Let's look at four famous writers, Fang Fang, Mei Zhao, Sun Ganlu and Lu Lu, and talk about the novel world from the writing of short stories.
(This article is from the literary forum "Sweet Time Fragments")
Short stories are not suitable for long stories.
People often forget "the first time": Fang Fang remembers that the first published work was "Collection of Short Stories in Caravan". "At that time, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House came to me, and I still felt flattered"; Lu remembers that at the age of 25, his first short story was published in "Germination", "200 yuan's payment is enough for my life for a month".
They all became attached to literature from short stories. But what is intriguing is that novels seem to be more popular than short stories in recent years. "Although the short story master Alice? Monroe won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 20 13, but in China, writers seem to prefer novels and regard the creation of the first novel as a landmark event. " Yuan Xiaoyi asked, "What do you think of the relationship between short stories and novels? Do you still write short stories? "
In Fang Fang's view, writing a long story or a short story has a problem of time allocation. China writers of her generation started writing around 1980. "With my experience, experience, knowledge reserve and mature writing skills at that time, I still didn't have the strength to write a long story."
By the middle of1980s, novellas appeared. "It's bigger than a short story, it's more enjoyable to write, and it doesn't take that long. So the novella attracted many people at once, and I was one of them. " After 1990, Fang Fang mainly wrote novellas, and basically did not write short stories. It was not until last year that I started writing short stories again.
"In fact, there is no strict concept of novella in the west," Sun Ganlu said. "In my opinion, there are two kinds ―― short stories and novels, or longer short stories and shorter novels, short stories and short stories. In fact, novels and short stories cannot replace each other at all. There is a vulgar assertion that' writing short stories and practicing pens' is untenable. A good short story can never write a good long story. It can't be made by washing some water. "
People's understanding of short stories is vulgar.
Lu also disagreed with the statement that "short stories were written by writers". He said: "Some writers may also start with poetry and drama. We always regard the relationship between novels and short stories as a kind of confrontation and think that short stories are weak. When we talk about short stories, we will definitely talk about novels, but when we talk about novels, we don't necessarily talk about short stories. "
"But I think that if there is confrontation, it is not a confrontation between two styles, but a confrontation between two characteristics of a writer. Why do short stories decline and novels flourish? I think the problem lies in the vulgarization of short stories and the utilitarianism of novels. This may lead to short stories serving readers more and novels serving the author's own problems more. "
Lu explained that long-form utilitarianism means "where there is literary ambition, a long milestone is needed", and "it may also involve publishing ambition, and publishers also have requirements for writers. Long stories will inevitably be influenced by utilitarianism, and it is not a bad thing within a moderate range. "
Then what is vulgarization of short stories? Lu told the paper media reporter: "Short stories are influenced by dog blood chicken soup, and the publishing industry also welcomes such works. Plus the influence of film and television on novels-you need to write something about film and television. In short, fast food. "
"Short stories become vulgar, writers' understanding of short stories becomes vulgar, and readers' understanding of short stories also becomes vulgar. We regard short stories as a cultural product that can quickly relieve fatigue. This is not an accusation, but an interesting cultural phenomenon. This is also related to our current lack of understanding of novels, literature and education. "
He said that people are nervous at work and have various discomforts, which can be relieved by exercising instead of singing short stories. "Because short stories are a shortcut to die of angina pectoris, they actually do not provide fatigue relief, life experience and emotional solution, nor do they provide inspiration and warmth. Very good short stories, to paraphrase the name of a collection of short stories by Lanad: Some people like cold. "
Will the future be the world of online novels?
Speaking of novels, Fang Fang also mentioned online novels. "Nowadays, young people write a lot of long stories, especially the introduction of online writers is long stories, which have been written all the time."
In this strange field, Fang Fang commented: "The advantage of online novels lies in wildness and vitality. But no one really checked. Its words, sentence patterns and skills are still relatively weak. But its progress is much faster than we thought, so I am still very optimistic. "
"I think the biggest problem with online novels may be that they are not particular enough. They pay attention to the rapid development of the plot, demand the rapid development of the story, and hang things that people see him every day. It does not pay attention to grinding a sword for ten years, connecting the past and the future, and pursuing structure. Of course, young people don't pick technology, just give me a story frame and a few characters. "
Mei Zhao believes that the current situation of online novels is full of mud and sand. "Of course, there are good online novels, but their relationship with money is completely different from that of traditional writers and money."
In addition, Mei Zhao said that literature itself is a very rigorous thing, but online novels don't practice language that much. "I was writing for the first time, and then I copied it again. Later, even if I typed online, my first draft had to be written on paper. Transferring text from paper to computer is a long process. "
"I think we should define online literature first. The online literature we are talking about now is everything published online, which is too general. In fact, (online literature) should refer to literature published on special websites, such as travel, fantasy, romance and so on. , and then updated every day. There is a reward reading below. " Sun Ganlu said.
He once heard that online writers update tens of thousands of words a day. "I am puzzled by their creation, and I don't know how they wrote it. Judging from the unit time, it must have collapsed. When we write something, we think it over and over again. In short, the word comes first and the word comes last. It takes a long time to write something, and it will come out in a year or so. Maybe these old ideas will be swept away. The future may be the world of the Internet, and literature will change. "
"But there are always some masters in a business. In theory, I am optimistic. "
"Just like when Wang Shuo came out, people called him names. At that time, Shi Zhecun said, don't look down on these vulgar and popular things. At that time, when The Book of Songs came out, it became vulgar and popular. Times have changed, and the so-called novel popularity is gossip, not a very high thing. "
As to where a good novel will be, Sun Ganlu said: "There is a Russian proverb,' Eyes to eyes, you can't see your face clearly'. If you get too close, you don't know what the other person looks like. We need time and distance to observe from the side. "
Source | Peng
Book Introduction
China's short stories, Volume I, 8 volumes in total.
The clouds are light and the wind is light+Mr. Wu and Mr. XXX+Good morning Beijing+Water Ghost+Virtual+Christmas Eve+Messenger+Pasturing the clouds on the roof.
East China Normal University Press
Light Clouds and Light Wind ―― Selected Short Stories by Fang Fang
Fangfang is a very active female writer in contemporary literary world. Her works have won many important awards, such as Hundred Flowers Award and China Women's Literature Prize in Novel Monthly, and have had a wide and far-reaching influence in all walks of life. Many novels have been translated into English, French, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Korean and Thai and published abroad. This book contains 12 Fang Fang's new works "Clouds are light and the wind is light" and "Sky Blue" as well as her classic short stories, among which "Clouds are light and the wind is light" was rated as the annual short story in the 20 16 Huadi Literature List.
Witch and Mr XXX ―― Selected Short Stories of Mei Zhao
Mei Zhao is an early writer with female consciousness, and her novels are full of romanticism. His works are dreamy, poetic, sad and touching, and have won many important awards such as Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award and Lu Xun Literature Award. This book contains 65,438+03 Mei Zhao's most representative short stories, such as Mr. Wu He Moumou, atonal short songs, Who makes dreams deep, etc.
Good morning, Beijing ―― Selected Short Stories by Xu Kun.
Xu Kun's short stories have made multiple explorations in cultural irony, women's fate, urban love and so on, showing the unique wisdom and sensitivity of female intellectuals. His works have won national, provincial and ministerial awards such as Lu Xun Literature Award, Lao She Literature Award and Feng Mu Literature Award, and won more than 30 awards in major journals, and have been translated into English, German, French, Russian and Japanese languages. This book contains eight influential short stories published by the author since he started writing, among which Kitchen won the second Lu Xun Literature Award, Occasional Love, Football on a Dog's Day and Good Morning Beijing won the monthly novel Hundred Flowers Award, and Bird Dung won the excellent novel award.
Water Ghost ―― Selected Short Stories of Su Tong
Su Tong especially likes writing short stories. Ge Fei once said, "There is no doubt that Su Tong is a master and master of China's contemporary short stories, representing the highest level of short stories". His works have been nominated for Mao Dun Literature Award, Mann Asia Literature Award, Chinese Media Literature Award, Lu Xun Literature Award and Booker International Literature Award. This book includes 1 1 representative short stories, such as The Water Ghost, Picking up Babies, Cavalry, etc.
Virtual ―― Selected Short Stories by Bi Feiyu
Bi Feiyu is one of the most influential novelists in contemporary China. He was good at short stories in the early stage, and later turned to novel writing. Breastfeeding Woman won the first Lu Xun Literature Award, Corn won the third Lu Xun Literature Award, and Massage won the eighth Mao Dun Literature Award. This book contains nine of Bi Feiyu's most representative short stories, such as Lactating Women, Remembering Sister Xiaoqing and Wangjiazhuang on Earth.
Christmas Eve ―― Selected Short Stories by Li Er
Li Er is regarded as one of the most important representative writers after China's avant-garde literature. His works won the Mao Dun Literature Award and the 2 1 Century Dingjun Biennale Literature Award, and were translated into German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. Cherry on the Pomegranate Tree was highly praised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the German media commented that it was "worthy of all the honors it won". This book contains eight masterpieces of Li Er's short stories, such as Silent Night, Being Loved by Children, and Visiting the Library at Night.
Letters from Courier ―― Selected Short Stories by Sun Ganlu
Sun Ganlu is one of the representative writers of avant-garde literature. His works have been translated into English, French and Japanese, and have been included in various literary selections at home and abroad. This book contains five of Sun Ganlu's most representative short stories, such as his famous works "A Dream Visit" and "A Letter from a Messenger" and "Let a woman guess a riddle".
Pastoral Clouds on the Roof ―― Selected Short Stories
In 2007, Nei Lu received attention for his novel Babylonian Youth, which was regarded as the most amazing novelist in contemporary literary world and one of the best novelists in China in 1970s. His writing is humorous and sentimental, which often makes people "read his writing with a smile, but they can't help being sad". He is the author of Follow the Trilogy, Past in Flower Street and Compassion. He has won the first novel award of People's Literature, the writer of the year of GQ Chinese edition and the novelist of the year of Chinese literature media award. This book contains the eight most representative short stories in On the Road.