Editor's Note
Creation and criticism, such as the wings of a bird, the axle of a car. The development of literary creation is inseparable from the prosperity of literary criticism and the efforts of generations of literary critics. In 1998, the Southern Literary Circle launched the "Critics Today" column, which has introduced more than 100 critics so far. Critics of different personalities speak "my view of criticism" with their sharpness, talent, and agility, and hundreds of articles have accumulated to form a sensitive, vivid, and full of vitality and talent.
Now the China Writers Network has re-launched these articles to share with you, so stay tuned.
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Critics of the day
He Tongbin (Filmed in 2013)
He Tongbin, born in March 1981, is a young critic, a specially invited researcher of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, a literary and artistic talent of Jiangsu Zijin, and a special expert of Nanjing Shenchuang World "Literary Capital". He was the deputy editor-in-chief of Zhongshan Magazine and is currently the deputy editor-in-chief of Yangtze River Literary Review. He has published literary criticism collections such as "Floating Night's Watchman", "Rebuilding Youth", "History is the Spiritual Disaster", and editing and publishing "Han Dong Research Materials". He has won more than 20 literary awards such as the Purple Mountain Literature Award and the Purple Gold Literary and Art Criticism Award.
My view of criticism
Criticism of hostility
He Tongbin
"All obstacles are destroying me", and with the gnawing of the years, I always seem to understand the "weight" of Kafka's words better than yesterday.
I felt more and more like a patient of thought and literature, destroyed by the "floating feast" in front of me, lying in what Baudelaire called the "hospital of life", like all patients, "eager to change beds" every day. So, I often say to those who greet me: I'm busy, I'm busy... But why is it so busy? Busy with what? Such a question is best not to think about, otherwise there will be a smell of rotting corpses under the cover of hospital disinfectant water.
Deleuze said: "Literature seems to be a healthy cause: not because writers are necessarily healthy and strong... On the contrary, his body was irresistibly weak, and this weakness came from what he had seen and heard in things that were too powerful and suffocating for him, and the occurrence of these things brought him certain changes that could not be achieved in his strong, dominant physique, and exhausted him. The main task of my lying in the "hospital" was to think, to think about how to face those "too powerful, suffocating things", but I found nothing but the cold passing of time, "weak" and "exhausted" is just a shameful label, causing the "strong physique" to laugh maliciously; disappointment and even despair make me a nihilist, more and more hostile to the self-proclaimed "pills" and the "doctors" who claim to be extremely effective.
Hostility is really good. It would have been a disaster to be reduced to a nihilist at such a young age, contrary to his profession, but the hostility exchanged for it made me feel that I was still alive, or that I was not yet sick and dying. Hostility allowed me to retain a moderate amount of anger, and the will to resist inspired by that anger; and knowing how to resist made me barely worthy of the word "youth" and taught me that failure and crying were not necessarily a scandal.
I often dream of warriors or demagogues, in which I repeatedly quote Heidegger's assessment of Nietzsche: "Nihilism" now means nothing more than liberation from the values of the past, a liberation to revaluate all values. I stood on the high platform of the square and shouted, shouting to my peers to form the "nation of youth" that Nietzsche called: "If the world is saved from these adults and old people, it must be a better salvation for the world!" "Go to war! Go to war against all the old zombies!
However, "dreams are good, otherwise, money matters". When I woke up sweating, I was often confronted with the kind face of the middle-aged and elderly doctor: little friend, good, it's time to take medicine. When I panicked and stabbed the spear of "criticism" out, I found that the opposite side was empty...
Is "Lotus Alone Wandering" a heroic tragedy? Nowadays, the actors who pretend to be heroes are like carp across the river, real heroes are rare and helpless, at this time, "it is better to throw more broken copper and rotten iron / cool sex to splash your leftovers", although the tragedy is gone, but there will always be some fun in the trouble, right?
"Talking about someone being disgusted is a kind of happiness compared to not moving at all." There are many uncomfortable people in the world, and some people are bent on creating a world that is comfortable for themselves. This can not be so cheap, but also put a little disgusting things in front of them, so that he is sometimes a little uncomfortable, knowing that his own world is not easy to be very happy. The flying sound of the fly does not know that people hate him; I know it, but as long as it can fly, it is better to fly. (Lu Xun's "Tomb Inscription")
My ideal is to be such an obnoxious "fly" with critical "hostility", which is like a patient inserting a paper paste wing, always creating a little illusion or hope of escaping from the ward.
The article was published in Southern Literature, No. 4, 2013
Critic Impressions
Criticize the killer
——Impression of He Tongbin
Huang Fan
I can't remember where the first conversation with him was, and the content of the conversation seemed to jump out of the realm of memory, but the impression of the conversation was deep in the mind. Remember that his tongue is like a tongue of fire, constantly roasting the views and ideas that people are proud of, and leading the solution of problems completely to the uncertain and the unknown. That conversation was almost a decade old, and in fact it was only the beginning of many of the torture-style conversations that followed, and it made me constantly examine many of my "correct" ideas. He's a really good "killer", murdering ideas that seem to be correct. I have always seen him as a fictional character, as if there were a demon in his heart, Mephistopheles, who mainly wanted to make all the ideas of sound useless or dumb, and take pleasure in it. I have regarded this tendency as a hobby and declared to my friends that he would believe something when he was thirty-five years old. Of course, I may have been happy too soon to see him moving towards the age I predicted, but he is becoming more and more professional and courageous as a killer...
I remember that my fate with this young scholar began with a novel lecture I gave ten years ago when I went to nanjing university writers' class, and of course I didn't know that there was a master's student "killer" hidden under the stage. A few days after the speech, my friend Xia Yeqing mysteriously forwarded an article to me with an expression, which was "Percussion in the Face of the Anxiety dilemma of Human Nature" written by He Tongbin. I chose a quiet night and read it several times, still not knowing whether the author valued my Eleventh Commandment. Articles put the ideas on which my novels were based in a mixed-budget interrogation room, and by the time his articles came out, they were all over the place. He had his own plans and wanted me to recommend it to He Rui of Mountain Flower, but he didn't intend to please me. This practice is rarely interesting and serious, and I can neither be sure that what he wrote was full of insights, nor can I say indifferent in the face of his criticism and questioning. I had a hard time riding the tiger for several days, and finally I finally twisted the arrogance in my heart and recommended it to "Mountain Flower" for publication. Yes, on the surface he is a good gentleman, gentle and elegant, but he has his own ethics and a new attitude that may change the atmosphere of criticism. It is understandable that when he published a series of book reviews in the Southern Metropolis Daily in recent years, he only wanted to build an altar with criticism, to use the novels being criticized as offerings, and to honor the great tradition of criticism in his heart. He didn't want to put a garland on the writer and exchange benefits. His harsh criticism of Mo Yan's "Frog", Ge Fei's "Spring in jiangnan", Liu Liangcheng's "Chiseling The Void" and other works has placed himself in a great tradition, that is, forgetting personal vital interests and devoting one's life to honest Eastern ancient traditions, or Western modern traditions. In this way, the mediocre environment of the elders' smugness becomes lighter and lighter. I even believe that Ge Fei should tolerate his insanity, realizing that the era of praise that has lasted for many years in China is nearing its end, and that He Tongbin represents a new voice that has awakened from numbness, and whatever this new voice will bring us, it is very beneficial to listen to it.
The discerning man can see the absurdity of contemporary criticism, and he is not the only one who wants to challenge or overcome it. In my opinion, the strength that inspired his courage and ambition came from poetry. By the time he was a forced obedient master's student, he had tended to associate with poets. The high standards he later upheld in his criticism of the novel were undoubtedly related to his personal poetic practice. As he took over the editing of the poetry magazine Nanjing Review, he simply became a member of the poets' community. Yes, his poems are written with extraordinary sensuality, permeated with the sense of nothingness in the abyss of the times, without a trace of pedantry, and even a certain kind of music can be distinguished from them. Speaking of music, I'd like to talk about one of his hobbies — collecting original classical music CDs. He owns thousands of original CDs and buys Triptych's Philharmonic without landing in one issue, which shows how active his artistic sensibility is. This is very different from the fact that many critics accomplish criticism in theory. This made him, like the poets around him, not only knowledgeable, but also completed a secret course that cultivated the sensibility of his work. I've always had a point of view: a man's literary taste is basically on par with his other tastes. It is inconceivable that a person who can only accept realistic painting will understand modern novels. Therefore, I think that the most important thing for a critic is not to complete the criticism, but to complete his own cultivation first, and raise all kinds of tastes and sensitivities to a modern level. From time to time, his conversations around a contemporary band abroad were so inspiring that he could even hear his poetic taste. I suspect that it was a relatively simple poetic world that led him out of the complex labyrinth of the novel world. I think the poetry world has given He Tongbin an experience, that is, to stop following in the footsteps of the grand prize, but to give the screening to his own reading of the text. He is experienced and courageous in this regard, and he will not be lost by the obstacles set by literary awards. Even at the level of life, he was wary of numb cynicism, and power had long since lost its virtue in his eyes. I think that in addition to Mephistopheles, there is also a Weiyi hidden in his body, and he seems to be ashamed to help others, not to ask for anything in return, to live in the system with shame, to look at it coldly. I remember that shortly after the death of the poet Zhang Zao, he once wrote an article "The Boundary of Death", questioning the sincerity behind those who missed the article, and he suspected that those people were using Zhang Zao's death to solemnly introduce themselves to the world... As soon as this article was published in the Nanjing Review, it attracted lin Xianzhi's attention. Lim asked me for his contact information. Recently, I heard that Lin Xianzhi has completed the compilation of Ho Tongbin's first collection of essays, which will be published soon. It seems that Lin Xianzhi also has a Mephistopheles and Wei Yi in his body, and he sees the hope of not letting the critics blind in the new generation of critics He Tongbin...
Since He Tongbin belonged to a modernist literary circle during his studies, the starting point of his criticism was modernism. Therefore, when he began to study the mainstream realistic novels in China, in the face of some works that he was difficult to respect, it was inevitable that the words would be sarcastic and easy to be misread as deliberately shocking. In fact, not only in the article, he will make everyone lose confidence in the work, he and his friends in the tea house or dinner in the long conversation, the conversation is as sharp as the peak. When you listen to his gentle words, you don't realize that the foothold of your feet has been emptied by his dissection. It is no wonder that the students who take his classes are often maddened by his relentless dissection, who on the one hand think he is quite reasonable, and on the other hand, hope that he will provide a way out. He was very stingy in that regard and didn't think he could show them a way out. As a result, there was a girl who felt desperate crying in the hall, making him helpless. There are many such stories, and they have almost become the norm in his classroom. Once, I invited him to give a lecture at our school and saw his cruel scalpel-like analysis. Fortunately, the students in our school were born in science and engineering, and their emotions were not as rich as those of his liberal arts students, so at the end of the lecture, no one felt the urge to cry, but their other reactions were exactly the same as those of his liberal arts students, and they surrounded him in groups, and they had to ask this "demon" who had punctured their illusions, to give them guidance and point out a hopeful spiritual way out. He was really like Mephistopheles, smiling at a pair of longing, blank eyes, not intending to lend a helping hand. The moment I watched was very real. I saw that he clearly wanted to destroy the romance in their hearts, let them see the cruelty of reality, and then truly grow up. Why don't I see his criticism that way? He probably felt the need to make the literary world disappear a group of "masters", too many romantic landscapes created by criticism, and had long ignored the text, just like the scene that Belinsky saw in the Russian literary world. Others may think he is challenging the limits of criticism, but those who know him know that he is merely guided by a higher standard and taste, like a seafarer who does not agree that sailing on a lake would be any more important.
Of course, it's not that he doesn't have a struggle inside. His superficial kindness and physical hard work will make him temporarily complete, but the inner sharpness will not let him completely melt in numbness. I remember that six years ago, He Yanhong and I (Fu Yuanfeng, Potato Brothers, Yubang, He Tongbin) began to compile the annual poetry rankings, organize the selection of the Rougang Award, hold poetry clubs and other activities, He Tongbin has always been a passionate doer. On the one hand, he will conscientiously fulfill the tasks assigned to him, and on the other hand, he will be a straightforward critic of these activities, pointing out their possible destinations and making them aware of their falsehood. Seriously, it is his intentional or unintentional criticism that makes us realize that we may also be complicit in lies, and constantly remind ourselves that we should not cross the line. Therefore, from this point of view, his critical behavior is not alone, and he uses his usual satirical tone to try to awaken the critical justice hidden deep in everyone's heart. What friendship could be more beneficial, wiser, and more just to me than that?
(Huang Fan, Department of Arts and Culture, Nanjing University of Science and Technology)
The article was published in Southern Literature, No. 4, 2013
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