The literary era since 1979

At the same time as the good news came from the delivery room, the "Journey to the West" crew also had good news about fundraising.

Li Jingwei generously donated money and readily agreed to sponsor 300 million yuan in the name of Jianlibao together with Han Yuemin to help the "Journey to the West" crew complete the filming of the remaining episodes. The two parties reached a cooperation intention smoothly and agreed on a time to formally sign the "Joint Investment and Production of the TV Series "Journey to the West" Agreement" at CCTV. And this is not the only good news.

"Centipede Demon" Li Hongchang also successfully begged for alms from China Railway 11th Bureau, also providing very generous conditions and providing timely assistance.

These two sponsorships not only solved the urgent needs of the "Journey to the West" crew, but also gave Yang Ju more creative space.

Originally, relying solely on the 300 million yuan invested by Li Jingwei and Han Yuemin, the crew could only compress the series and reluctantly cut out about 5 episodes. But with the sponsorship of China Railway 30th Bureau, they can shoot a full 25 episodes of "Journey to the West" instead of the incomplete episodes in the previous life.

Moreover, Fang Yan and Gong Xing also assisted the crew of Journey to the West free of charge in terms of camera, wire work, special effects and other hardware and software.

It can be said that this life's "Journey to the West" will be far ahead of its previous life in terms of funding, equipment, personnel, and morale.

Fangyan handed over the task of supporting the "Journey to the West" crew to Gong Xing, as he had more important things to do at the moment, which was the National Youth Writers Symposium.

Xiangshan Mountain in early November is like a sea of ​​red.

The leaves of the cotinus coggygria all over the mountains are as red as flames, with golden and orange colors complementing each other, like a gorgeous oil painting.

Yu Hua, Wang Shuo, Zhong Acheng and other young writers from all over the country climbed the stairs and arrived at the designated guesthouse one after another.

People from different literary genres, including modernism, avant-garde, root-seeking, youth pain literature, ethnic and regional literature, gathered together.

Fangyan had been waiting for a long time, and he and other editors of People's Literature, including Zhu Wei and Chen Xiaoman, warmly welcomed us.

"Come on, let me introduce you to this writer, Zhang Chengzhi, who wrote such excellent works as "Golden Ranch" and "Black Stallion."

"This is Liu Sola. Her book You Have No Choice is a representative work of the popular youth pain literature."

"Xu Xing, you've been wanting to meet her for a long time, right? Sora, he's the author of Theme Without Variations."

"........."

The dialect spread among the crowd, introducing young writers who were strangers to each other, narrowing the distance and breaking down barriers.

Thanks to the fact that People's Literature and Harvest had previously jointly organized a West Lake Conference, the preparation and organization of this Xiangshan Conference was quite smooth. Liu Jianqing, Zhu Wei, Wang Fu, and Wang Pingzhi were not at all flustered and almost took care of everything.

In the whole room, there was no other topic except literature, and only in the golden age of literature could there be such vitality.

At this moment, a very tall man stood in front of Fang Yan. He had a big round face and small eyes, standing out from the crowd. He had a cold and arrogant temperament that kept people at a distance. Seeing this, Zhu Wei lowered his voice and reminded him in time:
"Teacher Fang, he is Ma Yuan who wrote "LS River Goddess" and "The Temptation of Gangdise"."

“Are you Ma Yuan?”

Fangyan raised his eyebrows.

"I am Ma Yuan!"

Ma Yuan said in a loud voice, "Teacher Fang, I have wanted to meet you for a long time, and today I finally get to meet you!"

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted the attention of most people. They stared at them vaguely and whispered to each other.

“He is Ma Yuan?”

"It was him! He was the one who came up with the concepts of 'narrative trap' and 'meta-narrative', and took a big step forward in the exploration of literary narrative!"

Listening to the subtle discussions, Wang Shuo quietly asked Yu Hua:
“I know about narrative traps, but what is metanarrative?”

“Metanarrative means that in the process of narrating a novel, the writer steps from the backstage to the front stage, directly participates in the narration, exposes the fiction in the novel, and makes clear the relationship between reality and fiction. It is not like magical realism, which can only be distinguished by readers.”

Yu Hua rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I told you to pay more attention to pure literature and stop thinking about popular literature, but you just wouldn't listen."

"I have no interest in pure literature."

Wang Shuo curled his lips, "I am even less interested in his narrative traps and meta-traps. Can't he be more normal? Who is he writing so obscurely for?"

"There are quite a few. His 'form is more important than narrative' is quite eye-catching and is highly praised by many avant-garde writers."

Yu Hua said: "But Editor-in-Chief Wang, Teacher Fang, and Zhu Wei are all quite disgusted. They think this is heresy and out of touch with the masses."

"That's right. In my opinion, he can't write normal novels at all, so he just does this unconventional thing to be different."

There was a hint of disdain in Wang Shuo's tone.

Yu Hua was surprised and asked, "You seem to dislike him?"

"Of course!" Wang Shuo said, "Don't be fooled by the fact that he seems to be obedient to the teacher on the surface, but look at his eyes, he is so arrogant!"

Yu Hua followed his gaze and said, "You know what, it's true. Just like you, I like to watch people through the cracks in the door. It's true that people of the same sex repel each other."

"What? I may be a proud person, but I respect and admire Mr. Fang from the bottom of my heart. God can bear witness to that!"

Wang Shuo stretched out five fingers and swore.

After all, as Fang Yan's lackey, there is no two suns in the sky, and he only has one sun, General Fang!
Therefore, when they saw that Ma Yuan, who was surrounded and flattered by avant-garde writers, dared to override the dialect and try to become the focus of everyone, they felt very dissatisfied and pulled Zhong Acheng, Yu Hua and others to join the crowd, wanting to see what kind of reputation he had.

"It's really hard for you to come here from Tibet."

He spoke some polite words in dialect.

"Fortunately, to be honest with you, Teacher Fang, I have actually been collecting folk songs in Yanjing during this period of time."

Ma Yuan only answered half of the question. The other half he didn't say was that he had a complete falling out with his leader at work. The leader was so angry that he told him not to come to work in the future, and then he found fault with him. It was not that he didn't want to go to work, but that the leader didn't allow him to go to work.

I never went to work again after that, but I still received my salary.

After all, with "LS River Goddess" and "The Temptation of Gangdise", he made a name for himself in the literary world, becoming one of the benchmarks of avant-garde writers and one of the few top writers in the Tibetan literary world. Naturally, his employer was reluctant to fire him and let him fend for himself.

"After staying in Yanjing for so long, what do you think?"

Fangyan cast a questioning look.

Ma Yuan said that he had no creative inspiration in Yanjing. Instead, the longer he wandered, the more he wanted to return to Tibet. Fang Yan said, "It sounds like the plateau in Tibet, which is full of mysticism, is the soil for your creation."

"You are absolutely right. What I heard and saw there was completely different from the environment in the city. Every time I passed by Tibetans worshipping and circumambulating the temple, I was deeply shocked. I always felt that no other place could compare to Tibet."

Ma Yuan was very glad that he chose to work in Tibet when he graduated, which enabled him to write "LS River Goddess" and "The Temptation of Gangdise".

Of course, thanks to dialects, not only was magical realism introduced into the country, allowing him to learn the narrative techniques of this avant-garde literature, but it also served as a rallying cry for the trend of exploring ethnic and regional literature, allowing him to focus his creative perspective on the land of Tibet.

"This is all your own creation."

Fang Yan said: "It is avant-garde literature in your place, root-seeking literature in Acheng, and modernist literature in Xuxing..."

The young writers from the avant-garde, root-seeking, modernist and other schools present whispered to each other.

"Teacher Fang, my favorite book you wrote before was Malice. I liked the narrative structure, tricks, and traps in it the most."

Ma Yuan grinned and said, “My narrative trap is based on this part of yours, but now, I like your "Hunting" the most. The magical realism in it is simply a chilling dream. My whole soul trembles when I read it..."

"I like that you can give such a high evaluation, but the content of your evaluation is still a little inaccurate."

Fangyan corrected him: "The Hunt is not magical. Instead of calling it magical realism, it should be called hallucination realism."

"Teacher Fang, this is also my biggest question since watching "The Hunt."

Ma Yuan cannot tell the difference between magical realism and hallucinatory realism.

"The difference is huge, just like the pastoral poetry school and the landscape pastoral poetry school. Tao Yuanming and his colleagues depict and praise the pastoral life, while Meng Haoran, Wang Wei and other landscape pastoral poets not only focus on the rural life scenes, but also focus on the detailed depiction of the beauty of mountains and rivers."

Fang Yan said: "The same is true for magical realism and hallucinatory realism."

Yu Hua suddenly became interested and unconsciously squeezed forward until he was at the front of the crowd. He heard:
“Magical realism disrupts the boundaries between the past and the present, reality and fantasy, people and ghosts, dialogue and monologue, creating a bizarre and mysterious picture. Whether the novel is real life or an illusion, it often makes readers confused.”

“It is often not even certain whether the subject of the story is a human or a ghost, but hallucinatory realism is just as the name suggests.”

"The subject must be a person, but the magic is in the dream. Mr. Fang's "Hunting" uses stream of consciousness, association, fantasy and memory. Just because Mr. Fang blends Chinese gods, demons and ghost stories with reality into his dreams, it cannot be called magical realism."

"Sigh~"

Everyone was shocked, especially the avant-garde led by Ma Yuan, who watched Fang Yan talk about the origins of hallucinatory realism, from Eastern dream culture to witch culture.

And using the theory of comparative literature, it compares it with the magical realism of Latin American culture.

“What does art rely on in the first place? Imagination.”

"Witches use rituals to hypnotize themselves, and then hypnotize others, so that everyone enters a hypnotic state together."

"The power of a witch lies in his imagination and making others believe in his imagination. Now, every artist is a witch, hoping that others, including other witches, will recognize his imagination..."

Although Ma Yuan, Yu Hua and others did not fully understand what was said, they were deeply shocked and tried desperately to ponder and savor the words in the dialect.

Wang Shuo also didn't understand and could only shout "Awesome". But there were also talented people like Zhong Acheng who immediately followed the dialect's thinking and applied it to other situations:

"Teacher Fang said it well!"

"The core of the principles of the existing art forms, whether primitive, classical, modern or contemporary, are still established in the primitive witchcraft period, which was like a long night. They have not changed due to the awakening of the axial period. For example, the exorcism of evil spirits, spells, summoning souls to pray for rain, and feng shui in sacrificial activities, as well as folk arts such as dragon dance, lion dance, and clam dance are all typical representatives of witch culture."

In an instant, most people present fell into deep thought.

Yu Hua could no longer hold back and asked, "Teacher Fang, will you write works of illusionary realism in the future?"

“It may not be impossible.”

The dialect is noncommittal.

Ma Yuan's eyes lit up instantly: "Teacher Fang, you pioneered root-seeking literature, and now you have pioneered illusionary realism. Are you planning to turn your creative direction to avant-garde literature next?"

The avant-garde writers also became excited, while the root-seeking writers were all horrified and their eyes turned to the dialect.

Teacher Fang is going to abandon root-seeking literature?
impossible! Absolutely impossible!
In today's serious literary field, the avant-garde and root-seeking schools are the most popular, and the two schools have always been at loggerheads.

If dialects were to be incorporated into the avant-garde literary camp now, not only would the avant-garde gain a nuclear weapon, but the root-seeking school would also lose its mainstay, and the entire literary landscape would undergo earth-shaking changes.

But to everyone's surprise, Fang Yan shook his head:

“Although The Hunt is a work of hallucinatory realism, I think I am involved in realism, not the field of avant-garde literature, so it cannot be considered an avant-garde literary novel.”

"Teacher Fang, you can't say that!"

Avant-garde writers such as Ma Yuan suddenly became anxious and wished they could immediately give him the robe of "representative writer of avant-garde literature".

He is even willing to be regarded as the boss and wear a dragon robe when the weather is cold.

However, dialects still don't buy it.

“The definition of realism cannot be based on 19th century European literature. In my opinion, Kafka and Marquez are both realist writers, but Borges and Beckett are not.”

"what?!"

This not only shocked avant-garde writers such as Ma Yuan, but also the root-seeking and modernist writers.

“Isn’t Marquez a magical realist writer?”

Yu Hua was both anxious and confused.

"Who told you that Marquez is a magical realist writer?" Fangyan raised a smile. "Marquez never admitted that he was a magical realist writer. He didn't like the title at all. Whether he was awarding the Nobel Prize or accepting media interviews, he always emphasized that he was a realist writer."

Yu Hua, Ma Yuan and others felt as if struck by lightning, their heads were buzzing and their faces turned pale, just like physicists such as Yang Dong who realized that "physics no longer exists", their spiritual hearts began to shatter.

If Marquez, who is regarded as the banner and cornerstone of the avant-garde, denies that he is a magical realist writer, the avant-garde building will collapse, and the entire avant-garde literature will be completely finished... (End of this chapter)