The Surging News reporter Luo Xin
This year, another illustrated book by a novelist about literature was published. This time, novelist Miao Wei brought "Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience".
In the book, Miao Wei shares with readers his experience of reading dozens of foreign literary classics over the years, telling his thoughts on love, loneliness, death and other issues, as well as his understanding of himself, others and the world. He also tried to answer the following questions: Can you have a systematic understanding of literature by reading this book? What's the use of reading novels? Will you recommend books? What exactly is the literary experience?
Miao Wei was the deputy editor-in-chief of Sanlian Life Weekly and the editor-in-chief of Xinzhi Magazine, and has published works such as "Let Me Go to the World of Flowers and Flowers", "Sunday Morning Hike", "Widows Have Diseases", "Bread Will Be", "Letter to Dazhuang" and so on. For Miao Wei, it was really the first time that he had systematically sorted out the novels he had read. In the preface to Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience, he quotes the American literary critic Harold Bloom: "We are all afraid of loneliness, madness, and death, and Shakespeare and Whitman cannot make us not afraid, but they bring light and fire." What is this light and fire? Comfort, compassion and understanding, insight into the more complex human nature.
On May 9, Miao Wei and Shanghai writers Mao Jian and Huang Yuning visited Hengshan Heji, and the three of them brought a wonderful dialogue on "Can Literature Be Dismantled".
On May 9, Miao Wei (center) and Shanghai writers Mao Jian (left) and Huang Yuning visited Hengshan Heji, and the three of them brought a wonderful dialogue on "Can Literature Be Dismantled".
Look at life from a literary perspective
Previously, Miao Wei participated in the audio lectures on the Sanlian Middle Reading APP, and this "Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience" was also compiled according to the program manuscript and has been published by Purui Culture and Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House.
Before the lecture, Miao Wei auditioned other courses on the APP, and found that a class on Russian literature by a Teacher from Beiwai was "very unpleasant". "It reminds me of the teacher who taught us foreign literature when I was in college, and he told you what naturalism was, what Zola was all about, and you listened to this man, but you thought he didn't like literature. When I was in school, I also heard the teacher talk about "Shi Ji", and it is reasonable to say that I did not particularly like "Shi Ji", but when the teacher talked about "Shi Ji", he stood there, and there was no rest in the middle of two hours, he really loved "Shi Ji", you will feel particularly infectious, you can listen to it. ”
Taking himself as an example, he was actually full of curiosity and doubt about Russian literature, but what he especially wanted to hear was: Why can't we remember Russian names, what are those names, and are there any tricks? Russians speak, they say what they think, there are no blanks, subtexts in the novel, these expressions, this is their language characteristics or the writer's writing characteristics? There are also people in Russian novels who speak very long, saying that the window is followed by the plant outside the window, the plant is green, and it will sprout in the spring... Those people always follow this line of thought, but is this really caused by language?
Compared with the common literature class, "Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience" focuses on literary experience. Miao Wei said: "Literary experience is actually about my feelings, and most of these experiences are related to some difficulties in life. I hope that you (the reader) will gain something, look at life from a literary point of view, look at the human situation, feel a little more delicate, and enrich the soul a little. ”
At the beginning of this year, "Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience" was published by Purui Culture and Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House.
Dive into unique perspectives to gain inspiration and novelty
In Mao Jian's view, the biggest significance of this "Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience" is that Miao Wei's angle of entry is easy and unique. She has basically read all the novels mentioned in the book, but she can still get inspiration and novelty from Miao Wei's interpretation of the text.
For example, Miao Wei understands Chekhov's "Woman with a Puppy" in this way: "It is written about a man and a woman who steals love, and after the two go to bed, the man eats a piece of watermelon." Literary history classes will talk about the achievements of Chekhov's short stories, and literary criticism will talk about this detail to present a kind of authenticity. Literary experience might focus on that watermelon: Why did he eat a piece of watermelon 'in sage time'? Can't he eat some oranges? Watermelon so much juice, dripping on the fingers how sticky ah - maybe the secret love is also so sticky. ”
"I've seen The Woman with the Puppy very early on, a very famous but less circulating text in chekhov's collection. Seeing Master Miao's analysis like this, I almost doubted whether I had read this novel, because I didn't remember this detail at all, and I didn't remember this watermelon with such rich semantics. Mao Jian said that when she went back to read the text, she also began to identify with watermelon as expressive, "It both expresses the love between them like a watermelon, sweet, early summer, but also a little sticky, this experience description is very accurate." ”
From this, Mao Jian also mentioned the movie "Daytime Fireworks", the hero and heroine had a relationship, but the film did not directly show this, but gave the two people a shot of eating small dumplings together the next day. "That little dumpling shot is the best food expression in recent years. Human, sexy, is both food and food color. This is the power of literature. Master Miao presented the relationship between men and women through this watermelon detail of Chekhov, which is really life and literature. When you are young, you may not agree with Master Miao's 'sage time' statement, and after experiencing a lot of works in life, you will feel that Master Miao is a teacher after all. ”
Miao Wei
Returning to the state of storytelling, there is some association and comfort
Huang Yuning also teaches literature classes on the audio program. Considering the audience who hadn't read the book at all, she often had to tell the story as it was.
"But looking at Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience, you don't have this burden. You also don't need to consider whether literature is useful or not, because it will create a lot of connections with your daily experience. Huang Yuning especially liked the twenty-third lecture, "Maugham's Gossip". In this lecture, Miao Wei talked about Maugham's four novels, "Chastity", "Appearance and Reality", "Treasures", and "Factors of Human Nature". "This part of the story is closely integrated with our workplace experience and interpersonal relationships, and it is very sincere and practical, and you don't hate it or think it has anything to do with success." I haven't seen this kind of textual interpretation in other books, it's relatively original. Huang Yuning said.
Mao Jian also said that "Maugham's gossip" is her favorite talk. "To write about Maugham, one must be a practicing family, a person who understands the world, a person who has emotional experiences, experiences and imaginations as rich as he has. Master Miao has all aspects. Therefore, he can talk about Maugham so close to the world, and turn Maugham into the highest class of the world. In this sense, Master Miao is actually not analyzing the text, but writing with the text, so many novels and movies have become his teaching materials, he cuts various famous texts, in order to talk about his memory, objects, life and death these topics, he is both heavy and heavy. This is where Huang Yuning said that this book was successful. We've read a lot of novels, but after he told them once and spliced them in context, they were completely new. ”
Miao Wei responded that Maugham's four novels left a deep impression on him, that is, the importance of maintaining the status quo, trying to pursue something too romantic, may break the balance, "If you have a stable and decent life on the surface, then maintain, this is a very realistic attitude to life." 」
For this new book that focuses on literary experience, Miao Wei believes that it is "more like storytelling", "When we are young, we all listen to stories to gain experience, and then learn professional knowledge and gain professional experience." The book may return to the state of storytelling, accompanying you through a lonely time, so that you can have some comfort. ”
The scene of the event
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang