Chapter 724 Silver Age

"Everyone who is engaged in literature has probably heard the article titled "The Silver Age" published by the Russian scholar N. A. Otrup in the Russian magazine "Number" published in Paris in 1933."

Fang Minghua talked eloquently.

"He refers to the golden age of Russian literature that is different from the golden age of Russian literature created by literary giants such as Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, with Blok, Bely, Gumilev, Represented by writers such as Akhmatova, their overall literary achievements were inferior to those of the Golden Age, so they were called the "Silver Age."

"Speaking of poetry, in my opinion, the poetry of the twentieth century (especially the first half) is the most brilliant golden age in human history. It broke through the boundaries of national race and language, and gained an unprecedented international perspective and connection with the world. Corresponding international influence, it is in this sense that there is so-called international poetry.

“This golden age of poetry is undoubtedly related to the Industrial Revolution, the ‘Death of God’, revolution and autocracy, two world wars, Nazi concentration camps, the Great Purge, the atomic bomb, that is, the deepest darkness in human history.”

“Great poetry is like a schizophrenia releasing a huge energy, its rumbling echo reaching us through the mists of time. Perhaps due to excessive consumption, poetry has begun to decline around the world since the end of the Second World War.”

“The mediocrity of middle-class life stifles imagination; consumerism brings entertainment while destroying passion; there is also the complicity of the coercion of official discourse and the brainwashing of mass media...

A famous physicist once said that the first half of the twentieth century was also the golden age of physics, followed by the silver age. "

"Minghua, according to your statement, the development of poetry in our country is half a beat slower than that in the world." Li Tuo said with a smile.

"Yes." Fang Minghua continued: "As we all know, in the first half of the 20th century, the Chinese people lived through turmoil, disasters, and wars. Most people didn't even have enough to eat. How could they bother to recite poems and compose poems? But even though In this way, in the 1920s and 1930s, a number of outstanding poets such as Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, and Bian Zhilin appeared in our country.”

"After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we went through that special period. Literature, including poetry, was in a state of suppression. Until the late 1970s, poetry entered a period of rapid development. A large number of outstanding poets, represented by Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, and Shu Ting, created Chinese poetry. The glorious moment of modern poetry, so I call it the golden age of Chinese poetry. Now that we have entered the 1990s, poetry is about to enter its silver age.”

"During this period, with the development of society, the creative trends of poets were very different from those of the 1980s. They mainly have the following characteristics, which everyone has actually felt.

First: Poetry will accommodate more complex social experiences, and the anti-sublime and anti-ideal tendencies will be more obvious

Second: Poetry shrinks toward personal experience and feelings, becoming more personal, life-oriented, and colloquial.

Third, the division of the poetry world, the struggle for the discourse power of symbolic capital in poetry, and the debate over the division of camps between intellectual writing and folk writing.

In his forty-minute speech, Fang Minghua systematically summarized the overall development of domestic poetry from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Everyone in the living room listened carefully, and many people fell into deep thought while listening.

"In short, the phenomenon of "all people read poetry and all people are poetry" like in the 1980s will never happen in our country. Poetry will always be a niche literature, but what we need to do is that we poets themselves must write excellent poems."

"That's all I have to say."

After Fang Minghua's speech ended, people in the living room began to whisper.

He felt a little dry, so he picked up the coffee cup and took a sip, only to find that some of the coffee was a little cold.

Liu Junan, who had been sitting in the corner quietly listening to everyone's discussion, stood up and took the coffee pot from the servant, walked over and asked, "Mr. Fang, do you need another cup?"

"No, just add more, thank you."

Liu Jun'an picked up the coffee pot and filled Fang Minghua's cup with coffee, then went back and sat quietly on the sofa in the corner, continuing to listen to everyone's speeches.

"Minghua, is it true, as you said, that there is no future for poetry? The future will be the Bronze Age and the Black Iron Age?!"

It was Zhai Yongming who spoke, and her tone was a little excited.

Fang Minghua's answer was straightforward: "I haven't seen it yet."

"Then what's the point of discussing poetry here?!"

"I think there is still some." Fang Minghua spoke slowly but firmly. "Gatherings like ours, the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival, and "Today" that Teacher Bei Dao has always insisted on organizing, are meant to give those poets who are walking alone in the darkness a little warmth and a glimmer of hope."

"Bah bang bang" someone took the lead in applauding.

It turned out to be Beidao.

After Fang Minghua finished speaking, everyone began to discuss heatedly again until the salon ended at almost six o'clock. The owner of the villa, Liu Junan, prepared dinner for everyone and left after eating.

While waiting for dinner, everyone started chatting with each other again. Fang Minghua discovered that Bei Dao was taking out a stack of magazines from a large travel bag and giving them to everyone. It turned out that Bei Dao was asking his friends to help promote "Today", which he edited, and Li Tuo is also helping.

After the magazine "Today" founded by Bei Dao, Mang Ke and others was banned in the early 1980s, in the spring of 1990, Bei Dao, Li Tuo and others republished "Today" in Oslo, the capital of Norway.

Later, as Bei Dao, Li Tuo and others came to the United States, the editorial office also moved here and has persisted until now.

Putting aside the limitations of history, the entanglements of politics and literature, from the perspective of literature and art alone, the poems published in "Today" undoubtedly represent the very high level of modern poetry at that time, including Bei Dao's "Answer" and Shu Ting's "To the Oak" and other classic poems were published on the front page of "Today".

Bei Dao also gave Fang Minghua a copy.

"Teacher Bei Dao, I will return to China in a while. You can take a copy back with you. I guess too many will not pass the customs. Otherwise, I will help you sell it." Fang Minghua said.

"It doesn't matter. This is for you. Take your time to read it." Bei Dao smiled heartily.

Fang Minghua took it and flipped through it. It was a quarterly magazine, priced at $2.6 per copy.

The magazine paper was very ordinary. It seemed that the magazine was in a tight budget.

Dinner was Hong Kong's famous pork chop rice. Fang Minghua asked Li Tuo in a low voice while eating: "How is the sales of the magazine?"

"You just said that poetry has entered the silver age, and the next is bronze and black iron. How many people do you think will read this thing? Otherwise, with Bei Dao's personality, would he shamelessly ask everyone to help promote it?"

"To tell you the truth, every time there is a similar literary salon, Bei Dao will definitely bring a bag of magazines to ask everyone to help promote it. Everyone is used to it." Li Tuo finally said.

"Oh."

Fang Minghua listened and thought for a while: "Then how about I personally donate 500,000 US dollars to the magazine?"