I saw decryption for the first time a month ago.
This time is not too early for this novel published in 2002 and often sold to this day. I remember someone once said that Decryption was the best novel written by Mai Jia, even surpassing the plot against him, which won Mao Dun literature prize. Maybe a lot of people will read him because of this. There is only one reason why I read it, because it is a novel written by Mai Jia 12.
Because I also have a long writing experience, Reading Decryption is not so much a wonderful book as the gradual maturity of Mai Jia's writing style as a writer 12 years ago.
"Decryption" begins with a family story of the Rong family, from grandma's nightmare needs to dream interpretation, to the Rong family, two strangers go to other places to study, and then to the Rong abacus. Lili died in childbirth. Readers can almost clearly see the routine of traditional novel writing. It would be premature to judge that this is a family history novel which is common in traditional novels and describes the rise and fall of rong family for decades. Soon after Rong abacus died, his son, Big Head Ghost, was born. Mai used two pages to pave the way for the birth of Big Head Ghost. Especially when Lao Li and Li assert that "the child born is either the emperor or the devil", readers can infer that Big Head Ghost is the protagonist of this book, and the hundreds of thousands of words behind it must be the blood of people who describe Big Head Ghost. However, if you read more than two pages, you will find that Big Head Ghost was quickly written by the author, and a pregnant woman came out and claimed to be pregnant with Big Head Ghost's son. It seems that the author intends to play an upside-down game with readers, constantly overthrowing your ideas. In short, he just doesn't play by the rules.
Sure enough, after the big head worm was born, although it experienced the plot of being adopted by an old foreigner and brought back by Lao Li and renamed Rong Jinzhen, it is reasonable to say that the novel can tell Rong Jinzhen, who has begun to shine as a mathematical genius, according to the conventional narrative, but the author is unwilling to tell the story with the traditional narrative, preferring to tell the story with unconventional means. So, next, Rong Jinzhen's story is not told by an omniscient author, but through an interview. There are several ingenious points in this way: 1, borrowing other people's words makes people believe the legend of Rong Jinzhen more. 2, the dew of the dew, the hidden, since it is someone else's mouth, there are some keys (such as how Rong Jinzhen solved the math problem, how his teacher played math chess, his real thoughts and so on. ) can be displayed by cleverly hiding everything. Readers always feel that what they know is close to the truth, but they can never know the truest truth. 3. Different people's dictation has different personality and tone characteristics, which can make readers feel different people's narrative styles while maintaining freshness. 4. Traces of this method can be seen in novels after Mai Jia, such as Wind and Wind Talk, which can be said to be the earliest stage of his personal style.
Rong Jinzhen lost his notebook. After finally finding it, he could have continued to talk, and even the author himself said that he could end the story of this article. Unexpectedly, at the beginning of "he", the author impressively named: the end is also the beginning. Direct and concise. What makes people look forward to this new beginning is the beginning of something. At this time, the author, the first person and the author of the first chapters of this book, suddenly jumped out and told the reader how he met Rong Jinzhen, a stranger he met in the nursing home where his father lived (although the author cunningly foreshadowed that he learned that his father was also engaged in decryption work). In the last article, the author told readers that Rong Jinzhen's decryption career had ended after finding the notebook, and asked new questions to interview Rong Jinzhen. At this time, the style has changed from conventional narration to interview to first-person recording. The application of this documentary style at this stage is more conducive to the following investigation content and leads to a series of subjective thinking.
The last article that is very easy to talk about is the notebook Rong Jinzhen.
I have to say, this is my personal favorite in the book. Rong Jinzhen had to come out for a long time after experiencing her family background, mysterious life experience and interviews with various people, including the author's investigation. Finally, the disclosure of Rong Jinzhen's notebook became a necessary and perfect ending. Rong Jinzhen is a mathematical genius. A genius's life has a genius's thoughts. Because of this, the heart of genius is more mysterious and makes people want to spy. In this article, the author seems to have disclosed Rong Jinzhen's notebook, but in fact, there are not many "dry goods" involved in decryption. It is said that this book was forcibly removed from the shelves by an institution when it was listed in 2002. Finally, the experts of the "decryption" organization made a thorough study of the book and came to the conclusion that there was no leak. More in the notebook, it turned out to be a strange love story. The protagonist of the story is naturally Rong Jinzhen and his wife. This wife was just mentioned in an interview with Mr. Rong before, saying that she is a northern woman, taller than Rong Jin, and seems to be his colleague. Never mentioned it again. How did they get together? What kind of woman can touch the heart of a genius? This is obviously the foreshadowing when the author interviewed Mr. Rong. In this notebook, readers can get a comprehensive understanding.
The author seems to be possessed by Rong Jinzhen, and through a few words (how can a genius notebook reveal too much), he shows the sensitivity, cowardice, boldness, delicacy, doubt and fear of genius. A family that originated in the late Qing Dynasty, after years of ups and downs, created a novel of a genius hero, ending in the love of a genius, which was unexpected (not necessarily reasonable) and even unexpected.
As a new generation of writers, Mai Jia was not born in a class, but was once born in science and engineering. But it is precisely because he has not been trained that his "decryption" (especially this! There is a unique temperament and strong personal style from beginning to end. His writing style is finally condensed through repeated tempering in these twelve years. Personally, it can be seen from this book that the style of Mai Jia mainly has the following characteristics:
1, the story seems simple and straightforward, but it is unfathomable.
2. In the plot, I love inversion, and I like to let readers guess the clues and turn around again.
3. The characters are paranoid and extreme, especially the inner portrayal.
4, the technique is not eclectic, not playing cards according to common sense.
5. The language is concise and powerful, and the key plots are freely put away.
In 12 years, Decryption has created amazing geniuses and strange and magical stories. I sincerely recommend friends to have a look.