Cover news reporter Zhang Jie Xu Yuyang
Literature is literature not only because it is literature, but also because it reflects reality in some form. In Qiu Shanshan's novels, the concern for real life is particularly deep.
In the fourth issue of 2020, Flower City magazine published a novel by Qiu ShanShan titled "I Need to Talk to You". The novel has a unique perspective, the protagonist is an elderly woman, the first half of her life is intelligent and intelligent, is a very independent and self-reliant person. However, after retiring, she found herself increasingly suffering from "loss of intelligence". A person, no matter how wise, proud, and elegant he once was, no matter how he fought, may also fall into the abyss of innocence. The elderly woman realized that she had begun to be confused, so she desperately resisted, resisted and fought against this slowly approaching aging, and began a silent self-help of a person, very tenacious. She is secretive about the spiritual abyss she faces, the relatives around her, and the fear of dragging down her family. In the end, it is the "daughter" who is the narrator who discovers the mother's situation, and in the end, it is the family who uses family affection to help the mother through the crisis.
The way of expression of this novel is also unique, the way of presentation is a long confession, like peeling an onion, showing a silent thunderstorm of the mind to the fullest. Qiu Shanshan said that she wanted to write about an indomitable soul.
There is no end to knowing, but there is also an end to life. Just as love and life are the eternal themes of human beings, people will age and get sick (dementia) is also the truth of life that cannot be avoided. Especially in the current society, the aging is becoming more and more serious, Qiu Shanshan keenly grasps this heavy but objective reality problem, and presents topics such as aging, marriage, loneliness of human existence, and the meaning of family affection in the form of novel art, so that readers can think and also provide a cure in the literary field.
Qiu Shan Shan (Photo by Zhang Jie)
Kung Fu pays off. After the publication of this novella, the response from readers was quite large, and five anthologies were selected at the same time. Many people later communicated with Qiu Shanshan, especially some friends who were moving towards old age, and they were particularly touched. "Regarding the topic of aging and dementia, more and more people have paid attention to it in the past two years. I've never thought about these things before, but in recent years, as I've gotten older, I've also thought: What if I run into those tough problems? Frankly, I'm still a little scared. Whenever I think about this, I am once again glad that I have chosen writing as a lifelong career. Writing it out is equivalent to an emotional release that can soothe yourself. ”
This novella, Qiu Shanshan wrote very carefully, fifty thousand words took half a year. She first read a lot of relevant popular science articles, read a lot of medical papers on Alzheimer's disease, and looked at the latest research situation, and now where to go. Qiu Shanshan saw in an article that a person often uses his brain deeply, which can indeed delay aging. But this depth of the brain is not to cook and stir-fry, put the amount of salt in this way, or even to draw or practice calligraphy. "Deep use of the brain, I think it is still deliberate learning." So in "I Need to Talk to You", the mother who is on the verge of dementia will ask herself to recite "Leaving the Troubles" and other ancient poems, and also learn various software on her smartphone, such as playing games, shopping, stock trading, and so on.
/strip/quality/95/ignore-error/1|imageslim" />
Don't let age become a limitation on learning ability
Such a setting is also Qiu Shanshan's intention to break the prejudice that the elderly are very backward in the era of intelligence. In particular, she wants to express that as people get older, their reactions do slow down, but it doesn't mean that the ability to seek knowledge stops completely. "Don't have this mentality: I'm old, I can't learn, I've been abandoned by the age of intelligence."
Qiu Shanshan is not too young now, but she tries not to let her age become a resistance to her own learning. Sometimes when she meets some friends, who are a little younger than her, and tells her that something is too difficult to learn, she will encourage each other: if you really want to learn, you can still learn. One of the things she often says is, "People's inventors and designers have the ability to make it, we can't even learn to use it, and the gap between people and people will never be so large." You must believe that you can learn, do not set limits on yourself, and the initiative to learn should be deliberately cultivated. ”
This made Qiu Shan Shan think of his mother again. "My mother was born in the 1920s and has been trying to understand a lot of new things. She loves to read the newspaper, and when she sees some new knowledge, she will tell me about it, and learning will make her happy. When the phone came out, she also asked me to teach her to text, but finally couldn't keep up. This also reminds us to cherish when we can learn, when we can learn, we still try to learn, most of the time, we can still learn. One way can't learn, another way is always OK. Trying to learn has two advantages, one is to ask for less or no people. Another is to keep your brain on motion all the time. Speaking of this, Qiu Shanshan is very proud, and her use of some intelligent software is better than many young people. In the past, I used to teach it to younger colleagues when I worked. She also often communicates with her son, sometimes asking for advice, sometimes being praised, "You are better than me in this." ”
Learning is not just an ability, but a character. Qiu Shanshan had never written children's literature, but the publisher asked her to write a manuscript, and she did not refuse to say it, but wanted to try it.
In fact, writing itself is also a learning process. Writers are often invited to a certain place to collect wind, and once Qiu Shanshan was invited to go to Jiangxi Jingyao to collect wind, and was touched by the Jingyao master, so he seriously studied the whole process from clay to black pottery. Originally, this style of collecting style was enough to write a short article, but she spent more than a month to write, read a lot of information, from making mud embryos to firewood to burning black pottery, step by step to understand, and actually wrote more than 10,000 words, writing very solidly. After the article was written, the black pottery master was particularly satisfied, he said that you simply wrote too well, said what I had in mind, qiu Shan Shan himself also felt very happy, because in the process of writing learned new things. "So far, it's still a pleasure to learn something new." Another time I went to Ryan to visit the old site of ancient papermaking, and she also learned about the entire history of papermaking and wrote an article that she was quite satisfied with, "Worship the Great Paper".
"Every compliment from a reader is giving me an award"
One autumn, Qiu Shan Shan went to Jiang Fa Village in Lanxi, Zhejiang Province, to collect wind. According to the local host, it is the hometown of cultural celebrity Cao Juren. At first, she didn't care too much, there were too many cultural celebrities in Zhejiang, and almost every village could meet them. However, after entering Jiang Fa Village, she was deeply moved, by Cao Juren's father Cao Mengqi, and by Cao Juren's ex-wife Wang Chuncui. In particular, Wang Chuncui, who is also a woman, is even more admirable to her, but this remarkable woman is rarely mentioned or written. Qiu Shan shan is determined to write Wang Chuncui, to tell her story to the world and express his respect. Thus, there was the article "A Plant of Orchid a Hundred Years Ago". She wrote about how this woman, such as Lan, insisted on running education in the barren countryside, spreading civilization, and led teachers and students to publicize the War of Resistance during the War of Resistance, and was indomitable. Eventually, she grew from Cao Wang's family to an independent woman, and from a small-footed woman to Mr. Wang Da.
After the article was published at the Wen Wei Po PEN conference, many readers were deeply moved by this independent woman. The first reader to leave a message in the PEN public account was Niu Ge: "Awe-inspiring, Mr. Wang Da." Cao Juren I know and have a few books about him, but I don't know this ex-wife who is not inferior to him at all. Thank you Shan Shan for letting us know this ordinary and great woman. ”
Brother Niu is an old friend of Qiu Shanshan who has never met, a writer from Xiangyang, Hubei Province, who met online more than a decade ago. Because Brother Niu was deeply moved, he copied "A Hundred Years Ago" in full text in Xiaokai, made an album and sent it to Qiu Shan Shan by courier, and left a message: "Record the full text as a souvenir." This is also a heart incense dedicated to Mr. Wang Da. This greatly touched Qiu Shanshan, "This is my luck as a writer, I can have divine intercourse with people with similar souls, and I can illuminate each other with people who have made divine friends." The philosopher Gibran said: The meaning of life lies in the mutual illumination of people. I "met" Mr. Wang Chuncui a hundred years ago in Jiang Fa Village, and I "met" Mr. Niu Xiangang, whom I had never met before, and they all gave me the nourishment of life and illuminated my life. ”
Like this example of the author and the reader illuminating each other, Qiu Shan Shan has experienced a lot. One reader knew from the article that Josan shan liked Baustovsky's prose, but when the book was lost, he bought a new edition and sent it to her; another reader could not express her love for JosanShan's works, so he took pains to find a chic way - saving a lot of "energy" on an app and deliberately planting a tree on Josanshan's birthday. Some readers were moved by her novel, and wrote out their feelings all night and posted them on the public account, which was extremely touching. After another young reader read her novel "How the Sound of the Piano Comes From", like the heroine Wu Qiuming, she often did public welfare, telling Qiu Shan Shan every time that she went to a nursing home today and went to an orphanage today, which made Qiu Shan Shan very moved. A reader who, by chance, read a novel about her in a magazine and thought she was good at telling stories, subscribed to the journal's year-round journal. "Every reader who likes me is a reward I get, and every time they express a liking, they give me an award. I really can't repay it, I can only say, continue to write well, and live up to them. ”
A writer's strength to a certain extent will always encounter questions about how to view some awards. Qiu Shanshan has made great efforts in the field of short stories and written very well, but he has not won the Short Story Lu Award so far. Qiu Shanshan had a good mentality, and she tried not to think about it. Her QQ signature has always been "grateful for everything she has now." She genuinely felt that what she had received was directly proportional to what she had given, and even exceeded expectations. "When I first became a soldier, I couldn't have imagined today." At first, I wanted to be a soldier for two years and go home and give me a job. Later, I thought, just let me go to college. After graduating from college and working, I thought, as long as I have time to write novels. Every time is a small wish, every step is also solid. I'm happy with that. ”
Dialogue with Mount Qiu
"Keeping up with the times while maintaining an appropriate distance"
Mount Qiu (Courtesy of me)
Cover News: In your opinion, what does it mean for ordinary people who are not engaged in literary creation, literary reading or writing?
Qiu Shan Shan: It means companionship. I often meet people who tell me that they used to like literary writing, but then they were too busy at work and said that they didn't have time to write. I usually answer them like this: You can not write, but you must read it often and keep yourself sensitive enough to literature and even words. No matter what kind of work you do, engineering design or business, if you love to read, life will not be so simple, just draw a picture and write a formula, it will be much richer. It's also easier to see clearly when you're stuck and get out. Others may be a single line in the world, you love literature, draw nutrients from literature, have humanistic feelings, maybe you can get out of the double line.
Cover News: Creative writing classes have also begun to be held in China, including Beijing Normal University, Renmin University, Fudan and other universities. How do you see this creative writing class? To what extent is literary writing teachable?
Qiu Shanshan: I think writing can be taught partly, at least some basic skills can be taught. For example, when I was studying to write novels in college, I wouldn't end it. At that time, if someone pointed me out, I would take fewer detours. Some people have a rich and tortuous life experience, "all that is said is a story", but these stories still need technology to become novels. When we tell a story well, what are the basic elements that should be taught. However, in order to write very good and outstanding works, technology alone is not enough, and it may be more necessary for the writer's understanding, experience, cultural literacy, etc., especially understanding, which is difficult to teach. For example, the same small detail, a small thing, some people listen to the left ear into the right ear out, but some people will be touched when they listen to it, fall into the heart and take root, become the seed of art. This is the difference in sensitivity to comprehension.
Cover News: After reading your novel, then reading your prose, the style is different, the standard is online. Your novels are dignified and atmospheric, and your prose style is humorous and playful. In fact, I have also read the essays of some excellent novelists, and I can feel that they do not attach great importance to the genre of prose and do not write well. In fact, prose is not idle talk after dinner, and it can be written well by casual writing.
Qiu Shanshan: My work started with prose, so I always cared about prose. I also never thought of prose as a secondary genre, and I wrote prose with all my might and seriousness. I will do a lot of material preparation, and try to write it in a way that is vivid and interesting, attractive, and not a dull narrative. I also spend a lot of time and energy on prose, so my essay collection is no less than the number of novels, which has millions of words.
Cover News: What kind of opportunities will generally motivate you to write?
Joshan Shan: It depends on what is written. Over the years, there have been many essays written by appointment, and occasionally I feel particularly interesting that I am happy to write, such as "The Thing of Appearance" and "The Thing of Age". Novels are different, usually I meet in life and story. Sometimes I make small talk with friends, the speaker is unintentional, and the listener is intentional. Or go out and meet something that touches me. These interesting people and things will be mixed with some of my innermost feelings. I always wondered, what will happen to him next? What will happen next? Slowly it became a novel. I often say that fiction is my question of life: What would I do if something like this happened? Or, what would have happened if he had gone the other way? Or, what happens when they meet decades from now? All kinds of questions, I formed a novel in various answers.
Cover News: Whether direct or indirect, writers can be called observers, recorders, expressors, and thinkers of real life in general. What do you think writers should do with the times?
Qiu ShanShan: Keeping up with the times while maintaining an appropriate distance is the most ideal state. If you chase after anything, you will make yourself lost. For example, now that various online languages are emerging in an endless stream, as a writer, it is better to know, do not be in a state of ignorance of what others are saying, I have no idea. At the same time, knowing it doesn't have to be used. Generally speaking, I will check what a new word comes out of the Internet to see what it means, let myself be in a state of knowing, and learn it. Some words are very vivid and accurate, and I will use them, but some are just for understanding. For example, some time ago, a yyds came out, I figured out what it meant and laughed it up, I wouldn't use it in my own articles, I still want my language to remain pure.