Chapter 724 The Silver Age
“Everyone who is engaged in literature has probably heard of the article titled "Number" published by the Russian scholar N. A. Otup in 1933 in the Russian magazine "Number" published in Paris. The article in "Silver Age" proposed. "
Fang Minghua talked eloquently.
“He refers to the golden age of Russian literature that is different from the golden age of Russian literature created by literary giants such as Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, with Blok and Pietro Represented by writers such as Lei, Gumilev, and Akhmatova, their overall literary achievements are inferior to those of the Golden Age, so they are called the "Silver Age."
"When it comes to poetry, in my opinion. It seems that the poetry of the 20th century (especially the first half) is the most brilliant golden age in human history. It breaks through the boundaries of national race and language, and gains an unprecedented international vision and corresponding international influence. In this sense, there is so-called international poetry.
"This golden age of poetry is undoubtedly related to the Industrial Revolution, the "Death of God", revolution and autocracy, two world wars, Nazi concentration camps, the Great Purge, the atomic bomb, that is, the deepest darkness in human history."
"Great poetry is like a fission of the mind that releases a huge energy, its rumbling echo reaches us through the mists of time. Perhaps it is due to excessive consumption that since the end of the "World War II", poetry has begun to spread around the world Going downhill."
"The mediocrity of middle-class life is killing imagination; consumerism brings entertainment and destroys passion; there is also the complicity of the coercion of official discourse and the brainwashing of mass media...
A famous physicist once said that the first half of the 20th century was also the golden age of physics, followed by the Silver Age."
"Minghua, according to your statement, we. The development of poetry in the country is half a step behind compared to the international level," Li Tuo said with a smile.
"Yes." Fang Minghua continued: "As we all know, in the first half of the 20th century, the Chinese people lived through turmoil, disasters, and wars. Most people didn't even have enough to eat. How could they bother to recite poems and compose poems? But even though In this way, in the 1920s and 1930s, a number of outstanding figures such as Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, and Bian Zhilin appeared in our country. A beautiful poet."
"After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we experienced that special period, and literature, including poetry, was in a state of suppression. Until the late 1970s, poetry entered a period of rapid development, with Beidao, Gucheng, and Shu Ting represents a large number of outstanding poets and created the brilliance of modern Chinese poetry. time, so I call it the golden age of Chinese poetry. Now that the time has entered the 1990s, poetry is about to enter its silver age. "
"In this period, with the development of society, The creative trends of poets are very different from those in the 1980s. They mainly have the following characteristics: Everyone has actually felt this.
First: Poetry will accommodate more complex social experiences, and the anti-sublime and anti-ideal tendencies will become more obvious
Second: Poetry shrinks towards personal experience. , becoming more personal, life-oriented and colloquial
Third, the division of the poetry world, the struggle for the power of poetry to symbolize capital discourse, and the debate over the division of intellectual writing and folk writing camps.
In Fang Minghua’s 40-minute speech, he systematically summarized the period from the early 1980s to the 1990s. The overall situation of domestic poetry development in the mid-1900s.
Everyone in the living room listened carefully, and many people fell into deep thought while listening.
"In short, the phenomenon of "all people read poetry and all people are poetry" like in the 1980s in our country will never appear. Poetry will always be niche literature, but what we need to do is that we poets themselves must write Excellent poem."
"That's all I have to say."
After Fang Minghua's speech ended, people in the living room began to whisper.
He felt a little dry. He picked up the coffee cup and took a sip, only to find that some of the coffee was a little cold.
Liu Junan, who had been sitting in the corner quietly listening to everyone's discussion, stood up and took the coffee pot from the servant, walked over and asked, "Mr. Fang, do you need another cup?"< br>
“No, just add more, thank you.”
Liu Junan picked up the coffee pot and filled Fang Minghua’s cup with coffee, then went back and sat quietly on the sofa in the corner, continuing to listen to everyone’s speeches .
"Minghua, as you said, does poetry have no future? The future will be the Bronze Age and the Black Iron Age?!"
Zhai Yongming was the one who spoke, her tone a little excited. Fang Minghua's answer was also very straightforward: "I haven't seen it yet."
"Then what's the point of discussing poetry here?!"
"I think There are still some." Fang Minghua spoke slowly but firmly. "Gatherings like ours, the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival, and "Today" that Teacher Bei Dao has always insisted on organizing, are just to give those poets who are walking alone in the darkness a little warmth and a glimmer of hope."
"Bah bang bang" someone took the lead in applauding.
It turns out to be Beidao.
After Fang Minghua finished speaking, everyone began to discuss heatedly again until the salon ended at almost six o'clock. The owner of the villa, Liu Junan, prepared dinner for everyone and left after eating.
While waiting for dinner, everyone started chatting with each other again. Fang Minghua discovered that Bei Dao was taking out a stack of magazines from a large travel bag and giving them to everyone. It turned out that he had asked his friends to help promote his editor-in-chief. "Today", Li Tuo is also helping.
After the magazine "Today" founded by Bei Dao, Mang Ke and others was banned in the early 1980s, in the spring of 1990, Bei Dao, Li Tuo and others resumed publication of "Today" in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Later, when Bei Dao, Li Tuo and others came to the United States, the editorial department also moved here and has persisted until now.
Throwing aside historical limitations, political and literary entanglements, looking at literature and art alone, the poems published in "Today" undoubtedly represent the very high level of modern poetry at that time, including Bei Dao's "Answer" and Shu Ting's Classic poems such as "To the Oak" were published on the front page of "Today".
Bei Dao also gave Fang Minghua a share.
"Teacher Bei Dao, I will be returning to China in a while. You can take a copy back with me. I think it will be difficult to pass through customs if there are too many. Otherwise, I will help you sell them." Fang Minghua said.
"It doesn't matter, I'll give this to you, read it slowly." Bei Dao smiled heartily.
Fang Minghua took it and flipped through it first. It was a quarterly magazine, priced at US$2.6 each.
The magazine paper is very average. It seems that the magazine's funds are tight.
Dinner was Xiangjiang's famous pork chop rice. While eating, Fang Minghua asked Li Tuo in a low voice: "How is the sales of the magazine?"
"As you just said, poetry has entered the Silver Age. , next is bronze and black iron. How many people do you think will watch this thing? ? Otherwise, with Bei Dao’s temperament, he would shamelessly ask everyone to help promote it? "
"To tell you the truth, every time there is a similar literary salon, Bei Dao will definitely bring a pocket of magazines with him. Everyone is used to letting others help promote it," Li Tuo said in the end.
"Oh."
Fang Minghua thought for a while after hearing this: "How about I personally donate 500,000 US dollars to the magazine?"
(End of this chapter)
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