Writing about Complex Humanity, Traveling to a Bright Future

【活动回顾】| 书写复杂人性，向光明旅行
【Review】| Writing about Complex Humanity, Traveling to a Bright Future
时间：11月21日，周三，19:00-20:30
Time: November 21, Wednesday, 19:00-20:30
地点：言几又
Venue: Yan Ji You
主题：深刻的人性讨论
Theme: Deep, Dark and Human
作家：Jussi Valtonen（芬兰），Helena von Zweigbergk（瑞典），盛慧（中国），郑小驴（中国）
Writers: Jussi Valtonen (Finland), Helena von Zweigbergk (Sweden), Sheng Hui (China), Zheng Xiaolv (China)
主持人：谢有顺（中国）
Moderator: Xie Youshun (China)

第三届中欧国际文学节第四场活动于11月21日晚7点在广州言几又书店举行。活动以“深刻的人性讨论”为主题，邀请四位来自中国、芬兰和瑞典的作家共同探讨小说中的角色塑造及相关问题，将人性的善恶加以剖析。
The fourth event of The 3rd EU-China International Literary Festival was held on December 21 in Yan Ji You Bookstore, Guangzhou. In theme of “Deep, Dark and Human”, four writers from China, Finland and Sweden were invited to discuss character building and other aspects of the craft and dissect humanity in good and evil.

本场活动的嘉宾有芬兰作家、心理学家Jussi Valtonen，瑞典记者、作家、影评家Helena von Zweigbergk，中国作家、艺术评论家盛慧，及作家、文学杂志编辑郑小驴。主持人是作家、文学家谢有顺。
It’s our honor to invite Finnish author and psychologist Jussi Valtonen; Swedish journalist, author and film critic Helena von Zweigbergk; Chinese writer and art critic Sheng Hui; and Chinese writer and literary journal editor Zheng Xiaolv. The authors was in conversation with the moderator of tonight, Chinese author Xie Youshun.

主持人谢有顺先生以谈论自己对人性与写作之间的关系，精彩开场。他点出“人，是文学永恒的主题，人性是非常复杂的，而如何展开书写复杂的人性就看作家处理现实的能力。灵魂的深刻、人性的复杂，决定了文学作品的品质。”这一观点也引起了其余四位作家的热烈讨论。
Mr. Xie Youshun started the event with a marvelous speech about the relations between humanity and writing. He pointed out that – “Human, is the eternal topic in literature. Humanity is complicated. How to write about the complex humanity indicates the author’s ability to deal with reality. Also, the profoundness of soul and complexity of humanity determine the quality of literary works.” His idea led the discussion between authors.

来自芬兰的作家Jussi先生非常认同这一观点，他表示人是最根本的文学创作主题，不分国籍。瑞典作家Helena女士也表示她在写作时，经常会关注人的现实生活，理解人与人之间的关系。中国作家盛慧先生谈到：“人性的问题是常识，但常识经常会被人遗忘。” 人性的深度就是小说的深度。小说家拥有感同身受的能力，这是小说家核心的技巧。另一位中国作家郑小驴则打了个生动的比方：“写作就像水墨山水画，谋篇布局很重要，但最重要的是人，起着画龙点睛的作用。”因此，人性是作家永恒的主题。
Jussi from Finland agreed with this idea. He considered mankind as the fundamental topic in literature beyond countries. Ms. Helena from Sweden showed her thoughts in writing that she always paid attention to the real life and the understanding of interpersonal relationship. Mr. Sheng Hui from China mentioned that “humanity is a commonsense which is always ignored by people.” The depth of humanity reflected the depth of novels. Novelists had the ability of empathy, which was the core skill for them. Another Chinese author Mr. Zheng Xiaolv regarded writing as traditional Chinese landscape paintings. “It’s important to organize the whole structure, but what matters most is to spot a human in it, which plays a role as a crucial finishing point.” Thus, humanity was the eternal topic for writers.

另外，谢有顺先生谈到中西方的作家在写人的时候有着截然不同的角度：中国作家往往站在现实、历史和人伦的角度；而西方作家由于受到宗教的影响，站在超验和超现实的角度。因此，中西方作家从不同的角度写人，就会有不同的理解。那么双方如何互相看待对方写作的角度和写法就成了一个有趣的问题。
In addition, Mr. Xie Youshun talked about the different perspectives in the works of humanity by Chinese and western writers: Chinese writers usually took the aspect of reality, history and reality while western writers affected by religions, focused more on transcendentalism and surrealism. In a way, different perspectives would bring about difference understandings. How both sides judged the views of each other was worth discussing here.

Helena女士认为日常写作应该多关注现实生活中的细节，“你会忽略细节是因为你已经对其习以为常。”Jussi先生表示虽然中西方作家从不同的角度写作不同类型的作品，“但那都是浮于表面的，更重要的是铭记初心。”盛慧先生谈到刘小枫的《拯救与逍遥》。西方文学强调拯救；中国文化受道教影响深，强调逃避和逍遥。对40岁的他而言，他选择回归自己文化的母体上。郑小驴表示人性的话题很大必须要落到具体来谈。
Ms. Helena highlighted the detail of real life in writing. “You can’t really see it because you’re used to it.” Mr. Jussi said that “although writers from different countries write from different perspectives on different genres, those are only the surface. What really matters is what you want to express.” Mr. Sheng Hui recommended a book named Delivering and Dallying by a Chinese author Liu Xiaofeng. Western culture emphasized rescue of souls while Chinese culture dallying and avoidance, affected by Taoism. For himself, as he is already in his forties, he would like to return to his mother culture. Mr. Zheng Xiaolv expressed his idea that humanity was too broad and we must narrowed it down to specific things.

在谈论到小说和新闻的不同时，谢有顺先生直言：“新闻停止的地方才有文学。文学是表达现实下面隐秘的冲突。这是文学当下残存的价值。”盛慧先生点明：“好的小说要有三种感觉：痛感（紧张冲突的关系）、质感（自己独特的生命体验）、美感（小说的基本要素）。”
Talking about the differences between literature and journalism, Mr. Xie Youshu said, “where journalism vanishes, literature exists. Literature unveils the hidden contradictions under reality, which is the unique value of literature.” Mr. Sheng Hui put forward his idea – “A good novel needs three sense: sense of pain, the intense contraction; sense of experience, your own life experience; and sense of beauty, the basic factor of novels.”

回归主题时，作家们再次对写作中的人性善恶进行了激烈讨论。郑小驴先生道出了当下作家的不足——对人性的探讨太多了，许多作家一直是“为了写人性而写人性”。这要尤其警惕。最深刻的人性其实是艰难的活着。Helena女士的写作注重危机，但她没有放弃对人性的探索，会在内容中探索人性的缺点是如何形成的。而人性的阴暗面和光明面是可以共存的，关键是发展的过程，那才值得挖掘。
Back to the topic of tonight, authors returned to discuss the good and evil humanity. Mr. Zheng Xiaolv pointed out the flaws in common – too much writing on the bad side of humanity. Many authors just focused on the ugliness of humanity. We needed to change our stereotype. Actually struggling to live was the most profound humanity. Ms. Helena emphasized on crisis but she never gave up exploring humanity in crisis. She discovered in her work how the evils came into being in humans. “Darkness could coexist with life. It’s important to write about development. It’s change that’s interesting.”

人性的善与恶不是二元对立的，这样会显得人很单薄。写小说要回避定性绝对的好人和坏人，在探索人性的过程中要透过表面的现象表现内部。人性的复杂性导致角色的走向与我们的想法不一致，要更多倾听角色的声音。
Good and evil in humanity are not binary opposites. If they did, humans would be too plain. Writing should avoid shaping a pure good or evil character, but see through the internal humanity. The complexity of humanity guides the characters to the path out of our imagination. That’s why we should listen more to the voice of characters.

试图捕捉评论人类情况是写作的固有部分，正如写作本身反映了人类情况。创作复杂、会犯错、可信又推动叙事并折射读者及客观世界的鲜活角色，对每一位作家而言，绝非易事。
Attempting to capture and critique the human condition is an inherent part of writing, just as writing is and of itself a facet of the human condition. Creating complex, fallible, credible characters who – warts and all – can propel the narrative and at the same time tell us something about ourselves and the world we inhabit is a challenge for any writer.

文学、文化最终的落脚点都在人性。作为一个作家，是热爱现实的人，关注点又是现实中的人，对人的深入的观察。正式有了作家的探索，让我们对人的认识更宽广。人的黑暗和光明，善恶，真实性和复杂性，往往交织在人的个体身上。这是文学的永恒的主题。单一的主题不能写出人的复杂。每个人要有勇气面对黑暗，要向着光明旅行。这才是人在世界上最正确的姿势。
Humanity is the foothold of literature and culture. A writer, as a person who loves and focuses on real life, gives further insights into humans and humanity. Attributed to their insights and observation, our knowledge of human beings is deeper and broader. Authenticity and complexity, good and evil, darkness and brightness, are always twined in an individual. That’s the eternal topic in literature. A single-sided topic can never describe the complex humanity. Therefore, every writer, even everyone should be brave enough to face the darkness and travel to a bright future, which is our best attitude to live in this world.

（张蔚雯 报道| 张蔚雯 翻译）
(Covered by Zhang Weiwen, translated by Zhang Weiwen)