Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter Zhang Jinhua
Wenzhou writer Zhegui at a seminar in Beijing.
On the afternoon of March 2, At the October Literature Institute in Beijing, October Magazine held a seminar on Zhegui's novel "Wonderland" by Zhejiang Wenzhou writer Zhegui, with the theme of "Local Traditions and Contemporary Narratives- Zhegui's "Wonderland Seminar". More than ten critics, including Meng Fanhua, He Shaojun, Liang Hongying, Zhang Li, Rao Xiang, Yue Wen, Xu Gang, and Cong Zhichen, participated in the discussion.
The short story "Wonderland" is one of the most influential works of October magazine in recent years, and has appeared on many annual literary charts. Critics believe that Zhegui's writing starts from "Xinhe Street" with a leisurely and concise tone, using a consistently simple narrative form, laying out the lines and textures of each story, and showing and restoring many daily lives in Wenzhou in a calm tone. In the novel collection "Wonderland", Zhegui shows the mirror images of various real lives with a writer's observation of local life forms, industry ecology, and personal circumstances. The novel of the same name, "Wonderland", shifts its attention from economic life to the field of music and art, intersecting with multiple narrative lines and entangled a whole story of exploring spiritual ideals and self-realization. "Wonderland" has undergone some changes from Zhe gui's past personal mainstream writing. It turns out that Zhegui wrote the merchant series, of course, it is not a path with the traditional writing of merchants, he is not only from fate, but also from the heart of some things to dig.
"Wonderland" began as a short story, first published in the third issue of October 2020, and the collection of novels of the same name has been launched by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House to include his short stories in the past four years. A total of ten articles, the earliest is 2016, "The Way Home" was written a year earlier than "Wonderland", and the most recent writing time is "Wonderland".
Tetsugui said at the seminar, "From my personal point of view, Wonderland is particularly important to my writing, before Wonderland, my understanding of the world is different from before and after Wonderland, this difference is different from the perspective. Before "Wonderland", my understanding of the novel, my understanding of literature, including my understanding of the world, was from the outside to the inside, and I used various forces of history, culture, economy, and society to oppress the characters of the novel to go inward. But "Wonderland" is different, starting from "Wonderland", my understanding of the whole world, my understanding of the novel, and the understanding of the characters in the novel have been adjusted, starting from the inside, starting from people, looking at history, looking at society, looking at culture, looking at the economy, so in "Wonderland", the characters are the most important, it is in the first place. For this reason, the characters in Wonderland are different from the characters in my previous novels, and he will be more free and more willful. ”
"Every author will encounter "I" in the process of writing, the problem of the person who writes is not present, whether it is good or not to be absent, we will not say, because there is no conclusion at present, but in my writing process, especially in the writing process of "Wonderland", it is also a problem related to understanding, this understanding and the understanding of internal and external perspectives, it is related to how to explore the world's borders, it is also related to the world's people and people, people and things, and how to rely on things and things, but also related to how the world is established. Shaping and presenting the problem. Zhegui confessed at the seminar.
So, what exactly is written in Wonderland? In the words of the critic Xu Gang, "You will find that the protagonists in it are all a certain type of person, the so-called private entrepreneur, the son of a big boss or the successor, who solves the problem of wealth freedom as soon as he appears, and there are mines in the family that can be built at will." In the past, we talked about material scarcity, but today we have solved material scarcity, and what you have to face is the trouble brought about by material abundance. One of them talks about the lack of light before and the absence of rescue soldiers after, and talks about the state of high isolation of individual spirits. So what problem does Tetsugui's novel have to solve? It is a question of what to do after having money, which is both secular and has a very universal spiritual significance. ”
Chen Dongjie, editor-in-chief of "October", said, "'Wonderland' leaves the usual subject matter, he writes about the fate of artists, of course, there are many very rich things in the middle, more calm, softer, but also a vivid novel." Zhegui's overall writing, in the past to talk about serious writers, he is indeed a serious writer, he has very high requirements for himself, constantly enriching and breaking through himself, Zhegui is indeed a writer who is worth looking forward to in the future, a new one, we will probably judge what he wrote after reading it, Zhegui often brings us different feelings, but also breaks through the convention of our reading, such a writer is indeed worthy of respect, but also worth looking forward to. ”
Chen Dongjie revealed, "Once we chatted, he read all the famous works written about businessmen in the world, and he had a very grand ambition, and this ambition is still there. ”
Cong Zhichen, an associate professor at Peking University's Department of Chinese, said that the novel's character is a businessman and a hidden artist, which may have something to do with Zhegui's writing history. Zhegui's writing history must be related to his actual experience, in this sense, this is another local tradition, and Zhegui, who may be born in Wenzhou, can feel the relationship between business culture and Zhejiang culture at the same time. So this work is not only a reflection of local traditions, it is actually a contemporary narrative. The relationship between drama and businessman is a relationship that everyone has to face.
Some critics believe that the narrative of "Wonderland" may be the new Chinese narrative, that is, how to tell the wealth, how to deal with the Chinese of the rich, how they settle their spiritual subjects. The story itself is related to the industrial and commercial traditions of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and what is particularly interesting about "Wonderland" is that it is set in Xinhe Street, which is intertextually read against Zhegui's non-fiction work "Golden Heart".
Below, is the wonderful sharing of the two guests about "Wonderland" -
Seminar site.
[Meng Fanhua: All the impossibilities have made "Wonderland" possible]
Meng Fanhua said "Wonderland" -
Xinhe Street is Zhegui's toon tree street or Mo Yan's high-density northeast township, in Xinhe Street we can find the news we need everywhere about the creation of Zhegui novels, or that Xinhe Street is the harem of Zhegui's novels, his rave-acclaimed short stories are still coming to Confident River Street, he named "Wonderland", rather than "Wonderland" to tell a story, it is better to say that it tells a myth, in the sense of reality or logic, this is an impossible story. The story itself is a great paradox, or an unsolvable paradox, a paradox of a fish and a bear's paw. Inheriting his father's business and being the king of a leather shoe empire is the prospect of life that Yu Zhanfei can see and touch. In fact, he did take over the throne of his father's leather shoe empire, which is the ideal life that young people dream of in the current values. But Yu Zhanfei is unwilling, he insisted on learning after watching Shu Xiaoxia's Yue opera "Thief Immortal Grass", the motivation for learning came from the Yue opera actor Shu Xiaoxia, Yu Zhanfei changed his life after seeing Bai Suzhen played by Shu Xiaoxia, his original life in addition to leather shoes or excretion, it was Bai Suzhen she played that let him see that in addition to leather shoes, his life also has dreams, and it is a dream that only he can see and touch, or in other words, the Bai Suzhen she plays makes him suddenly fly out of the life in front of him, Let him see things he hadn't seen before, things he hadn't thought about before. So Yu Zhanfei learned drama with Yu Xiaoru, the predecessor of the Yue Opera Troupe, Yu Zhanfei was indeed a material for learning drama, and his learning to play Bai Suzhen could make Shu Xiaoxia, the pillar of the Yue Opera Troupe, feel a huge threat. This threat is not unfamiliar to Shu Xiaoxia, she once gave Teacher Yu this kind of threat, when she officially appeared on the stage for the first time to become Bai Suzhen, she saw from Teacher Yu's eyes how sad she was, how helpless, it was desperate despair, this feeling was not a long drive, but wontons, diffuse, it was the sadness of watching herself wither, watching herself die but powerless.
Pear Garden Line does have such a problem, it is different from the academic community, the academic community grasped a good student overjoyed, I hope your article is better than mine. But acting is really different, why do some teachers want to keep a hand? I'm afraid you'll surpass him. Including Wuxing.
Shu Xiaoxia's feelings, from one aspect expressed Yu Zhanfei's refinement in learning, Yu Zhanfei's genius acting ability gave him the opportunity to enter the Yue opera troupe as a professional actor, when all this was possible, Yu Zhanfei refused, Yu Zhanfei still inherited his father's inheritance of the leather shoe empire, but Yu Zhanfei's dream was still spreading his wings in "Thief Immortal Grass", as soon as he got on stage, Yu Zhanfei forgot about music, he didn't need music, he wanted immortal grass, music became a reminder, let him keep moving forward, constantly flying reminder, Back on the stage, Yu Zhanfei was still immersed in that emotion and plot, Bai Suzhen's string immortal grass flew to Xu Xian, she seemed to hear the huge applause under the stage, saw Teacher Yu running to the backstage, excitedly hugged him, and kept stomping his feet. This is written too wonderfully, this one stomping action presents a person at a glance, which is the wisdom of Zhe gui.
According to Zhegui, this novel is derived from a drum word artist to run a clothing company, after twenty years of development, listed in Shanghai, has become a very characteristic clothing enterprise in the country, in addition to doing clothing pay special attention to cultural construction, the establishment of China's first clothing culture museum, ask experts to compile clothing books, he appears in public every time, glasses are changed at a time, hair is not messy at all, some people say that he is wearing his own design and customization, can not see any difference with other entrepreneurs, this is estimated to be intentional, Every time he emphasizes that he is wearing a brand produced by the company, it is very ordinary. Some people have also noticed that he spoke about the orchid finger cocked at the place of forgetting, his face was crimson, and even the tone of his voice changed, but when he listened carefully, it did not change, he was a respected entrepreneur. Many times everyone forgets that he used to be a drum lyricist, but at his son's wedding ceremony, he suddenly took out a drum lyric instrument and sang on the stage for the fourteen ladies to collect the demon.
The experience of this drum lyricist is ordinary and nothing special, but what the drum lyricist does is normal and possible, and "Wonderland" is indeed composed of a series of impossible compositions, as mentioned earlier, the big structure is a structure of both fish and bear paws, Yu Zhanfei not only inherits his father's inheritance, but also realizes his veritable Bai Suzhen on the stage. In a series of details, it is impossible to promote the development of the novel, Shu Xiaoxia moved the rehearsal place to the dormitory in order to make a promise, but Yu Zhanfei refused Shu Xiaoxia's application, although Later Shu Xiaoxia said that Yu Zhanfei loved Bai Suzhen and did not love the realistic Shu Xiaoxia, but Yu Zhanfei did not have a real reason to reject Shu Xiaoxia. Although you have been a monk, when you are still secular, is it possible for you? This is not possible. But when Yu Zhanfei became a 3.3 billionaire and proposed to Shu Xiaoxia, Shu Xiaoxia refused. This is also impossible in reality, a girl married to a rich man of 3.3 billion, the rich man can not refuse except for unacceptable reasons. According to the current values, Shu Xiaoxia's reason for being too bookish and angry is not convincing, not to mention that Shu Xiaoxia likes Yu Zhanfei so much, Yu Zhanfei's father died suddenly, Shu Xiaoxia did not agree to marry Yu Zhanfei, but agreed to play Bai Suzhen at Yu Zhanfei's father's funeral, and finally shu Xiaoxia and Yu Zhanfei appeared on the stage, two Bai Suzhen, which is impossible in reality. Interestingly, it's officially impossible to make Wonderland possible.
Li Jingze once said that this novel is written about the impossible, which is correct. What is impossible is fiction, what is possible is reportage, and this is the important difference between fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction must be possible, fiction must be impossible. "Wonderland" is a particularly excellent novel for some time, written sturdy and touching, and it is almost difficult to find loopholes that can be criticized within the novel, but after reading it, I still have difficulty letting go. On the one hand, the rich people of Xinhe Street have both a capital empire worth 3.3 billion yuan and an artistic dream that can fly freely, if this is not a fairyland, what is a fairyland? Or maybe the world is for the rich who can enter the wonderland. Tetsugui has been obsessed with writing about the merchant community of Xinhe Street over the years, which is his freedom to choose the object of writing. But for the rich people of Xinhe Street to do everything, and even freely enter the fairyland of the divine feats, is this a show-off? Or a demonstration? Rich and poor, they are equal in the literary sense, and writers can write. But is it true to omit the history of the rich who have huge capital and just wantonly amplify their calmness, persistence, and dreams today?
On the other hand, "Wonderland" does not highlight the value of money, especially Shu Xiaoxia, not because Yu Zhanfei has 3.3 billion yuan and is eager to commit himself to him early. She tried to be bearded during rehearsals, because she really liked Yu Zhanfei, and when she found out that Yu Zhanfei liked Bai Suzhen on the stage, she categorically rejected Yu Zhanfei's marriage proposal and even invested in the rehearsal hall. For Yu Zhanfei, the wealth of the family and the wealth of the future, money made him free, he could make leather shoes, he could also play "Thief Immortal Grass", money did not make him superficial and vulgar, if so, what is wrong with this? So I think it's a contradiction, and whether my confusion is interesting or not, I can't deny that Wonderland is indeed a particularly good novel in the current context.
Another point is that Zhegui's grand ambition is at least unique in the field of novel writing, and I want to write about the rich. You write about the poor, you write about the working people, you write about the bottom, I am not, I write about the rich class. The rich class is also a human being, and I think it is particularly necessary to persistently go to the living state of such a class in today's state, especially their spiritual and ideological state. As for writing his history, if you don't write it, someone may still write it. Now writing about the rich is absolutely politically correct, especially by the people at the bottom, but there are populist ideas here, and if we fully support this populist ideas, our literary creation may be problematic.
Critics: Second from the left, Meng Fanhua. Three or four Zhang Li.
[Zhang Li: He will not deal with his businessmen according to sociological ideas]
Zhang Li said "Wonderland" ——
"Wonderland" I chose last year, Zhegui's writing is also unique in Contemporary Chinese literary creation, this unique is first of all, Xinhe Street has constituted its literary hometown, this literary hometown was a prototype when I first met Zhegui, but now it is more and more abundant, more and more full, and I also discussed with Zhegui earlier that the characters he mentioned in it may have some thinness or some that we can't get into, and Elder Meng just mentioned that the lives of those rich people are not particularly able to arouse empathy. But this "Wonderland", I told Tetsugui last year, I especially like "Wonderland", it is very important for us to see the complexity of people, has made us forget that he is a rich man or no rich man. The very important thing is how he constructs the complexity of people, the title of my speech is "Psychic Craftsman", Yu Zhanfei in this novel has his own hints, women's literature has "a person's room", for Yu Zhanfei in "Wonderland", he has his own room, that is, the stage. That stage carries the part of his character as a person in a personal, non-public space. So whether it is "Thief Immortal Grass" or the image of Bai Suzhen, on the one hand, he loves art, and in Bai Suzhen there is his understanding of the whole world, on the other hand, in Bai Suzhen there is also the ambiguous personality side that he is difficult for others to understand or recognize, he gives this personality to Bai Suzhen, so why do he see Bai Suzhen especially eager to become her, eager to perform on the stage, from my point of view, he is bound to have content that cannot be conveyed in real life with the help of characters to express, Because this character does not only work in a leather shoe factory, not just a family business, not just making money, but also the charming, legendary Bai Suzhen side, so this character is vivid and vivid, so this is a gripper to know Yu Zhanfei, and after entering him, he enters a particularly interesting human space.
When entering the character of Yu Zhanfei, he built two lines, one is the choice between him and "Thief Immortal Grass" and the leather shoe factory, and the second is the relationship between him and Shu Xiaoxia, if it is too much from the perspective of psychological analysis, he makes it impossible, two Bai Suzhen on the stage, one Bai Suzhen is very heroic, the other is sad and poignant, we originally thought that the sad and poignant was Shu Xiaoxia, the majestic one we originally thought was Yu Zhanfei, But it is precisely the two of them that have done gender replacement, the mournful one is Yu Zhanfei, the other is Shu Xiaoxia, these two Bai Suzhen, on the surface represent our two understandings of Bai Suzhen today, both understandings are correct, of course, can also be combined into one, but these two characters he divided into two parts, can see a person's inner self and external self, in fact, Yu Zhanfei and Shu Xiaoxia are two selves.
When watching "Wonderland", it is bound to discuss that there is a novella "Qingyi" in front of him, "Qingyi" writes about Chang'e Running Moon, a woman plays the dilemma encountered in Chang'e, there are also two selves, a person's division, a middle-aged woman in daily life, in the constant daily wear and tear there is no such fairy qi, but you are particularly eager to get him on the stage, so people's self-division, in this self-division there is a fight between a young horn and an old horn, Xiao Yanqiu and his master, The fight with his apprentice, "Wonderland" also talks about a kind of fight, but this fight becomes a man and a woman, the relationship between this man and woman changes, the two of them have a bed play, this man tells him that he can't, from my point of view as a woman, the two of them can never get married. The two of them are rich, he is willing to marry that woman, Shu Xiaoxia has become the leader of the regiment, why marry him? Obviously, they have no basic daily happiness, why should they talk to him? At first glance, this is what it looks like. So from this point of view, he wrote very secret parts of human nature.
The merchant of Xinhe Street that we see is like this, he is invincible, he has money, and he has no character shortcomings. But Yu Zhanfei this person has a big heart, in the eyes of outsiders he has a personality defect, but the leather shoe factory makes him look like a normal person, to become a person who is willing to live in daily life, but "Thief Immortal Grass" and Bai Suzhen have his non-life side. I think a good novel is actually to write a person's two-sidedness, a person has his sociality, what he says, thinks, and expresses in the social environment, but that is exactly what he wants to do, those so-called unseen, invisible, he himself actually feels comfortable, and Zhegui uses Bai Suzhen and "Thief Immortal Grass" in the way, especially the name "Thief Immortal Grass" is also very good, of course, it is the name of a play, when he steals Immortal Grass, a person's inner desire, How to combine the external self and the inner self, if this person's leather shoe factory is also very successful, and can really feel the happiness of changing roles when shaping Bai Suzhen, it is really a spiritual wonderland. But did he really find it? When we see the last time, we may not find that he has a huge regret in his heart, even if he has everything, he still can't get another Bai Suzhen, and that Bai Suzhen can never marry him, because of what? One cannot marry the same self. When it comes to metaphysical level, this novel is particularly interesting. There was a point in the past when I did women's literature research, and I asked many writers during the gender view survey, that is, whether you agree with the hermaphrodites of good novelists. Many writers answer that the ideal state is definitely hermaphrodite, but it is difficult for you to cross your gender to achieve hermaphrodite.
I think "Wonderland" is not that the novelist wants to cross, but that this character has always been intrinsically eager to cross an obstacle and then reach his own hermaphrodite, to achieve his balance. But did he do it? The novel does not tell us later, but after we can feel a person's psychic through this, why do I say that the theme is "psychic craftsman", the craftsman is to say that he is the owner of the leather shoe factory, "Thief Immortal Grass" and Bai Suzhen are his psychic way, he in this way, both as Yu Zhanfei such a rich class of inner spiritual dilemma or some possibility can be, but on the other hand, he did write about the special place of this class, a leather shoe factory owner does a good job of shoes, there are billions In fact, it is not something that makes people feel particularly interesting, but he sang "Thief Immortal Grass" at the funeral of his father's spiritual hall, which is interesting to this person, because of this complexity, multi-faceted and two-sided nature, which constitutes the attraction of "Wonderland". From this point of view, Tetsugui uses his short story to show the complexity of his understanding of man and the complexity of his understanding of the rich. Why do we think that what Tetsugui wrote about the rich man before is missing something, but "Wonderland" allows us to see that Tetsugui also stole his fairy grass to some extent. Of course, its past life part, for Yu Zhanfei may be his father, and further ahead, we may want to see the depths of history, but from another perspective, the focus is not to let us see the depths of this person's history, but to let us see his soul and soul, the depth of self-knowledge, this depth of self-knowledge in contemporary fiction creation or expand a direction.
Through Zhegui's novels, we are already very familiar with wenzhou, which is such a very important commercially famous street, Xinhe Street, and he is familiar with Xinhe Street, familiar with the merchants of Xinhe Street, and he is also familiar with these commercial activities. It is indeed very different from the novels we read about businessmen, and everyone is discussing that Zhegui writes that businessmen never write businessmen according to everyone's kind of thinking, do not write businessmen from the generally accepted ideas, of course, there is an emotional reason first, he is familiar with the friends around him in business, he does not have to stand on a common moral position to criticize their business activities, there is this emotional reason. But I think it is not mainly emotional reasons, he knows them, he finds another way into literature from them, Zhegui wants to go beyond the dualistic opposition that we are more familiar with and public, wealth and morality are opposites, material and spiritual are opposites, worldliness and ideals are opposites, for Zhegui, he wants to find another way into literature, not from the dualistic path to deal with his materials. He found another path, so we read his novels, maybe the sociological level of things are diluted, he will write about businessmen, he will write about business activities, but he will not deal with his businessmen according to sociological ideas. Therefore, the idea of class cannot interpret Zhegui's novels very well, such as the 3 billion worth of shoe bosses in "Wonderland", you can completely say that he is a capitalist, he is a rich class, but it is not very appropriate to interpret the novel with such an idea. He wants to enter the level of human nature more, he has his key goals, for Zhegui, the heart is more yearning for self, yearning for spiritual freedom, he values personality, art, beauty, in his mind, he writes about businessmen, he is more willing to write about how the businessman's self is realized, how their kind of spiritual freedom is handled in business activities, he enters the businessman from this level. Therefore, he does not write that the genealogy of businessmen and our literature is not too close, and he does not think about social activities such as commerce from a moral level, so I understand Zhegui's novels this way.
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