About the author: Meng Qi, a master of music who likes to read and write, a partner of Hongdan Writing Academy, and an SVIP member.
In 19th-century Russia, there was such a writer: he was tall and handsome, his eyes were deep and bright, and although the overall tone of his work was melancholy, he could always add a bright color to the work at the end.
He is good at using ordinary words to write about the extraordinary in the world, whether it is joy or pain.
His language is concise and condensed; he truly restores the essence of life in his works; and profoundly displays the connotation of thought in extreme restraint.
Leo Tolstoy had a very high opinion of him: "He is pushkin in prose ... He's above me, his work can be reread over and over again, and he's an unparalleled artist. ”
Gorky once praised him: "His heart is free, and he never lives according to the expectations of others." ”
Nabokov also highly praised him: "He is a unique expounder of the typical Russian character. ”
He is the Russian critical realist writer and the world's greatest short story master - Chekhov.
01 Concise style, laying the unique style of the work
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860 in Taganrog, southern Russia, the third oldest of his family.
At the age of 16, his father fled to Moscow due to the family's debt, and soon after his mother took the children to his father, leaving Chekhov to continue his studies in his hometown.
During the three years of living alone, Chekhov worked part-time as a tutor to supplement his family, read a lot of world famous works, and began to write literature.
In the early 1880s, under the pseudonym Chihonte, he published a large number of short satirical novels such as "The Death of a Little Civil Servant", "Chameleon", "Joke", "In the Villa", and so on.
At that time, the editor-in-chief of "Trivia" magazine, Which had a high standard, Leykin, admired his talent very much and asked him for a long time. And he was strict, stipulating that each novel could not exceed a hundred sentences, and the story should not only have twists, but also have a sense of humor.
This laid the foundation for the concise style of Chekhov's work, and he carefully polished every sentence to never let a single superfluous word appear in the work.
As the novel "The Fat Man and the Thin Man" begins: "On a train station on the Nikolai Railway, two friends meet: one is a fat man and the other is a thin man. ”
In just one sentence, the place, the character, and the contrast between the characters are clearly explained.
Chekhov famously said, "Simplicity is the sister of genius." ”
Keeping the language concise in writing can prompt the writer to constantly hone his narrative skills and refine his own language.
Always have a scrutinizing attitude towards the work, remove unnecessary sentences from the text over and over again, try to express a sentence in a different way, and finally choose the most concise sentence. When refining sentences becomes a writing habit, it will step out of your own writing style step by step, and the language expression will be more powerful.
The habit of refining the language in the early days of his work made Chekhov useful for a lifetime, as he said to Leykin: "The Tidbits are my holy water basin, and you are my godfather." ”
It was these concise and powerful works that allowed Chekhov to attract the attention of another predecessor.
02 White painting shows the most authentic human world
The Russian liberal writer Grigorovich, after reading Chekhov's "The Hunter", personally wrote to him, highly praising his true description of the characters and scenes, and also making very pertinent suggestions to him - "Respect your rare talent, please abandon the rush of writing!" ”
He listened to the advice of his predecessors and no longer pursued the speed of creation, but focused on the connotation of the work.
His works decreased year by year, 129 in 1885, 112 in 1886, 66 in 1887, and only 12 until 1888.
Contrary to the decreasing quantity, the quality and connotation of the works are getting higher and higher. "Distress" depicts the barrier between people in detail; "Lights" admits that he "knows nothing" like Socrates once did. His works are no longer just humorous and satirical, but more of a reflection on life.
In a letter to his editor and friend Suvolin, he said: "If I am a doctor, then I need patients and hospitals; if I am a writer, then I need to live among the people." ”
In 1890, in order to write the most authentic human world, Chekhov traveled alone to Sakhalin Island, the penal colony of only death row prisoners and prisoners.
During his 3-month expedition, he spoke with nearly 10,000 exiles and immigrants, a true record of the shocking exile on Sakhalin, where almost everyone on the island was within his record.
Although his only documentary literature, His Travels on Sakhalin became an important source of his later critical realist works.
He tells us with his actions that only through real experience can writers fully present reality in words in their creation, and it is precisely this kind of truth that is the most touching.
So how exactly do you present reality in words? Chekhov more than 200 years ago has already given us the answer: go into the crowd.
To experience, to feel, to observe, to think, to record.
Constantly maintaining the spirit of exploration and truth-seeking, which will make the eyes of the writer more sensitive, find unknown details in life, narrate them in words, and let the truth affect the world.
Through the continuous exploration of reality, Chekhov ushered in a new breakthrough in creation.
03 Profound, take your thoughts to new heights
After returning to Moscow, Chekhov's writing began to explore deeper into the mind.
Based on the experience of Sakhalin Island, he created the "Sixth Ward" that shocked the literary world.
The novel "The Sixth Ward" is mainly about the new doctor of the psychiatric hospital, who is very interested in one of the fallen nobles and often talks to him. Soon after, everyone thought that the doctor was also mentally ill, so they locked the doctor in. No matter how hard the doctor struggled, no one believed him.
The janitor, who originally respectfully called him "Lord", often punched and kicked him.
The doctor went from being a normal person to being "mentally ill" and being held in the sixth ward forever.
This work is chekhov's darkest novel, and after reading it, the young Lenin felt as if he were locked up.
Whether they were once rich or depressed today, no one knows what they will become tomorrow.
With the publication of The Sixth Ward, Chekhov's writing style dug deeper into the deep and critical.
The language is more concise and condensed, the emotions are more rational and objective, and the criticism of the Tsarist System is more fierce. He tried to restore the truth to the greatest extent possible, without adding his own subjective elements.
"One can weep for one's own novel, but one should not be seen by the reader," he said. ”
Each era has given the writer a special mission, and the writer should continue to speak out for what he sees and hears in the field he is good at, in the trial and again.
Whether it is serious literature, online literature, or today's hot self-media writing, as a writer, you should always keep your sanity and ask yourself what my words can bring to others? What can it bring to the times?
If you just write casually and leave yourself a little memory, it can only be regarded as your "secret base".
If you want to continue to write publicly for a long time, you must maintain the same spirit as Chekhov, repeatedly hone your skills, go to life to discover the truth, and dig inward for deeper meaning.
As he wrote in "Gooseberry": "What man needs is not three-foot land, not manors, but the whole world, the whole nature." ”
Write at the end
Chekhov's life was only 44 years old, and most of the time he was tormented by suffering and disease, but he did not give up, turned the ups and downs into a fountain, and constantly explored the meaning of life into the depths of the self.
Although the tone of his works is mostly melancholy, he always shows a beautiful hope at the end.
As he himself said: "Everything about man should be beautiful: whether it is the face, or the clothes, or the heart, or the mind." ”
Although more than a hundred years have passed, the beautiful yearning for humanity flashing everywhere in his works is still worth pursuing and exploring.