Back to 80: My Literary Life

On July 8, 1986, a seminar on the creation of the first part of "The Ordinary World" was held in a classroom of Lu Academy. Twenty critics from Yanjing and Qin Province, as well as Lu Yao himself, sat in a classroom. Beside the oval conference table made up of temporary desks, there are personal nameplates and two issues of "Flower City" magazine on each person's desk, which contains the first volume of "The Ordinary World" in installments.

Xie Wangxin, deputy editor-in-chief of "Flower City" magazine, presided over the meeting.

"Dear comrades, everyone has read the first part of Comrade Lu Yao's "The Ordinary World". Just now Comrade Lu Yao also briefly explained his creative ideas and subsequent writing plans for the second and third parts. Now please Everyone expressed their views on this book and put forward valuable opinions and suggestions, which will provide useful help for Comrade Lu Yao to complete the second and third parts."

After Xie Wangxin finished his opening remarks, there was silence in the conference room.

"Which comrade will speak first? Don't be polite, just say what you have to say. I think Comrade Lu Yao will accept it with an open mind." Xie Wangxin said with a smile again.

"Then I'm going to talk about my opinions on this book. If there are any inaccuracies, please criticize and correct me." A middle-aged man in his forties who was sitting opposite Fang Minghua spoke first.

Li Tuo, deputy editor-in-chief of Yanjing Literature.

Li Tuo was very active in the Yenching literary circle. After 1982, he became more engaged in theoretical criticism and was later honored as "Tuo Ye" by the Yenching literary circle.

Of course, he is now in his prime and has not yet reached the level of "grandfather", but he is full of fire when he speaks.

"I admire Comrade Lu Yao very much, and I really like reading the book "Life" written by him. When I first heard that Lu Yao was writing a novel, I was also full of hope. I hope that Lu Yao can bring us a novel comparable to "Life" this time. , an excellent novel that surpasses "Life". However, when I finished reading the first part of "The Ordinary World", there were only two words in my mind: disappointment. I did not expect that this book was written by the person who once wrote "Life" Writer Lu Yao?!"

After hearing Li Tuo's sharp words, Lu Yao, who was sitting opposite him and was smiling, suddenly changed his expression, and low murmurs came from the conference room.

Li Tuo continued his speech: "Comrade Lu Yao, we expect you to write a better work than "Life", instead of reprinting or writing an expanded version of "Life"! And this "Ordinary World" is exactly like this .”

"That's right! I think what Editor Li said is very reasonable." Another middle-aged man took over.

Fang Minghua looked at the nameplate in front of him.

radar.

Deputy editor-in-chief of "Chinese Writers" and famous critic. He has written literary reviews such as "Exploring the Art of Novel" and "The Youth of Literature".

The man continued speaking in a solemn Mandarin with the Suzhou dialect:

"Although Comrade Lu Yao only wrote the first part, we can easily see from the descriptions of the two main characters in the book, Sun Shaoping and Sun Shaoan, that he actually divided Gao Jialin in "Life" Second, the one who stayed in Gaojiacun is called Sun Shaoan, and the one who stayed in the city is Sun Shaoping! What is the meaning of writing like this?!"

"In addition, I would like to remind Comrade Lu Yao to note that it is already 1987. What is popular in the literary world? Pioneerism! Old-fashioned writing techniques like this kind of realism are obviously outdated!"

"Let me give you an example, the description at the beginning of the novel." Radar opened the magazine and read:

In February or March of 1975, on an ordinary day, the fine rain mixed with a few snowflakes was falling to the earth. The season is approaching, and of course the snow will no longer remain. It often disappears without a trace before it even hits the ground. The cold and long winter of the Loess Plateau seems to be over, but the truly warm spring is far from coming."

"Comrades, this kind of long description of the environment at the beginning is already backward for realist writers more than 100 years ago. Why? It's procrastination!"

Damn it!

After listening to this passage, Fang Minghua suddenly remembered the "Three Golden Chapters" emphasized in later Internet writing. Highlight the key points and go straight to the theme without unnecessary description." This is also the reason.

Radar’s speech continues:

“Everyone has read Madame Bovary, a novel written by the French writer Flaubert. It has been hailed as the end of romanticism and the beginning of realism. It is a landmark work in the history of literature.

In the first edition, he also spent a lot of ink describing typical environments and characters, but he basically deleted all these contents in the end.

"We were studying in self-study, and suddenly the principal came in, followed by a new student not wearing student uniform, and a small school janitor, but carrying a big desk." How simple and expressive! "

With the speeches of these two people, the rest of the people present also began to express their opinions.

Old story

Rough writing

No skills in writing avant-garde novels

The criticism was almost to the point of being completely scratched.

Lu Yao's face looked ugly, but he didn't say anything. He was smoking heavily and writing something down in his notebook with a pen.

Of course, some people think it is well written. For example, How to Come to the West thinks this novel is well written. This work has a main theme, a sincere understanding of farmers, and the anxiety and pain of their living conditions.

However, it is only the opinion of a few people. The vast majority of the evaluators here agree with the opinions of Radar, Li Tuo and others.

Looking at everyone's criticism, Wang Yu was also a little dumbfounded. He had participated in many seminars on his works, but he had never seen such criticism of his works!

Moreover, the author himself was present!

He couldn't bear it any longer, so he stood up and said, "Comrades, let me express my opinion."

Everyone looked at him.

"I think Lu Yao's "The Ordinary World" is a very realistic literary work, from which we can see the shadow of the "History of Entrepreneurship" written by Comrade Liu Qing. "History of Entrepreneurship" is a This is a great literary work that reflects the historical landscape and the changes in farmers’ thoughts and emotions in the process of socialist transformation of China’s agriculture.”

"And Lu Yao's "Ordinary World" describes the appearance of the countryside in the early days of reform and opening up. I think this is a work that is in the same vein and is better than the previous work."

Wang Yu said a lot, but was retorted by Li Tuo.

"Editor Wang, first of all, I think that "The Ordinary World" by Lu Yao cannot be compared with "History of Entrepreneurship" by Liu Qing, both in terms of writing skills and language, and more importantly, I personally don't think "Entrepreneurship" is "History" is a very literary work."

Hearing this, Lu Yao became angry.

He regarded Liu Qing as his literary mentor.

Both his creative thoughts and writing skills were greatly influenced by him. After Liu Qing's death, Lu Yao also wrote essays "Liu Qing in Critical Illness" and "Liu Qing's Legacy", which were published in the magazine "Yanhe" To commemorate Liu Qing.

Now when I heard someone say that to Liu Qing, I almost couldn't hold back my anger.

You can say that my writing is not good, but how can you slander Liu Qing? !

Just as he was about to stand up, he was quickly held down by Wang Yu and Fang Minghua, who were sitting on both sides of him.

Both of them knew Lu Yao's hot temper.

Don't start a fight on the spot.

Xie Wangxin, who presided over the meeting, had a wry smile on his face and secretly regretted it in his heart.

If I had known this, I shouldn’t have organized this workshop in the first place!

How should I write the minutes of this discussion meeting in the future?

The article is full of criticism.

Skull pain.

At this time, a young man stood up and said, "Comrades, I want to tell you what I think about this novel."

Everyone stopped talking and looked at him.

It's Fang Minghua.