Style is something that most fiction writers dream of, especially for apprentices who are just entering the industry. The establishment of style often means the end of an apprenticeship and the official birth of a novelist. The yearning and expectation of style inspires many people to persevere and painstakingly, and has become an important driving force for the creation and development of novels. But does this drive necessarily come from the necessary need of the novel itself? Sometimes it is more like a mixture of external laws and the novel's own desire for recognition. That kind of external law always reminds the author: Do you want to be a good novelist? Then, please dedicate your style. At this point, style means uniqueness, it means recognizability. At this time, uniqueness and recognition seem to emerge from within the novel, but in fact they come from the scrutiny and judgment of others. It is also an aesthetic requirement whose legitimacy is far greater than that of ethical or other social requirements. However, if you seek uniqueness for the sake of uniqueness, and seek recognition for the sake of recognition, it will obviously hurt the novel itself. Some of Hemingway's works are sometimes unpleasant, largely because of a deliberate attempt to maintain his style. At that time, his style was not like the growing chest hair, but like it was pasted on. That is, stylistic alienation is stylized performance. At this time, style is no longer a style, but a routine, and even becomes a cage of shackle art. I believe that Hemingway initially only wanted to find a suitable expression, but after finding and succeeding, he intentionally or unintentionally caused the style to solidify. In this regard, Márquez showed a commendable sensitivity and vigilance, he was not satisfied with the existing style at the height of the limelight, always with a humble attitude, listening to the needs of the material itself, and his style could constantly expand and change. Yes, true style will only emerge when we let go of our obsession, sincerely confront the material, use our own cultivation and skill to wrestle with it gently or fiercely, and finally tame it. It radiates naturally, even permeates a certain biological nature, as if the tiger calmly shows its majestic posture or the fox's cunning and feminine eyes. It is not an end, but a state, an effect, that arises from the inside out. Márquez should also have been stylistically conscious, but he wisely controlled it. However, Tolstoy never pursued a certain style, he only expressed it accurately and freely, there seemed to be no style to speak of, but his work was irreplaceable, everyone could recognize it, this was a great stroke by Toon. Perhaps this is the most ideal relationship between the novelist and the style.
Many novelists are sincere, have a wealth of experience and considerable skill, but throughout their lives, the work does not present an impressive style. Obviously, the style also has a mysterious and profound relationship with the author's temperament and temperament, and his innate endowment and acquired growth environment. Indeed, a writer with a strong personality and a unique temperament is more likely to obtain a certain style, as long as he does not expect too much and deliberately creates, but tries to meet the dual needs of the heart and material in writing. At this time, temperament and temperament will naturally penetrate into the material, coupled with the necessary catalyst of imagination, which will produce a wonderful compound reaction, and eventually form the work and the style of the work. Temperament and temperament have innate components, but the acquired growth environment, experience and cultivation can also affect their formation. If Cao Xueqin was born in a humble family, the gentle entanglement at the bottom of the pen would certainly not have a rich and graceful atmosphere. If Lu Xun had not suffered from the embarrassment that came with him in the middle of the family road, his harshness and fierceness would probably have been reduced by a few points. If the growth environment is difficult for the author to control, there is a possibility of experience and cultivation. A novelist from the south, who has traveled and lived in the north for a long time, the temperament in his works may change quietly. A novelist who is wild and not systematically educated can also make a phased change in style through long-term immersion in reading. Ge Fei was certainly not from the grassroots, he was typically academic, but the result of his commitment to classical learning after the avant-garde period made his early and recent works so different in style. Lu Xun's long-term copying of ancient stele obtained a kind of simple and ancient golden stone qi, which effectively neutralized the cliff carvings of Master Shaoxing. All this shows that there are controllable parts of the style, which are not all determined by nature, and that it is obviously growth-oriented and not static. Style becomes a trap only when the novelist is satisfied with the status quo.
Finally, let's talk about the appropriateness of style. Powerful and confident novelists are able to melt all the material with style, giving them the fascinating brilliance that literature deserves. This is an undeniable and enviable ability. The equally powerful and humble novelist listens carefully to the appeal of the material itself, and strives to make its texture appear in the text, forming a style that matches the material, which is the appropriateness of the style, which does not override the work. Márquez's "The Colonel Who NoBody Wrote to Him", "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are so different in style that they are not deliberate, but they respect and present the texture of the material itself to the greatest extent, but are stained by the author's temperament, and all three novels are marked with Marquez's unique life mark. Perhaps the ultimate form of style can be described this way: it belongs not only to a novelist, but also to a certain work of a novelist.
(The author is vice chairman of Hunan Writers Association)