After a few days of precipitation, when I recall the feeling of watching "Arrival" at that time, I have been thinking, is that a kind of hearty satisfaction? Or a sense of loss as if something was missing?
I feel that it is difficult to find a suitable word to describe the mood after watching it. In addition to being deeply attracted by the mysterious and calm atmosphere created by this sci-fi film, the film has constructed a very grand and profound concept. It is very different from the science fiction films we have seen in the past. It does not rely on exciting and spectacular spectacles to attract audiences. We can't even see lively and gorgeous aerial combat scenes, nor hear deafening sound effects of fighting explosions. . On the contrary, its temperament is quiet, somber and dignified.
The original novel comes from "Story of Your Life" written by Chinese-American science fiction writer Ted Jiang. The original novel is a work that is very difficult to visualize. It is filled with a large number of abstract concepts and a dialogue system of the third type of contact. It is extremely difficult to adapt. Canadian director Dennis Villeneuve's adaptation retains the original world view and these important communication processes on the basis of the original work, and makes slight changes at the end to weaken the emotional line between mother and daughter, and let this literary sci-fi film give While the audience can imagine the infinite space, it also has a trace of temperature, not so cold.
The original novel has a restrained brushstroke, and the whole text is a letter written by the author to his future daughter Hannah in the voice of a mother, the linguist Louis. Just like the name of this story, the letter records the process of "I" - Louis - participating in the translation and communication work between the aliens after they landed on the earth, and occasionally depicting "you" - daughter Hannah - - A brief life, from birth to death, told with a compassionate attitude. This direct personal reference finally becomes a broad appellation in a macro sense and a confession to all mankind. "Who are you? "You" is everywhere.
The alien creature heptapod has seven limbs shaped like tentacles. They float faintly in the air. Facing the inquiries from human beings, they give out a pattern that unfolds slowly but has no meaning in ancient Chinese ink painting style. . These seemingly randomly rendered ink patterns represent the writing system of the heptapods. If the speech system of Heptapod is still limited by linear time, then the text system represents the perfect blend of all rationality and sensibility. It is not affected by chronological order, nor does it have a strict logical relationship. One more curve or a heavier stroke will symbolize a completely different meaning. The amount of information in a sentence depends entirely on the size of the pattern.
In the writing system of the heptapod, this method breaks the language norm based on traditional human cognition, expressing all meanings in an instant, and it is fleeting. When the expression of words can be controlled at will, the meaning of the process of transmission is far higher than the process of thinking. As mentioned in the book, the heptapod repeats a human experiment, Fermat's law of least time, which perfectly explains the difference between the heptapod and human thinking. In the category of traditional physics that we humans have mastered, a beam of light wants to reach a certain point in the water from a certain point in the air, then when it passes through the water surface, the light will be refracted due to the difference of the propagation medium. Therefore, because the propagation medium of light in air and water is different, refraction occurs. This is the perspective of human causality. The heptapod is viewed from a completely different perspective, namely teleology .
If the purpose of a beam of light is to take the shortest path, how should it go? It has to know the time taken by all the paths before going and choose the one that takes the shortest time. Light does not have its own consciousness, but this is an interesting angle, and it also determines the huge difference between the writing system of the heptapod and the human language system.
For humans, the time we live in is a linear flow, like I wrote this article because I watched a movie and thought, so I put it into words, but I write and think , will keep changing the wording. As for the heptapods, because their words are not limited by time, the past, the present, and the future coexist at the same time. Before they say a word, they already fully know the meaning they want to express. What will the other party say.
If heptapods were asked to write this article, it would already know exactly what the article said and how to present it before writing the first word. The whole action of writing is just a moment. Even this article can be written before watching the movie, because the future is also omniscient for them, and all they do is to show such a process of "writing". Here comes the question, if it already knew what it was going to say in the first place, why would it say it? So there is a relationship between free will and predicting the future. In the book, the author writes, "The existence of free will means that we cannot predict the future." In other words, if we predict the future, we cannot have free will.
This is actually a very philosophical point. For example, if the firefighters who fight the fire know that they will die in the fire before they go deep into the fire, they will definitely not choose to go to the fire by free will. It is precisely because they do not know what the waiting result will be that they will go by their free will. In our daily life, we often hear people make such regretful mantras: "Oh, if only I had known it earlier." But if the outcome had been known earlier, would it still be your free will that determines your choice? The whole film is told with such a fatalistic color, which is also the imaginary world constructed by the author Ted Jiang. Villeneuve adapted it on this basis, and restored such a reincarnation story well, just like the text of the heptapod. As early as the beginning of the film, the film has already told the audience the ending of "the story of your life", and the subsequent development of the story is the cause of the event, and the purpose is to complete the process.
The ubiquitous "pre-flash" clips in the film seem to haunt Lewis like a ghost. When she mastered the text of the heptapod, she finally found out that she could have the memory of the future. This seems to be a paradox. How does one generate the memory of the things that have not happened yet? Because the boundaries of time have become blurred, the past and the future are unfolding in front of you like the present. As the author wants to express, when the ending of everything is already written at the beginning , at this time, when you already know all the sad endings, Are you still willing to go without hesitation? Both the original text and the movie gave the answer at the end, yes, " I foresee all the grief, but I am still willing to go. " When Louis already knew that his husband would leave him and that his daughter would die young , she's still willing to take a huge risk to go through it all. She did not defy fate and try to change the future, because fate is unstoppable. That's what this story is about. Because of its immutability and inviolability, it is full of great tragedy. But I still love the ending, it's deep and moving at the same time. Perhaps, no one can stop the power of love. Even though Louis already knew the end of the story, he still risked his life, making it even more tragic.
The end of the original text reads: " I knew the end from the beginning, and I chose my own path, which is the only way to go in the future. I followed the path, full of joy, perhaps full of pain? My In the future, should it be minimized or maximized? Those questions flooded my mind when your father asked me: 'Do you want a baby?' I smiled and said, 'Yes.' I put His arms were pulled away from me, and we held hands, walked into the room, made love, made you." The last sentence is more powerful in the original English expression, To make love, to make you. In the process of watching the movie , Louis said something that left a deep impression on me. " Our language is as messy as our culture, " she said . Facing a civilization unknown to humanity, when communication and understanding within our cognitive spheres are rendered ineffective, prejudice and misunderstanding continue to dominate us. Humans have always rejected the possibility of communication through their presumptuous level of understanding. Come to think of it, this phenomenon still occurs frequently even in today's society. As the basis for human understanding of the world, language not only acts as a bridge between cultures, but also a tool for understanding nature and a weapon for arming oneself.
Just imagine, through the language of heptapods, human beings have finally discovered that when we pull away from our time position and overlook the entire time axis, the past, present and future are fully spread out in front of us, and we can understand the whole What will the world be like when history can touch any border that the imagination can reach? In the face of limited civilization and endless unknowns, we have to say that we seem to be a little too arrogant.
We have language, civilization, art and love, and these things, no matter where they are placed in time, are magic weapons that connect each other. It is precisely because of this that we are moved by stories like "Arrival". I thought of "Journey to the West" again. The story of the Supreme Treasure has been written from the beginning, and everything he has done is nothing more than confirming the accuracy of this prophecy once again. "Look at that person, it's so strange, like a dog." Isn't this the most helpless but also the most powerful and warm summary of the Supreme Treasure?
When the riddle of the Sphinx was solved, Oedipus avoided all possibilities, but still got the outcome of killing his father and marrying his mother. The essence of this well-known ancient Greek tragedy is time. What is the purpose of life? Just to die. That being the case, all of us are still trying to experience our own, aren't we? Everyone lamented that they had met the wrong person when they broke up, but if time could be repeated, nine times out of ten, they would still be hopelessly in love with that person. Fate is so unbelievable! Forward and backward are memories, only the present is all. So, now that all the endings have been written, and everything you've tried to change is futile, let's face it from the start.
There is a lyric in "The Love of My Life": "The bitter sea turns love and hate, and it is difficult to escape fate in this world." I think, maybe this is the shackles that everyone has to bear the bitter but hard to break free.
Original article published | Rear window public account (ihouchuang)
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