kinds of materials, and you must make arduous mental efforts in constantly moving around all kinds of materials.
Liang Hong, okay, let’s think for a while. I think of Camus’s saying that when all kinds of backgrounds collapse and boredom arise, people will be awakened. Perhaps it is trivial and empty. It is a kind of discovery of daily existence behind the factual state, but it is another matter to judge the body of daily life. This is also a kind of naming.
Li er’s naming is actually a penetrating ability. When you try to name your life, this kind of writing will become extremely difficult, because when we go to daily life, it also has a basic meaning, that is, we are living a life, which is a present continuous life. It is really difficult for you to describe this life with penetrating power.
Liang Hong, this is on the one hand, and it is also a challenge. It challenges a set of values. Although we will object to many things in daily life, we still unconsciously accept the big value body. When you tell it in another way, people will be able to object or say that it will be difficult to accept it, but this is precisely the meaning of daily life poetry.
Li er, I don’t know how you felt when you first read my class.
Liang Hong, you asked me again. When I read this, it was first of all a shock, especially an afternoon poem. Of course, it may also be because my personal experience is very close to this one. This shock comes from a kind of abyss in which we have seen the abyss of life. I remember that you woke up and I watched Zhu Wen’s novel of pounds of ounces of meat in slow motion and wrote a series of trivial things. When the husband was very careful and did not write it with value and emotion, the old lady’s luck was weighed, while the middle-aged man’s eyes had to weigh it. Slow down, we think it’s ridiculous now, but when you are reading, with the slow motion at home, you feel that life is such a way that people can’t stand empty chats. You really want to punch the invisible boring, but you are just punching the cotton ball. This is the theme of life. This is another form of feeling that the story is not important, or that it subverts our unified understanding of the story, and then you can tell the story outline to the novel framework. I went to buy meat and came back to fry the meat after some entanglement. The outline can’t reveal even a little meaning of the novel. The story is an entity, but the meaning is generated by the action of the plot characters and the narrative body. It is almost impossible to tell the life in the afternoon poem. The meaning is presented in a very complicated way. It is a completely different experience for you to read classical novels.
Li er, I can tell you that I felt more excited when I first wrote these things than when I just finished writing the mute sound. After writing, I will be suspicious because you are more than attached. I don’t know if you can support what you want to express after a while, but I will find you very kind. It means that when you read others, you will feel dissatisfied and dissatisfied with it. I can imagine how another family will feel when reading me. I might as well tell you an interesting story afterwards. When I think about it, it also means that I was invited to give a lecture at a time. A student told me that he was going to write a novel. He told me that he was going to write a story about the recovery of an enamel cup. After listening to it, I felt too simple. At this time, a critic next to me said, isn’t this the same as you? If I write again, it will be another Li Er. Once I know, I am meaningless in the eyes of others.
This student is actually very dissatisfied with me. Of course, he doesn’t want to be the second Li Er’s critic friend. His words also made him very unhappy. Many years later, this student didn’t get married, but became a famous critic. I won’t mention his name here. He has forgotten what happened. He told me that he was very fond of my novels. When I woke up, he didn’t think about it and said that he didn’t know what happened. I thought that he didn’t write the story in the enamel cup because he doubted the meaning of his story.
Another thing is that my tutor died and published the funeral. At that time, a critic who I believed very much said very sincerely that you should stop writing novels after reading the tutor’s death. You have no talent. I read a kind of lethargy from you because you are a friend. He said it sincerely. He also asked me if I didn’t work hard. The implication was that you were not suitable for eating this bowl of rice. Can you imagine that I was in the mood at that time? This matter was still the same one day after about ten years. He told me that your novel was very important but was generally ignored, but you believe that people would talk about it often in the future. He said that he recently read a batch of novels and found two novels very interesting. One was that your tutor died, and the other was Bi Feiyu’s narrative. He said that many muscles in your novels need to be chewed slowly, and Bi Feiyu’s novels are full of meat. He said that he was sincere and absolutely his real thoughts. Then I was deeply impressed, and then I repeated his words ten years ago. Now it’s my turn to be surprised. He said that it is impossible. Your memory is wrong. I can never say this.
I mean, at different times, people can’t believe how different it is when they read a film and judge it. I don’t think similar things will happen when I am alone. Today, our feelings about a film will change greatly. Of course, since it is a change, it is very likely that such a thing will happen. That is to say, critics think it is great. After a short period of time, people will feel that, in the final analysis, no matter whether it is a home or a critic, he actually doesn’t believe in himself and doubts whether he admits it or not.
Liang Hong, this is an area that no one else has touched. At that time, people were still very strange to such a writing, and you were suspicious.
Li Er, you can imagine that I am at least a bit of a person who is preparing for the field of literature and history. If I doubt myself, other people may be even more skeptical. Because I am a friend, I can write a novel about Gefei. The Mona Lisa smiles and the protagonist is Hu Heqing, or what will happen if he assumes that Hu Heqing lives in such an era. After writing it, Gefei, a true writer, is not sure that his novel is boring and won’t be published for a long time. Of course, another situation is that he doesn’t consider so much about it.
Value supports the spirit of doubt.
Liang Hong, you just realized that I think it is very worth thinking about. You will feel very trivial and tired when you see others writing this kind of novels. What’s going on? This kind of triviality can be said to be the quality state of daily life. After reading a list of dumb, talkative and dumb pounds and ounces of meat, you may also feel very impatient. What is it because you are impatient with life or because your family style is too similar? Or does it mean that it is really very difficult to read such novels? In other words, people know that this kind of trivial narrative is very meaningful, but they still control their impatience.
Li er, I don’t know why I should actively understand this impatient state by joking. I can say that the purpose of the novel has been achieved. By reading these, people know that they can’t live like this and should change their way of life, but it doesn’t rule out that this is indeed because the family writing is similar in some ways.
Liang Hong’s similar connection is almost a metaphor. Life is repetition. When you choose daily life to narrate your novel, then the trivial repetition of this life determines the trivial repetition of your novel. Although this trivial repetition is already a poetic style, it is still trivial repetition.
Li Er, no matter whether I can do it or not, I’m willing to wake myself up. I want to keep my daily life at a distance from my personal experience and from my home. I should feel sharp at home and not be too addicted. If I am addicted, I will see the bottom of the well. As the old saying goes in China’s classical literary theory, I want to be both inside and outside, otherwise you will be overwhelmed by daily life.
Liang Hong, many of your contemporaries wrote about daily life, and Zhu Wenlu sheep stopped writing later. I wonder if this is what you said.
Li Er’s family wrote that he suddenly stopped writing, because it must be very complicated. I can’t guess at random that the peers didn’t have enough respect. However, I know that Zhu Wen went to make movies later than seafood or continued his novel style. Later, Zhu Wen’s novelists were also many, including some men and women who became famous later. One of my editors was still quite clear about this and listened to them.
Liang Hong, but later some scholars turned to more erotic narration. I still want to ask first what this sudden stop of writing is. Does it mean that it is actually difficult for such a group of styles to write such a daily life poem? I think this is not an accident, as if it contains some inevitable phenomenon.
Li Er’s right. Later, some writers paid more attention to the expression of desire, because it was more complicated than the phenomenon of promiscuity. This will become a desire, and this kind of writing will be encouraged by businessmen than the intervention of commercial machines. But I don’t think that kind of daily life writing has been difficult to continue. On the contrary, I think it is almost written. I mean, of course, the real writers are aware of the importance of daily life. They have merged daily life poems to a great extent. Now, if you just look at the magazine, you may get a similar impression.
One of Liang Hong’s problems is that some writers who paid more attention to lust stopped writing later. Were they drowned by daily life, so they stopped writing, but you are firm? Can you say that this new beauty actually brings a kind of history? It is very difficult to transform this history into authenticity.