【Explore the charm and tension of details】
Author: Zhang Xuexin (Professor of Liberal Arts College of Liaoning Normal University)
Where is an outstanding literary work that can truly reflect its unique value? What elements can determine the success or failure and fate of a novel? What exactly are the coordinates or artistic scales to measure the value of writers and works? What is the most touching thing in literary narrative? What is the secret of literary classics reaching eternity across time and space?
Over the years, these old topics have often been ignored by us. Whenever we are faced with literary works, generally speaking, we attach importance to theoretically grasping and summarizing the author’s creative theme, and spare no effort to dig out the metaphysical essential value of the work without hesitating to “sacrifice” the original ecological appearance of the metaphysical. This makes people wonder whether we should also pay attention to the generation process of the allegorical content of the work, and where does the charm of the narrative shine? In a sense, these should be an important path to approach the works and the writer himself. We should neither underestimate the writer’s writing posture and narrative strategy, nor ignore the narrative rhetoric of the work, that is, “the power of details or details”.
Vivid details of life are implied in the strong “fireworks”. The details of Shen Congwen’s “Border Town” are full of fireworks in western Hunan. The picture shows the illustration “Border Town”.Painted by Liao Zhenghua
Good detailed description contains a strong breath of life
Regarding the two concepts of “details” and “details”, it is worth spending some effort to discern the subtle relationship or similarities and differences between the two. In my opinion, the details and their design focus more on describing and highlighting the narrative intention. Writers will consider the connection between it and the overall structure of the text, the progress of the story, etc., and there will be more infiltration of the narrative subject. The details and their descriptions are closer to the “flow of life”, pursuing the natural situation, or the details are closer to the mantle of “naturalism”. When the narrative tries to connect people and the environment and avoids making the plot boring, the fictional attributes of the details can be revealed, so that aesthetic factors make fiction and non-fiction achieve a certain balance. To a certain extent, the details are the filtering and strong “calcification” of the details. The agility, willfulness and nature of the details often provide fresh and abundant nourishment for the refinement of the details. Even, the two are a relationship of flesh and blood, blood thicker than water. More often, the details are “pure natural” details.
Sometimes, a few words in a work may constitute a wonderful detail. In Yu Hua’s novel “To Live”, when Fugui came from the grave of his son Youqing to the entrance of the village, he couldn’t hide his sadness. Yu Hua only wrote one sentence here: “I looked at the winding road leading to the city, but I couldn’t hear the sound of my son running barefoot. The moonlight shone on the road, as if sprinkled with salt.” Here , just one word “salt” is enough to constitute a metaphor, and the pain and tearing caused by the inner wound being smeared with salt are completely written. Not heartbroken, but desolate. Such detail and deep drawing are amazing. Therefore, details are the texture of life. Good detailed description contains a strong breath of life, and has insight into the vicissitudes of time and the subtleties of human feelings. Through details and details, the hidden relationship between the delicate emotions of the characters and the objects and the background is looming.
Details are not only a narrative rhetoric, but also the sublimation of the writer’s personal experience, and the extension and externalization of the writer’s emotions in the text. The power of detailed rhetoric may come from the expression or action of a character in a novel, from a scene with a special atmosphere, from a trivial matter in life, or from a rich daily and philosophical discourse. Perhaps it is an inadvertent narrative similar to “idle pen”. Whether it is a detail or a detail, it must be the essence of literary narrative, the real element or origin that touches the soul.
Details are essential and meaningful
For a good narrative, the essence must be in the details. If you think about it carefully, any outstanding work is a natural combination of countless wonderful details. Of course, the details and details have been carefully polished and designed. The power generated by the details covers the characters, plots and stories themselves, and the life experience, life experience and artistic content it provides demonstrate the aesthetic ideal and writing of an outstanding writer. Aspirations can also reflect a writer’s philosophical cultivation and life attitude. Ordinary, plain, plain, simple, sincere, and warm, can be the foundation and background of a work that shines brightly. From the perspective of basic, ordinary, and meticulous life, the words that enter the real life are more convincing, and the narratives that do not make mysteries and create suspense are more chewable. This kind of literature will have endless artistic power.
In fact, this is not only a question of art and technology, but also a question of the writer’s values, outlook on life, and aesthetics. The obsession and emphasis on details at least shows that this writer has returned to specific things, the essence of things, and the origin of life, and has not overridden the basic “flow of life” like flying through the sky. To a certain extent, details are also an indispensable and meaningful element for writers to focus on life and people’s hearts. Although in literary narrative, details are often ignored by some writers and replaced by “psychological flow” and “consciousness flow”, these are also inseparable from the psychological scene when human nature and human feelings are externalized. As long as there are situations and situations, the presence of details cannot be separated.
Everyone is living, and in the journey of every traveler, what is left in the end is a distinctive mark engraved with his own unique perception. Whoever can discover a subtle voice full of personality, who can feel the inner texture of a common heart, whoever can show a mastery of mastery and ease. This is a kind of gaze that can remove impurities, and this kind of gaze may open up a new world; it is also a kind of great sound, which can convey the atmosphere and breath of details; it is also a kind of invisible caress of an elephant, This kind of touching can perceive the vast world, all things and all living beings on one thing. If so, the writer’s writing will not be suspected of being small and trivial. The world is made up of countless trivial things. The writer’s alchemy talent, mind and conscience are connected with countless small things in real life to form a huge tension field.
It can be said that, in a sense, works full of vivid details are closely related to the writer’s feelings and love for life, and those unforgettable details are always rooted in the writer’s own experience of life. They are able to grasp things that ordinary people ignore in the trivial and common fog of life, so that the works have great aesthetic tension and artistic gravity. Writers who pay attention to and admire details and details always use extremely restrained words, sentence patterns and intonations to record fragments of life delicately and densely, and bury “vacancies” and “blanks” between the lines, delaying and expressing rich connotations. Open space for text. These all give readers greater possibilities for textual interpretation.
The details are often the wonderful moments when the writer refines life experience and perceives the world
Discovering the details of life and writing wonderful details requires a writer’s normal heart and simple aesthetic feelings. To discover or refine the light of details, the ordinary mind is a great realm. It is a kind of non-deliberate narrative state of mind or writing state of mind, which cultivates the calmness, openness and piety after reading the vicissitudes of life in the world. It can be believed that any good detailed writing and narrative starts from such a narrative mentality. In fact, this is also a philosophical question that tests every writer and artist. Whether it is a narrative text or a film and television creation, this is the case. Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu has always adhered to the concept of letting life present itself in film creation. He is willing to fix the camera at the same height as a person, let the lens be in the front position of a listener, zoom in, zoom in, and Get down to the details of the scene. Moreover, he will not use any impolite angles to shoot his characters, and always choose to look up or look up instead of looking down. Therefore, Yasujiro Ozu’s works exude the fragrance of daily life, full respect for people, equality, solemnity and broadness, and poetry and sadness in the simplicity and delicacy. It’s also a smart choice for getting close to the details. Only by facing the object of expression equally and focusing on details can the rhetoric highlight the meticulous investigation and tolerance of life.
Looking at it now, the real appeal of modernity in the novel is more realized through narrative discovery or presentation of the logic of life, and the use of realistic methods to return to the deep description of life itself as much as possible. Jia Pingwa’s novel “Qin Opera” adopts a narrative strategy that is concise, full of solid texture, and presents experience, and accumulates it into a torrent of details. With a length of nearly 500,000 words, it contains details of life flowing like water, expressing the migration and vicissitudes of a village’s emotions, customs, culture, and people’s hearts. Such a full-length novel, which does not divide into chapters, has many characters, countless trivial matters of daily life, and several small and large details and details. If you analyze “Qin Opera” from the perspective of narrative point of view, narrative structure, and narrative language, that is, the style, the narrative of the novel has almost no climax and ending, neither main characters nor narrative main line, and there is no need to rely on the plot to promote the narrative, but it seems orderly and undisturbed. One, everything is the natural flow of life. This is due to the fact that the writer starts from the life itself, truly achieves the external clumsiness and internal beauty, sees the details and knows the work, “moisturizes things in detail and silently”.
It can be seen that the details are not the brilliance of the writer’s narrative, but often the wonderful moment when the writer refines life experience and perceives the world. It may create an emotional whirlwind or a spiritual storm in the work, or it may give the characters or stories a leisurely and peaceful time.
Recently, our social life has focused on advocating “fireworks in the world“. In essence, this is a full respect for the real world and human nature, and it is also an expression of emphasizing the value of human existence. It can be said that in the thick smoke and fire, there are bound to be vivid details of life waiting for the writer to discover. Therefore, how to achieve sublimation and transcend reality itself in narrative works has become the key to further strengthening the many dimensions of literariness. The thickness, strength and depth of literary narratives are also derived from this, showing the true nature of reality and the true nature of life.
(This article is a phased achievement of the major project of the National Social Science Fund “Research on the relationship between Chinese contemporary writers’ writing and socialist literature production”[Project Approval No. 22&ZD273])
“Guangming Daily” (page 14, June 28, 2023)
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责编：邱晓琴 ]