Knowledge of suspense

Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", you must be familiar with it, it has become a model for many writers to create intellectual mystery novel, this lesson, we will discuss how to write a good intellectual mystery novel.

Before we talk about the specific method of writing, we need to understand the concept of "intellectual mystery novel". What is intellectual mystery? As the name implies, it can bring readers knowledge of the mystery novel, it also belongs to the category of "mystery novel". To be more specific, it takes the familiar knowledge as the exploration goal, uses the novel creation technique to leave readers with suspense, and guides readers to acquire knowledge step by step. That is to say, when reading, readers can not only acquire certain knowledge, but also experience the pleasure of reading suspense novels.

After understanding the connotation of knowledge mystery novel, we then analyze how to perfectly integrate the two elements of "knowledge" and "mystery novel" to create a successful knowledge mystery novel.

First of all, we say "knowledge". Since it is a knowledge mystery novel, it is bound to involve a lot of knowledge, whether it is historical, cultural, artistic, religious, philosophical, scientific, mythological and so on. It could be multiple areas, it could be a single area. Whether majestic or simple, the first thing we need to do is to know exactly what we are about to write. It's a premise, it's a hardware part, there's no easy way to do it. It is not difficult to acquire such knowledge. My personal suggestion is to make use of the developed network to consult studies and conduct textual research to ensure the accuracy of knowledge.

As a non-academic writer with the dream of being a writer, it is possible to write amazing works through the accumulation of knowledge. And those academic writers, in fact, have also experienced the stage of convergence. Dan brown, for one, he has engaged in professional writing, is a university English teacher, his father is a professor of mathematics, the mother is a professional musician religion, his wife is an art historian and painter, to say the growth and life in the ocean of knowledge in science and religion, so his novels, logic elements such as religion, history, art, everywhere. "The Name of the Rose," for example, is filled with scholarship on theology, politics, history, criminology, and thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Aquinas, and Bacon. Amberto Ecko is an academic professor, philosopher, historian, literary critic and aesthetician, and one of the world's best-known authorities on symbolic linguistics. The range of academic research is quite broad.

Through the above two examples, we can know that to do a good job, must first sharpen his device tough knowledge is powerful support, you have to do is for you to plan the object of writing, like peeling Onions, one layer, and know the relevant knowledge in mind, writer and craftsman is the same, need to accumulate over a long period, every little makes a mickle.

Secondly, it is worth noting that the knowledge we cite must be real and not fictitious; Or new knowledge that can be deduced from existing scientific principles or research, supported by certain theories, rather than fabricated according to one's own assumptions or wishes. Take the Cipher of the Foreword of the Orchid Pavilion for example. The Foreword of the Orchid Pavilion does exist in history, and it is universally acknowledged that it was written by the calligrapher Wang Xizhi. Later, Li Shimin got the original work of the Preface to the Blue Pavilion, which was carried forward and became "a piece for the ages". However, the whereabouts of the original work of the Preface to the Blue Pavilion became a "mystery for the ages". What is more surprising is that some scholars believe that the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion was not written by Wang Xizhi. So, is there an original one? If so, where is it? Based on this historical basis, the novel presents the environmental background based on the history, officialdom, military and culture of the Tang Dynasty, interspersed with historical allusions, anecdotes and literary knowledge of the Tang Dynasty. Readers can not only experience thrilling stories, but also enrich their own knowledge system. Such as "the Da Vinci code" again, with the development of the plot, the history of the Roman Catholic church, the gallery of the Louvre, the history, the connotation of the pentagram changes, leonardo Da Vinci painting, the Fibonacci sequence, the Dead Sea scrolls, Hebrew encoding, the priory such as history, art, cryptography, and theological knowledge, overwhelmed, eye-openers. However, after the book became popular, some of the assumptions in the book were questioned, but I think this does not affect the way we learn it, as long as we write with caution.

After storing enough rich and scientific knowledge, the next focus is to use literary artistic techniques to deal with these knowledge, so that it becomes a literary work with both literary and intellectual properties, rather than boring popular science or lifeless knowledge accumulation. To sum up, I think we can try from five aspects.

First, defamiliarization of familiar knowledge and bold assumptions. The so-called "knowledge mystery novel", the story must have a lot of knowledge, but if it's just simply list the contents of the public known, is likely to be readers speech - the value of the text will be discounted, so we have to be the art of defamiliarization processing in quotes, also is to use a new perspective to read the things everyone turned a blind eye, Prolong its attention time, increase the aesthetic freshness. For example, in the Da Vinci Code, instead of the image of the Christian God Jesus, he is described as a real historical figure with a noble birth, a wife and offspring. Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Smile, generally thought to be a portrait of a woman, Langdon speculates that it is a self-portrait of Da Vinci; The Last Supper, which is widely believed to depict 13 men, but Sir Ray Teabing in the novel suggests that Jesus is accompanied by his wife Mary Magdalene... The author makes bold assumptions and even subversive interpretations of traditional religious knowledge. It seems absurd, but it is also plausible because "all the descriptions of the works of art, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this book are accurate".

Second, the combination of historical truth and fiction. In our cognition, the essence of literature lies in fiction, while history is characterized by truth. However, the fact is that history is irrecoverable and we can never return to the historical scene. Therefore, the truth can only be restored to some extent through words. History is restricted by the recorder himself. Therefore, history also has the narrative function of literature and the feature of fiction. At the beginning of The Name of the Rose, Eco recounts his investigation into the authenticity of the Manuscript of Adeso, Friar of Melc, and concludes that the story in the manuscript is historically true. Then comes the old Adeso, "ready to write on a parchment before my eyes what I witnessed as a young man, now replaying in my mind, both indescribable and horrifying," narrated from the perspective of the young Adeso, who follows his mentor as he investigates the ins and outs of serial murders. Adeso is a witness of history. Such a narrative method not only highlights the authenticity of the novel and increases its appeal, but also, on another level, deconstructs history. Ecko redefines the history of the Middle Ages with a modern viewpoint and thinking, and intermixes the narrative elements of popular novels, such as suspense, murder and romance, to meet the needs of readers at different levels.

Third, suspense setting relaxation degree, knowledge shows step by step. Every novel needs suspense. It creates a compelling, intense feeling in the novel. It delays the final resolution of the problem, and the more emotionally engaged the reader is, the more they worry about the characters, and the stronger the suspense. But because it is "knowledge suspense", therefore, the suspense formed by knowledge needs to be relaxed. Otherwise readers will always be in a nervous state, aesthetic fatigue. For example, at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown sets up a grand suspense about who killed the curator of the Louvre Museum, and why does he put his body in strange shapes? This suspense runs through the whole story. Then main clues and alternating hand in hand, langdon and Sophie decryption as the main line, to set up the police, his "opus dei union" and the tripartite confrontation forces as three line, also with langdon's memory, complement the background of the main characters, seem to ease the flow of the conflict, but undercurrent, makes the story more nervous. The setting of knowledge is also gradual, first showing the curator's strange death posture, and then deciphering the five-pointed star symbol, number, body shape and other puzzles left by the curator. The knowledge does not appear in a concentrated manner, but follows the footsteps of the main characters and is distributed in different stages of investigation. And did not uncover all the secrets at once, let the reader in the curiosity and worry, looking forward to the story. We can see that when writing "knowledge mystery novels", readers can get better reading experience by using the nonlinear narrative mode of alternating main and secondary lines and the gradual presentation of knowledge.

Finally, here are two tips to enhance the artistic value of the text. One is the use of playful wordplay, such as puns in character names and secret codes in clues, to add mystery to the plot. This is evident in the Da Vinci Code, where the number 13-5-2-21-1-1-8-5 left by the curator was found to be a Fibonacci sequence, and finally was given the meaning of ATM account number. Cipher game is a common routine of mystery novels, which can be said to be tried-and-true. It does not need to be so complex as to be able to justify itself. The second is to pay attention to the shaping of the language environment, which is also a plus. Is a mystery novel, but compared with the simple and crude language describe fight with the murder scene, pure pursuit of sensory stimulation, using figures of speech such as metaphor, personification, parallelism description usually scenario, the latter is more obviously than the former stereo image, more pictures and artistry, readers can feel the implication will be more rich, The ideological connotation of the text is also improved invisibly.

Now back to the original question: how to write a good intellectual mystery novel? I have explained some methodology from the two aspects of knowledge and mystery novels, and I believe that if you master the above mentioned methods, it is not difficult to write. Intellectual mystery fiction, if you pay attention, is a modern interpretation of the mystery of the past, which may be history itself or historical objects. I look forward to your good stories, and I'll see you in the next class.

In history, there are many famous paintings with profound meaning both at home and abroad. Some of them have stories, and some of them are legends of their own circulation. Pick a famous painting that interests you and try to write a short story or story frame.