cultural and ideological battle. Nguyen Khai enthusiastically expressed: “We must write for society, not for ourselves. Do not let ourselves go, we must fight, we must be very strict with ourselves” [79]. With the enthusiasm of writing with the spirit before the Party, before the people. He considered himself a “literary worker” rather than a “writer”. Nguyen Khai also emphasized the role of “thinker” in writers, but at that time, Nguyen Khai equated the thinker with the social activist, the humanist: “A writer is also a thinker, a social activist by his own means, a humanist” [79]. The ideology that the writer valued and emphasized at that time must be “the great issues of the whole society, which the whole country cares about and pays attention to” and that is the goal: National independence and socialism. Nguyen Khai was really enthusiastic and serious in affirming: “There is no art without politics, politics is the purpose and content of art” [79] and the writer believed: “Artists must study policy, take it as a direction to express life (...) as the ultimate goal of creation, bringing policy to cover the entire work” [79]. It is easy to understand why Nguyen Khai's works during this period are rich in political content, the author passionately discusses, analyzes, and proves the correctness of the Party's policies and guidelines, the revolutionary truth through two tasks: fighting for national unification and building socialism. Nguyen Khai was very fond of the idea that writers need to stick closely to the reality of life, and need to "understand all the Party's policies and guidelines, grasp the main content of the State". According to him, literature must be "Originating from the stream of reality, then the creativity of each of us will never run out, never be repeated, the most profound thoughts, the most important issues, the most vivid images are like small veins gradually weaving life onto the page. And certainly that work is no longer our own" [79]. Nguyen Khai at that time lived and wrote with a strong belief: "When we live in the right time, we and society, and the collective are just one, completely in harmony with each other. What we think, what we love, what we are angry about are also the things that the whole society says, thinks, loves, and is angry about" [72; p. 614]. Therefore, in the topic of revolutionary war, Nguyen Khai advocated: "literature must be the tip of the spear", "The power of the pen is to fight for justice, for truth" [79]; In the topic of building socialism, Nguyen Khai determined: it is necessary to have a "far-sighted vision", to escape the narrow "ego" to "go further".
In the general trend of the times and before the requirements of the revolution, writers need to fulfill their civic duties before doing art, not only Nguyen Khai but also most writers at that time shared this awareness and viewpoint, the civic consciousness of the writer also blended with the consciousness of the artist to direct his pen to participate in the common cause of the country. In the article: " Creating beautiful works of art worthy of the heroic people ", Nguyen Khai wrote: "A great literary work means that the ideology of the work must be the ideology of the era, the personalities of the characters in the work must be the personalities of the era. In short, those works must generalize the spiritual face of one's nation, of one's era, thereby depicting the main features of the face of humanity" and the author called it "literature is the way of an era" [72; p. 243]. Following the philosophy of a literature of action, literature of fighting, the writers of that time created a revolutionary literature, actively participating in the cause of national liberation. However, even when determining the way of writing, the writing style "serving" the goal of action, which is the cause of national liberation, the writer still struggled to find his own path. Thinking that if "having to completely abandon philosophical thoughts and worldviews that are consistent with one's own way of thinking, seeing, and evaluating, to join the mainstream of thought, after all, it has little to do with the feelings that are being cherished, and above all, the flesh and blood of one's own unique discoveries. If one loses those things, why continue to live, why continue to write" [72; p. 622] has created the character and personality of a famous writer with a writing style "intelligent, always thinking deeply about the problems that life poses and trying to find a convincing answer in his own way. The writer sets out the following principles of reception and reproduction:
Writers and journalists live with current events but must also know how to separate themselves from current events to recognize the long-lasting brilliance of many details in current events. They live with their contemporaries but must use the eyes of later generations to measure many values and many things that seem very trivial and meaningless to their contemporaries [72; p. 634].
Therefore, in the writer's works, through social and political events of hot current events, general issues of philosophical and humanistic significance always arise.
After 1978, “I write differently” - Nguyen Khai confessed, but how “different”, did the author change his philosophical thinking and philosophy in front of the audience? Let’s listen to the author “explain”: “When young, people think that many things can be changed, many things can be shortened. When old, they realize that life has its own sustainability and diversity, it is not easy to change, shortening is even more difficult” [74; p. 253]; “There are pages written in this period that are correct, but not necessarily correct in another period” [74; p. 196]. It turns out that it is “different” in the way of receiving and reproducing reality, when Nguyen Khai appears “strange”: “There are many strange things in literature, a small detail can make a good piece of writing explode, but a big event when written is as boring as a trivial article” [74; p. 83]; Or “It’s strange, isn’t it? "Doing art under the bright lights is just like a colorful butterfly (...) doing art in solitude, in the dark with a lot of sadness, then you can reach the magic of true art" [71; p. 118], then the reader understands that he is attracted by it and certainly, he will change.
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It is still the philosophy of the profession and through that philosophy, people realize that Nguyen Khai is renewing the concept of literature. If in the past, Nguyen Khai's philosophies focused on socio-political issues, now he directs his pen to issues on the personal level of human beings, such as: ethics, human life and world affairs. From the philosophy of "literature is the spearhead" with the function of "serving the revolution to encourage fighting", the writer must "have enough reason and always find contradictions, conflicts, always clearly distinguish black and white, good and bad, friends and enemies" to the philosophy of literature as "the religion of beauty", returning literature to Beauty, to art, even absolutizing this, on par with religion, on par with sacred faith, is the writer advocating a kind of literature "for art's sake"? No, beauty itself is a value, and all values are "for humanity's sake". Returning literature to the realm of beauty, Nguyen Khai wanted to emphasize the function and aesthetic characteristics of literature. Like Beauty, literature cannot be imitated, it belongs to creativity, imagination, cannot be forced, is the product of free emotions: "If everything had reason, could be understood, then there would be no literature" [79]. "Looking back at his writings" Nguyen Khai wrote: "A work of art must crystallize the experience of one's age and career. It is both form and content. Without a beautiful and new novel, there will be no readers, it cannot be passed down for a long time. But there is
To find a suitable art form is not something that can be found by searching. It is not outside of us but inside us. True art must be an urgent need from within, from a fire that burns from within. And when it has broken through a door so that words, images, and compositions can flood the page, even the person who created it does not know that it is new, strange, or beautiful. It only sees that it must be like that, that it must be like that. That is my way of thinking about a new form of art. It is old experience hidden in a young shell. It is a long-term accumulation, a lifetime touching a streak of eternal light that shines brightly in a moment” [79].
It can be seen that Nguyen Khai's literary concept has been adjusted and changed after 1978 in the spirit: the writer has changed from the role of a "warrior writer", writing to "be worthy of the heroic people" to the role of an "ideological writer", writing for beauty, for "true art". Instead of the person who always speaks loudly as a truth-giver, confidently preaching for the ideal behind which is the community, the collective, is a person with a calm, tolerant view with a depth of experience and deep contemplation. Nguyen Khai believes in the Party's innovation policy and is confident in himself, that intelligent and quick-witted person quickly perceives the past to have a satisfactory assessment of past issues, frankly facing the limitations of literature of the time. Not avoiding when recognizing the immaturity, weakness and childishness in the simple, one-sided way of looking and thinking of the time, that writer honestly opens his heart to be ready for dialogue. Let's see Nguyen Khai confide: "each step is a strange step", "understanding another horizon beyond the known horizon" and "realizing that life has many consequences, each day can still shine infinitely" ( The Old Monk of Tham Pagoda and The Retired Colonel ). Nguyen Khai has now "lowered his voice before life" (Nguyen Dang Manh), "speaking hesitantly and slowly, just afraid that he will generalize wrongly again" (Vuong Tri Nhan). From the impetuosity in his own perception, Nguyen Khai sees the limitations of an entire literature constrained by old concepts of the time "Reality has been carved, has been molded to become a mediocre and awkward product (...) the material is rare and durable, no matter how hard you try, it will become a fake product" ( The profession of writing is also very laborious ).
Re-perceiving the literary values of Nguyen Khai is logical with "re-perceiving" human life, human existence, if not the logic of cause and effect. From the place
look at life: "Everything has a reason, every move of a person's life has a reason ( Hidden Face ) to the point of discovering that "human life is full of absurd and pitiful things" ( Group of friends during the resistance war ), even "Humans are an extremely complex whole, how can we weigh, measure, divide it. Force it into precise standards in a system of economic activities. Moreover, humans do not only exist in a system of economic activities, but also have political activities, cultural activities, religious activities and thousands of other constraints that share a person's worries" [75; p. 17 - 18] and then awaken and always keep in mind one thing: "We must know that in this life there are many reasons that cannot be known so as not to be bound by things that can be known" [70; p. 327]. Not only mocking the childishness of the past, Nguyen Khai yearned to build a truly valuable art. To do so, the artist "must live with the times but must also know how to separate himself from the times to recognize the long-lasting brilliance of many details in the times, live with his contemporaries but must use the eyes of later generations to measure the value of many things that seem trivial and meaningless to his contemporaries" ( The profession of writing also requires a lot of effort ). One must be a person who is passionately attached to the profession and must be very brave to dare to accept and speak out all the good and bad, the good, the bad, the weak, the gains and losses of oneself. As Professor Nguyen Dang Manh said, "one must be confident, even arrogant to dare to show off one's own cowardice and inadequacy". In the inspiration of "re-awareness" of many writers of the same period, Nguyen Khai is among the most diligent and thorough writers. “Here there is the issue of capital, cultural depth to raise and express the issues of life and people today. The issue also partly lies in the spirit, thinking, creating the character of the writer” [72; p. 508]. Perhaps, thanks to that, Nguyen Khai was able to quickly escape from “bad luck” and “proactively choose the position of a dialogue partner participating in the search for new standards”. Calmly, confidently and persistently “entering the game” to look back at the past is not to “be satisfied with the present” but to have a basis for properly evaluating past issues, and to reflect on the past with an objective attitude, from which to find the truth for today’s life.
Nguyen Khai was one of the leading writers of the era. His works always marked the changes of society. With this Revolution, these years of arduous struggle, his works are a proof.
a real reference. And to understand the people of the time, with all their good and bad points, especially to understand their way of thinking, their spiritual life, one must read Nguyen Khai... [109; p. 27].
It is easy to understand why researchers who read Nguyen Khai all unanimously acknowledge his philosophical thinking and writing style: “Nguyen Khai is an intellectual writer, always thinking deeply about the problems that life poses and trying to find a convincing answer in his own way. Therefore, in the writer's works, through social and political events of a hot current nature, general issues of philosophical and humanistic significance always arise” (Phan Cu De); “Nguyen Khai's writings are the type of writings with a clear thesis and political nature. What creates the appeal to readers is the persuasiveness of the arguments” (Doan Trong Huy) [126; pp. 35, 81, 89] etc. That writer, throughout nearly 40 years of writing, “has always been among the leading writers in literary life” [109; p. 27].
3.2. Philosophy in Nguyen Khai's works through the aspects of topics, themes with timeliness and forecasting
Timeliness and forecasting seem to have become a "brand" of Nguyen Khai's works. Writing about hot issues of the times, writers always have to face challenges. Writers must have the ability to analyze, evaluate and choose to pick up issues that are attractive/of great significance, attracting the attention of society. In particular, sometimes analytical thinking must also discover and predict issues that may be suitable for today, at the present time, but will be paradoxical in the future. This forecasting requires the ability to cover a large and deep area. Demonstrating this quality, Nguyen Khai's works reveal the strength and potential of a philosophical writer. Of course, the timeliness and forecasting in terms of topics and themes of Nguyen Khai's works have a movement closely linked to the changing movement of society.
The themes and topics in Nguyen Khai's pre-1978 works are associated with two major central events of the country's life: taking up arms to defend the fatherland and rebuilding the country after the war, reaching the dream of building socialism. These are two areas of reality that any Vietnamese writer at that time had the duty to aim towards. The title of the work itself can be seen as revealing the theme, however, approaching and
How to exploit that reality is not the same for everyone and it shows different thinking.
Joining the resistance war against the French at the age of 15, because he was literate, he soon became a soldier with a pen. Although he appeared on the literary scene since 1953, Nguyen Khai did not have much experience in the battle against the French. It was not until the resistance war against the US that Nguyen Khai really wrote about the theme of revolutionary war. Like many military writers at that time, Nguyen Khai also carried his backpack and went to war: to Con Co island, to the front line of fire in Vinh Linh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri. A series of works on the theme of war were published: They live and fight (1966), Hoa Vang (1967) , Road in the clouds (1970), Going to the island (1970), Soldiers (1973), March in the Central Highlands (1976). While many contemporary writers focused on directly describing the confrontations in the style of "shooting up from below, shooting down from above" to affirm the will and spirit of determination to win of our army and people in the resistance war against the US, Nguyen Khai chose a different approach. That is to analyze and explain the reasons why we dared to fight and win against an enemy that was many times stronger in terms of material potential, guns and ammunition. First is the excellent memoir They Live and Fight, written about the collective of soldiers on Con Co Island, the outpost island, the "eye of the gods" of the North in the resistance war against the US. Con Co was resilient, only less than one square kilometer in size, far from the mainland, no people, difficult to transport supplies, the battlefield almost did not move, day and night withstood all kinds of enemy artillery but still held firm. It is difficult to record all the feats of the heroic Con Co soldiers. Before Nguyen Khai, there were some writers who went to the island and the heroic Con Co appeared in books and newspapers (articles about Con Co by Hai Tan, Diary of the Days in Con Co by Nguyen Trong Oanh). But that could not stop Nguyen Khai from backpacking to the island, perhaps Nguyen Khai knew exactly how to write so as not to overlap with the ideas of the previous writer, if not to say it needed to be more novel and attractive. That memoir was called: They Live and Fight . Nguyen Khai saw something that other writers easily overlooked or considered "normal", which was writing about the daily life of soldiers outside of combat! That was a discovery, in order to fight, they had to live first. How would they live on a square kilometer, far from the mainland, with difficult supplies and bombs from enemy planes and warships raining down all day? Not only living but also having to maintain
spirit, the will to fight in a war that is not just a day or two but "long-term". Therefore, "living" in that condition is already a miracle, living loving life, living with the courage to fight is even more miraculous. Nguyen Khai wrote about them - those steel courage, they not only lived happily, loved life but also fought bravely, ready to smash all threatening attacks of the enemy. Thus, the goal was clear, Nguyen Khai wanted to find out how those brave people "lived" and "fought", so, besides the pages directly describing the shootings were pages describing their daily lives, each specific job that each person on the island was undertaking with their own thoughts and moods. Perhaps, behind that goal, Nguyen Khai wanted to find the answer to the indomitable strength of a nation, which is also the philosophy of life of that nation. A small nation, poor in front of the materially strong but still courageously fought for independence and freedom.
Road in the Clouds still follows that exploitation direction, however, this time the author does not choose people in the "front lines" like Con Co but writes about heroes in "hidden" positions, silent heroes, that is the engineering force with the task of detecting unexploded bombs, clearing roads, opening roads, building bridges, and building fortifications.
... for the journey to the front line. Compared to other military branches, the task of the engineer soldier is truly a silent, silent but extremely hard and dangerous job. Nguyen Khai devoted an entire novel to write about the heroic 4th engineering company. They had to fight against planes in the sky, bandits sneaking into the deep forest, and protect the road, repair the road for vehicles going to battle: "Floods destroyed the road, landslides covered the road, bandits planted mines to overturn vehicles at bends, then bombs exploded immediately, and delayed explosions opened holes that stretched for dozens of kilometers. All night struggling with mud and soil, re-molding that mess into a trail just big enough for the wheels to roll through, the next afternoon on the road, they were faced with a new chaotic scene". Meeting those real people, learning about them, Nguyen Khai wanted to emphasize another beauty in the soul and character of the Vietnamese people: the noble spirit of sacrifice! The author gave the novel a very poetic name: Road in the clouds ! It is true that the road is hidden in the clouds, meaning it connects mountain peak to mountain peak, winding through the old forest covered with clouds and rain all year round with hundreds of thousands of lurking dangers, the enemy also spread leaf mines, allowing bandits to destroy... Those roads