On the sidelines of the 2024 Ho Chi Minh City Young Writers Conference, answering the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper about the Korean writer winning the Nobel Prize for Literature and the lesson for young writers, Chairman of the Vietnam Writers Association Nguyen Quang Thieu said:
"If we have a rich reality, the life of the city is full of changes... through that we have enough reality to create a great work. Now young people, please sit down, take time to reflect, create with an independent spirit.
I also want to tell them that the Nobel Prize is not a writer's destination. Young writers should not write for the Nobel Prize. We write for a destination that only we know where it needs to be."
We must quote the original opinion of poet Nguyen Quang Thieu to understand correctly. Because, a rebuttal based on only one incomplete quote cannot be objective.
Mr. Nguyen Quang Thieu said convincingly, how many people hold a pen, does everyone have the goal of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel Prize for Literature may be a dream, but it is not the destination of all writers. Each writer sets his own mission and pursues it for life.
Writers write with all their heart what they are passionate about, what they are in pain about, what they are contemplating and confiding in. Most writers write because they are passionate about creating, writing as a way of life, not caring about any kind of awards.
Not only the works of Nobel Prize-winning writers are valuable, but many other works around the world speak of freedom, aspiration, pain, despair as well as human happiness. Those literary works captivate millions of readers, but do not have any awards.
There is a very noteworthy point, poet Nguyen Quang Thieu said that young writers "create with an independent spirit".
The two words "independence" here are the creative freedom of the writer. Break free from all the constraints or constraints, including the Nobel dream, to freely create. All value only comes when the work itself has value.
Vietnam has enough "capital" for independent writers to create many world-class masterpieces, about preserving Vietnamese cultural identity, and protecting the country's independence and sovereignty. Isn't the historical novel "Van Xuan" by Yveline Feray a classic about Nguyen Trai - Le Loi and the resistance against the Ming? Bao Ninh's "The Sorrow of War" has been translated into many countries around the world, which is valuable.
Is the writer talented or not? Don't blame others for stopping you when you yourself have no real talent.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is for talent. Without talent, no matter how many goals you set, you will never reach them.
