short stories are metaphors for the world
On various platforms, we often see videos of “take you through a book in three minutes” and “xx will tell you a movie”, which seem to explain the main plot of the story clearly, which is equivalent to reading a book/reading a movie. However, whether the storyline is exciting enough and how many reversals are there are the reasons why we are willing to appreciate and praise a literary work?
Shuang Xuetao wrote in the article “Beyond the Story”, “For those who write short stories, the plot is not the most important thing, but something other than the story, such as the atmosphere.” From the perspective of a novel writer, Shuang Xuetao disassembled Salinger’s short stories in this article, explaining that in addition to the plot, the atmosphere created by the protagonist’s emotions and the field where the story takes place is more important. In order to touch people’s hearts, I also use my own experience and understanding when creating “Seesaw” to explain how the charm of the novel comes from words other than the plot. He believes that a good novel should be a complete ideographic system. “Writing a novel is not a process of building a house according to blueprints. It is actually a process where you jump into the water and swim by yourself, and then you will gradually master how to swim.” .
This article is included in “The Black Sheep Among the White Sheep”. In the blink of an eye, the new year is here, and I hope that this book can be like a “gift”, passing on the enthusiasm for literature to readers, encouraging more people to read and feel, and at the same time looking forward to these sincere experience sharing, which can inspire everyone Friends with creative ideals in mind—creation is not an insurmountable mountain, as long as you start writing.
Beyond the Story (excerpt)
Written by: Shuang Xuetao
Now I want to talk about another writer – Salinger. Compared with Hemingway and Chekhov, his weight is slightly lighter, but he has always been my favorite writer. One of his short stories I like very much is “For Esme – Both Love and Dirty Misery”. The beginning of this story is that the narrator “I” received a letter from far away A girl in England wanted me to go to her wedding, and this “I” started to think about how to know this girl, and then started a main story of reminiscence.
The main story is that “I” was a World War II soldier stationed in the UK, and I went out to hang out at night when I had nothing to do. It was raining that day, “I” wore a raincoat, heard the singing of the choir from the church, and saw a girl , the singing voice was very good, and then “I” continued to move forward, and left before the song was finished. In the tea room, I met the girl who sang very well again. She took a little boy with her, and “I” chatted with them. In fact, at that time, the protagonist “I” was already showing signs of collapse due to the torture of the war.
The third part is that World War II has basically ended, and the narrator “I” has become a third person in the third part, but readers can recognize it. At that time, the spirit of this “him” has almost collapsed. Then he suddenly opened a package, which contained a gift from the little girl. The little girl sent the watch of her father who died in battle, but the cover of the watch was broken. At the end, he suddenly felt that the sleep he had lost for a long time had returned, and the novel ended here.
I really like this story, it still has a lot of things outside the story, for example, the little boy in the novel told a riddle to “I” in the second part: “What did the wall say to the other wall? “The boy shouted, “See you in the corner”. This is a very interesting detail. It is actually talking about the encounter between people, which has a very profound meaning. Not how wonderful the story is. The first time I read this story was in high school, I didn’t quite understand it, but I was hooked nonetheless. I read the story many times later and found that Salinger’s polish is so perfect, his technique is so perfect that you don’t notice his technique, just as you don’t pay attention to the warm spring breeze. Many novels are written very well, but feelings are not the first priority. This novel is full of emotions. He puts great emphasis on the relationship between people. Human life is so fragile, and people’s hearts will collapse because of war, but The relationship between people is so real and real, it can even save a person inadvertently. This is what I especially love about this story.
Movie “The King and the Movie”
When I retell this story, I feel very helpless, as if I have become very dry. I hate myself for telling a wonderful novel so boringly. Therefore, a wonderful novel must be read to discover it. We, as retellers, cannot really summarize it. This also shows from another perspective that a novel is not just a story, it is a particularly complete one. The ideographic system is not just about this matter, it has many things in it, just like when we describe an acquaintance to others, no matter how we say it, it is actually better to meet and get to know each other. For example, in the scene where the protagonist meets the siblings in the tea room, Emily sits over and the two have a conversation. This part has clever use of direct and indirect speech:
She said, “Are you married?”
I said I was married.
She nodded and said, “Are you deeply in love with your wife? Am I caring too much about other people’s personal problems?”
I will say it when I say she is too much.
This method has many effects, the most notable one is to place Emily in real life, while “I” is alienated from life. In fact, such a small technique is not easy to arouse readers’ attention during the novel. Note that it has an effect on the reader’s subconscious mind.
The other part is the letter near the end, when the person has changed and “I” has become “X”:
And again. I take the liberty of enclosing my watch herewith, to keep it until the war is over. . . . I am now teaching Charles to read and write, and I have found him to be a very clever beginner, and he will write a few letters. …
Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello
Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello
Hello
Love you and kiss you Charles.
The beauty of this letter lies in the part of Charles. Sending the watch to the protagonist is the main message and plot of this letter, but the real splendor is these “hellos” from Charles. This is the ability of an excellent writer. It seems that Emily is the absolute core of the two siblings, and has a substantial communication with the protagonist. In fact, under the cover of the older sister, every appearance of the younger brother is right. The protagonist has a greater effect. The reason may be that although Emily is young, she is still trying to communicate under the rules of the adult world and trying to play an adult. Charles loves and misses people in a very primitive way. Without any pretense. The letter could have been established without Charles’ “hello” in it, and the story is very complete, but it is these “hello”s that generate the story beyond the story, and even the decisive force to save “X”.
As a novelist, you have to immerse yourself in the world of the novel, and your heart should be in the novel, capturing its atmosphere. The best state is a state of ecstasy, but it is not easy to achieve it often, and rationality can sometimes help. I mentioned the short story “Seesaw” before. It starts with an atmosphere. You just think about what stories will happen in the atmosphere of an abandoned factory. For example, it is impossible for a happy love to happen. I will think of The patient thinks of the dying old man, or the fruitless relationship, so finally in this novel, I wrote a story about a young worker and the dying old man. Young workers go to hear a dying factory director tell a secret—he killed a man in the past. I have already mentioned this before, so I won’t repeat it here.
Movie “Famous Carmen”
It starts with an atmosphere, and then gradually discovers the personality of each character and the plot of the story during the writing process, and this atmosphere is provided by this unique field. The first scene of this novel is a hospital.
At the beginning, I didn’t know these characters in the novel, but the image of the factory manager in the story gradually became clear during the writing process. Although he was lying on the hospital bed, he would raise his hand and say, I want to talk. As long as the atmosphere in front of you is correct, the story will move on its own, and the characters themselves will say “I want to talk like this”. When you have this feeling, the feeling you write is relatively correct. When the writing is not going well, when you are very hesitant, for example, the character has stopped speaking, and you start to let you decide him, let you manipulate him in which direction to go, this is a harbinger of artificiality. A good state is that once you write, the character will stand up by himself little by little and ask you for what he needs.
That is to say, your thinking should become that the character state suitable for this novel already exists, hidden in the organization of the novel, and you should discover him.
At the end of “Seesaw”, I described “I” entering the factory. At this time, the whole novel requires you to write about the factory, and the description of the factory’s environment can well echo the atmosphere you want to express. How do you write this atmosphere well? Sometimes an action, a word, or an accurate adjective can do this, such as questioning eyes, adoring eyes, keeping distance eyes, affectionate eyes, and warm eyes. Adjectives will create a certain atmosphere. For example, today he looked at me with some questioning eyes, and the atmosphere will be a little weird or a little tense. The words you choose are related to all your intentions. Relationship.
For another example, an accurate metaphor can also do the same thing. If you compare something to an urn, will there be an atmosphere immediately? It’s different from comparing you to a safe.
The atmosphere is the whole system, so a good writer is more unified, he knows how to grasp this thing, he will not say it suspiciously in the front, but warm in the back, then the whole atmosphere will be chaotic, which is not very good . Therefore, it is difficult to generalize what kind of thing it is, but it is enough to know it roughly, and it does not need to be so precise.
The choice of words, the description of the environment, the change of imagery, and the use of rhetoric can all be used as things to set off the atmosphere. There are no fixed rules, and it does not mean that what must be used can have a certain atmosphere. You need to understand what the atmosphere of a novel is. You don’t need to know how to use an urn to create a dark atmosphere. This thing is too mechanical. The most important thing in a novel is that you have to travel in your own spiritual world. It is a handy thing. After reading two novels by Wang Zengqi, you will know what unity is, and why his novels are so comfortable to read. In fact, nothing particularly thrilling and tortuous happened in them. His novels and essays are very well written, and there is something very cohesive here. However, it is said that his short stories are conceived repeatedly in his heart and written after he thinks very well, which can basically be called transcription. This is not the same as my method. When the narrator “I” in “Seesaw” I wrote entered the factory at the end, it suddenly occurred to me that “Gan Peiyuan” should be here and should guard the door here. This is not the original idea, but “I” woke up at two o’clock in the night , and then speeding through the city at midnight, and then came to the gate of a huge factory like a skeleton, what I thought of was a plot that suddenly grew out of the previous atmosphere: he is not dead, his eyes Still so prominent, he’s been holding the door for years. When I thought of this thing, I walked around the dormitory, and I had a feeling in my spine. This feeling told me that such an ending is possible, and the whole process of the novel is for this ending.
In my mind, writing a novel is not a process of building a house according to blueprints. It is actually a process where you jump into the water and swim by yourself, and then you will gradually master how to swim. Of course, you may swim wrongly and sink to the bottom. It is possible to swim to other people’s swimming pool, but the swimming pool of other people’s house may be bigger, and the girl you have always admired may also swim there. This is the harvest of your enjoyment of writing.
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