The rise of online literature stems from the birth of the Internet. After more than 20 years of development, online literature has entered a mature period. According to the "2020 Blue Book of Chinese Online Literature" released by the Network Literature Center of the China Writers Association, the total number of works in online literature is about 28 million, and there are more than 600,000 active signed authors. The huge number of authors and the rapid growth of the number of works show that online literature is a particularly dynamic part of Chinese literary and artistic creation at present.
Is online literature still far from mainstreaming?
Due to the entry of individual shoddy works into the market, "labels" such as homogenization and routineization have been attached to online literature, and for some time, online literature has been accused of lacking ideological connotation. Therefore, although online literature is hot in the market, it is difficult to get the recognition of traditional literature. At the same time, the mainstreaming of online literature has always attracted attention.
Compared with traditional and mainstream literature, the difference between the two lies first and foremost in the different carriers of publication. Secondly, online literature mostly appears in the form of genre literature, the pace is faster, more attention is paid to the plot of the story, the text is not necessarily as rigorous and exquisite as traditional literary works, and the length is usually not too long, not millions of words, millions of words.
The key to the mainstreaming of online literature lies in how to deal with the relationship between supply and demand and the relationship between reading and writing. The relationship between supply and demand and the relationship between reading and writing show that online literature has both commercial and literary characteristics, and if there is a symbiotic relationship between the two, online literature will produce new aesthetic value in the journey of continuous innovation.
For online literature, although it has the characteristics of commerciality, online literature is still a literary work after all. Literature is a product of the times, and it is also an objective law that literature will change with the development of the times. If any literary and artistic style wants to win the hearts and minds of the people and gain the recognition of the majority of people, its values and aesthetics must withstand the test of the times. Therefore, with the continuous development of online literature and the continuous improvement of the creative level of online writers, the problems and drawbacks of online literature will gradually weaken.
In addition to the continuous encouragement of social forces, more importantly, traditional literature also plays a positive role in the development, guidance and support of online literature. Therefore, in the past decade, the rise of realistic theme creation in online literature has changed the situation that online literature was dominated by fantasy novels in the past, and promoted the diversified development of themes and genres.
As Zhu Xiaofeng, director of the Digital Information Office of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at the recent "Literature Illuminates a Better Life - 2021 Searchlight Annual Book List Release and Reading Famous Artists Series Seminar Launch Meeting" held recently, in the process of Chinese culture going global, online literature is playing an increasingly important role, and Chinese online literature has been regarded as one of the "four wonders" of the contemporary world cultural industry. Online literature has become a cultural business card for "telling Chinese stories well and spreading Chinese voices".
From the perspective of development, the mainstreaming of online literature is not only the demand of online literature itself, but also the needs of the times and the inevitability of history.
In the view of Li Jingze, vice chairman of the China Writers Association and director of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, "the mainstreaming of online literature in spirit and values should be powerful, very prominent, and clearly reflect the fundamental values of our times and nation, and reflect our spirit." ”
Therefore, if more and more online literary works begin to look at reality and reflect the characteristics of the times, express the story of contemporary China, convey mainstream values with realistic themes, and write about China's great achievements. It is believed that the boundary between online literature and traditional literature will not be as obvious as it is now, and the mainstreaming of online literature will also be the general trend of contemporary literary development.
Online literature needs to be grounded in order to produce fine works
Since the mainstreaming of online literature is the trend of the times, then online literature must not only stand the test of time, but also keep up with the national cultural revival and the road of cultural going to sea, which not only poses a challenge to all practitioners, but also brings huge imagination space to the industry. Resisting plagiarism and "three customs" is only the most basic level of requirements, and the next step is to guide online literature to take the high-quality route, and finally be able to launch masterpieces that represent the height of the country and the height of the nation.
The intervention of literature in real life is mainly achieved through the reader's reading, and the more people read, the greater the impact of the work. Therefore, if a literary work wants to become a masterpiece, it should also resonate with readers through its works, and then affect its values.
The reason why literature can reflect people's hearts is that it has built an "emotional community" that can resonate with the times. Its value background, relying on China's traditional cultural concept that has been passed down for thousands of years, is also reflected in the connection and concern with the times. Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent Group and CEO of Yuwen Group, believes that "we are moved by the world of home and country in the historical immortals, reflect on ourselves and the fate of mankind in future science fiction, and gaze at the ordinary daily life of small people from the realistic theme." The combination of all these grand meanings and microscopic stories is precisely the temperature and power that online literature has. Developing in inheritance and living endlessly in innovation is the significance of modern literature to classical literature, and it is also the significance that we hope to see, and the significance that online literature can play in traditional literature. ”
As Cheng Wu said, although some online literature is a historical overhead theme, there will be stories of friendship and love in the works, involving spiritual issues such as team spirit, family and country feelings, and life realm. This kind of work is both righteous and interesting, and the spiritual impact on the reader will be positive. These works not only give readers dreams, but also strengthen the truth that happiness is in their own hands, often can stir the emotional strings of readers, help readers establish correct values, stimulate the inner potential of readers, and arouse the courage of readers to pursue a happy life.
Perhaps, some authors will think that their works are too niche and the market response is not good, so they will be skeptical of their own literary creation. But in the view of Liang Hongying, editor-in-chief of Literature and Art Daily, "we must pay close attention to and support innovation, and encourage creativity, imagination and exploration." Some works may be niche, and some authors may not be famous at the moment, but as long as they show the vigor of exploration, have the courage to respond to the questions of the times, and have a sense of problems that point directly to people's hearts, they should be promoted and supported. ”
Of course, if the work keeps up with the pace of the development of the times, it will gain more room for development. And the author can not be separated from reality forever, and the changes in life and the times will have a direct or indirect impact on the creator. Therefore, in recent years, online literature has felt the call of the spirit of the times, and people's pride in the development of the times, self-confidence in national culture, and love for a better life are no longer absent in online literature, but have become the background and starting point of creators' creation, and the transformation has occurred.
According to statistics, in 2020, about 2 million new works were signed by Chinese online literature throughout the year, and realistic themes accounted for 60%. Judging from the works in the past 5 years, many of those works with huge reading and criticism are those that carry forward the feelings of home and country, highlight the spirit of struggle, and write the true feelings of the world, and the views of history, nationality and country embodied in the works are correct and recognized by the public. The recognition of mainstream values by online literary creators, the return to Chinese culture, and the response to the spirit of the times are moving from unconscious to conscious, and their works have won a wider audience. "The big waves and sands began to see gold", the trend of the times rolled forward, and those works and creators who walked with the times eventually went to the incomparably vast sea.
Online literature writers should pay attention to reality and turn back
Perhaps in the eyes of some people, the threshold for online writers is very low, and they are all making up stories to deceive people. However, in fact, if online writers want to produce works and excellent works, they must not only rely on talent, imagination and diligence, but also have unique creations, which requires writers to have very deep connotations and unique creative concepts. Only by establishing a correct view of history can we have the temperature of history, and only with deep humanistic feelings can we tell wonderful stories.
As one of the pioneers of the steampunk theme of online literature, the representative work of "Squid Who Loves Diving" is regarded as a representative work of classical immortals in online literature, and its other two works, "Martial Master" and "Lord of Mystery", have not only won many important awards in the industry, but also been permanently collected by the National Library.
In his view, online literature is a product of the times that came into being under the tide of the Internet. Good online literature must be derived from reality and higher than reality. Writers must draw nourishment from reality, try to restore a vivid world in the novel, so that readers feel that it is like what really happened around them, this sense of reality and reality is very important. At the same time, he also talked about his writing experience. "We Chinese like family warmth, family feelings, handle things in a softer way, and tend to be more introverted." Therefore, I hope to gently construct the image of the protagonist through Oriental philosophy by extracting the typical personality of the individual and the people around me, the typical way of doing things for people. ”
Literary works are the products of the times, and at the same time can reflect the style of the times. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to see that the concern of online literature writers about reality in the writing process helps to precipitate fine works and gradually become classics.
In the view of Xu Zechen, a writer who won the Mao Dun Literature Award, he wants to write a good life at the moment and wants to know the Chinese of the moment. "Then I think maybe a very important path is to turn back." He believes that "this retro is not a simple retro, nor is it to make a grid, to get a chapter back, we find something that can be used for us to deal with the current life from the traditional literary narrative resources, folk narrative resources, and cultural resources." In addition, he also said that both online literature and traditional literature bear the important task entrusted by the times - inheriting Chinese culture and national spirit, making the essence of traditional culture the value gene of the work, and creating a "spiritual homeland" that resonates with the people's emotions and resonates with the values of the times.
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Editor of this issue: Yuan Yun'er
Producer: Zhou Nanyan