2003 was a year when Bi Feiyu enjoyed the fruits. Selected Novels, Fiction Monthly and Shanghai Literature won all the annual works awards, followed by the first Chinese Fiction Society Award, and selected the titles of ten most popular novelists in China. At the end of the year, the 9th Zhuang Chongwen Literature Prize was awarded in Beijing, and the first prize was Bi Feiyu.

2004 is a very attractive year for Bi Feiyu. At the beginning of the year, four volumes of Bi Feiyu's collected works were published. Then, the novel Wang Guzhuang on Earth was recommended by Wang Shuo and put on the screen by Ye Daying. Su Tong's novels Tattoo Age and Thief were written by Bi Feiyu, and they were heated by the media. 165438+ 10 In June, Bi Feiyu was elected as the vice chairman of Jiangsu Writers Association.

In fact, the previous Bi Feiyu was very attractive and enjoyed the results every year. Who speaks in the middle of the night won the People's Literature Award, Breast-feeding Woman won the Lu Xun Literature Award, and Tsing Yi won the novel selection award ... Shake, shake, shake to the Waipoqiao, a film tailored for Zhang Yimou, became famous in one fell swoop, and Tsing Yi, which was adapted into a TV series of the same name, continued to become popular. ...

With these, Bi Feiyu has long been among the first-line writers in China.

The Feng Mu Prize for Literature gave Bi Feiyu such an award-winning comment: Bi Feiyu's novels elegantly and sharply analyzed the complex life situation full of dreams and pains, echoed and expressed the contradiction and anxiety between social life and inner life, and made poetic affirmation of people's passion and courage. His literary exploration has gradually formed a distinctive style: pithy, accurate and satirical language, rich details, vivid and charming characters, and the discovery and imagination of the inner drama of life, so his writing has returned to the basic aesthetic ideal of novel art. As a young novelist with balanced ability, he may move towards a grand and vigorous artistic realm, but this requires him to feel and grasp life more broadly and boldly.

Recently, some critics have defined Bi Feiyu's realism as: Bi Feiyu has developed realism, or realism has undergone some or some variations here.

On June 5438+February 2004 1 1, Bi Feiyu returned to his hometown and came to Taizhou. At a seminar on the works of a young writer in his hometown, Bi Feiyu said that a good novel can certainly stimulate the creativity between the author and the reader and establish a distant and reliable interpersonal relationship through his works. This is not only the standard of the novel, but also the meaning of the novel.

Local environment

Q: There are many famous people in Xinghua history, such as Shi Naian and Zheng Banqiao. Now there are many famous writers and critics in China, such as Bi Feiyu, Zhu Hui and Fei. So there are so many people in such a small area. what do you think?

Bi: I don't know. I don't know about that. It's just that there are more writers in one place. If you want to find out the reason, you can only go to those who study folk customs and local culture. I don't know why.

Q: Isn't there a saying that "one side of the soil and water will nourish one side"?

Bi: I think it's nothing special. For example, there is a place where people especially like doing business, a place where people especially like sports, a place where people especially like singing, and a place where people play the piano. There are many such places. Why can't Xinghua produce a few writers? I think it is a natural thing.

Q: How long have you lived in Xinghua?

Bi: My life in Xinghua is from 1964 to 1983, 19.

Q: So what does Xinghua mean to you? I remember Zhu Hui once said that something in this place has been integrated into his blood. Do you feel this way?

Bi: Generally speaking, if you say you don't love your hometown, it's nothing at all, but then again, you can't lie. That is to say, you seem to cry and think about your hometown every day, but it's really not the case for me. In fact, the thought of hometown is very rare. There is a very important reason for this. I once asked myself, have you ever lived there?

Q: How do you understand this?

Bi: I don't know about you. In fact, a person living in a place is relatively insensitive to this land. He doesn't know what this place will give him, and he doesn't know how day after day passes and what excitement it will give him. Ever since I was a sensible child, I have been longing for an external world. From the day I was sensible to the day I went to college, my heart never thought that I would defend this land to the death. I must tell the truth about this. My greatest wish is to leave here one day, which is very consistent with the mentality of a young man and logical. I think there are many Xinghua people, many Taizhou people and many China people today. When he lived in his native land, it was not because of love, but because of fate that he had to live there.

Q: This is necessary.

Bi: This is inevitable. But one thing, no matter whether you are eager to go out or not, no matter whether you really go out in the end, this land and water have left many passwords in your heart. When you grow up, I can say that every memory of you often begins here, and this is your hometown. So you have to ask me what my hometown means to me. What I want to tell you is that my memories began in my hometown. I can only start there, because I grew up there. Although I left it, this is the meaning. This meaning is a stone, this stone is a cornerstone, this cornerstone is a foundation, and this foundation supports me.

Q: This is an infinite and real meaning.

Bi: I really can't tell you how much I love my hometown, but if one day you tell me that my hometown is gone and I will never see it again in my life, then I may not accept it. It may be such a relationship. In my daily life, I can forget it every day, no problem, because I know it is there.

A kind of control

Q: In your early years, you appeared as a pioneer in the literary world. Later, you paid more and more attention to the daily situation of ordinary people, from a narrator who was not interested in stories to a storyteller who was good at telling stories. How do you evaluate this change yourself?

Bi: Actually, this change is not mysterious at all. You can think of it as a change in aesthetic taste, but we can look at this problem from another angle. We can also look at this question more simply, that is, age, because you have grown up. What you care about when you are 40 years old and how much it affects your heart must be different from what you care about when you are 20 years old and how much it affects your heart. In my twenties, when I was young, I had my own characteristics, such as passion and dependence on imagination. I especially wanted to exhaust your view of the world with one or two works. But when you grow up, you will find that you are not so greedy, and you will find it impossible to exhaust your world with one or two works. The key is that a writer's relationship with the world and his living conditions have become intimate.

Q: Reflected in the text, it will definitely be different.

Bi: Yes, for example, in his early works, he may unconsciously let go and then pay more attention to the ecological relationship between a person and his living environment. In other words, if a person pays special attention to the relationship between him and his life, his eyes are realistic first. If this vision is realistic, his works will inevitably have a realistic tendency. In other words, when people reach middle age or old age, they are particularly eager to pursue an inner judgment of the world. When he was young, he was either infinitely exaggerated or infinitely reduced. Now this proportional relationship is relatively harmonious, which means that he found a relationship similar to 1: 1. His heart is steadfast, and he knows what life is like. His works must be between life and heart, at 1: 1.

Q: You just mentioned the issue of age, so can you think that growing up with age is also the process of your creation maturing?

Bi: I'd like to say so, but is it mature in fact? Maybe I am mature today, maybe I will be mature tomorrow, maybe I will never be mature in this life, but I don't think this is the point for me. The key is that I confirm bit by bit that the life I see is consistent with the life I have experienced. I don't want to see a big gap between the two, and I don't want to use the passion of young people, the exaggeration and imagination of young people to open this gap, just like when I was young. Relatively speaking, when I match it, I will be more calm when I find this match.

Q: When watching Tsing Yi, I feel that you always keep a straight face when expressing the ups and downs of the characters, especially in Corn, the contrast is even stronger, which can be said to be an extreme.

Bi: Right. Let me put aside this silent judgment for a moment, and let me first say a literary proposition, that is, the expression and feeling of feelings are two different things, and the expression and passion of passion are another thing, and they are not the same. Passion is the secret of your heart. How your heart surges is your own business, but the mission of an artist does not mean that you tell others that your heart is moved. No, the artist's job is to convey your feelings to others effectively and from the heart. If you tremble, you let others tremble with you. This is art.. So, how can you tell others your feelings and your trembling? This requires you to carefully control your emotions and your memory, and you can do it through some technical means, that is, the so-called artistic method. For example, when you are playing the piano, your heart is surging and you forget ten fingers. You raise your hand and become two fists. You hit the keys hard and made some noise. The performance was a failure. What you have to do is to play every sound accurately and vividly, and then make music and music harmoniously.

Q: As a reader, he will be particularly moved and even burst into tears. What was your state as a writer? Will you be moved?

Bi: Yes, this example is also everywhere. Shinohara Qiu Yan of Tsing Yi went back to her room and jumped after a drug abortion. Peng Guoliang, a corn pilot, put corn behind the stove, and the warm fire reflected the corn. When two youthful bodies had the simplest and deepest contact, I was actually there. Why did I only say one sentence? I don't need to express it with the word moved, but with trembling. In fact, at that time, I was shaking all over and couldn't write.

Q: What should we do?

Bi: I don't think any readers want to see Bi Feiyu tell them that I am shivering. Then I stop, shrink a few times, shake myself clean, relax, and then write. "Corn" contains some fragments that touch my heart very much. When I was typing, my wife came to pour me water. When she saw that my face was wrong, she told me, Oh, you cry well, and then write after you cry. But I won't cry. I seldom cry. At that time, I will put my work down first. I know what I want to express in my heart. I'm not in a hurry to say. Instead, I will light a cigarette, have a cup of tea and sort out what I want to express.

Writing, for example, is like two people quarreling. When quarreling, I was blocked by the other party's words, and then I was very angry, but I just didn't know what to say. Go home and lie in bed at night, alas, I should have said something to him. Why don't I remember? The same is true of artistic creation.

Q: In other words, when artistic creation is highly excited, the best way is to find the best expression.

Bi: Right. In addition, in real life, if you quarrel with someone, you will regret why you didn't say these words at the first scene, but writing is different. You have enough time. You just have time to write. This time can be two hours apart, or even a year. Nobody knows. When you write, people think you will write it down in two minutes, so I don't think writing should be urgent.

Q: This afternoon, when you attended a seminar on the works of young writers, you also talked about these issues.

Bi: Yes. In fact, there are differences between middle-aged writing, old writing and young writing. Although there is not much difference in essence, as far as literature itself is concerned, people are different after all When people reach a certain age, their speech speed is different and their tone is different. Presented in the work is naturally different. To sum up, you have to control yourself. As far as my experience is concerned, it is what I want to say in my heart. I can accumulate words sentence by sentence, and then put my meaning into those works properly.

Q: This is the ability to control words.

Bi: Yes, that's right, it is to control. Never think that artists are crazy, because artists, poets and painters are crazy. They don't know how to express themselves. That's an artist, isn't it! At least for a novelist, he should be able to express himself. In the final analysis, he just needs to master it.

An ecology

Q: It is said that in order to create Tsing Yi, you went to the provincial Peking Opera Troupe to experience life.

Bi: Yes, I also went to Jiangsu Peking Opera Troupe for two hours. I just feel it. I saw the tone of those people, the way they walked, the hand shape when they spoke, and the similarities and differences between them and others. The most important thing is to find some gaps and feel it. In fact, I dare not experience this kind of life too deeply, and I dare not make every part of it too familiar with the people in the troupe, because it is difficult for me to grasp the difference between them and ordinary people in my daily life. This difference is very strong, but it is better.

Q: Judging from various reactions, corn is considered to be a masterpiece with more skills than Tsing Yi. what do you think?

Bi: Personally, I certainly prefer corn. I say this, it doesn't affect my love for Tsing Yi at all. I prefer corn. There is a very important reason for this, that is, Tsing Yi does not belong to my life, but corn belongs to my life. The biggest difference is here, but it doesn't mean which one is well written and which one is not well written. Corn is a person closely related to me. Her pain is closely related to mine, and I can feel it. Shinohara Qiu Yan is a man completely created by my art.

Q: Some critics say that you are "the best male writer to write about women's psychology". How does a man do it?

Bi: Women are people first.

Q: But there is a big difference between men and women.

Bi: Yes, you are willing to exaggerate this difference, but I prefer to agree with their similarities. For example, if you give me a fist, I will feel pain and shame; I'll punch you. You are a woman. I think your pain and humiliation are the same as mine. The important thing is to grasp the things of human nature and then put them on women, so that I don't want to float too far. On the other hand, if people's gender characteristics are overemphasized, they may be far away from people. For me, what matters is not gender, but people, and that's the key.

Q: What matters in novels is not men or women, but relationships. Just according to your needs, in recent works, women are the leading role and men are in the supporting role.

Bi: When I plan to write a novel, I want to remind myself that this is a complete ecology. Without the image of Joe and Miangua in Tsing Yi, Xiao Yu's feelings could not be written. Similarly, there is no relationship between Corn and her father Wang, nor between Corn and the pilot. Corn does not exist, and people are made up of relationships. They are presented through internal and dynamic communication. Of course, as far as the specific novel Corn is concerned, Corn is the protagonist, and she can't give way to other supporting roles, but they are mutual. They are an ecology and a biological chain, and neither of them is complete for corn.

Q: When "Selected Novels" selected "Corn", I also sent you a creative talk at that time.

Bi: Yes, the title is Ghost on Us.

Q: According to what you said at that time, this so-called "ghost" refers to "person to person"?

Bi: Right, right. What I said is actually very simple. It is a concept in literature after the May 4th Movement, and it is the national character that Mr. Lu Xun emphasized many times. When we analyze the hearts of China people and China people, officials often have a mentality, that is, they put all the problems on the lower classes and people, and think that the problem of our nation is due to the lack of quality of China people. On the other hand, for ordinary people, we will feel that there are no good officials because of bad officials. Then my judgment is actually wrong.

Q: This is very interesting. What's wrong with it?

Bi: You have to tie yourself together and think about it. What we usually call the lower classes, insulted and hurt, do they have those ghosts in their hearts? My conclusion is that there is. Don't think that this man turned out to be a good man. His position has changed. The ghost went to find him. No, when he was in the lower level, this ghost was on him, but without its air, sunshine and water outside, the ghost could not develop. When there is air, sunshine and water, ghosts jump out. This is not imposed on a person through external surgery, transplanted into it, it is something rooted in our hearts. So I don't think this country can be separated here. This class has this problem and that class has that problem. No, it is very likely that this class and that class are combined, and both have this problem. Even the person who wrote this work himself may have this ghost in his heart. This ghost is just one of the ignorant. What kind of person do you want to be? It seems that only in this way can you succeed and enjoy life. So I said, if you don't kill the ghost of "person to person", everything is reincarnation and everything is fate.

A reader

Q: Is there anyone in your works that you admire and can be used as an example?

Bi: In the sense of writing, either, or I have never aspired to be someone, there is no doubt about it. But as a reader, I think Cao Xueqin, a novelist in China, is unattainable. Although I don't aspire to be him, a dream of red mansions is really good, good, good.

Q: How many times have you read it?

Bi: I'm sure I don't read as much as my wife. My wife reads it once a year. I don't read as much as her, but that doesn't affect my love for it. What I want to tell you is that I'm still reading it recently, and I watch it in bed every night, because a friend gave me a set of Xiu Xiang's Dream of Red Mansions, which is a paper-bound version of Guangling Bookstore. As Zhou Zuoren said, he didn't want to read western books when he was ill, but he liked to read thread-bound books. The paper is very light, and the book feels particularly cute in your hand. Although I haven't been sick all this time, I sleep every night while watching a dream of red mansions. Of course, I can't watch it tonight

Q: Kundera's novel Ignorance is unanimously regarded by the world public opinion and literary circles as his most representative work in recent ten years, but you have given it a long list of names: "Truth can be called exile, epic can be called great return, young people can be called the forest of Prague, and old people can call it." A little passion can be called "revolution, continue revolution", a little difference can be called "I kill you with silence", and a little lower body can be called "sleeping my mother-in-law", but Kundera has a name that doesn't need 46: "Ignorance." You don't just have a problem with the name of this book, do you?

Bi: It's about the novel itself, but I think it's a lot of direct talk, so if I focus on the title of the novel, it may be more focused and relevant.

Q: Beijing Youth Daily called it "Bi Feiyu's witty remarks". Let's expand it and talk about it in detail.

Bi: Ignorance by Kundera is my favorite book. Its translator, Professor Xu Jun of Nanjing University, is my good friend. I have always liked his French translation, but it is not very important. The important thing is that I like this book very much. There are several reasons: first, it is aimed at our reality. I don't know if you have noticed such a phenomenon, that is to say, China writers are particularly short-lived. Generally speaking, they are successful around the age of 30, begin to decline at the age of 40, and finally end at the age of 50. China's novelists are particularly short-lived, which is a question that critics and writers often reflect on in the literary world. Why did they disappear so soon? And Kundera is so old, why is there such a strong narrative ability of novels? In his old body, there is such a strong novel function. In fact, I admire this for one thing, and the other is that I have never liked Kundera. I never liked Kundera. Many of his works, as far as my novel interest and aesthetic tendency are concerned, are beyond my sight. I have always thought that he is such a writer who doesn't know much about novels. Although he enjoys an international reputation, he does not enjoy a particularly high status here. I have always felt that his rationality is too strong and he lacks the ability to give flesh and blood to the characters in his works. You can immediately know from a few pages that Kundera will jump out of his works and know what his works want to tell you, so the characters are pale.

Q: But ignorance is different. Ignorance is much more vivid.

Bi: That's right. And it is particularly important that Kundera is so rational. I can especially forgive him and understand him now. It may also be an age problem. As an exile, it is difficult for him to leave his country, his mother tongue and his cultural background for a long time. In fact, if he indulges his sensibility too much, he may not even know how to live. So for such a person, he is a little more rational, and I am particularly easy to understand. These reasons lead to my preference for Ignorance, so I think Ignorance is Kundera's best book.

one thing

Q: Many novelists are like Zhu Wen now. They are all engaged in film and television. Why do you seldom touch this piece?

Bi: Movies and TV plays are very lively. The problem is that I love reading novels, and now I'm writing, and I think the tone is very good. To put it simply, I'm running on the track and field, sweating all over, and I feel breathing smoothly. Why did I suddenly rush out of the track and jump there? Or to put the shot? I don't need it, so I will run on this runway. I think it's good.

Q: It's not that I don't like it, and it's not that it's not suitable for you. ...

Bi: I have never thought about whether I like it or not. I love this thing now, and I will do it. If one day you tell me, Bi Feiyu, your novel stinks so much that I don't want to read it. Maybe I'll do something else.

Essays

Q: Your anthology, a set of four Bi Feiyu Anthology, doesn't seem to be available here now. It is said that it was published at the beginning of this year?

Bi: Yes, it came out in March. This may be the problem. There should be, and so will Xinghua.

Q: Did you write this book yourself?

Bi: I made it up myself. It was Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House that decided my anthology, and then told me that I happily arranged the catalogues of these four books in strict chronological order. After finishing, I found a big snakeskin bag, bundled all the things together with my works into a big bag and carried them to Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House. Then I didn't care who they gave them to, and then they edited them one by one according to this catalogue. In fact, the so-called self-editing means that it took three or four hours to open a directory.

Q: Does it include all the works that you think are good?

Bi: Everyone who should go up has gone up, and everyone who shouldn't.

Q: Why?

Bi: A novel like The Past in Shanghai, according to my earliest idea, I wanted to take it away. Because I wrote a long story called that summer and that autumn, I was very dissatisfied with it. Of course, I can't put it in. If I don't put it in, there will be a problem that you have to make up these four books. Before compiling that anthology, I was quite proud. I think, alas, I seem to have published a lot of books, which gives me the feeling that I am a writer's works. Alas, when the anthology came out, it touched my ankle. I felt particularly ashamed. So I said to myself, you are still young and you still have a lot of work to do. Although I am ashamed and happy to see this result, it will give me strength, that is, write more.

Q: Modesty.

Bi: I'm not modest. In fact, the four volumes of the anthology are only a little bit.

Q: Have you heard any response or feedback since this anthology came out?

Bi: The publication time of Selected Works is very special. At that time, I had already started this long writing at hand. I basically spent all my thoughts on this novel. Of course, I also did some publicity for Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, but I didn't deliberately inquire about such things. Friends also know that those works are old works anyway, and they didn't give me much praise or criticism.

A long article

Q: Can you tell us something about the novel you are writing?

Bi: I started writing novels in the second half of 2002. Now, two and a half years, I have written170,000.

Q: Is it about contemporary themes?

Bi: No, not contemporary life, but the Cultural Revolution and the countryside. I estimate that it is about 250,000 words after completion.

Q: How do you feel about this part of your writing now?

Bi: What do you think of yourself? You should never ask a writer what he thinks of his works, because when he writes, you will be arrogant if you ask him. This arrogance is not because he is shallow, nor because he deliberately says how to hype himself. Neither, because when creating, people have no judgment. You are calm in the pleasure of creation, and you are excited every day, just like drinking, just like a young man in love. You ask him if his date is beautiful. But if I say I feel good about myself, it is also my true judgment, but it is not an aesthetic judgment or a literary judgment. That is to say, I don't know if it's good. I only know that I am very happy, that's all.

A little advice

Q: As a hometown person, please give some advice to writers in Taizhou.

Bi: I only have one piece of advice, that is, don't listen to anyone. Art has no authority. You can like a writer, but this writer is not your role model. Other people's methods may be particularly right for him, but they may be completely wrong for you. It's like a gynecologist saying to a pregnant woman, I'll give you a piece of advice. I hope your child looks as ridiculous as others. If you write well, your words are very similar to yours, and the spiritual information and aesthetic taste revealed in your works are very similar to yours. That's the only way.

Q: A writer must respect himself first.

Bi: Yes, the most important thing for writers is to learn from themselves, that is to say, to cherish their daily creations and find themselves from them, so as to find their own creative methods and ways to cut into life. For example, Balzac and Proust, two peaks in the history of French literature, are considered by the French. One is highly realistic. As Engels said, he used classical and typical realism to write scenes and characters, put characters in the scenes, and then described its details in the scenes. He finished the novel well in this way. Why? Because he is Balzac, he is born with this temperament type and is suitable for writing novels like this. But Proust's novels are not like this at all. Proust is a patient. He is lying in bed. He has no chance to cut into French society like Balzac. He completely relied on his fragmentary memories of his past life, but he also completed a very huge description of his life scene. If Balzac walks up to Proust like Guan Gong and Qin Qiong and tells Proust how to write novels, I can only say that Balzac is stupid, Proust is stupid, and even killed Proust.

Related links: Bi Feiyu's novel Plain was published in Harvest, No.4-5, 2005.