Chapter 10 Louis

I have known Louis for six years.In the second year of the war, one day, Louis came from Yunnan and met Du Heng. He was a tall and thin young man, anemic, with veins on his face, and obviously nervous.His arrogance, his unnecessary nervousness, suspicion, restlessness and tenacious self-confidence made me and his neighbor unable to let go of our reserve for half a year.He rarely talks about literature and art with me, because he thinks I don't understand.I asked Du Heng what his poems were like, and Du Heng said, "Among my friends, he has a genius for poetry." He also found a few for me to read, and I thought they were good.But I think the realm of his poems seems too hasty and too limited.Du Heng also agreed, regretting that he had too little study and too little life experience.This criticism is true, but after thinking about it, I feel that I don't know him well enough.

Louis's lack of reading is not explained by laziness, but because he is a weak person who cannot bear to see his own poverty from his peers, and even cannot bear that there are people stronger than him in this world.This prevented him from writing plays, novels, and essays, but fortunately it did not prevent him from writing poetry. His poems did not inherit the advantages of their predecessors, but they did not inherit their disadvantages either.His poems have his own original style.Because of his lack of life experience, he is often wrong and narrow.But mistakes can sometimes become art, such as Beethoven's symphony in praise of Napoleon, and the observation of Napoleon is wrong.But Beethoven needn't regret it. Although Napoleon was just an illusion, the symphony really existed.

The opposite of praise is attack. Mr. Quixote's attack on the windmill is as wrong as Beethoven's praise of Napoleon, but it also has its serious side.Here, there is a difference between wisdom and knowledge.For thousands of years, people went to the holy land to pilgrimage to the mountains, but what they actually worshiped was the god in their hearts. When they sang an ordinary woman, what they actually sang was the beauty and holiness in their hearts. As Beethoven praised, they were actually He is the hero in his own heart.For thousands of years, people have fought duels and committed suicide over very trivial things. This is as trivial as Mr. Quixote's windmill as a giant, but it is also true.

Louis, when you talk about theory with him, you can only hear impassioned, but often don't understand.He talked about literary theory and sometimes politics, but he rarely studied them, and he didn't want to study them. It's just that there are things in the world that he opposes or agrees with, that's all.He also doesn't want to be corrected by others, or to overcome others, he just wants to hold on to something to support himself, and he is satisfied when someone sympathizes with him.It is quite difficult to understand why he opposes this and agrees with that, because he adopts another standard, and he has another starting point.That standard has nothing to do with any theory.All notions of justice and injustice, duty or morality, theory or fact, he has no regard for.It's just that he thinks it is right, and he feels the need to agree or disagree, so he is so sure.But he is not stubborn to the end. If he changes his original opinion, it is often not for any well-thought-out reason, and he does not regret it.

To say that he is superficial is an oversimplified explanation.To say he is a nihilist is not true either.A man like Lewis, born in this world, lonely, suffering, all kinds of inappropriate.Society ignores him, takes no responsibility for him, doesn't notice his existence.Therefore, it is unimaginable for him to be responsible to society.Like a wolf in the wilderness, the world is so big, only his own breath keeps him warm.Loneliness makes him sad, but also makes him realize his greatness, not that he exists in the world, but the world exists for him. He seldom helped his friends, and it seldom occurred to him to help them.He doesn't even like children.As the responsibility of society has nothing to do with him, the life technology that fits the society also becomes something that separates him.He pays little attention to theory and fact, and learns nothing but poetry, only because he is frightened by his own shadow.His narrowness is irreparable.He is clearly a fragment of the times, but he strives to make himself whole, which can only be contemptuous of everything.

In order to prove his existence, he needs to make a sound, even if it is only for himself.Listening to him talking, you will feel that he is venting himself, mainly for himself.Although it seems indifferent, it is the vibration of life emanating from the deepest part of his soul. It is lively but still desolate. But he was different from Suhuilyov.As Lu Xun said, Suhuilyov "first did things for the society, but the society persecuted him and even wanted to kill him. Then he changed to take revenge on the society. Everything is an enemy, and everything is destroyed." But Louis He has never done anything for the society, has never loved the society, and therefore has no hatred. He is only obsessed with his own existence and has not become a nihilist.Suhuilyov is a loser of the revolution, but the storm of revolution is still shaking, so his tone is strong, angry but not decadent, desperate but not cynical.After the revolutionary tide subsides, the mood of the losers becomes that of Sanning who despises everything.Shanning's contempt for everything is more nihilistic and terrifying than Suhuilyov's destruction of everything.But Louis is also different from Shanning. Louis has fear and anxiety that Shanning does not have.That's because Shan Ning is a typical character immediately after the failure of the revolution. During that period, there were no ideals. People seemed to be walking on the beach after the tide receded. The surroundings were empty, and their own shadows were clear. In addition, there is almost a kind of joy of being liberated, and I cherish myself very much, and everything outside of me becomes insignificant.This state of mind does not last long.

After that, characters like Shanning will be a thing of the past, and characters like Lewis will appear. When the revolution during the Northern Expedition has gradually faded from memory, and the revelation of the new era has not yet manifested, society is in constant decline. group.They have no serious sense of failure, no glamorous prospect of the times for them to pursue.They are only scattered against their own persecution, not a united battle, and there is no trumpet, each can only trust himself; collective strategy and tactics do not need, and do not care; they cannot see their companions, nor can they see the enemy of the whole.They were defeated and died here and there, but not with such a serious sense of defeat as to cause the downfall of a regiment. There were occasional small victories, but these small victories often disappeared very quickly.

This is always the case with Louis, he is resisting, so his poems are different from the one about singing the wind and making the moon.However, his resistance was just skirmishing, so his poems cannot become the trumpet of the times.Just like skirmish warfare is isolated from collective strategy and tactics, so he does not have the requirement to study a broader and more in-depth theoretical system, nor does he have the requirement to comprehensively examine the environment. He reads little and does not seek to understand the facts, but he does not feel poor because of this. On the contrary, he can maintain his integrity by doing so. This is the reason.He didn't attack the enemy's vitals, and he couldn't even find the enemy's vitals.Being on the battlefield and being so alone, he is always afraid, suspecting that the whole world is persecuting him, and grabbing any point, he will attack it with all his strength, just like Mr. Quixote attacking the windmill.And because of fear, he needs to strengthen his courage all the time, try his best to pretend to be proud, and pay great attention to his dignity.

As some have ridiculed him, he regards his only cane and pipe as invincible weapons, but in fact they are no more than Mr. Quixote's useless spear.And like Mr. Quixote, there are always many defeats, but it is not completely without victories.It is this kind of insignificant victory or defeat, the resulting frustration and joy, anger and generosity, illusion and dream, which constitute the whole of his poems. Even so, because he was fighting at all, and his poems can accurately represent this kind of fighting, so it is still good poetry.Although this kind of battle is insignificant, but in this era, thousands of small citizens share the same fate and walk the same path as Louis, but some are more intelligent and therefore less wise.

Such an insignificant battle, the victory or defeat cannot be amazing, but in the final analysis, he was struck down everywhere, and died quietly like flies, without the encouragement of his companions, and even without the priest to give them the last prayer, and there was no wreath on his grave. , and no crosses.This does not seem like a tragedy, but it is the greatest tragedy of this age.The advantage of Lewis's poetry is that it portrays the soul of this group of people. It is unpleasant, but not ridiculous. I compared Louise to Monsieur Quixote in several places, which must please some people, but I ask them to understand that a character like Monsieur Quixote makes the audience laugh at first, and gradually becomes unpleasant. Scattered, everyone still has an undispelled melancholy in their hearts, mourning for Mr. Quixote, and mourning for themselves.Louis has Mr. Quixote's ridiculousness. Fortunately, he is not a philistine, so he also has Mr. Quixote's seriousness.

Louis's calling himself a poet was as much ridiculed by some as M. Quixote's calling himself a knight.Calling himself a poet is equally intrusive as calling himself a literary hero, a master, and a revolutionary fighter—but Luckily, Louis is not a philistine.He doesn't have the doctrines that ordinary people have, he doesn't have religion, and he doesn't have any business experience, so that he doesn't get a trace of warmth in the world.Such a person, his existence, his ideal, can hardly find a word to define it.However, people cannot live like this. Even if they are only "a person who writes his name on the water" as Kitz's self-made epitaph says, he still has to find out the qualifications for life and the meaning of work for himself. of.Here is the difference between Lewis's self-proclaimed poet and some people's self-proclaimed writer, master, and revolutionary fighter. Of course, he also has some pretentiousness, but the pretentiousness is very childish, and some places even remind people of Ah Q's cunning.But Ah Q's cunning is still cute.Because an honest person pretends to be cunning, but it only makes people laugh, while a cunning person pretends to be honest, but it makes people hate and frighten people.Louis is kind and harmless, and sometimes even if he makes a little trouble, it's just like Mr. Quixote messing up the flock.But because they are too kind, they are even harmless to the enemy. This is the tragedy of the group of people represented by Louis. They are destined to play such roles in this era. They also fight, but often it is not clear whether they win or lose. , just erased. According to Lewis, there are three kinds of booklets published: "The Strange Man Who Loved Clouds", "Sorrowful Days", and "Immortal Portraits". The atmosphere is a bit like Li He and Meng Jiao, but it is clearly a modern product. Recently I saw a little poem "Fish" published by him, and the original manuscript of "Farewell to Literature", both of which are very good.In my opinion, the Chinese Revolution of 1925-27 was a watershed in Chinese literature. In terms of poetry, Guo Moruo's "Goddess" was the representative on the eve of the revolution, and Lewis's representative works after the failure of the revolution. The "Goddess" was a sensation, and Lewis's poetry was not, simply because the one was in a time of soaring, and the other was in a stagnant, broken time.