Chapter 32 4. There is no "truth" in literature, and there is no outdated theory

Q: Mr. Mo, hello!Your play is perfunctory based on "Historical Records", and the story of Jing Ke's assassination of Qin Dynasty has a different meaning after your interpretation.For example, Jing Ke has become a character who went from simply wanting to "be famous" at the beginning to having sober helplessness in the end.Why are you writing this? Answer: I did not deliberately deconstruct history, I just removed the barriers between the ancients and the moderns. The story of Jing Ke's assassination of Qin in "Historical Records" is relatively simple. Sima Qian only writes about the behavior of the characters, not the psychology of the characters.Based on this simple story, I deduce a big drama. The motivation behind the story and the characters is my understanding.Psychoanalysis becomes the focus of the play.

At the beginning of the play, Jing Ke, like ordinary knights, wanted to become famous overnight. His ultimate goal was to repay the prince's kindness, assassinate the king of Qin, and achieve great fame for thousands of years—even if he risked his life.But later he felt that all this was meaningless, because the assassin was unknown, which led to thinking about the value of people.In the play, when Jing Ke assassinates Qin Qin for the last time, he no longer has any utilitarianism, justice or injustice, just a helpless performance.He understood everything, but the spectators did not.It's a bit like a football game that has been traded behind the scenes. The players are pretending to play, but the audience is watching intently.

Question: The "Jing Ke" in history has become "our" Jing Ke. You said that what you want to tell is the story in your own heart. Every audience can see themselves from Jing Ke. There are also many modern characters in the play. Language and behaviour, and reinterpretation of traditional views. A: There are many post-modern approaches in this play, which appear from time to time to emphasize and remind us that we are modern people, and we should think about everything we perform on the stage, instead of being too obsessed with history in the plot.A historical drama must allow the audience to see themselves and the people around them. This is meaningful, and the audience will look down.In the end, this play must lead to thinking about the current society and thinking about oneself, especially thinking about oneself.We are busy and working hard, but what exactly do we want to achieve?What is the ultimate meaning of the goal?What is the perfect person?How does one achieve perfection?This is the ultimate question everyone has to think about.I want the audience to think about the inner circle they are in in reality through the inner circle shown on the stage.

Question: What do you think are the similarities between your "small circle" literary world and the so-called chivalrous "small circle" in the play?What do you see about yourself? Answer: The literary world is the "chivalrous world".Many of my understandings in this play are triggered by the literary world I am in.The literary world is a social circle. There are those who plead for the people, those who work hard, those who stand on high branches and sing high-sounding words, and those who rely on the old to sell the old... There is also a Jing Ke hidden in the depths of my own soul. , Of course I did not assassinate King Qin.I'm talking about a mental journey.I am also going through the process of gradually understanding myself and denying myself.I have been constantly denying my past behaviors and works, and constantly denying my many superficial ideas, many immature expressions of thoughts, and imperfect presentations in my works.

When I entered the literary world at the beginning, I also wanted to be famous and express myself. Later, I gradually realized that there are higher and more valuable things waiting for me to pursue. Q: What is this more valuable thing? Answer: It is through writing, constantly changing myself, so that I can become a better person in the end. Q: Your novels are known for their rich imagination, and sometimes you deliberately use a little bizarre descriptive language.But drama is to "speak", which is different from novels.So, after you have written so many novels and then wrote dramas, how do you feel about mastering the language of dramas?

A: After writing a novel and then writing a drama, I think it is more difficult and more challenging to write.But when you see your script presented on stage, it feels different.Some of my works have been adapted into film scripts before, but film scripts do not have particularly strong requirements for language artistry and literariness, and drama is truly an art of language. I think I have a talent for this.In my past novels, the too dazzling language obscured my ability to write dialogues, and writing plays can stimulate my talent in dialogues. Fiction and play can actually be both - and many writers do.Mr. Lao She has written many plays and novels; Dylan Matt, Chekhov, Sartre, etc. have also written plays. Sartre’s achievement as a playwright is actually greater than his achievement as a novelist.Chinese writers have an advantage, because traditional Chinese novels attach great importance to dialogue between characters, and what each character says must conform to their personality.

Q: What do you think of the art form of drama?Do you still plan to continue writing dramas? A: At first, I thought drama was a group of people quarreling on stage, presented in the form of quarreling, but now I understand that it is not that simple.The ultimate purpose of drama is the same as that of novels, which is to write about people, dig out people's spiritual world, inner conflicts, and finally understand people. The next step is to write my third play, a purely realistic play, and try to finish it in 2012. Q: Do you think there are any common standards for good literary works?

Answer: A good work must first look good!Good-looking is not about showing off gimmicks to attract readers and audiences, but an overall concept.First, its story must be very exciting; second, it must create rich, three-dimensional, typical and individual characters.A character is not only a collection of many people, but also a unique person; this character can make readers think of others, society, and themselves, which is a very important symbol; third, excellent language.Literature and art play with language. If a writer's language is awkward and bumpy, then his work will not be a good one.So a good work is a perfect synthesis.

Q: What do you think of the current situation that the creative ability of Chinese writers is generally not as good as before?What do you think a writer should do when writing? A: We do miss our own 1980s, and we admire the masters of the 18th and 19th centuries.But in another 50 years, perhaps people will also miss the present and the present era.Many people scolded Lu Xun back then, Zhang Ailing was not even looked down upon by anyone, and Shen Congwen was discovered decades later.Therefore, when a writer writes, don't think about the eternal beauty, don't think about the expensive paper in Luoyang, just make the most perfect presentation. After the work comes out, whether you accept it or not is up to you.

Q: So what is your opinion on the current ecology of literary creation? Answer: This is a matter of course, as long as it is harmless, it can exist.For me, my readers are always such a group, how should I write, or how to write.I will not change my basic ideas because of the environment. Of course, every writer also has his own limitations. Q: Where are your limitations? A: My limitation is my life experience.I am familiar with the countryside, I am familiar with the 80s and 90s, I am relatively unfamiliar with the city, and I am relatively unfamiliar with the spiritual world of young people born in the 80s and 90s.

Q: Do you feel this kind of strangeness? A: The feeling is very strong.When I went back to the countryside, I saw that young people in their 20s were completely different from us back then, and their pursuits were vastly different.I use my experience to infer the people of the 1950s and 1970s, and there will not be too much error. If I still use the thinking of the year to infer this generation, it must be misplaced. This requires a new generation of writers to write. Their lives. Q: What do you think of the new generation of young writers? A: The writers of this generation have rich and delicate self-experience, but their social perspective is narrow and their sense of history is indifferent.I accept and understand this generation.Because when we think back to when we were writing, the older generation of writers in the literary world at that time also had opinions on us and had various worries. In a blink of an eye, we also became people of that age group, so we should be tolerant and understanding to the young writers today. Q: Do you think there is an inevitable connection between the production of great works and the writer's sense of history? A: The definition of a great work is determined by our generation and our predecessors. The next generation may redefine a great work. It may be a profound experience in the heart. There is no need for literary things to be set like this With such a framework, there is no possibility of setting a path for them. Question: The affirmation of the personalization of literature also has precedents in the course of literary history, such as the stream of consciousness has also formed a genre of literature. A: Yes, like Brewster and Joyce, they are all highly personal and closed writing.Not only are people closed, but their hearts are also closed.They are immersed in the memories of the past and the subtle personal feelings and cannot extricate themselves, but they have written works that are known as great.The tradition of Chinese literature is to have a broad historical picture, a deep sense of urgency, human suffering and a sense of fate, which has become a kind of "control" now.Now the writer picks up a pen and sets up a century-old history and several big families, which is also terrible. What is worth thinking about now is whether we can get out of the "history control" and "grand narrative control" and enter this kind of personal narrative-but then I returned to the "history control" myself.Therefore, I think that there is no "truth" in literature, and there is no outdated theory. Maybe the value and writing method that is denied now will become an innovation and trigger a new craze if it is written ten years later.