Chapter 7 Read Gao Xingjian's "A Preliminary Exploration of the Techniques of Modern Fiction"

Read "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" in the Face of "New, Strange, and Strange" 1 I heard an old writer speak some time ago, and he pointed out that in recent years, some young writers have deviated from their daily life in their creations, blindly pursuing the so-called "new, strange, and strange", that is, blindly imitating certain techniques of modern Western literature, and embarking on an evil path. .Such phenomena do occur.How to solve this problem?Is it an order to stop reading and referring to the materials of modern Western literature from now on, or to strengthen the research and introduction of modern Western literature in turn, so that those who know little about it will gradually become those who know why, and those who blindly imitate will gradually become those who follow? Which method is better, the innovator who discards its essence or abandons its dross?Of course, the second method is better.

2 In recent years, there have been quite a few articles introducing the development of modern western novels in newspapers and periodicals, and some books that systematically introduce authors, works, genres, and techniques have been published, but such books are still very rare : Concentrate on introducing the writing skills of western modern novels. In the introduction, the analysis of the writer's works and genre characteristics is closely combined with the investigation of China's current creative practice. The style also embodies the vividness of thoughtfulness and integration, and the rough system, and the style of writing is fluent, and the writing is interesting.Comrade Gao Xingjian's "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" is such a rare and good book.

3 Comrade Gao Xingjian's book mainly introduces the techniques of modern Western novels, but the title of the book is only "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Novels Techniques", which I thought was very meaningful.Before the book, there is a preface written by Comrade Ye Junjian, an old writer, which is very well written.One of the main arguments of this preface is to point out that the evolution of novel writing skills is actually influenced by the production mode and life style of the times. The continuous innovation and transformation of production mode and the continuous change and evolution of life style will inevitably promote the artistic development. Ways of expression - including novels, continuous innovation and development of techniques.After the invention of the steam engine, human production methods and lifestyles underwent a great change, thus forming new literature in the West since the 19th century. Erstein... the literature that marks its brilliance has also become a classic. Now that mankind has entered the age of electronics and atoms, and is about to enter the era of dominance of microelectronic technology, literature, of course, is first of all The writing skills of novels cannot be unaffected by it, and there are new developments and changes.Therefore, the development and changes of modern novel techniques are just beginning to emerge in the West with the development of the industrial revolution. Of course, the development and change trends of this novel technique will be affected by social systems, national traditions, regional differences...etc. However, it still has a general general trend of development. Comrade Gao Xingjian's book is actually a rough inspection of this general trend.Therefore, although he mainly introduces the techniques of modern Western novels, he does not stick to them, but vertically introduces the development of Chinese novel techniques from the classical period through the "May 4th" period to the present, and horizontally introduces some contemporary Chinese novel techniques. The author's use of skills in the creative practice is blended together, analyzed and synthesized, and put forward his own opinion, so the title of the book is "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques".Speaking of features, this is probably the first feature of this book!

4 Are there any classes in novel technique?Comrade Ye Junjian's preface is very thoughtful.His general meaning, I understand, is that the social production mode of an era will affect, change, and promote the way of life of an era, thereby affecting, changing, and promoting the development of novel techniques, but this is only in terms of novel techniques. The content, theme, tendency, social function and other aspects of the novel are worthy of another discussion.Comrade Gao Xingjian's argument is also based on such a premise, and what he investigates and studies is only the evolution and development of modern novel techniques.Of course, they all emphasized that skills should serve content.Then, readers are bound to ask: Can the same technique serve different content?Specifically, can contemporary Chinese proletarian writers use the techniques used by modern Western bourgeois writers to embody bourgeois thoughts, tastes, and feelings in their novels to embody proletarian thoughts, tastes, and feelings? "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" gives an affirmative answer to this.Whether this view is correct or not is, of course, open to debate.But the book, at least in my opinion, makes this point eloquently.For example, in the section "Stream of Consciousness", the author first made the following judgment on the spiritual phenomenon of stream of consciousness: "Modern psychologists have discovered that human psychological activities are not always logically deduced, thoughts and feelings, Consciousness and subconsciousness, will and impulse and passion and desire and willfulness, etc., are like a dark river, from birth to death, flowing endlessly, even in a state of sleep, it is difficult to stop. Rational thinking activities are just It is a number of lighted beacons in this dark river. When modern literature describes the inner world of people, it must grasp this feature. This is the basis for the emergence of the modern narrative language of stream of consciousness.” The author pointed out The emergence of the "stream of consciousness" technique is based on the background of modern psychology research (and the establishment of psychology is related to the transformation of modern production methods), and then discusses: "The law of mental activity is not the same as that of the British and French. Russians, Japanese, or Americans who also think in English, and of course Chinese-speaking Chinese, the way of thinking and feeling should be said to be essentially the same. Workers and capitalists , the president and the coachman, their thoughts and feelings can have great differences in class consciousness and political attitudes, as well as differences in education and personality, but the psychological laws are the same after all, and can be described by the literary language of stream of consciousness. Their respective inner worlds, repeating their spiritual activities. Corrupt capitalists and reactionary politicians do not mean that the language tools used to describe them are also decadent and reactionary, just as the classical Chinese that records the infinite merits of the emperor itself is innocent. "It seems that the author is following Stalin's thesis that language and writing are not superstructures. In a sense, novel techniques are the skills of using language and writing. The same technique has different political, philosophical, ideological and emotional tendencies. Whether the adaptability of each novel technique is equal, whether the independence and usability of each novel technique can reach the same level, the author basically gave an affirmative answer, but I think this is a rather advanced theoretical question, and it seems that it is not appropriate to It is easy to draw final conclusions.

5 Since the techniques of novels are constantly enriched and changed with the production mode and life style of an era, it is actually a normal phenomenon to be new, strange and weird. The book "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" not only does not evade or belittle the new, strange, and strange, but actually seeks theoretical basis and practical achievements for the new, strange, and strange modern novel techniques to prove that Its rationality, progress and usability.Is it extreme?One-sided?Maybe, but when you read this book, you can't help but be attracted and conquered by the ensuing, comprehensive, well-integrated, well-founded and eloquent expositions.The book is divided into seventeen chapters, almost involving various writing techniques of various schools of modern western literature, such as "stream of consciousness", "grotesque and illogical", "symbol", "artistic abstraction", "surrealism" ", "black humor"... etc., and the writing techniques used by most modern western literary schools are fully affirmed in combination with examples. This affirmation may give people a certain degree of stimulation. and impact.However, why do we often accept the writing skills of certain feudal society novels and a large number of Western classical novels, and even take them as the natural standard of art criticism?Comrade Ye Junjian pointed out sharply in the preface of the book: "Our current appreciation taste, according to some foreign works we have published and their printing numbers, seems to be still stuck in the age of steam engines. We appreciate European works of the eighteenth century, For example, the works of Balzac and Dickens, and even earlier "The Encounter of Monte Cristo", surpassed modern works. As for the works of our country, there is still a strange phenomenon, some people appreciate it, and it seems to surpass that of any modern Chinese writer. Works——If the order of Xinhua Bookstore can be used as the standard for judging the appreciation value of a work. This kind of "appreciation" may still have the flavor of the feudal era. The formation of this phenomenon may also be the result of our years of invisible The result of cultural isolation." So we must open the window and look out to understand the state and development trend of the culture of the modern world, including the technique of modern fiction writing.Comrade Gao Xingjian's book is a book with windows on all sides.Of course, when the window is opened suddenly, the wind blows from all directions, and those with weak resistance will catch the wind and catch a cold.Some authors, especially young ones, have not really understood the development and evolution of modern western novels and the essence of their writing skills, let alone the readers' cultural level, way of thinking, and art brought by modern production methods and lifestyles. Considering the use of writing skills from the perspective of changes in taste and appreciation habits, but eating raw, blindly imitating, and even relying on the prejudices of the Western bourgeoisie from the content of writing and political and ideological tendencies, such " New, Strange, Strange", there is indeed a problem.

6 "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" basically takes techniques transcending class and transcending nations as the premise of the discussion, and devotes itself to giving a positive introduction to the techniques of modern Western novels that ordinary Chinese authors and readers are not familiar with. Grasping the principle that form serves content and cannot simply play tricks, for example, at the end of the section "Weird and Illogical", the author solemnly points out: "The grotesque and illogical are the products of reason, and they are used to create an abstract They are powerful tools for modernized artistic images, and they are not the purpose of artistic creation. But if you blindly pursue the grotesque, blindly advocate illogical methods, worship the two as a new art religion, and let yourself be at the mercy of the subconscious, It is not advisable to not know what it means.” Regarding the surrealist literary genre that emerged in the West after the First World War, the author pointed out on the one hand: “As a literary phenomenon, it has an impact on language norms in language art. For the development of modern literary language...had an effect that cannot be ignored. Surrealism's experiment in language art has prompted modern literature to discover the incomparably rich plasticity of language itself." On the other hand, he pointed out: "...(Surrealism Literature) also caused anarchic chaos to the language, and some inexplicable nonsense that the readers did not understand and the author did not understand also appeared in literary works... In fact, it is a kind of ignorance of those who blindly pursue innovation. Innovating and forgetting the purpose of innovation will lead to a tragic situation that is counterproductive." And then concluded: "The exploration of language means is subordinate to the purpose of literary creation. Literature serves life and society, regardless of whether writers themselves Recognize...if you are simply obsessed with means and lose your goal, you will naturally feel a sense of emptiness." I think this kind of analysis is more pertinent.It is a pity that the author did not carry this calm analytical spirit throughout the book.Even if the novel technique itself is indeed a common writing method that transcends classes and nations, readers can’t help asking: Are all modern Western novel techniques good writing methods?Is it worth mastering and learning from?Looking at the whole book, the analysis in this aspect is very lacking.Of course, we can't ask the author to provide an accurate and comprehensive answer, but it may be more beneficial for readers to explore this aspect in depth and provide some clues for thinking.The author believes that the technique of novels is super-national, but he does not avoid the issue of the national form of literary creation. In the chapter "Modern Skills and National Spirit", the author clearly puts forward his point of view: "The creation of language For writers, national characteristics firstly lie in the artist’s use of the artistic characteristics of the national language...Using the national language to carry out literary creation will inevitably bring the cultural traditions, lifestyles, and thinking habits of the nation into the works. No matter how much the writer Drawing lessons from foreign literature, as long as you write in authentic Chinese, you will definitely be able to bring your own national color. The more a writer has cultivated his own national culture, the more distinctive this national characteristic will be.  … No matter what the writer uses As long as he uses the national language and writes about the lives of his own people, the more vividly he writes, the more he will see his national spirit." However, this argument obviously needs to stand the test of controversy.I always feel that the direction of his thinking is correct, but it seems that he is too simplistic when discussing it in detail.If one only needs to use the national language to write, the national character will inevitably be reflected, then raising the issue of national character becomes superfluous.Obviously, there are more complex and mysterious factors in it. Do the characteristics of the technique itself also reflect the characteristics of the nation to a certain extent?

7 New, strange, and strange are not scary.With the development of the times, the creation of novels always requires continuous breakthroughs and innovations in techniques. As long as it is logically new, spontaneously strange, and ripely strange, not only can it be established, but it will inevitably generate new attractions and novelty for readers. of pleasure.What we want to oppose is the formalistic juggling of techniques, the blind copying of the "new", the swallowing of the "odd" and the pretentious "weird".After reading "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques", you will definitely have the most outstanding gains on this point.We should admit that our public ownership of the means of production and democratic centralism of social life are advanced in terms of production methods and lifestyles, but compared with Western developed countries, our level of civilization in China is still quite high in terms of material level. Backwardly, the cultural level of the vast readers that our novel authors face is almost uneven, and most of them have only received secondary and elementary education.Therefore, the use of modern novel techniques that are more novel than classical storytelling techniques to write novels should not be too hasty, and the spread should not be too large. Even for a long period of time, modern novel techniques should be completely used in writing. The novels can only be regarded as one of the few experimental works, and the novels basically created using the techniques of Chinese classical and Western steam engine era critical realism novels will still be the mainstream of novel creation.Under such circumstances, I think it is more important to emphasize reference, to infiltrate the easily digestible techniques of modern Western novels into contemporary Chinese novel creation, and to promote the innovation of Chinese novel techniques gradually. It generally advocates a cosmopolitan modern novel technique.If this aspect is overemphasized, there will be the disadvantage of being out of the majority. "A Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" has a strong impact on various "laws" of classical novel techniques, which is of great significance, but it seems that it is not enough to take into account the actual situation in China (need to know: there are still countless There are fewer steam engines!), especially the last chapter "The Novel of the Future", it seems that the arguments and speculations have gone too far, and it seems a bit floating.If the book only introduces the development of western modern novel techniques, then there is no need to be so demanding, but the book is discussed from the perspective of how our Chinese authors should write novels, so I sincerely propose this idea, For Comrade Gao Xingjian's reference when revising and republishing.