Writer 1979: Writing for the People

This was the peak season for storytelling. After dinner, the villagers wouldn't stay home; some wouldn't even eat at home, instead taking their bowls to the roadside or the threshing ground. The old blind man, wanting to tell as many stories as possible, led the young blind man from village to village throughout the hot season, telling stories night after night.

……

"Your life hangs on these few strings, that's what your master, my grandmaster, said. I've heard it eight hundred times. Your master also left you a prescription; you have to break a thousand strings before you can get the medicine. After taking the medicine, you'll be able to see again. I've heard you say that a thousand times."

"Do you believe it or not?"

Instead of answering directly, the blind boy said, "Why must I break a thousand strings before I can get that medicine?"

"That's a medicinal guide. You clever little devil, you need a medicinal guide to take medicine!"

"A thousand broken strings are not hard to deal with?" The little blind man couldn't help but chuckle.

"What are you laughing at! How much do you think you know? You only know if you've actually broken them one by one."

……

Although Zhang Dening is young, her professional abilities are quite good, and she has a keen sense for literature.

Although she had preconceived notions when she first opened the manuscript, after reading the beginning, she immediately realized that the article was not as simple as she thought.

She continued reading, but her face had become more serious.

Gradually, the original story began to emerge before her eyes.

She could tell it was a minimalist "blind storyteller" tale, but it lacked the clichéd plot of "hope and redemption"...

Is this literature written by people with disabilities?

No, that's not it either!

She denied herself, saying that although the protagonists of the article were two blind people, Xu Lu did not limit herself to the lives of the two blind people. They were more like a microcosm of everyone, pointing to the essence of everyone's existence.

Zhang Dening started to get excited.

She knew that Xu Lu always liked to be "unexpected" in his writing, but she didn't expect that he could write so many original ideas from such an ordinary story.

What a Xu Lu! What a Xu Lu!

Zhang Dening was completely engrossed in reading it, and even after finishing the entire manuscript in one go, she still seemed to want more!

This piece, "Life on a String," is truly well-written. It is a completely different type of article from "Wheat Harvester," yet both are equally brilliant.

In a literary world currently immersed in the emotions of historical trauma, "Life on a String" offers an alternative attitude towards life: not seeking external blame, but establishing a spiritual anchor within oneself.

Although rare, it is full of power!

"Xiao Zhang, whose new book are you reading? You were so engrossed in it, I called you earlier and you didn't respond!"

Seeing Zhang Dening raise her head again, a colleague asked, "When we first started out, we found it strange that Zhang Dening was standing at the manuscript distribution desk looking at the manuscripts."

Why would someone be standing there reviewing a manuscript?

However, seeing that she was engrossed in watching, everyone went about their own business until now, when they finally asked her a question.

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"This is Comrade Xu Lu's new work. Comrade Xu Lu has sent us a new manuscript!"

At this moment, Xu Lu was no longer some unknown nobody.

Although it seems like it hasn't been long since he became famous, his name has been frequently appearing in everyone's sight in the past two or three months.

Therefore, upon hearing the name, everyone was initially delighted, but then, after realizing something, their expressions changed.

Clearly, they shared similar thoughts with Zhang Dening.

In such a short time, can Comrade Xu Lu really write any good articles?

Or, after the success of "Wheat Harvester," did he write a similar story?

After writing their masterpiece, some writers, in an effort to avoid making mistakes, will consciously or unconsciously imitate their earlier works in their subsequent writings…

It's not impossible that Xu Lu is involved!

"Take a look! This article will absolutely exceed your expectations!"

Seeing everyone's concerns, Zhang Dening said, "No matter how much you say, seeing is believing. Once they have read this article themselves, they will naturally no longer have those concerns."

Seeing Zhang Dening's confident demeanor, everyone had some doubts.

Could it be that Comrade Xu Lu has really written another masterpiece?

It's not that people doubt his talent, but mainly that he's been so busy lately, does he really have that much time to dedicate to polishing his work?

But Zhang Dening had no reason to lie to them. Everyone knew her insight was extremely sharp. If it weren't for excellent articles, she would never have this attitude.

Forget it, I don't want to think about it too much. I'll just wait and see!

The crowd gathered around and began to read the main text!

……

Twenty minutes later, the group of people looked up, staring at each other in disbelief.

Although the original novel "Life on a String" did not win any national awards, its quality was absolutely guaranteed.

On an intellectual level, in today's literary scene, which is dominated by criticism, it does not ask "who caused the misfortune," but rather "how should people face the inherent existential dilemmas they are born with."

This kind of pioneering understanding is extremely rare today.

At least for now, these editors find this viewpoint very impactful.

In terms of literature and art, it does several things particularly well.

One is the circular structure with a closed loop at the beginning and end, where the opening and closing texts of the novel completely overlap.

This seamless correspondence is not merely a simple echo, but rather the construction of a life cycle: the master clerk passes the knowledge to the old blind man, the old blind man passes it to the young blind man, and in the future, the young blind man will pass it on to an even younger blind man.

Generation after generation repeats the same path, the same obsessions, the same disillusionment and inheritance, forming an eternal allegory of human existence.

Secondly, there is the narrative tension created by the interweaving of two storylines.

When they worked on "Wheat Harvesters," they had already discovered Xu Lu's masterful use of dual narratives, and here, Xu Lu once again demonstrates his skill in this area.

The two main storylines in the story, the young blind man and the old blind man, are mirror images of each other.

The old blind man's "hope for life" was shattered, which corresponds to the young blind man's "hope for youth" being shattered; the path the old blind man walked is the path the young blind man is walking.

The two lines eventually converge at the "prescription passed down in the cave," completing the spiritual handover. The neat structure is a work of art.

Another point is the extremely restrained and anti-sentimental writing style.

There is not a single instance of deliberate lamentation or forced emotional expression in the entire novel.

When the old blind man discovered that the prescription was blank, the author only wrote that he "sat on the steps in front of the pharmacy for a while, thinking it was just a while, but in fact it had been several days and nights"; when the young blind man wanted to die after his heartbreak, the author only wrote that he "fell in the snow and lay motionless".

This article is so good it's absolutely amazing!