Chapter 64 fourth quarter

Many people in later generations commented that Zhang Ailing did not have a good work to come out after leaving the mainland. It was because she had never read and was unwilling to face up to the scars, and denied history by denying the literary value of these two works. Mainly wrote about the rural areas after the "land reform", under the constant pressure of "before donating" and "paying public grain". " to "grain grabbing", and finally clashed with the militia, resulting in a tragic fight; from "land reform", "three antis", all the way to "resist US aggression and aid Korea", showing the intertwined fate of different people from different classes.

Compared with the two books, I like it better, because the pursuit of plainness has reached the point of overkill, and it is more like a writing outline. Written first, the first attempt is often the most attentive, a mixture of old and new, closer to "Zhang Ailing's style", and it has been revised and tempered many times, making it seem more intimate and interesting to read. Zhang Ailing once wrote a "Self-Preface", which can also be regarded as a preface: "I sometimes tell people the outline of a story, and they don't see the benefit. I always add defensively: 'This is true.' As if to make it ten times its value at once. In fact, the truth of a story Of course it has nothing to do with whether it is good or bad. But I do love reality to the point of superstition. I believe that anyone's real experience is always meaningful, and always fresh, and never becomes a cliché.

What is written is real people and facts, but the novel is not reportage after all. In addition to hiding the real names of people and some place names, I also need to superimpose many small stories together, and then cut and organize them.The picture is quite broad, but it can't show the whole picture of the mainland today. For example, the "five evils" affect the general public more deeply than the "three evils", so they are not touched at all.Of course, it is also limited by the vision of the protagonist in this book.At the same time, my purpose is not to cover everything, but to replicate the atmosphere of the time as much as possible.There is no general report here.I only hope that when readers read this book, they can smell a little bit of real life. "

Just as Eileen Chang said, "A novel is not reportage after all", there must be choices and tailoring of the subject matter and reasonable fiction. It is "overprinting many small stories together, and then cutting and organizing them." For example, there is a paragraph: "But he couldn't help but feel sad when he thought about being with his sister when he was a child. They were always poor. He remembered lying in bed in the morning and hearing his mother scooping rice out of the rice jar, and the spoon scraped the bottom of the jar, making small noises. There is a small piercing sound, you can know that the rice is almost finished, and when you hear that sound, you feel a bone-piercing bitterness.

One day he knew that there was nothing to eat at home, and when it was almost time for lunch, he held his sister's hand and said, 'Come out and play, Miss Jinhua! 'Jinhua is younger than him, so she doesn't know the time when she plays.They played for a long time in the field.Then suddenly he heard his mother calling out, 'Golden roots!golden flower!Don't come back for dinner! ' He was very surprised.When they got home, it turned out that she had boiled some of the beans she had saved for seeds.Beans are very tasty.His mother sat nearby smiling, watching them eat.

Now that he has grown up and has a field of his own, it seems that he is still suffering in silence as before, and there is nothing he can do.The younger sister begged him with tears in her eyes, but he had to let her go back empty-handed. " ——This story of cooking bean seeds is completely Hu Lancheng's childhood past, and the same plot can be found here. Later critics used this as a basis to say that Eileen Chang was based on hearsay, covering the whole story with partial coverage, placing the pre-liberation story in the post-liberation period, and slandering socialism—I don’t know who is “covering the whole story with partial coverage”!

But from this description, we can already see that Eileen Chang is trying to break through herself, changing the previous rhetoric, and pursuing a "plain and close to nature" style.Since this is my first attempt and I am writing in English, I have no idea what to do, and I am afraid that it will not suit the taste of the readers.After the first draft was completed, it was first shown to Song Qi and his wife for their comments, and then the draft was sent to the American agent. Song Qi once described in "Whispers of Eileen Chang": "During the process of sending it to the American agent and accepting it for the publisher, there was an anxious waiting period. The situation was like a woman entering the delivery room with dystocia, and the relatives and friends outside were anxious and helpless. We Nobody dared to talk about it, as if talking about it publicly would ruin their chances of success."

Soon the agent replied that it was too short, and that no one would publish such a short novel.So Zhang Ailing added the first and second chapters, describing the marriage of Jinhuamei, and then Yuexiang's return to her hometown. She also added Comrade Wang's past history and a chapter about killing pigs. Because the publication of the English version was not smooth, Eileen Chang translated the novel into Chinese again, and it was serialized in Hong Kong's "World Today" fortnightly from January 1954. Chinese readers are more likely to accept Eileen Chang's novels.

In many biographies of Zhang Ailing, the Chinese and English versions of He and He are often written to be published at the same time or the English version is first published and then translated into Chinese. In fact, although it was first written in English, the Chinese version was published by the World Today published by Hong Kong Tiandi Publishing House in October; the English version was published by Charles Scribner's Sons Publishing Company of New York State in 1955 after several twists and turns, and the content is also different from the Chinese version—from this point It can also be seen that the creation of these two books could not have been inspired by McCarthy; it was written before, but the Chinese version of the original has been published, and the English version of the original is still under discussion. If it is said that McCarthy instructed Eileen Chang to write " "Anti-Communist novel", then McCarthy is too stupid and incompetent; and the English version was published after Eileen Chang went to the United States, and it was published by Hong Kong Union Publishing House in 1956. He also seems to have supernatural powers that go far and wide, isn't it contradictory?

Some people deliberately confuse the publication time of the two books, not out of ignorance, but intentionally misleading and distorting the evidence in order to launch an "anti-communist" argument. Song Qi recalled that once the English version was published, it received rave reviews, but Eileen Chang was more concerned about the response of "Time" magazine.Because the journal's selection of books is extremely strict and the evaluation is extremely harsh, it is difficult for ordinary works to make the list.One day, Song Qi held a new "Time" magazine and wanted to surprise Eileen Chang.She seemed to have a premonition, and asked first: "Is there a book review for "Time" at last?"

She cares about "Time" magazine, but ignores Chinese newspapers, not because she doesn't care about Chinese readers, but because Chinese critics always pay attention to consciousness over skills, as she said in her letter to Hu Shi: "You ask about this The reaction of the critics. There have been two criticisms, both focusing on the anti-communist aspect, and not paying much attention to the story itself." In fact, these criticisms were already expected by Zhang Ailing. When she was writing, she probably could have imagined what kind of criticism she would receive in the future, so she used the perspective and psychology of the protagonist Gu Gang to say with a little self-mockery: "He wants to collect some materials, which can be used to show the prosperity of the countryside after the land reform. He always tells himself that the situation at this time is probably a partial phenomenon. Generally speaking, the rural areas after the land reform must be the standard of living. It has been improved, as you can see by looking at many statistics in the newspaper. He has talked with many people individually... These people probably couldn't figure out his origin, thinking that he was a senior official who visited privately and had the power to improve them They stammered and murmured about their suffering, saying that life is worse than before. When meeting such people, Gu Gang discovered a very useful term, 'not typical'. They are all' "Individual phenomena" cannot represent the masses of the people. However, among the countless "atypical" characters, finding one or two "general" typical characters is really as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack." "Gu Gang told himself that he was facing a serious test. He needed to overcome his petty-bourgeois sentimentalism. Of course, this peasant uprising was just an accident, an isolated individual phenomenon, and it had a large impact on the whole. It has no place in the situation.” ——Later, people really used these words and accusations when criticizing her, and believed that she took "accidental events" and "isolated individual phenomena" as "typical" and "cannot represent the masses of the people." Zhang Ailing is still the owner of the crystal ball with the ability to predict!