Chapter 6 Title VI Misreading, Distortion and Personal Attacks

Old Xia: This is called the Qinghong Gang in the literary world, the Qinghong Gang in the intellectual and academic circles, three groups and two groups. Wang Shuo: In the previous stage, there was a debate on new poetry, and I think that's how they are.At the beginning, they talked about who is good and who is bad, who is good and who is not, and finally the debate on whether poetry is good or bad has turned into whether people are good or bad, and turned into personal attacks.Anyway, it seems that this kind of situation is not unique to our mass culture, it seems that this is the kind of inertia of our Chinese people, a habit that will appear whenever there is an argument.

Lao Xia: You mean that not only does the public discourse end up with personal attacks, but the Chinese people’s original penchant for personal attacks. With the help of this popular culture, it becomes even more rampant, more unscrupulous, more unscrupulous, and more... ...shameless... Wang Shuo: This is the most suitable thing that mass culture provides. Old Xia: Yes!Including stuff from the eighties.Then and now are essentially the same.In fact, he has never read what you wrote, or read a little superficially, and you have never met the opponent in the debate. You have never had any prejudice against this person, and you only criticize his things.He will lean up by himself and say behind his back that you are attacking him.Sometimes people are very fragile and have ulterior motives. They only think of others in the dark, and if there is no enemy, they have to create an enemy.

People are ridiculous sometimes.too pitiful.That is to say, if a serious person evaluates your work, he must first read your book, at least he is your loyal reader, isn’t that great.I just respect those who read my stuff seriously and criticize my stuff responsibly.Even if there is a bit of cunning, as long as you can hit the key point, you can be regarded as a rare bosom friend, and those who have never met, and even have a pen fight are also bosom friends. Wang Shuo: Maybe this kind of person can't even separate himself from his character and writing.The kind of bosom friend you mentioned is extremely rare around us, so I can't touch it.

Old Xia: If you want to comment on other people's stuff, you can't just read it once. Wang Shuo: At least you need to know what others say and how they say it.The most ridiculous comments I've seen about me.An old translator, his student wrote an article, saying that he said in the United States that Wang Shuo's novels were all created for film and television adaptations.The student said with emotion: It really hit the nail on the head.What hit the nail on the head, this is old muddleheaded talk.I believe that the old man didn't see anything about me, and it was a misunderstanding that he said so.How could he have misunderstood it?I think he wouldn't like my stuff even if he saw it. He refused because of his taste.Once he heard others say that, he followed suit, echoing what others said.The film and television adaptation of my work has caused many people to misunderstand.

Old Xia: Just like the Ming Dynasty novels, there were a few upright gentlemen, scholar-bureaucrats, and scholars who could fall in love with them, but now it has become a classic of Chinese novels. Isn't it just taking it and adding a little Song Ci's sentiment to make it? For criticism, I must first be grateful and even respectful from the perspective of your readers, right!At least he valued you and respected you, he saw everything about you.As for whether his criticism was in place, whether the poke hit the pain point, is another question.It's even better if he hits the nail on the head, a comment that misses the point, just ignore it, right?Just treat it as a joke.Of course, this must exclude the kind of people who are speculative, hearsay, and specifically use you to talk about things that are sensational.I don't know how criticism of this thing can cause such a big psychological shadow on some people, and the world will collapse if they ask others to attack it?Whether you know each other or not, the most rare friend or confidant around a person is the kind of sharp reader who can really see your bones, hit the nail on the head and hit the painful spot.You may have jumped up in pain, or you may have been furious for a while, and you couldn't find the south, east, west, and north.

But after a while, calmly think about the sharpness of others, and you will have a deeper self-reflection and know your own pain.People want to be able to have, in this life, there are...one or two people who give you the kind of alarm bells that keep ringing, you are so happy. Wang Shuo: Friends are easy to meet, but confidantes are hard to find. Old Xia: Yes!This kind of criticism will evolve into something else in China.It has evolved into the loyalty and hatred between the cultural green and red gangs, and has evolved into a trap for personal attacks. For example, if you praise someone or belittle someone, he will say that you are speculation and a fame strategy, and he will turn this healthy cultural criticism into a personal motivation for fame and fortune, which has nothing to do with what you write.The Chinese have always liked such sideways speculation in debates.You can also look for reasons for your way of thinking.The Chinese tradition lacks that kind of logical training, and it is difficult to focus on only one topic in an argument.He bounces around like a rabbit. When you argue about this issue, he jumps away. He can change three or four topics between three and four sentences.This kind of thing is quite scary. You can't argue with him. If you continue to argue, you will fall into his trap. You can't find the problem, and in the end you don't understand what you are arguing about.It’s a bit like ancient Chinese painting. It’s not the focus perspective, but the scattered perspective. It makes you dizzy. There are dots everywhere, but you can’t find a certain point. You don’t know who to talk to or what to say.Once this kind of controversy gets involved, it will play into the hands of others.People are especially prone to anger when it comes to personal attacks.

So, in the face of the attacks and hype of mass culture, your response must always grasp what you are doing and what you want to say.You attack me and I scold you, back and forth, and in the end only the bystanders are left to watch the fun, and the parties involved hate each other.The Chinese are a little ruthless and vigorous when arguing.Once the fatal part of his heart is touched, he will drop everything else and come straight to you. He wants to kill you from the root, and he wants you to have no right to speak.They even kill you when you lose your voice. Wang Shuo: Are you talking about mutual attacks during the "Cultural Revolution"?At that time, this was indeed the case. One hit with a stick, and then he lost the right to speak, and then his wealth and life were affected.Perhaps the older the person, the stronger this feeling. He has lingering fears and allergic reactions. Whenever this happens, his back feels chilly and chilly, and he cannot treat this thing calmly.

Old Xia: In the end, it becomes a war between people, and has nothing to do with opinions or articles themselves.Chinese culture not only lacks honesty, but also lacks tolerance, the kind of tolerance of Voltaire; I may disagree with your point of view, but I will defend your right to express your point of view with my life. Wang Shuo: The continuous "literary inquisition" in ancient China is probably the most intolerant. A line of poetry can lose one's head, and it can also harm the nine tribes. Old Xia: Everyone has suffered a lot from it, and they still don’t feel the pain.

Wang Shuo: Later, I also discovered a situation, that is, everyone agrees with this point of view, but they started to argue. In fact, there was no confrontation at all, it was just a fight, just because you said so, he insisted on saying so. Calling back and forth is the same thing. Old Xia: I heard that there is a debate about the new poems. On one side are Ouyang Jianghe, Tang Xiaodu, Wang Jiaxin, Xichuan, and on the other side are Yu Jian and others... Wang Shuo: They have an article saying that, in fact, there is no contradiction in what everyone said. Old Xia: I think their discussion on poetry is quite boring, leaving aside the key things, it’s so boring that they all ran out to grind their teeth.

Wang Shuo: They were so serious that they were beaten so hard that their faces were red and their necks were thick.I really don't see any disagreement or feud between them. Old Xia: There is no disagreement, but there is deep hatred. Wang Shuo: You emphasize this, but we must emphasize that.In fact, they are all emphasizing a table, one emphasizing the desktop and the other emphasizing the back of the table.I don't think there is much contradiction in their understanding. What they can't coordinate is that they pick each other's thorns in the article.How could he not speak well, once caught, he would attack.

Old Xia: It turned out that it was the extermination of the North Island who proposed "post-Beidao poetry".Now it's the "back North Islanders" attacking each other. Yu Jian led a group of new talents, Tang Xiaodu, Xi Chuan and others had already become seniors.Xi Chuan and others wrote poems according to Western texts and translated texts, and critics such as Tang Xiaodu also commented on Xi Chuan's poems according to Western theories, which is called "text criticism".But the new group is more vigorous. They say that they are writing in daily life, and they write about the trivial and vernacular writing that they experience every day.But they didn't really write it that way, they also came from the West.The language skills of today's poems are many times more mature than those of the Bei Dao people back then, but they are only imitated language skills, and there is nothing more painful to read.Regarding such things, a famous critic said that Yu Jian's poems are very interesting, such as Yu Jian's "O File", I don't know if you have read it, anyway, when I read it a few years ago, I thought it was also a poem ? When you ask, people will say: Asking this kind of question means that you don’t understand poetry. How can poetry ask whether it is true? Although the poem "O Archives" has no reading value, it has textual analysis value.There are indeed poets and critics in this world who write works not for readers, but for critics to do text analysis. Eighty percent of foreign postmodern writing has no reading value, but has textual analysis value.If this is the case, then the sky will be fine, let’s learn from this way, and come up with a writing method that will attract a few critics who like text analysis, and gather together a narcissist who may become a classic post-modern poetic absurd drama .It would be absurd if poetry and literature developed in this way.Now it is different from the 1980s. People who are still engaged in pioneering activities can no longer attract the audience, so they find a few arty people to touch behind closed doors, and feel quite happy. A few years ago, Mou Sen arranged an experimental play at the Film Academy, but few people watched it.Later, a discussion meeting was held, Yu Jian, Zhang Yiwu from Peking University... They actually played this play to a height beyond the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement", a milestone work.This kind of insider self-touching is quite common. For another example, Wu Wenguang and his wife Wen Jun are doing modern dance, and they find a few short and fat acquaintances to dance. Those people have no dance training, not even physical training. , called modern dance.He also said that anyone can dance modern dance and postmodern dance. Wang Shuo: I really didn't know there were other art pioneers in this way. Lao Xia: Actually, on the surface, there is a distinction between mass culture and elite culture, but in essence, mass culture and elite culture are both following fashion and trends.Jump on whatever is popular, and do whatever is profitable.No one is willing to persevere, no one sticks to the original belief.In the literary world of the 1980s, there were "scars" for a while, "reforms" for a while, "hippies" for a while, root-seeking for a while, "poetry craze" for a while, and "novel craze" for a while. Many theorists and critics have rewritten novels.I once read a certain publication, which actually had the "Critic's Fiction Name", which seemed to belong to a group of young and middle-aged critics in Shanghai. Wang Shuo: I have seen some. Old Xia: Writing a review has little influence, so the money will naturally be less, so I just go to the troubled waters of novels, and maybe I will become a blockbuster and become a novelist.In the past few years, there has been a "essay craze" among literati, and everyone writes essays, and a large number of essays from foreign countries and the "May 4th" period have been collected. Wang Shuo: I also followed the trend and started writing essays.I'm going to publish a collection of essays later this month. Old Xia: They burst into action.The "essays" or "essays" of literati, and the sketches of Zhao Benshan, Huang Hong, Song Dandan, etc. in TV mid-night parties, have a common feature of kitsch, which appeals to both the mainstream and the tastes of the public. Wang Shuo: A few years ago, Zhang Chengzhi's grandiose and fierce kitsch was all the rage. It seems that he rejected and resisted mass culture and resisted materialistic desires, which was almost as tragic as going to the guillotine.Looking at his words, it reminds me of Sister Jiang in "Red Rock". Old Xia: But his morality and courage are feigned. In reality, he dare not face it squarely. Instead, he only has a strong passion for mass culture.Zhang Chengzhi has a kind of crazy hatred for people in his heart. When he speaks, he gnashes his teeth, admires violence, and misses the era of the Red Guards who swept away all harmful insects.His words are bloodthirsty, hateful, and violent, yet they can still become a hot spot for a while. It can be seen that people nowadays are not kind. Not only do they lack a sense of justice and tolerance, but they also rarely have pity and sympathy.Apart from his own interests, he is insensitive to everything, at most he is a spectator in Lu Xun's works. Wang Shuo: We grew up eating guns and medicines when we were young. We have been tempered in class struggle, and we are surrounded by class enemies every day. Isn't it ruthless? Old Xia: The masses are also cold-blooded.Gu Cheng, a murderer praised by the society as a pure poet, lived the life of a scholar-bureaucrat in groups of wives and concubines as described by Jia Pingwa. After he killed someone and then committed suicide, the domestic media hyped him up as a real poet who died romantically for love. Some people even found the suicides of many famous literati in history at home and abroad to demonstrate the significance of Gu Cheng's death to Chinese literature and culture. But very few people would say a fair word for Xie Ye who fell under his axe.Liu Zhanqiu, the yellow flower of yesterday, also booed, recalling the romance of the past in the triangle relationship.The whole society is hyping the poet's death.So cruel, so shameless. Munk is not bad, let's speak for Xie Ye.Gu Cheng was spoiled by our society, he wore a mask from the very beginning, until the murder showed his true nature.His family doted on him when he was young, society doted on him after he wrote a few poems, women doted on him after he got married, foreigners doted on him after going abroad, and his father, friends, and society doted on him after murder.If you spoil a poet like a murderer for life, you will continue to spoil him.The Chinese often say, "Beasts are inferior." I want to say that human beings are far more cruel than beasts. Among animals, there is no animal that is as brutal as human beings.Insidious, vicious degree.If cats, dogs and pigs could also talk and accuse each other with words, they would definitely point to that cruel pig and say: You are not even as good as a human being. Wang Shuo: These are small cruelties, and there are bigger ones. Old Xia: Some of us don't know how to deal with people, especially people's pain. This year's World Table Tennis Championships, a sixteen-year-old girl won the doubles championship.But while she was playing, her father died.She loved her father very much, but her family didn't dare to tell her.But after she won the championship and returned to China, the media used this purely personal pain to talk about it.First, when she got off the plane, the reporters surrounded her and asked about her father's death. The girl was dumbfounded, she didn't know the bad news. The "Variety Show" column invited the Chinese table tennis team that won the championship to the scene.The host first explained the death of the girl's father to hundreds of millions of viewers across the country, and then said how the girl was strong and won glory for the country. Then put the microphone in front of the girl, insisting that the girl who was choked up and speechless speak some righteous words and sing high-pitched songs.Such a purely personal pain becomes such a feat on such a boring show, shown to millions of viewers across the country, to force girls to give up their personal pain. How cruel!I really hoped that the girl would drop the microphone that the host handed over. Wang Shuo: I think there is no difference between elite culture and mass culture in terms of cruelty.