On the morning of October 15, at the fourth session of the "Go to the People" professional ethics education training and literary social service practice activities exchange summary meeting held by the China Writers Association in Nanhu, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, at the meeting on the same day, Na Zhangyuan, vice chairman of the Yunnan Writers Association and dean of the Dali Literature College, talked about some phenomena in the current literary world, saying that the tomb robbery notes made waves, crossed the xuan fantasy competition, the court feud was sought after, and the rich and the rich complained about the night. These literary works and film and television programs have set off a boom that cannot be ignored among young readers and audiences, and are a choice for modern people to pursue excitement and kill time, but these works are all based on fictional delusions, absurd plots, and distortion of characters and events, which is really a kind of shrinkage and regression.
"Nowadays, literature is moving to the fringes of reality on a large scale, real life is fading out of our literary and artistic works with a posture full of nostalgia, and literature has become a pure consumer product, far from social real life and warm human care." Na Zhangyuan said that this is mainly manifested in the fact that on the one hand, many young people are addicted to "nonsensical" illusory words; on the other hand, the reading needs of civilians at the bottom of society are not guided and satisfied, and there are few people talking about life at the bottom of society. "This exposes the confusion in the current literary circles on issues such as why people write, what content they write, and what forms of expression they use under the new social development situation."
So how do you solve these confusions? Na Zhangyuan believes that the first thing to do is to understand the fundamental principle of why literature is created. At present, literary creation should be diversified, paying attention to the needs of young people, but also caring about the pressure of middle-aged people and the loss of the elderly; it is necessary to provide diversified literary works for different groups such as farmers, migrant workers, ordinary citizens, intellectuals, and the middle class. Among all social strata, the grass-roots people account for the majority of the Chinese population, so it is the top priority of cultural construction to truly understand the suffering of the grass-roots people, care for their living needs and spiritual pursuits, and provide conditions and space for their cultural consumption.
In Na Zhangyuan's view, the current emergence of "migrant literature" has won the love of many people with its earthy atmosphere and vitality from the bottom life, but "migrant literature" is uneven, which requires more writers to pay attention to this field of writing. The people need art, art needs the people, and the vast number of literary and art workers should step out of the ivory tower and use art to better serve the public.
In today's era of globalization, social development is changing with each passing day, and countless new phenomena and new problems are emerging every day. These new situations have both a thriving side and unsatisfactory drawbacks, both the need to build mass culture and the pursuit of profit in the era of consumerism. How our literary works represent these new things, then, is a question worthy of serious consideration.
"Some writers deliberately distort the dark side of society, exaggerate personal privacy, and even write violent and pornographic literature to attract attention and cause a sensation." For example, sex literature launched by a writer. Such works can only arouse the sensory stimulation of readers and mislead the values of the masses, and such literature is not only garbage, but also a toxin. Na Zhangyuan gave an example of criticizing this chaos.
If you want to reverse this unhealthy trend, in Na Zhangyuan's view, we must return literature to reality and practice a truly people-centered literary cause. Take the concern for reality and the bottom as your lifelong artistic pursuit. Caring for the fate of the little people, caring for the vulnerable groups at the bottom of society, they are the majority, and they will eventually represent the material and cultural level of the country.
"In this respect, the poet's response is faster than that of the novelist, and the poet Lu Weiping made it clear in his Poetry Down: 'My poetry is downward.' The lower part here is the lower part of the countryside, the lower part of the inferior status, the lower part of the high-rise building, the lower part of the lower riba... In these places, there are my fathers and fellow countrymen who are as simple as my dirt. There are rat-like migrant workers hiding in the city. There are shoemakers who repair their own shoes on the streets late at night. There are scavengers who can't tell the difference between noses and eyes. There are beggars who lack arms and legs. There are old men sleeping on the streets covered with leaves. There was my mother in another world who cared about me day and night. Under these circumstances, my poetry is full of compassion. Let me always be a humble writer. Let me always remember the conscience of a poet. ”
Na Zhangyuan believes that the "downward" here is not only a gesture, but also a creative concept, but also a value orientation. As a writer of ethnic minorities located in the frontier of Yunnan, he advocated that we must return to our own nationality, become a primary school student, re-understand our own nationality, re-identify national culture, extract the excellent elements of national culture, express them in vivid forms that the common people like to hear, and excavate the true nature of life in the majestic but impoverished high heaven and thick soil, express the hidden pain in our hearts, and write out the deep cultural accumulation and charm of the times of our own nation.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhang Enjie
Editor/Liu Jianghua