Recently, Sichuan writer Luo Weizhang's latest novel "Red Brick Building" was published in the fourth issue of the famous literary magazine "Harvest" in 2024.
Founded in 1957, Harvest is the earliest large-scale pure literary journal founded in New China, and is known as "a shorthand version of the history of contemporary Chinese literature". For a long time, being able to appear in "Harvest" is a recognition of a writer's creative strength. Luo Weizhang is recognized as a powerful writer in the contemporary literary world, and his silent cultivation and outstanding achievements in literature have aroused great attention. However, when the reporter asked how he felt about the novel being on "Harvest", he said: ""Harvest is a respectable publication, and it is of course a good thing to publish works on it, but it is just a work, and whether the work is good or not still needs to be judged by readers and time." ”
● The literary dream of "Rongpiao writer".
"Rongpiao writer" Luo Weizhang, whose hometown is in Dazhou, Sichuan, has worked as a teacher and reporter, and came to Chengdu more than 20 years ago just to complete his literary dream. Now he is the editor-in-chief of "Sichuan Literature" and the vice chairman of the Sichuan Writers Association. In the contemporary literary world, there are not many writers who can operate in the two fields of novels and essays at the same time, and they are self-contained, and Luo Weizhang is one of them. He is the author of the novels "One Hundred Years of Hunger", "Riverdance", "Under the Sun", "Things as Usual", "Who's Knocking on the Door" and "Earthly Trilogy" ("History of Sound", "History of Silence", "Hidden History"), etc., a collection of prose essays "Uncovering Time" and "Roadside Book", and a long non-fiction "Narrative of Liangshan" and "The Road of Xiazhuang Village". "The chic structure of walking, the charm of the earth's fragrance, the image of sexual spirits, the candlelight of the images of the times, the vivid and touchable characters, and the language of beads echoing. In particular, Luo Weizhang's character creation has a remarkable ability. He is good at using some small dialects to dialogue, and the characters are erected at once. Geography, culture, relationships, and people are all highlighted in the dialogue. Li Mingquan, vice chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association and chairman of the Sichuan Literature and Art Critics Association, summarized the characteristics of Luo Weizhang's literary works. Yes, Luo Weizhang's heavyweight awards in recent years also confirm this evaluation: the "Five Ones" Project Award of the Central Propaganda Department, the People's Literature Award, the Phoenix Literature Award, the Yu Dafu Literature Award, the Gao Xiaosheng Literature Award, the Wan Songpu Literature Award, the "Contemporary" Top Five Novels, and the "Selected Novels" Gold List Leading Works......
Now, with the advent of the latest novel "Red Brick Building", people's attention to Luo Weizhang is naturally more on the novel. Ding Fan, a senior professor at Nanjing University, once asserted: "In the century-old history of literature, the novels of Sichuan writers have given birth to everyone who shocked the literary world, from Ba Jin, Li Jieren, Ai Wu to A Lai, all of whom are leaders in the creation of novels." Nowadays, Luo Weizhang's novels are particularly long and huge, and they have attracted the attention of the literary world, marking that Sichuan literature has entered another peak period of creation. ”
● The name of "Red Brick Building" is not simple
Luo Weizhang's favorite writer is the great Russia writer Leo · Tolstoy. "He made me understand that literature is not the highest goal of literature." In his view, Tolstoy's highest goal was to explore man, how he could become more complete and more in line with the definition of man. "Tolstoy's writing has greatly increased the difficulty of writing for writers all over the world, and in the face of a wall, they do not pretend not to see the wall, nor do they cleverly bypass it, but they tear down the wall, let this side and that side open up, let the light come to their faces. Therefore, Tolstoy and the masters of that era always wrote with the breath of the wilderness, the vastness, and the breath of life. That's right, it's human nature, and this word has always been in Luo Weizhang's novels. He believes that only after the sense of responsibility and mission emerges, human nature can truly shine brightly. This is first embodied in the writer himself, and only then in the text.
The novel "Red Brick Building" is no exception, and human nature is at its core. The introduction of the novel "Red Brick Building" by "Harvest" magazine is: In the eighties and nineties of the last century, writers and artists in Dongxuan City gathered in a conspicuous red brick building, and there was an endless stream of literary and artistic young people who came to visit. There is a "frustrated man" in the red brick building, the senior writer Ran Qiang, who meets Sheng Hua, a young man who is also "frustrated", like two wolves that meet by chance in the wasteland. Ran Qiang only cares about Dongxuan's sky, but Shenghua can't only see Dongxuan's sky. When he tried to escape, he found that it was mixed with fear, inertia, and interests...... The red brick building is a stark lie, even if there are times of prosperity, there are times of desolation. In the end, that generation of intellectuals was like a lone wolf, embarking on a spiritual wandering journey alone.
At first glance, the name of "Red Brick Building" can't help but remind people of Luo Weizhang's novella "Red Tile House" for more than ten years, which was published in the third issue of Beijing Literature in 2007. In this regard, Luo Weizhang said: "In my impression, "Red Tile House" is about the inner struggle of a township cadre, not at work, but emotionally and humanely. "Red Brick Building" is a story about a group of writers, a story of the growth and fall of writers, a story of sinking, introspection and escape. Of course, these are not just writers' stories. When talking about whether the creation of "Red Brick Building" went smoothly, Luo Weizhang said: "I can't say whether it is smooth or not, I am busy with work, and I will write a little when I have time." I just want to say that when you have something in your heart that you need time to complete but don't have to rush to complete, your heart will be very full and meaningful. Regarding the "time to start writing" that every writer is often asked about when his new work is released, Luo Weizhang laughed and replied heartily: "When I can't write down my notes, I won't write down the day when I start writing a novel, I think it will make me driven away by time." ”
From a certain point of view, red brick buildings and red brick houses are the common memories of this era, and they can be seen in many places today. Especially those who have lived in it, know them best. But what does it really mean when they appear as literary symbols? In response to this question, Luo Weizhang simply responded: "Any naming is not simple, of course, 'red brick building' is also, what other meanings are behind it, after reading it, you will have your own opinions." ”
●After the work is completed, there is no need to think about who will read it
Literature has always conveyed the voice of the soul, not only words, but also emotions and thoughts, which are more gripping and fascinating. For Luo Weizhang, the writing of a writer is, in essence, a reminder of the absence of life and the heart. The protagonists of the novel "Red Brick Building" are two literary and artistic workers with a generation difference, so did you consider the generation difference factor of the work when creating? Luo Weizhang said bluntly: "Why should I think about which age group of readers to attract? Literature is to write about the writer's own observation of the world, and to complete the most valuable part of the writer's life. I don't think about it anyway. We are more than 2,000 years different from Qu Yuan, more than 400 years different from Shakespeare, more than 300 years different from Cao Xueqin, and more than 100 years different from Tolstoy, but we are still reading their works, and when they write, they can't think of us. At the same time, he also touched on the question of experience and imagination in creating novels: "In fact, no novel is done by experience alone, and no novel is done by imagination alone. ”
According to incomplete statistics, Luo Weizhang has now written, published and published more than 10 novels and more than 100 short and medium stories, and has gradually constructed his own and recognizable spiritual genealogy. Regarding this data, Luo Weizhang blurted out "Are there so many short and medium stories?" Summing up his style of fiction, he said: "In the early days of my writing, I really mainly wrote short and medium stories, especially novellas. What is the spiritual lineage, it seems that I can't say it myself, so let the critics say. In response to the question of "changes in fiction creation", he said: "I don't feel the biggest change in my fiction creation, I am always changing, not intentionally, or in the face of different works, there will be different ways of dealing with them." If you really want to talk about the biggest change, it should be the more you write, the better. ”
● "Silence" is part of destiny
Nowadays, when talking about Luo Weizhang, the first thing that comes to mind is his "earthly trilogy" and "Who is knocking on the door". Among them, the "Earthly Trilogy" writes about the historical upheavals in Chinese society in recent decades. The novel takes the theme of the countryside as the starting point, and writes about the gradual disintegration of the rural society, the continuous advancement of urbanization, and the fission of the human heart and humanity in the fission of the times. "Who's Knocking on the Door" is a novel about "times and people", which hides the author's grand artistic ambition in dense details and full text, and he frequently knocks on the door of the era on behalf of the emerging city and the tragic fate, and in this way pays tribute to the silent land and the great tradition. Some critics believe that the "Earthly Trilogy" and "Who's Knocking" represent a new height of Luo Weizhang's personal literary creation. In fact, as mentioned earlier, Luo Weizhang still has a lot of excellent works, but in contrast to his personal "silence". So, what does Luo Weizhang think of this "silence"? "By 'silent' do you mean not winning a prize? In the most fundamental sense, there are only high and low writers, but to uphold such a standard, there are too many qualities, and no one has the right to demand those qualities that others must have. Following social standards is the most convenient way in the end. But if one is not willing to succumb to the social success theory, 'silence' is the way it should be, it is a part of destiny, and one has to consciously grow in 'silence' and become deep and vast. At the same time, it is important to know that some of the works that are not 'silent' are indeed excellent and worth reading. Luo Weizhang said.
At present, the judgment of a writer attaches more importance to the novel, and generally despises the value and significance of the short story, as if the novel can represent the highest level of a writer. Luo Weizhang also noticed this phenomenon. In his opinion, what is behind this is a reflection of the mentality of intolerance, lack of self-confidence, and great joy. "The problem is that in literature, both 'great' and 'gong' have other words. If it is like this, we will miss Lu Xun, Maupassant, Chekhov, Borges...... To miss them is to confirm our own insignificance. ”
● Literature is one of the focuses of life
"I love prose. I look for a low-key voice in my prose. …… The writer's temperament, the writer's intelligence, the writer's mind, the writer's insight and language ability, especially the writer's conscious self-examination, will generate the width and thickness of the text, which makes people move in the middle and think inside. In this respect, there is little difference between prose and fiction. This is Luo Weizhang's "The Threshold of Prose" published in the "Supplement" edition of the People's Daily on January 10, 2024. When it comes to prose, Luo Weizhang also has an observation that the prose of an outstanding novelist will also be outstanding, such as Zweig, Auden, Lu Xun, and Alai, generally following this law, as long as the novel and poetry are outstanding, the prose is generally outstanding. Of course, in his specific creative practice, he has never adhered to the traditional rules of so-called classification, and in his view, there is no gap between literature and science, and there is naturally no gap between prose and fiction. "Your daily life, your day and night, your facial features, body and heart, are soaked in life, once it is a text, it is prose. For novelists, going to the complicated world to fight, returning home, changing into slippers, making a cup of strong tea, sitting on a chaise longue and closing their eyes to recuperate, is also from a novel to a prose. ”
In daily life, anyone who has had contact with Luo Weizhang will be infected by his bright laughter. However, such laughter is rarely attached to his characters. "Literature is life, deepening from a creative proposition to a concept, guiding generations of writers. Those writers reveal the human condition, focus on the fate of man, and define man in the sense of 'man'. But at the same time, we have found that human nature has not been improved as a result. When people regard themselves as the highest goal, no matter how splendid their lives are, they actually show their limitations. This is his understanding of literature. In fact, the reason why Luo Weizhang's creation has received widespread attention is that, in addition to the mood of regional description, the profound human nature writing is an important element in its achievement. Only the description of human nature that directly points to the hearts of the people can infinitely expand the aesthetic connotation of literary works. It's just that for the contrast between laughter in life and seriousness in writing, Luo Weizhang has always emphasized that "it is not a contrast, but a whole". "When I write," he says, "I was dealing with a serious life. Of course, there is humor in serious life, and it must be. It seems that no critic has spoken of the humor of my novels, the humor of solemnity. As for the relationship between literature and life, he said frankly: "Isn't the word life filled by specific things, and in this case, literature is of course one of the focuses of life." ”
When it comes to writing, avoid not reading. Luo Weizhang found that there is a high degree of identity between reading and writing. A writer has a natural identity as a reader. On the other hand, an excellent reader must have the ability to read innovatively, that is, to discover from reading, to associate from reading, and to examine from reading - to examine society, life, others, and oneself. This is the highest level of reading. He also revealed that he has recently been reading history and philosophy, and reading thousands of pages of books. "There's hardly a reason why one has to read a tome every once in a while, but I think so. The outstanding tome is the mountain peak. Luo Weizhang sighed, "Excellent books will give people happiness, great books generally do not, great books go inside, go to the dark depths, let you touch yourself, and pick yourself out, trim or wash." This process is painful, if not reborn. Growing pains. After the pain, you realize that you have become different – for the better. (Reader Daily all-media reporter He Jian)