Chapter 9 Chapter nine

I decided to structure this large-scale work in a realistic way.Of course, on the basis of the great practice of the previous masters and my own little experience, I will try my best to express it in a modern sense-realism still has broad prospects for innovation. I have realized that I must not be blind and self-willed for such a work that takes several years and may even exhaust my life's main energy.If it's a short piece, I might as well try to be trendy, fail and throw it in the wastebasket.And such a work that pledges youth and life cannot be invested with an "experimental" attitude. It must be carried out under conditions that I think are relatively reliable and can be grasped.To be honest, I dare not expect the success of this work, but I also "can't afford to fail".

This is another aspect of my basic psychological motivation for deciding to structure the work in a realistic way. At the same time, I realized that this stubborn and ignorant attitude can only be isolated in the current Chinese literary movement.But I'm fully prepared for it.Isolation sometimes does not make people weak, it can even make people spiritually stronger and more invigorated. Undoubtedly, this is another challenge, an individual challenge to a group.And this sense of challenge actually runs through my entire creative activities.This is true of the novella "A Thrilling Scene", and it is also true of "In Difficult Days".In particular, it is a challenge completely in a very sober state.

When I was in college, in addition to systematically reading famous Chinese and foreign masterpieces in various historical periods under the guidance of the history of European literature, Russian literature, and Chinese literature, I just went into the reading room and read almost all important works since the founding of New China. Literary magazines, read from the first issue to the final issue after the "Cultural Revolution".After reading these magazines, in fact, it is equivalent to reviewing the basic appearance, main achievements and representative works of Chinese literature after 1949.What strikes me most is that, with few exceptions, the people in these works are divided into good and bad.Comparing this impression cross-wise with the Chinese and foreign masterpieces I read at the same time, I feel very dissatisfied with the phenomenon of contemporary Chinese literature, and of course I am also dissatisfied with those children's graffiti-style works at that time. After the end of the "Gang of Four" era, although Chinese literature was freed from confinement, and many works bravely revealed social problems and aroused great repercussions among readers, there was still no fundamental review of this important issue.Therefore, I want to make a challenging attempt on the whole literary phenomenon, so I have the motivation to write this work.I want to provide a new image to the literary and critical circles, and to readers who are accustomed to looking at good people and bad people or happy reunion stories, a person who can't tell the difference between "good guys and bad guys" in a hurry.As for the extensive debate that the image of Gao Jialin caused later in the literary and social circles, I thought about it when I was writing—this is exactly what I want to achieve.

Since I have never been afraid to stand against the wind, then the isolation I will face or the challenges I will face should be regarded as normal, and there is no need to worry about gains and losses.It should be recognized that any independent creative work is a challenge, not only to the present but also to the ancients; then, in this heroic process, one should dare to establish a sense of "no role model"-this is the same as Self-importance has nothing to do with it.