The process of my transition from youth to middle age is also the process of Chinese mainland literature from prosperity to "decline". Thirty years ago, when I was a student, in the 1980s, known as the thawing era, literature flourished: the circulation of each literary magazine could easily exceed 10,000. Hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies of "Big Brothers" are more than the list on today's wealth list; people scramble to read a novel is a landscape that can be seen everywhere in families, dormitories, parks and so on. When an unknown author publishes a novel in an authoritative publication, he can not only become famous overnight like today's draft champion, but also change his fate one after another, such as being promoted, promoted, reused, and so on. "literature-loving" in marriage advertisements has almost become the standard match for men and women, which seems to be more justified and glorious than "having a house and a car" now declared. However, all this has changed dramatically with the advent of the industrial age and the electronic age, when electronic products such as televisions, mobile phones and computers are becoming more and more popular, and when fashionable behaviors such as online chatting, online games, blogging and singing carve up people's aesthetic tastes, literature is quickly squeezed out of its original central position, like a "celebrity" with a stiff body and a hoarse voice. Unwilling, he could not help but retreat to the edge of the stage, and let the newcomers sing and arrange troops on the stage to act in the drama of "Wulitou" in this changing era. As a result, the circulation of literary publications is like the age of an unmarried girl who is ashamed to speak up; if you want to swear and do not want to bring dirty words, call him a poet immediately; the writer is no longer the main seat on the dinner table in front of the camera. Often become the foil of the boss, movie star, host; not only can literature not make people rich and famous overnight, and many former "writers" have become "refugees" with poverty and illness.
In the face of this collapse and abandonment of being out of favor, those who had been nourished and spoiled by literature once felt some kind of suffocation, constantly sending out signals for help, and even wailing that literature was about to die. in order to be as lucky as when the prince is suddenly rescued when the prince is in trouble in traditional opera. However, over the years, the voice of this call for "hospice care" has diminished or even completely disappeared-are they completely desperate about the spiritual territory of popularization and secularization, or are they suffering from literary autism and depression after despair? Is it numb in the helpless reality, or become more calm instead of worrying about the edge again? But they are slightly comforted by the fact that literature, though still on the edge, does not ring the death knell, let alone be cold-it still lives tenaciously in a way that pleases itself.
In fact, since its birth, literature has signed a contract with human beings to "not live on the same day in the same year, but die on the same day in the same year"-- like religion, science and philosophy, it is a basic way for human beings to grasp the world. this is doomed by the supremacy and infinity of human thinking, it shares joys and sorrows with human beings, and points to infinity with human eternity. As Mr. Han Shaogong said: "as long as human beings exist, as long as human beings still need spiritual stars and horizons, literature will certainly have a wide range of achievements and great achievements-- because everyone will not be satisfied with animal eating and drinking. Even villains and bastards often have a soft corner in their hearts and can't help looking for something outside of money." However, the edge is the inherent position of literature, as Mr. Li Jingze said, there has never been an era of "a safe journey, wind and rain" in history, which in itself is the "common sense" of literature. and all kinds of dazzling halos and preferential treatment for a period of time are just fresh clothes and angry horses mistakenly given to it in an enlightened era. They are just random promoters who have been seduced, raped and "listed on the backdoor". Throughout the long life of thousands of years of continuous literature, it is mostly low-key, introverted and isolated. It is more accustomed to living in a corner, looking out the window, watching the troubles of the world, chewing on the warm details of emotion, indulging in the poetic reversal of life, and allocating the coordinate direction of the soul. It is like a fish in water and I forget things in the lives of many literati such as Tao Yuanming and William Faulkner-it may not refuse the rumble of horses and carriages and the noise of the market, but it must know when to let the "heart far away" and "deviate"; it does not avoid the noise and commotion of secular life, but it must know to close the window in time when the heart needs a pillow. It is obsessed with building its own quiet border city, obsessed with carving its own god of tiny things, alone with a long pole, to trace back to the greener grass …...
So, do today's passers-by in the torrent and whirlpool of life still need literature? Do modern people with vast amounts of information about all kinds of electronic products still need literature? I can't think of a "necessary" reason, but I can say a hundred "should" reasons. When you are exhausted by the hustle and bustle of busyness, when you are exhausted by lights and booze, and when you suffer from "existential" anxiety that you cannot bear in your life, you might as well sometimes put your life on the "edge". Slow down the pace of too much haste, avoid over-enthusiastic calls and quotes, a few times less subwoofer, mahjong, foot lotion, gossip and stock market, come to the green lights and idle windows to read at night. After a few transfusions and spiritual light, you will soon get the poetic side of life-a poetic dwelling life that even the philosopher Heidegger yearns for, how unique and different it is.
Author: pan Shaodong
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