Back to 80: My Literary Life

The time has come to the end of May. Fang Minghua has completed two lectures at Xijing College, and today is the third lecture at the college.

The address of Xijing Literary College is in Dapiyuan of Beiyuanmen, near the famous Muslim Street in later generations.

In the map of Xi'an Prefecture during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, there was the Liangguang Guild Hall on the north side of Dongkou Road of Dapiyuan. At that time, Emperor Guan and Wenchang were worshiped there.

After liberation, the site of the Guangdong and Guangxi Guild Hall was transformed into Tuanjie Primary School. Although the current Tuanjie Primary School has no students, the gatehouse of the "Lianhu Tuanjie Primary School" still stands here.

The School of Liberal Arts is located here.

Today we’re talking about poetry writing techniques.

"Students, one of the techniques of modern poetry writing is the reasonable use of disjointed and empty lines. Let me give you an example: the American poet Ezra Pound's poem "Metro Station" uses this technique very well.

Fang Minghua stood on the podium and wrote a poem on the blackboard:

"The faces that appear faintly in the crowd

Wet, dark petals on the branches."

"Please look at this sentence." Fang Minghua turned around and looked at the students in the classroom, pointing at the blackboard with his pointer.

"In the two isolated images, the poet removed the association, resulting in a de facto disconnect between the two. It is this disconnect that releases the imagination of the appreciators and allows them to have a broader space for thinking. "

The students in the audience were taking notes carefully while listening. The classroom was very quiet.

At this moment, a man hurried over and stood at the door of the classroom and shouted to Fang Minghua: "Brother Minghua, your letter is from the United States!

It's Zhang Baofu.

The students' attention was quickly attracted to him, and they all looked at him.

Fang Minghua felt a little unhappy.

We were in class, why did you suddenly come over and tell me this?

But seeing Zhang Baofu panting, he should be grateful that someone came from the magazine to deliver the letter. "

"Thank you, you can put it on the windowsill first." Fang Minghua replied, then looked at the students under the podium: "Okay, everyone, continue to listen to the class carefully."

“I gave an example of the poetry writing technique of “disjointed” earlier, and I will give an example of “empty line” below. "

"Empty lines are generally used in micro-poems. What is used before them is often some enlightening sentences, such as this one."

Fang Minghua turned around and wrote a line of words on the blackboard, turned around and patted the chalk dust on his hands, and continued:

"a harsh judge

in the cold litigation

Spring bloomed in his face."

"Here there is a blank line between "a stern judge" and "in the cold proceedings/spring bloomed on his face". Because it is a miniature poem, these three lines are coherent, but it is not difficult for the reader Divide it into two sections and read it; the ones used at the end are often some concluding sentences."

For a full hour and a half, Fang Minghua completed today's lecture.

"stand up!"

"Goodbye, teacher!" the temporarily elected monitor led everyone to shout.

"Goodbye, classmates!" Fang Minghua returned the greeting seriously.

get out of class was over, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively. The students in the class were chatting and laughing in twos and threes.

Fang Minghua then left the classroom to pick up the letter on the window sill.

"Teacher Fang, are you friends from the United States?" asked a girl, Liu Meimei.

Liu Meimei is the youngest in the class, has a lively and cheerful personality, and is loved by everyone.

Fang Minghua looked at the mailing address of the envelope with a surprised look on his face, then opened the letterhead and took out the letter paper.

It's an invitation letter.

Very considerate, it is in Chinese and English.

Fang Minghua read it carefully with a smile on his face.

He then said to the girl: "No, it's a letter from the American Nebula Awards jury, inviting me to attend this year's award ceremony.

"Huh? Going to the United States to attend an award ceremony?!"

Liu Meimei was shocked.

Her words also attracted the surrounding students, who all gathered around and asked what was going on?

Fang Minghua had no choice but to explain: "The Nebula Award is an award established by the American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. It is selected and awarded by the Association every year. It is limited to American original works or foreign works translated and published in the United States."

"The awards include Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, and Best Short Story. The article "Country Teacher" I wrote was nominated for the Best Novelette Award, so I was invited to the United States to attend the award. ceremony."

Wow. Go to the United States to receive the award!

Everyone had envious looks on their faces.

Liu Meimei admired her even more: "Teacher Fang, you are so amazing!"

"It's just a nomination, you may not win the award in the end." Fang Minghua corrected.

"You should go regardless of whether you win or not. Besides, Teacher Fang, you will definitely win!" the girl said.

"Going to the United States? How can it be that easy?" Fang Minghua felt helpless.

Look at the time of the awards ceremony, July 6, which is just one month away.

How can I get a visa in one month? !

The craze for going abroad started in the early 1980s and is getting stronger.

As long as we talk about going abroad, regardless of country, the United States, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe... New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, major famous universities, especially famous universities such as Qingbei University of Science and Technology, all come out in droves.

Those who acted in movies, sang, acted in dramas, danced, played table tennis, played the violin, and painted in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai... almost everything they could think of came out. Some people say that front-line young people in the 1980s 95% of movie actors have gone abroad, and Liu Xiaoqing and Tang Guoqiang are probably the only ones left.

A typical example is the movie queen Chen Chong who left behind a flourishing career and was willing to go to the United States to wash dishes.

Another characteristic is that in addition to students from prestigious universities going abroad, there are also many people in the society who are already working and in their twenties and thirties who resign and go abroad. For example, Wang Qiming, played by Jiang Wen in "Yenjing Man in New York", is a Yanjing native. A famous cellist in an orchestra.

Of course, not to mention the various loan sharks provided to smugglers to smuggle immigrants.

These days, people who smuggle themselves into the United States are jokingly called "Wanba Ge and Wanba Sao", which means that the smuggling fee they pay to the smuggler is 18,000 US dollars!

Eighteen thousand US dollars is nearly 150,000 yuan at the current black market price!

This is an astronomical figure in this era, but it still doesn't stop some people from selling their entire family's assets or even lending money to the snakeheads. Carrying various dreams and using various methods, they traveled to foreign lands in groups.

Some people call it "foreign queue jumping".

It is said that young people applying for visas queue up in front of the US Consulate General in Shanghai every day.

Moreover, for a well-organized person like Fang Minghua, the more important part is the political review!

In these days, the political review process for going abroad is the most stringent of all political review processes.

Who knows if you will never come back?

However, the Nebula Awards jury cannot be blamed for this situation. They only selected the award nominees at this time. In the past, they were all European and American. Who knew there would be a Chinese this time?

It looked like I had to give up.

How about writing a letter to Sun Lizhe in the United States and asking him to lead it if he wins the prize?

This award ceremony was in Chicago, where he also happened to go to school.

That can only be the case.

But before Fang Minghua's letter was written, he suddenly received a notice from the National Writers Association:

Let him go to the University of Iowa to participate in the "International Writing Program".