The ＂anonymous writer program＂ award was announced. Is it possible to just look at the works without asking their names？
On the 15th, the activity of "Paying tribute to anonymity with transparency-unveiling the first prize of’ Carp Anonymous Writer Program’" co-sponsored by Utopia, Carp and Tencent was held in Beijing. The final judging panel, composed of Su Tong, Ge Fei and Bi Feiyu, brought the short stories of six anonymous writers who were shortlisted into the judges’ secret room and made detailed comments on each work. This literary circle initiated in the first half of 2018, "masked singers will guess", finally revealed the final answer.
After the two-hour selection session in the Chamber of Secrets, three final judges announced the final award-winning result-the work "Fairy Disease" by anonymous writer 011 won the first prize with two votes. Zheng Zhi, the author of Fairy Disease and a young writer, made his first appearance at the award ceremony. He said that he had no chance to enter the literary world of serious literature and had never published an article, but he let readers know himself through the "anonymous writer plan". The identities of other contestants, who have been kept secret for nearly a year, were also revealed after the awards were announced, including Ban Yu, author of Sea Fog, Yan Lianke, author of Believers, Yi Yan, author of How Did We Get Here, Wu Chun, author of Girls and the Sea of Consciousness, and Ma Boyong, author of BuMawei.
The "Anonymous Writer Project" aims to create a literary fight between outstanding novelists. Under the condition of unlimited subject matter, age and gender, contestants only need to abide by one rule-they must present their short stories anonymously and leave their works to the readers for trial. The selection committee consists of five preliminary judges and three final judges.
At the scene of the anonymous writer’s unveiling activity, the secret room discussion of the final evaluation judges was presented to the audience in the form of live broadcast. During this process, Zhang Yueran, the initiator of the anonymous writer plan and editor-in-chief of Carp, and the guest Zhi ‘an discussed the original intention of the activity, the interesting things behind the selection and the significance of anonymity in the form of dialogue.
From "pawn" to everyone: mask off, colorful
In the final review session, the work No.011 "Fairy Disease" won the most praise from three judges. Apart from the fascinating regional color and special daily ecology at the beginning of the novel, Bi Feiyu commented that the language of "Fairy Disease" was "dirty, rough and rambling", but it was very "characteristic and powerful". Su Tong also affirmed the literary contribution of this novel from a more macro perspective: "Fairy Disease is the most similar one I have ever seen in China to write about mental patients. It is well written, and the author is biased, but the ending is just right."
Although his works have been well received by many readers, Zheng Zhi, who won the first prize, is a "stranger" in the literary circle. He was born in Shenyang. He left his hometown at the age of 19 and worked as a Hong Kong drifter for 10 years. Then he went to Taiwan Province and came to Beijing only two years ago. When he took the stage to accept the prize, Zheng Zhi confessed that he was "very nervous". He said that he once gave up the road of serious literature for a living, and he was very grateful to the "anonymous writer plan" for providing him with the possibility of being seen by readers. "I didn’t have the opportunity to step into the literary world of serious literature before, nor did I publish articles in well-known magazines, so this is almost my first time. Many (famous) writers want to take this opportunity to let everyone know themselves again, but I just want to take this opportunity to get to know you for the first time. "
First prize winner Zheng ZhiAmong the finalists and award-winning authors, there are not only new faces like Zheng Zhi who are not well known to most people, but also many professional writers who have published many novels. For example, the anonymous writer No.014, The Great Ape, is written by Lu, and the author of No.019, The Martial Artist, which has caused heated speculation and even disputes among readers, is Shuang Xuetao. Some readers once speculated that the author of this article was Xu Haofeng, and judge Su Tong joked at the scene that Shuang Xuetao
The revelation of the anonymous writer No.003 and the author of The Believer shocked the readers present. When the writer Yan Lianke connected to the scene, he said that he was not invited to participate in this anonymous writing project, but he "strongly requested to participate" and it didn’t matter whether he was eliminated or not, and he hoped that this activity could continue. The novel Bu Mawei, written by anonymous writer No.031, was once recognized by many readers as the work of a young woman writer because of its delicate feelings. When the host announced that the author of the novel was Ma Boyong, the atmosphere at the scene was pushed to another climax.
From signature to anonymity: return to the original point and only look at the works.
At the beginning of June, at the press conference with the theme of "the meaning of anonymity", Zhang Yueran, the founder, said that the inspiration of the "anonymous writer plan" came from her own writing experience-the famous writers benefited from and were subject to their own names, and they hardly faced the embarrassment of being rejected, but it was also difficult to escape the "stereotyped" public prejudice; For writers who are not famous, the unfair distribution of resources makes their works difficult to be seen by the public. Therefore, the "anonymous writer plan" aims to "return to an original point, only look at the works, not the writers".
At the day before yesterday’s event, Zhang Yueran reviewed the course of the competition in the past six months. She thought that although this plan lasted too long in the eyes of many people, it was because of the long time span that many outstanding works were waiting. The success of the "Anonymous Writer Project" also responded to the initial intention of the activity. Zhang Yueran mentioned that the charm of the text itself should be rediscovered with the attitude of resisting the celebrity effect, and the value of the work should be determined by words rather than names.
Zhian also said that "anonymity" is the most ideal way to read, "which can get rid of people’s snobs." Even if the writer is the object or acquaintance he admires, these influencing factors are hidden by the curtain of "anonymity". In this way, "all authors are anonymous authors, and all books are new books, so the evaluation of literary works can reach the greatest degree of justice."
Elena ferrante, the author of "Napoli Tetralogy" and an Italian anonymous writer, also mentioned that "anonymity" not only provides readers with the possibility to talk about pure literary works, but also provides writers with the opportunity to "transcend their own boundaries" by separating their names from works. In the process of communicating with the authors, Zhang Yueran also learned that many people would like to hide their original style and try to write with an unrecognized face. The form of "anonymity" provides these writers with a strange battlefield, where they put on masks and try to open up their new writing territory.
Zhang Yueran, founder of the anonymous writer programThe "anonymous" competition mechanism has also brought many unexpected surprises to sponsors and readers, and even writing the author’s gender has become a mystery worthy of discussion. Zhang Yueran mentioned, "We usually think that the barriers between male writers and female writers are quite insurmountable, but through anonymity, we find that this is not the case. Some works are indeed albert nobbs." After the name disappeared, many prejudices in evaluating the works on weekdays became apparent, and the solidified thinking of gender, age and region was broken one by one. "In fact, we still want to open more borders. For example, one of the contestants of this anonymous writer is Japanese. He wrote a novel in Chinese. But no reader recognizes that this is a novel written by a foreigner. " She revealed part of the ambition of the "anonymous writer plan". "We also want to invite AI to write novels, but it seems that robot Xiao Bing can only write poems."
When exposure has become an important condition to judge a writer, "anonymity", as a writing and reading mechanism that goes against the mainstream, has also caused some controversy. Zhi ‘an put forward creatively that "blind evaluation" is also a test for critics and editors, "in his view," if there are already established good works in the alternative works, I will be very cautious when judging, because that is the one that should be evaluated most. " Zhang Yueran has different views on this. She believes that some works should be viewed in the writer’s creative pedigree to know what his creative intention is, so that the charm of the works can be better presented. "Anonymity" provides a possibility to return to the text itself, which examines our instinctive reaction, and the frank discussion of the work can only take place on the premise of anonymity.
From competition to adventure: literary charm stems from differences
When the author’s name is hidden, the discussion on the standard of literature quality naturally becomes the most important, which is also the biggest point of view in the selection of the secret room: the evaluation of each work is a fierce confrontation of views.
Su Tong, Ge Fei and Bi Feiyu reviewed the site.Su Tong, Ge Fei and Bi Feiyu discussed "what qualities a good work should have" when selecting Bu Mawei and Xian Zheng. Ge Fei thinks that the reading experience brought by Bu Mawei is the most comfortable and pleasant, but he also points out the limitations of the work-the narrative method is too old and lack of challenge. Although the work is highly completed, it does not bring him a sense of enlightenment after reading it. Ge Fei said, "I value the works that are challenging, bring defamiliarization effect in a sense, and can make us reflect on our own experience." Su Tong’s view is similar to Ge Fei’s. He admits that Bu Mawei has a quiet and pure temperament, but this is "not enough". Bi Feiyu believes that the novelty of the theme does not occupy a very important position in his evaluation system. "Although the work does not jump out of the big framework of’ man and nature’, the author’s writing ability and the fit between his ability and the text, including gorgeous language, are very touching to me. The religious behavior of the white shaman with mysticism in the text also makes me feel thrilling. " Bi Feiyu maintains a more realistic attitude towards novel reading experience. In his view, we can’t expect to always read works that are completely unfamiliar and have nothing to do with our own reading experience world.
The literary prize made public is different from the private person’s preference for literary works, and it is absolutely impossible to follow only some "subjective and even cruel" criteria. Su Tong believes that there is an irrefutable criterion for commenting on literary works-to check whether the novel has contributed something new. For example, a new character image is very rare, or it has been ignored by many writers for a long time. Su Tong believes that "the protagonist in Fairy Disease is probably the best writer in China who writes about mental patients."
Many of the contestants are young writers, who have an "age gap" with the older generation of writers in terms of theme selection, wording and sentence making, and vision orientation. In the view of the three judges, the interesting experience of selecting anonymous works is also a way to communicate with young people, but the asymmetry of experience and thought also adds difficulty to the selection process. This contradiction was fully reflected when the judges discussed No.009 "How did we get here?". Su Tong thinks that the author has a keen eye for the topic selection, but "he doesn’t like its narrative very much". "Its language is a language that is almost lacking in basic rhetoric and thinking. I think it is particularly like the language of official documents. I am writing a very interesting novel with the words of writing reports. Bi Feiyu, however, was totally against it. He voted for How We Got Here. Bi Feiyu recognized the depth of this work’s embedding into the present life and its sensitive insight into the young people’s "Buddhist" mentality. He said, "Its rough language is consistent with the state that the characters in the text lead such a rough life, and his narrative strategy is also consistent with the whole process inside the novel."
In the dialogue session outside the secret room, Zhian added that in addition to the critic’s basic position, we also need to consider the goal set by the author for his work. "We should see whether and how much the possibility he set for himself has been completed, that is, the’ possibility problem’ of possibility." Paying attention to whether the writer’s intention and writing strategy are consistent with the content of the work makes literary criticism no longer a closed climax of self-talk, but an effective dialogue between the author and the reader, which expands the boundary of literature-as Su Tong said, "short story writing is an infinite space, so we can survive here."
In the closing speech of the event, the "anonymous writer project" was characterized as a literary adventure rather than a literary competition. Zhang Yueran pointed out the reason in the process of the dialogue-"As far as the literary prize is concerned, (we) often need to reach a consensus, but the attractive things in literature come from differences and different opinions." Behind the mask of anonymity, there are more literary possibilities.
Attachment: Information about the short-listed authors and works of "Anonymous Writer Program"
An anonymous writer, No.001, the author of Sea Fog, Ban Yu. His works started from the sea, and countless memories of reality alternated, and ended in the fog, crossing the dense forests and mountains of the world and reaching the depths of the spiritual world in rich images.
Yan Lianke, an anonymous writer and author of "Believers" No.003. He revived the literary tradition that had disappeared for a long time since the 19th century, re-injected God’s eyes into the novel, and constructed the dilemma of faith and human relations from the perspective of compassion.
Ye Yang, the anonymous writer No.009, "How Did We Get Here?" is written under the pen name One Eye. He expanded the boundaries of realism, light and far-reaching, recorded the most delicate emotional texture, and became a memory slice of the times, completely sealed.
Anonymous writer Zheng Zhi, author of No.011 Fairy Disease. "Fairy Disease" is a northern file. With cold and fierce words and great sense of on-site restoration, it slowly outlines a group image of a crazy individual and his family members behind him. The novel has a distinctive regional style, a high degree of characterization, and a sense of magic and reality coexist.
Wu Chun, the author of the anonymous writer No.016 "Girls and the Sea of Consciousness". She does not repeat nostalgia and nothingness, does not avoid the unknown and adventure, compares literature with dreams and breaks the boundary of reading experience.
Ma Boyong, author of No.031 BuMaWei, an anonymous writer. He described a rare pastoral in grassland, which transcends the simplicity and simplicity of common customs and constitutes the true mystery and poetry of literature.
(The live pictures are from the utopia and are used with authorization.)
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