Literary Master 1978

Cha Haisheng is a student of the Law Department of the Class of 1979. When he entered the school last year, he was only 15 years old, the youngest student in the department and even in the whole school.

He was born in the rural area of ​​Anhui Province and was born into a poor peasant family. However, he showed superior IQ and learning ability since childhood. He skipped a grade in elementary school because of his excellent grades. In 1979, he successfully entered the Law Department of Yanda University with the top score in liberal arts in his hometown of Anqing in the college entrance examination.

This news caused a sensation in AQ City that year, making Cha Haisheng a celebrity in his hometown.

On the day he received the admission notice of Yanda University, his father happily slaughtered the pig that had been raised in the family for more than half a year, and borrowed a sum of money. In addition to leaving him living expenses and travel expenses, the rest of the money was used to set up the banquet.

His younger brother went to the town to wholesale 100 popsicles, spending a full 5 yuan. All the children in the village who came to watch the fun had one each.

His younger brother also bought two kilograms of white sugar, poured it into a bucket, stirred it evenly, and let the villagers who came to the banquet drink it at will.

Nine tables were set up in the yard, with not only food, but also cigarettes and alcohol. Farmers' weddings did not have such a grand ceremony.

Getting admitted to Yanda was the most glorious experience of Cha Haisheng's life before he was sixteen years old, but this glory quickly faded after entering Yanda.

After entering Yanda, Cha Haisheng found that he was not the smartest one, nor the one with the best grades. Many of his classmates even had much better backgrounds than him.

He was not vain and did not think that a good background meant anything, but a good background did have an advantage that he could not match, that is, he was knowledgeable and experienced. The gap with his urban classmates once made him feel inferior.

Fortunately, Yanda treated all of them equally. After living and studying here for more than a year, he came into contact with many new things that he had never come into contact with before.

For the first time in his life, he ate chocolate, watched a drama, listened to a symphony, and listened to a report by a vice-level leader of the country for the first time...

Studying at Yanda not only broadened his horizons, but also stimulated his inner thirst for knowledge.

One afternoon when I was busy reviewing in high school, a classmate from a county town family took out a copy of "Yenching Literature and Art" and said that there was a novel in it about the protagonist being labeled as a Y-faction, which was very moving.

Cha Haisheng took it and read it at the time. He thought the novel was well written, but he did not have any deep feelings or resonance with the content. He only remembered the name of the novel - "The Shepherd".

He was born in the countryside, and the biggest influence he received during the buzz was nothing more than participating in some criticism meetings, as a spectator.

When he was in high school, his favorite was martial arts novels. At first, he read "Three Heroes and Five Gallants" and other ancient chivalrous novels.

Later, some classmates circulated Liang Yusheng's "The Heroes of the Children" and "Seven Swordsmen Under Tianshan" and other Hong Kong martial arts novels, and he was fascinated by them.

One day after entering Yanda, a classmate suddenly asked him, "Do you want to go see Xu Lingjun?"

"Xu Lingjun? Who is Xu Lingjun?"

"The writer who wrote "The Shepherd" and "The Little Shoes"!"

Cha Haisheng vaguely recalled that afternoon in high school when he followed his classmates to the Yanda Library, and his classmates pointed to him, "Look, that's Xu Lingjun!"

Cha Haisheng met a writer, whom he could only know through lead type before, but after reading it, he felt that writers seemed to be ordinary people.

A few days later, he returned to the dormitory after dinner and heard several classmates discussing fiercely. He listened carefully for a while and found that they were discussing a novel called "The Wreath under the Mountain".

Out of curiosity, Cha Haisheng borrowed the "People's Literature" newly bought by his classmates to read, and he didn't expect that he couldn't put it down after reading it.

The playboy Zhao Mengsheng, the loyal and enthusiastic Liang Sanxi, the fiery Jin Kailai... Every character is so vivid and full.

Cha Haisheng was a rural kid, and he particularly liked Jin Kailai, a rough man from a humble background.

When he read the second half of the story, in which Jin Kailai sacrificed his life for the country but could not be awarded for violating discipline, he angrily slammed the magazine on the table.

"How unreasonable!"

"Hey hey hey! Just read the book, why did you throw my book?"

The owner of the magazine reminded him unhappily, and Cha Haisheng realized his gaffe.

He patiently continued to read the novel, and found that the author of the novel was the writer Xu Lingjun whom he had read in the library a few days ago.

But unlike the previous reading of "The Shepherd", this time he was deeply moved by "The Wreath under the Mountain", and he also had an extra filter for the writer Xu Lingjun.

Xu Lingjun did not write many novels, one short story and three novellas. After reading the novel, he went to read Lin Chaoyang's creative talk published in "Yanjing Literature and Art" and the commentary article in "October".

At the end of March this year, classmates suddenly spread the news that Xu Lingjun had published works under another pen name. Cha Haisheng couldn't wait to go to the library to find the two works signed by "Wang Qinglai".

Cha Haisheng particularly liked the novel "Qiu Ju Goes to Court" because reading this novel made him feel close to it. He felt that Xu Lingjun really understood the countryside and rural society.

After reading all of Xu Lingjun's works, he admired this writer more and more.

In April, the novel "Lai Zi's Summer" was published in "Contemporary".

This was the first time that Cha Haisheng came into contact with the concept of stream of consciousness literature. When he first read the novel, the jumping timeline, complex psychological descriptions and various textual intentions in the novel made him dizzy.

When he read novels before, he liked those with strong storylines. He was not used to reading novels of this style out of the blue.

He read it patiently and discussed it with his classmates. Then he gradually understood the greatness of this novel. The more he read, the better he found it.

Understanding the style of stream-of-consciousness literature greatly expanded the depth of Cha Haisheng's reading. After that, his reading became more extensive and in-depth, and he also found that the charm of literature seemed to be far greater than law.

Last month, he heard that "Lai Zi's Summer" was published, so he went to a bookstore outside the school to buy the book. Because he went a little late, he almost didn't buy it. Fortunately, his classmate Tao Yumo gave him his book.

He rarely went to bookstores outside to buy books unless he liked them very much.

Because his monthly living expenses were not much, he only had a few dollars left after deducting the food money, so he had to spend it frugally.

A few days ago, "Contemporary" published Lin Chaoyang's novel "The Death of Van Gogh" again.

If Lai Zi's Summer opened up Cha Haisheng's understanding of stream-of-consciousness literature, then The Death of Van Gogh opened up his understanding of novel writing.

He never thought that someone could write a novel like this.

It took him two and a half days to finish The Death of Van Gogh, which has 220,000 words, before the final exam.

It's not that he doesn't value the final exam. On the day he bought the magazine, he just wanted to read a few pages casually, intending to put it down after knowing what the story was, and then concentrate on reviewing. Unexpectedly, he never put it down after reading it.

This novel seems to have a powerful magic that can firmly grasp the reader's eyes and mind.

While reading the novel, Cha Haisheng completely forgot the outside world. His thoughts followed the author's pen and ink to wander in 19th century Europe, immersed in the time and space journey of Aaron and Van Gogh, and couldn't extricate himself.

After reading the novel, he couldn't calm down for a long time. He had never read such a novel before.

In terms of storytelling, it is more exciting than all the martial arts novels he has read. Just the idea of ​​a soul traveling through 19th century Europe is enough to amaze people, not to mention the way the novel combines real history with suspense elements.

It perfectly integrates Van Gogh's life experience with the experience of the time traveler Aaron to create a world that is real enough.

In terms of literary quality, it is also not inferior to those famous works that he once praised.

When it comes to the abstract word of literary quality of literary works, most people always find it difficult to understand. But in fact, if you understand it simply, literary quality is all aspects that constitute the unique quality of the work.

The use of rhetorical methods, the structure of the text, the uniqueness of narrative techniques, and the exploration of profound propositions through the construction of plots and characters are all literary contents.

"The Death of Van Gogh" has a unique narrative structure. The text uses a lot of symbols and metaphors, and the characterization and psychological description are exquisite, especially the description of Van Gogh, who is between genius and madman, which is wonderful.

The text of the novel is exquisite and full of beauty, which are his unique features in literary quality.

In terms of ideology, Cha Haisheng felt that the topics discussed in this novel surpassed the contemporary literary works he had read before.

The novel begins with the rioters of the extreme environmental protection organization setting fire to the famous painting and Aaron sacrificing himself to save the painting, and the surrounding spectators are watching.

The author used 3,000 words to describe the reasons for the emergence of the extreme environmental protection organization and their logic of action. There is a sentence in the novel that impressed him. It was said by the author through the mouth of the onlookers-the earth does not need to be saved, it is us who need to be saved.

When seeing this sentence at that time, Cha Haisheng felt that he was hit all at once. It was so transparent and so insightful.

When writing about the performance of the onlookers, the novel said that everyone was crying and shouting, but no one took action. The description of just two or three hundred words showed the hypocrisy of human beings vividly.

Such a work has a level of ideology that most works cannot reach.

I finished reading the novel before the final exam. During the exam, Cha Haisheng was still a little absent-minded. All the words and pictures about the novel flashed through my mind.

Although reading "The Death of Van Gogh" affected his exams, Cha Haisheng had no regrets.

For him, it was a blessing to have the opportunity to read such a masterpiece.

After the exam, the students began to leave school, and Cha Haisheng was also packing his bags.

But before leaving, he thought of "The Death of Van Gogh" again. The aftereffect of this novel was so strong that he still thought about it even after reading it for several days.

An idea suddenly popped up in Cha Haisheng's mind, and he wanted to see Xu Lingjun again.

When he arrived at the library, because he was shy by nature, he didn't dare to approach and talk to Xu Lingjun, so he just watched from a distance.

He was young, small, with a round face, and had not yet gotten rid of his childishness. Since he entered school, the boys in the class gave him the nickname "Dongzi".

In addition, the weather was cold, so he wore more clothes and a Lei Feng hat. From a distance, he looked like a moving meat ball, which was very eye-catching.

As Cha Haisheng was looking around, he saw the person opposite him suddenly stand up and walk towards him. He stood there nervously.

"Classmate, do you want to borrow a book?" Lin Chaoyang asked the meat ball in front of him.

"I don't want to borrow a book."

Cha Haisheng was only 1.6 meters tall. Facing Lin Chaoyang, who was 1.8 meters tall, he could only look up slightly. This was the first time he observed the writer so closely.

"Are you reading books with your family?"

Family?

Cha Haisheng was stunned at first, then he understood what Lin Chaoyang meant. His young face darkened, and the excitement of seeing his idol was broken.

In this era, people's nutrition is generally not up to par, and many people enter puberty in high school.

Cha Haisheng went to college at the age of 15. He was short and developed late. In the eyes of many adults, he was no different from a junior high school student.

He was in the class of 1979. There were many older brothers and sisters in their twenties in the class. The boys called him "Dongzi" and the girls called him "Xiao Cha". Anyway, they treated him as a child.

Although everyone had no ill intentions and usually took good care of him, this made Cha Haisheng very unhappy.

We are all college students, why show off our seniority?

Therefore, he hated it most when others looked down on him because of his height and age.

Lin Chaoyang asked him if he came to read books with his family, obviously treating him as a junior high school student.