At the same time, a strange phenomenon appeared in the fruit and vegetable market. Small watermelons and tomatoes (also known as pearl fruit) have occupied fruit and vegetable stalls and become hot-selling goods.
I'm afraid this is not a coincidence. People give up the big one and choose the small one because the small one has small characteristics and the small one has small advantages.
It is people's traditional idea that big is not as good as small and long is not as good as short. This concept goes against objective reality, does not conform to materialist dialectics, and is bound to be eliminated.
In ancient times, when science was underdeveloped, China sages said that "the feet are shorter and the inches are longer".
The development of modern science and technology has repeatedly proved the power of small things: the powerful bomb is no longer a huge blockbuster, but an atomic bomb; Ultra-short wave used in medical treatment has stronger penetration than short wave, while microwave has stronger penetration than short wave and ultra-short wave, which can kill bacteria buried deep in tissues; And the powerful nanotechnology that has made great breakthroughs in recent years. ...
Let's take a look at mini-novels. In fact, micro-novels have existed since ancient times, but they have not received due attention. In 1980s, with China's reform and opening-up and fast-paced social life, micro-novels began to really rise, showing their edge with a light and agile attitude. After nearly 20 years' development, micro-fiction has a creative team of hundreds of people, creating tens of thousands of works every year. This is the objective condition and realistic basis for the popularity of mini-novels in the market. The monthly circulation of Selected Minifiction has jumped from several thousand copies when it was first published (1984) to nearly 700,000 copies today.
However, the popularity of mini-novels, which attract more readers than short stories and novellas, mainly depends not on its quantity but on its quality. The quality of mini-fiction is closely related to its essential characteristics. The author thinks that the essential feature of mini-fiction is an academic issue, which needs special discussion. I only put forward five words here: small, clever, new, strange and deep. "Small" means short and easy to read; "Clever" means ingenious and readable; "New" refers to novel themes (which can quickly reflect real life) and attract readers; "Strange" refers to unique perspective and pioneering thinking; "Profound" refers to profound thoughts that shock people's souls. The most important one is the word "deep", that is, it contains great ideas in a small space, just like an atomic bomb. By detonating readers' reading and thinking, it releases extremely powerful "atomic energy", which is shocking. This is the root of the charm of mini-novels.
Because of the short history of the rise and prosperity of mini-fiction, people's understanding of it is still in the primary stage. Merchants compete to publish mini-novels only for profit, which leads to a mixture of mini-novel publications in the market, and some short stories and essays are also under the banner of "mini-novels". Today, there are still people in literary criticism who regard micro-fiction as "fast food culture" and ignore it.
Therefore, it is urgent to improve the taste of micro-fiction and publish excellent micro-fiction works. To this end, we specially compiled this series of "The New and Excellent Square of Contemporary Miniature Novels". The authors of this series, Teng Gang, Cai Nan, Yin Quansheng, Chen Yonglin and Xue Tao, are all cutting-edge in the field of micro-fiction, and they belong to a lively category. Their works have their own characteristics, but they are all full of vigor and vitality, and they are all in the rising period of creation. Reading their representative works, we can not only get a glimpse of the general features of contemporary China mini-novels, but also understand and grasp the development direction of this new style.
We expect more novelists to appear and join this phalanx.
The era of star-studded short stories should not be too far away.