"Do you mind if I ask you why there are no female characters in "Lord of the Flies"?" Fang Ya asked.
Zhang Zhong shook his head, "I don't mind, but I'm afraid I can't answer your question. In fact, the fact that there are no female characters in this book is not a deliberate design, it just happened naturally when I wrote it."
"So, the reason why there are no female characters in this book is actually your subconscious mind?"
"So to speak."
"I saw your interview at the Prix Goncourt, and you mentioned sentimentalism. Of course, I know you don't know what sentimentalism is. What I'm curious about is that you have really paid attention to sentimentalism.
What?" Fang Ya asked.
"I understand a little bit," Zhang Chong replied.
Speaking of sentimentalism, Zhang Zhong is more familiar with related works on earth, and the ones that impressed him most are Rousseau's "Nouveau Héloéise" and Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther".
Zhang Zhong has really read only three of Rousseau's works. In addition to "Nouveau Héloïse", they are "Confessions" and "Emile".
As for Rousseau's "Social Contract", Zhang Zhong only read a little bit of it.
He himself was not very fond of Rousseau, especially when he read "Confessions", which gave him a very uncomfortable feeling. It was better to say that it was a confession than an apology.
Compared with Ji Xianlin's "Diary of Tsinghua Garden", "Confessions" obviously lacks sincerity and is both fake and insincere.
As for Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther", it is a well-known work. At that time, some people committed suicide after reading this book, which made this book famous far and wide.
When Zhang Zhong read this book, he didn't have any thoughts of committing suicide. After all, times were different, people of different ages who read the book had different feelings and experiences.
"The Sorrows of Young Werther" and "The New Love" are both masterpieces of sentimentalism, but they are on earth.
The sentimentalism on Starfish is mainly attributed to the British writer Roddy, whose representative works "The Boy from the Alley" and "Claude the Busy Man" both embody the strong sentimentalism color.
Sentimentalism advocates sensibility, ignores reason, advocates using emotion to constrain and replace reason, and focuses on describing inner activities.
After so many years, in today's era of rampant materialism and extremely abundant materials, sentimentalism is also very popular.
Some literary youths claim to advocate romanticism, but in fact what they love is sentimentalism.
To express the current revival of sentimentalism in three words, it is "I am miserable."
To express it in four words, it is "self-pity".
I am so miserable, we commoners are so miserable, the rich are unkind because of their wealth, I am full of resentment, and feel that the world is unfair, you have to sympathize with me, and to sympathize with me is to sympathize with yourselves.
Zhang Zhong does not mean to disparage sentimentalism, but different literary consciousnesses have their own special meanings in different eras. Sentimentalism is no different from idle moaning now.
But at that time, it was a rebellion against the cold rationalism and rigid classicism of the aristocracy.
For example, heliocentric theory.
Now if you want to tell people that the sun is the center of the universe, many people will definitely think you are a charlatan.
But if you told people in the fifteenth century that the sun was the center of the universe and that starfish revolved around the sun, you were a great man.
"When it comes to sentimentalism, you don't seem to be interested?" Seeing Zhang Zhong's lack of interest, Fang Ya asked.
"I'm different from you. I don't engage in academic research. I can learn from all literary schools and literary concepts if I can, and put them aside if I can't. I won't consider their previous connections and origins.
"
Fang Ya said with a smile, "You are too modest. I have read the "Literary Diary" you wrote, and I also watched some videos of your classes. If you say that you have no research on literary theory, then we academics
The people doing the research are just working in vain.”
In fact, Fang Ya also wanted to ask Zhang Zhong his opinion on scar literature, but in the end he did not ask.
The reason why he wanted to ask this question was because Zhang Zhong's relationship with Li Siqi had never been very good, but he had a close relationship with Wang Yi.
Fang Ya wanted to know what the internal reasons were for the formation of this kind of relationship.
But on second thought, it seems a bit too wishful thinking to try to explore the deeper meanings in writers' literary works from this kind of character relationship.
If this is useful, they who are engaged in academic research can stop doing other things and just look for gossip in the literary world every day.
…
Zhang Zhong and Fang Ya sat outside the courtyard of Qingluo Xiaozhu until the sun went down. Xu Yuhan and Peng Peng, who had run out to play, also came back.
Pengpeng also held a painting in her hand, which was her sketch work today.
Zhang Zhong took the work in his hand and drew a big rock on it. The composition is simple, but the light and shadow are well done.
In the past few years, Pengpeng has made rapid progress and has become very proficient in mastering color, light and shadow.
Fang Ya looked at the painting and said, "I didn't expect Pengpeng to be very skilled at such a young age."
Zhang Chong smiled and said, "In addition to doing academic research, Teacher Fang also pays attention to art?"
"It's not about paying attention." Fang Ya waved his hand and said, "But I occasionally look at it. My grandson also draws, but his level is worrying. Compared with Pengpeng, he is far behind."
"Do you want your grandson to also study art?"
"It's not a study, it's just a hobby. The little brat has no idea. A few days ago he said he wanted to learn the harmonica. My son bought him a harmonica. He got tired of playing it in two days and stopped playing. Now he said he wanted to learn the accordion.
, his father didn’t give him any support at the moment, so he was in a mood for two days.”
"It seems that Lingsun has musical talent."
"What a bullshit musical talent. He spends every day trying to learn any musical instrument. He only takes three minutes to learn anything. But he is good at football, so he doesn't bother learning. It's just for fun anyway. He even managed to get something out of it.
Small prize. I thought, in two years, if he really wants to play football, we will let him." Fang Ya said.
"Teacher Fang is open-minded."
Domestic parents have many expectations for their children's interests and hobbies. Some interests are good and they hope they can develop them into skills, but some interests are good and they hope they are just hobbies.
For example, in various sports, especially football, domestic parents may agree with their children to play football, but most of them are not willing to let them develop into professional players.
Some parents even deprive themselves of this hobby, thinking that playing football is just for fun, which affects learning and can easily lead to injuries.
So Fang Ya said that he supported his grandson to go in this direction, and Zhang Zhong admired him very much.
Put yourself in his shoes, if Pengpeng said he wanted to become a professional player, Zhang Zhong probably wouldn't agree so openly.