A desperate dose of poison
Dubliners
the garrulous beginning, accurate sentences full of personal feelings, the ensuing epiphany and discovery, and the resulting blow to the reader's mood, like Rain Water, are sprinkled in every corner of this not-so-heavy collection.
1
Dublin has a mild climate and Ireland abounds in genius. Yeats, Heaney, Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Beckett, Bernard Shaw, Trevor. You will have to find that these shining names in the history of literature are all talented contestants. They do not contribute any boring examples of "hard work, harvest" to literature, nor do they intend to add another qualified person to the inherent pedigree. Instead, they constantly broaden people's inherent understanding of their wisdom and personality. A tiny island has emerged so many excellent writers in the past two centuries. And did not make up for the number of fraudsters, it has to be said that it is a miracle. Ireland itself is much dimmer than the light of Irish writers. This small island on the edge of Europe is what George Bernard Shaw ridiculed as "another island of Englishmen". Apart from writers, it is probably only known as Guinness beer. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has had a deep context since the Middle Ages and has a reputation as a "university town". But the clash with Berlin, the German capital, has made it notorious in China.
if you are willing to study carefully, you will find that Ireland's status as an independent nation comes so late that the British have been the masters of the island since the invasion led by Henry II in the 12th century and incorporated the colony into the British Empire. Although the Easter uprising against Britain in 1916 failed, it ignited the flames of national independence, but the resulting political differences also led to the division between the north and the south of Ireland. The Irish continued to advance their cause of independence by taking advantage of the first World War. In 1921, Britain had to agree to the establishment of a free state in the 26 counties in the south of Ireland, while the six counties in the north were still owned by Britain, that is, "Northern Ireland" in the name of the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the independent South will withdraw completely from the British Commonwealth in the same year as the founding of the people's Republic of China. Despite the success of independence, the influence of British culture on Ireland has already gone deep into the bone marrow and is indestructible. From Oscar Wilde to George Bernard Shaw to Joyce, how can their inspiration and education be divorced from Britain? There is no denying that it is the dream of Irish intellectuals to gain a foothold in London's cultural circles, and Irish artists are often given the title "British" in the international arena. When one's talents and achievements need to be recognized and affirmed in a sovereign state with complex emotions, it is difficult to say anything about his "paralyzed" homeland. No wonder Joyce shouted the same meaning from different angles in "Dubliners": "I've had enough of my native land, enough of it!" ("the Dead"), always in such a huge shadow of Britain, and the native land is vague and difficult to distinguish, this is a different kind of homesickness.
2
most people's understanding of Joyce comes from the brief introduction of those heavenly works, such as Ulysses and Finnegan's Vigil. Just as everyone knows Proust but almost no one reads Remembrance of time, Joyce has become that kind of landscape writer-- looking from afar, knowing through the talk of others that it is a majestic mountain, but not so far away. But few people are willing to climb, because hard, obscure, uneconomical. Becoming a landscape is disrespectful to writers like Joyce, so Joyce's early works such as Dubliners and Portrait of a Young Artist should be paid more attention to, read, and become the beginning of understanding Joyce.
James Joyce (James Joyce,1882-1941)
Joyce was hopelessly young when he wrote Dubliners. Data show that Joyce began to write Dubliners until it was officially published, after a decade from 1904 to 1914, but in fact, he tried to sign a contract with the first publisher in 1905, but after being rejected by dozens of publishers, He finally published the collection of novels with the help of pound in 1914. In other words, in 1905, he finished at least the main part of Dubliners, and the following days were nothing more than a painstaking process of peddling his work when he was only 23 years old. This creates a strange landscape in which the readers, talkers, and researchers of this book are often older than the author. When a novel writer reads these masterpieces over and over again, when he finds that in his twenties he has written a height that most writers cannot reach in their lifetime, it is tantamount to drinking a dose of poison of despair, and the bitterness in the throat destroys his understanding of ordinary writing. And this poison also extends a chronic side effect to the blood-realizing that it is no longer possible to appreciate novels that are clever, greasy, gorgeous, and fashionable, and destroy their desire and ability to write novels that reflect their lives of the masses and are loved by the people.
3
in the process of reading, I can't help comparing it with another group of works, the 36 scenes of Fugue by the Japanese painter GE Beihai. Similarly, a group of works is used to describe a theme, and there are similarities in the means of expression between the two. "36 scenery of Fugue" is a painter's portrayal of Mount Fuji from different angles, restoring Mount Fuji in his mind. Dubliners, on the other hand, restore Dublin from the perspectives of childhood, youth, adulthood, the bottom of society, affluent families, brothers, and boys, with fifteen short stories.
the most famous "Kanagawa Surf" in "Fugue 36 King"
* the most famous "Kanagawa Surf" in "Fugue 36 King", while enjoying the huge waves of Prussian blue, we should also pay attention to the snow-white Mount Fuji in the background fixed in the middle of the picture like a nail, keeping the picture balanced and showing the strength of the mountain and sea. *
in Fugue 36 scenery"White Rain under the Mountain" is a frontal portrayal of Mount Fuji
about the theme of "Dubliners". Joyce himself had enough to say that in the era when Ireland was still a British colony, Joyce said: "my original intention is to write a chapter in the spiritual history of my country. I chose Dublin as the scene because, in my opinion, it is the center of paralysis." Under "mental paralysis", people in the book either have nothing to do and lose their expectations and goals in life (such as "two street ruffians", "after car racing", "opponents"), or people who are sensitive and pursuing life. Plan to leave, but end up stuck in the quagmire of life because he is unable to leave (such as "Evelyn", "a small cloud", etc.). As a very well-planned collection of short stories, you have to read it as a whole to explain the large number of introductions that appear in each novel without beginning and end. they are all part of a frozen Dublin group. Joyce defined the order of the fifteen novels in this collection as childhood, youth, adulthood, and public life. This arrangement makes the content of the novel fatalistic. Take "encounter" in the second part of the novel collection as an example. "I", who made an appointment to play truant with my partner, met an old man with eccentricities and strange religious beliefs in the suburbs. I was amazed by his strange talk about me. Readers can see that the "I" here is sensitive and thoughtful, while my buddies Mahoney are careless and know how to have some fun. after childhood, "I" will become Chandler, a little clerk in "a small cloud" who loves literature and wants to leave Dublin but is trapped in family life. Or James Duffy ("sad past"), who is forced to defend his spiritual world with a strange way of life, or Gabriel (the "dead"), an intellectual full of hesitation and melancholy. His companions will become the effective force of those who have nothing to do in Dublin, narrowing the lives of "me" and "me" of the same kind. In the depiction of Dublin in almost every novel, there seems to be no change in the scenery of Dublin-the paralysis of Dublin's spiritual life is based on the constant repetition of the crowd's way of life, "I" continues to become intellectuals who want to escape from Dublin, "my" partners become numb people in Dublin, and these two groups of people, there is a fundamental lack of mutual understanding. Whether it's Chandler, who had an awkward little conversation with a successful man in a bar, James Duffy, who lost a whistleblower and eventually led to her death, and Gabriel, who stood alone in the lively banquet hall, communication is the poison that keeps us more isolated from each other. How can Joyce not be suffocated by such a situation?. So he wrote these fifteen novels, "I tried to present them (the paralysis of Dublin) in front of the indifferent public," but did he get what he wanted?
after a long search and finally published, Dubliners sold only six copies in six months.
4
if you take a camera high above Dublin and photograph its changes in a year, you may not get much more than the Dubliners. Of course, you can't blame the camera. Instead, we can only blame our ability to accept information through destiny channels, but on the contrary, we can build a complete impression through limited and effective information. This is why Joyce confidently declared that "if Dublin is destroyed by fire after the book is completed, it can be restored to its original appearance as described in the Dubliners." although this collection of novels does not have the weight of an encyclopedia at all and is as thick as the camera manual, Joyce has his tricks. Through the promotion and focus of the camera, he finds his ethos in the messy daily life, thus outside the lens. Don't build a spiritual Dublin.
the Liffey River, which runs through Dublin, often appears in Dubliners
if the novel is judged by the plot, the novel is light, if the novel is judged by the creation of distinct characters, the novel is mediocre if the novel is judged by the language and atmosphere, the novel is outstanding, and if judged by the discoveries in life, the novel is exciting.
there are no impressive characters in the novel collection, and we are not surprised that the behaviors of characters full of contradictory characters are placed on the same person, who is good at capturing subtle moments of life. For example, a reunion with an old acquaintance who has been successful, such as seeing the death of a person who has had a close relationship with him; What it is good at is describing people's instant insights and discoveries in life, such as the growth of teenagers in "encounter" and "Elaraby", Evelyn found herself unable to give up her responsibility in "Evelyn", and Gabriel's re-understanding of love and death in "the Dead". All broke out in an instant, reconstructing the understanding of life, and he grasped these extremely difficult themes very accurately. And it is often done in a very short space ("Elaraby" and "Evelyn" are short novels of less than 5, 000 words).
and the novel's use of language is almost in the realm of personal hobbies. Joyce's extensive and irrelevant descriptions of the novel's plot are puzzling in many places, such as in the Dead. He wrote:
"just then, his aunts and his wife came out of the women's locker room. His aunts are two little old ladies in mediocre clothes. Aunt Julia is about an inch taller. Her hair fell low on the tip of her ear and was gray, and her large face with wrinkled skin was gray, and the color was even darker. She was strong and upright, but her eyes were Oblivious and her lips were slightly open as if she were a woman who didn't know where she was or where she was going. Aunt Kate needs more energy. Her face was healthier than her sister's, her face was covered with wrinkles, like a dried apple, and her hair was also braided in old-fashioned braids, but she had not lost the color of ripe chestnuts.
they all kissed Gabriel happily. He is one of their favorite nephews, the son of their late sister Ellen, who married T J Conroy of the Port Authority. "
the language of the character description is accurate and comfortable, but in terms of content, if you can't help but talk a little bit about Gabriel's two aunts, what's the need to write about Gabriel's parents? In this book, such a description is not uncommon. Even in a novel of three or four thousand words, Joyce can pull out about ten characters and then simply depict their images and experiences. It is often so much information that hinders the reader's smooth reading.
We can naturally criticize that Joyce's immature writing leads to too much idle writing, but if we understand it from another perspective-Joyce's purpose of writing these novels is to restore Dublin as a whole, then these descriptions often have the necessity of natural history.
the trend of novel writing has greatly changed. The description of clothing, objects, and environment in great detail seems to be the tradition of the novels before the 20th century-- Balzac or Cao Xueqin. The ambition to restore a world seems to have been replaced by the so-called strange imagination and language tricks. Writers are completely separated from scholars, and there is no need for majestic knowledge and insight. And increasingly become synonymous with gag and clever style.
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but in Joyce, a writer at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, we can see that he inherited the meticulous ambition of naturalism and other encyclopedias and biological anatomy, but also opened the beginning of a new writing technique-- in the novel, his sentences are independent of each other, and each sentence is necessary and meaningful relative to the context. This provides a path for the transformation of the stream of consciousness in the traditional realism-for example, in Evelyn, the whole novel is just a change in Evelyn's mind in a moment. Does this look like another prototype of Ulysses? The rich information and complete transition contained in this 3,000-word novel are surprising, and Joyce's frugality in the language is astonishing compared with the "idle pen" mentioned above. It is said that a friend went to visit Joyce and found him depressed and lying on his desk. His friend asked him why. He said that he had only added one punctuation to the novel all morning. His friend joked that it was not bad, and it was not that there was no progress at all. Joyce replied, "I just deleted that punctuation again."
5
the poison "Dubliners" consists of three parts, the insight into life, the scrutiny of language, and the resolute protection of self-ability (including taste, interest, etc.) (although he has been repeatedly refused to publish, he opposes any word change. Although people can't help feeling desperate after reading it, it can also be regarded as an awakening agent that can be tried by modern people with overnutrition. But what is even more desperate is that when I looked up a lot of materials about Catholicism in Ireland to try to understand the more subtle spirit and techniques of the Dubliners, he disappeared into the pure fog of stream of consciousness such as Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.