The teacher of Emperor Jiaqing once said that his good friend Ji Xiaolan "stuttered and wrote books". Fortunately, we left his impression of "iron teeth and copper teeth" from TV dramas and opera performances.
There is also a stuttering writer in the west who is also very capable. He is Mao Mu (1874- 1965), who has written and published more than 50 novels, essays, plays and travel notes.
Mao Mu was born in France. His grandfather and father were lawyers, but his parents died before he was ten years old. He returned to England and was brought up by the priest's uncle. When I was studying at Canterbury College, I was bullied for stuttering.
Mao Mu, who can't speak fluently, expressed his thoughts and feelings in words. Although, my uncle asked him to study medicine to plan for the future. Mao Mu went to medical school for five years, and finally firmly embarked on the road of writing.
Mao Mu's books on reading and criticism have been translated into Chinese and published, such as Reading is a Portable Shelter and Literature Class in Mao Mu.
About reading, Mao Mu said:
About the standard of a good novel, Mao Mu determined this way:
In his mind, the top ten novels in the world are as follows:
Tom jones, Pride and Prejudice, Red and Black, Old Man, david copperfield, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Wuthering Heights, brothers karamazov, War and Peace.
From this list, we can find that Mao Mu's taste is actually very good and "classical". He likes to tell a complete and complicated story. This actually reflects his own writing style and taste: the characters should be three-dimensional and the story should be tortuous.
I wonder if you have found that emphasizing the twists and turns of characters and stories is not the two legs that a "popular drama" must have to succeed.
Mao Mu likes listening to people very much, because he can't speak, and occasionally makes comments and adds notes to encourage them to continue. He claimed to cut off other people's stories, change his name, change his space, change his relationship and reassemble his novels.
Mao Mu lived to be 9 1 year old and wrote books until he was 85 years old. Churchill, who spent his life with him, was a master of speech. They have known each other for more than half a century. Qi Huangong once told him not to write his jokes in his works!
Among Mao Mu's works, what I like best is the Moon and Sixpence, which is more important, and the novel The Chains of Human Nature, which was transformed from his first half life.
"There were sixpence everywhere, but he looked up and saw the moon." Uncle gave up his comfortable life to pursue the painting life he claimed to have. Pain, yes. Pain, yes. Results, yes. Finally, my eyes went blind.
Young people in the shackles of humanity,
Mao Mu is a clever observer, recorder and creator. He calmly analyzed himself in the preface to the shackles of human nature:
Commenting on Balzac, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and other masters, he said that these people are not good at writing, but "great writers need not only writing, but passion and narrative desire." 」
Mao Mu also has narrative desire, which is based on his love of money. He likes to live in his castle, drink good wine, enjoy delicious food, invite friends to talk openly and gossip, and then turn gossip into works: "Love may make the world spin, but the bearing that supports it is money. 」
Mao Mu, who ranks first among second-rate writers, said, "Only poets and saints can firmly believe that watering the asphalt pavement will cultivate lilies. 」
He stutters, he is proud, and he writes diligently.