Literary Master 1983

Chapter 198 Theoretical Level of Cotangent

Yu Qie gave a direct conclusion: "I don't like to keep people in suspense, so I'll be frank. Scar literature is a literary form of a special era, and it is bound to disappear!"

why?

As soon as he said this, many people showed surprised expressions.

Many literature lovers in the audience are still reading the novel series "Class Teacher" and "Scars", and some are even superficially imitating these novels.

Not to mention them, even Liu Zhenyun, who later became very famous, has been trapped in the shackles of educated youth literature or scar literature and cannot get out for the time being. They feel that this kind of literature still has vitality and this kind of creation can continue.

After all, we are not time travelers, and living in the present time, it is difficult to see what the future will be like.

Cotangent holds up three fingers and gives three reasons:

"The first is that society no longer needs it! Am I being too absolute? But in my opinion, this is the case."

Yu Qie affirmed.

“The function of scar literature is to vent collective trauma and to express through stories what readers want to say but fail to say… However, we have been away from that era for so many years, and everyone is looking forward.”

"From this perspective, scar literature is the same as the once-popular factory director literature. It is a niche custom-made literature, but due to the opportunities of the times, people mistakenly believe that it is literature that the public likes. However, through the decline of factory director literature, we know that scar literature will eventually lose its mass base, and readers will no longer need it..."

"A few years ago, 'The Record of Director Qiao's Taking Office' was the short story king. It received the most votes from readers, but how many of you have read this novel? Times change very quickly."

Yu Qie spoke casually, but the members listened attentively. Some of them took out their notebooks and wrote on them. These things were enough to publish a literary review in the school.

Wang Meng nudged the editor-in-chief of Literary Gazette, Feng Mu, with her elbow: "Editor-in-chief Feng, you have a high level of theoretical knowledge. Do you think what he said is right?"

Feng Mu thought over and over what Yu Qie said, and nodded, "That's basically the case, but he is very absolute... I don't know why he is so absolute? No wonder Yu Qie didn't write a review and send it to the Literary Gazette - his words are just ruining other people's jobs!"

“There are many writers whose main work is scar writing, and once they lose these, they can no longer create other novels.”

This is indeed a problem.

It is fine to share some words in a literary salon, but if they are published in public, they are a bit too offensive.

Wang Meng joked: "It seems that Yu Qie is quite suitable for teaching. He teaches some content that is not in the book."

Next, Yu Qie talked about the second reason.

“Scar literature has little artistic value!”

His words were all very straightforward, without embellishment, and sounded particularly harsh.

"This kind of literature relies heavily on the 'good-evil binary opposition and the victim-perpetrator model', reflecting political correctness. However, in terms of artistic techniques, it is no different from the narratives written in school days - I was bullied before, I feel sad when I think about it, so I write an essay to cry about it... It's just such a story, and the language is often very crude!"

"Let's think about it. If we take the artistic techniques of these novels out of the context of the times, can they be used in other novels? The conclusion is very pessimistic. At present, there is no such possibility."

“It’s possible that movies and TV series adapted from scar literature can be passed down, but it’s definitely not the scar literature itself. And even if the derivative works are passed down, people will definitely not pay attention to the artistic form, but the storytelling.”

This is the second negation. By this time, Yu Qie had already criticized "scar literature" thoroughly, believing that this kind of novel was losing its mass base and had no literary value to learn from.

But unexpectedly, Yu Qie gave a third reason, which completely sentenced the scar literature to death. Yu Qie stretched out his hand and asked the audience: "Are there any foreigners here?"

There were quite a lot of people in the audience, but no one raised their hand.

Yu Qie asked again: "Are there any overseas Chinese?"

A student stood up and answered: "I am from Hong Kong and am currently an exchange student at Yanda University."

"Classmate, do you read scar text?"

"I...I don't even really read novels."

"If you have nothing to do, why don't you read a scar novel?"

The student thought without hesitation: "Of course I won't read it. What does it have to do with me? I read novels for interesting things, or for things about myself... I will never take the initiative to read this kind of novel!"

Yu Qie asked the student to sit down, and then said: "What is really fatal is that it is too closely linked to politics. This not only makes the novel lose the possibility of going global, but also makes the novel itself suffer backlash. Its creative space is compressed and it suffers a real blow."

"Does it look like a chamber pot? You know this thing can be used, and sometimes it is really needed urgently, but you wouldn't put a chamber pot in the living room... introduce it to the guests and say, look, this is the most proud thing in my house, the chamber pot! Do you want to take a look?"

As soon as this was said, the whole community burst into laughter. Yu Qie's criticisms were sharper than the last, and it was almost impossible to send these words to professional journals. They could only be shared in small groups.

Wang Meng laughed out loud after hearing this. He wrote a novel called Butterfly five years ago, which brought him some troubles. However, he only acknowledged the "stream of consciousness" part of the novel and was unwilling to turn the novel into a scar-writing style.

What idea does this reflect?
He always felt that what I wrote should be of a higher level.

Feng Mu couldn't help laughing when he heard this. "Yu Qie's words can be said to have angered people out of their coffins. He really can't engage in theory. If he were to engage in theory, it would turn our Literary Gazette upside down. I don't know how many people would come to scold us!"

Wang Meng said: "Yu Qie can be a teacher, he talks about some real things."

"Of course he can do it, he has good vision!"

So, what kind of literature can rise?
Yu Qie only criticized today, but did not give a solution. The members asked Yu Qie: "If writing scar articles is a dead end, then what should we write about... There must be a direction."

Of course. So far, Yu Qie has met several future representatives of the genre.

Yu Hua was engaged in avant-garde literature, and later in life was engaged in realism; Acheng was engaged in root-seeking literature, and his father was a consultant together with Yu Qie in the crew of "Dream of Red Mansions"; neo-realism was also a major school of thought - Liu Zhenyun is sitting in the audience, and his representative work is "A Pile of Feathers".

In the 1980s, the most influential foreign literature was Latin American literature, which almost dominated the mainland literary world, and Yu Che happened to be one of the introducers of "One Hundred Years of Solitude".

No matter which kind of literature, no matter which character, they all have some connection with Yu Qie to a greater or lesser extent.

They were like a big web, allowing Yu Qie, the Spider-Man, to be launched in his own way, gradually entangled with each other, and the Literary Alliance had a common core.

Yu Qie replied to the members: "There is a simple method. Before new writers emerge on a large scale, you should write what I write... It may not be right, but it will definitely not be wrong!"

Yan University students like this kind of answer!
Simple, clear, confident.

They cheered and applauded loudly, and in this atmosphere, another sharing session of the New Reality Society came to an end.

(End of this chapter)