Shen Shixi: Use words to present a different animal world for children

【Literary and artistic personalities】

Author: Jiang Xiaobin (Reporter, China Youth Daily)

Elephants, lions, wolves, jackals, foxes, dogs, pigs, camels, swans, eagles... In his writing, all kinds of animals have characters, stories, and souls. For more than 40 years, he has created more than 6 million words of animal fiction and is known as the "King of Animal Fiction". Some people think that the animal world he describes is like human society, full of competition and sometimes cruelty, and he just hopes to tell children the truth of life with non-sweet but real animal novels.

Shen Shixi close-up bright picture

Elephants, lions, wolves, jackals, foxes, dogs, pigs, pythons, camels, swans, eagles, eagles... Some people have calculated that Shen Shixi, the "king of animal novels", has written more than 70 kinds of animals, but they are basically land animals, and marine animals have never been written. However, this deficiency has now been filled. "Dolphin Song", published a few days ago, is about bottlenose dolphins, which is Shen Shixi's first ocean-themed animal novel.

Since publishing his first work in 1980, "When the Elephant Herd Migrated", Shen Shixi has been writing animal novels for more than 40 years. Why did you "go to the sea" only today? Shen Shixi explained, first, because although he was born in Shanghai, the urban area of Shanghai is still dozens of kilometers away from the sea, and the mouth of the Yangtze River is yellow, neither the color of the sea, nor the momentum of the sea, so he is not familiar with the ocean; Second, in 1969, he went to Xishuangbanna, Yunnan to cut the queue, and stayed for decades, so most of the writings were Yunnan animals.

Having never written about marine animals, Shen Shixi believes that it is a deficiency. In addition, after writing for decades, people have written about familiar animals, and it is inevitable that there will be "fried cold rice" when written again. To break through, there are two directions: one is ancient animals, and the other is marine animals. The former he wrote about the Jurassic "Colorful Dragon Bird", and the latter is this time the bottlenose dolphin.

Writing about marine animals, Shen Shixi found it difficult to be unfamiliar. As a result, "Dolphin Song" took nearly 5 years from conception to completion. During this period, he went to Dalian, Weihai, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Ningbo, Zhoushan and other places to collect style. When chatting with fishermen, Shen Shixi would always hear similar stories: it turned out that the conditions were poor, the small fishing boat was made of wood, and when the fishing trip encountered a storm, the boat would capsize or even disintegrate. If they encounter bottlenose dolphins, they will "shoot" to save people, use their own backs to push fishermen out of the sea and to the shore... Fishermen also care for dolphins, and when they encounter dolphins stranded on the beach, they will voluntarily send them back to the sea. Shen Shixi said that dolphins are good friends of humans, so the first time I wrote about marine animals chose dolphins.

Of the three stories in "Dolphin Song", two of them do not have happy endings. Some people have criticized Shen Shixi's animal novels for being too cruel for children to read. Shen Shixi said: "Animal novels are not fairy tales. Fairy tales are soft, sweet, and at the end they are happy endings, suitable for young children to read. My animal novels are generally read by middle and upper grade children, who should have limited exposure to real life and real society. ”

What is real life? The real life of wild animals is a daily competition, and life is always in danger. Shen Shixi said: "The wildlife world is playing out tragedies every day, and animal novels inevitably write tragedies. Literature must be faithful to life, how can writing animal novels avoid the law of the jungle? ”

Of course, because the reader is a teenager, Shen Shixi will also have some moderation. Where is the "degree" between beauty and cruelty, life and fiction? Shen Shixi believes that "beautiful things and life power will not disappear with the elimination of individuals, but will become a spiritual gene that will be passed down from generation to generation." Just like the "half-faced dolphin" in "Dolphin Song", its appearance was damaged by nuclear radiation, but its kindness and yearning for beauty were passed down in this group, and its descendants were treated kindly; Although the "Brave Dolphin" died in the end, it opened up a better living space for the group and transformed the adventurous character into a pioneering spirit. "Although tragedies continue to be staged, life as a whole is upward, tenacious, and one generation is better than another, which is the internal logic of life development." Shen Shixi said.

Shen Shixi has raised many animals, but what touched him the most was a dog named "Afu". In 2004, Shen Shixi moved his family back to Shanghai from Kunming, and Afu, who had been raised for 7 years, was left in Kunming and entrusted to a friend for adoption. More than 3 months later, a friend suddenly called, saying that Fu had lost it. Shen Shixi was very anxious and asked friends to help find it. After another ten days, a friend called late at night, saying that he passed by Shen Shixi's house in Kunming before and saw a dog squatting at the door, "In the past, it was your family Afu", but when it saw someone, it turned around and ran away.

After answering the phone, Shen Shixi immediately decided that he would fly to Kunming the next day and must bring Ah Fu back. After arriving in Kunming, Shen Shixi stayed in a small hotel next to the original house, sleeping during the day and waiting for Afu at night. He stayed for 7 days, but Fu never appeared. Shen Shixi could only return to Shanghai with regret and never received any news about Ah Fu again. "Since then, when I think of Afu, I always feel guilty." Shen Shixi said. Because of Afu, last year, he wrote the "Stray Dog Oreo" series with several authors.

In some foreign animal novels, animals are mostly beautiful and good, and humans are ugly, or there is original sin in front of animals. But Shen Shixi believes that the philosophies expressed in animal novels can be more diverse and richer, such as the motherhood of animals and the wisdom of struggling to survive. "Some writers want to express the real situation of animals observed by humans in some detail. But I think the advantage of animal fiction is not who is more real, but in the shock of presenting a certain behavior of animals to humans. If it's just to show the real situation of animals, you can make a documentary. Shen Shixi said.

Some people think that the animal world described by Shen Shixi resembles human society. "I admit that the animals in my pen have a human mentality." Shen Shixi asked rhetorically, "How do you know that animals don't have such a thinking mentality?" ”

Next, Shen Shixi plans to write a story about ancient creatures: there are many giant animals in the ancient ocean, and one of them can only travel to the mainland because of its small size and smaller living space. After successfully landing, they spent a very happy time, but then behemoths like dinosaurs appeared on land, and in order to survive, they could only return to the sea...

"The story is about the cycle of life. Each cycle of life seems to return to the original point, but in fact evolves to a higher state of life. Shen Shixi said, "I am 70 years old this year, and I can continue to write for a few years, hoping that I can make a breakthrough in literature in the future, at least not in the same place." ”

Guang Ming Daily (November 30, 2022, version 13)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily