Chapter 72 Gide and Cocteau

Gide and Cocteau In the last chapter of Andrew Gide's Travels in the Congo, there is a passage describing his journey on the ship One such experience gained last year: There are several children on the same boat, the oldest is fourteen years old, and the youngest is only eleven years old; One of them chatted with another girl.He said he wanted to be a "literary critic" when he grew up Or the guy who picks up cigarette butts in the street". He said: "It's all or nothing, there's no compromise, it's my motto. " Gide said that he was hiding behind a pile of magazines in the saloon of the ship, and was moved by what he heard.

Gide's thinking has always been somewhat heroic.He was still very young when he traveled to the Congo, But judging from this recollection, his heroic thoughts have been sprouting since then. In his later years, Gide was full of stubbornness and prejudices in his opinions, which almost overwhelmed his early years. literary achievement. Gide taught to respect youth.In "The New Bread" he said: "I believe that truth belongs to the youth. I believe they have reasons against us. I believe, I Not only should we not try to teach them, but we adults should learn from the young..."

However, this writer who has always advocated that a person should be faithful to his youth, in old age, The older I get, the more I betray the beliefs of my youth. Gide died in 1951 at the age of eighty-one.Judging from those diaries published after death Come, his mind is aging faster than his years.According to his contemporary writers, lived nine George Bernard Shaw, who was in his teens, was still very young in his thoughts until the end. It can also be said that "the older he gets, the hotter he gets". Gide cannot escape the unavoidable tragedy of ordinary old people: becoming stubborn and mysterious, betraying his own

Youth. There is another French writer who betrayed his youth in old age, that is John Gauceteau. In his youth, he was a traitor in every way, and taught young people not to buy safe stocks (this This sentence was once applauded by Mr. Lu Xun), but in his later years, he actually competed for the prestigious seat of the French Academy of Sciences. Once elected, he wore the dress with the crown and saber, and took pictures again and again, complacent, so that His old friend Picasso couldn't see it too, so he drew the long handle worn by the academicians of the French Academy. Sword, say this is the new portrait of the poet John Gaucko.