Back to 80: My Literary Life

Supporters believe that this is a very good work. The author uses recollection to tell a contemporary Chinese history full of personal memories and individual experiences.

The novel uses two narrative structures to nest and combine. The novel tells the unfortunate experience and rough fate of Fugui in the era of rapid change with an ordinary and plain storyline. It shows the meaning of life and the value of existence in a calm brushstroke, and reveals the helplessness of fate and the unpredictability of life.

Opponents also have good reasons: the plot is too heavy and depressing-the protagonist Fugui's life is full of suffering and misfortune. This continuous negative emotion may make readers feel suffocated and difficult to resonate.

There are also disputes in character creation. The character of Fugui is not fully portrayed, and his behavior and decisions are often difficult to understand. For example, Fugui was able to quickly turn back after losing his family. This transformation seems a bit abrupt and lacks sufficient foreshadowing and explanation.

"Not heavy enough"

"Lack of epic feeling"

Fang Minghua listened carefully and took notes from time to time.

Any work has shortcomings, including "To Live"

What the opponents said made sense, and Fang Minghua had nothing to say to defend himself.

Just looking at this situation.

"Minghua, the situation is not good." Lei Da, who was sitting next to Fang Minghua, whispered.

Fang Minghua nodded and said, "If the situation was very good, it would not have been eliminated in the initial review."

"Then how do you convince the majority of the judges?" Lei Da asked again.

"I don't know either." Fang Minghua was very frank: "I just want to finish what I said."

"Next, please let Comrade Minghua speak." The host said.

According to regulations, for works recommended by the judges, after most of the judges have finished their comments, the recommender must speak.

One is to make a final summary and conclusion of the works recommended by themselves, and at the same time answer the questions raised by the judges about this book.

Fang Minghua stood up calmly, looked at everyone and said: "I and the comrades sitting here have already talked about the advantages, problems and defects of the book "To Live" very thoroughly. I will not repeat it here. I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words off topic. What is the original intention of establishing the Mao Dun Literature Award?!"

After hearing Fang Minghua's sudden words, the conference room suddenly became a little restless. Some judges didn't understand what Fang Minghua meant by suddenly saying this?

Some judges showed disdain on their faces.

You are the youngest here, right? When Mr. Mao Dun established this award, you were still a young man!

Ask us? !

Fang Minghua continued his speech without pausing: I remember very clearly that when I was working as a security guard at the Yanhe magazine, I saw Mr. Mao Dun in the newspaper. He dictated to his son Wei Tao his will to the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association:

"Dear comrades, in order to promote the creation of novels, I will donate my royalties of 250,000 yuan to the Writers Association as a fund to establish a novel literary prize to reward the best novels every year. The highest respect."

"This is the original intention of the Mao Dun Literature Award! To reward the best novels!" At this point, Fang Minghua emphasized.

"Comrade Minghua, look at what you mean, the novels that were awarded in the Mao Dun Awards in the past and the ones we are evaluating now are not the best novels?"

Someone interrupted him, his tone full of ridicule. "I have never denied that all novels that won the Mao Dun Literature Prize were not excellent, but have you noticed a problem, whether the works that won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in previous years have represented the literary trend of the time?"

"Since the 1980s, my country's literary world has experienced scar literature, educated youth literature, root-seeking literature, and avant-garde literature. In the 1990s, new realism novels, new historical novels, and new realism novels emerged. With the emergence of each wave of novels, a group of very excellent literary works have emerged, but are these excellent works reflected in the Mao Dun Literature Prize? I don't think so."

As soon as Fang Minghua finished speaking, there was another round of discussion in the conference room.

Now everyone understood that this guy was questioning the selection of the Mao Dun Literature Prize!

"The works selected by the Mao Dun Literature Prize are mainly concentrated in traditional realism and traditional historical novels. I don't know whether this is intentional as a standard or a kind of inertia or unspoken rule in the selection of judges. Frankly speaking, I think this idea is narrow-minded."

"Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a great realist work, but can you deny that Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is not an excellent magical realist work?"

"Tokugawa Ieyasu by Japanese writer Yamaoka Shohachi is an epic traditional historical novel, but Ragtime by American writer Doctorow has great literary value in the new historicism!"

The conference room was very quiet, and only Fang Minghua's voice was heard.

"Speaking of China, let alone "To Live", some new historical novels in China have successfully used a series of modern narrative techniques to make the story itself contain quite rich metaphorical meanings, such as Ge Fei's "Enemy", which is more spiritual and intellectual in terms of artistry."

"Avant-garde novels are no exception. Zhang Wei's "September Fables" has made extremely effective explorations on the possibility of the development of novels, both in terms of aesthetic ideals and in the operation of narrative discourse. Unfortunately, these novels cannot be included in the list of 20 preliminary reviews, and some are not even qualified for recommendation!"

"Comrades, if we or our descendants look back at these award-winning works in another ten, twenty, or thirty years, how many of them can we remember? Can they really represent the literature of our time?! Please think carefully, I'm done with my speech."

The conference room was still quiet.

At lunch, Lei Da smiled and said to Fang Minghua: "Minghua, your move is amazing, retreat to advance."

"What do you mean by retreat to advance?"

"It is an open secret that the Mao Dun Prize is biased towards traditional realistic and historical novels. The first three award-winning works that have been announced have not escaped this category."

Radar continued.

"You have come up with a trick. The evaluation of the works of the Mao Award is, in a sense, an evaluation of us judges. If we are still stubborn and miss so many excellent works, what will the younger generations say in a few years? Look, it's just a bunch of old stubborn people. What kind of things did they judge?!"

Old stubborn people?

Fang Minghua couldn't help laughing.

But it is true.

Take the selection results of this year's Mao Award in history. Except for "White Deer Plain", who can remember the other few? !

Ten days into the meeting, all the judges voted, and the most critical moment came.