In the era of "everything can be broadcast, everyone is an anchor", performance is pervasive in daily life. When we are in a state of watching and being watched anytime and anywhere, what will become of the society we live in, and where will it go?
Recently, writer Li Hongwei's latest novel "Albatross Wants to Sprout", which was started by the word "performance", was launched by Ideal Country. The novel tells a "human story" that is rich in mythology and allegorical and has strong penetration of reality. It's a story about performance, about seeing and being seen, about power and its shadow, about death and rebirth, about eternity and time.
"Performance is probably one of the very few keywords at the core of human society. I wanted to try to go along the show with a novel and see where I could go. On December 15th, Li Hongwei, writers Guo Shuang, Zhao Song, Xiao Jianghong, scholar Wu Yaling, and critic Huang Dehai visited Shanghai Tsutaya Shangsheng Xinsuo Store to have a dialogue on "Albatross to Sprout".
Albatross to Sprout
A novel that brings the spirit of drama to life
"Albatross to Sprout" adopts the form of a one-act play, consisting of four performances: "Situation Performance", "Standing Performance", "Justification Performance" and "Labor Performance", with multiple voices advancing layer by layer. Omnipresent viewing, wanting to cover up the carnival, the four performances show the chronicle of a city and its living beings, which is a novel installation of multi-dimensional art, and a theater of the world in all its forms.
Li Hongwei admits that he has always been fascinated by drama. "So far, my personal experience is that drama may not be a matter for a person to face himself, but a person to face others and oneself in others, and may be looking for oneself from the external reflection. So I've been experimenting with some of the ways in which drama is introduced into my writing. ”
But for him, writing a play is not so attractive, what is more attractive is - what kind of power and effect will there be if the drama is put in the novel?" This does not refer to a certain type of work that we have seen, the subject of which is a novel as it is commonly understood, with a drama interspersed in between. What I want to write is not about the insertion of this external form, but about bringing the spirit of drama into the novel. "Albatross to Sprout" may be an attempt to build on this. ”
A writer who is difficult to classify
Huang Dehai described Li Hongwei as a writer who is difficult to classify, and his writing has always been in a state of "no basket seems to be appropriate", "but I personally like the state of writing in Hongwei very much." ”
"Li Hongwei redefined the novel. Xiao Jianghong said that writers are often Xi to certain novel thinking or expression, and most literary awards also continue those thinking and expression, but Li Hongwei first threw away these things when writing, and he was particularly loyal to his judgment of novels and his novel ideals. "From The King and the Lyric to the present, he has followed the path of a pure novelist, which is something I particularly respect for grandeur. ”
In Guo Shuang's view, "Albatross Wants to Sprout" is the most self-consistent expression of Li Hongwei's writing, and she feels that he is very comfortable, comfortable and stretching in it. "When I write, I don't deliberately think about drama or fiction, but I just want to find the most accurate expression and flow it. If you look at this book from the perspective of a literary historian or critic, you will say that it is a mixed style, but for me, the most important thing is to see that a writer has found complete self-confidence. ”
Wu Yaling said that if we follow the rules of the relative formation of modern novel genres, Li Hongwei may be difficult to classify, but if we go forward, from the perspective of literature in a broad sense, every writer is likely to try to choose the formula that suits him best between "muthos" and "logos". "The search for this recipe is a very interesting phenomenon on the grand side. ”
From left to right: Huang Dehai, Xiao Jianghong, Guo Shuang
A poet who searches for a new language in the new world
Everyone also noticed Li Hongwei's novel language. In terms of the novel's title as Baudelaire's adaptation, the albatross who walks awkwardly on the ground with his wings folded, and the many possibilities of experimenting with new languages, Wu Yaling suggests that Li Hongwei's novel language may be some kind of intentional attempt, "like a poet's process of finding a new language in a new world." ”
Zhao Song said that for most novelists, language is just a tool, but looking back at the past 100 years, real novelists in different languages will integrate language and the work itself, "You will find that their works are generated by language, they are grown, not just carried by language, these are two completely different concepts." ”
When it comes to "Albatross to Sprout", Zhao Song believes that the most successful point of the novel is that it has found the most appropriate state of existence for language and novels, "(The language of his works) has always taken me away, and even in the process of conveying the content, there is still a vague inexplicable depression in the depths, I see that in the end, it is actually very sad, I don't know why, the mixture of solemnity and performance actually produces a kind of depressing pain, which is also what makes me feel very magical." And I can also feel that Li Hongwei has a taste of poetry in the whole narrative, which is a very special point in his novel writing. ”
From left to right: Wu Yaling, Li Hongwei, Zhao Song
An invitation to the reader: imagine the starry sky together
Xiao Jianghong also found that Li Hongwei actually tries to compress his attempts at information manipulation as much as possible in the novel, and he is like an echo wall, leaving more echo energy to the reader himself.
"This novel, it needs the reader and the writer to complement each other, there is not a single character in it that has a name, it leaves a lot of room for imagination for our readers. In my opinion, this is the greatest contribution of this novel. ”
Xiao Jianghong described that "Albatross Wants to Sprout" is particularly like him looking up at the starry sky one night in Fanjing Mountain, "You will find that every chapter of it is a planet in the sky, but you don't think that what you see is just an independent highlight." Once you go deep into the planet, you will find that the richness of each planet is unimaginable, and you will find that there are mountains, water, deserts, there are things we can imagine, and there are scenes that we have never imagined. ”
Li Hongwei