the beginning of the story
More than a year ago, I was having dinner with an old colleague, and a friend who turned to publishing mentioned that a new book he had recently made, the masterpiece "Walden" by American author Thoreau, just went on sale. Hearing this, I couldn't help but wonder: "Isn't this book already translated into Chinese? There seems to be more than one." "Yes, there have been more than 30 Chinese translations, and 30 have been published in the 10 years since 2003. What I did, seems to be the 39th. It's still incomplete statistics." He couldn't help taking a breath. The same book has been translated nearly 40 times in China, which is probably unique in the history of publishing. why? Is it because of Haizi's poem? "Thoreau has brains/Like fish have water, birds have wings/Clouds have sky Thoreau has brains/Thoreau has nothing else at hand/Grabs a stick/That stick beat me/Like Spring beat me Thoreau this man has brains / made a bird's nest as a mailbox / two letters flew at the same time / also gave birth to many small letters / feathers fluttering...". The friend's answer was that he wanted to provide the most authoritative and comprehensive version, because it seemed that the previous translations had not met the needs of readers, so he chose a commentary written by the director of the Thoreau Institute, which is said to be "the most well-known contemporary version". Thoreau's people". The annotations are almost the same length as the original work, which is equivalent to the capacity of two books. It took nearly 5 years to complete the translation and publication. Speaking of the above, of course, it's not for advertising a friend's book, but because I watched two movies in succession recently - "Captain Fantastic" and "The Hunt for the Barbarian", I suddenly felt that the original Thoreau's influence has always been there, Whether it is in China, the United States or New Zealand, the attitude towards nature, and the thinking and criticism of society are still profound after more than 160 years. Therefore, even with an annotated version twice as thick, I believe that Walden will be translated and published again and again.
After more than 30 years of operation, the "Sundance Film Festival" has become an important pillar of the independent film industry, and many emerging directors have come to the fore. "Captain Fantastic" and "Chasing the Savage" are the two films that shined at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Independent films themselves are works that are outside the mainstream film circle, and generally have no major casts. The biggest role in these two films is Viggo Mortensen, who played his father in "Captain Fantastic". He is the human king in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. This time, he takes the role of "father". He got a bunch of nominations for the best actor, even the Oscars, but it was a pity that he came back in the end. The two directors are basically unknown - the director of "Captain Fantastic", Matt Ross, is an actor (he is more famous as an actor), this is the second film he wrote and directed; "The Hunt for the Savage" The director Taika Waititi is of New Zealand tribal descent (you can see the clues from the name), so he will pay attention to the marginal themes such as the fate of the Maori soldiers in World War II. This film is also written and directed by him. . However, this gentleman is quite talented. The "Thor 3" to be released at the end of this year will be directed by him. Judging from the trailers that have been released, it is in line with his flamboyant and funny personality. Being able to star in a commercial blockbuster means that it has been appreciated by Hollywood. It seems that it is just around the corner for the director of the tower to enter the mainstream film circle. The common point of the two films can be summed up as: returning to the jungle + reflecting on education. The jungle mentioned here is the primitive nature described by Thoreau that has not been polluted by modern material civilization. In it, what reappears is the surviving vitality of human beings. But looking around, the daily life of contemporary children is not to breathe the fresh air of the mountains, but surrounded by a modern education system that is increasingly perfect and more popular. What children face is not the stars and the jungle, but video games and test scores. Probably based on this position, the two directors realized at the same time: if you want to truly feel and return to the pure natural world, you still have to start with dolls. The first step is to remove children from the existing various child management systems. rescued.
Just look at the styles of the two directors to know the virtues of their films
The Escaped History of the Wild Child
A complete child protection system has always been one of the welfare systems that the West is proud of. For example, last year, Brad Peter and Julie quarreled and involved their 15-year-old adopted son, which immediately attracted the intervention of the Child Protection Agency. Germany suddenly lost visitation rights. The protagonist of "Chasing the Savage", the fat little Ricky Baker, is the beneficiary (or harm) of this system. His mother gave birth to a child out of wedlock before the age of 20, and the child's father does not know who he is. In this case, the child will naturally report to the welfare institution from birth, and the government will arrange for adoption. After going through N adopted families, Ricky became a hot potato. In the eyes of the staff, he was vulgar and full of bad habits. The Demon King of Chaos. There are only two options waiting for him: go to a new home deep in the mountains, or go directly to a juvenile detention center. He chose the former, and then planned to escape on the first night, but he fell asleep on the hillside within 200 meters. Later, he did not escape, because his adopter, Aunt Bella, completely subdued him. Bella is not a gentle mother who can only put a hot water bottle in the child's bed. She taught Ricky how to shoot a gun, how to kill a wild boar with a knife and then take out the internal organs. On his birthday, she sang a strange birthday song to him, and gave him a gift. He is a hound. Bella's role is obviously different from a "good mother" in the traditional sense. As a woman who grew up in the mountains, she believes in gods, she is strong but not weak, and her body exudes primitive and instinctive enthusiasm, which comes from the heart of human beings. The immense enthusiasm in the depths is contagious and conquers Ricky's heart. New Zealand's good child welfare system is the object of the director's ridicule (in a kind and spoof way, of course). The dedicated female cadre of the welfare center is portrayed as a mechanical and ruthless bureaucrat like Javert, always holding the slogan "Don't give up any child". To send him to the next adopter who is "more in line with the government's requirements". The system, in her eyes, is above all else, more than the concern for the children's emotions, because she firmly believes that the system is really "for the children." In order not to be sent to a juvenile detention center or forced to face the next adopter, Ricky and his adoptive father, Uncle Eke, began a career on the run, heading deep into the mountains of New Zealand. Their adventures are thrilling and joyful. They quarrel, get injured, and get separated. They encounter ferocious beasts, goddesses in their hearts, and anarchists who have lived in seclusion in the mountains for 15 years. They also save the forest along the way. Administrator's life. This long story fully shows the characteristics of director Taiga as a senior literary man. In it, he paid tribute to (learned from) many masterpieces of his predecessors: Mad Flower, First Blood, Flying House, Lord of the Rings , Crocodile Dundee, Moonrise Kingdom, Braveheart... (those familiar clips and lines are re-interpreted by the eccentric little chubby Ricky, and the laughing fruit is hilarious) However, all the imitations point to a common theme: human beings The unyielding heart that pursues freedom. The ironic road to desperation made the old and young put themselves against the existing social system, and they defined themselves as "Wilder people". He can easily catch eels and kill wild boars, but he can't read letters from the Children's Welfare Institute; on the other hand, Ricky always fantasizes about joining the gang and becoming a cool "Gangsta (gangster)". As the representatives of justice and order, the police and child welfare agencies are chasing after these two "barbarians" who have deviated from the social track. A nationwide search and a reward order have been launched, and the purpose is to bring Ricky, a "disturbed board". Hand" reset, put back in toolbox (return to civilized society). After all, one of the hallmarks of modern civilization is the various systems and systems that everyone must be included in and not derail. Just like the anarchist hermit who doesn't want to be a "form filling machine" said: The government has prepared a form for everything, no matter what you do, you have to fill out the form. It is really inhumane to apply with a form! Lack of humanity, in a word. Modern man finally succumbs to the system of his own invention, and becomes increasingly rigid and inactive in it. No, once the military and police with advanced equipment enter the primitive jungle, their eyes will be smeared, and they will become useless headless flies. It has taken more than 5 months to catch the old and young who have no maps and no mobile phones, and are in possession of animals. In the face of hunters with average survivability, modern electronic instruments are sometimes just a pile of scrap metal. City and jungle, civilization and savagery, in the opposition between the two, Dumpty Ricky refuses to be part of a boring and uninteresting civilization system. The earth-shattering chase scene at the end of the film is really "heroic", shouting "Freedom" and then overturning, Ricky finally became the "hero" of his dreams and ended his jungle adventure with a high and funny attitude.
hippie utopia
Surprisingly, "Captain Fantastic", which has won many awards in Europe and the United States, seems to be unpopular in China, and it is not as good as "Chasing the Barbarian" in terms of the number of viewers and ratings. You know, director Matt Ross, who is still a rookie, won the Best Director in the Uncategorized Section of the Cannes Film Festival last year with this film, and the male protagonist Viggo Mortensen was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. On IMDB, More than 100,000 people rated it 7. 9 is not a low score. The role of father in the film is quite similar to Mr. Keating in the film "Dead Poets Society". Students and children call them "Captain", which is closer to the meaning of "navigator and spiritual leader". Mr. Keating once quoted Thoreau's words in "Walden" to encourage students to break the ideological shackles of elite schools, and "Captain Fantastic" simply used a bus converted into an RV to take his six children to the depths of the jungle. Here, the utopian house of Plato's ideal state was established. Here, children stay away from the modern consumerist lifestyle, learn to hunt, breed, plant, and pick, and under the leadership of their father, they learn to fight, sit still, climb rocks, climb mountains, and live a spartan life. Although they haven't gone to school for a day, this forest family obviously attaches great importance to knowledge education. The children read "The Brothers Karamazov", "Guns, Germs and Steel", "Middlemarch", and discuss quantum mechanics and Bill of Rights. With a strong physique, outstanding ability to survive in the wild, and excellent thinking spirit, this is the unique child raised by the father who advocates natural philosophy and opposes all mainstream American culture in the film (in the eyes of this father, the existing United States of America Medical, educational, political and even religious systems are all useless). To explore the true meaning of life through a simple and honest life, the transcendental life advocated by Thoreau is turned into reality in the film, but as the mother committed suicide due to postpartum depression, the whole family was forced to return to the real world. The conflict between values became acute. For example, because the eldest daughter refuses to shoot the sheep that do not know how to escape in the pasture, everyone can only enter the restaurant to eat, and the children instinctively want to order hot dogs, hamburgers and fries, even though they have never had Coke or know what a milkshake is. Son. Father dragged them away and explained: Coke is a poisonous water and there is no real food on the menu. For another example, at the aunt's house, the father allows the underage children to drink alcohol and discuss drugs, sex, mental illness, gas chambers and suicide candidly with them, on the other hand, the children can only foolishly watch the two cousins play games. , talking about Nike and Adidas like a fantasy... The most dramatic scene is when the aunt questioned the father's failure to send his children to school for formal education, which was both illegal and ruined the child's future, while the father insisted that he taught The only really useful knowledge is given to the children: how to correct fractures, how to treat burns, how to locate the direction through the starry sky. He even asked his 8-year-old daughter to express his opinions on the "Bill of Rights" on the spot to disprove the current school education. Waste a child's life. The difference here lies in the definition of knowledge and ability, and the view of usefulness and uselessness. Profound philosophical literacy and skilled pickup skills, which is more valuable? The ability to survive in the jungle or the ability to quickly advance to the game, which is more beneficial to children? Disconnect from the real society and ignorance of the great ideas of mankind, which is more terrifying? The conflict between the two culminates with the father and the children digging the mother's grave together. Because his wife, who did not want to believe in Buddhism, was buried in the way of Christians, his father had a big fight with his father-in-law at the funeral, and was almost sent to the police station. In order to "save" the mother from the "infidels", the father leads the children to act as "gravediggers" of Christian civilization (in Max Weber's view, the Protestant ethic provides the ultimate value for the spirit of capitalism). They stole the body, ran to the jungle symbolizing freedom, cremated according to the mother's last wish by the big lake, and by the roaring fire, they recited poetry, sang and danced, and completed a "drum pot and song"-style memorial. A philosophical spirit that transcends life and death. Other crazy things that "Captain Fantastic" has done include: but it's Christmas, but taking children to celebrate Chomsky's (famous American philosopher, linguist, radical anarchist) birthday; giving children All kinds of knives, taking them to the supermarket to steal; flushing his wife's ashes into the airport toilet with the children... These deviant behaviors are not only repelled by mainstream American culture, but also difficult to gain recognition on the other side of the ocean. In mainland China, where the cultural foundation of hippies is seriously lacking, the spirit of liberalism and rebellion is obviously not as popular as the success of learning, not to mention that left-leaning ideas (Marx and Maoism) are not as popular as in the past due to historical reasons. How many people would applaud the actions of two parents who were willing to abandon their wealthy life and take their children to the jungle as ascetic monks? The dream of Chinese parents today is to allow their children to receive an American-style elite education. Even if Thoreau's book has been repeatedly translated 40 times, it cannot stop the enthusiasm of Chinese students to apply for the Ivy League schools. In this way, it is probably not difficult to understand the reason why "Captain Fantastic" will be unacceptable: the ideal that Chinese society is talking about does not point to the quiet Walden Pond, but the luxurious manor of the grandfather's house in the film. Other crazy things that "Captain Fantastic" has done include: but it's Christmas, but taking children to celebrate Chomsky's (famous American philosopher, linguist, radical anarchist) birthday; giving children All kinds of knives, taking them to the supermarket to steal; flushing his wife's ashes into the airport toilet with the children... These deviant behaviors are not only repelled by mainstream American culture, but also difficult to gain recognition on the other side of the ocean. In mainland China, where the cultural foundation of hippies is seriously lacking, the spirit of liberalism and rebellion is obviously not as popular as the success of learning, not to mention that left-leaning ideas (Marx and Maoism) are not as popular as in the past due to historical reasons. How many people would applaud the actions of two parents who were willing to abandon their wealthy life and take their children to the jungle as ascetic monks? The dream of Chinese parents today is to allow their children to receive an American-style elite education. Even if Thoreau's book has been repeatedly translated 40 times, it cannot stop the enthusiasm of Chinese students to apply for the Ivy League schools. In this way, it is probably not difficult to understand the reason why "Captain Fantastic" will be unacceptable: the ideal that Chinese society is talking about does not point to the quiet Walden Pond, but the luxurious manor of the grandfather's house in the film.
the end of the story
Another famous book by David Thoreau is "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", which lasted for a hundred years and influenced many non-violent non-cooperation movements around the world. From this, it is not difficult to find that Thoreau is actually warm. He criticizes and exposes the shortcomings of the times, but he never loses his positive and romantic background. The two independent films that inherited his mantle also ended with the harmonious coexistence of idealists and social reality: Ricky was successfully adopted by the "goddess" family he admired, and Uncle Eke also began to study culture hard, and the two were released on ice. The former suspect has embarked on the road of jungle exploration again, but now it is no longer to avoid the pursuit, but purely to revisit the old place; the eldest brother gave up college and went to Africa to start a new life, which shows his obedience to his father's values, just like he He used to cut his long hair in response to his father shaving his beard, and his father sent all the remaining siblings to school. Although he still lives in the jungle, he has decided not to let the children stray from the real world. These are two mild and soft endings, another degree of idealism, that after a fierce confrontation, everything will eventually converge and calm. It is in the process of confrontation that the director also mixes jokes and warmth, it is not incompatible or either. This is probably Thoreau's thinking.
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