Literary Master 1983

Chapter 14: Lonely Latin America (I)

Yu Qie grabbed the enamel bowl and ran to find Ma Shi Tu, and sure enough, he was still in the guesthouse.

Also in the guesthouse were Professor Chen and Liu Xinwu, the editor-in-chief of People's Literature.

Three people are playing Changpai, a card game popular in the southwest region. It consists of dots of various colors and is said to have been invented by Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms period.

"Yu Qie? Come and play cards!" Ma Shi Tu said as soon as he saw him.

"I don't know how to play cards. I'm here to return the enamel bowl. Mr. Ma, you left your things with me."

"No one doesn't know how to play cards! He actually said he doesn't know how to play cards? He is still worried about the magical realism."

Ma Shi Tu looked around and turned the cards over and put them on the table. "Since Yu Qie doesn't want to play cards, let's talk business. Yu Qie, I kind of believe in your statement that there is only realism and no magical realism, but it doesn't count if I'm the only one who believes it. You still have to convince others, for example, these two don't believe it."

Professor Chen and Liu Xinwu remained silent.

"When everyone doesn't believe in you, how do you convince others?" Ma Shi Tu asked.

Yu Qie explained: "What we are chasing after now is actually the innovation of Marquez's personal writing style and narrative structure; and 'magical' realism is a term used by Western publishers to target Western readers. The two are of course not the same, just like the difference between a hippopotamus and a seahorse."

“It’s fine to learn from Marquez’s writing style, but it’s a big problem to follow the trend and call what he wrote magical realism.”

Ma Shi Tu seemed to be a supporting actor, "Yu Qie, please continue."

Marquez is a genius novelist. On the one hand, his novels contain all kinds of bizarre plots, most of which are rooted in the cruel things that happened to him by local warlords when he was young. However, Europeans and Americans feel that these plots have far exceeded their imagination, so they call it magical realism.

For example, in "The Autumn of the Dictator", he wrote about a warlord who lost one hand in the war, so he asked the whole country to observe a moment of silence for this hand; for another example, there was another warlord who raised many wild animals in his backyard, but all the cages of the wild animals had two compartments, one for keeping the wild animals and the other for imprisoning his political enemies.

These cruel things all really happened. It's not magical realism, it's realism.

On the other hand, Marquez has a unique narrative structure. He wrote the story of six generations of a family and recorded it on a parchment scroll with a prophetic nature. After the last generation of protagonists deciphered the parchment scroll, they found that the deciphered content was exactly the moment he was going through. The protagonist read the date and circumstances of his own death... It was a shocking narrative structure at the time and broke the fourth wall.

What domestic literary workers should learn are his narrative skills and his aesthetic style.

But unfortunately, after learning too much, I also learned some weird and cruel skills.

So, “Why do we emphasize the opposition to the Western name of magical realism, and why do we emphasize that this is a real suffering?”

This is how Yu Qie explained the reason.

"Because this is not only to oppose the discriminatory and exotic usage centered on the West, but also to prevent domestic creators from fabricating non-existent suffering in the name of imitating 'magical realism' after his works continue to become popular!"

Because there are no tough stories to write about, imitators will make up tough stories.

What if it’s already difficult?

Then the scale is even bigger, sex, rural and strange... This is predictable. However, why do we create literature in this way? Why do we deliberately tear our skin and attract others' attention with the bloody wounds?
Yu Qie really couldn't accept it. He said:
“When we discuss magical realism, what are we talking about? If we don’t understand it at all, we shouldn’t rush to promote it!”

Liu Xinwu was an expert in promoting magical realism, and he had no idea that things would become so serious in the future.

But it's not just his fault. The book "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is popular because it is readable. It is a good novel! As soon as the book came out, "prostitutes and drug dealers had copies of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" under their beds" in Latin America, and China was no exception.

As one of the first people in China to come into contact with "One Hundred Years of Solitude", it should be our responsibility to provide such popular science information to potential readers.

Liu Xinwu felt that Yu Qi never said anything good about him, but was blaming him everywhere.

So he shouted, "Yu Qie? Who defines magical realism? It's definitely not you! First, you don't have enough appeal to control this trend, which is also popular in foreign countries; second, you don't have a big enough publishing platform to speak for you. Now even Red Rock is not enough, and People's Literature can barely attract attention... But I am the one selecting the manuscripts, and I am the editor-in-chief of People's Literature!"

"Third, who will agree with your opinion? Your professionalism has not been proven! Therefore, no one will listen to you."

Ma Shi Tu was very unhappy when he heard this. He realized that the atmosphere was not right. Ma Shi Tu stood up and said, "Let him write, what will happen? Let him speak, it won't make a difference!"

He asked Professor Chen, "What do you think?"

Professor Chen said: "I don't know how to look at it, but I know that you can't always speak ill of the United States. This is a big deal!"

Yu Qie was shocked: "What's so great about this?"

Professor Chen said: "Do you understand the status of Chinese literature in the world today? We originally studied Russian literature, Tolstoy's epic narrative, but the result was that there was no work recognized internationally; after the reform and opening up, we began to study French literature and British literature, but in fact they had already declined; the center of world literature has long been transferred to the United States, and they are far ahead of other places in all aspects! In all aspects! You know, in all aspects!"

"Yu Qie, Chinese modern literature is actually a marginal role in the world, with little influence, but you want to deny them? It is more difficult for you to deny them than to deny us."

The conversation broke up unhappily.

Yu Qie was furious.

Is there such a thing as calling a deer a horse in the world?
Some, for example, Marquez's novels are called "magical realism", implying that he makes up stories even though he himself doesn't want to.

What is more painful than calling a horse a deer?
It was the writers in Colombia, the hometown of Marquez, Latin America, and the third world, who were proud of and admired magical realism. Marquez must have been lonely at that moment.

Otherwise, how could he write "Lonely Latin America"?
Ma Shi Tu sent Yu Qie back alone. He could see that Yu Qie was very angry, so he told him:

"Yu Qie, people are sometimes very lonely, especially writers."

"When I was an underground party member, I sometimes felt lonely after finishing my longmen array. Later, I started writing, but someone destroyed my manuscript. I felt lonely at that time. Last year, I was in Belgrade, you know? It is the capital of Serbia. I gave a speech there on behalf of Chinese writers. It was such a big venue, with so many foreigners. They all looked up at me and applauded me, but I was actually the most lonely at that time."

"Because, they really support me enthusiastically, but no one understands me."

(End of this chapter)