Chapter 63 Hollow Terror—The Eye of the Prophet

——Interpretation and "Little Women" Quick, nimble, little lady with absolute authority over the describer, and gloomy.The tired, sluggish old businessman with the same absolute authority over the salesman is in the same place of the soul as the prophet who dwells in the deepest part of the poet's soul.They see everything in their eyes, and nothing can be hidden from them.Their contempt and distaste for describers or salesmen is eternal, and nothing can change it.When she or he feels the existence of the frivolous describer or salesman, they are often tormented by unimaginable pain; and the constitution of the two is equally fragile and neurotic.The torture almost killed them.In fact, that vulnerability is only one aspect!In their hearts that people can't see, there is something extremely strong supporting them.So every time they feel the unbearable presence of the describer or salesman, after experiencing an emotional storm, or even dying once, they can always be resurrected quickly.This attack only makes them more ugly and weaker, and thus arouses deeper sympathy and guilt in the describer or salesman.Because, after all, the describer or salesman has a natural attachment to them.So who are the describers and salesmen?Why are they asking for it?Why not escape or get rid of these two evil stars?It turns out that the describer and the salesman play the role of the poet's life form.They are indifferent, vain, do things without considering the consequences, hesitate, and are not sure of their actions. They even resent their masters.But they are as sensitive, with the same depth and sensibility, as the little woman and the old merchant.Their personalities are a contradictory combination.Often, the pain of those two people is their own pain, confusion, and regret.They are determined to change themselves, but they can't change anything fundamentally, so they have to let it run its course.As time passed, they finally understood that everything was predestined, and they got used to it.Habit does not mean that pain is eliminated.As long as they live, the prophet's eyes will be on them, the salesman will be ashamed of his base desires, his unreasonable demands, going upstairs will be harder, selling to a sick person will be more difficult. It becomes more difficult to speak; and the describer will feel ashamed in front of that extraordinary woman, and his reason for existence will become more absurd and untenable.In the meantime, this torture-like life will continue without interruption.Don't hope that the vision of the prophet will change in any way, but you can hope that people will gradually adapt to this contemptuous gaze, to adapt to their continuous failures, and to adapt to the heavy burden on their backs.Man, like those two prophets, is endowed with the gift of endurance.It can be said that man is born to be the partner of the prophets, and together with them, this drama of suffering will be played out to the end.The salesman and the describer, with their gifted and gifted sensitivity, felt all the inner torment of the Prophet, and thus continued in a somewhat unilateral attempt to communicate with the Prophet, and this endless communication made life even more unimaginable .But isn't their own existence unimaginable?And who can predict that what never happened will never happen?It happened right here, among us!

The event that the salesman finds an old businessman to sell goods is an adventure of soul communication.The sensitive and inferior salesman meets the equally sensitive but dull old man in the old man's house.For the hesitant salesman, what happened was a nightmare.The first is that his request is difficult to utter because of the old man's plight, because of his pain and impatience.Later, the salesman finally expressed his request in spite of everything (that is, to sell a certain commodity); and the old man fainted because of the torture brought about by his shameless behavior, which completely plunged the salesman into despair and panic among.Everything seemed so weird and unreasonable.But how good this salesman is at understanding the emotional and psychological changes of the old businessman!He suffered for the old man's pain, was ashamed of himself for asking the old man under such circumstances, and was even furious at the absurd behavior of his colleague (his mirror) next to him.And yet he asked meanly—as if driven by the devil.From the old man's point of view, he just endured the existence of the salesman, just like he endured that annoying fate;All this is seen by the emotionally delicate salesman.The emotions of these two people often overlap.In fact, the old businessman is the soul of the salesman.And the salesman repeatedly embarks on this difficult road of communication and repeatedly performs his shallow games, which is also the need of the elderly.Although the old businessman is weak and old, and has allergies, his vitality is tenacious. As long as he is slightly blown by nature and wind, he will be revived again, and his arrogance and indifference will be restored again.Even though the salesman knows that communication is impossible (that is, the old businessman will never accept his goods), he still has to ask for trouble.Selling was his lifelong career, and he didn't know what else he could do.What a terrible atmosphere in the old merchant's house!Everything is full of hostility, and everything condemns his unreasonable behavior; this atmosphere tortures him, and his existence tortures the old man; and the old man is someone he fears, admires and sympathizes with.This subtle relationship network allows us to see the layers of the poet's soul, and they are structured like this: salesman-son, wife, fellow businessman-old businessman.The old businessman is the core part, which is unfathomable; the salesman belongs to the superficial part, which directly expresses the activities of life, which is extremely rich and sensitive, integrating superficiality and depth; the son.The wives and fellow businessmen play the role of self-awareness, they are the conscience of the salesman, through whom the salesman constantly condemns himself, points out the absurdity of his behavior, and constantly puts obstacles in his way to his destination.The salesman apparently lost the battle in this stupid communication operation, and fled the scene in desperation.But to-morrow, at an appropriate time, he would pack his suitcase again, worrying, and trudging up that staircase again in hopeless hope, to emerge tremblingly before the indestructible old man.His prospects were getting dimmer, and life became a straight line between two points.And old people never think about it.He is as stubborn as the salesman, and his heart is very cold, and his slight smile can shatter the little hope left in the salesman's heart.What a curious attempt at communication!The parties tried again and again, and the answer was always "no".The only result of this unilateral effort was the establishment of a special relationship with the old man; in other words, the old man silently and vaguely admitted that he was a salesman.And even that is questionable.Otherwise, why did the old man show so much contempt?

In contrast to the sluggishness of the old businessman, the main characteristic of the little woman is quickness; for everything that will happen and happen, she feels before the describer without exception.The describer's feelings for her are very ambivalent.The describer admires her enduring vitality, quick and decisive judgment, and her superhuman agility to the point of admiration (and maybe love).Unfortunately, because of these abilities, the little woman feels extremely disgusted with the describer and cannot tolerate it.The way he expresses his disgust is different.It is not pointed out in person, nor is it discussed behind the scenes, but it is to attract everyone's attention by pretending to be suffering because of the describer, which in turn makes the describer feel intensely uneasy.This insidious approach really made the describer uneasy (although he always wanted to deny it), and this uneasiness generated resentment; so he screamed in his heart, thinking of all kinds of reasons to belittle the influence of the little woman on him , Acting as if she could ignore her.In fact, the describer's attention to the little woman is often to the point of ecstasy, and no one can understand her like him.She suffers because of his presence (and the describer is disturbed by her suffering); she is arrogant because of her absolute dislike for him; she does not expect any improvement from him because she knows his nature; Watching him, with everlasting interest, avenges the pain he inflicts on her;All this is felt by the describer, but there is nothing he can do about it.The only way seems to be to change oneself, to adapt to the little woman.That's what he did, but to no avail.The little woman's rejection of him is an unchangeable principle, no matter how he transforms himself, the result can only arouse her disgust.And she, a combatant by nature, never feigned concealment or controlled her feelings; so she always lost her temper with him, which still left her sleepless and pale as a result.Since the substance of the relationship between them is always the same whether the describer changes or does not change himself, this relationship becomes a fixed pattern, and there is no further development, the only development being the change of the describer's attitude towards events.The describer has developed from the previous unaccustomed to today's calm attitude.He became more decisive, more able to get to the core of the matter, and at the same time, he became more irritable.It's a sedative irritability.In the past, when the little woman had an attack in despair, burst into tears, and even fainted, he always thought that the critical moment had come, and he would take responsibility for his actions.After years of observation, he finally understood: there is no final critical moment; the little woman's seizures are a kind of periodic disease and will continue; and there is no need to worry about her too much, she is strong and can bear it.There is also a change in the attitude of the bystanders in the village of the describer.Messy bystanders had unnerved him, thinking they were going to infiltrate the affair from the outside and cause a crisis.Later he understood that bystanders could only remain bystanders forever, that they would never act (that was beyond their purview).Since everything is within the control of the describer, why should he bother?It turned out that troubles were destined to be the keynote of his relationship with the little woman.A person can never be indifferent to being stared at by others; he must be restless, looking forward to the final decision, knowing that the decision will never come.And this situation becomes perfectly clear from youth to old age, and there is no longer any doubt.This is the life of the describer, and he will continue to live like this.

In "Little Women", the structure of the poet's soul is the same as in the previous story: the describer—bystander or everyone—Little Women. Direct communication with one's own soul is nothing but a one-way, hopeless movement that continues spontaneously forever. September 28, 1997, Yingcai Garden