Chapter 49 Section 3 Longing for a Beautiful Ideal: "Oh, Xiangxue"

Different from the simple and traditional narrative style of Zhang Xianliang's "The Story of Old Man Xing and the Dog", Tie Ning's "Oh, Xiangxue"6 is a short story with strong lyrical meaning, and the exclamatory tone of the title of the work also hints and reveals at this point. "Oh, Xiangxue" is Tie Ning's famous work. Like most young writers, Tie Ning also poured a lot of lyrical elements into this work. The writer's unique female delicacy and sensitivity also highlight the lyrical style of the work ; But more importantly, the influence of the trend of the times, the individual liberation and sentimentalism that emerged in the late 1970s gave rise to a lyrical tendency in the novels of this period.That is to say, this lyrical tendency is the induction of humanitarian literary thoughts in a short story, and it is also the formalized expression of the spirit of the times that "Oh, Xiangxue" keenly senses.

The novel takes Taierzhuang, a remote mountain village in the north, as the narrative and lyrical background. Through the vivid description of the psychological activities of a group of rural girls such as Xiangxue, it describes the turmoil brought by the train that only stops for one minute every day to the life of the always peaceful mountain village. And thus expressed beautiful and rich emotions.The plot of the novel is very simple, but relatively more scene descriptions and psychological descriptions give the work a strong lyrical color.The closed Taiergou lost the tranquility of the past because of the passing of the train, and it also disturbed the hearts of the girls. On the one hand, it was because of the natural curiosity of the girls, and on the other hand, it was because of the closed cottage’s love for the world outside the mountain and the civilized society. The feeling of yearning makes them dress up in a very grand way every time, like a festival, to welcome the arrival of the train that stops for only one minute.They are full of curiosity about things outside the mountain: a hairpin, a watch, a schoolbag made of artificial leather, a plastic foam pencil case with magnets...all of which will bring them hot topics and wonderful reveries; In the eyes, the girl's personal dreams for the future life are also integrated.Tie Ning once said that the purest and most beautiful emotion in the world is the dream of a girl.Although it is childish, ethereal, and even ridiculous, although it may be the weakest part of human nature, it is also the most precious emotion. As an object of beauty, it can wash away the utilitarian, selfish, and ugly parts of human nature , at least as a contrast and comparison of these things.In the novel, Xiangxue's eyes that are as clean as crystal, her face as clean as if she was born a minute ago, the innocent laughter of the girls floating in the valley, and the girl Fengjiao's "Beijing dialect" to the flight attendants Selfless and innocent emotions are the unique beautiful scenery of the girl's world.The novel focuses on a small adventure of the young girl Xiangxue: she stepped into the train resolutely during the one-minute gap between stops, and exchanged the forty eggs she had accumulated for a long-awaited bubble with a magnet. Plastic pencil case.For this reason, she was willing to be blamed by her parents, and walked thirty miles of mountain roads alone in the dark, which required a lot of courage for a timid mountain village girl who didn't talk much.The author also deliberately explained the psychological motivation of Xiangxue's actions, that is, the longing for civilization outside the mountains, the urgency to change the closed and backward mountain villages and get rid of poverty, and the self-love and self-esteem of the girls in the mountains.

The author chooses a narrative perspective similar to omniscience and omnipotence, and establishes the narrator as a city person, but with a sensitive heart and a generous mind, and casts a deep love for the closed small mountain village and the group of ordinary mountain girls. Take a glimpse of sympathy and love, and discover the waves of the trend of the times in the seemingly immature and ridiculous psychological rhythm.Reflected in the narrative structure of the novel, the author does not arrange the narrative with plot clues, but combines some plot fragments according to the internal logic of emotional expression.She tried her best to explore in "one minute", and described Xiangxue's innocence, eager yearning and pursuit of a new life in detail; carefully selected, arranged and narrated some events that happened in one minute every day in a specific way. , and finally ends with Xiangxue's "adventure" in exchange for a pencil case, especially the scene of Xiangxue's return at night, which makes the expression of emotion reach a climax, just like a beautiful and moving serenade.

The emotional tone of the novel is fresh, graceful, graceful, and pure, but it does not mean that it is thin and shallow. On the contrary, it places the author's severe thinking on the reality of the times: the simple, indifferent beauty is really charming, and it makes people feel the same. People can't help admiring and admiring it, but it is precisely related to poverty and occlusion. How long can this simple and charming beauty be preserved in the whistling sound of the train of the times?What kind of changes will Xiangxue and her partners, together with the entire Taiergou, experience on the way to the new era? The 1980s was an era full of mysteries and superstitions about "modernization", a new dualistic thinking mode - modernization must represent progress, civilization and beauty; otherwise, it is backwardness, feudalism and barbarism - but keen The writer Tie Ning made beautiful praises from modernization (the symbol of the train) to the simple and simple folk society of the past. This kind of profound implication will transcend time and space and produce eternal charm.