On April 21, a seminar on writer Zhuang Shen's new novel "Pulse" was held in Nanjing. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Jiangsu Writers Association and the Writers Publishing House, and co-organized by the Literary Daily.
On April 21, a seminar on writer Zhuang Shen's new novel "Pulse" was held in Nanjing. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Jiangsu Writers Association and the Writers Publishing House, and co-organized by the Literary Daily. Zheng Yan, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, First Secretary of the Secretariat, and Executive Vice Chairman of the Jiangsu Writers Association, said in his speech: From "Root" to "Pulse", Zhuang Shen starts from the countryside, family, and history, digs deep into the rich local cultural resources, and strives to present the history of the changes of the times of a nation, which is worthy of attention and expectation. The seminar was presided over by Ding Jie, member of the party group, vice chairman and secretary of the Secretariat of the Provincial Writers Association.
"This is a very ambitious book", Wu Yiqin, a member of the party group, vice chairman and secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association, said after reading the work, he believes that the writing of "Roots" reveals the long-term influence of "Dream of Red Mansions", benefiting from the identity of grassroots writing or amateur writers, Zhuang Shen's novel writing is not bound by particularly large frames, "This book has a very large time span, it can be said to be an encyclopedic writing", he combined the magnificence of history with personal destiny, and wrote "Chinese life, Chinese Stories and Chinese Emotions". Yan Jingming, vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, also recognized the delicate descriptions of local culture, landscapes, and characters in the novel, and he believed that "Pulse gives people the feeling of still water flowing deeply, like a beautiful genre painting."
Writer Zhuang Shen and the novel "Pulse"
△ The novel is set in Zhuangjia Village, Donglu Township, Lishui, Jiangnan, Danyang County, Suzhou City, Qishuyan in Changzhou and Wuwei in Gansu, and carefully sorts out the fate and development of the six families of Zhuang, Huang, Yuan, Liu, Li and Jin
As a non-professional writer, Zhuang Shen's writing may be based on his passion, he wrote the 680,000-word novel "Roots" with his persistent pursuit of literary creation, and now it has taken two more years to create this nearly 700,000-word "Pulse", continuing the family narrative centered on the Zhuang family. Critic Yang Jianlong wrote in the preface: "In this long scroll of history, in the form of scattered perspective, the river market, the countryside and the countryside, the carriages, horses and pedestrians, and the folk customs are vividly presented...... Let the personal struggle and pursuit and the indomitable national character complement each other, showing a style with the characteristics of a national epic. ”
From the perspective of the narrative of family novels, "Pulse" involves six major families and many characters, so how can we better present the group portraits of the characters without making them flat? As traditional novels, can family novels still be written in a new way by modern writers? Critic He Zhongming pointed out that Zhuang Shen has integrated historical events into the details of life in the combination of documentary and fiction, daily life and legend, and has shown multiple thinking about life and culture. But he also suggested that two or three of the six families could be highlighted, and the central character should be more prominent.
In this regard, critic Wang Chunlin also said that the first thing I felt when reading this work was one word: "real". He said, "We can say that this is a family novel, a historical novel, or an autobiographical novel, which reads without watery emotion, and is particularly solid and unpretentious." Critic Yang Hui pointed out that the creation of novels should pay attention to the coherence of rhyme, "Although there are so many characters and so many events involved, there is tension in the middle, there are shades of pen and ink, and the overall charm of the novel is coherent and full." ”
As a single novel, the length of nearly 700,000 words is beyond the reading patience of a reader entering a new era in the 21st century. Critic Ding Fan once asked a question in his essay on Roots: Is it worth it, or can we spend a great deal of energy to discover a new quality of writing in the "family novels" of an unknown amateur author who seems to be between "fiction" and "non-fiction"? In his opinion, one of the reasons why Zhuang Shen's works can make people continue to read is that he is extremely rich in original materials, and the various portraits and social customs of the era he describes are enough to arouse people's curiosity. However, Ding Fan still pointed out at the level of novel creation methods, "Novelists are faced with so many materials, they must be willing to cut and delete, or they can directly process other materials into another novel." ”
Critic Wang Binbin went on to say that the basic ability of a novelist is the ability to tell stories, and the creation of novels should be the unity of figurative thinking and logical thinking. In his opinion, it is about the fact that Zhuang Shen has been engaged in the construction industry for many years, and his story is first of all established, secondly, although the novel has 700,000 words, it has a good structure, and secondly, the characters are distinct. As for the issue of length, Wang Binbin believes that the writer should deal with the relationship between overview and presentation, "If this problem is solved, the length of the novel will be solved." ”
Group photo of the meeting
Critic He Ping also expressed his views on how to read long stories. "Our understanding of the novel may have something to do with how we read it, in addition to how the writer writes it. Our anticipation of fiction influences our reading psychology. He Ping said, "We used to deify the identity of novelists too much, but as far as narrative is concerned, Zhuang Shen's writing style, and even what kind of writing value such novels provide in the local cultural history and in the same major section of novel creation, we may have to seriously discuss." He further added that we have a lot of amateur writing that is popular today, and that is different from this kind of writing, which is also Zhuang Shen, who is also an amateur writer, and how the novels they write are positioned in publishing and literary studies provides a lot of questions worth pondering. ”
At the end of the seminar, after listening to the speeches of the experts, Zhuang Shen recalled the original intention of creating "Roots" and "Pulse", "In the process of my creation, I have laughed, cried, and more happiness after writing. He felt some shortcomings in his own creation, but he also firmly believed: "Although literary creation is hard, I believe that as long as you persevere in writing, you will be able to achieve your literary dream." ”
Critics Zhang Wangfei, Zhang Guangmang, Fu Yongxian, He Tongbin, Han Songgang, Zang Qing, and editor Zhu Lianlian attended the seminar.
New Media Editor: Yuan Huan
Picture: Photo provided by the event party, photo network
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