"Little Forest: Summer and Autumn"
In "We Ride the Whale Away", she retreats to a desert island, and in "In the Name of Birds and Beasts", she retreats to the mountains and forests, which she herself calls "retrograde", and when the tide of history rushes to the city, she begins to find another way among ancient artifacts and birds, beasts and insects.
In the early years, Sun Pin wrote like a knife, first forcing the people in the pen to the danger of no way out, and then using the blowing blade in his hand to dissect the delicate and complex human heart little by little. As the reviewer put it, her writing was identified by the style of "fierce and fierce", and at one point, even she herself said that she was "too painful to write". However, now she began to choose to hide behind the knife, tighten her edges, turn around and step into the ancient and barbaric jungle, and pull away to reflect on modern urban civilization.
Sun Pin
Representative works: "In the Name of Birds and Beasts", "We Ride Whales Away" and so on
"In the Name of Birds and Beasts" includes three novellas created by Sun Pin in recent years, which build a space parallel to modern civilization with continuous scenes and themes, and the protagonists from the city experience, explore, and feel in this space, reconstructing the flesh-and-blood connection between contemporary people and ancient civilizations, which is also the most concerned issue for Sun Pin in his current writing: "The direction and belonging of people in civilization." ”
This is the first issue of the interview with the finalists of the 2021 Blancpain Ideal Country Literature Award, and the guest of the conversation is Sun Pin, the author of the shortlisted work "In the Name of Birds and Beasts", please continue to pay attention to more follow-up interviews with writers.
01. "If someone rises, someone sinks,
Some people experience butterfly change, and some people experience destruction,
Such a colorful and colorful human being."
Blancpain Ideal Republic Literature Award (hereinafter referred to as the "Literature Prize"): The three works in the book "In the Name of Birds and Beasts" actually have strong internal relationships, their themes, backgrounds, and characters are similar, what kind of opportunity is it that prompts you to write such a series of stories?
Sun Pin: This is a series of stories about mountains and forests, set in the same mountains and rivers, in a geographical sense, this mountain and this river are real, they are part of my hometown. When I was young, I didn't have much opportunity to walk into the mountain, and later when I walked into this mountain, I suddenly found another new space, this space is a little strange, it is not a parallel cosmic space in the physical sense, it is a semi-hidden space that exists in parallel with urban life and contemporary civilization, it does not belong to the contemporary civilization world, but is hidden in the mountains and forests, buried in many secrets that only belong to time. In addition to the mystery, there is also a splendid vitality here, which is contrary to the world and civilization, close to all things, but such a world has its own romantic soothing to the human heart, which is the original motivation for me to write down this world.
Literary Award: "Mountains" and "Plains" seem to represent two civilizations in these works, but also convey the way of life of two people, by describing this collision what do you most want to express?
Sun Pin: The process of civilization is inevitable, no one can stop it, no matter where you live in any remote corner of the world, you will eventually be involved in such a process, which can not be described as lucky or unfortunate. It can only be said that any bit of historical progress requires the blood and tears of hundreds of millions of people, which is the truth of history and the fate of mankind.
Literature Prize: Material or money is a theme that often appears in these stories, the mountain people never need money to need money, and even fall into the vortex of gambling, bankruptcy and other capital creation, is there any kind of criticism of modern capital civilization?
Sun Pin: In the process of civilization, it is impossible for all people to go to progress and beauty, some people rise and some people sink, some people experience butterfly changes, some people experience destruction, so colorful is human beings. As a writer, I have an innate compassion for people and all things, but I can only do so much honestly as possible to write something for Cangsheng.
Literature Prize: The protagonists of these three novels, You Xiaolong, Tian Lisheng and Lao Yuan, constitute a unified antagonistic image, although there is no success in the secular sense, but each has its own persistence, how to understand the shaping of these characters, and whether they have pinned on some ideal of your own?
Sun Pin: They are all people who carry a certain beautiful ideal and noble quality of human beings, although they are not pure people, they are intertwined with the struggle between nobility and darkness, and there are deep entanglements and secrets, but they are all people who want to pursue a beautiful personality by all means, they are all people who have experienced growth and transformation, and naturally they also pin my certain yearning.
Literary Prize: There are a lot of depictions of "artifacts" in this book, what meaning do these "artifacts" carry, and what role do they play in the traditional civilization you describe?
Sun Pin: These artifacts, especially ancient jade, carry a long and thick time, carry the change of countries, the changes of systems, the process of civilization, and it can even be said that they are civilization itself. This is also the question I have been thinking about a lot in my writing in recent years, that is, about the direction and belonging of people in civilization.
Literature Prize: How do you see the relationship between fiction writing and the times in which writers live? Is there some kind of connection and responsibility?
Sun Pin: Of course, novelists are definitely a group of people who shoulder responsibilities, and it is the responsibility of novelists to observe people in times and times, and the inextricable intertwined relationships between people and times. Although the novel is a fictional art, it is based on the real human nature and the real world as the skeleton, when you feel that you are pushed by some force, want to trace back to the truth, you will suddenly understand the meaning of responsibility. If there is no sense of responsibility, how can there be a deep flesh-and-blood connection between one's work and reality?
02. "There is truth in search,
Where there is truth, there is fiction."
Literature Prize: These three novellas all use a first-person narrative, "I" are observed and participated in the life of the mountain people in the image of a semi-outsider or bystander, how to understand such a character shaping and narrative perspective?
Sun Pin: "I" is not only the protagonist in the novel, but also a clue character, and he has an intrinsic connection with the mountains and forests, or grows up in the mountains, or walks out of the mountains and finally returns to the mountains, or because of a chance to enter the mountains and gain a new life. This character connects all kinds of people encountered in the mountains and forests with various grasses, trees, birds and beasts, with a little sense of teasing and roaming in road novels.
Literature Prize: The motivations of the characters of these three "I" in the novel seem to be based on an act of searching, looking for the answer to the case, looking for "Tian Lisheng" and searching for the hometown of the father.
Sun Pin: There is truth in searching, there is truth in fiction, searching is a motive, but also a mysterious world that slowly unfolds.
Literature Prize: Can you elaborate on the meaning of "there is truth before there is a novel"? Including the "historical truth" you mentioned before, what is the connection between this "truth" and the novel you wrote?
Sun Pin: Writing is a matter of exploring the soul above all sentient beings, and the so-called truth probably refers to the dilemma and possible exploration of human existence, the courage to trace the roots to the depths of the character's spirit, and the path of suffering that people endure in order to achieve the perfection of personality and spiritual revelation.
Literature Prize: In the previous writing, you have created a "style" other than your own, but now it seems that you are slowly trying to break this style, how do you see the relationship between style and fiction writing?
Sun Pin: Not standing and not breaking, standing and breaking, the essence of art is like this, it will always require innovation, require fresher things that have been changing, the formation of a style is a good thing and a bad thing, a good thing is because you have a stage of maturity, the disadvantage is that it only belongs to one stage, the key is not to let this style from now on to bind itself, nor can it become its own permanent label.
Literature Prize: Compared with the sharpness and sharpness of your previous works, the recent works are more "moderate", there are not too many depictions that put people in desperate situations and torture, but there will be some open-ended return to "natural" endings, why is there such a change?
Sun Pin: My view of fiction is always changing, and age and experience are also affecting a person's writing, compared to the sharpness of my twenties, I now prefer the tone and flavor of novels. The reason why I write about mountains and forests and write about nature is also out of a kind of boredom with the city.
Literature Prize: These stories have a large number of depictions of nature, such as landscapes, animals and plants, etc., what role do they play in the novel?
Sun Pin: My view of the novel has undergone some changes in the past few years, and I have begun to think that the interest in grass, trees, birds, beasts and all things in heaven and earth is not much less than that of human beings, and writing them into novels is a further expansion of the novel space, and it is also another kind of vitality that I think.
Literature Prize: In "In the Name of Birds and Beasts", You Xiaolong said, "Expressing something in dialect will give people a sense of shame", how to understand this "shame"?
Sun Pin: The most unique and secretive culture of a place is that only dialects can express clearly, and if it is changed to Mandarin, it will look strange, embarrassing, and cannot be accurately expressed. It is precisely because dialects have such a function that they are secretive, which is called shame.
Literature Prize: In the books, dialects mostly appear in the form of dialogue and spoken language, do you think that language has boundaries in literary creation?
Sun Pin: I can only say that I think that language and dialogue are very important in novels, carrying the heavy responsibility of portraying characters and the soul of local cultures, which is why I use dialects a lot in novels.
Literature Prize: What do you think of "dialect literature" and will you try to do it in the future?
Sun Pin: Dialects are part of the character characteristics, which are of great significance and give the novel a certain unique interest, and I have been trying to do this for several years.
03. Writing is one that starts with "me."
Eventually arrive at the place where "I" is blurred or retreated
Literature Prize: You have expressed that because you want to "hide the gender of a writer", is there any specific difference between your personal writing experience and narrative from a male perspective and a female perspective? Will it affect your language style or way of expression?
Sun Pin: There is a difference. Writing from a male perspective will make female writers feel more comfortable and more secure, and the language style will become more neutral.
Literary Prize: Is this sense of ease and security social? Is the neutrality of the narrative from the male perspective more in line with the overall change in your writing style and themes in recent years?
Sun Pin: This sense of security mainly comes from my level, because writing will dispatch its own life experience from the beginning, but good writing requires conveying a more general life experience, that is, it needs to resonate with more people's hearts, so writing is a place that starts from "me" and eventually arrives at "I" blurred or retreated. Trying to create from a male perspective is actually an openness and attempt to create oneself, and the so-called sense of security mainly comes from the writing skill itself, like passing a test.
The neutrality brought about by male perspective narration has really helped me achieve some changes in creation, the work is less entangled, the story unfolds more freely and openly, and it can indeed achieve some changes in writing style and theme in turn.
Literature Prize: In the name of birds and beasts, women mostly appear in a lateral or relatively silent image, but at the same time often play a supporting role in the family, does this convey your understanding of the female image in traditional civilization?
Sun Pin: It can be said that in these mountain and forest worlds that are far removed from civilization and urban life, the meaning of women is more traditional and more authentic.
Literature Prize: You don't want readers to have a "feminist" impression of your writing, so how do you understand the relationship between writers and readers?
Sun Pin: In a word, novels are also written by people, and if you really understand the novel, you will understand the person who wrote the novel, which is a kind of compassion for the author by the reader.
Literature Prize: In so many years of writing, you have created many different types of characters and stories, are there any themes or themes that you pay special attention to next?
Sun Pin: Novel creation is a secret and lonely thing, and speaking out in advance will make the author lose the desire to write.
Literature Prize: Among the "post-80s" writers of the same era, you seem to be relatively low-key, and you have also proposed that you are taking a more "traditional and orthodox" writing path, without too much influence from business, will you deliberately avoid this influence?
Sun Pin: High-profile also requires ability, I don't have this ability, or it is more comfortable to keep a low profile, nor is it deliberately avoiding business, but I just feel that I don't deliberately lean up and obey the mandate of heaven. I value my inner peace and balance more, and the real pleasure of writing.
Literature Prize: You once took a creative writing class at renmin university, what was the biggest impact of this experience on your own writing?
Sun Pin: The teachers and classmates of my university taught me a lot of valuable things, and most importantly, they broke my existing view of the novel and made me start to look at the novel from a new perspective and concept. Before going to the Npc to read creative writing, my novels were more internalized and paranoid than they are now, and what the NPC teachers taught me first was that writers should also be thinkers, and should cultivate their rational thinking as much as possible, writing is not a completely emotional thing, and there is also the truth-seeking and accumulation of knowledge, which constitutes the solid materiality of the novel, not a castle in the air. Secondly, they taught me to be objective and true, but also to look at the world and sentient beings with conscience and emotion, and let me understand that a writer is responsible and responsible, and must also have personality.
The Blancpain Republic Literary Award, co-founded by the Swiss haute horlogerie brand Blancpain and China's most influential publishing brand, the Republic, is the first award in the field of Chinese literature to be jointly created by a commercial brand and a publishing house to discover and encourage outstanding young writers under the age of 45. Impartiality, authority and professionalism were the principles established by the Blancpain Prize for Literature at the birth of the Blancpain Prize for Literature and will be consistent. Following the first "No Regrets, Less Works", the second "Passion for Writing to Reconstruct the World Picture", and the third "Becoming a Contemporary", the annual theme of the 2021 Blancpain Ideal State Literature Award is "May you have a long road".
The finalists of the 4th Blancpain Republic Literary Awards have been announced on September 15, and the final winners will be announced at the award ceremony at the end of October 2021. The focus of this year's review is on the degree of completion and inspiration of the work, and whether the author can maturely deal with the subject matter, and shows a possibility of continuous writing. The five works that were selected by the members of the jury, Alai, Ge Fei, Li Zongsheng, Liang Hong, and Ma Jiahui (in alphabetical order of names), after intense discussion and voting according to the principle of majority, were as follows: