Some people joked, "Double Snow Tao First Year", here it comes.
In the 2021 Spring Festival file, "Assassination of a Novelist" has become a "dark horse" in a sense. "Moses on the Plain" (the film title is "Fire on the Plain") has been filmed and produced, another novel by Shuang Xuetao, "The Aviator", has been selected as a director, and in the Douban entry, "My Friend Andrei" seems to have been put on the adaptation schedule.
Shuang Xuetao's novel has undoubtedly become a big hit in recent years for film and television adaptations. Naturally, his novels have a natural drama, with many characters and stories to play with their imagination, but perhaps more importantly, there is a strong sense of the times that can resonate strongly, and those who are still struggling to preserve the light even if they struggle in the dark.
*(The main text has some plot discussions about the novels Moses on the Plains and The Aviator.) ）
01.
New narrative space
Since the reform and opening up, China has experienced rapid economic development and rapid urbanization, and the changes in life and culture have been so great that it is almost impossible to imagine returning to life a few decades ago.
But for a long time, contemporary Chinese literature has conveyed a kind of "peasant spirit" of hardship, simplicity and silent patience through language textbooks. Whether it is the hardships and hardships in Yu Hua's "Alive" or the magical countryside of Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum", they are all based on land and based on the upheaval in the chaos of war.
In Xu Zidong's words, Chinese novels after the 1980s are more like a "watchman", without too many breakthroughs, still continuing the novel line of more than 40 years ago.
The literary tradition of tracing roots from the land has lasted for decades, and the dirt has long since been turned into concrete floors and skyscrapers, and in recent years literature has begun to seriously explore modern urban life.
"Swim until the water turns blue"
In 2019, Dozens of highly respected writers, including Jia Pingwo and Yu Hua, came to a small village in Fenyang, Shanxi Province, to talk about the countryside and the city, literature and reality, trying to connect the changes in individuals and families in China's social changes in the past seven decades. (Later filmed as the documentary "Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue")
In fact, the trajectory of these changes, we have more or less seen in film and television dramas. The emotional entanglement between the coal boss and the miners in Jia Zhangke's film "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers", the traces and evil sins of the Shenzhen merchants in Lou Ye's "Clouds Made of Rain in the Wind", and the quiet and dampness of the southern town in Bi Gan's films all give excellent answers to the narrative space and visual style of the stories of the 1980s and 1990s.
In contrast, many of the urban stories in recent literary works are imitating the Western postmodernist writing style, full of a small sense of personality and alienation, but it is difficult to form a unified image of the times.
Shuang Xuetao is one of the outliers.
Shuang Xuetao's grasp and descriptive power of the atmosphere of the times enable the withered northeast town to cross the region and evoke a kind of collective memory of the 80/90 generation - whether it is a northeaster, a large factory, or the rapid change of the torrent of the times, these memory points run through the north and south, smeared into the background of each of our lives.
02.
Not just the "family of origin",
The mystery hidden in the parents' generation
Maybe we were all confused by the gloom or rage of our parents when we were young, felt hurt by rough communication methods, and turned to hobbies such as chasing stars, listening to popular songs, reading youth literature, and playing games.
But when we have passed the rebellious adolescence and look back, we still can't help but ask, why did they (their parents) do this? Where do the hidden hardships of life come from?
As a young post-80s writer, Shuang Xuetao extends his brushstrokes to the burdens and even scars of his parents and his parents, and the generation of this offspring perspective makes this collective memory get rid of the category of youth literature, restore the solemnity that serious literature should have, and extend the resonance and understanding between the two generations.
The rich conversational and universal aesthetic energy contained in this collective memory has also firmly sucked the reading attention of two generations into it.
In Shuang Xuetao's short story "Moses on the Plain", the symbol of the interaction and relationship between fathers and children is almost a link throughout the text.
The relationship between the protagonist Zhuang Shu and his father Zhuang Dezeng is typical of the absent father and the stubborn son. This model of paternity is very common in successful business families that have become rich after the 90s, and the father is usually not highly educated, but he is still diligent, and he has "caught up with the trip", traveling for business all year round, alienating the family, and encountering problems with children will only be solved by beating and cursing.
Children in such families are mostly dissatisfied with their parents and often attract attention through skipping class, fighting and other over-the-top behaviors. Although the father-son relationship is so distant, Zhuang Shu is to some extent in line with Zhuang Dezeng in his youth.
During the ten years of turmoil, Zhuang Dezeng once accidentally killed Fu Dongxin's uncle. As an adult, Zhuang Shu became a policeman and became a guardian of order, just as Zhuang Dezeng became the guardian of the family after marriage.
What is more noteworthy is the relationship between Zhuang Shu and his mother Fu Dongxin, whose mother-son relationship is bizarrely cold. Fu Dongxin, the mother, refused to go to her own son, but she taught the neighbor girl Li Fei, and was even willing to pay Li Fei's tuition.
It turned out that Fu Dongxin was a family of scholars, but his literary ideals were ruined by the times. Li Fei, like when she was a child, had many private emotions and thoughts in her heart, so she invested in Li Fei's youthful ideals and regarded her as a continuation of herself.
It can be said that Li Fei corresponds to Fu Dongxin of the new era, and Zhuang Shu corresponds to Zhuang Dezeng of the new era.
"Flames on the Plains", Fu Dongxin and Li Fei
Sadly, two generations have also been teased by the fate of the times. Fu Dongxin did not give birth to Zhuang Shu until he discovered that her husband Zhuang Dezeng was the murderer who killed her uncle and persecuted her father, and her marriage was overshadowed by unhappiness.
Zhuang Shu and Li Fei of Qingmei Bamboo Horse broke off contact due to an accidental taxi robbery, and they met again because Zhuang Shu pursued the case as a policeman. These two lovers originally had sincere feelings, but because of fate, they became resentful couples and rivals.
"Moses on the Plain" focuses on the coldness and ridicule of the changing times with concentrated and exaggerated drama, and another short story, "The Master", uses genetic details such as "I have the same boil as my father" and "my father wears my old clothes like me because of his body shape", reflecting the inextricable close connection between father and son.
The semi-autobiographical works written by Shuang Xuetao in his early years and the "Age of the Deaf and Dumb", which gave birth to "My Friend Andrei" (based on "Huo Jialin"), intuitively embody the author's desire to justify the name and redress of his father's generation with compassion and simple description.
In the contemporary era when the term "original family problem" is widely used, many young writers, and even many of their peers, have more or less subconsciously attributed the difficulties and pains in life to the misfortunes of the original family and to harsh or cold parents in the text.
But what is the reason for the parents' appearance? They are not born like this. Shuang Xuetao got rid of the gaze on himself when he explored inward in the present moment, and tried to touch on the higher social mechanisms in ordinary youth stories.
In "The Age of Deaf and Dumb", Shuang Xuetao built a classroom covered with dust, the class teacher who collected the tuition class fee, beat and scolded the parents of the children in front of the principal, and restored the depressed youth shared by most of the post-80s and 90s with accurate sketching ability.
Girls who tried to live in early love were labeled "sluts", poor classmates who wrote big character newspapers for their friends were ordered to withdraw from school, the teacher's lackeys finally became small bank clerks, and the sensible and sleek two-faced classmates were reached by virtue of their smooth official luck. These stories seem to have a fixed template, which has been interpreted in everyone's youth in a similar way, and it is not new.
But the author takes us back to the beginning, back to the moment when our youth was depressed by this, and with our common pain, she secretly asked: Why do parents say that we are spoiled at every turn, why do schools and families form a social mechanism dedicated to destroying individuality and leading people to mediocrity?
While showing the generation gap and contradictions that cannot be bridged with the parents and the entire social mechanism, the author also meticulously portrays the hardships of parents getting up early every day to sell tea eggs after the enterprise restructuring, the trembling trust in the country and the future, and the humility of trying to intercede for the children in front of the teachers.
Sympathy and understanding are about to emerge, while at the same time a strong desire to understand their parents is revealed. When the teenager in the book silently rebels against the entire social mechanism, he is also angry at the injustice of the times to his parents, and regrets the glory of his father's generation that was taken away by the times.
This recognition and understanding closely pulls the two generations that were originally divided into the same era space.
03.
Ordinary people who are tricked by the fate of the times
The characters in Shuang Xuetao's novels are often swayed by fate, but he attributes the dramatic conflicts that seem to be completely coincidental to a clear background of the times and are closely related to the elements of the times.
The tragedy of Fu Dongxin and Zhuang Dezeng is due to the evil of human nature in a special era, and the tragedy of Zhuang Shu and Li Fei is largely due to the poverty and chaos after the change of the economic system. Ordinary people who are teased by the fate of the times - this is one of the characteristics of The characters in Shuang Xuetao's novels.
The switch of the times is unreasonable, the giant wheel of the times has no eyes, and the people who have been run over by the giant wheel of the times have lost what they want most and have to retreat to the second place.
"Flames on the Plains"
In "Moses on the Plain", Fu Dongxin of The Xiangmendi had to accept the fate of marriage and children, and in "The Aviator", the inventor of the aircraft, the second uncle, was forced to turn to business because of his livelihood. The killer in "Assassination of a Novelist" has to embark on the path of a killer in order to find his lost daughter.
However, after the compromise and concession, fate played them a bigger joke, as if cracking a mocking mouth and laughing in the air.
At this time, the characters in the novel (including those of us who are reading them) feel ridiculed and teased, but there is nowhere to vent, and no one can blame. While helplessly experiencing the great absurdity of fate, the motivations and moods of the characters have changed, which in turn has advanced the next step of plot development.
But shuang Xuetao's characters, in the face of the ridicule and injustice of fate, none of them are self-destructive, on the contrary, they still adhere to the ideals and moral codes in their hearts, just in a different way, a more ordinary and ordinary, as if it is the way of life of the people around you and me.
Fu Dongxin did not abandon his literary dream because of marriage, but projected the literary dream on Li Fei with greater enthusiasm; old Li (Li Fei's father) did not become a morally tyrannical gangster because of his layoff, even if he encountered greater accidents, he did not want to trouble others, and became a taxi driver in anonymity.
The Assassination of a Novelist
The second brother-in-law in "The Aviator" did not give up because of the failure to make the flying machine, and has been trying to build an upgraded and improved version of the hot air balloon; in "Assassination of the Novelist", the killer did not really kill the novelist, but joined forces with the novelist to save his daughter.
As the sentence on the cover of "The Aviator" writes, "Heavy snow cannot cover the blood of mortals, and dignity and freedom are born in desperate circumstances."
There is warmth in the cold, light in the darkness, hope in despair, and sublime in humility. The more difficult the times, the more Shuang Xuetao gave full trust and high recognition to human nature.
That's why the characters in these stories can be so deep and real, leaving long traces in our hearts, they are sparkling and romantic.
04.
Throw out a hope
The romance of Shuang Xuetao's pen is the flame thrown into the air by Li Fei in childhood, the imagination of the second brother-in-law standing on the roof facing the wind and talking about the aircraft, and the flute blown by the little orange in the fog (the daughter of the protagonist in "Assassination of the Novelist"). They look flashy, but they run through the beginning and end of the article, reminding people not to forget it from beginning to end. Don't forget the good yearning, don't give up hope.
This practice of repeatedly mentioning an image as the main spiritual core of the article is not uncommon, but it is worth noting that Shuang Xuetao's romantic imagery always connects two or even three generations.
The scene of Li Fei throwing flames into the sky was painted by Fu Dongxin on the cigarette box; the flute sound of the small orange became the killer's only concern on the wrong road; the second brother-in-law's dream of flying constantly inspired the older generation and attracted the input of the new generation. The ideal picture of romance is transmitted, evolved, and nurtured between generations.
The "aviator" in "The Aviator" is gao Mingqi, the second brother-in-law who dreams of building a flying machine. Gao Mingqi is a typical crazy character, with bones that are lighter than ordinary people and unrealistic lofty ideals.
But the strange thing is that his ideal of building a flying machine has always been understood and supported by his family, and even direct financial investment. Whether it is his wife or father-in-law, his brother or his brother-in-law, he believes in the future he describes, and believes that flying machines can build and change the world.
Is this family naïve and gullible? No. This family is not without its experience of setbacks and tragedies. Gao Mingqi's father was overthrown in the past movement and then committed suicide, and his son also experienced emotional setbacks and nearly committed suicide.
Finally, a hot air balloon that Gao Mingqi took off carried him, his son, and his brother with a leg disease. They are all willing to believe in him, that the hot air balloon will take them away from reality and fly to the ideal place. This picture is extremely magical, as if the story is told here, suddenly entering a strange direction, suddenly thrown into the sky.
But the disappointment and eager anticipation mixed in with it are unforgettable for a long time.
This is the same as Shuang Xuetao's bizarre narrative style. When a passage makes the reader feel sad, it is followed by a paragraph of ridicule and ridicule. As if to say, if fate gives us a joke, a teasing, we will return it with a joke.
This playful hot air balloon took off with great sincerity. When the hot air balloon takes off, it flies the dream that belongs to three generations, the romance of three generations. It means intergenerational reconciliation, and it also means that a new generation of young people will also carry the dreams and setbacks of their parents and move forward together.
Musician Zhang Yadong said of Shuang Xuetao's novel, "His work is completely terminated in an unbelievable way, which is very cool. Nor does the story stop because the literary narrative stops. The ending of Shuang Xuetao's works, rarely like pop music, ended with a "perfect terminator".
He did not specify whether the hot air balloon flew to South America, nor did he write whether Li Fei and Zhuang Shu were reconciled at their last meeting. But from the clues left by the article, we know that the hot air balloon will explode with a high probability, separating the lake water between Li Fei and Zhuang Shu, and it is difficult for Moses to separate it.
But Shuang Xuetao still chose to throw out a hope in the most difficult and unprepared moments of life.
Every time after reading the last line of his novel, in addition to the great sense of fate absurdity and tragedy, a mouthful of suffocating breath that was suspended in the heart was also slowly exhaled, and the mood turned to be taken away by the flying romance. The unbearable things in life, the pain and shame, were forgiven in that moment.
It makes us feel deeply about the powerlessness of ordinary people in the context of the big times, but it also makes us forgive ourselves and continue to hold on to hope.
This may be the reason why we need Shuang Xuetao.
Shuang Xuetao's latest novel
Tengo Handbook
Taipei and Northeast China, Girls and Police, Youth and Violence
The fantasy adventures of ordinary people
A tale of two cities in which dilemmas and illusions flash back
"Start tomorrow, go to the lights, don't look back"
(See ideal reader limited time discount 50% off)
Covered: Flames on the Plains
Author: Su Min
Editor: Su Xiaoqi
Producer: Cat Ye