Starting 王朔

[roddy]

Following recent discussions in these very pages, I've decided I'd like to tackle a bit of Wang Shuo. Can anyone more familiar with his work recommend somewhere to start - what's most accessible? And equally important, what's short and available in electronic format?

Thanks in advance.

Roddy

[gato]

I think pretty much everything he's written is available online. See http://www.shuku.net:8080/novels/wangshuo/wangshuo.html

I've read just two of his stories. "一半是火焰,一半是海水" is a funny, slacker-crime/love story. The first half is especially good. "空中小姐" is kind of a formulaic slacker love story, with a surprising amount of party dogma.

I would recommend "一半是火焰,一半是海水". It's not that long, about 50 pages if you print it out. http://www.shuku.net:8080/novels/wangshuo/huoyanhaishui.html

It's been adapted into a movie called "Love the Hardway", starring Adrian Brody (star of "The Pianist").

His "动物凶猛" might also be interesting if you've seen Jiang Wen's movie adaption "In the Heat of Sun." I haven't read it, yet.

[zhwj]

《顽主》 is great fun, about a "' 三Ｔ'公司 - 替人解难替人解闷替人受过' (made into a straightforward movie adaptation, and then later used by Feng Xiaogang for 《甲方乙方》 with Ge You). It's pretty short.

《千万别把我当人》 is great satire in an Ah-Q vein. It's longer though, and available in translation, but always worth reading in the original, if only for stuff like this:

元豹妈念念有词地又哭又唱着，向大胖子致词，“敬爱的英明的亲爱的先驱者开拓者设计师明灯方炬照妖镜打狗棍爹妈爷爷奶奶老祖宗老猿猴老太上老君王皇大帝观音菩萨总司令，您日理万机千辛万苦积重难返积劳成疾积习我癖肩挑重担腾云驾雾天马行空扶危济贫匡扶正义去恶除邪次风湿次虚寒壮阳补肾补脑补养肝调胃解痛镇咳通大便百忙……

and it goes on for the better part of a page. Lots of tricks like that.

《动物凶猛》 is short, too, but the movie's pretty faithful to the book, so if you've seen it, this might not be the best one to start with.

[xiaoxiajenny]

I only know 过把瘾

http://www.kehuan999.com/xdwx/wangsuo/

http://www.dragonsource.com/gb/asp/viewbook.asp?isbn=7-80100-664-X

http://wenxue.lycos.com.cn/news/wangshuo.html

《王朔的作品》--王小波

与王朔有关的影视作品我看了一些，有的喜欢，有的不喜欢。有些作品里带点乌迪·艾伦的风格，这是我喜欢的。有些作品里也冒出些套话，这就没法喜欢。总的来说，他是有艺术成就的，而且还不小；当然，和乌迪·艾伦的成就相比，还有不小的距离。现在他受到一些压力，说他的作品没有表达真善美，不够崇高等等。对此我倒有点看法。

有件事大家可能都知道：艺术的标准在世界上各个地方是不同的。以美国的标准为例，到了欧洲就会被视为浅薄。我知道美国有部格调高尚的片子，说上帝本人来到了美国，变成了一个和蔼可亲的美国老人，到处去助人为乐；听见别人顺嘴溜出一句：感谢上帝……就接上一句：不客气！相信这个故事能使读者联想到一些国产片。这种片子叫欧洲人，尤其是法国人看了，一定会觉得浅薄。法国人对美国电影的看法是：除了乌迪·艾伦的电影，其它通通是狗屎一堆。相反，一些优秀的欧洲电影，美国人却没有看过。比方说，我小时看过一些极出色的意大利电影，如<<罗马十一时>>之类，美国人连听都没听说过。为此我请教过意大利人，他们皱着鼻子说道：美国人看我们的电影？他们看不懂！把知识分子扣除在外，仅就一般老百姓而论，欧洲人和美国人在文化上有些差异：欧洲、尤其是南欧的老百姓喜欢深刻的东西，美国人喜欢浅薄的东西；这一点连后者自己也是承认的。这种区别是因为欧洲有历史，美国没有历史所致。因为有这种区别，所以对艺术的认识也有深浅的不同。假定你有深刻的认识，对浅薄的艺术就会视为庸俗──这正是欧洲人对美国电影的看法。现在来谈谈我们中国人民是哪一种人。我毫不怀疑，因为有五千年的文明史，我们是全世界最深刻的人民。这一点连自以为深奥的欧洲人也是承认和佩服的。我在国外时，从电视上看到这样一件事：美籍华人建筑师贝先生主持了卢浮宫改造工程；法国人不服，有人说：美国人有什么文化？凭什么来动我们的卢浮宫？对此，贝先生从容答道：我有文化，我是中国人哪；对方也就哑口无言了。顺便说说，乌迪·艾伦的电影，充满了机智、反讽，在美国电影里是绝无仅有的。这也难怪，他虽是美国籍，却是犹太人，犹太文化当然不能小看。他的电影，能搞到手的我都看过，我觉得他不坏；但对我来说，还略嫌浅薄。略嫌浅薄的原因除中华文化比犹太文化历史悠久之外，还有别的。这也难怪，在美国的中国人当时不过百万，作为观众为数太少；他也只能迁就一下一般浅薄的美国观众。正因为中国的老百姓有历史、有文化、很深刻，想在中国搞出正面讴歌的作品可不容易啊；无论是美国导演还是欧洲导演，哪怕是犹太导演，对我们来说，都太浅薄。我认为，真善美是一种老旧的艺术标准；新的艺术标准是：搞出漂亮的、有技巧的、有能力的东西。批判现实主义是艺术的一支，它就不是什么真善美。王朔的东西在我看来基本属于批判现实主义，乌迪·艾伦也属这一类。这一类的艺术只有成熟和深刻的观众才能欣赏。在我看来，所谓真善美就是一种甜腻腻的正面描写，在一个成熟的现代国度里，一流的艺术作品没有不包括一点批判成份的。因此，从批判转入正面歌颂往往意味着变得浅薄。王朔和他的创作集体在影视圈、乃至文化圈里都是少数派。对于上述圈子里的多数派，我有这样一种意见：现在中青年文化人之大多数，对文化的一般见识，比之先辈老先生们，不唯没有提高，反而大幅度下降。为了防止激起众怒，我要声明：我自己尤其远不如老先生们。五六十年代的意大利的优秀电影一出现，老先生们就知道是好东西，给予＂批判现实主义杰作＂的美誉。现在的文化人不要说这种见识，连这样的名词都不知道，只会把＂崇高＂之类的名词径直讲出口来，也不怕直露。当然，大家不乏讴歌主旋律的决心，但能力，或者乾脆说是才能，始终是个主要问题。多数的影视作品善良的创作动机是不容怀疑的，但都不好看。在此情况下，应该想到自己的艺术标准浅于大众；和有五千年文明史的中国人民之一般水平不符，宜往深处开掘──不要看不起小市民，也不要看不起芸芸众生。毛主席曾言：高贵者最愚蠢，卑贱者最聪明。你搞出的影视作品让人家看了身上爆起三层鸡皮疙瘩，谁聪明谁笨，也就不言自明。搞影视的人常抱怨老百姓口味太刁；这意思无非是说老百姓太聪明，自己太笨。我倒觉得不该这样子不打自招，这就显得更笨了。我觉得王朔过去的反嘲、反讽风格，使我们能见到深一层的东西。最近听说他要改变风格，向主流靠拢，倒使我感到忧虑。王朔是个聪明人。根据我的人生经验，假如没有遇上车祸，聪明人很不容易变笨。可能他想要耍点小聪明，给自己的作品披上一层主旋律的外衣，故作崇高之状。但是，中国人都太聪明，耍小聪明骗不了谁，只能骗骗自己。就拿他最近的的<<红樱桃>>来说，虽然披了一层主旋律的外衣，其核心内容和美国电影<<九周半>>还是一类。把这些不是一类的东西嫁接在一起，看上去真是不伦不类。照这个样子搞下去，广电部也未必会给他什么奖励，还要丢了观众。两样都没得到，那才叫倒霉。

[gato]

与王朔有关的影视作品我看了一些，有的喜欢，有的不喜欢。有些作品里带点乌迪·艾伦的风格，这是我喜欢的。有些作品里也冒出些套话，这就没法喜欢。总的来说，他是有艺术成就的，而且还不小；当然，和乌迪·艾伦的成就相比，还有不小的距离。

I read this before. I thought his comparing Wang Shuo to Woody Allen was a little odd. Wang Shuo is more like Charles Bukowski, or maybe Jack Kerouac, in his urban grittiness and his choice of subject matter.

Wang Xiaobo himself is closer to Woody Allen in his more intellectual sense of humor. They both have a tendency to make allusions to philosophers.

[Chunn]

Very appriciates your move, Roddy.

Waiting to see what you get from this approach.

[BeijingSlacker]

《千万别把我当人》(Please Don't Call me Human) has the funniest language I've ever read or heard in my life. I remember myself laughing so hard for so long that my stomach hurt for hours. However, I would not suggest any language learner start Chinese literature with it. Non-native speakers (except for people like Dashan) probably would not be able to fully appreciate Wangshuo's genius in playing with words. The novel also requires a lot of culture references ( e.g. slogans and language used in Cultural Revolution) as every line of the novel is mocking something.

一半是火焰,一半是海水 is an alright one. Wangshuo does not like it himself.

空中小姐 is kind of crap. He has on many occasions said the novel is crap.

Hell, I don't know what I would recommend. Maybe 我是你爸爸 is easier to read as it is more about human nature, which can be universial, than mocking every aspect of Chinese society and culture.

Also, Roddy, you might not want to read the online ones as they are full of typos, lots of which even Chinese would not be able to decipher.

[roddy]

Ok, based on the above, I'm going to start with 一半是火焰,一半是海水. If I cope ok with that, I might come back and tackle 千万别把我当人, and just pretend I get all the cultural references.

Loading up my PDA now. I was going to read Wang Xiaobo's 2015 today, but everyone I've mentioned it to doesn't seem to rate it very highly, so I'll have a shot at a bit of Wang Shuo instead.

It's entirely possible I won't get very far - might just not like the story, language might be too tricky for me to enjoy it, I might get distracted by something bright and shiny. Will report back.

[roddy]

Well, got through the first chapter

It's easy enough to read, and I'm kind of curious as to what's going to happen, so I'll keep going. If anyone is interested, I made notes as I went through the first chapter and I'll put this into a word document you can download. As is usual for me, I got a lot lazier towards the end. I'm not going to continue making the notes, as it slows things down massively.

Roddy

PS from the second chapter

"吼”派的诗 - A pun on Confucius?

[gato]

"吼”派的诗 - A pun on Confucius?

I did a little research. 吼 is pronounced hou3 and means to howl. I think it refers to poems that emote excessively, which makes sense in this context. The very sentence is 一个潇洒的男大学生讲到青年人应该如何培育浇灌“爱情之花”.

Here're someone's comments on Wang Shuo's stories, including the one you're reading. It seems interesting.

http://www.boxun.com/freethinking/wytxt/ludi/ld068.htm

末世颓声──小议王朔小说

[roddy]

I did a little research

You mean you looked it up in the dictionary, something I couldn't be bothered to do

Boxun is blocked from within China (or at least it's blocked from my apartment, I won't speak for the nation). Will muck around with proxies later, on my way out now. Thanks.

Roddy

[gato]

Oh, touché. See attached for the essay on Wang Shuo.

[Outofin]

I'm a true fan of Wang Shuo. I read his every novel that I could find.

His early works were mostly in 2 categoris: farce and romance. 顽主 was my favorite and 一点正经没有 was equally funny. He also randomly wrote some strange short novels that were very interesting but made me wonder why he came up with those ideas. He did pratice various writing techniques.

I don't clearly remember since when he changed his style. He stopped writing the genres that made him famous and rich. He became a very serious writer. In my opinion: 玩的就是心跳 is truly a masterpiece. I can't count how many times I've read it. I read it every a few years.

I'd better to mention 动物凶猛 here. Based on the novel, Jiang Wen made a movie 阳光灿烂的日子, which I loved a lot.

我是你爸爸 is well recognized by many professional writers and critics. Of course I can see this is quite a literature work. But I don't quite get it. Maybe it's just because that's not my life.

This guy is very smart. Beside that, he's shameless and sensitive. So he does have some good qualities to be a great writer. I've said he's made him famous and rich. But he still needs a novel to make his name in history. I can see he's working on it very hard recent years. But, no, 看上去很美 is just not enough.

[roddy]

If I hadn't been somewhat cavalier and assumed that 孔 and 吼 were the same pronunciation I might have got somewhere. Thanks for the help, and the essay.

Outofin, thanks for your comments - will help me choose what to read next.

Roddy

[BeijingSlacker]

http://www.shikang.org/article.php/76 王朔 -- 石康

谈到当代中国作家，王朔是无法绕过的，最起码我是这么认为的。

在我的写作生涯中，中国有两个作家是我一直关注的，第一个王朔，第二个是王小波，可惜，王小波过早地离开了人世，离开了他辛苦耕耘的文坛，对于王小波，我想我要单谈，而王朔还活着，还有创作能力，还在创作，我认为，王朔不止对于我是个重要的作家，对于很多热情而真挚的读者也一样，他的文风十分轻松，小说写得生动迷人，立场十分鲜明，由于真诚，有些还令人相当感动，我认为，他是中国第一个能把小说写成这样的人，他的故事中除了缺乏信念，以及对信念的讨论以外，我认为他在各方面都堪与狄更斯毛姆这类文人相提并论，不幸的是，我在报纸杂志上看到对他的评论，更多地忽视了他的文学，而把话题直指他的个人生活，以及写作态度，这是有欠公正的。

我想王朔有一个其它作家十分缺乏是东西，那就是有趣，通过那种有趣，他有一说一，有二说二，把自己想到的都告诉大家，并听凭大家的批判，这是难能可贵的，从他的小说里，细心的读者也能看到他鲜明的个性，这在别的小说里是不多见的，我一般看小说有无价值，最先看到的就是通过小说，能否一下子认出小说背后那个作者，那个作者喜欢什么，讨厌什么，是否有趣，是否有头脑，这在小说中完全可以一目了然，小说作者往往凭这个来吸引读者，无个性的作者彼此雷同，读他们的小说会有一种十分熟悉的大路货的感受，比如，我读余华或苏童的小说，就觉不出小说背后的作者有何特点，顶多就是那么个写故事写得比较熟练的人，他们与老百姓的性格特点没有什么区别，因而无法吸引我看下去，因此，当然，他们在我眼里，他们就成为一种文体作家，文体作家在我眼里，是一种实验小说形式的作家，以便让别的小说作者看一看，自己实验出的文体能经得住什么内容，让以后的作家有个参照，知道故事还能那样写。

当然，小说家中也有有追求的，他们试图在思想上也有所表达或发现，像伏尔泰之类，但是，能够具有这种水平的作家太少了，因为具有思想，无疑是知识分子的事，小说家中极少有知识分子，小说家往往以故事取胜，事实上，作为给大众解闷的小说家，真诚、感人、生动、有趣才是第一位的，我想王朔就具有上面的特点

在国内，除王朔外，恐怕真心说自己的坏话作家并不多，而那些所谓好作家的才能与王朔是无法相提并论的，他们真就那么好吗？他们对别人没有不好的看法吗？我看未必，只是那些人不说而已，我看到，但凡一个作家谈到别人时，都采取遮遮掩掩的态度，要不就是胡说吹乱捧，我曾看到余华谈到博尔赫斯与鲁迅时，把两人分别说成是白天与黑夜，想想看，这是什么意思？我把白天换成屎，把黑夜换成尿，余华的谈论照样成立，并且，毫不影响他的谈论内容，为什么？就是因为他在胡说八道，没有具体所指，缺乏内容与个性，总之是模模糊糊，也不知说些什么，而从王朔的谈论里，我就看不到这种情况他的观点很清楚，他就是那么认为的，从他的态度里，你可以看出他是如何想问题的，他是如何把他的想法明确地告诉别人的，他的判断十分明白，他批评别人，一点也不拖泥带水，同时，也批评自己，不仅如此，他还分析原因，指出自己为什么会这样，这本是每一个作家都应做到的事，奇怪的是，在中国，这件事就只有王朔在做，能做，那么，别的作家是否都比王朔高尚呢？我的答案是，可能有，但很少，但有一点是确定的，那就是别的作家都没有王朔真诚。

[Outofin]

石康, the name makes me think of 石老康有为 in 我们都去海拉尔. The book is about the 圈子 (community) of many well known writers. The book reads like some true stories. 王朔 is 王逆 in the book. It's pretty funny. I think the their lives are very very unhealthy.

[roddy]

Finished 一半是火焰,一半是海水 today.

I enjoyed it. Language is quite managable - some descriptive passages where I either had to rely on the dictionary or guess, but the narrative stuff is all fairly straightforward.

I found the second part much more enjoyable than the first (which I think it the opposite to someone else who posted here, can't recall who). First part was entertaining enough, but I didn't really warm to the characters - the bad guy is just plain bad, and the good girl is just plain good (until she becomes just plain bad and everything goes predictably wrong). I didn't feel there was much depth there.

However, the second part really grabbed me, and I found Hu Yi much more interesting than the first part's Wu Di. The story's anti-hero also manages to become a bit more of a hero, and I found the descriptions of the island (Putuoshan, I'm guessing) really vivid - almost otherworldly in comparison to the Beijing of the first part, with temples and Buddhas hanging around all over the place, perhaps weighing up the characters karma.

Obviously, I haven't read any of his other stuff, so I shouldn't really comment, but I reckon this is a good place to start with Wang Shuo - manageable enough both in terms of length and language, and interesting enough to keep you going and hopefully bring you onto some of his other work, which is by all accounts better.

Many thanks to all those who gave suggestions / comments - and please, what should I read next? I'm very tempted by 千万别把我当人.

Roddy

[Chunn]

I have read a book of 石康 called 支离破碎 (I translated it as 'Torn to pieces'), a story about a young writer in Beijing. Like a stream of one conciousness, long descriptive sentences, lots of sarcasm and words play, and also many details about Beijing city. He mention about 王朔 in the story too. I will post it after I found where it is.

I found it ...

“你爱看王朔吗？”

“王朔的书我看过一半吧。”

“怎么样？”

“够贫的。”

“你说王朔是同性恋吗？”

“不知道，没听人说起过。”

“我上学的时候，特爱看王朔小说，我们宿舍有一个女孩，睡我上铺，看王朔简直看疯了，一会儿哭一会笑，跟个疯子似的，她长得挺漂亮的，那时候她要是遇上王朔，肯定会跟他睡觉，你信吗？”

“我不知道。”

“你以后不许写王朔那种书骗小姑娘，听见了吗？”

“我不会写他那种书。”

I’m not sure what did he mean for 够贫的 , is it "poor enough"?