Chapter 275 my review

In September 1927, I started writing novels, and it has been five years now.In the past five years, apart from being ill (combined, this also took up two years), my mental time has been almost entirely devoted to the conception and writing of novels.The second half of 1928 was an exception.I was not sick at the time, but I didn’t write novels either; I wrote some academic (ashamed to say) small books, such as “A Study of Chinese Mythology” at that time; at that time, some friends advised me to concentrate on Don’t do those “miscellaneous works” when making novels. I am very grateful for their expectations of me, but I can’t strictly abide by the advice of my friends because of my nature. Later, I wrote some miscellaneous works on mythology. He even boldly discusses the changes in the origin and development of Western literature and so on.

Now let's calculate the general account of the past five years. Looking back, I can't help but "sweat profusely".Although my friends expect me to write novels, and I have written a million-word novel in the past five years, are these works really interesting? The only things I can be confident about are two points: first, I have never dared to "make it rough"; second, I have never created for the sake of creation—in other words, I have never dared to forget the social significance of literature.This has been my consistent attitude for five years.As for how deep my observations are, and whether my techniques are original, then I am not confident at all!Although I often encourage myself with "profound" and "original creation", I am doing and learning at the same time, but I know that the progress is not much, and I am still far away from the real profound and original creation!This is no longer the time to treat novels as entertainment.Therefore, a novelist must not only have extensive life experience, but also have a trained mind capable of analyzing complex social phenomena; especially in our changing society, people who have seriously studied social science often cannot It parses correctly.And what the society urgently requires of our writers is the correct and promising reflection of that social phenomenon!Whenever I think of these things, I am extremely excited, and I am extremely terrified; I am glad that I can be a literary pawn in this era, and I feel that I have no social science training to write novels, I am so brave big!

Yet I continued to write.Because I know that I am not old, my brain is not hardened, and I can still learn.Whenever I read my old works and see something wrong, on the one hand, I am ashamed, but at the same time, I develop courage, because I live today and know what was wrong yesterday, which is my self-criticism. The work has made progress; so I carefully chewed on my failed experience, and I was so angry that I started to make a new one.I am never satisfied with myself, I am always "pursuing".I am not exaggerating, but I also refuse to belittle myself!It is this kind of mood that makes me create tirelessly year after year.

Now I have finally written a million words, of which 700,000 words are novels. People have probably already seen what my creative talent really is; but for myself, I feel that my creative activities are just beginning.People ask me: Which ones are my favorite works?I can't answer.Although no matter whether it is long or short, I have never dared to be hasty from the conception to the completion of the article, but after looking at it later, none of them is my own.So I can't answer.But if all the works I have published are regarded as "milestones" of my hard work, then I have a few words to say.

My first work was a novel, and then I wrote "Shake" and "Pursuit", which were also novels.The fourth work is a short story. This is my attempt at a short story.At that time, I felt that all the themes I was familiar with were suitable for long novels, and there was no way to shorten them.Although I know that the method of short stories is different from that of long stories, short stories should be written in cross-section, so the same theme can be written as a long story or as a short story; complex subject matter.When I finished my first short story, I felt that it was more difficult than writing a novel. I can't write short stories!

Later I wrote four or five short stories.In terms of subject matter and technique, it belongs to the same category as that, which can be said to be a waste of pen and ink.After falling ill in the winter of 1929, he suffered from neurasthenia and often suffered from insomnia. He had written one-third of the novel but was unable to finish it. background, but I just wrote about the outbreak of the "May 30th" Movement and stopped because of illness) So I tried short stories again.This turned out to be the "Spinning Top".I don't know what other people's opinions are, but I feel that "Spinning Top" is a little different from the short stories I wrote before. At least, I got rid of the previous "unlikely to cut short" restraint.

But in terms of subject matter, this "Spinning Top" is still no different from other articles.At that time, I was far away from the fiercely struggling Chinese society, and I lived a life like a hermit.I have no new subjects.And the strangest thing is that I never thought of applying the "old themes" that I personally experienced.I am familiar with several major events that shook the whole world and China in the years before 1928, but these "historical events" have not yet been expressed vividly and powerfully in literature and art; Shaken, and the unfinished part, are only partially represented, and I should painstakingly deal with those subjects again.However, when I wrote "Spinning Top", I never planned it this way.It seems that because I am dissatisfied with those old works, I put aside those old themes.In addition, I have an unreasonable opinion: I think those "historical events" must be contained in a novel of more than 100,000 words in order to be able to express it vividly and thoroughly.But my spirit at that time did not allow me to write long novels.

The last reason is that I was not sure about the reassessment value of those "old themes" at that time.I feel that it may still be an "old tune" when I write it out, so I might as well not write it. But the will to change the subject matter and description method is very strong.At the same time, I went back to Shanghai, the metropolis of bloody struggle. This was the spring of 1930.And the disease came again.This time it was more severe neurasthenia and stomach problems.I can no longer write novels, so my daily lessons have changed to watching people frantically selling short positions on the stock exchange, watching people running around to buy stocks, thinking about setting up factories, watching people... However, I am so "busy with nothing to do", and occasionally In the early Qing Dynasty, there was no entertainment, (at this time, everyone was in the first dream, and of course I couldn't go to see them), so I started to write, two hundred words, three hundred words, at most five hundred words. "Leopard Head Lin Chong" and other three articles were written during that period of convalescence.This is the first time I have written "short".The previous short stories had at least 10,000 words.In terms of subject matter, I have changed, I am escaping from reality.Naturally, I have no shortage of new themes, but I never use the themes that I see at a glance "hotly". I have to read more, chew for a while, and wait until I digest them before I use them.This is my unbreakable obstinacy.I think my temper may not be considered bad!

My health did not improve until the spring of 1931.I started to write novels again, and it was another novel.I wrote "The Road" that year, and half of it.This year's New Year's Day, the illness came again, and after the war broke out in Shanghai, I went to the funeral by myself, and the long novel was abandoned. Occasionally, I would write some short stories when I had time, and these are the works of that time.The subject matter is another change, and it is the first time I describe life in a rural town.In terms of technology, there are also many changes; it is obvious when you take a look at the pair.I don't know what other people's opinions are, but in myself, I think that I have not been trapped by the form I originally cast in the past few years.In the "Preface" of my second collection of short stories "Sumang", I have this sentence: "The difficult problem for a writer who has published several works is how to keep himself from sticking to the established situation he has created. In the model." What about the writer next to it, I don't know; I have tasted it myself.

So when I look at it as a "milestone" in my short five-year literary career, I feel that "Spinning Top", ,, and other articles are quite familiar to me. "Knock on the Door" and other three essays can show my face to some extent, and I feel kind when I think about it.And I took these few articles as an anthology, in response to the request of the bookstore introduced by my friend. December 1932