Look straight - Tell the truth: "Put down the pen, kick the person"

A great work depends mainly on the talent of the writer. For a long time, Vietnamese literature has not had a great work that convinces the public and has international influence. Therefore, contemporary Vietnamese literature lacks talented, creative, and intellectual writers. This is a sad reality, public opinion is clear, but insiders do not admit this.

Illustration photo: hanoimoi.vn

Until recently, at a large conference organized by the Vietnam Writers Association , there were strong voices, looking straight at the truth, admitting that Vietnamese literature has not had any great works, there are many reasons, in which a group of writers do not focus on creativity, are distracted by things outside of literature, and more negatively, waste time criticizing, mocking, and attacking each other.

The proof is that Vietnamese literature is currently "lively and bustling" because there are more arguments than literary achievements. Typically, arguments are a daily occurrence surrounding awards, to the point that there is a joke: "Heaven and earth have four seasons, but the literary world has an additional "season" which is the award season." Normally, writers do not pick up their pens for awards, but if they finish writing and submit their work to a contest, they must accept the rules and evaluation of the jury. If a work does not win an award or receives a low award, it does not mean that the work is worthless, and conversely, if it wins a high award, it is unlikely to survive over time and be anchored in the public mind. Because the award is chosen by a group of judges, no matter how prestigious, it does not represent the general readership.

If the award is “problematic”, the judges themselves will “bury” the prestige of the award and their own prestige. So should writers inhumanely criticize each other for the sake of awards? With this situation of “putting down the pen and kicking people”, the birth of great works seems to be just a dream, because the limited energy has been used by writers to… argue.

The work of a writer is a very personal and special work, requiring a certain amount of discipline. Most great writers are not only great artists, sensitive and delicate, but also great thinkers and scholars. Therefore, they immerse themselves in imagination and contemplation, read and research a lot, and have no time for useless things. As for writers who are usually of average level, without a lifetime work or a short career, they often indulge in useless things.

In the era of technology, the explosion of media and multimedia entertainment, it seems that literature is being pushed from the center to the periphery of cultural and artistic life. However, with its position as a linguistic art, literature will always be closely linked to human destiny, at the same time providing literary scripts, images, and expressions for the development of cultural industries, so literature still has room for development. It is just a pity that few writers in our country today are interested in researching public tastes, understanding the changes in cultural and social life, and devoting their efforts to writing works that surpass the common ground.

It is true that the atmosphere of the times, the creative environment, and socio -economic conditions more or less affect writers, but unlike cinema and performing arts, a great writer will not need too much external support. With their own talent, they can still create works that elevate literature, becoming writers of the times like Nguyen Trai with "Binh Ngo Dai Cao", Nguyen Du with "Truyen Kieu"... Writers exist thanks to their works, no one will remember the controversies, jostling, awards, titles... Therefore, no one but the writer himself needs to understand the mission of holding a pen and devote himself to the deep path of creation, with the peaks beckoning ahead.

Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/van-hoa/doi-song/nhin-thang-noi-that-bo-but-da-nguoi-906574