Text/Ma Jiajun
There is a kind of "state of mind novel" in modern Japanese literature, and this concept of the machine was proposed by the writer Masao Kumi (1891-1952) in the 1925 "Literary lecture". He said:
The so-called "state of mind novel" is actually the name I gave it for the time being... When a writer writes about an object, it does not matter if he or she floats the object truthfully, no, even if it emerges truthfully, but at the same time, the main thing is to express his own feelings that are simpler "mood", and Russell is to express some of the feelings that emerge from the author's own life when observing the object, which is the state of mind novel. The so-called "state of mind"... It refers to the inner state at the time of creation.
On the one hand, it is necessary to describe the object truthfully and intuitively, and on the other hand, it is necessary to express the state of mind under the principle of realism, and it is even more necessary to highly integrate these two aspects. This is what the "state of mind novel" requires, and this skillful technique is fully expressed in Naoya Shiga's novel "To the Net".
Shiga Yoshiya (1883-1971) was a well-known japanese realist writer, who, along with Samurai Koji Shitoku and others, was one of the founders of the "Shirakaba School" (1910-1923).
People talk about foreign modern and modern short story masters, always Maupassant, Chekhov, O. Henry and other Western writers, in fact, the Oriental Shiga Naoya is not inferior, and it is unique. Seiichi Yoshida said in his History of Modern Japanese Literature
"Naoya Shiga, who is known as the god of the short story", shows Shiga's status in the minds of the Japanese.
Shiga's creative attitude is rigorous, and he honed his novels with particular delicacy. During his 70-year literary career, he wrote only one novel, The Dark Night Road (1921), and a handful of short and medium stories. Many of them have become famous books, like "Go to the Net"
It has been included in many anthologies of world fiction.
The short story "To the Net" is extremely simple from the surface, and it even looks like a sketch or sketch. The novel depicts the tragic situation of the heroine through "I" seeing the mother and son three traveling to the place of Abashiri on the train. Such an ordinary fragment of life that people often encounter in life, after Shiga's beautiful writing, left an unforgettable impression. So, what is the artistic characteristic of the writing of this masterpiece?
First of all, "mood novels" are often "private novels", that is, novels in which the "self" of the subject of the novel is artistically expressed. Formally, it is first-person. In terms of content, "I" enters the plot of the novel. However, write "I" of the "heart."
The context is not a reproduction of the "autobiography", not a self-"confession" to declare one's thoughts and feelings to the reader, which will fall into subjectivism. Zhimao's "mood novel" is completely realistic. For example, "Go to the Net" does not make up life, but
It is from the actual experience of personal experience to refine life. Therefore, when summarizing life, it is expressed as a concern for life, and the careful observation and experiential investigation that inevitably arises from it. In this way, the depiction is expressed as a delicate, objective detail of the truth, and the potential subjective mood expression is harmoniously integrated-together.
"To the Net" has almost no storyline, but it has a series of details that are carefully selected, organized, and composed of such intrinsically related details.
"The bell rang and the entrance was opened. People were stirring up at once. The sound of cutting and pliers was frequent, and some people's baggage was hung by the handrail at the entrance of the station, grinning and pulling hard, some were hugged out by the team, squeezing back hard, and some were not allowed to squeeze in: as usual, it was a mess. The police cast disgusted glances at the passengers from behind the conductors. ...... I want to get into the first carriage and walk forward quickly. "This kind of crowded traffic into the train station is a common sight. Generally speaking, "I" am a person who is eager to enter the station and often has no time to pay attention to the surroundings. Even if there are various phenomena skimming the curtain of the service, it is also fleeting. And the author who has a "state of mind" in it, he pays attention to the handrail hanging baggage, the grin of the bag, how the police look at the passengers, if you ignore this series of details, it will not constitute a visual, objective crowded scene. Just writing about how "I" am anxious on the surface, and describing crowding in abstract terms and phrases, is not a realist art of detailed books.
This is true throughout the novel. It writes about the woman, collecting details on her expression and makeup ("White face, thin hair", "Lean over and whisper", "Smile on sad face", "Crepe tunic with blue-gray bands"). Thus, it shows the hardships of a woman who has been abused by her alcoholic husband, dragged down by two children, and has not yet aged and declined. Writing about the eldest child, Aaron, highlights his "frowning", "staring viciously at his mother", "arbitrarily insisting", "poor face", "dilated skull", "ears and nose are stuffed with cotton balls", clearly showing the stubborn, rough, impolite, and torturous characteristics inherited from his father. Writing about babies is surprisingly meticulous and truthful: small faces, glaring eyes, white teeth, "Grab the cake."
The cake, even the fists, were sent to the mouth, and the corners of the mouth were drooling with saliva. When changing diapers, he stared up at the sky, shook his hands, and made an "oh oh" sound. "Sleep well," the long fetal hairs trembled in the wind, and two or three flies flew frequently around the baby's slightly open mouth. ”
Even the most common young mother feeds her baby ("pulls out a dirty silk handkerchief and hangs it down with her lower cheek to cover her open chest"), changes diapers (first puts the baby down horizontally, reaches out and touches her crotch, and then says to herself that she should change her pants, called the big man
The child gives up his seat – because he is on the train——, and then talks, he turns around and takes out the diaper and the oil paper wrapped in wet diapers), the boy pees (the mother is embarrassed to hold back for a while, scan the surroundings and try to do it - there is no toilet on the train——, the boy is anxious, "the cat is waist, covering his belly and shouting") is the same. These daily trifles are written in a meticulous and subtle way. It seems that "I" am a life researcher, examining every nuance, selecting these, and composing art. The "private novel" has a naturalistic depiction of everyday life, which is its bias. But integrating the "self" into life, having relationships with other people, examining people's true posture through contact and care, and grasping the truth of life in the full complexity of life will jump out of this bias and infect the reader with a high sense of reality, real and delicate life itself.
However, the "state of mind novel" is not naturalistic territory after all. The "Birch School" is an idealist, and Shiga is a writer with moral values, a humane spirit, and a sense of justice, who believes that "goodness" is beauty. Therefore, the sense of self in the "state of mind novel" is not a simple objective observation, it is expressed as the starting point of the vision of "goodness". This is not to envelop life with the subjective feeling of passion and impulse, but to find the "poetry" of life and the spiritual ripples and hearts caused by it in a calm state of mind
The ups and downs of the environment. Thus, we see that the "I" in the novel is both a calm observer and an emotionally rich intervener in life; he is not only investigating, but also thinking, feeling, imagining, and slightly emotional.
"Go to the Net" has two ways to dissect the author's state of mind when creating: First, the "sense of self" is obviously presented to the reader. "I" was observing the strange boy and felt "unpleasant": at the same time, from the similarity in the eyes of the mother and son, "I was amazed", thinking of what I had seen and felt on the tram in the past. "I" also imagined the obedience of the woman's husband, the woman's gorgeous demeanor before marriage, and her future fate. Sympathy and kindness make "I" find that the woman's neckline handkerchief is crumpled, and "unintentionally" to straighten and touch the woman's shoulder. The woman was surprised and then calm, but "I" blushed and silently withdrew her hand. "I" wanted to understand the mood of not peeking at the woman when she posted the postcard, and it was vividly displayed. The second is the "I" state of mind that permeates the human body in observation and delicate description. This unspoken thought and feeling is hidden between the lines of a series of detailed drawing pages. For example, when the train arrives at Utsunomiya Station, the young mother leads the big boy to get off the bus and urinate, but the baby behind him "cries like he is burning with his arm on his back"; he picks up the baby and unexpectedly breaks up with "me" and stops to ask for a postcard; the boy who wants to urinate turns back and scolds. This series of depictions shows the busyness and fatigue of women. And what is shown is also positive
It is the sympathy and pity of "I". The tendency not to say it in particular, but to naturally reveal itself in the artistically depicted picture of life – this is an important technique of realist creation. "To the Net" so achieves its subtle beauty.
In his only novel, "The Road of the Dark Night", Shiga Naoya writes that the protagonist finds the right way in the struggle of life with a noble sense of morality, and he throws himself into the beauty of Oriental art and nature, and explores the harmonious and smooth road in a trance. This is very similar to Shiga's artistic style in piccolo novels. "To the Net" is like a poetic oriental noodle, simple, simple, refreshing contains infinite charm, the light of the state of mind and a faint sense of compassion and sorrow. At the end, "Neither of them asked for their names" seems to be a lifelong regret; there are still six days to go on the train to Abashiri, and the woman's labor and future fate are always worrying. Use the author's state of mind stone to invest in the reader's state of mind pool. The ripples of that feeling, even if they reach the distant shores, will also stir up echoes.
Published in Appreciation of Masterpieces [Jin], No. 3, 1982
(Note: The author of this article has authorized this headline)
(Ma Jiajun, a native of Qingyuan, Hebei, born on October 5, 1929, is currently a professor at the College of Literature of Shaanxi Normal University, a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association, a member of the Chinese Filmmakers Association, an honorary president (former president) of the Shaanxi Foreign Literature Society, a principle of the Chinese Foreign Literature Society, a principle of the Chinese Russian Literature Research Society, a former president of the Shaanxi Provincial Higher Education Drama Research Society, a former consultant of the Shaanxi Poetry Society, and a former executive director of the Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Social Science Societies. Shaanxi Province to build socialist spiritual civilization advanced individuals, Shaanxi Province to teach and educate advanced teachers, etc., enjoy special allowances from the State Council.
He is the author of 12 kinds of "Nineteenth Century Russian Literature", "The New Stage of Aesthetic History", "Poetry Exploration", "Exploration of World Literature", etc.; 4 kinds of "The Essence of World Literature" and "History of Western Drama" co-authored with his daughter Ma Xiaoyi; 9 kinds of "History of World Literature" (3 volumes) and "Research on Gorky's Creation"; edited 4 kinds of "30 Lectures on European and American Modernist Literature"; co-edited and co-authored "100 Topics of Marxism-Leninism", "Cultural Research Methods", "50 Lectures on Oriental Literature", "Western Literature in the Twentieth Century", etc. and more than 40 kinds.
It has been listed in more than 40 kinds, such as the Dictionary of Chinese Writers, the Dictionary of Chinese Poets, the Dictionary of Chinese Social Science Scholars, the Cambridge Dictionary of International Biographies (27th Edition in English), the Directory of Experts in Russian Studies Abroad (Russian Edition) of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Classics of Shaanxi Century of Literature and Art. ）