At a symposium on literary creation in the 20th century, such a question was raised. As soon as the words fell, there was no sound in all directions:
"Although the younger generation has energy, but has not experienced war, how should they better reflect war and history through literature?"
"We can make up for this deficiency in other ways."
At this time, everyone's eyes followed the sound and turned their heads to look at a young man sitting in the back row.
With a square face and eyebrows, a tiger's back and a bear's waist, with a simplicity and a sharpness exclusive to young people, he took the lead in breaking the silence and standing between the old and new writers.
This young man is the Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan. At that time, he had just published the novel "Spring Night Rain and Lightning" for the first time in a literary magazine.
In Mo Yan's view, "The novelist's creation is not to copy history, the novelist writes about war, but to show the distortion of the human soul and the mutation of human nature." ”
Unexpectedly, before Mo Yan's speech was finished, it attracted the disdain and ridicule of the people in the audience, "It is really a little monk who is lawless in playing with an umbrella, and the fierce son in the saucer does not know the depth." ”
The people in the audience laughed loudly, lining Mo Yan on the stage, his face was white and blue, and he secretly swore that he must write a novel on the theme of "war" to prove that he was not a mouthful.
So, it wasn't long before "Red Sorghum" came out.
The novel is set against the backdrop of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the folk life of Gaomi Northeast Township in the 1930s and 1940s. Through the love story of Yu Zhan'ao leading bandits against the Japanese army and Dai Fenglian and Yu Zhan'ao, a hymn of life between conflict and entanglement was constructed.
In 2000, Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum" was selected by Asia Weekly as one of the "Top 100 Novels of the Chinese 20th Century" by Asia Weekly. At the same time, it has also become one of Mo Yan's masterpieces, which vividly proves his aesthetic concept and creative talent.
At this point, Mo Yan finally handed in a satisfactory answer sheet for haikou that he boasted about when he was young.
Many years have passed, and "Red Sorghum" has also been adapted into a TV series and movie, and everyone knows that this work is good, but they don't know where the good is.
Therefore, today I will talk about the following three aspects, "Red Sorghum" this story of "want to say and rest", what is the good?
1. Flashback is Mo Yan's innovation that distinguishes it from "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
Why is "Red Sorghum" a story of "wanting to talk about hugh"?
This also starts with the story rhythm of "Red Sorghum".
The story begins on the ninth day of August 1939, when Dai Fenglian sends her child Douguan to follow Yu Zhan'ao's bandits to ambush the enemy's car team.
The sentences "My father" and "my grandmother" not only explain the mother-son relationship between Dai Fenglian and Douguan, but also enrich the inner activities of the characters from a first-person omniscient perspective.
When Dai Fenglian was 16 years old, she was already plump and beautiful, so her father took the initiative and married her to Shan Bianlang, a rich second generation in the "Gaomi Northeast Township".
Shan Bian Lang is in the town, but he is a hot son-in-law candidate. Although he was rumored to be suffering from "leprosy", he still could not stop others from wanting to marry his family.
With the intense anxiety of adolescence and a faint loneliness, Dai Fenglian looked forward to her husband, who could read and write, clear eyebrows, know cold and know heat.
Finally looking forward to the wedding date, on the palanquin, Dai Fenglian cried into a tearful person.
Then, Dai Fenglian inexplicably became the daughter-in-law of the bandit leader Yu Zhan'ao.
Why did Dai Fenglian become Yu Zhan'ao's wife?
Is it because Yu Zhan'ao Overlord the bow? ”
Is Dou Guan's son Shan Bian Lang' or Yu Zhan'ao's?
The novel does not break at the beginning, but deliberately creates the suspense of reading, and in the conflict of reality, the "flashback" jump method is used to trace the process of Dai Fenglian and Yu Zhan'ao's encounter and love. This is how "I want to say goodbye" is written.
To say one thing, but deliberately to disrupt the order. This kind of narrative satisfies the reader's appetite, making people curious and continuing to read.
This reminds me of Philip Claudel's "Brodeck's Report", which is also a first-person narrative, deliberately setting up layers of suspense, in the intersection of memory and reality, telling the reader a bizarre "murder case".
Some people have also read Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum" and believe that it was influenced by Marquez. Because this work has a lot of similarities with "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
Both works, for example, establish tragic themes and expose the darkness of human nature; both have "demonic realism characteristics."
In this regard, Mo Yan also made an explanation:
"The Red Sorghum was completed in 1984, and the Chinese translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude was only seen in the spring of 1985."
In Mo Yan's view, the most satisfactory thing about "Red Sorghum" is the narrative perspective of the novel.
Different from the traditional "first person", "second person", "third person", directly use "my grandfather", "my grandmother", "my father", the character's inner activities are richly expressed.
This was an innovation at the time, and one of the reasons why the novel was so popular at the time.
2. Nature is the characteristic of "Red Sorghum" given by the times
Wang Xiaobo said: "As long as a person's happiness or sadness is not pretended, it must have its own reason." You can share his happiness and sympathize with his sorrows, but you can't command him what to do, because it is against human nature. ”
Dai Fenglian is a woman full of wildness and strong vitality. She has a distinct personality, dares to act boldly, and does not like to be bound by "feudal etiquette".
In the words of the original text: "My grandmother dared to do anything, as long as she wanted." Her old man was not only a hero of the anti-Japanese resistance, but also a pioneer of individual liberation and a model of women's self-reliance."
When it comes to rural peasant women in the old society, many people will think of women who "cry one, make trouble two, hang three", or think of women like Xiang Lin's sister-in-law who are obedient.
After all, under the shackles of feudal etiquette, in the era when women's consciousness was suppressed, it was difficult to liberate women's nature.
But liberating nature is never exclusive to children and artists. The more repressed nature is for anyone, the more he desires liberation.
Mo Yan said, "The work of "Red Sorghum" expressed a common mentality of the Chinese at that time. After a long period of suppression of personal freedom, it exalted the spirit of individual liberation--- dare to speak, dare to think, dare to do. ”
Dai Fenglian did not want to sacrifice her happiness and marry a leper because of a man's condition and marriageable age. It's like she doesn't want to tie up the "three-inch golden lotus", but she has to do it.
Although Dai Fenglian can't change her parents' thoughts, she wants to change her fate through her own efforts.
After meeting Yu Zhan'ao again, Dai Fenglian ignored her married status and finally hugged Yu Zhan'ao in the sorghum field full of freedom and wildness.
When getting along with Yu Zhan'ao, a bandit man, Dai Fenglian subverted the usual weak image of women, and on the issue of right and wrong, she was not afraid of male power and bravely expressed her views.
In order to retain talents, she will unceremoniously question Yu Zhan'ao,
"I thought you were a good man, but I didn't expect you to be a nest. sack. Waste",
Then he shouted to Yu Zhan'ao without fear:
"Shoot!"
Knowing that Yu Zhan'ao and his brothers were going to fight the Japanese soldiers, Dai Fenglian ignored the danger, made lunch, and personally went to the front line to give it to them. Only then did they encounter a rain of bullets from the Japanese soldiers and fell into the sorghum field.
Throughout Dai Fenglian's life, it is both a challenge to feudal etiquette and an admiration for the liberation of nature.
In the 1980s, when Western culture was absorbed, when human consciousness awakened, when freedom was desired, and freedom was freed, Red Sorghum took advantage of the momentum and spoke "heartfelt words" for Chinese whose long-term freedom and nature had been suppressed.
As Dai Fenglian cried out before she died:
"My body is mine, I've done everything I've done, I've done everything, I'm not afraid of anything."
The pursuit of freedom, the liberation of nature, is necessary for everyone.
3. Authenticity is the cornerstone of "Red Sorghum" after it was chosen by the environment
The writer Victor Hugo once said: "There is greatness in the truth, and there is truth in the greatness." ”
Touching and thought-provoking stories are often true portrayals of real life. For Red Sorghum, "authenticity" is the cornerstone of its success.
Mo Yan said: "'Red Sorghum' comes from a true story that takes place in a neighboring village in the village where I live. First, the guerrillas fought an ambush battle on the bridge of the Jiaolai River, eliminating a Japanese detachment and burning a military vehicle, which was a great victory at that time. After a few days, the Japanese brigade returned to take revenge, the guerrillas had long since fled without a trace, and the Japanese killed more than a hundred ordinary people in that village, and burned all the houses in the village. ”
The choice of "Red Sorghum" comes from Mo Yan's hometown, and its inspiration comes from a true story. "Red" is the traditional color of our country, with warm and tragic characteristics. "Red sorghum" not only represents a real plant in the hometown, but also symbolizes the national spirit.
For example, "red sorghum fields, dark red people and ants, purple shadows and lips, bright red horizons, blood-red buttstocks and lightning, purple rattan." ”
As the "red sorghum" that runs through the novel, it not only creates a red sorghum world, but also shows the strength and enthusiasm of the heroic resistance of Chinese in a critical moment.
This reminds me of the original text of the novel when Dai Fenglian was hit:
Scattered grains of sorghum bounced across Grandma's face, and one of them jumped between her slightly open lips and rested on her innocent teeth. In the rain of pearls woven from sorghum, Grandma opened her eyes, and Grandma's eyes shot out pearl-like rainbows. ”
Dai Fengxia is more like a "heroine", and the hero's sacrifice is particularly heroic. Such a tragic picture, Mo Yan actually used red sorghum to write it out a touching beauty.
The most "real" is to impress people, which is also one of the charms of "Red Sorghum".
The biggest counterattack against those who contradict you is your achievements. Mo Yan used "Red Sorghum" not only to prove himself, but also to leave a good work for readers.
In life, we will inevitably encounter times when people are slighted or refuted. If you want to prove yourself right at this time, the verbal dispute is laborious. The more such a time, the more you need to lie down and taste the guts, do yourself well, and speak with strength. Because strength is the best proof.
This is also my biggest gain after reading "Red Sorghum" in 2021.