With the launch of the new realist novel "Chinese Tao Li", writer Liang Xiaosheng revealed in an interview on April 22 that his "Liang Ji Noodle Shop" still has a vat of noodles left: "'Chinese Tao Li' is my penultimate novel, and there is another book that writes, no matter what the level, 'Liang Ji Noodle Shop' is about to close." Liang Xiaosheng laughed and said that after putting down his pen, he would sit on the side of the road like all ordinary old people and bask in the sun.
In Liang Xiaosheng's view, the novelist is nothing remarkable, "I write a novel and a pastry teacher fu open a noodle restaurant is not much different, we must make the noodles better, to ensure the environmental protection of the ingredients." I've done it all my life, for better or worse, and I've done it to this extent. Sometimes people still have to put it down, don't be too stubborn, but I still have a dough in the jar, and this dough can't be wasted, so I will write another one. ”
Writing a book for the post-80s generation is a mental idea The challenge of writing about the younger generation is first and foremost language
"Chinese Tao Li" was recently launched by the Writers Publishing House, Liang Xiaosheng will focus on the "post-80s" college students this group, the story from 2000, Chinese department freshmen Li Xiaodong and Xu Ran met for the first time on the train to the university, after a small conflict, each other's impressions are not good, he and she did not expect that this is a long entanglement or entanglement of the beginning.
"Chinese Tao Li" is Liang Xiaosheng's second time to write "post-80s", in 2020 he published "My Life and Me", the protagonist "I" is after 80, born in the mountains of Guizhou, because the girl was abandoned by her parents, but unexpectedly blessed by misfortune, from a peasant family to an intellectual family. The change of her original family has complicated the direction of her destiny.
Talking about the original intention of the creation of "Chinese Tao Li", Liang Xiaosheng said that as a teacher, he has taught a lot of post-80s, and his children are also post-80s, so writing something for the post-80s has always been a part of his own thoughts, "The second is that I have taught Chinese after all, and I want to leave a little record for my teaching career, "Chinese Tao Li" does not have the image of my students, it is all fictional, but the feeling of the learning environment is real, and it will be a memorial to me." Another point is that after writing "The World of Man", I want to write a less heavy work, you can relax, otherwise people think that I am a person who is more worried and heavy, but in fact, I am not such a person. "Chinese Peach and Plum" often has a small humor hidden between the lines, which is also a more real state in my life. ”
In "Chinese Tao Li", Liang Xiaosheng adopts a first-person narrative, explaining that using the first person to make him feel close, "think in a different position, stand in their point of view." "My Life and Me" is also first-person, but because it is written about girls, there is always a state of language and gender that does not exactly match me. "Chinese Peach Lee" writes about boys, and I think although I am in my 70s, it is ok. ”
As for whether he has a generation gap with young people, Liang Xiaosheng believes that the generation gap is not something that you don't want to have, "You go to young people and mingle with them every day, the generation gap is still there, this is no way." But the generation gap does not affect our communication in that area where there is no generation gap. Although you are on the other side of the ditch and I am on the other side of the ditch, we can still communicate intimately. ”
Where are the challenges of writing about the younger generation? Liang Xiaosheng admitted that the first is the language, "The current language has changed too much, especially the frequent update of the online language, I have no way to integrate into that language." ”
In contrast, Liang Xiaosheng said that he understands the language of the post-80s generation well, "It is my son's age, he has some closeness to my language." These writers in the second half of the 70s, especially the post-80s, have more or less stubborn temperament when they write about their contemporaries, as if they don't write like that, they are not like their contemporaries. In fact, the students I come into contact with in life are not like this at all, and I personally think this is also a kind of writing law? When it comes to writing, it is also a deliberate intergenerational labeling? I like my post-80s more, they are also joking and humorous, but they do not have the temperament of the stubborn lord. ”
Liang Xiaosheng bluntly said that he did not like people like "stubborn lords", "No matter what age, I don't like it, because life is life, and there are many things in life that should be treated solemnly." Many times now we mix some questions that should be solemnly considered and recognized into the game, mixed with the idea of pleasing and pleasing the audience and the audience, at least in "Chinese Peach and Lee", I did not use such a bridge. ”
Professor Wang's lecture is my class content, and I want Fan Wei to play Professor Wang
There is a professor Wang Ermiao in "Chinese Tao Li", and the content of his lectures and his thinking on Chinese and education have a profound impact on several post-80s protagonists and are their "life mentors". Liang Xiaosheng revealed that Professor Wang has a deep shadow of him.
Liang Xiaosheng said that the content of Professor Wang's lectures is basically the same class he has taught, and it is he who guides the students to discuss some issues. "I think it's hard for everyone to get into college, especially the children of families who are not very well off, and they have to bear the pressure of tuition fees, if in class, I just take everyone and say, 'Look how we read a novel,' this class seems too unintelligent. I personally feel that if it is an ancient text, it must be necessary for teachers and old gentlemen to talk about modern literature, I think that after high school, there are almost no students who can't understand it, but they understand different ways after reading it, so better classes, in fact, after a literary work, how to think about it, that thinking topic and extended discussion is valuable. ”
Therefore, in "Chinese Tao Li", Professor Wang asked the students to discuss the movie "Taxi Driver", discussed who "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches" was written to, discussed Wang Liulang in "Chatting with Zai Zhiyi", "even discussed Rodin's work 'Renma', which has nothing to do with Chinese, I think these discussions are the meaning of Chinese majors, and these are indeed the classes I took in the university." ”
For his "teacher" status, Liang Xiaosheng is very proud: "In addition to the students of our language university, there are also students from the surrounding forestry universities, geology universities, and mining universities who also come to listen to the lectures." I think they have listened to my class, not to say that they are lucky in three lifetimes, but also to leave a deep impression. You know, when we were in graduate school, who watched War and Peace? I took them to watch the movie "War and Peace", took them to watch the movie "Taxi Driver", and when the last two classes were discussed, I would let my classmates go out to buy drinks, buy bread, buy sugar, everyone can lie on the table with sugar, how comfortable how to come, only I, the teacher, walked around with chalk on the podium, I think that literature class is actually the right way to talk like this, but it may not be allowed in other universities. ”
Liang Xiaosheng hopes that "Chinese Tao Li" can be made into a TV series, and this matter is also in preparation, Liang Xiaosheng believes that Fan Wei is very suitable for playing Professor Wang, "I have not seen Fan Wei himself, but I appreciate his performance, his facial expression, especially when he squints his eyes and smiles slightly, there is a state of kindness and kindness, and this state I think is mr. Wang should have a kind heart." Speaking of this, Liang Xiaosheng also asked the reporter, do you think it is appropriate for Fan Wei to play Professor Wang?
Liang Xiaosheng once made a cameo appearance as the chief judge in the TV series "The World of Man", and asked him why he did not want to play Professor Wang in his true colors, Liang Xiaosheng shook his head repeatedly, "Acting is a profession, too powerful." I acted the way I did in class, and that didn't mean appreciation. If I am in class, the students can listen, but no student looks at the teacher with an appreciative eye, they appreciate the content of the teacher's lecture, and the actor's performance constitutes our appreciation. ”
Solemn things don't need to be so witty This peace of mind is my hometown
Liang Xiaosheng admitted that "Chinese Tao Li" is not about the dilemma of literature, but about the plight of some young people who Chinese majors, "I should say that I don't care much about the dilemma of literature, because when literature began to arise, it was only a matter of some people, and the dilemma of literature is not how serious the dilemma of all human beings is, so here is more about students who Chinese majors, some of the confusion they face after they are engaged in employment, and how they think." ”
Compared with other majors with strict standards, Liang Xiaosheng said that the particularity of Chinese profession is that "even if I am half a bottle of water, I can swing very strongly and pretend to be particularly profound." This is not only sometimes true for students, but also for teachers when they lecture. Therefore, when we listen to intellectuals who have studied literature, history and philosophy, we always feel that what they say sometimes seems profound, but it is not in tune when carefully pondered. ”
In the view of Teacher Liang Xiaosheng, who teaches Chinese, some of the issues discussed are solemn things, "solemn things don't need so much humor, don't need so much funny, humor is needed, you can be silent." But you see now when some intellectuals talk, many occasions have become entertaining, if a person's opening speech is not as hot as a talk show, it seems that he cannot enter the discussion of the problem, a class of 45 minutes, the time is people pay tuition to be eligible to sit there, so these may be a problem for us. ”
The two protagonists in "Chinese Tao Li" Li Xiaodong and Xu Ran chose to return to their hometown after "North Drift", Liang Xiaosheng believes that the idea of young people "becoming Beijingers" as their life direction is "ridiculous", of course, "If the housing prices in Beijing are very low, I still agree with everyone staying in Beijing." ”
In Liang Xiaosheng's view, whether choosing a big city like Beijing or choosing to go back to his hometown, "this peace of mind is my hometown", and for ordinary people who have no family background and no inheritance, "there is a wonderful thing left to us, that is, books." No individual or family can monopolize books, and many rich people do not care about getting energy from books, because people with a lot of money do not have to get energy from books, but this is left to us. So the book belongs to us, it depends only on how far you read it. ”
My life is a reportage genre that cannot be romantic and abstract
In "Chinese Tao Li", Xu Ran said that life can be divided into poetry, prose, and reportage, and asked Liang Xiaosheng what kind of life he was, he said: "I have not experienced a life like poetry, I have never thought like that, I may have thought from my youth that my life is reportage, realistic, and can not come from a little romance, abstraction, hypocrisy." Because the family is so difficult, my father is in the province, my mother is sick and weak, she supports this family, I have a sick brother, and nothing else. Although I read a lot of novels, I did not get romantic at the time, and this romantic feeling of mine may have appeared in some early Zhiqing novels at most. ”
Liang Xiaosheng laughed and said that every time students came to see him, he always asked people whether the house was bought or rented, "I will suggest them to buy it, if people say that they buy a house, I will ask how big the area is, I think this is life." Isn't this a bit cheesy? Not romantic, not passionate. ”
Although it is not romantic, Liang Xiaosheng said that from the beginning of writing, he was writing love, but this love is not only love. "I am not very willing to rely on love clues and love content to support a book, so when others ask me which of the most touching in "The World of Man", I said that the love between men and women will not move me, I have been like this since the earliest reading, it may be a boy, how can we be moved by Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, Tang Minghuang and Yang Guifei, that is your girl's business, I personally may be more touched by the love between men and men, the friendship between women and women." 」
Novelists are no more advanced than other professions, and if they are profound, they are also very difficult
In "Chinese Tao Li", Liang Xiaosheng also "blackened himself", the book said that Liang Xiaosheng went to Li Xiaodong and Xu Ran's hometown to give a lecture, someone gave Li Xiaodong three tickets, Xu Ran had no interest in listening, one of the main jobs of Xu Ran, who was the director of the "service center", was to participate in the memorial service, and for a few days, she rushed to the scene, and she had to attend the memorial service three times a day, Xu Ran said: "If I talk about literature and life, it will definitely be better than that Liang Xiaosheng. ”
Liang Xiaosheng said that he liked Xu Ran's job, "I suddenly felt a bit like Niu Niu, the son of Bian Chunyan in "The World of Man", but this is a coincidence, because I completely forgot about Chunyan when I wrote "Chinese Tao Li". ”
Liang Xiaosheng thinks that perhaps it is related to age, he is thinking more and more about what life and death are, so he arranges such a job for Xu Ran in the book, "If it is her profession to often participate in memorial services, I think this person should be able to understand many things." ”
In addition to novels, Liang Xiaosheng has also written works such as "Ninety-Three Assertions" and "Gaze at Nine-Seven" that are both essayistic and critical, Liang Xiaosheng said that the motivation for writing is because at the beginning of China's transformation period, there was a year similar to an inflection point, "That year there were a lot of leather bag companies, as well as layoffs, unemployment, and suddenly some people around us made a lot of money, so much as shock can be described." At that time, our salary was at most more than a thousand, and suddenly we said that whoever was who made a thing earned tens of thousands. So at this inflection point, there was the idea of writing something. ”
Liang Xiaosheng defined the matter of writing as the recorder of the times, and if the era is recorded in a novel, it will obviously be very slow, so Liang Xiaosheng wrote essays and essays, "When it came to the "Analysis of All Levels of Chinese Society", it was written relatively macroscopic, with a little cross-border feeling, from the novel cross-border to the writing of social articles. I don't feel shy about my crossover, I think those are all worth writing, and I even sometimes feel complacent, I think I can still write, after the "Analysis of All Levels of Chinese Society" came out, the people of the Academy of Social Sciences said: 'You see what we have to do to make people do it.' It shows that what I wrote is still getting attention. ”
For those novelists who write novels and read novels and only have novels in their eyes, Liang Xiaosheng said that he would not associate with them, "I personally feel that novelists should have more things in their eyes, pay attention to more phenomena, we look back at the history of literature, many excellent novelists are like this, Tolstoy, Hugo, Dickens, Turgenev, even including Shelley, Byron, Heine and other poets. ”
For the profession of novelist, Liang Xiaosheng believes that "for a long time, we took ourselves too seriously, we pretended to be profound, and if this profoundness was to be pretended, it was also very difficult." Words are not easy to say, and the novel has become obscure. In fact, the novel is not so great, it should be said that many people pick up a pen to write about life, as long as the text is good, he can become a writer, where is the writer great? The importance of literature was only synchronized with the Western Enlightenment for a period of time, and it played a role in promoting society as a whole. In the later peacetime era, you were just a writer of novels, and compared with those who engaged in music and performance, and scientists, what is so great? I don't think the profession of novelist is higher than any other profession in today's human society. This is what I want to express, so I joked about it in "Chinese Peach and Lee". ”
In addition to the truth, goodness and beauty, people's lives are all passing clouds
In addition to loving to consider the issue of life and death, Liang Xiaosheng said that his mentality is also much calmer now, and he has been angry before and has experienced a state of tearing, but now he is "not torn".
Liang Xiaosheng pays attention to friendship, so there is Bingkun in "The World" and their "Six Little Gentlemen", and there is Wang Wenqi, the second generation of officials who are too good to Li Xiaodong and Xu Ran in "Chinese Tao Li". Liang Xiaosheng said that perhaps readers will feel that Wang Wenqi's friendship of not seeking anything in return is unreal, but he really has such a friend in his life, and he is grateful that he has encountered precious friendships since the time of Zhiqing.
As for his literary path, Liang Xiaosheng said that he would like to thank him for his experience as a member of the Haidian District CPPCC Committee for two decades and as a member of the CppcC National Committee for three years, because during this period he met many good friends: "Since I was in my 40s, I have come into contact with another type of intellectual, who has nothing to do with the literary world and may still be an official. ”
The identity of the CPPCC member also gave Liang Xiaosheng a platform to express his opinions, "I have patted the table during the meeting, and when I turned my head because I was angry, it was very willful at that time, but as long as you are right, it is a method, almost all of them will be adopted, of course, there is also an operability." We were talking about operability at that time, which forced you to investigate and consider things more comprehensively and objectively. ”
After expressing his opinion at the meeting that "the nose is not the nose, the face is not the face", Liang Xiaosheng said that his temper was also released, "When I write a novel, I don't tear it up, because I have opinions to the people who should hear the most, not the other way around, I met a person with a high status, hid my opinion, said what he liked to hear, and turned back to the novel and began to make it dark." I think such a novelist lives a more screwy life, and there are more passages about me at the meeting, how I should say everything, I have expressed, to the novel I can not be like that. ”
Liang Xiaosheng, who was over seventy years old, sighed that perhaps people of his age would reflect on the meaning of life, saying that when he wrote about Guangming Renjia in "The World of Man", he wanted to add another paragraph before publication, "That is, Guangming was already an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old youth at that time, he encountered heavy rain on the way to Beiputuo, he was blind, and then he got lost." I always have a picture in my mind, and I am very touched when I think about it: in the process of getting lost, the rainstorm pouring down, the lightning and thunder in the sky, this eighteen- or nineteen-year-old blind young man sits on the ground, between heaven and earth, because he does not know where to go. He was carried back by the monks of The North Putuo Monastery with a fever, and then the old monk asked him: Where did he come from and where did he go? He said I was going home, and then the old monk said you're home. ”
Liang Xiaosheng said that when he wrote this, he wanted to go through his 70-year-old life, what is people pursuing in this life? "If you think about it, except for the truth, goodness and beauty, everything else is a passing cloud."
Text/Reporter Zhang Jia Courtesy photo/Xiaoyi