(Picture/TV play The Story of Compiling a Boat - I want to compile a dictionary -)
The mortician's tweezers and shaving cream, the dictionary editor's word cards and sleeves are almost described as aesthetic objects in the incumbents' dramas.
Author | Hua Qixin
✎ Edit | Tan Shanshan
Ten years later, the Japanese writer Akihiro Miura's novel "The Story of Weaving a Boat" is still being adapted, filmed and discussed. In February this year, Japan's NHK TV Station broadcast "The Story of Compiling a Boat - I want to compile a dictionary", which is its third movie. As early as 2014, the film version of "The Story of Compiling a Boat" was shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
In this narrative, the Japanese film and television industry sincerely expressed its affirmation of a person who is "not good at anything except compiling dictionaries".
(Picture/film The Boat Weaving)
In contrast, in China, we also have a large number of people who have devoted themselves to writing on the desk for more than ten years - Yu Guolin, editor of China Book Company, spent 13 years sorting out the diary of historian Zheng Tianting at Southwest United University, and Shen Xieyuan, former deputy director and research librarian of Nanjing Library, spent 18 years compiling a rare book catalog of Chinese ancient books. But they are unfamiliar to the public.
In 2013, when the director of the movie "The Story of the Boat", Hiroshi Ishii, also talked about the editing group, he could not help but feel anxious about a kind of Japanese hot blooded narration.
They exist in the documentary and flash by; When talking about them, people coincidentally expressed their respect, and turned around to forget. This group was praised on the altar and painted with rose color, while its face was also painted, and it was generally classified as "literary and artistic".
It seems easy to bury them.
01
The story of the long editorial department
Take dictionary editing as an example. You can feel the boredom of this job just by listing numbers.
The Japanese National Language Dictionary took more than ten years to compile, with 3000 workers participating and 450000 entries included; Yanhai was completed by Dashi Wenyan in his whole life. He compiled and included 39000 articles of Heyu, Chinese, loanwords and mixed languages with his own efforts; The fictional "Dadu Sea" in the "Records of Compiling Boats" has four editors, including Ma Xiaoguang. It has a total of 230000 entries, more than 2900 pages thick.
(Picture/film The Boat Weaving)
However, as long as a dictionary editor explains a word from a personal perspective - such as what is called "right", his whole person will become outstanding:
"If it is interpreted as' the hand holding the pen and chopsticks', it ignores left-handed people. It cannot be interpreted as' the side without a heart ', because it is said that someone's heart is born on the right side. Then, the interpretation of' the side of the east when facing the north 'is more appropriate." It was written in the original novel of "The Book of Boats".
They turned the page until their fingerprints were almost polished, and they could not even grasp things. For them, compiling dictionaries is not only convenient for readers to consult, but also to find out the rigid gender perspective that has long existed in dictionaries. For example, Shore and Miyamoto discussed the definition of the word "female" and found that the old dictionary used the term "non male gender", which was disappointing. They feel that it is necessary to consider the cross gender group whose self-awareness is women.
They are so stubborn that even if they take down the old door, they also consciously satirize: "Why should I take it off after only four or five years of work?"
(Picture/film The Boat Weaving)
The story of weaving a boat is fictional, but people like the hero Ma Xiaoguang do exist. For example, Chen Huanhuan, editor of Century Wenjing Publishing Company, began to work as David Foster Wallace in the era of popular MSN and "stealing vegetables" Endless Jokes The book will not be published until March 2023. In the blink of an eye, 12 years have passed.
This is not an easier job than compiling a dictionary. "Endless Jokes" has a total of 1 million words and 267 characters. A large number of obscure words, professional nouns, slang, and innovative words are hidden in long sentences, which even need to be copied on paper for calculation to understand their structure. During the unified revision of manuscripts, Chen Huanhuan had to operate the computer with her right hand and turn over hundreds of pages of manuscripts with her left hand.
Just as the dictionary has long been biased towards men, Chen Huanhuan almost stubbornly digs into the words:
For example, Wallace used an antidiarrheal called "Kaopectate" to describe the color of the sky and someone's face. She thought it was the white of white and pink, but on page 969, "the window light in the room has become the color of Kaopectate", she found it should be pink.
(Picture/But there are still books)
She worked almost as hard as a dictionary editor. For example, there are two expressions in the book: "father himself" and "mothers". The translator originally translated "mothers" into "mothers" to correspond to "father himself". However, on more than 700 pages, the expression "children call their mothers' mothers'. It seems that she is more than one" appeared. "Mother adults" could not reflect "it seems that she is more than one". In order to be consistent, Chen Huanhuan changed all "mother adults" into "mothers".
All names need to be found in the original text, and then to the corresponding position of the translation for unified change. The number of times these names appear varies from several to hundreds.
However, few of us can describe Chen Huanhuan's people in a long and vivid way, as in "The Book of Weaving Boats".
02
The Unusual Narrative of Professional Personnel
If it is not very necessary, people will hardly think of Chen Huanhuan. The Japanese film and television industry has the opposite attitude towards them.
The Japanese are tireless in photographing various groups sitting on the bench and counting carefully, including the dictionary editor in "The Book of Boat Compilation", the proofreader in "Reading Girl Joy on River", the woodcutter in "Where God Goes to the Village", the master of the primary school canteen in "Chef~Three Star Nutritional Lunch~", the sumo wrestler in "Five Sumo Boys", and "Robot Master" Even the accountant who strikes abacus for the samurai in the Samurai Household Accounts.
They are all close at hand, but they are not noticed, just like Ma Xiaoguang, who has no sense of existence. However, such dramas and characters have a huge number of fans and ratings.
(Picture/Review of the Girl Yuezi Kono)
In 2009, the film The Mortuary won the 81st Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film tells of a boring worker whose job is to dress, shave, make up and put on Buddhist beads for the remains. With the help of this film, the neglected work has finally gained exposure and discussion.
Only those who are good at shooting can dare to call them professional dramas. Especially in Japan, the director will magnify the trivial matters of each worker.
For example, in "The Book of Compiling Boats", at a meeting of the dictionary editorial department, several people were discussing the word "doleful". Colleagues joked that Xigang was asked to make a "dejected" expression, which was like a wild wood reflex, and gave its interpretation: "lost, disappointed, depressed, surprised".
Or in "The Undertaker", the Undertaker cleans his body with cotton cloth, carefully shaves his face, holds a white cloth in one hand, blocks the skin when wiping, holds the stiff hands of the deceased to his abdomen, applies foundation, lipstick, and lifts the body. When the cold liquid touches his arm, the hero played by Benmu Yahong will shiver.
(Picture/Mortician)
The mortician's tweezers and shaving cream, the dictionary editor's word cards and sleeves are almost described as aesthetic objects in these films and TV plays. Just as fiber cloth is used in "The Secret of White Collars in Underwear", wood is used in "Where God Goes to the Village", vegetables are used in "Chef~Three Star Nutritional Lunch", and paper is used in "The Book of Weaving Boats" - the feel of dictionary paper. It should not only be sucked into the finger pulp with the movement of fingers, but also be turned up smoothly, without taking up several pages at a time. The paper must fall down like dry sand.
Anthropologist Levi Strauss once pointed out that Japan has a more progressive analytical taste and critical spirit than other nations. Sound, color, smell, and texture are not lost. They "have a whole treasure house of words (mimetic) to express these feelings".
Having enough words to touch means being valued.
(Picture/film The Boat Weaving)
·END · Author/Hua Qixin Editor/Tan Shanshan Proofreader/Meet
It is no longer a set of characters in sweet pets, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, rich families and other types of plays. An honest professional drama should show how the 14 year long editing process is completed, or how to cook in Kanto, how to sell electrical appliances, and how to confirm the editorial process word by word.
Although there is no authoritative spotlight behind them, they are not completely aphasic. There is such a passage in the Record of Compiling Boats:
"Even if the funds are scarce, we do not rely on the state's funding, but the publishing house, you and I, as individuals, tirelessly compile dictionaries. We should be proud of this Build a ship for all those who want to sail freely in the sea of words.
reference material:
1. The Inspiration of Documentary "The Story of Book Sea" to Publishers, film review, Cao Honggang, 2020.7.30
2. Analysis of Japanese Professional Culture from the Film "Mortuary", Media Forum, Li Yafei, 2019.5.25
3. Realistic Aesthetics of Japanese Films since the New Century, Contemporary Film, Jinhui, March 1, 2016
4. Use 12 years to turn a bold idea into reality, Wen Jing, Chen Huanhuan, April 31, 2024
5. "Professional Film" in Heisei Era from "The Story of Compiling a Boat", Journal of Beijing Film Academy, Li Chen, July 5, 2016
