As readers, we are happy and lucky, because the author Cui Ying spent eight years traveling thousands of miles to complete this work "Visiting Secretary", we do not leave home, if we concentrate, we can read this book of more than 530 pages in a whole day. Feel the excitement and emotion of the conversation in her interviews and interviewees' answers, and if you happen to like writing, then this is the most comprehensive guide to "creative writing", whether fiction or non-fiction. The book is divided into categories, such as sinology, history, literature, non-fiction, sociology, etc., so you can start reading it from your favorite category or from your favorite author.
"Visiting Secretary"
Laughter and freedom
Reading this interview with many writers, the one that struck me the most was the author's review of the Israeli writer David A. Interview with Grossman. The interview took place at Grossman's home in Jerusalem. In the introduction to one of the most requested writers for the Nobel Prize in Literature before the dialogue, Cui Ying mentioned a point, saying that if it does not rain, he wakes up every day at 5:45 and then meets with friends in the mountains, hikes four kilometers, and watches foxes, antelopes and the sun. After returning, I started my ten-hour day at 8 o'clock on time. Later in the book, we will tell us that the sociologist Sigmund M. Bowman also wakes up at four o'clock every morning to start writing. I am reminded of Professor Dickley's "Poetic Dialogue: Interviews with Contemporary American Writers and Analysis of the Writing Environment"), in which he interviewed the former American poet laureate, Ted J. Ted Kooser also wakes up at 4 a.m. every morning, writes from 4:30 to 7 o'clock, and goes to work dressed. Professor Diao specifically mentioned in that book that perhaps because most of Cusse's poems are written in the morning, the poems are very fresh and flexible to read. Before learning other experiences of becoming a writer, Grossman, Bowman, and Cousse taught us the need for diligence and self-discipline.
David S. Grossman
Cui Ying referred to Grossman's novel A Horse Walks into a Bar, which used jokes or humor to express or show tragic themes such as the Holocaust, and when she asked the writer what this meant, Grossman did not say how to laugh at such chicken soup language, he replied, "Only when laughing, people can breathe... In that second, you are free. "While writing To the End of the Earth, his youngest son died on the battlefield. Like many families and parents in Israel who have also lost or will lose their children, the most fearful and accustomed emotion in his and his children's hearts is fear, fear of what he calls the "barbaric and brutal" reality of the real world. What could be better than laughter and humor when trying to dissolve the suffocation of fear and the heaviness of sadness?
Grossman is not the only writer to be asked by the author about a "humorous" theme or phenomenon and gives a wonderful answer, British Booker Prize winner Afro-American author Paul M. Bidi also used a lot of humor in his award-winning work "Betrayal", and the author asked him if he himself was a humorous person and the inspiration for those humorous bridges. In response to this, Bidi said that humor makes it easier for him to talk about his weaknesses, saying that only in such cases can he discuss the vulnerabilities of others. Another interviewee, the sinologist Yuwen Suoan, when talking about his favorite Du Fu, also specifically mentioned Du Fu's self-deprecating side of his weaknesses in a humorous way, giving us a side that we did not expect at all Du Fu, making this great poet more real and vivid. Cui Ying asks a particularly good question: "Are black writers more likely than white writers to realize that the crux of the problem is not 'black' versus 'white'?" ", Paul S. Citing Hegel's master-slave dialectic, that the slave knows more about the master than the master knows about the slave, Bidi says that it is not about race, but about power. He uttered a particularly classic quote: "The powerful know very little about the powerless." This brings me to mind the famous British comedy writer P.G. Wodehouse's "Gives the Almighty Butler" series, where Gives, the butler who knows everything about the master, and the master Worcester, who knows little about Gives. The wise slave, the foolish master, and while not necessarily the image of all masters and servants, the nineteenth-century Woodhouse reveals this poignant inequality between people in a hilarious form. It is also in this tradition that Bidi reveals this serious subject in a humorous way. Lydia M. When asked about the humorous elements of her work, Davis also said that when the world is disappointing, she tries to see its humorous side. Chris S. Williams talked about the cartoonist Bruce A. When Bens Fasser was a cartoonist he admired, he admired soldiers who had fought in World War I, and his humorous cartoons not only brought joy to the boring, dark and dangerous life of soldiers, but also helped people better understand the fate of soldiers in war. In the face of the suffering of individuals, others, and others, this is perhaps the most powerful weapon writers can use to lift weights.
Discussing the theme of compulsory military service at the End of the Earth, Grossman expressed his desire for Palestinian-Israeli peace, hoping that consultation and concessions between the two sides would bring peace and break people's fear of violence. He said that when we talk about politics, we should remember that the other person is the same person as us. Only in this way will it be conducive to eliminating prejudice and reaching consensus and moving towards peace. He is telling people through literature that they do not have to live in war and conflict, they can have other choices. The more desperate the situation, the more the power of literature can be revealed. The choices that literature inspires, the comfort it gives. Isaiah S. Smith, who was also a Jew. In Berlin Conversations, Berlin answered Jahanbeglu's question: "Do you think it is necessary to reconcile with the Palestinians? , he replied, "Of course there is reconciliation." The reconciliation is right... It's imminent... To understand those who oppose themselves, this is what Herder taught us. This dialogue took place long before Grossman, and the public intellectuals who were also Jews were in the same vein as a sense of understanding, reconciliation, and peace, perhaps not only as intellectuals, but also as intrinsic aspirations of the majority of the people of that people. If they could, who would want to live in fear of war and violence for the rest of their lives? Eager for peace with Israel's neighbors, especially Palestine, Grossman says he writes and gives constant interviews. And I see here in Grossman the helplessness, despair, hope, and action that carries hope as a human being, as a citizen: a voice that keeps being heard. The English romantic poet Shelley once said that poets were "the unrecognized legislators of the world," and this was all the more true after reading the author's interview with Grossman. Writers like Grossman, who unconsciously or consciously undertake this mission, are messengers and summoners of human justice.
If Grossman told us that laughter equals freedom, another interviewed author, author of the best-selling book The Island Bookstore, Gabriella M. Zewen, a writer with a soft spot for bookstores, was asked a question about bookstores by Cui Ying, who has a soft spot for bookstores, and as a reader who also has a soft spot for bookstores, I read a lot of joy and resonance in these questions. Four years ago, I mentioned in an article the treasure of the town shop mentioned in Zevin's book, Ellen M. Poe's earliest rare works, so it is particularly cordial and resonates with her bookstore-related conversation. Zevin said she liked the taste of the bookstore, and that when she was a child, her father gave her five dollars to pick her favorite books. So in her memory, bookstores meant freedom. This feeling not only applies to Zewen in childhood, but also resonates with all book lovers. Reading her mental journey to the bookstore, the initial love, the distance from commercialization, and then the love she later regained by writing a book, and the conclusion she came from this that you can only become a good author if you first become a good reader, it will make people sigh, and the bookstore is a blessing not only for the reader, but also for the author. Cui Ying asked Zewen to introduce several impressive bookstores, and she specifically mentioned the Grolier Poetry Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which reminded me of the only poetry bookstore in the UK, the "Poetry Bookstore" in the small town of Hay, the world's first book town, and I did meet a female poet there. Like Zevin, she should "long to live in such a bookstore" and live in freedom.
Grossman and Zevin's particular emphasis on freedom is, in a large sense, a confrontation and release of a powerful reality that is difficult to break free, both personal and national, in short, in which some part of both the author and the reader is healed to a certain extent.
Writing and healing
That is to say, whether in the face of personal trauma or national pain, these interviewed writers are transmitting the healing effect of writing. Jobs' daughter, Lisa Brennan S. In writing his own coming-of-age work "Little People" based on the biography of his father Jobs, Jobs healed the awkward relationship with his father, as well as the pain and shame in the process of growing up. And more importantly, as she says, she can even write other books with confidence. Hilary M. Smith, author of the Booker Prize work Wolf Hall, who died in September 2022. Mantel, once faced with marital crisis and surgical pain, also took refuge in writing. Julia M. Smith, who worked as a children's book editor for Penguin Press and The Guardian, Exchel mentioned that most children's book authors had traumatic childhoods. The fairy tales they wrote may not only heal their own childhood, but also bring joy to thousands of readers of children's books. Nguyen Thanh Viet , author of The Pulitzer Prize-winning Prize for Fiction, found his identity in the bitter pain of national trauma, exploring and healing in writing. Grossman, who writes about personal pain and national pain in the book, shows that writing plays a role in healing personal grief and the wounds in the heart of the nation. Renowned scholar George S. Steiner also told the Paris Review that he wrote over and over again in order to "get out of the Holocaust" on various levels ... Go elsewhere". Not just getting out of the pain, but going somewhere is where the transcendent healing that writing can bring. Similarly, in "The Visiting Secretary", the author of "Child, Don't You Cry", the African writer Nguji M. V. Tiango expressed more directly that intellectuals, including him, should try to turn the wounds of colonialism into wealth. This wealth may be the healthier and positive development of one's own people brought about by healing.
Lisa S. Brennan S. Jobs with his father
Asked "Will memories cause you secondary damage?" ", Lisa M. Brennan S. Jobs' answer is deeply healing. She admits that some memories are difficult to write about, but when she finally wrote them down and pondered them, she realized that her parents who had problems at the time were younger than the one she was remembering and writing, a completely different perspective than what she saw as a child. She added a layer of understanding, and she saw that the passionate young parents were also trying to solve problems. It was this realization that made her feel a lot less pain, and as she said, the meaning of this writing was that her childhood was not as tragic as she once thought, and there were many good times. British critic, artist and thinker John M. Ruskin, in his autobiography, Praeterita, also specifically mentions that he did not expect that when he recalled and wrote about his past life, they would be far more interesting than he expected. These joys can certainly help heal the wounds you thought you were growing up with. Contemporary British female writer Janet Winterson was also writing his autobiography "I Want to Be Happy, I Don't Have to Be Normal", but also in the memories of his adoptive mother who had caused him a lot of trauma, in the memories of his former lover who almost chose his life, in the continuous writing of these traumas, he understood those who had hurt her, and in this understanding, he let go of the struggle with the past and completed his own healing and redemption. It's like Lisa said, "A lot of people have holes in their hearts and need to redeem themselves... Only by understanding the past can we stop 'wrestling' with the past."
I'm in Lisa Jobs' interview saw the tradition of healing autobiographies since St. Augustine's Confessions. Although the Confessions is religious, Augustine becomes a new person in his memories, descriptions and contemplations of the old self, the wounds, the new self, and sees the world and himself with a new eye. Coleridge's Literary Biography, Wordsworth's Overture, John M. Stuart S. Mueller's Autobiography, Ruskin's The Past, Winterson's I Want to Be Happy, I Don't Have to Be Normal, and Lisa M. Jobs' self-healing biography, Little People, is also a continuation of this tradition. And, while her Little People is seen by others as a biography of her father, Steve Jobs, her own upbringing is actually the real theme. Lisa S. Jobs probably didn't mean to arrange the work this way, but more because of her father's popularity, it was interpreted as such. But this phenomenon reminds me of another famous American female writer, Gertrude Stein. Her book Alice S. B· "Toklas' Autobiography" is an example of writing his life in the form of an autobiography of his girlfriend. The difference is that Lisa didn't mean to do this, and Stein did. What an interesting coincidence. Writers not only heal themselves in their writing, but also provide readers who may have similar experiences with a way to look at the past and hurts, get healing in reading, or get inspired to pick up a pen and start their own healing journey. Some writers are aware of this, for example, Ruskin says he recalls in as much detail as possible about the part of the past that might be useful to readers, and the author of the journalistic classic Road of Propaganda and the poet with a tragic childhood experience, Carey M. Karin Dovring, in a letter to Professor Diao, said, "The greatest joy of a poet is that his work can help the life of another person living in our difficult world." That's my interest. "Some writers may just face their own pain, but fortunately, their pain and healing are also the medicine and outlet for some readers. This is not a conjecture, and this two-way healing even has a certain mythical basis. More than two thousand years ago, Hesiod wrote in the Genealogy of Gods: "If someone suffers from a trauma to his heart, or is frightened by a blow, all he has to do is sing by a student of the muse, a singer... He will immediately forget all sorrows, forget all troubles. (Zhang Zhuming, translated by Jiang Ping) So, the Muse-inspired singer is a kind of healing for the listener and the reader. How gratifying it is for creators and readers alike, whether myth or reality, thousands of years ago and today!
Writing is a closeness
With writing as a healing, writers are approaching the world, whether intentionally or unintentionally, as they enter themselves.
Zewen uses "Island Bookstore" as a metaphor for the act of loneliness, but she also said that it is because of reading that many people are connected. Zevin says she hopes her work will help readers understand the world. When the internationally acclaimed Norwegian dramatist Jørn Fawser, when asked about the loneliness he wrote about repeatedly, replied, "I feel that I am far away from others and from the whole world. It was to reduce this distance that I started writing. For him, writing is a closeness, a closeness to others and the whole world. 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, Olga M. When asked about the relationship between great writers and great psychologists, Tolkarchuk also replied that literary writing "is a profound way of communicating with others." "Carey S. Dowling said: "The poem is full of the need to communicate with others, not just one-on-one, but to share my personal emotions and observations of the human experience with all people in society." "Interestingly, writing, like reading, is an act of solitude, in a sense, a withdrawal from the hustle and bustle of reality, but this act of accomplishing solitude is also a passionate approach. They and interviewee Yuwen Suoan's description of Du Fu in the poem "complained that the vegetables were not good, and thanked the people who brought him soybean paste; ...... Calling the servant ... Write poems to them...", his poetry is also his way of getting closer to the world. Michael M. Smith, winner of numerous non-fiction writing awards. Meier's "Journey to the Northeast" and "Goodbye, Old Beijing" are a kind of closeness to the foreign world in the writer's writing. They made me realize that writing happens not only because of a sense of mission, but also because of love. In addition to the grand love for the abstract world, there is also a more concrete love, such as Meier's statement at the end of the interview, "Goodbye, Old Beijing" is dedicated to parents who have never seen China. "Journey to the Northeast" was dedicated to his son, who he hoped would learn about his mother, the writer's Chinese wife, where he grew up. "Road to Wolong" was dedicated to his wife.
Min Fu
Speaking of love, this is most prominent in the interview with sinologists, many of whom love Chinese culture, and the enthusiasm and dedication that comes from it, are particularly infectious and moving. When asked if there are any skills in translation, the sinologist Min Fu, the English translator of "A Dream of Red Mansions", replied that he did not think there were any skills, but he specifically proposed that translators need to have a feeling for the translated manuscripts and like these articles in order to devote themselves to it. On this basis, he compares the relationship between the translator and the object of translation to a romantic relationship. Therefore, he believes that if you like each other enough, even if there is a problem or there is a problem, you can find a solution. Although liking is not the only condition for a competent translation, it will definitely help the translation and add to its quality. When asked about his preferences for Du Fu's different works at different stages, he said that he still likes the poems he liked more than 50 years ago, and he appreciates Du Fu's breadth and diversity even more. And he specifically mentioned that some poems can only be read at a certain age. This love for the same poet, which lasted for half a century and will still endure, and a deeper love for him, translated and studied Du Fu for many years. Moreover, it must have been with deep love that Min Fu had the passion and endurance to translate "Dream of Red Mansions" in 16 years and "I Ching" in 12 years, so that he could express a beautiful metaphor, comparing the "I Ching" and "Dream of Red Mansions" to "two ends of the rainbow". As the English poet Coleridge said, nothing is more contagious than passion. Reading Yuwen Suoan's love for Du Fu, Min Fu's love for "Dream of Red Mansions" and "I Ching", as a reader, especially a Chinese reader, I can't avoid being infected. It is also because of his love that Wang Dewei insisted on compiling "Harvard's New History of Modern Chinese Literature" into "very interesting" content, rather than boring and lifeless textbooks.
Scottish illustrator Johannah When Besford, author of "The Secret Garden," was asked if she would worry about losing the market with the emergence of similar adult coloring books, she replied that she was not worried, because "The Secret Garden", which has sold more than 10 millions, is the product of her love and passion: "I just want to share my work, my passion, and hope they color with me." As long as this idea remains the same, I am not afraid of losing readers. Of course, not all proximity to the world will be as successful in sales as Basfor's work, but most, like her work, is born of love and passion.
Writing and livelihoods
Many writers, including Coleridge, have little confidence in their talent as best-selling authors, regardless of their confidence in their talent. Besford in "The Visiting Secretary" also became a best-selling author unexpectedly, thus earning a large income. The long-standing question of writing and livelihoods is also frequently asked in this book.
When Min Fu recalled participating in the translation of "Dream of Red Mansions", he specifically mentioned that he was still a student at that time, very poor, but gave up other work and devoted himself wholeheartedly. In fact, whether it is writing or translation, their relationship to their livelihood is not only a concern for everyone who aspires to become a writer, but also one of the frequently asked questions in this book. More than two hundred years ago, when Keats told his guardian that he had decided to write poetry for a living, his guardian, Richard A. Abby thinks Keats is either crazy or a fool. This conversation with Keats took place around the same time as Coleridge's " Literary Biography " also records the poet's sobriety in this regard when he began to engage in literature in his early years. He recalled that at the age of twenty-three or four, he had understood very well that he could not rely on literature to make a living. Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, once complained that her brother had not earned him even a single shoelace for decades of poetry.
Dorothy may be an exaggeration, but writing poetry or writing literature for a living, even today, is not easy. The writers interviewed, especially nonfiction writers, mentioned this. Jonathan S. During the eight years he spent writing, Hal spent almost exclusively his wife earning money to support the family. His friend, another Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction writer, Tracy M. Kiddell, when Cui Ying asked him, "Is life a good time as a nonfiction writer?" He replied, "It's not enough to do this job to support your family." And he emphasized that "anyone in the United States who can write for a living without admitting that he is lucky is misleading." He even joked that his father had suggested that if he wanted to write, he had better marry a rich wife. Of course, the reality is that he did not do so, but with the efforts of himself and his wife, life and writing also coexist in great harmony. In the pop culture section, Cui Ying asked the famous American popular science cartoonist Randall Monroe "How do you make a living?" He also said that he could not make money by publishing comics, and he groped for a living by selling comics-related products on the Internet. Professor Dickley's Cusse also mainly worked in the insurance industry, but to ensure that the energy consumption of this job did not interfere with his writing of poetry, and he could also make ends meet.
Although engaged in literature or other genres, it is difficult for most writers to make ends meet. But the good news is that none of the great writers interviewed gave up writing. No matter what kind of work you do for a living, you can create, and you can even achieve something. The famous British essayist Charles M. Lamb spent almost his entire life with the East India Company, and his own Essays on Ilya and his co-authored Shakespeare Tales with his sister Mary are still classics more than two hundred years later. Professor Dickley mentioned in "Poetic Dialogue" that the American poet Wallace J. Stevens also worked for an insurance company and won two National Book Awards for his poetry and the Pulitzer Prize in 1955.
When the concept and phenomenon of patrons of literature and art faded, I think that the relationship between making a living and writing is a problem that most writers cannot escape. Didn't the great writers and poets of the twentieth century, such as Kafka, Pessoa, T. S. Eliot, all of them write and produce great works in addition to their subsistence work? The sincere answers of the writers in "Interview Secretary" to this most realistic and historical question, as well as their response to it and their achievements, are a great inspiration to those who have dreams of writing.
Let the plot happen naturally
In addition to the relationship between writing and livelihoods, another universal and common question addressed in "The Visiting Secretary" is about the state of writers when they create, whether they are diligent and diligent in writing, like the British writer Maugham, who write thousands of words a day a day for decades, or, as the English poet Wordsworth put it, let the "natural outpouring of strong emotions" make good works. Or, as in the case of the Nobel Prize winner in literature, the poet Hertha A. As Miller said in an interview with the Paris Review, "Language knows where to start and where to fall... Those sentences know how I can get there. ”
When many of the writers interviewed in "The Interview Secretary" were asked whether they planned their writing in advance, most of them gave a negative answer. They either choose to give the work to the subconscious, or to the characters, or to a scene and let them lead the story.
When Mantell was asked if she planned the plot first, she replied that she never set it up in advance, but thought of it at any time and then connected them later. When Tokarczuk was asked how to prepare for writing, he also replied that his subconscious would tell her how to write. Lydia S. Davis also replied that he would not outline in advance, but would "go with the flow." Robert M. Smith, author of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Oren S. Butler also left his novels to the characters in them, rather than predetermined. He even said he didn't know what he could write until he started writing. On this point, the American writer William M. Faulkner once said that he "trotted behind him with a piece of paper and a pen, following him down his words and deeds." "How vivid! Ray M. Smith, author of the novel "451 Fahrenheit". Bradbury even said that it was his protagonist Monteiger who wrote the novel, not him. And, he says, "if you give life to characters and don't get in their way, you might be able to create your own work." (Jürgen M. Wolf, "Masterclass in Creative Writing") Butler is also in the tradition to which these writers of his predecessors belonged. Butler said that creating characters by himself does not require too much preparation, just injecting emotions into the characters and aligning their emotions and desires with the characters. Of course, after carefully reading their interviews, you will find that this is not a passive wait, the confidence of these writers, or the large number of readings that come from their own, such as Mantel, Tokarczuk, Davis, Simon M. Sharma and Tracy S. Kiddell also mentioned George S. Orwell's work inspired and influenced their creations; Or believe in their own experiences, such as Butler's experience as an actor, so that they can believe their feelings, which are the books they have read, the characters they have pondered, all turned into unconscious, leading the writers' creations.
Therefore, this also shows that there is a keen observation and feeling in this passivity and passivity. Michael S. Although Meier said, "I did not take the initiative to change what I was going to write, it was the reality I encountered that changed my story." But before that, his countless observations, notes, interviews, readings, and his interest in Chinese culture were all fueling keen observation. It is also because of this that he was surprised to find Benjamin A. Franklin signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, became deeply interested in the scientist he only knew about flying kites in lightning, and in his research, he found his interest in China and Chinese culture, so that he could develop a different perspective than all Franklin biographers, starting with the influence of Chinese culture and ideas on Franklin. If it were not for the usual interest and understanding of Chinese culture, I think Meier's sensitivity in this area would not be so. As Tokarczuk puts it, he travels alone, "observing what's going on around you with your eyes and paying full attention." "It seems to be a negative feeling that happens in a positive way.
conclusion
There are also many wonderful things in this book that will immerse people in the conversations of the writers on the one hand, and generate interesting associations on the other. For example, Jon S. When Fausher was asked about the phenomenon that the characters in the script did not have names, he said that he was writing about the essence of life, which had nothing to do with names, and that names could be a distraction. Reading this, I think of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Portuguese writer José J. Saramago also does not have a name for any character in "Comics on Blindness", but in the process of reading the novel, we can clearly remember each character. I seem to find the answer here in what Fauser calls "the nature of life." It turns out that great writers, even if they do not give names to their characters, can make people impress on these characters. When asked about the silence and loneliness in the play, Fausher replied that some silence "carries a lot more weight than the words that come out." This reminds me of Keats's "Ode to the Greek Urn", "The music that is heard is good, but if it is not heard/it is more beautiful; (Zha Liangzheng translated) Hertha S. Miller also said, "Because no matter what we're saying, there's always more not being said than saying." (Paris Review: Writer's Interview 7) Butler, who writes in a log cabin, reminds me of Salinger, who has the same writing habits, and Salinger even tells his wife not to disturb him unless the house is on fire.
In short, reading a good book is like reading a lot of books at the same time. Thoughts will walk freely like writers' conversations, breaking through time and space. Without leaving home, it is like walking all over the world and seeing all the scenery. So it's hard not to thank the interviewee for their wisdom, thoughts, humor, emotion, and sometimes poetry and comfort. But what is more silent in the heart is the question raised by the interviewer. Although the question will be forgotten in the reading and immersed in the language of the interviewee, the interviewer is the person who pushes open the door so that we can see beauty, wisdom and resonance, the same, another world. In such questions and answers, I felt the thinking of the questioner and the answerer, and also found an answer to the doubts that existed in my heart, a path.
"The Long Litigation"
Cui Ying during a visit to Jonathan Hal asked him, "What makes a successful interview?" Hal's response: "I seek facts, feelings, and hopes to capture the personality and reactions of the interviewee in interviews." Of course, the issue is closely related to context, and the interview played an important role in The Long Litigation, which Hal himself took eight years to complete. But what makes this question interesting is that the author Cui Ying herself is an interviewer here. I don't know if she realized that this wasn't just asking Hal, and here it was an interview about the interview. In literature, novels about fiction are called metanovels, so I unconsciously borrowed this concept to write "meta interviews" in the margins of the pages. More importantly, I mention this conversation because it accurately helped me express my feelings and gains from reading this interview.
I knew that reading this book as a creative writing guide would greatly simplify the richness of the book. What is more attractive here is the dialogue between people, whether it is Eastern or Western, whether it is white, yellow, or black; This is man's thinking about people and the world, a review, reflection and prospect of the past, present and future; It is an attempt by visitors and respondents to explore and share the brightest spots together. Paul S. Bidi tells the author that although he is black, his world has never been simply black and white, and that he wants to make people aware of the complexity of the world through his work. Yes, the black-and-white dichotomy is not like the dualism that has always been in the field of thought, too arbitrary and tastelessly simplifying this rich world. Similarly, "The Visiting Secretary" is richer, more vivid, more moving, and more thought-provoking than I can write.
World-renowned literary critic George M. Steiner said in The Long Saturday that a good comment is an act of gratitude. May I properly express my gratitude to Cui Ying for this "Visiting Secretary".