When I read this work of "Yun Mengze" (domestic version) and "Another Country in Life" (overseas version), I was somewhat skeptical. A work of more than 500,000 words is a way to show three eras, as well as a space that spans thousands of miles. When I read it, I did have a rollercoaster experience, starting from abroad, and in the first few chapters of the narrative to the funeral of the protagonist Lao Yangren, the two wives were buried with ashes, and there were a few chapters in between, and then they fell into the bottom of the thirties and forties of the last century.
I understand that Mr. Feng Zhiming has been engaged in the development and operation of popular literature, martial arts literature, and online literature, and has planned and edited best-selling works. It seems that this ** does not take the usual path, are you afraid that the work will be popular? Or do you want to create an innovation? We have discussed in "White Deer Plain", this kind of writing with the family as the background, which crosses history and penetrates human nature, is a grand narrative structure. But if "Yun Mengze" is to be written like this, starting with 30 years ago, it is a huge work, and it seems impossible to complete it in 300,000 or 400,000 words.
He takes the characters as the lead, concentrates on writing their fate, and shows the wonderful parts, which is a kind of fragmentary writing. Writing in this way, a lot of material seems to be wasted, and he doesn't care, which is a prominent feature of this work.
I will write about one thing from multiple angles and repeatedly, such as analyzing the relationship between the missionary Muller and Sanniang, how it came about, and how it developed, and even from the missionary's impulsive multi-blooded character traits. He also explained that Muller also had a blonde girlfriend who was difficult to give up, and analyzed his own adjustment of his beliefs, as well as the views of the Water Gang characters on them, and the psychological state of Muller and Sanniang, even in contemporary times, let Zhen'er and Yin Zhihong talk about some ideas about this. This kind of multi-person perspective writing varies according to the narrator's point of view, and various statements are different, and the author obviously enjoys telling one thing one after another. Enriching the layers of the work is the second feature.
The author of "Yun Mengze" is a general ** hand in the work, he dispatches all kinds of characters in the pen, and quietly manipulates the life and death of these characters, and this work also seems to tell a curious story, if there is a bit of suspense, shake off a little baggage, it should be more eye-catching. He seems to want to break through this point even more, let the author integrate into it, talk to the characters, and tear apart some events and the background of the characters for the reader to see. What's more, the author himself writes some of the reasons for writing into his work, which is not a modernist writing technique, as if playing with writing skills. Mr. Feng Zhiming believes that he has not broken through the fixed paradigm of Chinese literary creation. Take "Dream of Red Mansions" as an example, isn't this how this world masterpiece is written at the beginning? Not only that, but also explained the origin of Bao Dai and the two clearly. For example, when Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden, the author wrote that there are hundreds of people in Ningguo Mansion and Rongguo Mansion, and there are dozens of things every day, like a mess, it is difficult to sort out the clues, it is better to start from a person who has something to do with this mansion - this is not the Yuan ** way of writing, and it is modern enough. And it tells the story so really, writing about the trivial things of life so realistically, this is not a stream of consciousness, it is a stream of life. In this way, it can be regarded as one of his characteristics. He even thinks that "Dream of Red Mansions" also encompasses various writing skills and is a collection of ** texts.
Based on the perspective of contemporary, the drama in the thirties and forties of the last century in "Yun Mengze" has a lot of weight. After all, it has been a long time, and contemporary people will feel verbose and dull when they read it. How to narrate it does take a lot of work. This ** solves this problem very decently, that is, it adopts a contemporary perspective, makes the narrated story vivid and vivid, and there is an eclectic jump telling, which makes the work full of spirituality, a combination of image and contemporaneity, which is particularly rare.
Creation should follow the two principles of unconventional and indefinite law, in order to innovate and have lasting vitality.
Wuhan, September 15, 2021.
Revised on November 8, 2021.