The price of genius

Chasity 2022-01-25 08:03:59

There are a total of seven episodes of "The Queen's Gambit" (the Chinese translation is "Hou Yi Abandoned Soldiers"), and I have been thinking about the sixth episode: how this is like Zhang Ailing's life. Lack of love, insecurity, nervous and sensitive heart, monotonous and gloomy life, but a shining genius holds everything up.

There is a distinct difference between a genius and a smart person. There are many smart people, while geniuses descend like stars. The starlight cannot be ignored by any ordinary person. When I was seventeen, I read the opening paragraph of "The Golden Lock", and I found all Zhang Ailing's works to read. Although the novel is wonderful, the prose also has a lot of fun. Looking back now, as she described it: " Young people think that the moon thirty years ago should be a red and yellow wet halo the size of a copper coin, like a teardrop on Duoyunxuan letter paper, old and confused. Old age. thirty years ago people memories of joy moon is larger than in front of the moon, round, white; however, through three decades of hard work look back at the road, no matter how good the moonlight can not help a little bleak. "

In the play, Beth always stares a pair of big eyes, staring at everything around him blankly. Shaibel, the same silent and introverted school worker, taught her to learn chess when she was nine, and soon realized her extraordinary talent. After that, everyone who played against her was a citizen who played chess on the streets, and became the world's number one chess player. She is an intuitive chess player who can win surprisingly and can look at the ceiling and play in her head.

Shaibel saw the talent of nine-year-old Beth and invited her to play chess: "Play a game, don't miss it."

A genius has a self-consciousness very early and realizes his destiny. The so-called innateness is hard for me to give up. He/she does not need to explore and choose the path of the future like ordinary people. His/her path is the only one and has to be taken. of. Eighteen-year-old Zhang Ailing wrote in "My Dream of Genius": "I am a weird girl who has been admired as a genius since I was a child, and has no goal of survival except to develop my genius." She is very concerned with colors, notes, and words. Sensitive, she traces things with a strong attraction. In the girls' school, she is not a glamorous lady, but her self-confidence is gradually built up. That comes from her in-class essay, a brilliant Chinese and English article published in the school journal "Feng Zao". Decades later, as her middle school girl, I read several of those articles and fell to the feet of geniuses. I spoke on behalf of the graduates at the high school graduation ceremony. I also quoted her sentence as the beginning, silently paying tribute to her in my heart. This mood is not unique to me, but an admiration shared by Chinese youth in literature and art in recent decades.

Fourteen-year-old Beth stole a chess magazine and started her career as a chess player. Her childhood and adolescence in the orphanage depended on sneaking off to play chess with school workers during the day, and looking at the ceiling at night and playing music in her head. Her goal in this life is also gradually becoming clear and established between the chessboards, with an anger that must be won. However, at her peak, when she met a 13-year-old talented young chess player, Beth could not help but ask him: "What do you want to do after winning the world championship?"

The first trophy of the talented girl Beth

Genius seems to accumulate the essence of heaven and earth in one point, and there is more than just a moment of light in fate . Beth's mother is from a very good background and has a very high IQ (Ph.D. in Mathematics, Cornell University). In the play, she and her mother are not explained in detail. Instead, some flashbacks are shown in each episode. Probably (in fact, I really appreciate the ingenious arrangement of the screenwriter). The mother led her to live alone when she was young. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was difficult for single mothers in the United States to tolerate single mothers. The vast majority of women were unable to support themselves financially, but depended on their families. The mother took her for several years and lived in a dilapidated RV. In the end, she was really unable to raise her head. She had to bow her head to fate. The father who tried to hand her over to the child was flatly rejected. In grief and despair, he drove Beth into an oncoming truck. Beth survived and was sent to a women's orphanage run by the Christian Church until he was adopted. The family that adopted her was not a home sweet home as described by the hostess, but was on the verge of breaking. Her arrival failed to save anything, and the family quickly and completely collapsed. There is no deep relationship between Beth and her adoptive mother, but at least they have mutual care and support, but the adoptive mother also died of illness in her race soon. Her life has just begun, but it has become a one-man show. After that, she used drugs and alcohol. In fact, every addiction corresponds to a hollow in her heart. The hole gets deeper and deeper, and when she is not satisfied, she will rely on a certain substance.

Childhood Beth and mother

Zhang Ailing was born in a famous family, Zhang Peilun's granddaughter, Li Hongzhang's great granddaughter, but these are not guarantees of happiness. Mother and father had a bad relationship, and finally divorced after a few breaks. The two of them are essentially unreliable and small children. Although they don't get hungry by relying on Zu Yin, they are also depressed for life, and they can't give their children love and take responsibility. So Zhang Ailing’s childhood and adolescence went to her father and mother’s house to find a place to stay, and she had already become an outcast psychologically, and she was really worse than the orphan Beth.

Beth's mother loved her when she was alive and instilled in her early values ​​that can benefit her life. For example, my mother once embroidered a beautiful flower body B on her dress, and kindly told her: " Don't forget who you are ." In a society where men are inferior to women, her mother boldly said: "A man will break into your life. Teach you how to do things, but it doesn’t mean that they are smarter. You just teach people how to do things to make them more worthy, so you let them blow it away. You live your life and do whatever you want . Only strong women can be alone. Life, after all, people in this world will always live, just to prove what they have ." These words, I guess, have been supporting Beth as an adult to fight alone and invincible in the world of chess men. Before she was going to send her away, her mother told her: "There is nothing to be afraid of in the dark. There is nothing to be afraid of. The most powerful people in the world are not afraid of being alone . What you should worry about is other people and they will tell you how to react. How you feel makes you consume your life unconsciously just to pursue what other people want you to pursue . One day you will be alone, so you have to learn how to take care of yourself.” Countless people in orphanages and adopted families In a long night, Beth probably remembered these words. While walking alone in her career as a chess player, these words will also lead her to maintain economic and personal independence in a world of male dominance, and win a heartfelt respect.

It is also unfortunate that Beth's life background is a little more warm than Zhang Ailing's. Zhang Ailing's genius has made her portrayal of the world in all her works into the woods, but her background in life prevents her from feeling love and warmth. Therefore, even if I have a sunny personality, at the age of naive and dreaming, I cannot read more than two novels by Zhang Ailing at a time, because I read too much and my heart will fade away inch by inch.

The abilities of geniuses are often unbalanced, a little clumsy in life, and a little lonely in the crowd . Beth is not sociable, does not understand people's minds, and can't go from side to side. So I broke the hearts of my friends, offended the benefactor, didn't answer the phone, didn't go out, indulged myself in medicine and wine, and for a while, everyone betrayed their relatives. In reality, Zhang Ailing finally cut off almost all of her relatives. When her mother was about to die, she refused to see her. She left China and only told her aunt. She was discovered only three or four days after her death. She had lived alone for many years before her death. They seem to live only for their genius. Except for literature/chess, their world is lacklustre, desolate and solitary, like a gorgeous robe full of fleas.

Fortunately, in a fictitious world, you can put a layer of icing on real life and give it a happy and hopeful ending. All this happened in the last episode of "Abandoned Soldiers on the Back Wing". The gloomy tone brightened, and Beth straightened his waist from the dust. She went back to attend the funeral of the enlightenment teacher Mr. Shaibel, and remembered what the orphanage teacher once said: " Every choice has consequences. You came here because your parents made certain choices. You must learn to make them. A different choice from them. " She saw Shaibel's room full of walls with steps about her career as a chess player. The assisting team was far more than Shaibel, and her only female friend, Jolene, Jolene, who had no news after leaving the orphanage, came to tell her not to dig the bottom of the deep pit in her heart. She was willing to use the tuition that she had saved for a long time to study law school to fund her to go to the Soviet Union, saying that even if it was lost, it was worth it. And Townes, Beth’s first love in Girls’ Generation, came to the game to guard her last night before the decisive battle. My hometown chess player friends, Benny, Harry, Matt, Mike, although separated by oceans, studied the chess game overnight to be her back-up think tank, and beat her before the decisive drumbeat "Go Beat Him!" (Go and pick him off the horse! )".

She threw away the pill, refused the wine, and looked at the ceiling again to see the chess game in her head. She finally lived up to this love and became the uncrowned king of chess. Finally, I can tell the world the name of William Shaibel and make headlines. Beth, who had gained so much love and support, filled the pit in his heart and obtained salvation.

Friends waited nervously for the good news

The loveliest thing is that in the last episode, Beth not only regained his glory, but also staged a drama that transcends nationality, politics, and ideology, and only belongs to chess, sportsmanship, and the growth of a woman. The Christian Crusade Organization-she went to the Soviet Union to compete for the gold master of the world chess crown, and asked her to express her ideological personal position. She clearly expressed her position "I'm just a chess player, I don't want to say that. Because it's all nonsense," she refunded the money from the sponsor and almost failed to make it to the game. Although the Soviet chess players were on the other side of the Cold War, they were also personable on the court, full of professionalism and love. Beth, who concentrates on playing chess, is the most beautiful red-haired girl. She won not only a championship, but also the respect, appreciation and affection from the heart. The final scene of the play is fixed in that she did not go to the presidential appointment, did not go to the White House to stage a political drama to defeat the Soviet Union, but chose to go to the streets to play chess with Soviet citizens and join a world that simply loves chess. The most beautiful and best things in this world belong to all mankind. There is no border or competition, based on a common love.

After Beth won the world championship, he took part in a folk chess game on the streets of the Soviet Union

* * * * *

"Mom, do you know, you probably won't be a great writer in your life. I read so many books and found that great writers are all geniuses." She sat on the sidelines while sending Xiaoyi to school.

"I know."

"Then why do you keep writing?"

"Because I like it, I am happy, I am willing."

"Mom, a classmate sent a bag of candy to everyone in the class yesterday. I looked at it and I really wanted to eat one." She slowly took out a piece of dark chocolate and put it next to me and continued, "But I guess you only want to eat this one too, so think about it and let it be for you."

Haha, what does it matter if you are not a genius, I am more greedy for this worldly warmth.

This film review was first published on the personal public account "Peach Middle-aged" in the 70s of Wheatfield. For more original articles, please pay attention to "Peach Middle-aged"

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The Queen's Gambit quotes

  • Harry Beltik: Anger's a potent spice. A pinch wakes you up. Too much dulls your senses.