When I first saw the title of "Getting Used to Warmth", my first reaction was a little curiosity. Professor Luo Zhenya was originally a native of Heilongjiang Province and grew up in the icy and snowy cold region of Northeast China, so shouldn't he be "accustomed to the cold"? As I read deeper, I realized that the "warmth" in Luo Zhenya's pen has nothing to do with the climatological significance, and can be understood as the great warmth and freehand of a vigorous life. His writing horizon and role have also changed, no longer focusing on his poetic thinking, poetic elucidation and poetic speech, but presenting another "prose" atmosphere.
"Accustomed to Warmth" is divided into four series, namely "Talking to Relatives", "The Sound of Jointing and Flowering", "Rolling on the Black Earth" and "The Day of Picking Shellfish". The first part of the prose shows the richness of his personal temperament, and the second part includes some impromptu essays. Combined, it is the complete "puzzle" and years of witness of Luo Zhenya's life and career.
Luo Zhenya's hometown is Nehe County (later changed to a county-level city) and Sheng Township, a remote village located at the western foot of the Xiaoxing'an Mountains and the northern end of the Songnen Plain. It was the beginning of his life and the cradle of his life. When he was 16 years old, this young peasant boy left the black soil of his hometown and went to Harbin to study for 4 years. He graduated from university at the age of 20 and went to teach at Heihe Normal College. The geographical location of Heihe is further north, with an average annual temperature of minus 1.3 to minus 0.4 °C, across the river from Russia, and the nearest distance is only 750 meters, which is a proper border of the motherland. He recalls the first time he taught a class, he was a little timid, and he deliberately tried hard when he walked on the pedals when he entered the classroom, in order to give himself courage. During the lecture, "every few minutes, he put his hands on the lectern to support his legs, which were a little squirming" ("The First Time on the Stage"), and over the course of two years, he gradually found his senses and became calm and confident.
In the next 20 years, Luo Zhenya went from studying for a master's degree and a doctorate to becoming a doctoral supervisor, with the help of talent and hard work, breaking through the sea of learning, working hard in life, step by step in the "other country", and bringing his own aura in the field of poetics research, and wrote a lot of books and was highly praised. This process is naturally indescribable. In Luo Zhenya's view, no matter how challenging it is or how far it goes, there is a "home" in the heart, and the motivation is there. He is grateful for his homeland, and returning to his hometown every year has become a conscious behavior and living habit for him, saying that "no one can leave home if he lives a lifetime, and it can even be said that life is a trip home again and again, not at home, but on the way home" ("Going Home"). This home is the fulcrum of his inner life.
Due to many reasons such as geographical environment, climate and folk customs, the literary style and the charm of writing and ink are obvious between northern writers and southern writers. This difference is more recognizable in the prose writing of Northeast writers and Jiangnan writers. The writing of Northeast writers is mostly cold and hard, heavy, rough, and atmospheric, without so much elegant, graceful, pretty and delicate. Luo Zhenya's prose exudes a strong Northeast humanistic atmosphere, although he has been teaching at the university, he mostly shows his true colors, and has no ordinary "literary popularity". In the late autumn of the year when he was 40 years old, he went to the bank of the Nemur River that flowed through his hometown to "find his roots", and the surging river in front of him suddenly turned into rolling water, "a few geese that went south pierced the lonely sky in an instant, and the tower of time vibrated in a trance", thousands of years of change and reproduction, forming a multi-ethnic fireworks and splendid culture on both sides of the strait, "people on both sides of the strait woke up and slept, slept and woke up, and between sleeping and waking up, countless dynasties passed, and many people became passers-by." At this time, he seemed to have undergone a baptism of cultural origin, "In the mutual examination and looking at each other between me and the Nemur River, the river and I have gradually become inseparable from each other, and I can't tell whether the river is like me or I am more like the river." If you think about it, isn't it precisely because of the spiritual shaping of the Mother River that I am an ordinary man with no long body can always walk steadily and steadily on the land, step by step" ("Standing on the Banks of the Nemur River").
Luo Zhenya has a sunny mentality, is transparent, and cares most about family and teacher-student relationships. He is happy to reduce himself to a son, an eldest brother, a son-in-law, a husband, a father in his prose. In the years he spent away from home, he silently understood the loneliness of his father and mother, "Everyone comes to this world alone, and finally leaves this world alone, and on the way, you will keep meeting some people, they will accompany you on a journey, but they will disperse as you walk, and then some new travel companions will join, but when you arrive at the destination, you will find that the rest is still yourself" ("Sitting Alone at Dusk"). Life is difficult, if you don't advance, you will retreat, and my father-in-law's inspiration about "life is fighting" often rings in his ears, becoming his motto to keep moving forward. He looked back at his teacher when he was studying for a master's degree and a doctorate, and his gratitude was long, and he wrote about the growth and achievements of his disciples.
Most of Luo Zhenya's essays are short, feeling and moving, not vomiting or unhappy, compared with his long macro theories, similar to the "leftovers" in the main academic business, but there is no lack of sharp insights, and it also has "gold content". Once the topic of essays enters literary writing, Luo Zhenya is even more jumpy in thinking, confident, and eloquent. In "Dancing with Poetry, Forever Young", he pointed out that in order to become an excellent poetry critic, it is necessary to be compatible with the perspective of the "microscope" and the overall power of the "telescope", coordinate the microscopic scrutiny and macroscopic scanning, see both the "tree" and the "forest", and handle the relationship between individual criticism and overall research, which can be called empirical. When it comes to the current situation of prose writing, he bluntly said that there are many drawbacks, such as the homogenization of "swarms of bees", "narcissism" that is biased towards lyricism and memorization, the growing cultural complex of greed, and the excessive emphasis on "prose", etc. He was disgusted with "the text is better than the quality", the form is greater than the content, and believed that the "slimming" of prose was the trend of the times, and it was necessary to "completely get out of the strange circle of thinking that 'like prose'" ("The Bad Face of Prose"). Such a good medicine is bitter, and it has the effect of treating both the symptoms and the root causes.
In his opinion, a literary researcher, especially a scholar engaged in the study of writing, should also "go into the water", you can write badly, it doesn't matter, but whether you write or not is completely different. One of the attributes of the writing course is that it is more practical than theoretical, "teachers should have a leading role in students, not only full-time, but also professional, not only words, but also examples". Honestly. At the same time, "it is best for the teacher of the writing class to constantly adjust his identity and position, and the relationship with the students should be transformed from teachers and students to friends, and dialogue on an equal footing", and reminded peers that "students are a group, and their thinking level, especially their knowledge horizon, will far exceed the coverage of the teacher" ("Should Researchers Write"). Reading it, the bosom and wisdom of a mature academic tutor leap onto the page.
"Habit of Warmth" has a broad field of vision, has something to say, and has a simple style, and its clear and verbal style forms a sharp contrast with Luo Zhenya's almost aesthetic poetic research discourse. He writes prose, does not do unfathomable posture, nor does he make a gesture of wind and snow, he is always straight to the point, accurate to the topic, refuses to show off his skills, and stays away from showmanship. Engaging in scholarship with profound pen and ink, writing prose with plain words, the scholar's vision and the feelings of the common people corroborate each other and reflect each other, it should be said that this is the wisdom of writing, but also the ability of pen and ink.
This article was published in Tianjin Daily on March 5, 2024, and was written by Huang Guiyuan