Along with that are articles in the form of commentaries (under the name of Duong Thi Nha) published in Tien Phong, Nong Thong Viet Nam, Khu women in Ho Chi Minh City, ... from 2000 onwards; portrait articles, introductions to artists and his subjects on contemporary young writers.
In this collection of efforts and criticism, writer Nguyen Huy Thiep discussed many issues in theory - criticism and literary composition, such as the mission of the writer, the value and beauty of literature, literary genres... In particular, he made many comments and suggestions on the current situation of domestic literature, about opportunities and difficulties, things that need to be improved...
These are straightforward, thorny personal comments, which he calls "white- Talking" about in some places that people still avoid or "not afraid" to say. In addition, he also wrote about his colleagues and poets that he cherished.
With his opinions and assessments, writer Nguyen Huy Thiep affirmed: "I do not consider my opinions to be true, I only express " room for confusion" thoughts for everyone in the literary world to consider". Perhaps he hopes that his thoughts can contribute to the development of the country's literature, better perform its tasks, and have a worthy position in society.
Like many other writers, writer Nguyen Huy Thiep reflects a lot on the task, function, or "civil servant" of literature - which he believes should not be exaggerated, to create "adoration and fear".
At the most basic level, he believes that literature is a science about people. That science needs to guide people to reach for good things:
Writing about life and about people is also to find beautiful and simple "life experiences" that are a "common mirror" for everyone. That is also the message.
Valuable literature is the literature that can produce noble people and noble feelings. Above all, he believes that literature has the ability to inspire and awaken people.
Writer Nguyen Huy Thiep believes in the power of literature, believing that in its own way, literature contributes to social progress.
Putting aside the shabbiness of reality, picking up the luxurious pieces of writer's thinking, taking care of it, that is progress. Humanity has momentarily inched into the truth thanks to those golden grains of ideas.
In order for literature to fulfill the above tasks and missions, writer Nguyen Huy Thiep believes that the composer must insert strong and noble thoughts and emotions into the work. That is salt, belief in life, reghts, reghts.
In their works, good writers always have a little salt sprinkled somewhere on each page of their writing. Salt rubs the hearts of readers once and then rubs the hearts of those who wrote it ten times.
But for a writer who does not have faith in life, his pages of writing can only stop at the level of writing for profit, but it will take a long time to elevate the cultural level.
The awareness of belief, the direction of authority, rising to nobility, truth, beauty, and absolutely must be the red coal in the writer's works.
The book is good because it has comprises, comprises is because it has reason, reason comes from heart that is, the heart of the writer. If you don't write, then just write, you have to have heart, you have to have heart.
According to writer Nguyen Huy Thiep, to have a work with great ideas and feelings, the creator must work seriously, research, accumulate, go to practice, travel, and even "make things difficult for himself".
To write, the writer must definitely know how to study people. The first step of the research was to know how to look at and observe oneself from the beginning, then expand to observe "outside of the world".
Where does the work of a writer start? I think we must start from studying readers, rather than studying ethnic psychology for a long time. On that basis, the writer creates spiritual food for the whole of his era.
In particular, writer Nguyen Huy Thiep has made many sharp comments about the current literary situation in our country. He affirmed: Never before has our literature had such great opportunities as now but it has never been as difficult as now and said that this is the time of trouble.
In addition, he also pointed out many issues about teacher training, about how to organize groups of writers, about society's attitude towards literature, about the way of evaluating the contemporary market mechanism for art: "Art must be sold"...
From there, he made some suggestions and proposals for the development of our country's literature, which is still relevant to this day.
Nguyen Huy Thiep (1950 - 2021) was born in Thai Nguyen, Thanh Tri, Hanoi (now Khuong Dinh ward, Thanh Xuan district). He is famous for his short story genre, and is the most typical writer of the Doi Moi period. In 1970, he graduated from the History Department of Hanoi National University of Education, then taught in the highlands for nearly 10 years, until 1979 when he returned to Hanoi. His literary career began quite late when short stories, under the cold penny, were published in Van Nghe newspaper in the second half of the 80s. Immediately after that, both domestic and foreign literary circles sparked heated debates about his works. Nguyen Huy Thiep also wrote many plays, poems, and critical enscripts that caused a stir.
