How important is the talent of reading?

recently, all kinds of writing classes have sprung up everywhere. Many of my friends, no matter what they used to do, suddenly became keen on writing, and they often received emails from people asking me how I learned to write. Coincidentally, on Douban radio two days ago, I saw another message:

Siqi said:

I think his pain is probably the common aspiration of many people. In modern society, people are often lonely, full of words and opinions, but usually few people have the patience to listen to themselves, or even if it is difficult to trust the people around them, they are not sure what feedback they can get.

as it happens, the advantages of self-media and being able to write are shown at this time. People who write well have obvious dividends, and the lowest bonus is that they can gain the understanding and attention of others, relieve loneliness, get higher dividends, and even become famous, make money, receive advertisements, become IP, and go to the top of their lives.

so, everyone wants to learn to write. People who are in a panic want to ease their desire to talk through writing, or even more pursue, hoping to find a position in their own life through writing. Find a breakthrough for the future or something.

however, I would like to say that although you want to learn writing well and wish you could learn it in a writing class, writing is different from other things. Although there are some skills, you can't write well just by understanding some skills, or by simply repeating your work.

because everyone has no time, they all pursue quick achievement and shortcuts, so they focus on their writing skills, but in fact, they ignore a more important problem, that is, reading. In my opinion, the talent for reading is far more important than the writing talent, and the writing talent must be accompanied by the talent for reading.

someone may be puzzled. Reading, but also need to have any talent, as long as the literate, who can not read. Not really. There is a saying in the Bible: "A fool has eyes but does not see, but has ears but cannot hear." Our Chinese words are better: "smart". The so-called "deaf" means good ears, and "bright" means good eyes. This is not a good physiological function, but a kind of connection ability and a kind of understanding. Some people can see what others can't see and hear what others can't hear. That is a talent for reading.

in my opinion, many good writers have a great talent for reading in the first place.

such as Milan Kundera, whose own novels are excellent, but in the Art of novels, he fully shows his superb reading talent as a reader; another example is Cao Xueqin, who is in the Red Mansion. He once used the mouth of Jia Mu and Daiyu to comment on the poems of his predecessors, which are also sharp and unique, and impressive. For example, Mo Yan, whose idol is Faulkner, wrote an article "talk about the old man Faulkner" which is also very interesting, interested people can find to read; or Mr. Lu Xun, in the History of Chinese novels, wonderful insights simply emerge one after another. . There are so many examples that almost all good writers have written wonderful literary reviews from the reader's point of view, and many writers, in my opinion, are even more talented in reading than in writing.

because it is very simple, reading is a pool and writing is a bucket. If you want to have plenty of ideas in your works, a strong talent for reading is essential. The talent of reading is the ability to understand, the ability of this thing, consistent, all-inclusive, whether it is reading, writing, analyzing the text, or analyzing the world.

the art of fiction

to take my example, I have been reading the Bible since I was about 10 years old. However, for a long time, I hated the Bible and would not take the initiative to read it at all. Of course, I dare not say, if I say so, I will only show that I am very ignorant, because the Bible is too famous, so I will follow the crowd and say, well, well written. But what's good about it? I have no idea.

for example, in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel, it is written that King Nebuchadnezzar cast a gold statue to perform the ceremony of light, which is described in the Bible:

once, I saw this passage, and my mental activity is, I will go, which is too verbose. If I were to write, first of all, is it necessary for "all parties, countries and ethnic groups" to appear so many times? Don't you just cross it off and change it to "them"? "the sound of the horn, flute, pipa, piano, harp, Sheng, and all kinds of musical instruments" is also wordy enough, why do we have to repeat it like this?

but one day, when I saw this paragraph again, I suddenly understood why it was written this way.

Why? Because we want to create a sense of pressure, through such display and repetition, to create momentum like on the spot for the king's ceremony, through the constant repetition of "all parties, countries, and ethnic groups", we can see people as dense as ants. constantly bowing in front of the king's gold statue. Through the repetition of "the sound of the horn, flute, pipa, piano, harp, sheng, and various musical instruments", we can see the inviolability of royal authority, and only such constant repetition can strengthen this psychological deterrent and fully pave the way for the atmosphere of the scene. Only then can we better bring out the following plot: all people succumb to this authority and bow down to the golden statue. And only Daniel did not worship. Only in this way can readers understand how Daniel's courage defies universal condemnation, and only in this way can the core spirit of this story stand up. Therefore, such repetition is not wordy, nor is it useless idle writing.

understanding like this, in the course of reading the Bible, it happened again and again, like finding a small jigsaw puzzle, let me see hidden here. Another Bible under this Bible. It is because of this that I feel the pleasure of reading the Bible.

Bible

to cite another example, in Bi Feiyu's novel class, there is a paragraph about the interpretation of the Water margin, which is about Lin Chong's story. Shi Naian wrote:

after reading this paragraph, let's stop for a moment. I would like to ask you, what have you read out in this paragraph?

I believe that when many people read it for the first time, they just pass by when they see it. What's so surprising about that? Compared with the colorful passage such as "Lunch punched the town of Kansai", or compared to the story of Pan Jinlian hooking up with Ximen Qing, this paragraph is simply ordinary, nothing more than doing some piecemeal things, not even a little adjective rendering. However, it is such a simple and almost sketched paragraph, but can not take a closer look, at a glance, it can be called terrible, it is not too cool to say that behind.

where is the horror? Terrible, terrible in this insipid, this calm. This is Lin Chong, who has just killed three people, Lin Chong has been forced to a dead-end of fate and is still in a state of extreme fury. This is not premeditated murder, but a passion under passion. And you look at Lin Chong's reaction, but calmly like doing housework, step by step to deal with the scene: first, use the enemy's head as a sacrifice, and then change the bloody clothes, throw away the wine gourd, and even did not forget to drink that little leftover wine. That was sick enough, and then he picked up his gun and headed east.

Why is he heading east? This sentence is easy to overlook. It is very simple, because the city is in the west, to go west is to enter the city and turn himself in, so he goes east. This is Lin Chong. A simple sentence like "going east" writes out Lin Chong's character, his calmness, his horror, and his determination. However, when the author writes it, can the reader see it? At this time, it is time to spell reading talent, you can see, you will be creepy, can not see, you will feel ordinary, passing by.

Lin Chong

A book, can you see its splendor, that is, Mr. Mu Xin said, "do you have a heart?" this heart is not good or bad, it is a kind of sensitive intuition, good or bad, all in one heart, you can understand, no, you are blind, do not understand, do not see, do not hear.

"read enough books to write good articles" is an old poem that everyone has heard. It points out the causal relationship between reading and writing.

however, we usually misunderstand its key point, which means that the focus of reading is on "ten thousand volumes". If you want to read more, you will naturally write well. It is not, the focus of reading is not much, but "broken".

"broken" doesn't mean you have to read it many times and turn over the book. Wei is the best editor, that is, ten thousand volumes. No. Instead, to read the essence of the book, to break the words on its surface, to see what the author is hiding under the words. I can see what's good and what's wrong with this writing.

In our sexy beach wedding dresses, you will define elegance and chic. Let them endow you with a demonstration of refined taste.

if a good book is an iceberg, and there is only 1x10 on the surface of the water, then a good reader, a talented reader, can salvage all the 9ripple 10 under the water, then you will get more than others if you are also reading books. Just like getting a secret book of martial arts, some people regard it as a book of heaven, do not understand a word, and throw it aside to eat ashes. Some people can understand half, can develop self-defense skills, some people will be able to understand one of the most subtle tips, practice a set of unique learning, alone in martial arts.

so the reading of a book is not just about how many times you have read it, or how many volumes you have read. The accumulation of this number is more about efficiency. Have you read it or not? Did you taste it? In the face of work, can you name four, five, or six? The level of reading determines the starting point of your writing.

so, how do you learn to write? To learn a set of writing formulas? Would you like to recite some sample essays? These are all ways to cure the symptoms rather than the root of the problem. In the final analysis, learning to write, is not a piecemeal problem, if you want to write well. You must first learn to read. If you understand it, you will be able to write it. The more talented you are in reading, the better your ability to write. Even I can say that the talent in reading is the talent in writing.

is it possible that you can't see where other people's books are good, but you can write them well? The importance of reading, on the one hand, is to help you train your intuition and comprehension, on the other hand, it is to help you establish a good writing standard, what is the texture of the good text, and how to arrange a good structure.

many people just regard reading as a pastime and do not want to bother and use that brain, so they always wander around in their comfort zone in some simple things but fantasize that as long as they read enough books, naturally, they will write well, which is unreasonable.

and I have found that people who are talented readers are usually a kind of divine enlightenment, which can connect some irrelevant things, but it makes you feel like a match made in heaven. In addition to having a good memory and a large amount of knowledge, the physiological basis is probably that there are many nerve synapses in the brain, so the communication density of all kinds of information is much faster than that of others.

Mr. Mu Xin

but when you see this, don't be discouraged and think that you don't have talent, so give up. This is not necessary, because except a few geniuses, almost no one is born with reading talent, which can be exercised and improved, and in my personal experience, I think there are three ways to improve:

first of all, you have to learn to find problems for yourself, to look for clues in the text, figure out a lot of seemingly unimportant details, and ask more, why did he write this? ChangeAfter me, what would I write? Then try to answer these questions from different angles, or you may find a big iceberg. Learn to ask questions first, which is the first step in finding the answer.

Reading, the most taboo is greed and vanity, like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, swallowing a pile, and then throwing away the book, I finished reading, and then showing off to people, you see I have read so many books, is it useful? Have you digested it? Some people even enthusiastically find someone to make a list of books, but none of them can be read, and then they lose their temper. They don't understand anything, they don't understand it, they are so verbose, they are bored, they mark a star, write a "fake", and then send it away. Next time, I asked for the book list again, and it was the same result. Impetuous, eager for quick success and a quick profit, this is not a good attitude for reading.

second, you should learn to write book reviews and take book notes. After reading a book, what you get, what you figure out, what you think of, write it down casually. Even if you can't write anything at first, it's better to be able to mark a book, draw a point, and write a question than nothing at all. Consciously train yourself to think and express, for a long time, the reading ability will gradually improve.

third, learn to read other people's reading notes. This is also the greatest significance of Douban, whether you read it or not, seeing what other people say, may give you some ideas. Slowly, you can find a feeling. Solve a hole today and a hole tomorrow. Slowly, you will find that your governor's second pulse has been opened. When you read a book that you did not understand before, you can also see your own experience and find it interesting. This feeling is really immutable and extremely happy.

this is a process of accumulation, of basic skills, there is no shortcut, but you go on in a down-to-earth manner, sleepy and seeking knowledge, regardless of talent, you will gradually see your progress.

in my opinion, this is the right way to learn to read, that is, to learn to write.