Chapter 51 own article

Although I was writing novels and essays, I didn't pay much attention to theory.Recently, I suddenly feel that there is something to say, so I will write it below. I thought that literary theory came after literary works. It was so in the past, it is so now, and I am afraid it will be so in the future.If the author's self-awareness is to be enhanced, it is of course beneficial to draw theory from the work and use it as a measure of the reproduction of the work.However, when measuring this way, it must be remembered that in the development of literature, works and theories are like two horses, advancing or advancing each other.Theory is not a master sitting on top with a whip in his hand.

Now it seems that the literature is poor, and the theory is also poor.I found that people who engage in literature have always paid attention to the flying side of life, while ignoring the stable side of life.In fact, the latter is the foundation of the former.Another example is that most of them pay attention to the struggle of life, while ignoring the harmonious side.In fact, people struggle only for the sake of seeking harmony. Emphasize the flying side of life, somewhat superhuman temperament.Superman was born in an era.But the stable side of life has the meaning of eternity. Although this kind of stability is often insecure and will be destroyed every so often, it is still eternal.It exists in all ages.It is the divinity of man, and it can also be said to be womanhood.

In the history of literature, there are very few works that simply praise the stability of life, but there are many works that emphasize the flight of life, but good works still lie in the fact that they describe the flight of life based on the stability of life.Without this foundation, Feiyang can only be froth. Many powerful works can only give people excitement, but cannot inspire people. The failure is because they don’t know how to grasp this foundation. The struggle is moving because it is powerful and poignant at the same time.The struggler loses the harmony of life and seeks a new harmony.If you fight for the sake of struggle, you will lack aftertaste, and it will not be a good work after you write it.I found that in many works, the element of power is greater than the element of beauty.Strength is joy, beauty is sorrow, and the two cannot exist independently. "Death and life are broad, and you can talk with your son; hold your hand, and grow old together with your son" is a sad poem, but its attitude towards life is so affirmative.I don't like heroics.I like tragic, more like desolation.There is only strength in heroism, without beauty, and it seems to lack humanity.Tragic is like the color scheme of bright red and green, which is a strong contrast.But it's still more stimulating than inspiring.The reason why desolation has a deeper and longer aftertaste is because it is like light green and peach red, which is a kind of uneven contrast.

I like the jagged contrast because it's closer to the truth.In Li, Tassel walked out of a decaying family. The baptism of the Battle of Hong Kong did not transform her into a revolutionary woman; He becomes a saint and completely abandons his old habits and ways of life.Because of this, although the ending of Liuyuan and Liusu is healthy to some extent, it is still vulgar; in terms of facts, they can only be so extremely sick and extremely enlightened. After all, there are not many people.The times are so heavy, and it is not easy to realize it so easily.Over the years, human beings have lived like this after all, which shows that madness is madness, and there is still a sense of proportion.So my novels, except for Cao Qiqiao in the novel, are full of incomplete characters.They are not heroes, they are the vast bearers of this era.Because although they are not thorough, they are serious after all.They are not tragic, only desolate.Tragic is a kind of completion, while desolation is a kind of revelation.

I know that people are desperate for completion, or they want stimulation to satisfy themselves.They seem impatient with mere revelation.But I still can only write like this.I thought it was more truthful to write it this way.I know that my works lack power, but since I am a novelist, I can only express the power of the characters in the novel as much as possible, and cannot create power for them.And I believe that, though they are weak mortals, less powerful than heroes, it is these mortals who are more representative of the totality of the age than heroes. In this era, old things are crumbling and new things are growing.But until the climax of the era came, the definitive things were the exception.People just feel that everything is not right on a daily basis, to the point of horror.People live in an era, but this era is sinking like a shadow, and people feel that they have been abandoned.In order to prove one's own existence and grasp something real and basic, one has to turn to the ancient memory, the memory of human beings living in all ages, which is clearer and more intimate than looking to the future.So he had a strange feeling about the reality around him, and suspected that this was an absurd, ancient world, dark and bright.From time to time an awkward dissonance is found between memory and reality, thus giving rise to solemn but slight disturbances, serious and nameless struggles. , An unfinished stone statue by MichaelAngelo, inscribed "Dawn", is just a rough human figure with no clear face, but it is majestic and majestic, symbolizing a new era that is coming.If there were such works now, it would naturally be fascinating, but there is none, and there cannot be, because people are still unable to shake off the nightmare of the times.

The subject matter of my writing is such an era, and I think it is more appropriate to use the method of contrasting and contrasting.In this way I describe the memory of human beings living through all ages, and thereby give a hint to the surrounding reality.I have this in mind, but I don't know if I can do it well or not.Generally speaking, I can't write works like "monuments of the times", and I don't plan to try, because there seems to be no such concentrated objective subject matter.I even just write about small things between men and women. There is no war in my work, and there is no revolution.I think that people are more simple and unrestrained when they are in love than when they are in war or revolution.Wars and revolutions, due to the nature of the events themselves, often require intelligence more urgently than emotional support, and works describing wars and revolutions often fail because the elements of technology are greater than the elements of art.Compared with the indulgence of love, war is driven, while revolution is sometimes somewhat forced.The real revolution and the revolutionary war, in terms of sentiment, I think it should be a close relative of love, and like love, it permeates the whole life unrestrainedly, but it is harmonious for oneself.

I like simplicity, but I can only reflect the simplicity of life by describing the wit and decoration of modern people.Therefore, my articles are easily seen as too extravagant.But I thought it would be impossible to use a simple writing method like the "Old Testament". Tolstoy was sacrificed by this in his later years.I'm also not in favor of aestheticism.But I think the shortcoming of Aestheticism is not its beauty, but its lack of foundation.The waves in streams are frivolous, but in sea water, although they appear to be sparkling like ordinary waves, they are still full of torrential waves.Beautiful things are not necessarily great, but great things are always beautiful.It's just that I don't write hypocrisy and truth as a strong contrast, but use uneven contrast to write that there is truth in the hypocrisy of modern people, and there is simplicity in the vanity, so it is easy to be regarded as indulged and lingering up.Even so, I still maintain my style, but I am ashamed that I can't write well, and I am just a literary student.

People of the old school find my work relaxed, but they think it is not comfortable enough.People of the new school thought it was interesting, but thought it was not serious enough.But there is only so much I can do, and confidence is not eclectic.I just ask myself to be able to write more truthfully. Also, because I use the writing method of jagged contrast, I don't like to adopt the classic writing method of the decisive conflict between good and evil, spirit and flesh, so my works are sometimes unclear.But I think that the thematic theory of literature can be improved.Writing a novel should be a story. It is better to let the story explain itself than to make up a story with a theme.In many great works that have survived to the present, the original theme is often no longer noticed by readers, because after the event, the original theme has long ceased to interest us, but new revelations are discovered from the story itself at any time, making the work immortal.Let’s just say that Tolstoy originally wanted to attribute it to the life attitude of a religious group that was popular at the time, but the result was that the unfolding of the story itself defeated the predetermined theme.The work was revised seven times, with each revision penalizing the intended theme.At last the remaining theme occupies only the place of interruption, and is the most uncomfortable part of the whole book, but there is no new theme to replace it.Therefore, after writing it, Tolstoy himself felt that something was missing.Compared with , the theme of , is indeed very vague, but the latter is still a greater work.So far we read it, every inch is still alive.The difference between modern literary works and the past seems to be at this point. They no longer emphasize the theme so much, but let the story itself give what it can give, and let the reader get what he can get.That's how I wrote it down, and I'm still writing it down now.In that work, I owe attention to the fact that the theme is true, but I hope that the story itself will be liked.My intention is simple: Since there is such a thing, I will describe it.Most modern people are tired, and the modern marriage system is unreasonable.So there are silent husband and wife relationships, there are high-level flirting that is afraid of being responsible but looking for relaxation, and there are prostitutes who return to animal sexuality-but they are still animal-like people, not animals, so they are more terrifying than animals.There is also concubine living. Concubine living is not as solemn as the relationship between husband and wife, but it is more responsible than high-level flirting, and more humane than whoring. After all, there are not many people who go to extremes, so concubine living has become a very common phenomenon today.The social status of men living in concubines is probably middle or below, but they live a thrifty life.They dare not be too presumptuous, but they are not so rigid that they are boring.They need a lively, solid relationship, which goes hand in hand with the lively, solid nature of the rest of their lives.They need a woman to take care of the family for them, so they are not so sick to women.Yahya here is just a middle-of-the-road silk shopkeeper who has to go to the counter by himself.If Nixi can live in peace with him, it's not difficult to live in peace forever, and it's okay to grow old together.The failure of their cohabitation is due to Nixi's own character flaws.Her second man, Dou Yaofang, is a well-established medicine shop owner, but he still doesn't have the style of a big capitalist.The petty officials who had lived with Ni Xi only had a bit of official air.They don't have any special psychology towards Nixi, and the relationship between them is still a human relationship, and there is some kind of true affection, which is not surprising.

As for concubine women, their original status is always lower than that of men, but most of them have strong vitality.They have a charm for men, but that of healthy women.Because if it's too sick, it doesn't suit the needs of those men.They also operate, and they are also jealous and fight. They can be brutal, but not hysterical.They have only one deficiency: their status is always uncertain.Suspicion and self-insecurity make them gradually become selfish. This kind of concubine life is more common in China than in foreign countries, but no one has written about it seriously. The mandarin ducks and butterflies sent literati to see that they are not talented enough, and the new-style literati think that they are neither like love nor like prostitution, and not healthy enough. , and not morbid enough, lacking the clarity of the theme.

What moved me about Nixi's story was Nixi's pure love for material life, but this material life needs to be grasped vigorously at any time.She wants a man's love and safety at the same time, but she can't take care of it at the same time, and every time she loses her life and wealth.In the end, she felt that nothing could be relied on, and she still invested in her children and hoarded a little manpower—the most inhuman hoarding. Nixi is not without feelings, she wants to love this world but cannot enter it.But it is not that she has not received love at all, but she just eats other people's leftovers and indifference, as Du Fu said in his poem: "The leftovers and indifference are full of bitterness everywhere." But she is a healthy woman after all, and she will not become a beggar Erxiang.She seemed to be greedily chewing a large amount of bean cakes that had been squeezed out of oil. Although relying on her physique, and the bean cakes were somewhat nourishing, she couldn't help but hurt her spleen and stomach.Moreover, it is pathetic for people to eat animal feed.

As for the use of words and sentences from old novels in many places in the book-Cantonese and foreigners fifty years ago, the tone of voice is similar to that of the characters in the novel; It was not enough for training.My original intention was this: to write about the romantic atmosphere in the minds of Shanghainese, Hong Kong is already quite far away; Hong Kong 50 years ago was even more distant in time, so I specially used an outdated vocabulary to represent this double distance.Sometimes it is deliberately contrived, so it is a bit too much.I think it can be changed a little in the future.