The Naïve and Sentimental Novelist: The Meaning of Fiction to Life

When I saw the question of "the impact and meaning of fiction on our lives", I suddenly remembered Borges's words, that is, the dreamer wakes up in a dream. The novel is like a dream woven by others, the dream nightmare aside, at the moment of opening the book, it is to go to the dream alone, just like Alice enters the rabbit hole, the Wuling people enter the peach blossom garden, whether it is good or bad, whether it is strange or strange, it is not enough for outsiders. Pamuk has a similar language in The Naïve and Sentimental Novelist: "When I read a novel, it is as if I enter a dream, forget everything else, just to gain knowledge of the world, to construct myself, to shape the soul." ”

"Naïve and Sentimental Novelist" is equivalent to a dream guide and guide, some people pick up the novel, always think that they can be like the gluttony of the characters and plot, what metaphors, history, etc. are all included in the bag, and some people once novels are like falling into the fog of five miles, thinking that the novel is pure fiction, all of which are artistic processing, are illusory, not worth mentioning. This book gives a clear orientation to the point of view.

"I would like to say that this wonderful experience of writing and reading has been undermined or overlooked by two categories of readers: 1. Absolutely naïve readers who always see the text as an autobiography or a chronicle of a disguised life experience, no matter how many times you have reminded them that what they are reading is a novel. 2. Absolute Sentimentality – Reflective readers who believe that all text is constructed and fictional, no matter how many times you have reminded them that what they are reading is your most honest autobiography. ”

According to Schiller's article, Pamuk divides the readers of the novel into two categories, one is to think that the novel is true, is the author's personal experience, and the other is to think that the novel is false, that it is a demon, and that it is just a demagogic person.

Pamuk argues in the book that both types of ideas are not desirable. There is both truth and fiction in the novel, because it is the real part, so we can empathize with some plot, and it is also because of its fictional part, so we will yearn for it.

The original text reads: "To read a novel means to understand the world in a non-Cartesian logic. I mean, to have a continuous, consistent talent, while believing in conflicting ideas. From this we slowly emerge from within ourselves the third dimension of truth: the dimension of the world of complex fiction. Its elements are conflicting, but at the same time acceptable and descriptive. ”

A successful and mature novel, it is bound to be complex and contradictory. We can glimpse different concepts of life, different value orientations and different attitudes to life, in the process of reading, we can try to understand, try to interpret, and even praise and criticize, but we can not habitually ignore everything that happens in the novel.

As mentioned earlier, the novel is increasing the reader's own limited life experience, a person's life is only a hundred years, the time is so much, and the things that can be done to break through the upper limit are also limited. However, the novel can transcend the limitations of time and space, depict the human feelings of the previous era for future generations, and provide a different blueprint for people living in foreign lands on the other side of the ocean. The novel comes from life, and eventually returns to life, like planting wheat in the fertile soil, planting in the spring and harvesting in the autumn, always receiving more wheat than the amount planted.

The Bible's New Testament John chapter 12 verse 24 says, "I tell you the truth: A grain of wheat that does not fall into the ground and dies is still one grain, and if it dies, it will produce many grains." ”

When reading novelists about the analysis and composition of novels and their respective attitudes, one thing has a more personal feeling than reading their novels, just like the good-looking people they often meet, suddenly one day and chat about each other, interested in each other, is not a happy thing, only afraid of meeting the unintelligent, the like-minded, probably like Ishikawa pecking wood, waving his hands, saying: "Live, live, don't talk about it anymore." ”