Author 丨 杺辰
Two days ago, blogger WowDaikon forwarded a questionnaire about Han Han's "Four Seas" initiated by Zhang Yueran and Shuang Xuetao on Weibo.
The discussion in the comment area is very hot, but everyone's biggest concern is not whether "Four Seas" is difficult or not, but...
Zhang Yueran and Shuang Xuetao are actually husband and wife?
A writer is scrutinized by the public as if he were an entertainment star, because gossip rather than works are mentioned, as if this is not a good thing.
In addition to sighing, I can't help but think of more than ten years of middle school.
At that time, there were always people in the classroom who were arrested for carrying novels in textbooks; after the lights went out in the dormitory at night, there were always people who took flashlights and "read hard" all night in the bed; the latest serial, whose status was comparable to the homework of the first classmates in the school...
The title pages of many of the books that have been read are written with her name, Zhang Yueran.
She began publishing at the age of fourteen, winning first prize in the New Concept Essay Contest at the age of 19 and being named "Most Popular Female Writer" by the Bud website at the age of 20.
The people who have been compared to her are no strangers, such as Director Guo Jingming, who has put his novels such as "Little Times" on the screen, and Han Han, a director who has surprised everyone with "After Forever".
The popularity is no less than that of the little brothers and sisters who debuted in various talent shows now.
But Zhang Yueran, who became famous when she was young, was not overwhelmed by the momentary fame, but some were sober at her age.
Because she did not have too clear a position for the future, in the same year, she was admitted to Shandong University to study English and law, and later, she got a scholarship from the National University of Singapore to study computers in Singapore and explore more possibilities.
The same goes for her writing.
When I first read Zhang Yueran, there was always a kind of maturity that was difficult to understand in my youth, and then I read it again, only to find the persistence and thoroughness in her sensual words.
Bo Bonnie once said of her: "Her (Zhang Yueran)'s text is full of incredible imagery, making the reader continue to travel through hallucinations, as if experiencing a movie that never wakes up." ”
At the beginning, Zhang Yueran's brushstrokes were strong and fiery, and the words were extremely imaginative.
In "Sunflower Lost in 1890", Sunflower, who was born to the sun, fell in love with a painter who stayed for a short time sketching.
Even if the original dazzling sunflower was trampled and injured, she still wanted to know his name, knowing that there was no end or couldn't stop looking up.
In "Oath Bird", she interpreted the story of Jingwei reclamation into a sad love myth.
The heroine spring late, pale lips, red feet, stepping on the blood, like a lifelong guard born only for reclamation, even if the eyes are crippled, still persistent and lonely, just to find the shells in the sea, the memories that have been lost are pieced together.
"Narcissus Has Gone by Koi" is her second novel, which tells the sadness of the original family behind the cool-toned text.
Her mother remarried many times, her stepfather died in a car accident, and her good friend went to prison to protect her, and what she experienced was different from ordinary hardships. Meeting her lover Shen He was a rare sweetness in her life, but in the end she still could not keep it, a fire, took away Shen He, leaving only her and the child in her belly.
There is a scene at the end of the novel where, as she prepares to kill the child, she meets her mother, who also comes to check on her.
It was as if it were a reincarnation, and the daughter lived like a helpless mother twenty years ago.
Her pen is like a magnifying glass, and even the slightest fluctuations in the bottom of her heart will become meticulous.
As Mo Yan once said of her: "What they like, what they dislike, what they yearn for, what they resist, these can all find the answer in her novel." ”
Her writing is sharp, wonderful, concise, stylish and in place. Sensitivity and dreams, flying inspiration and proficiency in mastering language show that Zhang Yueran has the potential to become a good writer. ”
Undoubtedly, At this time, Zhang Yueran has already gained a firm foothold in the wave of youth literature.
The name has it, the profit has it, as long as it goes down step by step, the future that belongs to her will be better.
Of course, the premise of all this is that she did not press the pause button.
As she herself once wrote, "I felt my youth jump and disappear into a valley without fame and echo." ”
In her real life, there is also such a righteous leap.
After the explosion of popularity, Zhang Yueran did not continue to expand his career territory like Han Han and Guo Jingming, but like the Clear Pond after the storm in a bay, quiet and silent, and even made people wonder whether the female writer who was once called a genius was just a flash in the pan.
It wasn't until a stone was thrown into the calm water and rippled with the vibration that people suddenly realized that she was not a meteor that flashed in an instant, but a star that knew how to converge on its own light.
This stone is Cocoon.
"It frightens me that a familiar person suddenly becomes strange, but what makes me feel wonderful and warm is that I find that I have not stopped loving him because of it."
Zhang Yueran returned, but she no longer seemed to be the lost sunflower, nor was she a tireless oath bird, she became a butterfly that broke out of the cocoon at all costs.
Many people say that Cocoon is a failure, it is very disapproving, but she herself sees the work as a transformation that must be completed.
Because no one can remain unchanged in the wash of time, especially the writer who relies on inspiration and accumulation, if he does not experience the pain of change, he can only disappear in the literary stage.
Writer Takeshi Kitano once said: "I still have the possibility of change, and when I think of this, my heart is full of excitement." ”
Change means possible, which is the meaning of forward and the meaning of existence.
The subsequent novel collection "I Follow the Fire" is the best proof of her feathering into a butterfly, and the "Big Joe Little Joe" included in it won the 2017 Wang Zengqi Chinese Novella Award.
In 2020, Zhang Yueran compiled his own creative, reading and teaching experience into a volume and published his first collection of literary criticism, "The Moment of Epiphany".
Everyone's life needs to slow down at the right time, or look back to see if you missed a precious moment, or stop by the side of the road to see the scenery in front of you, and the brilliant starry sky at night.
From her own creation to the establishment of the magazine "Carp", and then to the lecturer at Renmin University, the elective course of short story appreciation in the whole school, from the writer Zhang Yueran to the editor-in-chief Zhang Yueran and the lecturer Zhang Yueran, her identity is constantly changing.
But the joy is that neither Zhang Yueran, who wrote, nor Zhang Yueran, who was silent, did not leave the path of literature.
This period of time is her quiet period, but it is also her best rest period and the best value-added period.
She sees herself as a craftsman, and through time and time again, she continues to create full and mature works.
It is precisely because of her dedication and dedication to writing that she has a stunning return later.
There is a saying in "Wandering Stars": "In this world, although there is no most beautiful encounter, there should be the most beautiful effort to meet or reunite." ”
Writing requires talent, but it takes more dedication and persistence.
There is no success at hand, only with sweat and hard watering, in order to blossom the harvested flowers.
She once said:
"When I became famous at a young age, I felt as if everything was taken for granted, and even more affirmation of my own talent, but now after many years, I feel that there will be a reverence for literature, a sense of gratitude, and sometimes I feel that literature has taken me in." 」
Only after experiencing hardships can we be in awe; only if we know how to be grateful, can we cherish the harvest.
For many people, Zhang Yueran is not so much a forgetting as a reunion, a reunion with the new Zhang Yueran, and a reunion with the dusty memories in the heart.
Because in her words, she has witnessed the untraceable youth of too many people.
As the footsteps of the years quietly move towards 2022, the once surging youth literature slowly calms down, and the youth that was once laughing and laughing has also begun to hide, perhaps dusting in a corner of a memory.
Zhang Yueran once talked about the topic of getting old in an interview.
Her answer was very impressive:
"I'm very afraid of getting old, but what scares me even more is not losing some kind of youthful state, but your knowledge and perception of the world, being fixed in the process of getting old, afraid that everything will freeze and not change anymore." 」
Afraid of his own view of the world, there is no way to go deeper and broader, stopping in his original narrow vision, stopping in his own comfortable range. ”
We can't resist getting old, there will always be wrinkles, gray hair, and what we can do is constantly renew our thinking, constantly adjust our mentality, grow old gracefully, and grow old interestingly.
Even though youth is gone, the memory is still there, even if it is gray, it cannot hide the shining light of the past.
As the song goes: "I'm still the teenager I was before, there hasn't been a single change, time is just a test, and the faith planted in my heart has not diminished in the slightest." ”
May we run around for half our lives, and we will all be teenagers.
Reference source: Shede Wisdom Lecture Hall Interview
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