"The Ordinary World" was created in 1975. At that time, China's cultural background was characterized by the surging of various new trends of thought. Literary concepts such as modernism and stream of consciousness were all the rage, and literary creation was seeking changes and innovations in situations and techniques.
It's dizzying.
At that time, some critics believed that realist creative techniques were outdated.
Sometimes, Zhang Zhong wonders, what is the role of a critic? Is it just a troublemaker?
Facts have proven that most critics are really shit-makers, and their vision is shockingly shallow.
At that time, the so-called stream of consciousness and other novel schools of thought and creative techniques had actually been practiced in Europe for many years, so what was new to China at that time was just old in the eyes of others.
Using old things as a basis to criticize other people's things is out of date, which is absurd in itself.
There are many ways to express thoughts. It is funny to use the word "outdated" to describe a literary genre.
Later, when Lu Yao won the Mao Dun Literature Award, fewer people criticized him. Critics are a group of smart people who assess the situation. They know better than anyone else what can and cannot be criticized.
Only by understanding this can trolls become critics.
"The Ordinary World" is a panoramic novel.
The so-called panoramic novel is an attempt to show a panoramic view of society, so it must be more than just a section of space. The interlaced conflicts of characters cannot constitute a panoramic view. What can constitute a panoramic view is the conflict between space and time.
One character's past can hint at another character's current situation, and another character's current situation may be a third character's future.
It must allow time to enter the novel, rather than making the novel a rigid caterpillar moving in a single line, or a large messy speck of dust.
Ordinary novels usually show one or several aspects of society.
Especially in popular novels, only one side is often shown. For example, in Jin Yong's martial arts novels, no matter how exciting and ups and downs the plot is, it generally shows the "jianghu" aspect. As for the society of the same period,
Other aspects of the story either fly by or are briefly touched upon, and what readers can see is generally only the "jianghu" level.
For another example, if it is a novel about a certain dynasty, if it is a crime novel, it will cover various murder cases and government pickets; if it is a palace fight, it will only be about intrigues; if it is a martial arts novel, it will only be about Jianghu.
Relatively speaking, the project volume of a panoramic novel is larger because it needs to cover more areas.
In "The Ordinary World", Lu Yao adopted the "three-line combination method" and arranged three clues in the development of the plot and the activities of the characters. The three clues are all in chronological order, and some national events other than the characters' lives are arranged.
included in it.
A panoramic novel cannot be a short story, or even a novella.
No matter how refined the language is, it cannot solve the panoramic problem in a small number of words, so "The Ordinary World" is one million words long.
This is also the longest book that Zhang Zhong has drawn.
Even a simple input of so many words would probably take Zhang Zhong at least a week, and he could hardly do anything else during this week.
But he doesn’t need to be in such a hurry, there is still a lot of work at hand, and “The Ordinary World” can be put on hold first.
Although the backgrounds of the two worlds are similar, there must be many things in the one-million-word masterpiece that are inconsistent with this world. He needs to change these inconsistencies after recording the book.
…
At twelve o'clock in the evening, Zhang Zhong was still writing a collection of fairy tales.
He looked at the time. Although he had only finished half of the fairy tale he had just written, he still honestly stopped typing on the keyboard.
Lu Yao's incident still had an impact on him, so at twelve o'clock, even if he still had the urge to continue writing, he still forced himself to stop.
Life matters.
The next morning, Zhang Zhong called Pengpeng up. After the girl finished washing, she saw her grandma sweeping the floor. She suddenly ran over and grabbed the broom from grandma's hand, "Grandma, I'll sweep the floor."
Hu Huifang looked at the high-spirited Pengpeng and was stunned for a long time.
This sun comes out from the west?
"What are you fooling around with? No one is as tall as a broom, how can he sweep anything?" Hu Huifang curled her lips and said.
Pengpeng stood up straight and said, "I'm much taller than a broom."
"Then you can't sweep the floor either."
"I can sweep." Pengpeng held the broom tightly, fearing that grandma would snatch it away.
Hu Huifang shook her head, "Okay, okay, if you want to sweep it, just sweep it. It's really weird."
Zhang Zhong said to Pengpeng, "If you want to sweep the floor, we can do it after dinner."
"Okay, I'll eat first, and none of you can snatch it from me." Pengpeng took the broom with her, a rice spoon in one hand and a broom handle in the other.
After finishing the meal, Pengpeng took the broom and swept the floor.
I'm afraid it's not quite appropriate to say she was sweeping. She just waved the broom and swung it back and forth on the ground a few times.
"My sweeping skills are average, but my performance is commendable. You can eat an extra candy today."
Pengpeng got the promise of eating one more candy, and went to school with her schoolbag on her back contentedly.
After sending Pengpeng to school, Zhang Zhong received a call from Parker.
Last time, Zhang Zhong contacted Parker about the audio copyright of "Dune", so Parker saved Zhang Zhong's phone number.
It was night in the United States now, and Parker was afraid of affecting Zhang Zhong's rest, so he made a special call in the morning in China, considering the time difference.
"Hey, pz, we have made the revised outline and the first 100,000 words of the audio version of "Dune", can you please take a look?" Parker said, considering the words.
Zhang nodded and said, "Okay, send the file to my email. Is it only text and no audio?"
Parker said a little shyly, "Actually, I also recorded a section, about 10,000 words."
Zhang Zhong laughed and said, "Since you have already recorded the audio, please send it to me as well. I will listen to it so that I can intuitively feel the effect."
"OK."
Not long after hanging up the phone, Parker sent the documents over.
It contains the story outline and the 100,000-word draft they created, as well as an audio clip.
Zhang Zhong read the outline first.
The outline sent by Parker was very detailed. The content of the original text has not changed, but some places have been deleted and some places have been supplemented with explanations.
For example, in the first chapter, in order to let the audience enter the story as quickly as possible, a background introduction of about two hundred words was first given, and some terms were annotated.
This form is more straightforward and easier to understand, and is indeed more suitable for listening to books.