Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Minghua, I think you are more and more interested in writing stories about small people in real life." Song Tangtang read the entire novel, raised his head and said the first sentence to Fang Minghua.

"Haha, Lili said the same thing. Writing grand epic narratives is certainly popular, but I think stories of small people like this have more social significance. They are easily overlooked in this era of drastic changes, and it is worth speaking out for them." Fang Minghua explained.

"What you said makes sense. A writer should have a sense of responsibility and mission, a strong shoulder to shoulder the moral responsibility, and a masterful hand to write the article. It would be even better if your novel could be adapted into a movie." Song Tangtang said.

“We’ll talk about it after it’s published.”

It’s late July and this novel is finally finished.

It turns out that this movie also has some problems, such as: the vagueness of the story narrative, resulting in "another kind of obscurity"; the storyline is incomplete, the plot is too short, and many things are not explained clearly or fully, causing the audience to not understand it. .

However, in Fang Minghua's novel, some problems no longer exist. The 70,000-word length is enough for the author to tell each story leisurely.

Narrative ambiguity is itself a common narrative technique in novels. For example, "Kong Yiji" written by Lu Xun, "Ulysses" written by the British writer Joyce, etc. all use this technique.

Also, criticism among ordinary movie fans: The ending of this movie does not have a happy ending like "The Piano", but has an open ending.

But in fiction, this is one of the strengths.

After Fang Minghua finished the first draft, he revised it carefully again, then printed it out and drove to "Yanhe" magazine to socialize with Bai Miao.

Bai Miao seemed very happy to see Fang Minghua come to contribute.

"Minghua, you are really timely. I am worried that there will be no suitable articles in the editor-in-chief's recommendation column in the next issue of "Yanhe"."

Fang Minghua was a little surprised when he heard this.

"No way? If nothing else, there are so many writers who have signed contracts with great gods, but not a single article has caught your eye?"

"No." Bai Miao smiled bitterly when he heard this: "This month, none of the contracted writers sent their works. I even called a few to ask, such as Yu Hua, Mo Yan, who often contribute to us. Su Tong, Liu Zhenyun, etc. all said that in the past two years, they have focused mainly on novels and reduced the writing of short and medium stories. "

Fang Minghua nodded after hearing this.

This is indeed the case. After entering the 1990s, these young and middle-aged writers became more mature in writing experience and skills, and began to write novels one after another.

Historically, the length and quality of novels written in the 1990s were higher than those in the 1980s.

"Minghua, the editor-in-chief position is getting harder and harder to sit in. It's very stressful. I don't even want to do it anymore." Bai Miao sighed again.

Fang Minghua was naturally deeply touched, but he patted Bai Miao on the shoulder with a smile and said in a joking tone: "Comrade Bai Miao, you have done well, keep up the good work, we all think highly of you!"

"Okay, then you have to support me! How about at least one article per month?"

"You want to exhaust me to death? I'm no better than Ping Wa."

The two chatted and laughed for a while before Fang Minghua handed the manuscript to Bai Miao.

"You take your time and watch, I'll go back first."

"What's the hurry? Let's sit down and chat for a while and drink some tea." Bai Miao enthusiastically persuaded him to stay.

Fang Minghua glanced at Bai Miao and drank labor insurance tea. He smiled and declined: "Forget it, I have something to do when I get back. Let's talk about it another day."

"Okay, let me read the novel you wrote first."

Two days later, Bai Miao called Fang Minghua and said that the novel was very exciting and was going to be published in the "Editor's Recommendation" column in the next issue.

"Minghua, your novel is a typical comedy novel with magical realism. It reminds me of "The Donkey Gets Water" that you published ten years ago, but the technique is much more mature."

"Thanks for the compliment."

"Hey, Minghua, I noticed that your novels have recently begun to focus on real people, will you write them again in the future?"

"Yes."

In mid-August, the new issue of "Yanhe" magazine published this novella in the column recommended by the editor.

Editor-in-chief Bai Miao also commented: This is the second novel written by the writer Minghua that focuses on reality.

The author pays exaggerated attention to the dilated pupils of the marginalized people in society towards the cruel reality and suffering life, and eloquently reveals the concrete division of body and spirit of the little people in traditional reality who are consumed by gray experiences, and the individualized human care.

The novel is about a small character who suffers from severe imbalance in character and psychological pressure and lacks sorrow. The tone also outlines a cry of grief and indignation against the cruel society and the suffering life."

Once the novel was published, it attracted the attention of readers and the literary world. Soon the critic Radar commented on the novel:

"Hello! "Mr. Tree" has a strong literary metaphor. In this film, you can see the shadow of Mr. K in Kafka's "The Castle" and Cosimo in Calvino's "The Baron in the Trees".

In the former, Mr. K took the initiative to approach a system, spent all his efforts and finally failed; in the latter, it seems that he is continuing this failure. "The Baron in the Trees" tells an attitude that completely breaks with ugly civilization and institutionalization. And an experiment in how to survive proudly after the break.

And "hello!" Mr. Tree in "Mr. Tree" can be understood as Mr. K who lives in a tree. He tries hard to integrate into the real life in the countryside and squeeze into the mainstream of rural youth, but he often can only climb back to the tree after encountering setbacks and achieve success. A refuge and protection...

"I heard that Minghua's last short story "The Weaving Girl" has been adapted into a movie script by a very young director and is being filmed. It is expected to meet the audience at the end of the year. I hope that this novel will also be adapted by a director to the big screen. I think it will be very exciting. But who can make such a realistic and absurd, plain but magical movie with tragedy in comedy? To be frank, it seems that there is no one now."

When Fang Minghua saw this article published in "Literary Review", the whole family was traveling in Dalian.

I had discussed with my wife in advance that before Song Tangtang went to Yinchuan to participate in the filming of "A Chinese Odyssey", they would take the children out for a walk during the summer vacation.

They chose Dalian and flew directly with their children.

Dalian was still very prosperous in the early 1990s, with trams on Dongguan Street, bustling Tianjin Street, Friendship City, and Fujiazhuang's seaside bathing beach.

The children had a lot of fun.

In his spare time, Fang Minghua bought this "Literary Review" from street newspapers and read the article above.

I sighed in my heart: "Fuck, this radar is really good at talking, it's like a map cannon.

But think about it, it does make sense.

The movie "Hello! Mr. Tree" belongs to the works of the sixth generation of film directors.

And the sixth generation directors like Wang Xiaoshuai, Wang Quan'an, Lu Chuan, Guan Hu, Lou Ye, etc. have not started to perform their debut works.

It seems that the leader Jia Zhangke has not been admitted to the Yanjing Film Academy yet?

Fang Minghua is right.

At this time, Jia Zhangke is still a senior high school student, and he should not be a repeater of the "fifth grade".

The pity is that he still failed to pass the exam this year.