Modern Novel Writing Techniques Workshop

Author: Liu Ke / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The term "novel" has no meaning, no theory, and even no canonical form of novel. In the West, it is called story, epic, legend, or fictional work. In ancient China, it was known as zhi guai (tales of the strange), chuan qi (romances), or hua ben (storytelling scripts). Novels are the talk of the streets, the narration of the unusual. When an author finishes writing a novel and signs his name, he asserts ownership of the written word, which is no less important than the date and year affixed to the end of the novel. As chroniclers of a certain time and its people, novels take shape from the moment of signing, freezing space in that instant, and thus the thing called a novel becomes eternal. A moment becomes eternal. The eternity of the novel also marks its death. The moment a novel is created, the tracks of time immediately produce new things called novels. Therefore, today, no one knows how many skeletons and souls of novels have gathered in this world. By this logic, we always only have a new novel. But the inevitable tragedy of the novel is that it is also a nostalgic thing, the shadow of past events and people, an impression of the world and personal history. What matters is that when an author picks up the pen to write his novel, the novel has already taken shape in his mind. We are merely recording the virtual reality impressions or utopias (concocted) in our brains. For the author who creates the novel, it is always an "Oedipus complex" (). Because once a novel is completed, you have effectively killed the memories of the past. A true novelist is one who is always eager for novelty and weary of the old. Taking Dream of the Red Chamber as an example, when Cao Xueqin was alive, it was Cao Xueqin who "killed" the memories of all past lives. Centuries later, it is Dream of the Red Chamber that "kills" Cao Xueqin. As the bones buried under the western foot of Beijing Mountain, Cao Xueqin as an individual has lost all meaning. The novel does not seek personal meaning; for the future, it seeks public meaning. But while the author is alive, the novel is merely a private life, a personal secret. Why? Because in the novel, the author always speaks only to himself, hiding all his secrets in its (twisted organization). This can also be said: the novel is the illegitimate child of the author. It must leave a personal imprint and characteristic. Gone are the days when everything would pass. Only when the past is gone, when it is no longer found, does it have value. The novel records the things that cannot be found, which gives it partial value and meaning. At the same time, this past must contain new elements, a new form and content (not repeating the past, referring to a new novel that does not repeat past novels), only then can the novel have new significance. The novel creates a new world. Here lies a paradox: how does the novel imitate an old world while fabricating a new one, weaving together a contradictory dialectic. The former believes in an original world, while the latter believes that for humanity, there should be a more ideal world. The novel, while uncompromising with the real world, is also uncompromising with humanity, finally until it is uncompromising with itself. The novel is the result of an uncompromising personal soul. In the real world, there is nothing that stands the test of time., (The times call for it, and it arises). The novel is also a changing thing. We know that classical novels forged a great cultural tradition while also completing the canonical shaping of the novel itself. Western novels reached their climax with Madame Bovary, and Chinese novels with Dream of the Red Chamber. In ending the tradition of the novel, they also created a new face for it. Before the 19th century, who would have thought that the three elements of story, character, and setting would be so transformed by the end of the 20th century. Today, no one can clearly define the novel. Any definition of the novel carries an inherent contradiction to itself. You can pick any novel from today’s literary world and perform a blood relationship test with our past definitions of the novel. New novels no longer have pure definitions—they are always mongrels. This is also the universal significance of Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality. P1-2