沉默，沉默，沉默(王小波2)

1996年

摘(一)

“所谓弱势群体，就是有些话没有说出来的人。就是因为这些话没有说出来，所以很多人以为他们不存在或者很遥远。”

“然后我又猛省到自己也属于古往今来最大的一个弱势群体，就是沉默的大多数。这些人保持沉默的原因多种多样，有些人没能力，或者没有机会说话；还有人有些隐情不便说话；还有一些人，因为种种原因，对于话语的世界有某种厌恶之情......作为最后这种人，也有义务谈谈自己的所见所闻。”


摘(二)

“就像是夫子也未能免俗，他把妇女和小人攻击了一通......人们只是小心提防着不要做小人，至于怎样不做妇人，这问题一直没有解决。就是到了现代，女变男的变性手术也是一个难题，而且也不宜推广 － 这世界上假男人太多，真男人就会找不到老婆。”

“简言之，话语圈里总是在说些不会遇到反驳的话。往好听里说，这叫做自说自话；往难听里说，就让人想起了一个形容缺德行为的顺口溜：打聋子骂哑巴扒绝户坟。仔细考较起来，恐怕聋子、哑巴、绝户都属阴的一类。”


摘(三)

“让我们来检查一下自己，看看傻不傻，疯不疯？有各种各样的镜子可供检查自己只用：中国的传统是一面镜子，外国文化是一面镜子。还有一面更大的镜子，就在我们身边，那就是沉默的大多数...但是在这世界上的一切人之中，我最希望予以提升的一个，就是我自己。这话很卑鄙，很自私，也很诚实。”

“思维的乐趣”(王小波1)

“我的看法也许不值得别人重视，但对自己却很重要。这说明我有自己的好恶、爱憎，等等。假如没有这些，做人也没什么味道。”

“罗素先生曾说，对伦理的问题无法做科学的辩护......我认为，思维可以给人带来很大的乐趣，我看不出有什么理由可以剥夺这种乐趣。这个看法也在伦理的论域之内。所以，我举不出科学上的理由来说明自己是对的。”

“罗素先生认为，残酷打击别人是不好的。但他只能期望别人来同意这个看法，不能证明自己的正确。他还说，有很多看法，看似一种普遍的伦理原则，其实只是一种特殊的恳求。”

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Poetry

I just watched this one of the (most) underrated films (imdb rate: 6.6/10; accessed on 24/10/2008): The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings, 2005). There is a hilarious scene where the protagonists Arthur and Ford are captured by the Vogons and forced to listen to the Vogon leader Jeltz to read his awful poem. Afterwards, Arthur utters a thoughtful comment on it. Though this answer fails to prevent the Vogons from saying "resistance is useless" or throwing them out of the spaceship, I found that this comment rather applicable and viable to all humane circumstances in poetry. So recite it if you wanna save your life.;P Here is the excerpt from their dialogues:

Guide: "Vogon poetry is widely accepted as the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master, Grunthos the Flatulent, of his poem Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty, four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off."

The absolute worst poetry was by Paula Millstone Jennings of Sussex. Luckily, it was destroyed when the Earth was.]

VS.

Vogon: "Either die in the vacuum of space, or tell me what you thought of my poem."

Arthur: "A...a...actually, I rather liked it."

Vogon: "Hmm?"

Ford (whispered): "Yeah. That's good. Run with it."

Vogon: "Hmmm."

Arthur: "Uh, some of the words I didn't understand, but I found the
imagery quite effective."

Vogon: "Continue."

Arthur: "Well, uh, yes, interesting rhythmic deviced, which seemed to counterpoint the underlying metaphor of the humanity..."

Ford(whispered): "Vogonity!"

Arthur: "Vogonity, sorry, vogonity...of the poet's soul."

Vogon: "So what you're saying is, I write poetry because underneath this mean, callous, heartless exterior, I just want to be loved?"

Ford(whisper): "Yes, yes, yes."

Arthur: "Yes, yeah, yes, please."

Another notable issue in this film for me is the scene at which Slartibartfast (played by Bill Nighy) shows Arthur their factory on a flying 'machine'. It immediately reminds me of the one in Tron (1982), though full-rigged by technology.

in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy


in Tron

An Emotional Hour (Essay assignment)

Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour



You can't help sighing while going through Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour. You may even call it a suspense story regarding the dramatized psychological process within a ‘long’ good hour.

What it feels like for a woman to lose her husband? When the dreadful news was conceived with "veiled hints", Mrs. Mallard acted with "paralyzed inability" and "sudden, wild abandonment" as everyone expected: "wept at once", sank in the armchair, "down by exhaustion". She collapsed in the "storm of grief". The subsequent Mrs. Mallard's psychological symptoms are supposed to be some sweet recollections of their "happy" marriage.

Unfortunately, the scenes viewed from the window by Mrs. Mallard seemed to be too positive to believe: open square, new spring life, delicious breath of rain, distant singing, and twittering sparrows. She even noticed the beautiful picture consisted of "patches of blue sky" and clouds. Until now, same with Mrs. Mallard, you may be confused and uncertain about what was happening, as her feeling of brightness slowly surfaced before she realized the big relief after the years of repression. Something "subtle and elusive" occurred to her mind, yet she was ethically ashamed to speak it out. Still, the strong overflow of joy burst out her pumping bosom, crying "tumultuously" yet "under her breath": "free, free, free!" From then on, Mrs. Mallard's face was no longer blank but brightened. The gay of freedom was great enough to help dismiss the guilty feelings coming along.

So in Mrs. Mallard's case, the unique answer to the question lifted at the beginning should be unpredictably and incredibly full of joy. In the following text, you would conceive that Mr. and Mrs. Mallard's marriage is "fixed and gray and dead". Getting rid of this bind, Mrs. Mallard saw a future "that would belong to her absolutely". Meanwhile, she considered the feeling as an illumination that would help her out of the "sorrow", which was also what her sister Josephine and Mr. Mallard's friend Richards comforted her for.

Mrs. Mallard's nerves continued touching the peak of happiness as her thoughts wandering about the independent life she would soon live for herself. Her perspective about marriage showed up instantly: love, "the unsolved mystery" was nothing compared to the "possession of self-assertion". Holding and pursuing opinions of herself was the meaning of her life. You may sense a declaration of independence from a feminist here. The "feverish triumph" in Mrs. Mallard's eyes implied the underlying struggle of dominance between men and women was won by her in her marriage, though through a coincidental way. The victory kept her walking ahead gayly until the supposed-to-be-dead opened the front door and stood there naively, knowing nothing about her great fresh joy. And before sharing this joy with the supposed-to-be-dead, Mrs. Mallard's heart attack left her a decent ending, which was diagnosed by the doctors: "of joy that kills".

Here's an irony: in one way, it's no doubt that the "joy" was aroused by the death of Mr. Mallard; yet in another, for the people in the story, the "joy" is for that Mr. Mallard was alive, while for you, the reader with multiple points of view, it was the "joy" plus the shock of disappointment that made Mrs. Mallard too emotional and killed her. What a twist of fate!

Yes, the story alone can be viewed as a farce about a long-married couple, whose pathetic relationship was maintained merely by the sense of responsibility; or how was a self-pitied woman's extreme pleasure succeeded by sorrow. And notice how much joy Mrs. Mallard got when she found her out of this bind: to be identified not in the name of Mallard but as an independent woman, is the marrow she longed to seek out of life. In the year of 1894 (this should be taken in credit), Chopin wrote in a tactful language yet detailed psychological depictions to reveal her insights on sexual identity. Though Mrs. Mallard failed with her envision dashing to the ground, a strip of hope shined on female self-assertion and stimulated women to ponder the meaning of their own lives.


Obtain the original story from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_an_Hour

A Rose for Emily (Essay assignment)

The first thought came to me after reading the story is that William Faulkner has a quite familiar gothic writing style with Poe (I've only read The Tell-Tale Heart, To Helen, saw Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and The Fall of the House of Usher's silent short film), especially in the weird degree of characters: dark, bizarre and desolate. The very big difference in A Rose for Emily is, Faulkner kept the suspense calmly hanging there and gave a weird but vague shock at the end, while Poe likes to keep delivering tensions from the beginning and make a climax of stunning horrors for the ending.

As the ending reveals that Emily had been keeping Homer's corpse and even sleeping with the rotten smelly corpse, Necromania seems to be the subject A Rose for Emily is talking about. The commiserations for Emily are concealed in the cold depiction of Emily's long separation from outside world and her poor haggard appearance. The conflict between the South and the North and the nobles oblige pushed her hard and made her unable to do what she really wanted to, even after her tamer father's death. What's worse, the one she loves didn't love her. She fell into despair and decided to do something for herself. Viewed at the end, her inner is very sophisticated. There's little writing about characters' inner world but Faulkner's technique is so well that you won't notice it when you sense the intense overflow of Emily through the changes of her portraits. The multiple views of story-telling can also be accounted to the sophistication and mystery of Emily's character as well as the shocking ending.

Another thing Faulkner specially focused on was the various attitudes of townsmen towards Emily event. No matter how much important they thought they were, Emily or her family were only some gossips for others. And this fact is universal reflected between any famous people and their acquaintances. At most, people may shed a tear when you die. But sooner or later, you would become merely another folded part of others' memory, if they haven't any beneficial relationships with you.

The story is called A Rose for Emily, then where is the rose? It may be a symbol of a self-comfort and self-appreciation of Emily, for she slept with a corpse to fulfill her emptiness and her desire for love. Or else the rose stands for the sympathy the townsmen or even the story-teller himself/herself hold for Emily's miserable situation. They declare a rose as a tribute to Emily for her sacrifice by undeserved responsibilities that the society and family reputation lay on her. But anyway, Emily should have been happy once, when she got Homer on her bed.

You Don't Know What It Is, Do You?

A Review of Alice Munro's Nettles



The whole story seems to be another middle-age crisis story at the first glance. However, it gradually delivers a universal feeling of lost and sorrow as much as we want to grab and hold the passing wonderful times.

I'm not aging enough to identify with all complicated feelings of the protagonist. She once had and missed a childhood playmate. Her marriage doesn't go well. The bound and misunderstanding between her and her children put her in a bind of uncertainty. She's on her own and lost like a rolling stone.

And now her confusion rose when she met Mike - her old playmate - again. The recollection of old happy times stimulated her a crush on him. After so many years of separation, they felt each other unfamiliar as much as close. They just shook hands, hiding hilarity. At the same time, she wanted to touch Mike, to get closer to him, to pursue her sexual desire with him. Under an unrecognizable state, she was trying to find a direction through tracing back in the day marked with a white stone. So the great rainstorm came in time. She was protected by Mike in his arms, sharing an intimate feeling with him. They stuck to each other and to the ground but the touch was "one of restraints more than comfort". Even the kiss was "more of a ritual, a recognition of survival". They could only be as friends in memory. She was "a person he knew" before, someone that helped recall the past. Nothing new would happen between them.

Like she finally realized, "it would be the same old thing, if they ever met again". The difficulties through our lives took away our youth and vitality. So the sense of security easily decides the usual track of life while one feels lost. Mike is someone good enough for her to turn to at that circumstance. But the stinging, "more insignificant plants" harmed them during the unpredictable close touch in rainstorm, telling them to seal the "unimportant" good old days. And busy being grieved and self-condemned, Mike wouldn't bother to take a risk for an uncertain future with her.

My high school chemistry teacher has an overword: life doesn't live on excuses. Though it was absence and delayed assignment she was talking about, it's true that we can't change the pass if we don't change ourselves.

Nettle, is a kind of common wild plant as a noun, also means to irritate as a verb. Being a newly-divorced single parent, the protagonist started a different life before she was ready, or say, figure out the direction. She is but searching for settling, a shelter she could be kept in, someone she could live for. And the memorial relationship of them made her more inclined to Mike.

We all have this kind of feeling when life is on a new track. The unknown future brings us friability. I'm not being negative but we have to admit that this is the way we live. Let me end with Bob Dylan's The Ballad of a Thin Man:

You raise up your head
And you ask, is this where it is?
And somebody points to you and says
It's his
And you say, what's mine?
And somebody else says, where what is?
And you say, oh my god
Am I here all alone?

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, mister Jones?