Around the story "Nghe An has no literature, so how can there be criticism"

- Dear poet Thach Quy, you have lived and worked all your life closely associated with the creative labor of literature and art in Nghe An. What is your comment on the current state of literature and art in your province, the authors, works and activities of the Nghe An Literature and Art Association? Recently, on social networks, there is an opinion that "Nghe An has no literature, so how can there be criticism?" What do you think?

I have been retired for a long time, almost 20 years, and I am old, as the poet Xuan Dieu said, now I only have a flickering light like a firefly illuminating the words on my paper, trying to work. Honestly, I do not have the conditions and time to read all the works of the authors and do not grasp the daily activities of the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association. But with this question, if I have to answer, let me "say what I know", it may be accurate and it may not be completely true to the nature of the matter, anyway, this is just one person's opinion.

Poet Thach Quy frankly expressed his opinion on the statement "Nghe An has no literature to criticize". Photo: Hai Vuong

Does Nghe An have literature, authors, and works at the present time? It can be said that at present, in Nghe An, there are still many people who write and print books, there are still many people who write poetry and prose, whose articles have been and are being printed in newspapers. However, printed books and literary works are two different entities. Poets, prose writers and literary authors are also two different concepts. Depending on the way of evaluation, depending on the concept of literature, on the criteria for positioning a literary work, it is necessary to make specific judgments to say whether a certain locality or a certain country has literature or not. This is the job of researchers, theorists, and critics.

Suppose a locality does not have literary works, readers still need critical theorists to make specific judgments to point out the sad reality of the literary situation in that locality. I think that saying “Nghe An has no literature, how can there be criticism” is an inaccurate proposition. Because criticism needs to point out whether Nghe An has literature or not, criticism can even open a conference on that topic. So even if a locality does not have literature, there can still be criticism if the criticism is strong enough, criticism will point out the reality of “no literature”!

Returning to the issue of the current state of literature, authors, and works in Nghe An. The Nghe An Literature and Arts Association has about 20 writing members. I have not read them all, so I do not know clearly about the quality of the works of all the writers in the association. However, in recent years, the novels of writer Nguyen The Quang such as “Nguyen Du”, “Nguyen Cong Tru”… have still resonated in the literary world nationwide and have been well received by readers. Thus, in recent years, Nghe An literature has had at least 2 quality novels to contribute to the general literature of the whole country. That is a very remarkable success of Nghe An literature and arts.

Regarding poetry, Nghe An has 84 members. There are many poetry books printed, but I do not have the opportunity to read them all. From what I have read, I think that the quality of poetry in the works in general is not high. To be honest, there are many poetry collections and poems that have not caught up with the emotional rhythm and innovation in language of modern poetry. However, standing out in that general poetry scene, Nghe An still has authors whose works are printed a lot in literary newspapers and literary magazines throughout the country. There are also poets who are ranked by public opinion as the top, the pioneers in innovation and creativity of poets today. Nghe An authors whose poems are printed a lot in literary newspapers, Writers and Works magazines, and magazines of other provinces include: Tran Thu Ha, Le Quoc Han, Vo Van Vinh, Tung Bach, Truong Tho and a number of other authors. In the province, poets Luong Khac Thanh, Duy Nang, Pham Ba Thai Tam, Cao Xuan Thuong… are also moving towards new compositions that are increasingly more brilliant and of better quality.

These are also the remarkable contributions of Nghe An poetry today. There are a number of young authors, female authors of Nghe An today who are very educated, qualified, passionate about writing, and have had initial achievements. Although I have great confidence in them and want to encourage them, I have not read all of their works, so unfortunately I have no comments on them to be able to point out here. I am only happy to note that Nghe An literature still has young authors to inherit.

- Dear poet, in your opinion, what should be done so that the Literature and Arts Association can better promote its mission and help the literature and arts of our province develop better?

The Literary and Artistic Association is an organization of authors, an organization of creative writers in the field of literature and art. The first and final task of each author as well as the association is to produce quality literary and artistic works. Authors' self-evaluation and the Association's evaluation of its activities must always be based on its first and central task, which is to create literary and artistic works. All tasks and all work of the Association, no matter how complex and diverse, ultimately only aim at creating works. The success of the Association must also be assessed based on the quality of products produced by the Association and its members. If all members focus on that central task, if the Association's leadership takes that central task to manage the work, it will reduce unnecessary complications to some extent.

According to poet Thach Quy, the leaders of the Literature and Arts Association should focus more on the quality of works. Photo: Hai Vuong

In my humble opinion, in the next term, the Association's leadership should focus more on the issue of quality of works. Investment and printing of works should not be done in an average way. If investment is done in an average way without quality, it will reduce the spirit of striving for higher quality works of each author. If printing is done in an average way, it will reduce the quality of the magazine.

If the Association's literary and artistic awards are not judged fairly and accurately or lack consensus and acceptance from the members, it can easily cause disunity and leave negative public opinion.

To achieve these goals, in the next term, the Association should have writers, poets, and critical theorists with the ability to appraise works. Everything needs to be open and transparent. All concerns and questions from members also need to be answered promptly, including questions about the quality of works. If that can be done, I believe the Association will be united, everyone will have to focus on creative work and the quality of the magazine will also be improved...