Unexpectedly, the accidental insertion of willows caused a "sensational effect." In the climax of the "Covered Bridge" craze, some readers began to be curious about the translator and kept shouting. Eventually, the paper package couldn't keep the fire, and the real name was exposed. So there was a period of visits by TV reporters, constant phone calls at home, various newspapers requesting articles, asking questions, etc., and my peaceful life suddenly became lively for a while. Regarding all of this, I remain unchanged and respond to all changes, and I will never show up in public because of "Covered Bridge" in any way. The more the hype, the stronger the intention, and sometimes the reporters (or self-proclaimed reporters) who do not know each other on the phone lose their temper. Now I should explain my mentality at the time. It was a kind of rebellious psychology: in all my work, this is the least labor and the most lightweight, even though this is not a bad book, and I don’t have it. I have said that it is not worth a while. I think any of my works are more worthy of attention than this. In 1994, I gave a lecture in Nanjing, which was just right for the publication of "Post-War American Diplomacy History". A student told me that he had bought it in a bookstore. When I ran to read it, it was gone. I asked the store and said that there were very few such books. While sold out, at the same time, I happened to see the Balzac translated by me (reprinted) inserted on the bookshelf, and on the prominent table and on the shelf, the "Legend of the Covered Bridge" Dream". The "History of Diplomacy" is a work of hard work accumulated by many scholars including myself for three or four years. It is in sharp contrast to the fate of "The Bridge". As far as I am concerned, the work of the three works It happened to be "upside down" with the experience. At that time, I sighed with emotion. Compared with myself, I was psychologically unbalanced. Furthermore, I am not a celebrity, and I have no intention of asking for a name. No matter what, I shouldn’t be famous for this little book. When people see someone’s name, they are linked to "The Bridge". This is why I firmly refuse to show up in the craze. I have written book reviews for both Balzac and Willa Cather. I neither write reviews nor participate in relevant discussions on this book, so I don’t want to join in the fun.
Now that the craze has receded, there are some ideas triggered by this little book and want to vomit quickly. Most of the comments I have seen focus on love and family and the values related to them. I have never watched the movie. It is said that the family ethics is emphasized more. Few people seem to notice another layer of thought expressed in the book, which is the rebellion against the modern market economy and society. (According to the principle of not being easy to say, I am not sure that there is no, because I did not collect comments everywhere, and most of what I saw were cut and posted by enthusiastic friends). The hero Robert Kincaid is the embodiment of this rebellion. All his speeches and actions are striving to break free from the shackles of the market-oriented world, and seek to return to the original. The author borrowed from Jin Kai's mouth to have a concise and wonderful speech about the market strangling art, which contains many aphorisms. What he pursues in photography is something that reflects his own unique spirit and style. He must try to find poetry from the image, but this does not fit the editor's ambiguity, because the editor thinks of most readers and the market. The following paragraph is very incisive:
"This is the problem of making a living through an art form. People always deal with the market, and the market-the mass market-is designed for average taste. The numbers are there, I think this It's reality. But as I said, it can become very restrictive.
"In the future, I am going to write an article titled "The Advantages of Hobbies" for those who want to make a living from art. The market can stifle the passion of art more than anything (emphasis added by the author of this article). For many people, it is a world where safety is the top priority. They want to be safe, magazines and manufacturers give them safety, give them the same sex, give them familiar and comfortable things, and don't raise objections to them.
"Profits, order numbers, and other such things rule the art. We are all whipped into the big wheel of uniformity." Business
people always talk about something called a'consumer'. superior. The image of this thing in my mind is a short fat man wearing rumpled Bermuda shorts, a Hawaiian shirt..., touching a lot of banknotes in his hand." (Translation pages 54-55)
In another place, Jin Kai mentioned that modern technology and highly organized society degenerate people mentally and physically. In the "old world", people are strong and agile, dare to act, endure hardships and stand hard work, and are brave and fearless. Now computers and robots will eventually rule everything. Humans manipulate machines, but they do not need courage and strength, nor do they need the above-mentioned qualities. "In fact, people are outdated and useless." Even sex can be replaced by science. The organized society, affection, efficiency, benefit, etc. make people lose the world of freedom to gallop. What's more, human beings are destroying themselves by destroying nature and inventing new weapons that can kill each other.
I think this is the thought that runs through the book behind that love story. Robert Kincaid was also shaped according to such an ideal. This kind of thinking is pushed to the extreme, and this almost absurd essay "Falling from Zero Space" is produced, which imagines oneself as a primitive man. And then it has been degenerated until the origin of life.
In fact, the contradiction between art and earning a living, and the market stifles the passion for art, is almost a consensus, both at home and abroad. And this kind of lament does not start today, but it is strong today. Anyone living in modern times just needs to turn on the radio, television, or walk around in the mall. Whenever I visit Chinese and foreign art museums, I have this idea: in the future, will humans create such beautiful and exquisite art? Subjectively, there is still this patience, and is objectively allowed to be so calm? In the past two years I have the opportunity to visit the newly built Shanghai Museum twice. The wonderful bronze ware from two thousand years ago made my soul tremble. In the Jade Museum, I further discovered that the truly stunning and indescribable art was produced in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Times! In the past, every time I saw this kind of ancient cultural relics, I would always be in awe and marvel at the early wisdom of the Chinese nation, but I did not feel that the early art was different from the later generations so prominently. Perhaps thanks to the exquisite lighting and display method of "Shanghai Expo", the audience can enjoy each display item in detail, and at the same time, it is prominently aware of the difference of the times. there. At the end of the 20th century, I was particularly shocked by the innocence, simplicity and imaginative passion of the artists of the 20th century BC (then there was this title 7). It is different from the style that is pretending to be crude and unpretentious, which is handed down from the West. It is also quite exquisite in craftsmanship. Artists of later generations advocated learning from good fortune. I think people at that time lived in it, being one with nature. That kind of instinctive feeling is not comparable to today's. After arriving in the Han Dynasty, especially after the Eastern Han Dynasty, they gradually became more sculpted and cumbersome, and became farther and farther away from nature. In the Qing Dynasty, the double-bed frame houses were deliberately carved and full of craftsmanship. The difference here is whether the motivation for creation is spontaneous creative desire or to satisfy the needs of others, even if it is not for the broad market, it is to please the court nobles. This refers to handicrafts. As for calligraphy and painting, it was mostly self-entertaining works by literati until modern times. It was neither sold for a living nor dedicated to princes, so the situation was different. This is not to discuss art history, nor do I have the qualifications. All I want to say is "on the blog" , Especially the feeling of the Jade Museum. This feeling is consistent with Jin Kai's discussion and pursuit in "The Bridge". I mentioned in another article that such a glorious Chinese literary history (excluding modern and contemporary), especially the part of poetry, is mostly an amateur work by scholars who are frustrated by the officialdom, and it is by no means selling literary works for a living. I saw the true temperament. Robert, Kincaid did not have the conditions of Chinese scholar-officials. In order to pursue his own creative freedom, he brought his life below the poverty line, and finally fell to the end. This can only be the case in a highly developed market economy.
Another question is whether the highly developed technology will, or has already caused the alienation and degradation of people. Everything is done with robots and computers. People will not enter. Not only has his personality, passion, and artistic creativity been lost, but his body is weakened and his intelligence has been distorted and degraded. There may be a very small number of geniuses who continue to invent all kinds of new gadgets that replace humans and human brains, but the intelligence required by the vast majority of people who operate these gadgets is getting simpler and lower. The naming of the "fool" camera-very telling. Even the wisdom of the few inventors is getting narrower and narrower. In the fierce market competition, they are turning with a big wheel, turning faster and faster, and they can't help themselves. Continuous invention and innovation along the destined track is the goal in itself. It is a curse or a blessing to mankind, or it is too late to think about it, or it is impossible to control it. Under this circumstance, can the profound wisdom and the broad mind of embracing nature of the century-old sages of "studying heaven and man, through the changes of the past and the present" be able to have again? Gates can appear in this world, but Socrates will also arise. , Aristotle, and the pre-Qin scholars of China? The communist society envisioned by Marx is that productivity and human moral wisdom are highly developed, so people only need to spend very little time to earn a living and have full freedom and time to come. Do whatever you want to engage in artistic creation. Perhaps this stage is the purgatory that mankind must pass through to reach that beautiful realm. I hope that in this process, humans have not been alienated into non-humans, and the living conditions of humans and other species on the earth have not been destroyed by humans themselves. Of course, this kind of unfounded superiority is powerless regardless of whether it has a basis or not. Human beings will continue to invent the means to conquer nature and conquer themselves, and follow that big wheel. Like the dancers in "Red Shoes", they keep turning, unable to stop. No matter how innocent and lovely a child is, how worthy of nostalgia for childhood, people always grow up and even get old, which is irresistible. Therefore, a model like Kincaid can only be a "disappearing species".
The love story in the book is not new if viewed from Francesca’s perspective alone: a young woman married to a remote town with a romantic temperament, her husband is kind and incomprehensible, and her life is calm and boring, inspired by some opportunity The hidden passion, the girl’s dream came true. It is similar to Flaubert's "Madame Bovary", Singley Lewis's "The Main Street" and so on. But from the perspective of Robert and Kincaid, there is its uniqueness, which is consistent with the above-mentioned thinking. It is a kind of passion that gets rid of all secular concepts and restores to the original nature of man, pure and pure, even with primitive wildness. This is the only time between the sky and the earth, such as the collision of two particles in the universe. If you miss it, you will never meet again for billions of years. The author mobilized all imagination to create such a "last cowboy", which is incompatible with this highly organized market society, and has to do the opposite everywhere, including love. Such a kind of love is destined to be the end of the dragon. Even setting aside Francesca’s sense of family responsibility, can you imagine that she eloped with Kincaid, and then the two lived together as the youngest? Does Jin Kai still become Jin Kai? It is as unimaginable as Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu are married, and the descendants are full. Each story has its own artistic conception and laws, and it does not even depend on the author's will.
I think if this little book has a certain charm, it lies in the author's unique way of expressing the rebellious psychology of modern society and the feeling of returning to the original through Jin Kaiqi. I can understand why this book is popular in the United States; but what is the appeal of this book to Chinese readers, I still don't quite understand.
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