Literature must not be used to erase the nature of the nation's great resistance war - Part 4: Passing on to generations of Vietnamese people pride in the feat "that has gone down in world history" (Continued and end)

This is the opinion of Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Army Literature Magazine.

Do not accept ambiguous writing and "brazen" views on history.

Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai: Those who discuss “historical fiction” are divided into two opinions. The first is the trend of adding details, some words, and actions of characters, but not changing the flow of history or the characters’ biographies. The other trend is “fake history”, “historical fiction” - that is, only borrowing characters and historical events as an excuse, and then freely embellishing and even changing historical events.

As a history lover, focusing on writing historical novels, I believe that the time has passed when literature and history became one. In modern times, historians must rely on scientific thinking, speaking with evidence. Literature exists thanks to fiction, any topic needs fiction, including historical topics. However, there must be a stopping point, an invisible line that I personally call "national morality", expressing the ideals and beliefs of the community. For example, the title of Uncle Ho's Soldier is honored and awarded by the people because of their love. We cannot deny the title of Uncle Ho's Soldier - the shining symbol of Vietnamese revolutionary heroism - because of a few individual cases of degenerate soldiers. Therefore, literature written about the armed forces and the revolutionary movement cannot "de-sacre" or distort the image of Uncle Ho's Soldier.

In addition, the current Publishing Law stipulates prohibited content and behaviors; including prohibiting "distorting historical facts, denying revolutionary achievements; insulting the nation, celebrities, and national heroes".

Therefore, it is the right of writers to pursue the trend of "historical fiction"; however, there are always legal and ethical issues involved in this matter, and writers certainly cannot arbitrarily exceed the limit and be unscrupulous.

Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai.

Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai: The nature of the resistance war against America to save the country is a resistance war to drive out foreign invaders and their lackeys, to liberate the nation and unify the country.

However, in recent times, there have been some individuals who have deliberately confused concepts, trying to prove that the resistance war against America to save the country was a "civil war", an "ideological war" or a "proxy war" between major countries.

Writers who follow wrong and distorted viewpoints are originally people who have “roots and branches” and are nostalgic for the previous puppet regime. For many years, they have “chewed over and over” arguments that belittle the resistance war against the US to save the country as a matter of course of “eating from a tree and protecting its own”. But what is worrying is that a small number of writers who grew up under our regime, some of whom were even former revolutionary cadres, have been enticed, “self-evolved”, “self-transformed”, speaking in the same tone, writing with the same biased thoughts and wrong motives of hostile forces, disaffected elements and political opportunists.

I think they are being “brazen” with history, which is unacceptable. Those few writers are losing their value in the public’s eyes, because they are just lost voices, revealing their own deviant thinking and distorted character. Works containing such toxic writings cannot be published and officially distributed because the awareness of the entire nation has matured, has enough courage and level to recognize what is right and what is wrong.

Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai: Conspiracies and tricks to use literature to sabotage the revolutionary cause and the path to socialism that our people have chosen have existed for a long time. When bad and toxic works are published, we obviously need to react promptly and strongly through the press and media.

What I want to emphasize is that in order to refute false and hostile arguments in literature, only professionals can identify and effectively fight against them. A literary work is a structure with many intertwined elements, which must be carefully “separated” and analyzed in detail for artistic techniques, character images, spatial and temporal contexts. The ultimate goal is to correctly identify bad and toxic works, avoiding “labeling” them as ignorant and counterproductive, especially avoiding attracting the public’s curiosity.

In the current context, it is extremely necessary to promote the role of literary and artistic associations to grasp the aspirations and thoughts of writers and to orient their thinking. In addition to some writers who have strayed into the ranks of reactionaries, some other writers are actually just followers, lacking political courage or are extremists, exalting their “ego” excessively, and liking to say the opposite of everything, including historical truth. Therefore, leaders of literary and artistic associations need to exchange regularly to encourage writers to maintain their courage and ideological stance, not to directly create or promote the trend of creating works that “de-sacred” history; instead, actively create many valuable works about the resistance war against the US to save the country.

The most important thing is to help writers always be deeply proud of history, to realize the creative mission to be worthy of the great reality of our nation's sacred war. Having valuable works, in line with the orthodox viewpoint, will contribute to "using beauty to eliminate ugliness", thereby contributing to nurturing good historical values ​​for readers.

Nurture the inspiration to write proudly about the nation's sacred resistance

Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai: Writers who grew up during the resistance war against America to save the country have excellently fulfilled their assigned mission. We cannot ask for more from them, especially when the majority of wartime writers are now old and their creativity has somewhat diminished.

I think we need to put our faith in the talent of the contemporary generation of writers. They have not written many works about the resistance war against America to save the country, perhaps they do not have enough creative inspiration. They do not have the real-life experience of the previous generation of writers, perhaps that is why many writers do not want to write about things they do not really understand. Therefore, they need time to learn and reflect on the great, majestic reality of our nation's great war.

When writing about a historical period, the events, characters, if not the ending, are already available, which creates a disadvantage for the writer. But if we put the problem in reverse, how to tell a story that everyone knows the ending in an interesting way is also an interesting challenge that is worth conquering for writers. What we need to do now is to nurture the inspiration, pride, and passion for writing about the sacred resistance of the nation, thereby creating attraction and appeal for contemporary writers to enthusiastically take up the pen to explore this topic.

Lieutenant Colonel, writer Phung Van Khai: If we want to have great works on the subject of military and political affairs, worthy of the great sacrifices of our ancestors, we should also patiently wait for the appearance of talented writers. Of course, literary talent is not something that can be had if desired. How a writer writes, whether he or she is successful or not, depends on the innate ability, style, creativity and imagination of each writer.

Literary researchers have concluded a rule-based solution, which is to proactively create a truly favorable creative environment to create a boost for valuable works to be born. One of the literary works about the resistance war against the US, saving the country that has created a buzz recently is the novel "Red Rain" by writer Chu Lai. The General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, through the People's Army Publishing House, has invested deeply in writer Chu Lai's writing. Writer Chu Lai had the opportunity to separate himself from his daily life to complete the valuable novel, when he attended many writing camps for many months. Therefore, he created the novel "Red Rain" which attracted a large number of readers and was highly appreciated by experts.

In the current situation, in my opinion, relevant agencies need to “choose the right people to entrust their gold to”, invest to the maximum so that writers have the necessary conditions to fully develop their talents. Investment should not be spread out and dripped, because doing so often only produces “readable” works but it is difficult to have impressive works with strong influence. In addition, organizing long-term literary writing competitions on the topic of the Armed Forces - CTCM in general, and the resistance war against the US to save the country in particular, should also be considered in the coming time.

“Relevant agencies need to coordinate to remove bottlenecks in laws, mechanisms, policies, budgets, finances, investments... to create resources and space for artists to freely create and compose. However, along with that, we must fight against deviant, degraded, and uncultured ideologies. In addition, we must focus on training and fostering talents and a strong enough human resource for the team of artists to serve the new era of the nation.”

 

CULTURE reporter group (performed)

Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/phong-chong-tu-dien-bien-tu-chuyen-hoa/khong-duoc-loi-dung-van-chuong-de-xoa-nhoa-ban-chat-cuoc-khang-chien-vi-dai-cua-dan-toc-bai-4-trao-truyen-tu-hao-cho-cac-the-he-nguoi-viet-ve-chien-cong-da-di-vao-lich-su-the-gioi-tiep-theo-va-het-825876