Chapter 12 poetry in the will

In his article "How I Write Short Stories", Lao She (1899-1966) grouped his short stories "Crescent Moon", "Old Tragedy in the New Era" into one group, describing them as "nothing special Benefits", just show "a fact, a little consciousness".When writing this series of novels, Lao She said: "My attitude has changed. Facts forced me to write long-form materials into short stories. This is a fact, because there are more and more requests for manuscripts, and the materials are not so convenient. So I took out the long-form material I kept in my heart for emergency."

These words are sincere and polite, but judging from the context, there is still room for long-term thinking.Generally speaking: Lao She believes that short stories require more skill than other long stories, but because it is a "new literature and art" and "almost relies on skills to become an independent genre".If you "select one aspect to write (into a short story)" from the long stories that describe and intersperse in multiple aspects, of course it will be obviously compact and precise.After pondering carefully, we can easily find that there are quite a few Lao She who put forward a part of the novel from the experience of becoming an independent short story. He would use the joke "I would rather eat a bite of fairy peach than a basket of rotten apricots" as an analogy, which is quite a bit. Children are short but cheap and long—at least they are thick and short and thin and long—meaning.

Proust's (Marcel Proust, 1871~1922) must be long. ,, and certainly long enough.Hemingway's (Ernest Hemingway, 1899~1961) novels are of course short, and Lu Xun's "New Grave" is certainly short enough.However, some works have few words and short length. Even if it takes almost the same time to read a pass, the readers will feel quite different about the length of the work.For example: Zhang Ailing's (1921～1996) and Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q", no matter how it is typeset and printed, probably only about fifty or seventy pages, but it always makes people feel "like" a long novel, "The True Story of Ah Q" It appears to be "like" a short story.Naturally, there is a problem of the so-called temporal and spatial span of the story itself-the lonely and vicious Qiqiao seems to have a much longer time than the humble and wretched Ah Q; however, the problem seems to be more than that.

In the fourth chapter of Milan Kundera's (L'art du Roman) book "Conversations on Structural Art", he compares his own works with indicators of musical tempo (tempo, presto, adagio, etc.) (La Vie est Ailleurs).When the interviewer pointed out that Chapter 6 has seventeen chapters in total but occupies only twenty-six pages, which should belong to "quite fast frequency, but instead it is classified as adagio", Kundera's reply was: When the word "speed" appeared, Kundera also provided us with a room for long-term thinking.Even if no one can accuse Ulysses of being a "short story" that was "written in less than a day's 'real' time", we can still identify: the so-called "length of the story", the so-called "narrated event" "The real time" is not a single element with decisive power to form the sense of time.We also have to deal with speed.

There are only five thousand words, and it is about "three people, one thing" in one day.According to Lao She himself: It was originally a small piece of the novel "Two Boxers" that the author had conceived; Tolerant, no more, no less just right."Different people have different opinions, calmness is extremely appropriate; the first 1,300 words of the 5,000 words have neither action nor dialogue, and it can even be said that there is no incident.Lao She could hold his breath.The reason why Lao She keeps calm, does not provide readers with "a developing story" and temporarily abandons the sense of speed of "events in progress", is it not because the protagonist of the story "Sharp Gun Sand Dragon" is a character who is too calm?

According to legend, "Sharp Spear Sand Dragon" was good at using a "Five Tigers Breaking Soul Spear", which once ruled the northwest for 20 years.But when he got old, the bodyguard agency changed the inn, so the "Sharp Spear" was only called a legend among Sha Zilong's down-and-out children who hadn't entered the family room yet.One day, an old man Sun came from out of town, smashed the showmanship of Sha Zilong's big buddy Wang Sansheng, and then came to perform. He sincerely and half-threateningly asked Sha Zilong to give him a set of "Five Tigers Breaking Soul Spear" However, Sha Zilong remained undisturbed and unmoved.So, people say again: Sha Zilong stumbled.As for whether Sand Dragon has kung fu?How is the skill?Lao She insisted on keeping a hand like Sha Zilong.

Lao She used nearly 600 words to describe the scene of Wang Sansheng making friends with martial arts and performing arts, used more than 700 words to describe how the old man Sun knocked down Wang Sansheng's gun twice, and used 140 words to describe the scene where the old man was in the sand. Show off your talents and perform martial arts in front of the dragon, how about the "sharp gun"? This section is not only short, but also rushed.Sha Zilong stabbed sixty-four spears in one breath, although it can be seen that his skill is not weak, but Lao She is reluctant to put any adjective for him, why is he so stingy?Or: Does he have another secret meaning?

Thinking about his feelings, Lao She's intentions can be twofold: "Five Tigers Soul-Breaking Spear" is a secret that cannot be passed on, so it cannot be explained in words.In addition, Sha Zilong's marksmanship is really too fast, and he can't beat it with sixty-four shots in one breath! Kundera's literacy in classical music should not be exaggerated, but when he repeatedly weaves symphony and sonata forms with his own novels in an almost mystical corresponding relationship, it seems to be a novel for the novel. The so-called "arithmetic structure" has been found in short, urgent and slow, and the novel seems to have a skillful posture because of the irregularities between paragraphs or the neat confrontation.It is true that critics who have no creative experience cannot comprehend through terms, sets of theories, and pouring molds.However, the sense of speed in the novel is not only musical, not only related to rhythm, not just "using longer (short) lengths to deal with the real length (shortness) of events", the sense of speed must also penetrate into the characters, Penetrates into the narrative, penetrates into the meaning.In other words: How many words a novelist uses to describe how many activities in how much time should not have nothing to do with the overall requirements of the work, and should not have nothing to do with the "content".Lao She procrastinated at the beginning of the article, and cut it off abruptly at the end of the article, all of which are "off-putting"; one slow, one urgent, the same song but the same effect, can really hold his breath-because of the spirit symbolized by Sand Dragon and Sand Dragon (Whether he hides his strengths and hides his strengths, or keeps his own way in his own way) The same is true.

Zhang Ailing's 30,000 words can be divided into three parts evenly: the various discrimination and exploitation of Bai Liusu who returned from divorce among the various rooms in the Bai mansion, and Bai Liusu's (intentional or unintentional) destruction of Bai Baoluo's story. The revenge of the blind date incident is one of them.The flamboyant Fan Liuyuan lures Bai Liusu to Hong Kong and launches a provocative offensive. Bai Liusu wants to refuse but is unwilling to sacrifice himself. Finally, he returns to his home in Shanghai "soundlessly" and endures cynicism.Fan Liuyuan once again took Bai Liusu to Hong Kong, where he rented a house for two nights; just as the Pacific War broke out and wars were everywhere, Fan and Bai had a hasty but successful marriage and a "sad happy ending". Third.

Even on the most superficial level, it is by no means a love story.All kinds of scheming between the male and female protagonists are just a bargain between material and flesh, money and youth.Eileen Chang ingeniously combined "The Book of Songs Daya Zhanying" and "Hanshu Biography of Foreign Relatives" with "a wise man makes a city/a wise woman is a city", "there are beauties in the north/peerless and independent/one look at the city/and then look at the country" /Ning do not know the fall of the city and the fall of the country/The ancient allusion of "a beautiful woman is hard to come by" made a joke with puns in the era of "the fall of Hong Kong and the collapse of the city", which made "national calamity" and "marriage" interpenetrate and Satire.

The number of subparagraphs contained in the three comparable parts is not consistent, but it is evident that the first part deals only with a few days, the second covers about a month, and the third At the end of November 1941, I wrote about the resumption of traffic between Hong Kong and Shanghai, the divorce of the fourth master and grandmother of the White House, and the fact that Fan had a "other woman". Covering the extremely distinct span of time and space in nearly equal lengths does not make the narratives of these three parts present a sense of speed that is inconsistent.That's because Eileen Chang was able to evenly capture the dialogues and scenes in the "real time of the narrated event" that can not only promote the development of the story but also show the situation of the characters, and neatly organize the long and short events with a technique that is close to cleanliness. , Urgency, and Slowness approach the Andante of the Mean.In Eileen Chang, there is no Kundera-style fugue delusion and burden; however, the sense of speed still exists-it exists in the meaning of the characters.The author tells us clearly at the beginning: There is a "jet lag" problem that is about to detonate this story that will be told at a moderate speed—— The only one in the Bai Mansion who can keep up with "Shanghai" is Bai Liusu.She had been married before she was twenty years old, divorced, and then returned to the White Mansion, an isolated "immortal cave".The meaning of the role makes Bai Liusu a driving force with a sense of speed. The only thing she has in common with Fan Liuyuan, a character who "grew up in England" and "doesn't easily go back to the old house in Guangzhou"; "Characters who fall in love at first sight", it is better to say that they "also have a time difference function that is inconsistent with other characters".Therefore, they will also tacitly make preparations for a double stay and a double flight after dancing three dances.Zhang Ailing doesn't need to tell readers: how Fan Liuyuan set up traps, readers have followed Bai Liusu and can't wait to jump into the fire pit. The "real time of the event being narrated" (according to it: the "getting along" between Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan is not about love or mutual acquaintance) is not sufficient at all, and the probing and teasing between the two is probably just Eileen Chang "lingering warnings, lingering and mysterious talks" is just a leftover from the practice.Eileen Chang also deliberately let this pair of men and women who had no true love show their "pretentious sincerity" in limited conversations; It cannot show its hypocrisy.The impatience (financial and lustful) of the two characters is catalyzed by a greater, impatient force: war.Of course, the story finally fell into the author Leng Zhi's ridicule (for love, marriage and even the big era) and ended.Bai Liusu's will to try to regain "economic support" and break away from the closed family, coupled with Fan Liuyuan's will to conquer "Chinese women" to prove that he is the master, formed a sense of speed lurking under the Andante of the Mean.They talked a lot, acted quickly, and thought carefully and far-reachingly, so that the "Bai Mansion", an ancient China, was beyond its reach. The contrast, contrast, and accompaniment. Among contemporary Chinese novelists, there are quite a few characters who follow Lao She's Peking accent and Zhang Ailing's Shanghai style in their creations. Not many can draw tigers, but many are anti-dogs.Those who follow Wu Lao She are mostly oily and ruffian; those who follow Zhang Ailing are more greasy and flattering.The so-called practice does not observe.Whether it is a classic or a milestone, Lao She and Zhang Ailing's pondering or comprehension of skills can obviously be found from the inside of the characters they designed.In July 1954, Zhang Ailing wrote a preface for Wei: "I read the content myself, and I am really ashamed, but I always think that these stories are worth writing, but unfortunately they were written badly by me." Lao She also said: "In the and "Anemia" two episodes, I am ashamed, I can't find anything decent!" ("How I Write Short Stories") For this kind of discourse, if you treat it with politeness and humility, you will easily lose some Understand the method and dimension of the novelist's self-improvement.We read Lao She’s self-satisfied words, and we can indeed figure out how intimate Zhang Ailing’s understanding of the role of “White Liusu” is from the following sentences: “The women who gain power in the wild world are not the ones that ordinary people imagine. Wild Rose, with fiery big black eyes, stronger than a man, with a horsewhip in his hand, whipping people every now and then, it was just fabricated by the city people in need of new stimulation. Under the wasteland in the future, there will be ruins Here, there is only a woman like Bengbengxi Huadan, who can live in peace, and in any era, in any society, is her home everywhere." ("Love in Allure: Preface to Second Edition") The novelist's own words are even It’s not entirely credible, but when we delve into the self-blame and conceit of Lao She and Zhang Ailing, there are some things worthy of observation by the toddlers of later generations: they all attach great importance to discovering the symbolic meaning from the surging will of the characters in the novel, and So as to determine the echo and support at the technical or aesthetic level.The calm Sand Dragon, the impatient Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan—the sense of speed driven by them is as deep as poetry.Playing with this kind of profundity, we not only understand the dilemma and limitations of Kundera's theory of speed, but also maintain surprise, curiosity and respect for that aesthetic paradigm.After all, first-rate writers don't just focus on speed in their action descriptions.The sense of speed is "poetry in the will", which cannot be measured by a timer and an odometer.