In the third year's literary theory & cultural studies course, the teacher screens movies and assigns film reviews as coursework. At that time, learning Foucault became a naive theoretical exercise.
The film "Quills" (Quills) is based on a series of writing actions by the Marquis of Thad in the Charnington Asylum. The lunatic asylum during the Great Revolution is a typical Foucault-style image of discipline. In it, what we see is not the opposition between "autocracy" and "hero"; power is not only suppressive and concealing, but also productive. Throughout the whole movie, space has become an important carrier of this disciplinary power; and writing is expressed as an action that constantly rushes out of this space. The power of writing rushed out of THAAD’s ward through the text, spreading in the illegal place covered up in society, causing different consequences. Writing, a holistic and noble way of resistance, has its unique impact today. 1. At the beginning of the movie, the doorway, the ward, and the illegal activities, the scene of the woman being sent to the guillotine accompanied by the reading of Thaad’s works shows that Thad’s process of adapting and putting the truth into writing is in a specific way. In the spatial relationship: the woman on the execution platform can only see Thaad’s eyes vaguely through the reflective glass, while Thad in the room can clearly see the grand event on the square through the window, and leisurely Go back to the desk and write. This room is a classical writer's space, and the knowledge of the vast world outside the room is transformed into the exercise of writing. When Thad was sent to the Channington Asylum, the spatial relationship was reversed. The ward of the lunatic asylum is a typical discipline space. The enclosed wards are separated from the corridors by thick doors. The way for internal and external communication is two square openings in the doors, which outline the asymmetric structure of the inside and outside of the wards. Through the upper rectangular opening, the priest and other inspectors can have a sweeping view of the room, and what the patient can achieve is a dialogue with the person posted in front of the door-his eyes will be blocked by the tortuous corridor, so as to be taken away by the priest When the quill was far away, Thad could only growl bluffing into the distance. The lower square hole is used to deliver change sheets. The washerwoman can safely collect sheets from each room without being attacked by the patient; through this hole, Thad secretly delivers the manuscript to Madeleine-this is a typical The passage of illegal activities, writing is further illegalized. The ward is a closed space. The activities of patients in it are always established as visible by examination; their illegal activities are transformed into the exercise of power through the knowledge of examination, and then the illegal activities diffused in the open space outside the ward are concealed. Thad enjoyed special treatment in the ward: feather beds, quill pens, cellar wine... and these only made him more individualized: the priest asked him to abide by the rules; the staff There is a legend about him. When he writes in an increasingly hysterical way-writing on the sheets with chicken bones dipped in wine, covering his clothes with his own blood, and covering the walls of the dungeon with feces-he is always doing some kind of "rebellious" activity , The illegality has been engraved in his entire space; in the resistance, he increasingly took the initiative to transfer power to his body. The space outside the door is an extra-legal place: in the palace, the monarchs listen to Thaad’s obscene novels, and they can choose to listen for a while; the minister uses the opportunity of suppressing Thad to introduce Dr. Collard to the lunatic asylum. Evaluation, in order to display his personal relationship; Dr. Collard took the opportunity to marry young nuns, and defrauded Mrs. Thad’s donation to renovate her house, and eventually occupied the entire hospital; in the fire, Dr. Collard was at the door He heard the sound of Madeleine being attacked in the room, but he deliberately ignored it, so that the serious consequences would become a bargaining chip for him to strengthen the control of the insane asylum... In the plot when Mrs. Thad enters the ward to visit Thad, the external space is introduced. NS. When the wife advised Thad to win the favor of the doctor and blamed him for putting on the stage the scene of obscenity "in order to show off" his "abnormal", she was a voice representing discipline and a messenger from the perspective of a "normal person"; When she complained that her interpersonal relationship was destroyed by Thad and begged him to give in to let herself "be an ordinary person", she added the structure of life outside the ward to Thad, forcing Thad to be in her soul Discover the truth—the sin inherent there. In such an asymmetrical spatial relationship, writing is always an impactful and inverted force. The scandal of Dr. Collard was spread to Thad’s ears and became an excellent material for him. Thad wrote it into a script and put it on the stage-the stage is a different space on which the performers gain a sense of openness to the audience. Shi, a power of condescending expression and mockery; his works were smuggled to the publishing house for printing and circulated. The emperor could only collect copies and burn them in the already diffused social space, and it was inevitable that there would be fish that slip through the net. One was bought by Dr. Collard's young wife and constituted a resistance factor in the doctor's house. At the end of the film, the priest was put in the ward, and Dr. Collard brought the new priest to visit him. His sincere confession in the doorway and his hand from the doorway to choke the doctor’s neck were all resolved by the asymmetric relationship between inside and outside the door. A: The doctor said he was "incurable" even more contemptuously, and the new priest looked at him suspiciously. What is left for him is still writing, continuing the resistance that Thad made to break through the space. 2. The Rebellion of Books and Women. In Thad’s pornographic writing, women seem to be objectified as objects of desire; however, the film always runs through the female readers Rebellion against the world of experience under the influence of the text. Throughout the movie, there are two clues of women's resistance: one is the resistance of female workers in the lunatic asylum represented by Madeleine, and the other is Simon's resistance to Dr. Collard. Madeleine has always used the opportunity of washing the sheets to smuggle Thad's manuscripts for publication; one of her most daring actions to transcend the law was to enter Thad's room and make affection with him. In this episode, the process of her seduction is most concentrated in the dialogue about Thad’s new manuscript: Thad: "I am having a new story... the sad story of a pure laundry girl..." Madeleine ( Deeply attracted): "Is it violent?" THAAD: "Absolutely." Madeleine (evilly excited): "Very erotic?" THAAD: "Devilish--but it has a price: a kiss One page." Madeleine (helpless): "Do I have to kiss directly or can I blow a kiss?" What was the temptation for Madeleine, Thad or the manuscript? Madeleine’s invitation was a “real visit” and did not directly involve the manuscript; after entering the door, she curiously explored the various objects in Thad’s room (which are obviously directly related to the writing of her pornographic novel); but only talked about When it comes to new pornographic and violent stories, Madeleine expresses the most direct excitement. After the contact, Madeleine read Thad’s novel aloud to her companions and mother. It is certain that the content of the text deeply attracted her; at this time, the text overlapped with reality-Thad had already penetrated into it. Under its guidance, Madeleine couldn't help but extend the pornography in the novel to the current empirical reality. As a result, an action that breaks the rules of the world of experience is given the pattern in the text, thus showing its boundaries-and before the disciplinary system of the insane asylum was shaken by the whole, Thad’s room was exactly this kind of action. A more possible space. This dialectical process of resistance-shaping is more prominently manifested in Simon. At least since being welcomed into the castle, she has been placed under the words of Dr. Collard: She is a simple nun in the monastery who "does not know much about the temptation of the outside world", and is a "rare bird that must be locked tightly". ", is a "wife" who must fulfill a specific obligation to her husband-these words try to produce a kind of soul in and around her body, this kind of soul is the prison of the body. The castle is also a thorough discipline space for her. Only in reading can she project a concept of "autonomy". When Simon temporarily left the castle and watched the play in the lunatic asylum, she was still visible to her husband to some extent, but after all, she was temporarily in a place different from the general training space (maybe she would still realize , That’s a discipline space for another group of people, and organize a lunatic asylum The patient's performance in the drama itself is a full use of their flesh). Simon was attracted by the erotic scenes of the drama and couldn't bear to leave, showing an expression of excitement, which meant that she saw the possibility of resistance-this possibility passed from the lunatic acting to her. The book has increasingly become a tool for her to directly confront the doctor: Collard: "I would prefer to taste the brandy when we sit side by side in front of the fireplace." Simon (staring at the book intently): "I would rather read, thank you." Collard: "Do you prefer reading than your husband's company..." At this time, Simon felt that the contradiction with Collard became more prominent. Soon, she went to the market to find Thad's novel, put it under the cover of the poetry collection, and read it intently while lying in bed with Collard. Collard always has no control over his wife’s reading, so he has to sleep. In this way, Simon accepts Thad’s "Justina" writing about sex in a space outside of Collard's power: "The power of men is tight. In the fists that she clenched, women’s power lies elsewhere, in the smooth caves between her crotches." The novel "Justina" is about the story of a girl Justina being raped and abused continuously. Justina's image is weak and weak. , Constantly under attack, the meticulous description of sex gives women a pleasure of being abused. Simon expressed his desire to the architect with this novel, and the two reached confirmation with the dialogue in the book; when planning to elope, the two planned to "rape" in different places, and the architect put his thumb into Simon's mouth to simulate oral sex Actions-these appear as resistance to the power of Dr. Collard, and none of them are the result of the sexual concepts shaped by Thad's text, which are the continuation of the patterns in the text in the empirical world. For one kind of productive power, only another kind of productive power can constitute resistance. What this dialectical process of resistance-shaping brings to Simon is unknown; what it brings to Madeleine is a clear and tragic fate. On a thunderstorm night after Thad fell into desperation, she colluded with a group of patients and passed Thad's dictation through the hole in the wall, which she wrote down. In this act of narration and writing, the patients were infected by the text passed on-Dao Fan inspired the desire for arson by the plot of "taking a fire stick from the stove" and set the bed on fire; Bujon was affected by the tongue. Inspired by the sadomasochistic plot that opened up, she raped and killed Madeleine. The problem is that it is not only Madeleine who extends the pattern in the text to experience life; when the power in the text diffuses in the space outside the ward and spreads to different people, it finally has serious consequences. This makes Thaad unable to truly feel happy that his "fiction is reproduced in reality". 3. Alternatives to writing? At Yes, in "Quill Pen", we see that writing always operates as a force to break through the discipline space; its effectiveness diffuses into the vast social sphere outside the ward, becoming a tool for women to resist, forming the shaping of sexual concepts, Cause different consequences. But in China today, the same function is more replaced by modern communication: when you feel that you are in an extreme situation, people no longer need to continue to write a truth contrary to Christian doctrines like THAAD, but use WeChat, Weibo sends out real-time graphic information, sending one's own situation as an alarm in a virtual public space; there is no motivation to identify one's own soul from the opposite direction, instead, one's own words are directly dissipated in the field of public opinion. When young people feel the power of discipline, they no longer resort to complete reading and seek a parallel world in the text, but turn to smart devices. Today's "Quill Pen" was written by Han Dong: In such an atmosphere, Qu Hong could not help being angry and prestigious, behaving very modestly, especially towards the big cat. At this moment, the big cat is reclining lazily on the couch, with a bronze bench under his feet (the work of the great sculptor Yang Ming. Similar sculptures can be seen everywhere in the living room), and he is playing with an iPad. This iPad was specially bought by Qu Hong for Big Cat, so that she can pass the boring time of her pregnancy. At the same time, Qu Hong also said: “Don’t play all over the world, it will be radioactive, which is not good for the fetus.” The big cat’s indulging in iPad is not only to follow the fashion (of course, it is also to follow the fashion), but also has a meaning to please Qu Hong, after all. She gave her the stuff. At the same time, there is also a certain meaning of resistance, because Qu Hong makes her play less. The more Qu Hong restricts Big Cat from playing on the iPad, the more addicted the latter is. She will scan Weibo whenever she sees the opportunity, or play a game of fortune-telling. Qu Hong also felt that the iPad was good. It not only gave the other party a place to vent, but also reflected her fundamental authority. After all, she handed over the weapon of confrontation to the big cat. ——Han Dong. China Lover Jiangsu People's Publishing House. (Kindle position 2940-2946).
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