Text | New Voice Pro, Author | Wang Zhuoshuang Xuetao likes to play football. Like many northern boys born in the 1980s, he would join strangers’ games while carrying sneakers and shouting “buddy”. He also joined the WeChat group for wild football in Landochang Park. . He is accu

text | Xinsheng pro, author | Wang Zhuo

Shuang Xuetao likes to play football. Like many northern boys born in the 1980s, he would join strangers’ games while carrying sneakers and shouting “buddy”, and he even joined Landochang Park. wild ball WeChat group. He is accustomed to operating in the midfield and is a position that supports the forwards and creates possibilities.

This requires athletes to have a high golf IQ. They must not only read the game calmly and steadily, but also break forward without fear of aggression.

Shuang Xuetao has been active in the field of serious literature in China for thirteen years since he won his first literary award in 2011. He is also one of the Mesozoic writers who has received the most attention from the copyright market. In the spring of 2024, his latest collection of short stories and short stories "The Uninterrupted Man" will be officially published, marking the first time in five years that he will release his own novel.

started writing this novel collection at the end of 2019. Shuang Xuetao said that it is a piece of writing that runs through the entire epidemic. The special time span may give readers the illusion that Shuang Xuetao has not released a new literary work for a long time.

Objectively speaking, "The Uninterrupted Man" is not a slow-writing work. It includes seven short stories and short stories. It has a solid feeling when held in the hand. From the perspective of word count, it is also one of Shuang Xuetao's few novels. The most words in the collection.

Except for the first book "Moses on the Plains", which is a relatively typical collection of novels, Shuang Xuetao has consciously organized his other collections. In 2023, this collection of novels already has a basic framework and foundation for publication, but Shuang Xuetao still decided to finish writing "Explosion" before delivering it. "The approximate proportion of novellas and short stories, the themes dealt with, and the aspects of the subject matter... When I complete it according to my ideas, I think it can be published."

Compared with the reluctance and passion when he wrote "Assassination of Novelists" in three days, Shuang Xuetao's current writing pace has become much more patient, and he is willing to take his time. Slowly wait or search. On the contrary, it also means that you need a moment to call it quits. He is a straightforward Northeastern person. When a novel is reviewed after a period of time and the scope of changes is very small, that is when it can be submitted for publication.

Revision and creation of existing works often require a new external environment.

"The New Yorker" published Shuang Xuetao's 2019 novel "Heart" in English in 2023. This long-standing cultural and life magazine has a high-quality writing team and a rigorous and unique editorial system. "Heart" is being released It has also undergone minor adjustments before. The novel "Explosion" is also in the process of revision and adjustment for similar reasons. Shuang Xuetao believes that the writing opinions put forward by American editors reflect the feelings of readers in another culture.

’s truly huge external creative force is how Shuang Xuetao interacts with a rapidly developing Chinese film and television industry system. In the past period of time, he has appeared in the main creative sequence of film and television works many times, not only based on the adaptation of his past works, but also in script creation and production supervision. "Both film projects and drama projects are in progress."

's latest novels contain many elements that are avant-garde and closely related to reality. For example, the novella "Uninterrupted Man" of the same name is about artificial intelligence. Two androids have human emotions due to dreams. Go to the human world to search for dragon bones; the closely interlocking narrative structure of "Assassin's Lover" with multiple clues, the strong love and hate between the characters, and the helpless sense of fate are reminiscent of "Moses on the Plains"; the aforementioned "Explosion", Involving cyber violence...

The Northeastern experience has been reduced to the background of the story or the hometown that the characters need to return to, and more science fiction and urban experiences have been added. Some Douban netizens described the style of this novel collection as "urban science fiction Cthulhu" . Despite this, readers can still feel the familiar exciting plot, powerful visuals, and can continue to read about the sudden killing and death at the end of the article.

All this inevitably makes people ask: Are the new works preparing for future film and television adaptations? You can also see corresponding comments in Douban's comment section about "Uninterrupted Man".

Shuang Xuetao did not establish a strong connection between novel creation and film and television adaptation. "We should not think of movies as simple." He himself believes that most of the novels in the new book are difficult to adapt to film and television.

After moving to Beijing in 2014, he made many friends in the film and television industry, and they discussed innovative paths and difficulties together, and he was also inspired by them. "They are always looking for something that can excite themselves, and then use a very determined self to make it happen."

Since his boyhood, Shuang Xuetao has felt the charm of movies, or shown his love for good stories, he Writing film reviews even predates writing novels. Even today, if Shuang Xuetao turns on the TV just in time to catch up with "The Godfather" being played, and he has watched it countless times, he will still stop the remote control and continue watching. He told us, "I like to watch those movies from the golden age of Hollywood over and over again. The classics have been verified by time and give people confidence in the movies."

Shuang Xuetao maintains an active interest in participating in both movies and TV series, and regards film and television work as a supply and extension of literary creation.

In early 2024, Shuang Xuetao and Diao Yinan had an in-depth conversation about the frequent interaction between film and literature, as well as the value and innovation of genre novels. From a chronological point of view, the influence of movies on novel literature is fundamental. When movies show unique artistic innovation and original story capabilities, novel writing is increasingly affected by the expression of movie genres. Shuang Xuetao and Lei Jiayin also compared the relationship between the two art forms to "they should be brothers" in a 2021 podcast.

As a novelist, the starting point for participating in film and television work is usually related adaptations of his own works. Shuang Xuetao maintains a professional and positive attitude. He is not a static copyright seller. Both parties need to have a similar pursuit of "good works" and maintain a proper sense of professional boundaries in the specific adaptation and production. "Everything is not done as soon as the contract is signed, nor can you be obsessed with your own style. Adaptation must first break the novel into pieces."

Perhaps the best way is for one author to hand over his work to another author. creation.

Lu Yang was one of the first film directors to adapt Shuang Xuetao's novel. He was interested in the character state reflected in "Assassination of Novelists". Lu Yang said in an interview with us in January 2021, "Xue Tao and I experienced the same suffering at the same moment, and there is a certain channel connection between us. Xuetao believes that persisting in creation is his only feasible way of life, The novel has this kind of atmosphere, which shocked me deeply. To be honest, I saw myself in it."

Creators often go through a period of suffering that is long or short, which is a kind of nutrient reserve for early career advancement. , is also the common memory of a generation of creators. In 2013, Shuang Xuetao quit his job in a bank, hoping to make a living by writing novels, but he suffered from the lack of publishing opportunities for a long time. Lu Yang was also in a period of self-doubt at that time. Although he had some directing experience, he was constantly being persuaded to give up costume action films and even give up his dream of being a film director.

From the perspective of adaptation technology, the novel "Assassination of Novelists" is the starting point of Lu Yang's ideal movie story. The narrative type is clear, and key factors such as characters, emotions and space are complete, which has formed a powerful picture sense.

Lu Yang’s adaptation style is more external and intense. Formally, this 20,000-word short story is highly expanded and externalized, and upgraded into a series of large-scale domestic fantasy films. Aesthetically, it also strengthens the style embodied in "Xiu Chun Knife", which is popular among the Northern Wei, Tang Dynasty, Southeast Asia, Japanese, Indian and other aesthetic elements are included to establish a Chinese aesthetic in the sense of feeling.

At the same time, Lu Yang transformed his personal feelings about Shuang Xuetao's novels into a very specific and microscopic perspective of ordinary people, that is, an individual's feelings about his own living environment and the world. "When I want to understand myself and know where my limits are, I may have some willingness to think about the soul." This is the emotion of ordinary people that Lu Yang has always insisted on, and it is also the basis of Shuang Xuetao's novel. The basis of infectiousness.

It should be pointed out that strong formal aesthetics and delicate ordinary people's emotions have always been the combination of commerciality and authorship in Lu Yang's films.

Zhang Dalei is the director of the drama version of "Moses on the Plains" and a young film director with his own creative method. Facing the representative works of the "Northeast Renaissance", he continued his consistent "hometown prose" style, extracted the characteristics and atmosphere of the times from the original work, and moved the place where the story takes place from Shuang Xuetao's hometown of Shenyang to his hometown of Hohhot, turning the novel's story into He becomes the people and things around him, reconstructs the space and restores the era, and finally completes the construction of authorship. When

was interviewed by us in February 2023, Zhang Dalei said, "The novel is Xuetao's own, but he can just stay out of it and face these people from a different perspective. I look at it from the perspective of time. A strong sense of self-introduction. The tone presented in the film may be different from that in the novel, because another author put himself into it."

Shuang Xuetao has expressed his disapproval of the drama version of "Moses on the Plains" in several public speeches. ” expresses his approval, especially the way of changing the place where the story takes place, which is “very advanced”. In the specific work of this project, the communication between the two authors was more about ideas and original intentions. After Zhang Dalei sent a voice message on WeChat, Shuang Xuetao responded by sharing his views on WeChat.

Zhang Dalei's authorial transformation has objectively opened up the universal value of Shuang Xuetao's works that transcends Northeastern characteristics. Su Xin, a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Hong Kong, calls it the reorganization and retelling of "the North." The shift and magnification of geographical space reconstructs the sense of community that the northern land had in the history of the 1990s.

Drama version of "Moses on the Plain"

This is also the basis of the plasticity and industrial value of Shuang Xuetao and his novels. "Many of my novels are reflections of some of my spiritual world. The materials they use are things that people are familiar with, and they are a kind of architectural composition."

The sense of familiarity in the Northeast narrative belongs to the urban changes and life of that era. The ordinary people who were harmed in it "are the experiences and memories of a generation of Chinese people." The care and thinking embodied by Shuang Xuetao on this are of current significance. Especially when people's judgments about the future are once again full of uncertainty, the underlying spirit in those works no longer just belongs to the Northeast of the past, but more like a metaphor and harbinger.

Although "Assassination of Novelists" is not a story of the public era, Lu Yang also has an identity among contemporaries. He once said enthusiastically, "Shuang Xuetao is the muse of our group of people. We We finally found our literary source. We are people of the same era and have exactly the same growth experience. Our perspectives and methods of looking at many things are very similar."

For example, when talking about cyber violence in the new book In the plot, Shuang Xuetao also showed a kind of continuous thinking: continuing from the hard violence in his previous works, he found that different violence would only appear due to the strengthening of restrictive measures and changes in the environment. "This is a new phenomenon. In today's online world, the forms of violence are undergoing many changes, but they have definitely not been reduced or alleviated."

In the process of Shuang Xuetao initially finding the grammar of his novel, "violence" came into play Certain effect. When he was writing "Moses on the Plains", he realized that the crime in the novel was not as direct as in the movie, but more like sin or crime, with symbolic meaning. He might try to write the novel from this aspect.

This kind of writing experience is once again connected with the logic of film and television genres.

Shuang Xuetao said that he was inspired and influenced by the film "Fireworks in the Day" directed by Diao Yinan in 2014. This film won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival and also achieved box office results of more than 100 million yuan in the mainland film market. It was praised by many Movie fans regard it as the best domestic film that combines authoriality and commerciality in the past ten years.

In a public dialogue in 2022, Shuang Xuetao said this. He was in the difficult process of writing at the time. Looking back, it was also his last hard time. "Fireworks in the Day" made me discover something in my heart. Good creation will lead you and know your inner desires. I have never found a good method and container before."

Diao Yinan was also moved by Shuang Xuetao's works, "In addition to the arrangement of popular plots, he also has things that are full of sharpness and softness. He found his style. This is what makes his novels unique. I It felt like I had met someone with the same goals."

In the years that followed, they have always been partners in work and friends in life. In 2015, Shuang Xuetao joined the development of the film "Moses on the Plains" as an art director, with Diao Yinan as the producer and Zhang Ji as the director. In the next nine years, Shuang Xuetao experienced every aspect of a film project and "read an encyclopedia of Chinese films."

Shuang Xuetao said, "Mr. Diao is my teacher in terms of film. He often recommends some movies for me to go back and watch. In the past few years, I have watched many directors or art films that I like, all because of these excellent filmmakers. He recommended and guided me to watch it. My understanding of movies has changed a lot from before. I gained a lot of enjoyment and fun, and it brought me very good things."

According to public information, we can know the ups and downs of this movie. . Due to the sudden outbreak of the epidemic and the subsequent strict prevention and control, the original planned start-up time had to be postponed and completed in Jilin at the end of May 2020. It was once announced that it would be scheduled for December 24, 2021, but it has also undergone modifications. , change files and change names. So far, the film, which has been renamed "Fire on the Plains", is still waiting for it.

is still unable to tell the story behind "Fire on the Plains". Shuang Xuetao can only tell us the importance of creative determination and principles. "Everyone puts their main focus on creation. Because as you know, there are many other ways to film, and I am lucky enough to participate in the film practice that is closest to creation." While waiting for the release, the pressure became everywhere. Absence makes people hesitate and waver.

Shuang Xuetao said that they have been constantly clarifying to each other what good content is. Everyone stood together arm in arm, cheering each other up, and waited a moment.

This unfinished experience has given Shuang Xuetao a direct understanding and rich experience in film and television work, and he also has partners he calls "friends". The ways and identities of novelists participating in film and television creation have become diverse. Ma Yingxin, the director of the

movie "Parrot Killing", said in an interview with us in September 2023 that after Shuang Xuetao received the initial script from her, he sat on the side of the football field and had a long phone call with her. , and could not finish it until the end of the game. They did not exchange too many script details, but Shuang Xuetao was judging whether this girl, who had no experience in feature film production, was capable of becoming the director of her own script.

Shuang Xuetao is attracted by a unique drama: using emotion as a tool of fraud is an extremely cruel and violent method. This origin of the story not only makes the movie script have a literary feel, but also determines its certain difference. In his opinion, past scam movies mostly focused on the cleverness and sophistication of liars, while "Parrot Killing" focuses on the female victim's counterattack, which not only inherits the genre style of scam movies, but also changes the perspective. The disruption brought about.

In order to promote this work, Shuang Xuetao roped in Don He, who had collaborated with "Fireworks on the Plains", as a producer, and he served as the supervisor. In 2022, when the epidemic control is extremely strict, Mayingxin in Spain and Shuangxuetao and Donhe in Beijing pushed the project into practice through telephone conferences. After the film was released, it encountered pressure from public opinion and box office. Shuang Xuetao sent a message to Ma Yingxin: Movies with characteristics must also be full of regrets.

The movie "Parrot Killing"

This is what he believes. In the film and television projects in which Shuang Xuetao is deeply involved, what he cares about is how to pursue a certain "characteristic" with his creative colleagues.

Shuang Xuetao's judgment is pessimistic about whether consumers' viewing concepts and investors' risk preferences can improve, but he knows what he has to do. "My friends and I try our best to do what we like, open as many channels as we can, and influence as many people as we can."

This is the unique role of a novelist after getting involved in the film and television industry chain.The commercial characteristics of novel creation are low cost and the writer's responsibility, which also makes the novelist have a weak sense of risk. Shuang Xuetao said, "The original intention of writing novels is that I can gain a limited freedom in them. If I throw away this freedom by presumptuously guessing the readers' thoughts, that would not be the mentality I had when I first started writing."

In a time when Chinese movie consumers are increasingly looking for "self-projection" on the big screen, Shuang Xuetao firmly believes that filmmakers should invite audiences to face a topic they are not familiar with before, instead of Continuously provide comfortable and safe content. It is no exaggeration to say that such a trend is likely to destroy the infertile soil for Chinese films. "The audience doesn't know whether they really like it until you create good content."

It is worth noting that a new generation is emerging in the field of Chinese film creation. We pointed out in an article that China’s entertainment industry has its own evolution methods and models. Based on the common content aesthetics and creative pursuits, "limited experience, full sharing", creative groups have been formed.

Directors Guo Fan, Lu Yang and Rao Xiaozhi are typical examples. They form a close support system between individuals and the company, bringing each other's various resources into the system, substantively participating in each other's projects, and achieving common growth together.

Shuang Xuetao also exists in this network system, and even the literary works surrounding him form a subsystem.

In addition to the partners and works mentioned above in the article, this subsystem is still growing and extending. For example, Dong Zijian, who starred in the drama version of "Moses on the Plains", used another Shuang Xuetao novel "My Friend Andre" as his new film directorial work, and Liu Haoran, the star of "Fire on the Plains" will also appear again Play the leading role.

Actor Lei Jiayin and singer Dong Baoshi are Shuang Xuetao's contemporaries from the Northeast. They have personal sympathy for the language and stories of novels. They have starred in "Assassination of Novelists" and "Moses on the Plains" respectively.

They maintain a close friendship in life and share each other's creative ideas. Lei Jiayin would tell everyone the story in Shuang Xuetao's novel "Boat Kiss" again and again in private gatherings, and participating in the film and television adaptation of Shuang Xuetao's novel was his personal obsession and identification with the Northeast.

If you think of this subsystem as a team lineup, the novelist is the person running in the midfield and the frontcourt, the fulcrum of creativity in counterattacks, and the first line of defense in defense.

Shuang Xuetao wrote on the title page of the signed message book of "The Uninterrupted Man", "The greatest pleasure is to move towards the unknown." This is also what we expect from him.