At present, the development momentum of online literature and art is strong, showing the characteristics of vitality, fruitful results, and huge influence. In addition to original online literature and art, the online reproduction of literary classics is also spectacular, including the online adaptation of "Journey to the West". As a classic IP that entered the field of online literature and art adaptation earlier, there are adaptations of "Journey to the West" on major online literature portals and video platforms, and the types of adaptations are quite complete. Since 2000, tens of thousands of related works have been produced every year, covering science fiction, urban, historical, military and other genres, showing a strong appeal in the network field. It can be said that the Internet has become an important position for the reproduction of "Journey to the West".
Today, the literary classics represented by "Journey to the West" are an irreplaceable literary heritage in terms of aesthetic education and Chinese image dissemination. Literary classics build the tradition and paradigm of Chinese literature, highlight the unique style of Chinese aesthetics, and are the crystallization of Chinese aesthetic culture. Its entry into the network, together with original network literature and art, has become the main content of network literature and art. However, despite the considerable output of online adaptations of literary classics, the content is still mixed, and there are still not many works that can have both artistic and market value. There are even a considerable number of poor adaptations, which have become "dolls" for online writers to practice their pen. The shoddy and cookie-cutter production methods are not only unhelpful for the dissemination of literary classics, but also detract from their value. How to do a good job in the reproduction of literary classics in the Internet age, so that it can truly show new charm in the new media communication environment, and let the literary classics and cyberspace have a "chemical reaction" is a topic worthy of research and attention.
1. Form innovation and lofty ideas should complement each other
In terms of Internet literature, the Internet has reshaped the environment for literary creation, forming a production field that integrates various forces such as commercial capital, netizens, and Internet writers, and the logic of literary production has changed.
Fans constitute the main body of online literature reading, and the content production logic is transformed from the "author center" of traditional literature to "fan center".
With the deepening of the industrialization of online literature, business models such as IP adaptation and offline publishing have further strengthened the fan tendency of online literature creation.
The two-way conversion between creation and reading has given birth to the trend of typification of online texts, and the reproduction of literary classics has also fallen into the rut of typological creation.
Take the online literature creation of Journey to the West as an example.
In 2000, an online novel "Wukong Biography", which was deeply influenced by the movie "Dahua Westward Journey", triggered a trend of online literature, and produced a large number of "Dahua" style follow-up jokes, various "Tang Monk Dahua Series". The "Shaseng Dahua Series" and "Bajie Dahua Series" were produced.
This adaptation of the author's idealism leads the trend of "big talk", but it does not promote personalized creation, but narrows the creation.
Following the creation of "big talk" by post-70s writers, the new generation of post-80s, post-90s and even post-00s have gradually poured into the tide of online literature production of "Journey to the West".
Compared with the pioneers of the previous generation, the new generation of creators did not open up a new way of adapting and creative of "Journey to the West", but were deeply influenced by the trend of genreization of online literature, and continued the reproduction of "Journey to the West" in various types of creations. achieve new breakthroughs.
Fantasy, fantasy, martial arts, Xianxia, sci-fi, two-dimensional, etc., there are all kinds of things, but the original adaptation works with both formal innovation and lofty ideas are lacking.
The literary classics created in the "author-centered" era are deeply rooted in the spiritual soil of traditional literature, and each classic has its own artistic personality.
Literary classics themselves are exemplary works of a certain type. Abandoning its own formal value, blindly copying genre routines, and obliterating the artistic personality of literary classics are not only detrimental to the inheritance of classics, but also to the dissemination of excellent traditional Chinese culture.
In fact, relying on the mature narrative structure, character image and story structure, literary classics can completely become the "pioneer" of new online creative types, without having to go around in the vicious circle of existing types.
In this sense, the online reproduction of literary classics should take a different approach, break through the puzzle of stereotypes, and call for creative works with artistic personality.
2. Cool visual impact cannot replace sophisticated narrative
"Journey to the West" is also a popular resource for online drama adaptations.
In recent years, there have been many online dramas derived from the Westward Journey IP, but only a handful of them can truly leave a lasting impression in the audience's memory.
Overall, these online film and television adaptations of "Journey to the West" still haven't been able to get out of the influence of the movie "Journey to the West", the characters are solidified, and the ideas of character derivatives are similar. 》Fixed mode for network adaptation.
Unlike the individual writing of online literature, the production of online dramas comes from a production team with a complete organizational structure. If the click-through rate of reading guides the type selection of online literature writers, then the production of online dramas is inevitably affected. The impact of big data analytics.
In recent years, the application of big data technology in various industries has become more and more extensive and mature. For the creation of online dramas, big data can not only accurately stratify users, but also finely capture the content selection of users and filter out the audience. The bridge section of the peak of watching dramas eliminates the content that the audience skips by fast-forwarding.
These peak bridges in turn become the basis for the screenwriting and production of online dramas, resulting in the production logic of some works shifting from individual dominance to collective patchwork. The adapted story is just a big assortment of popular bridges, and the plot structure is incomplete and even difficult to achieve. Logically self-consistent.
This is also one of the important reasons why after a large amount of commercial capital poured into the field of online film and television production, although it brought a cool visual impact, it failed to bring a sophisticated narrative experience.
In the era of big data, we must fully respect the characteristics of network media production.
Data analysis cannot and should not be avoided, but on top of the rigid parameter index of data, it should be realized that online literature and art is still a narrative art, and the adaptation of literary classics should strengthen narrative creativity, obey the laws of narrative art, and emphasize narrative logic and characters. Derivative logic.
Literary classics, as models of narrative art, should not be used only as experimental fields for new media art.
To fully tap the narrative resources of literary classics and give full play to the artistic function of classic narratives is the proper meaning of literary classics adaptation.
3. Value guidance and aesthetic taste are indispensable
Unlike traditional literature and art, online literature and art are produced by multiple parties such as online platforms, online audiences, online writers, and online production companies. Content consumption is almost entirely dependent on fan stickiness.
Therefore, the online reproduction of literary classics has essential provisions that are different from those of traditional adaptation.
Its innovation cannot only be measured by the depth of thought required by traditional literary and artistic works and the vanguard of artistic innovation, but must balance the relationship between cutting-edge and popular, and innovate on the basis of public acceptance.
Innovation should be grounded, that is, for online audiences, and should be young and popular enough.
At the same time, it should also respect the attributes of network media, bridge the discourse gap between classical and modern, adapt to fragmented audio-visual requirements, and have a full "sense of network".
But this does not mean that the creative subject can be hidden under the big data and click-through rate. We must not only base on the public interest, but also advocate value guidance.
Fragmented reading and viewing on the Internet does not mean arbitrary writing and a fragmented worldview.
The literary classics represented by "Journey to the West" become classics because they depict an ideal order and provide a multi-dimensional interpretation space, rather than a whiteboard for wanton smearing.
Anti-essence and anti-depth postmodern thinking must not be the ultimate direction of thinking. Worldview and values are still the foundation of narrative art, which is the bottom line of thinking for any kind of media art.
In addition, the reason why a literary classic is a classic is that it represents an aesthetic style, creating a unique aesthetic style that allows readers to gain a sense of beauty in the process of reading.
Although online literature and art are mainly aimed at the general public, the adaptation of classics should not reduce the artistic level and aesthetic taste contained in the classics. On the contrary, we should use the classics to find the connection point between classic literature and art works and cyberspace, and generate a new "chemical reaction", incarnation. The leader of the aesthetic trend of network literature and art.
In the current wave of "Post Westward Journey" writing, "Suzakuji", which explores the space for multi-meaning interpretation of "Journey to the West" and continues the context of "Journey to the West", is remarkable.
Although the works are still fictional narratives in the fictional world of online literature, they do not evade reality, but are embedded in the life thinking of contemporary people to respond to real life problems.
Although the strong metaphysical philosophical thinking and the questioning of life that directly hit people's hearts run through the beginning and end, but after this, the work does not move towards fate and nothingness, but gives readers the meaning and value of survival with a more ambitious life ethic. The biggest highlight of the book.
According to the 49th "Statistical Report on Internet Development in China" released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of December 2021, the number of Internet users in my country has reached 1.032 billion.
Judging from the current development trend of mass media, online literature and art has become a relatively popular emerging form of literature and art, and has become a platform for the aggregation and display of various traditional arts.
Network literature and art are closely linked with technology and industry, and have become one of the main forms of literature and art in people's production and life.
However, in the current era of comprehensive reform of reading and viewing media, literary classics should not only withdraw from the historical stage, but should rely on emerging media to radiate strong vitality.
The massive information storage space and accurate and fast dissemination paths provided by the Internet allow Internet literature and art to gain a broad imagination space and the possibility of spreading across time and space.
The popular and international characteristics of network media make it a powerful carrier for spreading Chinese excellent culture and play an important role in presenting a credible, lovely and respectable image of China to the world.
It can be seen that literary classics should take advantage of the current development of online literature and art, learn from the experience of original online literature and art production, and at the same time respect the unique artistic personality and value of literary classics, pursue new breakthroughs in creative production, and create literature in the new era. A new world for the re-distribution and reproduction of classics.
(Author: Zhao Min, associate professor at the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, this article is the research result of the National Social Science Fund Project "The Twentieth Century "Journey to the West" Cross-Media Adaptation Creative Research" [18BXW053])