A few days ago, a newspaper reporter interviewed and talked about the publication of science fiction.People in the publishing industry are interested in talking about it, and the media is also interested in contributing to the flames. This shows that science fiction, as a publishing resource, has at least begun to attract the attention of the industry, which is a good thing.During this period, the reporter relayed a point of view: the sluggish publishing of Chinese science fiction is due to the lack of fantasy tradition in Chinese literature. This statement is no small surprise.A claim that astonishes people with its dogmatism and ignorance

Regarding Chinese literature, what we want to discuss is not whether there is a fantasy tradition, but why we have lost this tradition, and how to continue and expand this tradition today.From any extremely concise literary history, the names of works full of fantasy will appear: , , , and so on.Even after the "May 4th" New Culture Movement, Lu Xun's is a great work full of fantastic fantasy.However, in the middle of the century that just passed, the mighty water flow on the broad riverbed of Chinese literature was suddenly constricted into high embankments, and many tributaries disappeared. Realism" to name it.

Since then, for two or three generations, it has been difficult for us to see the dazzling light of fantasy in the eyes of literature, and it is no longer possible for our ears to hear the beautiful singing of imagination.That's why some people stand on the bank of the river of literature that is being re-opened and the imagination is being re-opened now and say: Chinese literature has no fantasy tradition.The audacity of this underestimation is indeed very surprising.The fact is that we have only lost the beautiful tradition of fantasy in just a few decades, and one of the most meaningful efforts in literature and publishing in the two decades since the beginning of New Age literature has been: The entire cultural tradition continues the broken connection, and at the same time, restores the ability to dialogue and communicate with the entire world.The reason why science fiction, an imported literary genre, has made great progress in these years is that it not only conforms to the aesthetic trend of the technological age, but also coincides with people's desire to continue the tradition of fantasy literature. Science fiction is a modern transformation of fantasy literature. body.However, the times have advanced, and when fantasy is on the road again, in addition to the spiritual needs that yearn to surpass reality, what is more important is to stand on the solid foundation of scientific knowledge and scientific vision.

There is often such a phenomenon that when discussing most of the achievements of world culture, we can find evidence from the achievements of the ancients in our country, proving that the creation and invention of our country are much, much earlier than that of foreigners.Of course, this has a certain factual basis, such as fantasy, which explains philosophy with abundant and boundless imagination, but the later Greek philosophers did not use this method. Hawking's new book is called "The Universe in a Nutshell", which points out the closure of the universe on a huge scale. History has turned a circle in this closed universe. We, who have a glorious history, have begun to forget the great legacy created by our wise ancestors. .

"Once the image in the memory is fixed by words, it is erased." In the imaginative Calvino's pen, Marco Polo said to the Khan of the Kingdom of Heaven. For this reason, he did not He is willing to tell Khan about the Venice in his memory, for fear of "losing her all at once".I think that the saying that China has no fantasy literature tradition is not to be like Marco Polo, who wants to treasure up this great heritage, let it be dusty, and present to the world a person who has never received the gift of fantasy. dead expression.In fact, the interruption of the tradition of literary fantasy is only the result of the temporary instrumentalization of literature.The result of this is that literature, with a single face, reproduces itself like bacteria, and some more intelligent ones learn to copy each other, and finally kill fantasy in the name of solemn reality.I vaguely remember Selina’s novel about a kind of mosquito carrying bacteria in the jungles on both sides of the African river. After the protagonist wandering on the river is infected by the bite, all kinds of terrible visions appear in front of his eyes.It seems that the same is true in literature. Once infected by a certain virus, hallucinations will also appear: the partial magnification obscures the overall appearance.

Today, the diversity of literary ecology is recovering, and in mainstream literature, imagination is revived, breaking through the dam like surging spring water.It is a pity that science fiction literature has only risen quietly outside the mainstream of literature. The literary world has not yet realized that the rise of science fiction literature is just a powerful continuation of the tradition of fantasy literature in another sense.The reason for this is that there is a limiting word in front of fantasy: science.It is precisely because of this that I used a word that probably comes from Buddhist scriptures: transformation.In other words, when fantasy reappears in literature, if the original appearance can be seen in mainstream literature, then when fantasy appears in science fiction literature, it is completely contemporary and fashionable. look like.Especially because the special style of science fiction literature first emerged from Europe and the United States and then entered China. Therefore, it is difficult for us to confirm whether there is any inheritance relationship between science fiction literature and the fantasy tradition in Chinese literature.Now, a large number of teenagers turn their interest to science fiction literature when they just start reading literature; more teenagers who want to try their hand at literature start from science fiction and make rapid progress. Thanks to Oufengmeiyu's blowing.I prefer to see it as the revival and reconstruction of the fantasy tradition with a new attitude under the conditions of the new era.Therefore, this "transformation" is worthy of the attention of the academic circles, and it is also worthy of our cheers.

I wrote a preface for the Chinese version of a series of foreign science fiction books, but talked about the revival and reconstruction of the fantasy tradition in Chinese literature. Maybe readers and even the editor of the series will blame me for not being on the topic.But I think that the reason why we translate and introduce these works and plan to carry on such a difficult work for a long time is to understand what fantasy literature looks like in other cultures , what level has been reached.Restoring and rebuilding our fantasy tradition cannot be just a simple continuation, but a substantial progress with the characteristics of a new era.Especially considering that this tradition has been interrupted and forgotten for a long time, it is of special significance to introduce such stones from other mountains for reference and to broaden our horizons.Sometimes the dam that restricts free imagination on the river of literature is too strong. To break away from such a stubborn existence, sometimes it is necessary to introduce another energetic current, which forms a powerful synergy with the force inside the dam that yearns for freedom.

Therefore, the publication of this series of books has a special significance. It reminds us that the reconstruction of the tradition of Chinese literary fantasy requires a lot of horizontal comparisons in addition to the vertical continuation. Only in the sense of dialogue with the world can this This reconstruction is a real reconstruction. A Lai, Editor-in-Chief of Science Fiction World