After 30 years of development since the reform and opening up, today's literature no longer has too many constraints, and generally shows an open and diversified development trend, showing unprecedented vitality and vitality. Compared with the literature of the past, today's literature seems to lack nothing, neither lack of reference in creative methods, nor lack of innovative awareness and innovative exploration, especially talent and talent. However, in today's open and diversified innovative development of literature, and in the prosperous literary market where everything seems to be lacking, people always feel that something is missing. So what exactly is it missing? In my opinion, quite a lot of today's literary writing does not lack external aesthetic characteristics, but lacks the spiritual essence that literature should have, and this is precisely what is indispensable for true literature. "Essence, energy, spirit" things. The first is the ideological content. According to the usual view, literature is mainly a kind of thing that describes life and expresses emotions in the form of perceptual images, and uses emotions and beauty to please people. However, this does not mean that there can be no thoughts in this aesthetic form. Thought should be the indispensable calcium in literature. For example, although literature can focus on expressing emotions, any emotion is related to the value of life, that is, any emotion all contains or is related to the understanding and realization of the meaning and value of life, that is, all emotions contain certain ideological connotations. In response to the view that literature and art only express emotions, the famous Russian Marxist esthetician Plekhanov once emphasized: "No, art expresses both people's emotions and people's thoughts, but it does not express it abstractly, but expresses it in an abstract way. It is expressed with vivid images. This is the main characteristic of art." He further elaborated that art should not only express ideas, but also correct ideas. "A talented artist must be inspired by wrong ideas. , then he will definitely damage his own work." "In any case, it can be safely said that any person with some artistic talent will be greatly enhanced as long as he possesses the great liberating ideas of our time. It is only necessary that these ideas become his blood, so that he can Express these thoughts like an artist." These thoughts are thought-provoking. If we look at it from another angle, from the perspective of literature reflecting life, it should also be said that no matter what kind of life literature describes, it cannot fail to understand and judge life, and it cannot fail to express the author's understanding and thinking of this life phenomenon. The famous Russian writer Chernyshevsky believes that the basic function of literature is to represent life, explain life, and judge life; he further emphasized that literature, by its nature, cannot but embody the aspirations of the times and cannot be The expresser of the thoughts of the times. Only those literary tendencies that are under the influence of powerful and vigorous ideas and can meet the urgent requirements of the times can develop brilliantly. Judging from the history of the development of Chinese and foreign literature, almost all of the great writers who shine in the annals of history were thinkers of their times; those booming literary tendencies all reflected the ideological trends of that era. Can't we get some inspiration from them? The second is aesthetic ideal. As an aesthetic creation that entrusts human spiritual values, one of the most important qualities of literature is the expression of aesthetic ideals. Literature not only makes people understand reality, but also guides people to pursue beautiful ideals, leads people to seek truth, be kind, and love beauty, and constantly enriches people's spiritual world to a new realm. As the former Soviet writer Shukshen said: "In my opinion, the purpose of art is to help people understand life and themselves, making people more humane, nobler, and better. Real art will always lead people to the realm of perfection. , is always true and in tune with the times." Nobel Prize winner and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk expressed the same thing through the mouths of the characters in his famous novel "My Name is Red". Insight: “The real importance of a painting is that through its beauty, it allows people to understand the richness and benevolence of life, to respect the colorful world created by Allah, and to understand the inner world and faith.

In other words, for true artistic creation, there is actually something more important than just pursuing innovation, and that is the expression of aesthetic ideals, which can give people the spiritual power to be good and beautiful through the appeal of art. And all of this still depends on whether the author has firm literary beliefs and lofty aesthetic ideals, and whether he has profound ideological penetration and unique aesthetic judgment on social history and human nature. If there is no such subjective spirit, The significance and value of so-called "innovative writing" is questionable. The third is "popular writing". Some authors today claim that they write for the public, and it does not matter whether their works win awards or receive praise, as long as readers like them. This statement is worth analyzing. According to the author's understanding, "popular writing" is originally relative to "elite writing". In the past, "elite writing" was when writers regarded themselves as cultural elites, despised the masses of the people, and disdained to describe the lives of ordinary people and express the people's feelings. Emotions, and only expressing the writer's self-interest, even in front of the public, is a condescending and educational attitude. This kind of writing attitude is no longer acceptable to people today. It is an inevitable trend for literature to become popular today, and it is certainly reasonable for literature to fully respect and satisfy the spiritual and cultural needs of the public. But the problem is that some people often equate the "popularization" of literature with "marketization". As long as the work sells well in the market, it means that readers like it, and it proves that it is serving the public. According to this logic, literature should be written about whatever sells well on the market, so "popular writing" has quietly turned into "market-oriented writing." Once literary writing operates according to the laws of "marketization", the results can be imagined. The so-called "for the public" means trying to cater to vulgar tastes, the so-called "innovation" means finding "selling points", and the so-called "readability" means novelty and weirdness. Desire instinctive sensory stimulation. When this pursuit becomes a trend, "popular writing" will evolve into a vulgar competition: you are vulgar and I am more vulgar than you, you are indulgent and I am more indulgent than you, you stimulate me more than you, what kind of literature expresses thoughts and aesthetics Ideals, moral attitudes in literary writing, etc. can all be ignored. This kind of literature will only amplify the weaknesses of human nature, lead it to decline, and cause harm to the public. This is the fundamental distortion of "popular writing". In fact, the popularization of literature and art must not only meet the aesthetic needs of the public, but also lead and improve the public’s spiritual values. Any society should always advocate human nature to be good and beautiful, but human nature is not naturally upward. The instinct of human nature to pursue desires and indulge is like water flowing downwards. Therefore, education is needed to "educate" people and culture "culture" to constantly lead human nature to the direction of beauty. Goodness and beauty. No matter what era it is in, and no matter what kind of writing banner it is under, literary writing cannot give up this aesthetic ideal, nor can it be without this basic moral attitude. Marx has a famous saying: "Any true philosophy is the essence of the spirit of its own time." If this sentence is used, it may be said: Any true literature is the expression of the spirit of its own time. As writers and artists, we should not only know what we like and need, but also what our era, nation and people need most; we should not only understand what we already have, but also need to reflect on what we still lack, so that we can It is possible for our literary writing to truly make a difference and truly be worthy of the times. ?