。
The whole unhurried day
Your mind opens like a drawer full of sharp knives.
—Philip Larkin
Literature, what does it mean to you?
Yang Hao said: "Literature is rebellious, stimulating, like a secret, waiting for the reader to discover it himself. ”
While writing novels, Yang Hao has been active in the fields of film, literature, and art history in various capacities: he has published "Perusal of the Renaissance" and founded Yihao Reading.
She enters the literary creation with a diversified perspective and knowledge system, recreating the living conditions of contemporary young people in the story. In 2019, he published his first novel, Black Fiction, which was shortlisted for the second Blancpain Republic Literary Award.
This October, Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House opened the "Future Literary Artists" book series and launched Yang Hao's second novel, "Boys". This time, she moved the stage of the story from London back to Beijing, using her characteristic cold brushstrokes to write the story of the two boys.
After reading this book, Jia Zhangke commented: "The protagonists in the novel are almost all exploring, pursuing, and struggling in the abyss of human nature, and it may reveal a certain spiritual truth hidden by a generation." ”
Violence in intimate relationships, deformities in education, virtual and reality in games, school bullying, juvenile sex crimes... Sharp and high-profile social issues play out in a seemingly disorderly storyline between the two boys.
"Sometimes problems can't be solved, but they need to be raised."
Do you think literature still has a future?
Or is there literature in the future?
"The future is a reflection." Yang Hao replied.
For the survival dilemma, for the spiritual shackles and psychological trauma carried by this generation of young people, for the unknown future, Yang Hao used his pen as a sword and ink as a front to cut open a dark box called reality.
Although she is a female writer, she "has felt since I was a child that my soul body has been replaced, and my heart is very masculine." This time, she challenges the narrative difficulty of heterosexual literature.
The boys are saddled with a painful secret, and they each terminate their growth in different ways. "The fact that they are all good children of mothers makes them desperate." Two boys who lack their father's love suffocate in the "love" given by their mother.
Two people overlap with a secret past and an unpredictable but doomed future. "I don't really want to make a fairy tale, I don't want to create something that's comfortable," she said. ”
Below, please ask Yang Hao to tell the creative story behind "Boys" and open the memory drawer of growing up.
The Boys
Yang Hao/Author: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House
Published in September 2021
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There is a soul in the novel
In fact, after completing a novel, the narrative or record of creation, the writer's statement has become less reliable. An account attached to or after a novel is more like a product manual that makes a writer sound honest and frank, and this seems to be the premise of our current readers judging a work—starting with the author, not starting with the novel.
While I was waiting to publish my first full-length novel, Black Novel, the story of The Boys had already begun to rush in, beginning with a model ship and an old man.
"Boys" is covered
I spent a long time trying to deal with the problem of "far" and "near" between the two, which constantly produced layers of mysteries and smoke to keep me going, and at the same time constantly hindering me. I bought a one-meter-long whiteboard, which is the kind commonly used in English cram schools. I wrote a lot of names on it and then erased them, and just like that, the story never progressed.
After about half a year, we were suddenly trapped at home by the new coronavirus, and the whiteboard was placed in the middle of the living room, and for several months we stood motionless against the empty street outside the window, where there was an ancient observatory established by the Ming Dynasty. Everything around me, along with the whole world, seems to be beginning to move into a slow and lagging march—time forward, times behind.
So the story of the model boat and the old man became the origin of the whole "Boys" story. Although the boat and the old man were eventually placed in a few less conspicuous places in the second half, they provided me with the motivation and questions to write this novel, before and after which the world threw us far more information than we voluntarily received.
To my surprise, when the fates of the two boys, Lee And Suo, were secretly intertwined with my daily lives, I knew that their struggles had lingered before my eyes, but the model boat and the old man's figure hidden behind them made the possibility of all going home a warm hope. This makes me more certain that there is a soul in the novel, yes, the story is part, the characters are another part, and there is a part of the extension of the novel's self.
Li Qing and Su Wei, as well as Teacher Luo, are unreliable and charming narrators. They live in a young age like ours, which creates a sense of danger and difficulty for the narrative—the social and moral messages in it may be quickly separated from the narrative and given some sort of "reality" and "ism."
To tell a story that can clarify the whole person or the times is delirium. But man's fate has never changed with the times, even in the virtual world, survival, destruction, evil, mercy, desire, resistance, escape, weakness, all that should be there is still there.
Soul torture
Proust Questionnaire
What do you think is the most perfect happiness?
Go ahead.
What kind of talent would you most like to have?
oblivion.
What are you most afraid of?
person.
What is your current state of mind?
Study hard and go as usual every day.
Who do you admire the most among the people who are still alive?
parents.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I hope that in the future, everyone can say that this person is still very pure.
Which of your own characteristics makes you feel very painful?
opinionated.
What is your favorite trip?
In the summer of 2013, there was a sudden rain in front of the Goethe Monument in Heidelberg, Germany.
What traits do you hate most about others?
noisy.
What is your most cherished possession?
Optimism and hope.
What is your most extravagant?
choose.
What do you think is the least painful level?
Misunderstood.
Which virtues do you think are overestimated?
Uphold justice.
What is your favorite profession?
Writer.
What is it that you're not happy with your appearance?
hair loss.
What's the thing you regret the most?
Who do you despise the most of the people who are still alive?
People who waste their time on others.
What qualities do you like most about men?
self.
What qualities do you like most about women?
tenacity.
What hurt you the most?
Waste your time on people and things that shouldn't be wasted.
What characteristics do you value most about your friends?
Integrity, honesty, fraternity.
What is the most loved person or thing in your life?
Parents, cats, good books, and sunshine.
How do you want to die?
Don't be afraid.
When and where do you feel happiest?
When it comes to fully burning calories.
If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
Nothing changes.
If you could choose, what would you like to make reappear?
Didn't think about it. What should come, what should go.
What is your motto?
The mind is unencumbered, there is no fear.
[Future Writers] Book Series
The future is ∞, infinite,
It is an endless universe with countless possibilities.
Every writer is a creator with unlimited potential.
In the name of literature, in the name of infinity
Cherish the heterogeneity and potential of each writer
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