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Zhu Hui, an important writer in the "Literary Soviet Army", finally met with readers at the beginning of this year with Zhu Hui's new work "Crossed Rainbow" at the beginning of this year, such as the Lu Xun Literature Prize, the Purple Mountain Literature Award, the "Writer" Golden Short Story Award, and the Wang Zengqi Literature Prize. As a collection of short and medium stories, the book is lightweight in size, giving the reader "a feeling of dreams... It is very hazy and freehand, like an illusion on a summer afternoon"; but as a world love novel, its realism is obvious, and it strongly reflects the common problems faced by people in the current society in a concise story, reflects the author's insight, and arouses wide resonance among readers.
How to write a novel that is delicate to the texture of "a kind of southern plum rainy season", the author Zhu Hui confessed to us his mental journey.
A "Lu Prize" writer from science and engineering
Although he now writes for a living, Zhu Hui is actually from science and engineering, majoring in farmland water conservancy at university, and graduating from the field with formulas, matrices and charts. He said that studying science and engineering is an arrangement of family and the times, but people who love writing, even if they have deviated from the line, will eventually return to the track of literature. Zhu Hui said that he was born with a love of writing, and when he was in college, he read almost all the Western classic literary works collected by the school library, and many writers, including Borges and Márquez, had a profound influence on him. Zhu Hui's first published work was the essay "Metasequoia Forest Imagination", which was at that time to participate in the Jiangsu Provincial College Students Essay Competition and won the prize. However, looking back decades later, this work that has a nodal significance in his creative career feels that it is "full of clichés".
Although widely known as a writer, Zhu Hui has spent most of his spare time creating in the past few decades. After graduating from university, after nearly 30 years of teaching experience in colleges and universities and working in university publishing houses, Zhu Hui was transferred to the Jiangsu Writers Association in 2013 to engage in professional literary creation, which can be regarded as the beginning of professional writing. Most of his novels such as "My Expression", "Bull Horn Comb", "White Colt", "God Knows", the short story collection "Red Mouth and White Teeth", "I'm a Stone's Throw Away from You", "I Want You to Look Good", "Wednesday with Xin Yi" and so on, are all created in their spare time. You can imagine how beloved this is for literature and writing.
In 2018, Zhu Hui won the 7th Lu Xun Literature Award for his short story "Seven-Story Pagoda".
The award speech for the novel was: "Facing the modernization and transformation of the countryside, focusing on the changes in production methods and life forms, keenly opening up the economic, cultural and ethical dimensions implied in the contradictions of peasants and neighbors, vividly portraying characters in typical environments, showing abundant realism." ”
However, Zhu Hui believes that this is not his best short story, and he only gives this novel a 70 point. "I saw the relationship between land and people, saw the huge impact of changes in human settlements on a person, found a narrative base point, and quickly wrote this novel. Someone saw something else, and Professor Ding Fan (professor at the College of Letters of Nanjing University) said, I wrote about an old man who was accustomed to a traditional way of life and suddenly had a 'cultural stroke'. He said it very well. ”
In recent years, confined to the editorial work of Yuhua magazine, Zhu Hui has mainly projected his energy into the creation of short and medium stories. "Short stories have some special requirements for authors due to space limitations. I think tone is important. To have a tone, to form their own tone. ”
Novels must be good to read and not dull in the name of art
Zhu Hui said that "detective" is not only a point of interest that he has had since he was a child, but also a natural interest point of interest for curious animals like humans. He believes that "if I don't become a writer, I can be a good detective." It can be seen that he is extremely interested in the subject matter of detective and the matter itself.
"It's human nature to listen to stories, to listen to suspenseful stories, to pursue mysteries." From the point of view of being obsessed with suspense, detective fiction will always have its readers. In real life, a large number of cases from ancient times to the present day are the topic of people's word of mouth and talk about. Even if the mystery of "who is the murderer" has been revealed, the process of the case can be explored, and the cause of the crime is even more controversial and inconsistent. Many cases are full of suspense and puzzles. And China began with the legend of the Tang and Song Dynasties, to the Ming Dynasty novels and then to the Qing Dynasty public case novels, detective novels are endless. Zhu Hui has read almost all foreign detective novels that have been translated, including Ellen Lee. Poe, Conan · Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Quinn's The Mystery of the Greek Coffin and The Mystery of the French Powder, among others, by the Writer William H. Quinn, jr. Collins' "Moon Gem" made him thrilled and addicted.
Writer Zhu Hui
When it comes to the relationship between detective novels and literature, Zhu Hui believes that detective mystery novels are a type of literature, and genre literature has its own routines. It's brain-burning, it's mind games. Because it wanted to hide the truth, it had to give up something more literary. Zhu Hui believes that writing "secret room novels" or "intrinsic reasoning" has been almost done to the extreme by predecessors. However, another mission more important to literature was ignored or suspended by them, and this was the motive for committing the crime. They make little or no excavation or pioneering, ignoring the sociological and human meaning of the criminal mind. This is a pity.
"The story overwhelms everything, it's its natural flaw." Zhu Hui felt that novels must be good to look at, and they could not be dull and boring in the name of art.
"Crossed Rainbow": Insight into each living individual
Zhu Hui's new work "Crossed Rainbow" consists of 5 novellas and short stories. The novel's realism is obvious and reflects the common problems faced by people in today's society. In this work, Zhu Hui continues his previous writing style, a wise narrator, with the delicacy and profundity of "human insight", witnessing the true impact of the survival of each living individual.
"Crossed Rainbow"
By Zhu Hui
Published by Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House in January 2022
Compared with some grand historical narratives, Zhu Hui is more inclined to explore the human rifts and emotions of small people, and capture the complex appearance of society and life in subtle details. "Crossed Rainbow" writes about people of various professions, such as the painter and voice actor in "Moving", the magazine proofreader and editor in "The Blade", the professional young woman in "The Other Party" and the grave robber in "Qingyu Case". These people are small people who wander the world, familiar with the people around us.
How can you write well about different people in various industries? Zhu Hui said that people in various professions are actually people. A profession is their interest or means of livelihood. "A profession that screens people and shapes them at the same time. I noticed this, but what I cared more about was that he was fundamentally a person. "Stories seen and heard are often just a head, and as a professional novelist, the depiction and story of the images of sentient beings mainly comes from imagination.
"You Blade" tells the story of how Young Woman Ye Shuanghong decisively and intelligently made choices in work and feelings, and finally lived the way she wanted to be. In the current social context, Ye Shuanghong conforms to the image of "sobriety in the world" advocated by women, rather than "silly white sweet" or traditional "hard work and resentment". "Man has his own character, which is nature and heredity, but social life and personal experience often discipline nature. Some people live a more rational life, self-discipline, rationality, utilitarianism, while others are more spontaneous. Expressing the vicissitudes of life is exactly what the novelist is interested in. For Ye Shuanghong's type of person, Zhu Hui believes that it is not enough to just give them some labels, but also need to pay attention to some of the events she has experienced to see how she behaves.
Swipe left and right to see the shadow of the Crossed Rainbow book
"To write about the lake, words like 'horizontal as a mirror' are obviously not enough, you can throw a stone at the lake; to describe a drum, you can't just describe a still life, pick up the drumstick and knock it up, it's simpler and more effective, and it's richer." According to this, readers may wish to read and understand the characters in the book in all aspects, so that they can be three-dimensional and more deeply touch the detailed emotions of the characters and the times.
"Everyone is a small person, but some people don't know it that way." In Zhu Hui's view, the way novelists feel and realize life is no different from ordinary people, normal life, joy and sorrow, but they must pay attention to understanding and feeling. He advised us to read more books when we had time, "It's necessary for a good life." ”
Text | New Yellow River reporter Xu Min
Edit | Ah Yan, Yuan Jinghan
Figure | Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House