China Writers Network opened a column "With Attitude", hoping to build a healthier literary ecology and lead a more ideal literary life. The column invited Huo Junming, deputy editor of the Poetry Journal, to talk about some issues related to modern poetry. The China Writers Network published some of Huo Junming's views under the title of "Huo Junming: The Ideal Poetry Should Point Directly to the Essential Proposition of Fate, Existence, and Time."
China Writers Network asked: "What problems do you think exist in the current poetry creation?" Huo Junming's answer was, "The writing pattern is too cramped and narrow, and the personal daily experience is too inflated without moderation and necessary transformation... There are too many circles, stereotypes, stylized, and replicable mediocre works... Poets and translators who imitate foreign poetry write a lot... The great poets who can truly absorb the nutrition of classical Chinese poetics and embody the ability of Chinese language and ideology are put into practice. ”
In Huo Junming's answer, he saw the narrowness of poetry writing, circled, imitation of foreign poets, and the lack of classical Chinese poetics, which indeed found some problems in modern poetry creation. In particular, it is particularly prominent that all foreign poets and foreign poetry are taken as the standard, and that our traditional poetry is completely abandoned.
Therefore, the absurd statement that "our poetic aesthetic is a hundred years behind the West" has emerged, and only then has the view that the West is the "deity" of modern poetry. And now the poems are more and more criticized by people, and more and more people feel that they "can't read", which is the final result of this view.
Asked", "What are the current problems in poetry criticism?" At the time, Huo Junming said that poetry criticism was increasingly reinforcing "individual behavior" and "the overall vision was scattered." "Narrow circles of mutual touching and bragging", "dualistic opposition, kingly stick criticism" are also common. "There are very few critical texts that lead the main trend of poetry of the times and can obtain a wide degree of consensus from all walks of life, and there are not many criticisms that can truly explore poetic issues and the propositions of the times from the perspective of macroscopic and microscopic integration."
Huo Junming's view can also be regarded as relatively objective. In the poetry review, Huo Junming again used the word "circle" and the phenomenon of "occupying the mountain as king". I think anyone who pays attention to modern poetry will feel something. Today's poetry criticism is basically the mutual praise within the circle, and the mutual depreciation and even attack between the circles. In poetry reviews, there is no specific comment on poetry at all, it is a completely inexplicable pile of words. Reading such a review not only does not help the understanding of poetry, but also becomes more and more confused.
When asked about the "solution", Huo Junming said that in poetry criticism, it is first necessary to tell the "truth", to have "professional ethics" and the bottom line of conscience, and not to wantonly praise or maliciously attack. "Critics must have talent, courage, knowledge, and strength at the same time, and critical texts must also be readable and disseminated." What Huo Junming calls these "solutions" can only be said to be the basic requirements for critics.
"The vision of criticism must have a spiritual volume, and criticism should have genealogy and overall constructivity", this requirement is higher. However, Huo Junming's answer actually did not explain the "solution", but only some requirements. However, as far as current poetry criticism is concerned, these basic requirements are often difficult to meet.
Now that we see the problems of modern poetry writing and criticism, how to solve it? Fortunately, Huo Junming is the deputy editor-in-chief of the "Poetry Journal", although he is not the editor-in-chief, he also has a greater voice in the poetry world. So can we expect that the poetry works published in the Poetry Journal will be different in the future? Will the poetry reviews published in the Poetry Journal change?
If that's the case, it's a really good thing. I think all those who care about poetry have a common desire, and that is that our poetry is becoming more and more popular. For now, the road is simply too long. I hope that Huo Junming, relying on the Poetry Journal, can narrow this distance.
In fact, for the current "solution" of poetry creation and criticism, the Tenth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association, which has just closed, has pointed out the direction. However, Huo Junming did not know whether it was intentional or unintentional? It just wasn't mentioned anyway. And he attributed the cause of "circle" and "narrowness" to the deep participation of self-media and all-media, and it seems that Huo Junming still has not got rid of "circle" and "narrowness". This also determines that his interview is likely to be a "paper talk" in the end.
Huo Junming specifically pointed out the "harm" of self-media and all-media, in fact, there are also "privileged" ideas at work. What poets are the "golden minority", the masses are the "fools", oh and so on, in the eyes of the poetry world, poetry writing and commentary are the privileges of a minority. But in the era of self-media and all-media, their privileges are increasingly being challenged.
This is actually a good thing, but Huo Junming regards this as the bane of "circle" and "narrowness", a bit of a "throwing pot" flavor, and the self-media does not have such a big ability. Therefore, the biggest "dualistic opposition" in the poetry world is not the opposition between circles and circles, but the opposition between poetry and the public. The solution to this antagonism is not to talk about it on paper, but to lay down one's stature, throw away one's privileges, and humbly listen to the opinions of the masses.