Not all authors are pleased about being thrown into the spotlight. Zhang writes of her concerns in her blog: “It's always so easy for us to ignore or forgive or even indulge our faults, as if running towards an evil utopia. Did any one of us really realize that this road would never lead us to true literature and, hence, our dreams? ... We are commercial instruments exploited by some people to make money; we are entertainment tools used and played by media and critics...
We make up more meaningless honors for ourselves and play games that have nothing to do with literature.”
An old English saying, “from the mouth of babes,”, signifying the truth that is often spoken by children not yet exposed to the world of lies created by adults takes on particular relevance in this light. Allowing fresher viewpoints and opinions, which can only truly be expressed by younger people, is essential for any nation's literary heritage to avoid dwindling into irrelevant obscurity.
Good storytelling is the golden rule to judge a writer today. And well-told stories sell well among readers who get nothing more than a fleeting satisfaction of knowing the final result of the story, Li says.
The best advice to young writers for their future writing may have been given by French author Jules Renard when he wrote: “Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.”
Source: China Daily and China.org.cn
Editor: Dong Lin
Email to Friends
Print
Save