近年来,非虚构写作在我国从概念介绍到写作实践,再到写作运动快速发展,蔚为风潮。从刊发媒体来说,《南方周末》《中国青年报》《南方人物周刊》《智族》《时尚先生》与《中国企业家》等一大批新闻媒体热捧非虚构写作。《读库》《单读》《正午故事》等图书系列以刊载、散布非虚构作品为己任。新媒体平台腾讯“谷雨纪实”、网易“人间”、界面“正午故事”、中国三明治以及凤凰网“有故事的人”等以推动非虚构写作为初心。从写作群体来看,除了专业的新闻记者、独立作家从事非虚构写作之外,一大批业余作者加入非虚构写作的行列,壮大了非虚构写作群体的力量,让非虚构写作脱离了专业记者或作家的局限,成为一种专业写作者与业余写作者皆可参与的写作运动。那么,非虚构写作到底是什么,它与传统的虚构写作有什么区别,为什么在当下中国成为写作宠儿。
非虚构写作(nonfiction writing)顾名思义,就是基于“事实”前提展开的写作活动。非虚构写作有许多别名,如新新闻主义、叙事新闻、文学新闻、长新闻、非虚构创意写作、特稿写作等。非虚构写作目前还不是一个严谨、科学、边界清晰的概念。《韦氏大词典》的第2版中对非虚构写作定义是:一种内容基于现实和事实的文学分支,以叙事散文的方式处理或提供观念,包括传记与历史文章,与虚构文学相对,与诗歌和喜剧相异。
从以上内容我们可以看到,非虚构写作概念指的是一种基于“事实”的文学创作活动,它借用虚拟对话的形式,采用讲故事的叙事方法反映真实的历史人物和事件。正如袁凌所说,非虚构写作是兼具“文学意义”和“事实意义”的写作。
从近年来国内外非虚构写作的实践来看,与虚构文学写作相比较,非虚构写作具有内容真实性、表达文学性、形式叙事性、浸入式与主题边缘性5个特点。这些特点把非虚构写作与虚构性文本区别开来,也是非虚构写作独特阅读体验与审美特质的成因。
真实是非虚构写作的首要特点和基本标准。美国非虚构作家何伟说“非虚构写作让人着迷的地方,正是因为它不能编故事。看起来这比虚构写作缺少更多的创作自由和创造性,但它逼着作者不得不卖力地发掘事实,搜集信息,非虚构写作的创造性正蕴含在此间”
非虚构写作对严谨、古板、克制、枯燥的新闻写作风格改良的表现在于它特别重视文学手法的运用。非虚构写作借助叙事和修辞的写作策略和方法,重视对话、场景、细节和心理描写,以增强作品的可体验性和可理解性。非虚构写作的主要表现手法,如细节、对话、场景重建、人物心理描写、人物关系交代甚至故事冲突构建等,几乎是所有优秀非虚构作品的特质。非虚构作家迟宇宙认为:“怎样进行更有效的叙事,非虚构需要呈现出大量的事实,这样的事实很多时候没法引发大家的兴趣和关注,很多时候素材无法戏剧化,缺少冲突,甚至只有数字的罗列。这时我们就需要借助虚构的技法,一个文学性的创造,目的不是为了改变事实,而是为了提升阅读的效率。”
非虚构作品通常都具有良好甚至完美的故事性文本特征。这个特征也是避免非虚构写作概念泛化的一种选择。因此,一般来说,不能把所有的基于“真实”书写的作品都归入非虚构写作的范畴。一篇关于某设备运作的说明文、一篇关于科技发明的学术论文尽管反映的内容是“事实”,但因为它们没有叙事性而不能称为非虚构作品。从本质上讲,非虚构写作利用一些叙事策略来报道人物和事件。这些策略包括第一人称叙述、人物和对话的发展、冲突与张力的构建、对事件场景的重现以及对语言的重视。非虚构写作的优秀作品如《迈阿密和芝加哥之围》《向伯利恒跋涉》《令人振奋的兴奋剂实验》《派遣》《在萨尔瓦多》《太空英雄》《月亮上的火焰》《弗兰克·辛纳屈感冒了》和《激进派时髦》无不具有高超的叙事技巧。
严谨的非虚构写作活动要求写作者要有扎实、翔实的采访过程。为了写作《大灭绝时代》,《纽约客》记者伊丽萨白·科尔伯特亲历全球生态现场,通过大量的采访与考察互动,提出世界面临第六次生命大灭绝的观点。霍华德·格里芬为了写作《像我这样的黑人》乔装成一个黑人,多次乘坐公共汽车穿越密西西比州、阿拉巴马州和乔治亚州等种族主义区域。甚至在新奥尔良,格里芬先后以黑人和白人的两重身份两次从新奥尔良经过以进行浸入式体验。俄国非虚构作家阿列克谢耶维奇为了写作《来自切尔诺贝利的声音》,访问了上百位受到切尔诺贝利核灾影响的人民,有居民、消防员、历史学家、科学家、官员、救援人员的家人、摄影师等。美国作家珍妮特·马尔科姆为了写关于精神分析的书,她要听陌生人长达数小时的治疗过程。梁鸿为了写作《出梁庄记》跑遍全国11个省市,访谈了340余人。慕容雪村为了写作《中国,少了一味药》冒着生命危险卧底传销组织23天,向读者展示了传销者如何蛊惑普通人。
近年来从全球媒体的非虚构写作实践来看,非虚构写作者重视宏大叙事下忽略的一些边缘题材,喜欢写作主流媒体忽视的焦点。梁鸿的《梁庄在中国》细致描写了现今农村生活现状,揭露了农村管理、教育、留守儿童、老人等现实危机问题,书中凋敝的中国村庄、无奈的乡村干部、留守儿童、留守老人、留守妇女的心灵危机,农村的宗教问题引人深思。萧相风的《南方工业生活》用词条的形式记录了南方工厂里的真实生活,全景记录了外来工人的打工生活以及他们的内心世界和精神层面。李天田《相亲记》讲述了一个大龄剩女被迫相亲的8年抗战之旅。张驰的《一个维吾尔人的家庭史》反映了许多尖锐而真实的问题。关军著有《大脚印儿》和《无后为大》关注大时代背景下普通人的命运,对人类本性进行挖掘与追索。李娟的《羊道》三部曲写了景色、习俗,在牧场和男男女女的接触。非虚构作家们也把目光聚焦于不被广泛关注的社会底层、边缘人物。
改革开放以来,中国社会急遽变革。色彩斑斓又异常复杂的中国社会生活为非虚构写作提供了素材与土壤,这一点与美国非虚构写作兴起的社会背景非常相似。美国学者约翰·霍洛韦尔认为,美国20世纪五六十年代社会巨变导致非虚构文学的出现:“一切事情好像都在以比过去高十倍的速度变化着,艺术家缺少能力去记录和反映快速变化着的社会……这一时期里的日常事件的动人性已走到小说家想象力的前面了。”
中国当代文学中批判现实主义力量的衰落也是驱动非虚构写作勃发的重要原因。中国现当代文学中有强烈的现实主义传统,这种传统在当代遭遇了困境。造成困境的原因既有作协体制造成的弊端,也有社会现象超级复杂化给作家理解能力造成的挑战。袁凌认为虚构文学衰落的原因在于“长期强调它的叙事,强调它的虚构,好看,回避真实经验,最后变成自娱自乐的东西”而变成“缺乏意义的自我增值”
文学评论家李敬泽认为,“在这个海量信息涌现的时代,一方面我们对这个世界所知太多,但另一方面实际我们又对这个世界所知甚少,乃至一无所知,在这种情况下,我们有一种苛求,就要什么是真的?什么是假的?同时我们也希望我们对世界的理解,不仅仅是片段的,零散的,而是深入的,具体的。我们能够在一个真实的水平上,深入具体地认识这个世界的丰富性和人的丰富性”
在美国,尽管非虚构写作作为文学形式已经存在了很长时间,但它长久以来一直被认为是小说和诗歌的一个写作桥梁,而不是一种同等地位的写作方式。小说家认为是文学的上层阶级。他们认为,记者的作用是为作家挖掘信息材料和激发灵感。然而,近年来,作家专题讨论会、作家会议、创意写作项目如雨后春笋般涌现,非虚构写作发表的媒体也不断增加,如《第四类型》《河的牙齿》《非虚构写作》《佐治亚评论》《纽约时报》等。而非虚构写作的创作者们的杰出作品让非虚构写作的地位更加稳固。一些杰出的作品让虚构作家刮目相看,读者趋之若鹜。旅行散文类如彼得·梅尔的《普罗旺斯的一年》,弗朗西斯·梅斯的《托斯卡纳艳阳下》,科普读物类像戴瓦·索贝尔的《经度:寻找地球刻度的人》,历史记录类如西蒙·温彻斯特的《教授与疯子》,自然报告文学类如约翰·科莱考尔的《荒野生存》和塞巴斯蒂安·荣格尔的《完美风暴》,犯罪纪实类如约翰·伯兰特的《午夜善恶花园》,回忆录类如弗兰克·麦考特的《安琪拉的灰烬》和玛丽·卡尔的《骗子俱乐部》等,这些作品都提高了非虚构写作作为一种文学形式的可见性。
在中国,非虚构写作运动与新闻业对西方特稿写作的引进与发展密切相关。最早使用非虚构这个词语的主要是原先关注特稿的一群记者。然而,随着纸媒传播方式的巨变,整个行业生态的凋敝,这批记者大多离开体制内媒体继续追求写作梦想,在杂志新闻生产与新媒体内容生产领域大力推动非虚构写作理念。近年来,伴随着现代新闻媒体的兴起、商业杂志的创刊,中外合资生活方式类杂志的增长,新媒体平台的搭建,非虚构写作却拥有了更多的发表阵地。近年来,如《时尚先生》《GQ智族》《南方人物周刊》《中国新闻周刊》《读库》《中国企业家》《单读》《博客天下》《Vista看天下》《中国青年报》《南方周末》等媒体为非虚构写作提供了发表通道。这些媒体中有报纸、杂志、图书,无一不提倡高质量的非虚构写作。与传统文学杂志相比较,上述媒体除了发行收益以外还有广告收入。另外,一些新媒体平台专门为非虚构写作而开发,如《人间》《正午故事》《有故事的人》《财新文化》《非虚构写作》《NONFICTION地平线》《谷雨故事》《人物》《为你写一个故事》提供非虚构写作的网络平台。这些平台各种传统渠道的兴起,为非虚构写作潮流的兴起起到了推波助澜的作用。
非虚构写作打破了专业的壁垒,让普通人成为写作的主题。传统文学写作主要由专业的作家主导,新闻写作主要由媒体的记者编辑主导。他们是专业的文本生产者,大众的定位是读者。近年来,非虚构写作不是专为职业作家与记者而准备着,业余的大众也可以参与到非虚构写作中,记录下自己身边的人事。《有故事的人》《全民故事计划》等非虚构写作平台都是为一般写作者书写自身故事提供的平台。《有故事的人》由凤凰网推出的非虚构写作平台,对非虚构写作的理念是“每个人都有故事,都可以写出故事”,并且认为非虚构写作者“可以来自名流,来自职业写作者,也完全可以来自贩夫走卒,升斗小民”。《全民故事计划》旨在“用真实故事,记录中国当下日常风貌,力图去发现并推出日常生活里打动人心的真实故事”。网易非虚构写作平台“人间”的“蓝衣坊”栏目设立了国内第一个专为一线打工者设立的写作工坊。从中我们既能看到从河北来京打工的郭福来,用独特的笔触写下身边那些“鼠辈”之友,也能看到来自原天津港务局消防支队队员,忍着悲痛记录下在那次浩劫中逝去的31个消防员兄弟。与专业文学创作、专业新闻写作相比,非虚构写作打破了写作的壁垒,推翻了写作的围墙,拆除了写作的藩篱,让普通人成为写作的参与者。
非虚构写作概念基于“事实”,采用讲故事的叙事方法反映真实的历史人物和事件。非虚构写作者努力观察、记录,通过把事实的细节和必要的文学推测相结合来生产具有启发性和潜在意义的文本。非虚构可以深刻揭示广泛社会生活领域的人物与事件,能够真实、及时、深刻甚至有趣地反映复杂多变的现实世界。喻国明教授认为:“非虚构呈现现实的手段,如果做得好的话,其实从很多角度看比虚构的手段更能产生震撼力,使得情景具有更巨大的力量,这是非虚构的力量。”
本书是《非虚构何以可能:中国优秀非虚构作家写作技巧访谈录》的第一辑,分别收录了柴春芽、陈徒手、关军、易小荷、刘珏欣、谢丁、卫毅、薛芳、王天挺、袁凌、张赞波、周华诚、阎海军、田毅14位非虚构作家的写作经验分享。他们身份、职业、旨趣各异,但在非虚构写作的创造性王国内,以自己的思考与写作实践开拓了非虚构写作社会功能与审美价值的无限可能,彰显了非虚构写作巨大的探索空间。这其中,关军、谢丁、刘珏欣、卫毅、薛芳、袁凌诸位是专业的新闻记者,尤其以特稿写作见长,但彼此关注领域较为悬殊。一些还在坚守传统媒体的优质内容写作,一些已经向其他的方位与深度拓展。张赞波、柴春芽、阎海军3位都有“触影”性质,这个“影”指的是纪录片。张赞波本质上是一位纪录片导演,但其“双媒叙事”的能力亦不负非虚构作家的称谓。柴春芽近年来向长篇的非虚构的方向发展,阎海军对西部农村的关注与写作独树一帜。陈徒手以其稳健的关注点、对档案的利用、淡泊的写作态度让人肃然起敬。易小荷是体育领域“讲故事”的能手,她以女性的视角让“体育报道”变为“体育故事”,让体育新闻拥有更多的社会与人性意义。田毅更是一位农村财税专家,他的写作在追求卓越专业水准的前提下追求卓越的故事化的表达。同时,他纯粹的写作态度更像是一个思想与表达的科学家。上述非虚构作家从不同方面丰富地勾勒出了非虚构写作的冰山一角,期望循着他们的脚印,有更多的优秀非虚构作家与作品的诞生,也期望本系列的第二辑尽快面世,能够为推动非虚构写作实践的发展竭尽微薄之力。
著者
2017年7月22日于陕西
In recent years, non-fiction writing has become a trend in China, from concept introduction to writing practice to writing movement. In terms of publishing media, a large number of news media such as Southern Weekly, China Youth Daily, Southern People Weekly, Zhi Clan, Esquire and China Entrepreneur are enthusiastic about non-fiction writing. Book series such as "Reading Library", "Single Reading" and "Noon Story" are committed to publishing and disseminating non-fiction works. New media platforms such as Tencent's "Guyu Documentary", NetEase's "Human World", Interface "Noon Story", Chinese Sandwich and Phoenix.com's "People with Stories" are designed to promote non-fiction. From the perspective of writing groups, in addition to professional journalists and independent writers engaged in non-fiction writing, a large number of amateur authors have joined the ranks of non-fiction writing, strengthening the power of non-fiction writing groups, and making non-fiction writing free from the limitations of professional journalists or writers, and becoming a writing movement in which both professional writers and amateur writers can participate. So, what exactly is non-fiction writing, how is it different from traditional fiction writing, and why is it becoming the darling of writing in China today. Nonfiction writing, as the name suggests, is the activity of writing based on the premise of "facts". Nonfiction writing has many aliases, such as New Journalism, Narrative Journalism, Literary News, Long News, Nonfiction Creative Writing, Feature Writing, etc. Nonfiction writing is not yet a rigorous, scientific, well-defined concept. The 2nd edition of Merriam-Webster defines nonfiction writing as a branch of literature whose content is based on reality and facts, and that deals with or provides ideas in the form of narrative prose, including biographies and historical articles, as opposed to fiction literature, and distinct from poetry and comedy. 3175048 American non-fiction writer Peter Hessler believes that "non-fiction is real and cannot be made up"3175049. Li Haipeng of China believes that "non-fiction writing" must meet the two criteria of "truth" and "literature", that is, everything that appears in the article must be true, including "real events", "real people" and "real phenomena". 3175050 addition, compared with traditional news writing's stylized and boring expression of "facts", non-fiction writing encourages writers to create freely and values the reader's reading experience. In The Art of Facts, the British literary critic Barbara Lounsberry articulated four characteristics of nonfiction writing: First, recordability. She argues that nonfiction comes from real-world "factual" records. Second, exhaustive research. Nonfiction writing establishes the credibility of a narrative through observations, investigations, interviews, and documentary verification. Third, the scene. Barbara Rawnsbury emphasized the importance of reconstructing the scene. Fourth, meticulous writing. Beautiful language is a literary feature of nonfiction writing. Although the expression varies, most writers agree that nonfiction writing should be based on the 3175051 of "real events". Non-fiction is not done in a confined space, but through in-depth interviews and complex material studies. The story in the non-fiction article must be true and contain facts that have been verified. Nonfiction writers can choose and organize facts to achieve a writing topic, but no matter how they are presented, the writer should write based on "facts". Under the strict adherence to the principle of "facts", non-fiction writing should also draw on the basic techniques of literary creation, such as scene setting, voice, details and character development. From the above, we can see that the concept of non-fiction writing refers to a literary creation activity based on "facts", which borrows the form of virtual dialogue and uses a storytelling narrative method to reflect real historical figures and events. As Yuan Ling said, non-fiction writing is writing that has both "literary significance" and "factual significance". 3175052 in terms of writing content, non-fiction writing includes biography writing, business writing, news writing, scientific writing, environmental writing, lifestyle writing, culinary writing, health writing, pet writing, handicraft writing, home decoration writing, tourism writing, religious writing, art writing, historical writing and other intersecting and different social life fields, some sociological academic works because of their strong narrative, such as "The Story of Lin Village", "Golden Wings", "Silver Wings", "Small Town Hustle" etc. can also be classified as non-fiction. Unlike fictional writing, which is based on "imagination", non-fiction writing constructs "authenticity" around "interviews". Real events, real experiences, real experiences are the basic requirements of non-fiction writing. Judging from the practice of non-fiction writing at home and abroad in recent years, compared with fictional literary writing, non-fiction writing has five characteristics: content authenticity, expression literature, formal narrative, immersion and thematic margin. These characteristics distinguish nonfiction writing from fictional texts, and are also the cause of the unique reading experience and aesthetic characteristics of nonfiction writing. Authenticity is the primary characteristic and basic criterion of non-fiction writing. American non-fiction writer He Wei said, "What fascinates nonfiction writing is precisely because it can't make up stories." It seems that this lacks more creative freedom and creativity than fiction writing, but it forces the author to dig hard for facts and gather information, and the creativity of non-fiction writing is contained here 3175053. Non-fiction writer Yuan Ling believes that "non-fiction provides a kind of vitality for literature, so that characters and stories have a certain positivity, reducibility, can correspond to specific environments, and retain reliable real experiences and living places." "3175054 excellent non-fiction works, such as Liang Hong's "Notes on Leaving Liang Zhuang", Ding Yan's "Factory Girl", Zhang Tonghe's "Working Girl", Yang Xianyi's "Remembering the Year with Leaky Ship and Wine", Yang Xianhui's "Chronicles of Jiabiangou", Yu Zhen's "Nie Qianbian Criminal File", and Qi Bangyuan's "Giant River" are all works based on reality. The success of these works is a testament to the power of "non-fiction". The improvement of non-fiction writing to rigorous, old-fashioned, restrained, and boring journalistic writing style is that it attaches special importance to the use of literary techniques. Non-fiction writing uses narrative and rhetorical writing strategies and methods, emphasizing dialogue, scenes, details and psychological depictions to enhance the experience and comprehensibility of the work. The main expression methods of non-fiction writing, such as details, dialogue, scene reconstruction, character psychological description, character relationship explanation, and even story conflict construction, etc., are the characteristics of almost all excellent non-fiction works. Non-fiction writer Chi Yuyu believes: "How to carry out a more effective narrative, non-fiction needs to present a large number of facts, such facts often cannot arouse everyone's interest and attention, many times the material cannot be dramatized, lack of conflict, and even only a list of numbers." At this time, we need to use the technique of fiction, a literary creation, the purpose is not to change the facts, but to improve the efficiency of reading. 3175055 in "China, Less Medicine", Murong Xuecun describes the details of the hardships of life in pyramid schemes: "The daily vegetable money per person is only three cents and five cents, and you can only buy some rotten soybean sprouts, you can't get more than one handful of rice per meal, it's covered with moldy black heart cotton, bathing is strictly forbidden, washing your face with only a little water, even the foam for brushing your teeth can't be wasted, all of them are poured into a sewage bucket and kept to flush the toilet." "3175056 The combined use of these techniques enhances the credibility and appeal of the work. Nonfiction often has good or even perfect storytelling textual characteristics. This feature is also an option to avoid generalization of the concept of nonfiction writing. Therefore, in general, all works based on "real" writing cannot be classified as non-fiction writing. An expository essay on the operation of a device or an academic paper on a scientific and technological invention, although it reflects "facts", cannot be called non-fiction because they are not narrative. Essentially, nonfiction writing utilizes some narrative strategies to report on people and events. These strategies include first-person narration, the development of characters and dialogue, the construction of conflict and tension, the reproduction of scenes of events, and the emphasis on language. Excellent works of nonfiction writing, such as The Siege of Miami and Chicago, Trek to Bethlehem, Exhilarating Doping Experiments, Dispatch, In El Salvador, Space Heroes, Fire on the Moon, Frank Sinatra Caught a Cold, and Radical Hipster all have superb narrative skills. Rigorous nonfiction writing activities require writers to have a solid and informative interview process. In order to write "The Age of Mass Extinction", "New Yorker" reporter Elizabeth Colbert personally visited the global ecological scene, through a large number of interviews and investigations, put forward the view that the world is facing the sixth mass extinction. Howard Griffin disguised himself as a black man for writing "Negroes Like Me" and repeatedly took buses through racist regions such as Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Even in New Orleans, Griffin passed through New Orleans twice as a black and white for an immersion experience. For his "Voices from Chernobyl", Russian non-fiction writer Alekseevich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, including residents, firefighters, historians, scientists, officials, family members of rescuers, photographers, etc. In order to write a book about psychoanalysis, American writer Janet Malcolm listened to the hours of treatment of strangers. Liang Hong traveled to 11 provinces and cities across the country in order to write "Notes on Liang Zhuang" and interviewed more than 340 people. Murong Xuecun risked his life to cover the pyramid scheme organization for 23 days in order to write "China, One Less Medicine", showing readers how pyramid schemes can seduce ordinary people. In recent years, from the perspective of the practice of non-fiction writing in global media, non-fiction writers attach importance to some marginal themes ignored under grand narratives, and like to write about the focus ignored by mainstream media. Liang Hong's "Liang Zhuang in China" meticulously describes the current situation of rural life, exposes real crisis problems such as rural management, education, left-behind children, and the elderly, and the spiritual crisis of the devastated Chinese villages, helpless rural cadres, left-behind children, left-behind elderly, and left-behind women, and the religious issues in the countryside are thought-provoking. Xiao Xiangfeng's "Southern Industrial Life" records the real life in the southern factory in the form of entries, and the panorama records the part-time working life of migrant workers and their inner world and spiritual level. Li Tiantian's "Blind Date" tells the story of an eight-year anti-Japanese war journey in which an older leftover girl is forced to go on a blind date. Zhang Chi's Family History of a Uyghur reflects many acute and real questions. Guan Jun is the author of "Big Footprints" and "No Aftermath is Great", focusing on the fate of ordinary people in the context of the big era, and excavating and pursuing human nature. Li Juan's "Sheep Road" trilogy describes scenery, customs, and contact with men and women on the ranch. Non-fiction writers also focus on the underclass, marginalized characters of society who are not widely noticed. Since the reform and opening up, Chinese society has undergone rapid changes. The colorful and complex social life in China provides material and soil for non-fiction writing, which is very similar to the social background of the rise of non-fiction writing in the United States. According to the American scholar John Hollowell, the great social changes in the United States in the fifties and sixties of the 20th century led to the emergence of non-fiction literature: "Everything seems to be changing at a rate ten times higher than in the past, and artists lack the ability to record and reflect the rapidly changing society... The moving nature of everyday events of this period has advanced to the novelist's imagination. 3175057 many non-fiction writers have a clear understanding of this and have a special expression. He Wei sees China as a "bonanza" for nonfiction writing. Feature writer Li Haipeng said: "There are so many real events happening in China every day, and many real themes can be born from them." Guan Jun, editor-in-chief of NetEase's "Human World", believes that China is now a "rich mine of news stories." The non-fiction writer Liang Hong's discourse is similar to that of John Hollowell. "In just over 30 years, we have almost completed 400 years of Western history, and under this huge transformation, Chinese life has experienced a roller coaster of vertigo and rapid change," she said. The bizarre reality often makes people feel strange, more unreal than the unreal, everyone is in a divided and divided life, pre-modern, modern, post-modern, several lives, pluralistic ideas coexist, just a wall, may be a completely different life and scene. "3175058 social phenomena brought about by great social changes are inexhaustible subjects for non-fiction writing. The decline of critical realism in contemporary Chinese literature is also an important factor driving the flourishing of non-fiction writing. There is a strong tradition of realism in modern and contemporary Chinese literature, and this tradition has encountered difficulties in contemporary times. The reasons for the dilemma are both the drawbacks caused by the writers' association system and the challenges to the ability of writers to understand the super-complexity of social phenomena. Yuan Ling believes that the reason for the decline of fictional literature is that it "emphasizes its narrative for a long time, emphasizes its fiction, looks good, avoids real experience, and finally becomes something that entertains itself" and becomes a 3175059 that "lacks meaning". In the face of drastic changes in Chinese society, traditional writers have no time to discover, insight, analyze, precipitate, summarize and refine real life, resulting in a lack of performance in literature to reflect real life in a timely, vivid, vivid and profound manner. Writer Wang Yuewen once pointed out in view of the drawbacks of ungrounded literature: "Literature must truly reflect life, literature must think about reality and historical issues, and literature must shoulder social responsibility." However 3175060 however, the status quo of most contemporary writers working behind closed doors, detached from life, and ungrounded is difficult to change. In addition, reportage, which has always been entrusted with the function of "reflecting reality", has also encountered problems such as stylistic aging, lack of authors, and commercial erosion in recent years. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, reportage has been welcomed by readers for its news, literary and critical nature. However, in the past two decades, the style of reportage has aged, and the investigation technique and expression method are single, which cannot meet the deep pursuit of facts by contemporary readers. Even some reportage has been reduced to a propaganda style, becoming a "praise draft", "praise literature" and "sales literature", and has lost its realistic criticism. Wei Yi, chief writer of Southern People Weekly, said: "Non-fiction writing is to remove the golden light behind the characters written in reportage. I think this is too graphic, the reportage we see is all bling, with its own halo, non-fiction writing is to remove the 'golden light' that people have installed, to see what this character really is, this may be an angle of understanding. Li Jingze, a literary critic 3175061, believes that "in this era of massive information emergence, on the one hand, we know too much about the world, but on the other hand, we actually know little or even nothing about the world. What is fake? At the same time, we also want our understanding of the world to be not just fragmentary and fragmentary, but deep and concrete. We are able to understand the richness of the world and the richness of people in depth and concretely on a real level"3175062. Traditional news texts are good at relaying the skeleton and frame of news events in broad lines. The subject matter of news in news writing is a typical representative of the way of news writing. Generally speaking, news writing adheres to the 5W news writing rules. Specifically, news writing needs to explain "5W+1H", that is, who (Who), when (When), where (Where), what (What), why (Why) and how the process (How) and other factual elements are in other words, people, time, place, cause, process, and result. As long as the above factual elements are explained, regardless of readability, it is a qualified piece of news. This kind of orientation of news writing often sees "things" but not "people", and the situation of people in news stories and the larger cultural system background that restricts people's fate are not presented. This kind of news writing orientation cannot explain the complexity of news figures and news events, and does not help readers build a systematic understanding of people and events. Non-fiction writing makes up for this limitation, and investigative reports, explanatory reports, character features, event features, and long reports in the non-fiction writing genre spare no effort to explore the richer meaning behind news figures and news events under the premise of adhering to the "authenticity" of news, so that readers can realize the complexity of the world, so as to put an end to simplistic, flat, and symbolic interpretation of the world, and reach the real "real" realm. In the United States, although nonfiction writing has been around as a literary form for a long time, it has long been considered a writing bridge between fiction and poetry, rather than an equivalent way of writing. Novelists consider it to be the upper class of literature. They believe that the role of journalists is to dig up information materials and inspire writers. However, in recent years, writers' symposia, writers' conferences, creative writing projects have sprung up, and nonfiction writing has been published in a growing number of media outlets such as The Fourth Genre, River's Teeth, Nonfiction Writing, The Georgia Review, and The New York Times. The outstanding work of creators of nonfiction writing has strengthened the position of nonfiction writing. Some outstanding works have impressed fiction writers and readers have flocked to them. Travel essays such as Peter Mayer's A Year in Provence, Francis Mays' Under the Tuscan Sun, popular science books such as Deva Sobel's Longitude: The Man Who Sought the Earth's Scale, historical records such as Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman, nature reportage such as John Collecow's Wilderness Survival and Sebastian Jungger's The Perfect Storm, crime documentaries such as John Berrant's Garden of Good and Evil, and memoirs such as Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Mary Carr's Liars Club, among others, have raised the visibility of nonfiction as a literary form. 3175063 in China, the non-fiction writing movement is closely related to the introduction and development of Western feature writing by journalism. The first use of the term non-fiction was mainly a group of journalists who had originally focused on feature stories. However, with the drastic changes in the way of print media communication and the decline of the entire industry ecology, most of these journalists have left the media within the system to continue to pursue their dreams of writing, and vigorously promoted the concept of non-fiction writing in the fields of magazine news production and new media content production. In recent years, with the rise of modern news media, the establishment of business magazines, the growth of Sino-foreign joint venture lifestyle magazines, and the construction of new media platforms, non-fiction writing has more publishing positions. In recent years, media such as "Esquire", "GQ Zhiclan", "Southern People Weekly", "China Newsweekly", "Yoku", "Chinese Entrepreneur", "Single Reading", "Blog World", "Vista See the World", "China Youth Daily", "Southern Weekly" and other media have provided publishing channels for non-fiction writing. These media include newspapers, magazines, books, and all of them promote high-quality non-fiction writing. Compared with traditional literary magazines, these media have advertising revenue in addition to distribution revenue. In addition, some new media platforms are specially developed for non-fiction writing, such as "The World", "Noon Story", "People with Stories", "Caixin Culture", "Nonfiction Writing", "NONFICTION Horizon", "Gu Yu Story", "People", "Write a Story for You" to provide an online platform for non-fiction writing. The rise of traditional channels on these platforms has contributed to the rise of the non-fiction writing trend. Non-fiction writing breaks down professional barriers and makes ordinary people the subject of writing. Traditional literary writing is mainly dominated by professional writers, and news writing is mainly led by journalists and editors of the media. They are professional text producers, and the masses are positioned as readers. In recent years, non-fiction writing has not been designed for professional writers and journalists, but the amateur public can also participate in non-fiction writing and record the people around them. Non-fiction writing platforms such as "People with Stories" and "National Story Project" are all platforms for ordinary writers to write their own stories. "People with Stories" is a non-fiction writing platform launched by Phoenix.com, the concept of non-fiction writing is that "everyone has a story and can write a story", and believes that non-fiction writers "can come from celebrities, from professional writers, and can also come from peddlers' pawns, and promote small people". The National Story Project aims to "record the current daily style of China with true stories, and strive to discover and launch real stories that move people's hearts in daily life". The "Blue Clothes Workshop" column of NetEase's non-fiction writing platform "Human World" has set up the first writing workshop in China for front-line migrant workers. From this, we can not only see Guo Fulai, who came to Beijing from Hebei to work part-time, writing down the friends of the "rat generation" around him with unique brushstrokes, but also seeing the former fire brigade members from the Tianjin Port Authority, enduring grief and recording the 31 firefighter brothers who died in the disaster. Compared with professional literary creation and professional news writing, non-fiction writing breaks down the barriers of writing, overthrows the walls of writing, tears down the barriers of writing, and allows ordinary people to become participants in writing. The concept of non-fiction writing is based on "facts" and uses a storytelling narrative approach to reflect real historical figures and events. Nonfiction writers strive to observe, document, and produce illuminating and potentially meaningful texts by combining factual details with necessary literary speculation. Non-fiction can profoundly reveal people and events in a wide range of social life, and can reflect the complex and changeable real world in a real, timely, profound and even interesting way. Professor Yu Guoming believes: "The means of presenting reality by non-fiction, if done well, can actually produce more shocking power than fictional means from many angles, making the situation have greater power, which is the power of non-fiction." "3175064 non-fiction works have different reading values than fiction literature, the former focuses on excavating social and historical truth, and the latter is biased towards transcendence and aesthetics. Non-fiction writing has a rich reading experience that surpasses traditional news writing, and is more readable, rich and inspiring than traditional news writing. The rise of non-fiction writing in China reflects readers' dissatisfaction with the sharpness, breadth and depth of traditional realist literature reflecting social life, and their desire for a new way of writing to reflect the current social life in China, as well as the idea that media people and ordinary people want to record life, understand life and reflect on life. Today, with the highly developed online media, non-fiction works have more channels for publication and dissemination, and the writing activities of ordinary people provide a continuous source of stories for non-fiction writing. In this sense, what is about to unfold in the field of writing may be a "new record movement" about the world of words. This book is the first series of "Why Nonfiction is Possible: Interviews with China's Outstanding Nonfiction Writers on Writing Skills", which includes the writing experience of 14 non-fiction writers, including Chai Chunya, Chen Jianshou, Guan Jun, Yi Xiaohe, Liu Juexin, Xie Ding, Wei Yi, Xue Fang, Wang Tianting, Yuan Ling, Zhang Zanbo, Zhou Huacheng, Yan Haijun, and Tian Yi. They have different identities, occupations, and interests, but in the creative kingdom of non-fiction writing, their own thinking and writing practices have opened up the infinite possibilities of the social function and aesthetic value of non-fiction writing, highlighting the huge exploration space of non-fiction writing. Among them, Guan Jun, Xie Ding, Liu Juexin, Wei Yi, Xue Fang, and Yuan Ling are professional journalists, especially known for their feature writing, but their areas of concern are quite different. Some are still sticking to the high-quality content writing of traditional media, and some have expanded to other directions and depths. Zhang Zanbo, Chai Chunya, and Yan Haijun all have the nature of "touch shadow", and this "shadow" refers to the documentary. Zhang Zanbo is essentially a documentary filmmaker, but his ability to "dual-media storytelling" lives up to the title of non-fiction writer. In recent years, Chai Chunya has developed in the direction of long-form non-fiction, and Yan Haijun's attention and writing about the western countryside are unique. Chen is awe-inspiring with his steady focus, use of archives, and indifferent writing attitude. Yi Xiaohe is an expert in "storytelling" in the field of sports, and she turns "sports reporting" into "sports stories" from a woman's perspective, so that sports news has more social and human significance. Tian Yi is also a rural finance and taxation expert, and his writing pursues excellent storytelling under the premise of pursuing excellent professional standards. At the same time, his pure writing attitude is more like that of a scientist of thought and expression. The above-mentioned non-fiction writers have richly outlined the tip of the iceberg of non-fiction writing from different aspects, and it is hoped that more excellent non-fiction writers and works will be born in their footprints, and that the second series of this series will be released as soon as possible, which can make a small contribution to promoting the development of non-fiction writing practice. The author was in Shaanxi on July 22, 2017(AI翻译)
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