Igniting the Creative Spark

点燃创意火花

11月24日下午五点，深圳言几又书店迎来了第三届中欧文学节的最后一场活动“点燃创意火花”。此次活动邀请了来自瑞典、荷兰和中国的作家讨论他们如何看待创意在写作中的重要性以及他们是如何将文学作品改编成电影和电视剧。文学评论家唐小林主持了这次活动。
作家杨争光首先分享了自己对于创意写作的看法。他指出，这个提法虽然听起来很新，但是文学的创作其实就是一种创意写作，不管什么题材的创作都需要有创意。而来自不同的地域的人有着不同的经验，但是只要是有自己的认知，那么都可以称之为是创意。而在阅读外国作家的作品时，他更关注的是他们对于事物的看待方式而非写作方式。作为有着丰富的改编经验的编剧，杨争光提到改编也像翻译一样存在着是否忠实于原著的问题。在他看来，改编者应该在获得原著作者同意的前提下，尽可能尊重自己对于事物的认知。
瑞典作家Helena von Zweigbergk目前正在将自己的两本书改编为电视剧，她表示小说和剧本的创作非常不同，因为剧本会有更多的动作描写，同时更多时候故事的内容是通过演员的表演、音乐和图像来呈现的。她十分同意写作需要创意、需要作家放飞想象。她提到在写作过程中，作者常常会有一个自我审核机制，即希望读者会喜欢自己的作品。但是一个好的作者需要忠实于自己的感受，她认为作者所写的东西越接近真实的自我，越能打动读者。
诗人和翻译家黄灿然为现场的作家及听众朗读了自己写的两首诗，并分享自己对于创意的看法。《先知》一诗描写的是诗人居住的村子里一只不断嘶鸣的公鸭，诗人将其比喻为《圣经》中的先知耶利米，在预告自己的同类末日将要来临。黄灿然借此表达自己的观点，即创意来自于生活，同样也来自于我们的阅读。如果他没有阅读过《圣经》，那么便无法将先知这一元素写进自己的诗里。当与唐小林讨论近来诗歌的翻译越来越偏向抛弃韵律的做法，黄灿然表示，这种翻译的方法与诗歌写作的潮流是一致的，即无论是译者还是诗人，都更加关注诗歌创作的内容，而非去刻意押韵。
荷兰学者和作家Minke Schipper则从人类与祖先的联系方面思考创意的问题。她打了个有趣的比喻，其实在远古时代，人们围聚在一起听口头传说和我们今天坐在电影院里看电影一样，我们听故事的本质并没有改变，而是一直传承下来。她认为在文化沟通越来越发达和便利的今天，我们可以从不同的文化中获取创作的灵感。因此我们应该保持对其他文化的好奇心，不断增进相互了解，这样有助于我们点燃创意的火花。
在观众提问环节，Minke Schipper与提问的观众分享了自己关于“裸体与穿衣”这一主题的研究。她谈到，为什么我们可以露出身体的一些部分却要掩盖其他部分，这些规则的背后是因为宗教和文化的因素决定的。而这些规则往往对于女性有更多的要求。在回答另一位听众提出的中国诗歌何时能够产生世界影响时，黄灿然提出，诗歌的影响力至少比诗歌创作要推迟三十年到五十年，而诗人的作品往往是在生后才能获得世人的理解。

At 5pm on November 24, the last event entitled “Igniting the Creative Spark” of the third edition of EU-China International Literary Festival was held in Shenzhen Yanjiyou Bookstore. In this event, writers from Sweden, the Netherlands and China shared their views on the importance of creative thinking in writing and their experience on adapting the literature works for the movie and TV dramas. Literary critic Tang Xiaolin hosted the event.
The Chinese writer Yang Zhengguang first shared his views on creative writing. He pointed out that although the idea seems novel, literary creation is creative writing and all genres of literary requires creative thinking. People from different places may have different experiences and as long as they have their perception on things, they are being creative. Also, he mentioned that when reading the works of foreign writers, he focuses on their way of looking at things instead of their way of writing. Yang is experienced in adapting literary works for movies and TV dramas. He said that adaptation also is examined by the same evaluation as translation that whether the work is faithful to the original piece. From his point of view, the adaptor should be true to his own perception of things. However, before changing the original work, the adaptor should be have the permission of the author.
The Swedish writer Helena von Zweigbergk is now working on the script for two of her books to become TV series. She said that it is completely different to write for a TV drama compared to writing a novel. For screenplays and teleplays, there are more gestures, and the subtle thing is more in the acting, music and images. She agreed that one has to have a creative and open mind when one writes. Very often the writers have the inner censorship that they want people to like their books, but a good writer should to be true to himself and the more personal a writer is, there is a greater chance that he can reach other people in his work.
The poet and translator Huang Canran read two of his poems for the writers and audience and shared his views on being creative. One of the poems is named “Prophet” and it depicts a drake that crackles loudly on and off. The poet compares it to the prophet Jeremiah in the Bible who is warning its fellows of the impending doom. By this example, Huang Canran expressed his view that we can draw our inspiration from our life as well as our reading. If he had not read the Bible, he could not have ignited the spark and put prophet in his poem. Tang Xiaolin mentioned that nowadays it has been popular to get rid of rhymes when translating poems into Chinese. Huang Canran commented that the trend of poetry translation is on par with the that of poetry writing. Both the translators and poets pay more attention to the content of the poems instead of rhyming for the sake of it.
Dutch scholar and writer Minke Schipper considered the issue from the perspective of human’s relations with our ancestors. She gave an interesting simile: in the ancient time, human beings sat together and listened to the oral stories which is no more different from today when we sit in the cinema and watch the movies. The tradition of listening to stories is passed on from generation to generation. Today, it is much more easier for us to exchange cultures and the writers can draw inspirations from different cultures. Therefore, she suggested that we should always be curious about other cultures and promote the understandings of one another to help ignite the creative spark.
In the Q&A session, Minke Schipper shared her research on the theme “Naked or Covered”. She said that the reason why we expose some parts of our bodies while cover the others is decided by religious and cultural elements. Such rules usually have more requirements for women than men. Another listener asked when Chinese poetry can have a world impact. Huang Canran answered that it takes at least thirty to fifty years for poetry to have an impact and very often the works of poets can not be appreciated until their death.