Fortunately for the country's unfortunate poet, the poem begins to work on the vicissitudes of life.
Every disaster that shocks the country and even the world often takes a long time for the rest of the disaster to subside. And Yu Bo, it is precisely a lot of writers or well-known writers who are creating and reflecting.
Three months after the September 11 attacks, American literary legend Don DeLillo wrote an article in "Harpers" magazine, pointing out that newspapers and screens are full of patriotic September 11 narratives, which are actually not true. The duty of the novelist should be to write a kind of "counter-narrative", to tell about 9•11 of the unknown little people behind the mainstream narrative, and to give warmth to the sky that once had the howling and falling of the flesh. And memory.
As a result, there are more and more novels related to the 9/11 attacks. And this "Very Loud, Very Close" is one of the unique ones. Its uniqueness is that this book uses a child's perspective to express how people slowly come out after experiencing a huge blow. The author of this book, Jonathan Safran Fowler, doesn't think so. He said that he just wrote a youth novel.
The protagonist Oscar of "Very Loud, Very Close" is only 9 years old. He is the only person in his family who heard five recordings of his father's phone calls on the eve of the 9/11 attacks. At that time, he didn't have the courage to answer the phone. The recording of his father's phone call became a precious and regretful memory in Oscar's heart. The heart of the 9-year-old boy is not necessarily easy to express.
The September 11 attacks faded away, and Oscar seemed to have recovered to the same fantasy and laughter as before his father left. However, when one day, Oscar accidentally found a key left by his father and a surname named BLACK written on the envelope in a blue vase on the highest shelf of his father’s closet. He realized that he should make up for his previous regrets. Oscar secretly bought a map of New York and found all the people named Black in New York City.
A nine-year-old boy was allowed to travel in five districts every weekend, asking for "Black" listed in 216 telephone directories in alphabetical order. At first, he walked and took his tambourine with him when he set out, because when he was nervous or scared or scared, he needed to keep shaking his tambourine. Oscar said, “Because it helps me remember that even though I walk through different neighborhoods, I’m still me.” This is his unique way of approaching his dead father; and Oscar’s approach to his living mother is when she prepares. When going out, help her close the zipper on the back of her skirt.
Does Oscar's mother know her son's behavior? Yes, she knows. She often followed Oscar in silence. She did not stop him, nor did she urge him. But to accompany him like this. But she did not let Oscar know. This is undoubtedly equally moving.
"Extremely Loud, Very Close" was made into a movie of the same name, which was released in 2012. One of the plots is unforgettable. In the process of searching for Blake, Oscar met a black woman surnamed Blake. This Blake is not happy. When Oscar arrived at her house for the second time, she was arguing with her husband because of the divorce. The husband rushed out. Black slumped on the stairs and wept. Oscar held up a postcard thrown on the ground during their quarrel, and asked in a low voice, "Can this be kept for memorial?" Blake nodded and cried softly with his arms around Oscar.
Every time we shed tears and every kind of sorrow, it seems to contrast the great impact of the 9/11 attacks on people. This kind of damage can't be healed even with time.
But back to the "unique" mentioned earlier-as children, they are generally marginalized by society and unable to express their thoughts and cognitions. This may be due to the fact that children lack too many abilities that adults possess, such as large-scale walking and observation, collection and processing of a large amount of information, and even sex. The relationship between sex and the emotional world of adults is too complicated to speak. And this is also the power of this novel. From the perspective of a child, the tragic story of a country is completed.
As a 9-year-old child, Oscar's persistence is surprising. Some people may wonder, how could they be so persistent? But this is definitely the first-hand experience of Jonathan Safran Foer.
"He put a blank piece of paper on the table in front of him, and wrote these words with his pen." This is the beginning of Paul Oster's "Book of Memory." One day more than ten years later, he received a letter from another young American writer, not asking for a signature, but just hoping to get a piece of white paper on which he could write his next work. Oster gave it to him. The young American writer is Jonathan Safran Fowler. He also asked many well-known writers for blank paper. Helen DeWitt gave him an accounting paper, Susan Sontag sent him a letter, and Joyce Carol Oz gave him A piece of waste paper folded in half...Four carefully mounted the collected white paper and hung it in the living room.
This kind of experience makes "Extremely Loud, Very Close" reflect the perseverance of a child. And all this is not Jonathan Safran Fowler's sensational performance art, but this natural introspective, weird, unconstrained, and at the age of 11, he couldn't fall asleep without putting a photo of the 1984 US Olympic gymnastics team under his pillow. The nature of the writer. These empty white papers are the possibilities that cannot be exhausted before every novel begins. They are blank, they can be everything.
Every writer who writes amazing novels is full of emotions. And Jonathan Safran Fowler is more of an obsession. Because I have not read his other works, I cannot give a richer description of Jonathan Safran Fowler. But judging from the summary of his other work "Everything Is Illuminated", Jonathan Safran Foer is undoubtedly willing to challenge the themes of World War II, destruction, disasters, etc., and also boldly try to treat the Jewish nation and World War II. Reflection.
With "Very Loud, Very Close", Jonathan Safran Fowler became one of the writers I like and even want to imitate.
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