Author: Xiao Yu
“The Unparalleled Awakening” is Xia Yu’s personal experience writing, revisiting the 20th century place, bringing together Pamuk, Kundera, Kafka, Susan Sontag, Philip Roth, JM Coetzee, Milosz, Crema and other generations of exceptional silhouettes of the soul of writers. The book not only has an in-depth description of the human geography of foreign cities, but also focuses on the thinking of Chinese literary masters in the drastic changes of the times.
“Listening to the Writer’s Speech at the Swedish Academy” is an article that has no book entry and is published exclusively by this journal. Convey concern for reading, personal encounter and human destiny.
Winter in Stockholm has short days and long nights. The Swedish Academy auditorium is lit by suspended crystal chandeliers.
In the evening the auditorium was filled with guests, but there was little noise. On the podium is the German-Romanian writer Herta Müller giving a literary speech “The cycle of a word”. She wears a well-cut black dress, has short hair that reaches her ears and wears glasses stuck to the tip of her nose. She was the whole time in front of the microphone, immersed in the manuscript in her hand. Born in 1953, Herta Miller lived in Romania during the Ceausescu era. As a young girl she studied German and Romanian literature at the University of Timisoara. After graduation she worked as a translator in a factory. refused to report on a factory colleague she was fired from the factory. Her life was monitored by the secret police and fear became a part of her life. In 1987, Herta Müller emigrated to Germany and became a professional writer. In her speech, Herta Müller described her daily work in the factory and the constant monitoring and The harassment brought her nightmares. The tone of her speech was calm, the audience listened calmly and patiently, and the scene was solemn and tranquil.
At the Swedish Academy I listened to two literature lectures, Herta Miller in 2009 and Harold Pinter in 2005.
Pinter was unable to go to Stockholm to collect his prize because he broke his leg in hospital and the publisher brought him a video he recorded, talking about “Art, Truth and Politics”. I was sitting in the main hall auditorium, listening to his speech on the screen with many guests. Seated in a wheelchair, Pinter is a burly man in a blanket woven with a dark grid between his knees. He is dressed in a black suit, with a full forehead and piercing eyes behind his glasses. His face and body are projected onto the screen. Pinter was ill, but his speech was powerful and the courtroom echoed with his thick, magnetic voice. His speech was fiery, drawing on his personal creative journey, and political drama, and at the same time analyzing contemporary international politics: He severely criticized then US President George W. Bush for launching the war in Iraq , criticized British Prime Minister Blair for following the United States into the war and criticizing the United States. He said that “politicians are not interested in truth but in power” and “politicians are weaving a tapestry full of lies”. Yet the screen magnifies Pinter’s stature and also reveals his fragility. In the courtroom, Pinter could be heard panting through the microphone, occasionally pausing to catch his breath.
Pinter’s speech drew occasional applause. At the end of the speech, the audience stood up and gave a long round of applause.
Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize in Literature for a hundred years, literary speeches are one of the important activities of the Swedish Academy every year. However, the Swedes didn’t always see the winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature they selected: in 1953, Winston Churchill was absent on busy government business, in 1954, Ernest Hemingway was absent due to injury, and Ternak was absent due to of internal criticism, Sartre was absent in 1964 due to his refusal of the Nobel Prize, Samuel Beckett was absent in 1969 due to his loneliness, Harold Pinter could not travel due to leg problems in 2005 and Yeh in 2004. Lineke was absent due to social anxiety, and Doris Lessing was absent in 2007 due to advanced age.
I have not heard but read and benefited from more speeches by writers, who are the voices of the wisest minds and outstanding hearts of the 20th century, such as the German writer Thomas Mann (1929), the American writer Eugene O’Neill (1936) 1946 ), the Swiss writer Hermann Hesse (1946), the French writer André Gide (1947), the British poet TS Eliot (1948), the American writer William Faulkner (1949), the British philosopher Robert Russell (1950), the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1953 ), American writer Ernest Hemingway (1954), French writer Albert Camus (1957), Soviet writer Boris Pasternak (1958), Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata (1968), Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1969), Soviet writer Alexander Solzheng Qin.
Living in different eras – in war, in unrest and strife, living under tyranny, writers with outstanding creativity have a broad outlook and deep thoughts at the same time. They climb the pulpit of the Swedish Academy and transcend themselves. The literary major expresses concern about the world, thinking about the fate of mankind and worrying about civilization – this is the power that a writer can show, it is the power of words and speech, the power of thought and expression. Because from the halls of the Swedish Academy their voices are heard all over the world. At the same time, it has been passed down to future generations with outstanding lyrics and has become a legacy of human civilization.
“Under the stars, my fate hangs,” TS Eliot’s poem can reflect the history of literature of the Nobel Prize.
The centuries-old history of the Nobel Prize in Literature is like a bright starry sky, and the stars shine forever to reflect the night sky of literature. Over time and entering the contemporary world, the Nobel Prize for Literature is affected by fashion as universal values. Not being funny is not enough to get attention, this is a popular taste in the world and it is also the law of influence. Entertainment alone is not enough, there must be scandals, entertainment and scandals become the stimulant of the media, entertainment and scandals become the source of energy to excite the public’s nerves. The Nobel Prize in Literature, like the laurels of world literature with a centuries-old history, is now following the changes in the world, plunging from the sacred palace into the centuries-old valley. When the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature was riddled with controversy over its selection of writers, its selection institution, the Swedish Academy, was deeply embroiled in a storm of public opinion filled with scandals, and its credibility is been severely damaged, so much so that the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature was vacant due to the Swedish Academy scandal, is an anecdote in the centuries-old history of the Nobel Prize, and also dusts the world’s laurels. However, in matters of the human mind, reason will triumph over anti-intellect. The hustle and bustle of the world and the carnival of ordinary people will eventually dissipate like bubbles.
Reading life is intellectual life. Free intellectual life is what I like. When Rilke wrote about the sculptor Rodin, he had a motto: “You will be blessed with great things”.
When we read the classics of Nobel laureate secular writers, we should also be comforted by the reflections of outstanding souls. (Xiayu)
[
责编：王营 ]
