The Surging News reporter Luo Xin
On July 30th, writer and film director Tang Di, critic Muye, writer Ji Zhongxian and literary editor Wu Huaxing visited The Happiness Collection Club BlackStone Shop in Shanghai to share with readers a strange journey from "Zero Kilometer" on the novel "Zero Kilometer".
Tang Di is a creator spanning many fields such as film, literature and photography. "Zero Kilometer" is his first novel, newly published by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House "KEY-Can Culture". Unfolding in the structure and form of a "map", "Kilometer Zero" consists of thirteen journeys— thirteen independent and connected novel stories, narrated by a mysterious protagonist Li Songye, all of whom follow his whereabouts. Thirteen "journeys" can be written in a stand-alone or concatenated into a "map-style" novel.
In addition, the book is accompanied by two acts of "drama that is not a drama", which together constitute this work that presents a "nother avant-garde" temperament. The twelve photographic works taken by Tang Di are also distributed in the relevant chapters of the book, integrating the narrative of the story journey and forming a unique "storytelling" method of "Kilometer Zero".
In Muye's view, Tang Di's works are either abundant or slightly weak, and a common feature is that he is very good at writing novels with imagery, "Look, Wind Tower" and "Green Grass" are the most prominent, "especially the wind tower in the former makes life and death more shocking: transparent and chaotic." This is related to his identity as a poet, of course, not lyrical, but he often promotes, reflects and deepens the characters through a figurative existence, thus making the narrative more vivid, which may also have something to do with his cultivation as a director. ”
Writer and film director Tang Di (center), critic Muye (right), and writer Ji Zhongxian (left). The image of this article is provided by the publisher
What is "kilometer zero"?
"Zero Kilometer" was completed two years ago, and now in retrospect, Tang Di still feels a lot. "It is particularly worth saying that for the authors of the novel, including myself, more and more talk is not a fictional problem, we are basically talking about real problems." He said that between the real and the fictional, the question of distance is also a part of the novel that is particularly concerned, "'Zero kilometers' sounds quite imaginary at first, but in fact, it originates from a starting point, zero kilometers of roads, zero kilometers of railways, etc." I am from Tangshan, Hebei Province, and the place where I grew up is where the Chinese Dragon locomotive drove out, which is the soul of China's railways. ”
"When I read this novel, I thought that the world exists on its own, but man always thinks about the world and its meaning from the perspective of human beings, and for this reason, man is the 'zero kilometer' of this world." Muye said that for the "zero kilometer" of people themselves, many people may say that they are hometowns and dreams, but he feels that it is a neutral "desire", such as a favorite for a girl, or a special desire to complete a mission, or a destructive desire, which can inspire people, and eventually make people go higher, or lose the way back.
In Ji Zhongxian's view, although the name of the book gives people a feeling of "on the road" and "going to go", it still deals with the problem of people and locals, or people and daily life. "Although there are also plots such as murder, leg splitting, and running away from home, I always feel that this is not his focus, he writes about the space between each reader and those people, in fact, the environment and atmosphere in which everyone lives." Each of us will have a 'feeling of powerlessness' to a greater or lesser extent, not knowing where to go. Almost every chapter and every plot of the book gives me this very strong feeling. The people inside don't know where to go, although each chapter has a clear distance, as if there is a clear direction, constantly approaching, in fact, there is no, everyone is trapped in their own origin. ”
Muye agrees that "Zero Kilometer" has always been about modern people, contemporary people, or ourselves are always in uncertainty and fatalism. "Modern people are in the double 'encirclement and suppression' of uncertainty and fatalism, but the interesting thing about life is that like a computer, it can constantly clear, restart, and create."
"At Kilometer Zero"
Fictional and non-fictional distances
Tang Di said that in the process of writing the book, he returned home several times and wanted to record the experiences of all the people he knew along the railway in the form of a novel. "A lot of what's written in this novel is true, it's just that I took the form of novels, or called them novels. The people here, except for the part that involves privacy, I retain most of the truth. ”
He also made some stylistic expansions in the genre of conventional novels. The novel consists of 13 chapters, which he turns into "stations" that echo the distance "at zero kilometers", and the distance between each station is marked by specific numbers. "I actually want to prove its authenticity, in fact, the distance of each station is also a fictional and non-fiction distance measured in my mind." "I wanted it to be a real novel, or 'non-fiction,'" he said. I interspersed a lot of pictures and miles that reflect the reality, in fact, to add a 'non-fiction' feeling. ”
Tang Di's emphasis on the documentary nature of "Kilometer Zero" surprised Ji Zhongxian: "I am also a writer of novels, and I have explained on many occasions that these texts are fictional. When reading this book, I was also struggling with the boundaries between the real and the fiction, the real and the absurd, and I still don't know it clearly, which is the charm of the novel itself. ”
"It may not matter whether it's real or not, but the sense of reality is more important than the real." Tang Di said, "Why do the real things I write so much with plot and plot feel like making up, in fact, it provides a sense of reality." I can only guarantee that in this book I put in the greatest sincerity. What I call sincerity is the projection of my memories in this book. ”
"Although Tang Di has always emphasized that his works are non-fiction, when we read them, they are regarded as fictional works. In other words, all texts that have been conceived and described have a fictional and imaginary side, but the color is different. "Muye said that people will selectively remember and play many things in their lifetime." Tang Di must have been the same when he wrote this novel, his text involves many people and things he knows, and he consciously or unconsciously combines and collages their appearances, thoughts and actions, etc., and finally constitutes a new person and a new story. Novelists go a long way than relying on false, misplaced, superimposed things to express the truth, and perhaps unexpectedly arrive at beauty and goodness. This is the case with 'Kilometer Zero' in this book. ”
Tang Di
Chase through time, chase the disappearance of your hometown
Tang Di is a young writer born in 1984, who has published a number of novels, art criticism and film theory collections, the main works of which are "The Collection of Relics", "Watermelon Grows on the Edge of the Sky", "Notes on Film Roaming Disorder" and so on. He is also an excellent visual director, having created a number of bold experimental shorts and art videos since 2008, and has been involved in the production of many films and documentaries in different capacities. Ji Zhongxian said that after reading "Zero Kilometer", it was like watching an unusual movie.
"I've been trying to find space." Tang Di said that he had the desire for the "Northern Archives Trilogy" because his hometown was rapidly abandoned by this era, and every time he went back, he found that something had disappeared. The places he played with as a child, the places where he went to school, could not be found at all, and sometimes he had to rely on some references to know "where this is".
Ji Zhongxian has a work called "Slow and Forever", which is a title that corresponds very much to Tang Di's feelings about returning to his hometown. "My hometown is in the Tangshan coal mining area, coal mining has a hole, the coal is not dug to stop, the hole will be cracked and the groundwater will emerge, and the bottom will collapse, and it will collapse every day." The girls near our village did not dare to marry us, and they are still more sensitive to our piece, afraid of falling at night. For example, a small grass a week ago, a week later it became a water weed, that is, the groundwater seeped upwards, and with this crisis, I slowly moved from one place to another, and then another place collapsed, and I grew up in this sense of crisis, paying special attention to the 'passing' things, so that I can use movies to keep it until now. I first made the Hometown Trilogy, and then people asked why I didn't shoot it, because my hometown was gone, and I didn't have anything to shoot. ”
The content of "Zero Kilometer" is basically written about the life of Tang Di's northern hometown. "I made a promise that I would write the trilogy just to chase, and I would chase through time and chase through the disappearance of my hometown with my own strength."
Editor-in-Charge: Liang Jia
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang