Chapter 52 Reading notes belong to the art of art history

Art Belonging to Art History--The Novels of Kafka and Borges In the vast and boundless dark kingdom of human souls, there are some people who are looking for light source walking alone. After many years, their futile search has ended tragically in solitude without exception.The kingdom does not become brighter because of this, except for one change, that is, these ancestors become the stars in the hearts of new seekers. As I was tossing and turning, a certain hope was kindled in my heart.This is an extremely hopeless enterprise, but there are some people in human beings who are always going forward and succeeding in this kind of enterprise.Kafka and Borges, the two literary forerunners, are the stars in the hearts of seekers.To read their works is to have the courage to follow them and make up your mind to explore in the dark.When the starlight stimulates the desire in the seeker's heart, the seeker will be more convinced: light exists, and the world is by no means dark.

These two pioneers in art in the same century are far beyond their own times, and they have refreshed readers' ancient memories with brand-new and unique images.Readers will find that there are many similarities between the two of them in the realm of creation. The symbolic images of their respective styles often arouse similar associations in the readers' minds, such as constant refreshing overlap, reverse convergence, sublimation of the same version, and Restoration of different versions.Readers will be amazed that this is a completely homogeneous creation, and they will also feel that these are two completely different performances.Here, we can quote a sentence to sum up this situation: "All books are a book." This is what the wise Borges said.Yes, aren't all those lonely seekers looking for the same thing?However, these two artists are still due to their similar fanaticism to extremes, the same arrogance in dealing with the world, the persistence to pursue everything to the end, the profundity that few people can achieve, the excellent sense of form, the wonderful abstraction, and the mysterious meditation ability. , and an almost unlimited capacity to bear pain, make them closer than others.Reading their works, you will feel the pure and pure atmosphere torment your body and mind. That is the extremely sharp contradiction contained in the text. The contradiction turns into two huge forces that are evenly matched, twisting from opposite directions. Twist your nerves.You think you've fallen into hell, and then it dawns on you that this is the atmosphere of heaven, too.People continue to dream in the twisting pain, let the purest dream transform the pain in their hearts, but don't imagine that pain will disappear, because it is the source of dreams.In order to dream, both artists have the desire to suffer voluntarily, which is also their mode of existence, and other modes are almost inconceivable for such souls.It can be said that it is the fanatical pursuit of the spirit that leads to the total negation of life; it can also be said that it is the unstoppable and strong desire for life that leads to the desecration of the spirit.The two always happen at the same time, and the pain caused by the see-saw between them is immeasurable.Just because an individual as an artist cannot give up the extreme worldly experience like a religious believer, but instead "grasps life with twenty hands", see the end.To lie with his lover in a deep and narrow grave, "I put my face close to yours, and you put your face close to mine, and no one will see us again."See, "The Complete Works of Franz Kafka", Volume 4, page 152, Hebei Education Press, 1998.And because of this, they embarked on a business of copulation, turning mud and bark into gods through magical rituals, "Borges Anthology - Fiction Volume", 197 pages, Hainan International Press and Publishing Center, 1996.Let all the untouchables hold the idea of ​​the emperor beyond their means.

The forms of the two artists’ creation are completely different, but in each of their novels, you can find the transparent and far-reaching artistic structure through long-term gaze, which is actually the living structure of the artist himself. , Soul structure.In Kafka, this structure gradually becomes clearer from "America" ​​to "America", just as the author's life becomes clearer and clearer.For Borges, every short story he writes is another version of that structure, changing again and again, each showing its charm and beauty.When readers see the moment of this structure in their works, their spiritual communication with the artist takes place.Communication is like lightning, hitting the soul of readers.Readers see how the artist lives and why he lives.The lingering shadow of death lingering in the artist's heart is the essence of that transparent structure, and all creations are based on it.But the artist does not create for real death, but just to experience all kinds of death with the most vigorous and passionate body, because only this kind of experience is the purest life.In the pursuit of the purity of spiritual life, the two artists are equally relentless, and both regard this life as their only life.And the infinitely inward artistic structure is the trajectory of the author's pursuit of ideals.Every step of their creative journey has never deviated from their goals.And because the soul is dark inside, the target cannot be seen with the eyes, so they can only cling to the spontaneous and powerful emotions deep in their hearts, let the pen in their hands go ahead of themselves, and advance inward in this very special way .As they do so, the ultimate goal looms in the traveler's mind during the journey, and they leave behind structures like footprints in the snow of a castle.Due to its deep hidden and seemingly non-existent characteristics, this kind of structure always jumps out of the reader's rational grasp and disappears into the vast chaos.Therefore the only way to enter the work is to read it again.Reading such works is a bit like reading a spiritual encyclopedia, where the reader can find everything he needs. As long as he has enough patience, perseverance and passion after he enters the exploration, the ideal will be with him.He may see a bright light after a long period of confusion; or he may feel the author's powerful traction after subconsciously and bravely taking the first step; Once and for all like some realist works.The production of this structure in the works must be very mysterious, and it is qualitatively different from the general structure in classical works (of course, this does not mean that there is no such structure in classical works, and examples of the opposite abound, such as Shakespeare , Cervantes, Poe, and some works of Lu Xun, etc., but in the works of these two artists, the intention of the soul is revealed in such a concentrated and exclusive way that it is unprecedented), because it has nothing to do with rational conception, nor with writing technique in general, but with the brute force within the artist, the natural formation of the imagination to achieve the impossible.No one can tell how these works were conceived, only one thing is clear, that is, if the reader wants to "see" the inner structure of the works, he must arouse the long-suppressed force in himself. , Break free from all the restrictions of daily concepts, let the soul make a fatal flight, and reach the pure state of nothingness.Otherwise he can only see something superficial and flimsy.Due to this feature of the work, it also causes the particularity of the relationship between the work and reading.Faced with such a work, if the reader does not have the ability to imagine independently, he will not be able to enter the work, because this kind of work is a kind of mutual assistance work, and a work can only be completed through the efforts of the readers.As a result, both authors have invariably issued dense messages and persistent invitations to readers in their works (Kafka's works are mostly unfinished, leaving many gaps; Borges in "Herbert • Quine's Works Analysis" and "Quixote's Author Pierre • Maynard" and other works to speak out; the works of the two authors are full of comments on the work itself), They all regard the communication between the work and the readers as both impossible and a matter of life and death, which must be done to the end (see "The Hole" and "Analysis of Herbert Quinn's Works"). Continue to write in the double torment.

Another thing that pervades the duo's art world is that lucid sense of creation, that sense of direction clinging to the art paradise itself.This kind of awareness is not that the artist is aware of what he wants to write, but how he wants to write and how to write to express his soul.This kind of consciousness is indescribable, what the artist can say is the work itself; he uses one work after another to tell readers how he is writing and what the experience of heaven is all about.This extraordinary talent arises from the author's own strong reason, and the sense of artistic form that benefits from this reason (see Kafka's "Report to an Academy of Sciences" about the description of the seaman on the ship-the symbol of reason. and Borges' description of Shalach in "Death and the Compass").In the process of reading, readers can clearly feel that there are two people who are creating, one is a lawless madman who is invincible, running in the fantasy kingdom, and wrote those strange sentences; the other is a calm old philosopher, He stayed at a high place, watched the movement of the person below, and kept pushing him, implying that the more lawless he was, the more successful he would be, and any slack would be an unforgivable failure.The watcher at the height has a deadly deterrent power, and the power of life and death of the performers below is in his hands. The performer can only use desperate rebellion to smash the plots set up by the watchers to destroy him.The more extraordinary the performance, the more sophisticated the conspiracy setting, which often leads to intense results, full of murderousness and cruelty, and the players who play the Grim Reaper appear repeatedly wearing different masks. The horrifying image of the horrifying image, but also the eternal moment of free will.The mode of binary opposition is also reflected in the works, such as the lawless K and the official Klamm who is unchanging and adapting to all changes; in Borges, "I" and "I" are in "The Garden of Forking Paths". The confrontation between the boss, the confrontation between Ako, the samurai and Kosuke in "Royal Ceremonial Master Kosuke's Help", etc.The sober creative consciousness makes the atmosphere in the work extremely strong, every sentence can’t digress, it has the imprint of heaven; every sentence says something that can’t be said—because it can’t be said, it can’t be said and it doesn’t stop say.In one sense, such works are very narrow, because they are concerned with only one thing - the soul or spirit; Another world that is countless times bigger, this world can only be highlighted in people's "talks".Artists who can use the "separation technique" to "speak" in their creations, their brave explorations have reached an astonishing depth in the involvement of the soul, and the tension of their works also shows the status quo of the continuous renewal and development of the spirit in the long river of history .The writer who has such a clear creative consciousness must be more painful than the ancients, because he can only live in a split personality, which is so divided that the two sides cannot achieve unity without bloody killings. , or in other words, it is impossible to break through without using the realm of death as the final battlefield.The life-and-death struggle in Kafka's trilogy and Borges' eternal pain in the labyrinth are all manifestations of this consciousness.In the work, the dreamer is always running blindly on the rainy desert, and there are various clocks on the heights to remind the hour of the chess game.Every work written in this mode is bound to praise the original vitality and promote the rational spirit. The unity achieved in the extreme situation has produced the most peculiar and freest imagination so far.They showed man how far man's capacity for suffering can go, and what a most inconceivable thing the human soul is; , Unrestricted development of the soul, will become the representative of human nature, will continue to improve the level of spirit.

The personality split caused by a clear creative consciousness has formed another characteristic of creation, that is, the severe self-examination that runs through to the end.When people move the battlefield of criticism from the outside to the inside, the matter of introspection becomes complicated and a bit weird. It no longer conveys the author’s rational thinking to the readers through characters like most classical works, but It always seems to be covered with a layer of fog, and it is carried out secretly inside the plot.Why does this happen?Because in this particular art, the matter of introspection has changed its direction. They are not carried out through the author's "looking backward", and they do not follow the law of "do evil first, then understand" as some classical works do, but Cognition is achieved by the unrestrained breakthrough of evil (force), that is to say, when a person tries to deepen his cognition, he can only rely on the ugly performance of the body, not the reasoning in the mind.This also pushes the unconscious, the impulse of life, creativity, etc., to the fore.Therefore, readers have no fixed train of thought to follow when reading such works, and everything depends on the accumulation of their own aesthetics and the mobilization of their creative potential.This kind of reading, which is similar to creation, allows readers to follow the author into the same level of soul, so as to discover the origin of self-reflection spirit there, find out how this spirit develops and grows through the works, and what is the pattern or form of its game throughout the work.To understand this is to understand the basic contradictions in human nature, as well as the problem of expression that plagues the artist.The reader will see that these two writers are the most dedicated "pure" writers.Their devotion to art is no less than religious fanaticism, and their self-examination starting from life also coincides with the purpose of religion.At the same time, it also makes the works have such a feature, that is, all the descriptions are closely related to the daily reality, but all the descriptions are "drunkards don't want to drink"-they are not talking about the daily reality, but Another unnoticed reality with a broader prospect, in which the social boundaries between good and evil melt away, and what people face is always and can only be themselves.If a person does not want to perish spiritually, he has no choice but to carry on the internal struggle.Because a man under such conditions does everything his reason would deny; , stepping on reason itself, there is no second way to go, unless he does not live.The spirit of introspection followed the laws of history and developed into what it is today, which is indeed unexpected by many people. This is why most people cannot agree with the truth, and the background of such works is rarely known.The real artist is the conscience of mankind, they will not hide anything, what they have to do is to reveal the truth, even if the truth is scary, they will never compromise.Their life experience, which is severely denied by their own rationality, is all for a goal that can never be achieved.When self-examination bites their souls and makes them live in pain, the spirit of art is born.Therefore, readers who have no similar experience cannot enter this kind of work.And because it is a performance after all, this kind of self-examination also has the nature of games and pranks. The humor and self-abuse in it convey such a message: it seems that the deeper and more severe the harm to oneself, the more pleasure you will have , because only in this way can the soul be saved.So Kafka sentenced K to death and put him on the execution ground. Borges designed a variety of mazes to kill his protagonist. In this kind of conspiracy design that is false and true, the tension of the soul is exerted to the limit, and the devilishness is everywhere behind the words. happy image.There is another fundamental difference between this kind of game and the general word game or structural game, that is, it is a division of the individual's inner self, a direct reveal of the living situation, and an extremely serious joke that sacrifices oneself, rather than a game that is common in China. It's a game where ideas come first in the literary world.It takes nobility to play this masterful game, and a special knack for playing chess with death.In other words, this kind of game can never be done deliberately, because it is fatal.If a person has never been forced to the point of near death, he will not be able to create this kind of advanced art. Of course, this kind of persecution has nothing to do with the outside world, but is the result of the rare talent of the artist himself.

Another unmistakable similarity is the purity of the work of the two artists.This purity is reflected in the structure, the words, the writing and the way of thinking.Readers are often confused when reading: How does the writer's meditation transcend the huge gap between reality and nothingness, and directly see the two as one thing, and convey this feeling?How does an artist with such a poisonous gaze build that transparent castle in the air in an environment overflowing with poison?The answer has to be found in the work itself.In extreme contradictions, the artist, who is overwhelmed by the dross of reality, understands the mystery of freedom in the blind struggle of the sinking body.From the first day of his sinking, he felt spontaneously that the allegorical state appeared precisely because of the clumsy movements of the limbs. In order to maintain the purity of that state, people can only rely on the limbs trapped in the mud. The continuous explosion of force.So he exploded.This is an addictive sport, an unstoppable sport; the more entangled you are, the more you work hard, the more free you are; every word, every image, and every scene reveals an extremely strong tendency to sublimate , revealing the artist's astonishing courage to transcend reality and achieve freedom.Indeed, this is a kind of free writing, and its pure expression has nothing to do with people's routine thinking. What haunts the creator's mind is only the crystal-like world constructed with struggling force, and everything else is in his mind. Equal to zero, he doesn't want to say, and will never say about things outside of that world.Of course, this iron-like consistency can only come from an extremely proud heart and a state that matches this heart.Because of this, we should regard the works of these two artists as cutting-edge art, and there will be fewer readers of such art, because after all, there are not many people who are so obsessed with the deepest soul; Only with such a person can the spiritual value be further enhanced.The two deep-sea explorers salvaged a rare spiritual treasure. The understanding and research of this treasure will greatly expand people's spiritual horizons.Contrary to those otherworldly meditators, both artists were intoxicated by their own physical life beyond ordinary people, otherwise they would not be able to achieve that kind of subtle insight.The wonderful thing is this transformation; physically, they grasp life "with twenty hands"; spiritually, they face the terrible horror of eternal life and still want to live forever, every moment. "...every action (and every thought) is an echo of actions and thoughts that have already occurred in the distant past, or is an exact premonition of actions and thoughts that will be repeated many times in the future." Ibid., p. 220 .This is how a body soaked in venom acquires immunity.Transcendence is by no means a mechanical departure, but a dialectical ascension; the body is still in the mud, and the transparent kingdom is in the sky.The pursuit of pure and beautiful artistic conception has also led to the subversion of the classical function of language.What is said is no longer what is recognized by everyone, but something that everyone has never heard of and is unfamiliar.For example, the artist's own trial is performed in the movie; the castle of the soul, the highest pursuit of human beings, is compared to a bureaucracy; the classic novel of Dickens is parodied in "America", and the anti-classic, human soul growth process is performed. .See my book "The Castle of the Soul", Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1999.In all Borges's novels, the same soul story is correspondingly told--"Morel the Cruel Liberator" uses a slave trader as a metaphor for the liberator of the spirit (primitive creativity); The Widow uses the image of a murderous female devil to highlight the wild and rebellious attitude of artistic existence, as well as the relationship between art and the highest ideals, and so on.To read this kind of pure art, one must know a little magic of the mind, so as to make that thrilling leap with the author between the upper and lower worlds. On the contrary, the conclusions drawn according to common sense are all untenable.What the author narrates in the article is beauty itself, not beautiful things; time itself, not the characteristics of time in things.If you don't understand this point and don't turn your standpoint completely, you will only see the superficial things in the sense of social criticism, and that impression often leads to a complete misunderstanding of the work.For many years we have seen Kafka as an indictment of bureaucracy, a sympathy for the little man; Borges' novels as magical myths of indigenous peoples, masterful mind games, have obstructed our vision , so that our reading has become a rigid and narrow reading, not only unable to enter the core of the work, but has been working in vain in the opposite direction, drawing many specious and untenable conclusions, and even using rigid Ideas replace artistic feelings.

Both artists suffered from the double torment when pursuing the realm of pure beauty. On the one hand, they had to abandon the worthless real world that tortured them, and on the other hand, the ultimate realm they pursued had their most feared Stuff—it is the faceless monster in Kafka's "The Burrow," it is the maddening objects of hell in Borges' "Immortal," it is the last beauty.What is the ultimate beauty?It is the image at the end of life that is approaching people every moment, a silent, invisible, ubiquitous "death" that never disappears.In order to achieve this artistic conception that he fears the most, the artist has spent his entire life, peeling off life layer by layer, and rushing in that direction under the most painful impulse.Why do artists live like this?Of course, it's not madness or perversion, but because of their own vitality, or they are trying to play the triumphant song of life.When they have that cutting-edge experience, the worthless real world acquires eternal value, because the feeling of "death" can only be and always belong to life.When man tries to reach the acme of life experience, he is in touch with death (see the passage of the Jewish poet Jerusalem in "German Requiem").But how tortured is this "pure" feeling!When K gazes at the eternal castle, when Borges' protagonists stay on the tower of eternal life, their pain is no less than the pain they suffer in reality.Both artists have proved to us: there is no pain that no one can bear, people can not only bear it, but also take the initiative to pursue pain, pain is the only way for people to achieve eternal life.So K deliberately provoked himself to frustrate himself, and let himself get closer and closer to the huge monster above his head; the immortal man stayed in the fire pit closest to the ruins of death, made his body rough like a cave animal, and listened to the sound coming from the ruins. Holy calling.This terrible, masochistic pursuit, it achieves a sense of tension and horror rarely seen in other writers.The writer seems to set a trap for himself in order to plunge headlong into the dark abyss, to experience the terrifying sense of freedom of being alone, and to come back and recuperate it.Borges, who was completely blind, and Kafka, who was finally separated from the worldly life, their final artistic conception was more and more beautiful and ethereal. In the world, there is still a lover-like love that torments the soul.

The strong poetic atmosphere is a major feature of the works of the two artists, and these novels can be called poetry without exception.The poetic spirit in this article is completely different from the type we are familiar with, even the opposite.It is not a harmonious, disintegrated, unified in a blur, from entering the world to being indifferent to giving up, but finally sublimated into nature under the premise of eliminating the body, becoming the same kind of grass and trees with the beauty of mountains and fields.The poetic spirit here is like the capitalized "man" in "Hamlet" - the ghost of the former king. Its appearance heralds the war in the soul, the endless wrestling and killing, the never-ending struggle, and The realm of poetry is born there.What is poetic spirit?To put it bluntly, isn’t it the attitude of people towards death?The poetic novels of the two artists make readers deeply feel that they live far more painful, real and profound lives than us.In front of the gate of death, Borges casts a fearless figure of man with his tenacious meditation, cold and painful advancing posture; while Kafka, with his bloody feelings, fierce and wild impact to the world Sing the song of life.This kind of poetry is not the kind of relief that eliminates sensuality, the indifferent elegance, and the degenerate restoration of childhood; Go in and get the poetic spirit that comes to light. Such a poetic spirit is not something you can afford casually, so an artist is a bit like Jesus in this respect.Think of Kafka's trilogy, the long and terrifying, purgatory-like spiritual life, the painful experience of crushing the head, and the suspended situation where every step is taken away from the foothold , It is definitely beyond the tolerance of ordinary people's nerves.Think again of the prisoners of Borges who voluntarily confine themselves in deep dungeons, who "seek only the moment like animals", "Borges Anthology & #8226; Fiction Volume", p. 191.Ignore the pain of the body, cling to my own meditation, and never give up the experience of eternal life every moment. What else is more like poetry than them?In an increasingly modern society, if there is a poet or a reader of poetry, he must be the same kind of these two forerunners.

Also running through their works is a sense of utter nothingness, and a brave commitment to this sense of nothingness, at which point both artists have reached the limit of what humans can achieve.The sense of emptiness comes from staring at "death". Staring is a terrible torture. No one can persist for a long time. People can only take a look like staring at a castle, and then look away.There is a special kind of gaze, which is fixed from beginning to end, and is accompanied by various performances to emphasize and highlight this gaze.This is the gaze that the artist achieves in his works with his outstanding avatar technique, the gaze that dissolves all life and gives people a head-on blow.The man stared at by the castle "in a daze" and his soul penetrated by the "Aleph" in the basement has tasted the overwhelming power of nothingness, if he has not been conquered, then he has a A secret weapon that made him invincible, able to write epics like The Immortal, able to write from the dead over and over again.The whole journey of the foreigner K in the castle is the process of being emptied of the foothold of existence again and again and becoming a "nothing" alien. His performance proves that people can still remain in the "nothing" situation. Actively survive; man not only survives, but also gives new meaning to this meaningless existence.The identities of the people living in the castle are all based on some kind of fiction (that is, life is based on the premise of death), and everyone can only maintain or obtain their own identities by struggling desperately, otherwise the identities will disappear immediately.Even if he had an identity, that identity was the most shaky thing ever, an object of perpetual torment.For this reason, the village chief struggled to survive in a suffocating vacuum, and fell ill on the bed without any complaints or regrets; The messenger of the castle also made unremitting efforts to establish a tortuous connection between the whole family and the castle; the proprietress who lost her identity used pure imagination to maintain her dignity, and bravely resisted the attack of nothingness in the atmosphere she created out of thin air; In order to prove his identity (Kram's mistress), Da even fell into the painful entanglement of life, making him physically and mentally haggard.It can be said that everyone in the castle has written epic poems in the battle against nothingness, and the premise is the unconditional recognition of nothingness.Although this kind of strange landscape can be seen in classical works (such as "Hamlet"), it is the first time that such a large-scale and ingeniously structured unfolding has excluded the invasion of reality in such an airtight way.In Borges' "Aleph" and "Eternal Life", the sense of emptiness causes pain that continuously bites and suffocates people, and people have to bear the horror and pain of their limbs being ruthlessly torn apart. The realm of "Aleph" turns all "existence" into "nothing", and turns beautiful women into demons. If a person does not have nerves like steel wires, he will never be able to bear it.The poet has endured all this, and all this has become his secret weapon in concealing his weaknesses, winning his luck, and producing great poetry.The earth-shaking emotional ups and downs in the text are the author's leap between life and death. In "Eternal Life", you can see how people take off the clothes of the soul one by one, until all the infinitely precious skins are abandoned to the ground, leaving only a naked "soul", one without even a breath. A transparent, incomparably painful existence.In order to live in this utter nothingness, man abandoned everything in the world, moved to the edge of the terrible tower, lived in a hot cave and ate raw snakes for a living, so that he could breathe to the heights every day Floating air of nothingness.Man and the tower of eternal life complement each other and confront each other without compromise. What we hate most and what we love the most are the same thing.

Along with the sense of nothingness comes a new spirit of humor.We can find the roots of this humor in the works of Gogol and Cervantes, but we can also see that the humor of Kafka and Borges has been greatly developed compared with classical humor. It has completely turned from the outside to the inside. Those who are on the scene have trouble with themselves. The relaxed banter completely disappears, replaced by the pleasure of self-abuse, and the tension of "pain" and "pleasure" are brought into full play, giving people a feeling Devilish heterogeneous impression.It's as if people have to mock themselves and trample themselves in such an extreme way to touch their souls; it's as if people's spirits have developed to this point, they must kill each other in the split to achieve that weird Containment, as if to push the unsolvable contradiction forward.Readers who have entered the realm of the two artists will deeply understand how impossible it is for people to survive in such an atmosphere.In order for the artist to express this point, in order to reproduce the deep shame that he feels about being alive through performance, self-humor is the best way.This kind of humor makes readers tremble with its special explosive power, and makes readers feel extremely happy resonance from the bottom of their hearts. At the same time, it also makes readers firmly believe that people still have reasons to live after all.In a constant, gradually deepening, and gradually intense humor, Kafka's protagonist evolves from an ignorant and impetuous resistance ("America") to a calm resistance in which reason prevails (), and finally evolves into a calm, He even resisted () like a fish in water, thus climbed to the highest state, and clearly saw the humorous essence of life itself.People don't succumb to death, but want to live while being humorous. This in itself is the most convincing reason to live.Borges' humor, on the other hand, staged a good show about the universality of spirit with its detachment that broke the secular boundaries.In his world, all external legends and events are used by him as a tool to vent the pain of his soul, as an image to mock his own "weakness", and its ingenious meaning is amazing.Borges' desperate humor is not to make people give up hope and sink down, but to set a living example for people with the most thorough attitude that eliminates the boundary between good and evil.The core of the humor of the two artists is very consistent, both have the characteristics of masochism, both have the pleasure from the deepest, and the habit of plotting traps that is almost monstrous.It is this penchant for impelling the author to conceive of the grotesque plots that drive dramatic performances to their climax.This hobby comes from the free meditation in loneliness and the bursting out of despair. It is the source of continuous inspiration and the embodiment of the special quality of a chess player who refuses to admit defeat.Readers who have appreciated the devilish humor of the two writers will often think of the writer's own temperament and his understanding of life.的确，只有那些对生活过分的严肃，过分地坚持理想主义，一心一意要做一个"好人"，从而搞得自己处处碰壁、无路可走的人，才有可能发现这条曲折的宣泄通道。这是过来人的深邃体验，这种体验境界同正人君子绝缘，专门向猥琐的小人物展开，让那些黑暗中的游魂得到精神上的慰藉。在同质的幽默的发挥上头两位作家还是有很大不同的。卡夫卡的幽默是艺术狂人和不动声色的哲学家二者的配合表演（想想克拉姆和Ｋ之间的关系吧），高潮迭出，妄想联翩，充满了魔鬼附体似的激情；博尔赫斯的幽默虽然也异想天开，相对来说比较沉静，那是深思熟虑之后的结晶，长期辛酸苦闷的积淀。也许可以把卡夫卡的幽默称之为进攻型的，将博尔赫斯的幽默称之为防守型的；前者奔放、充盈、丰富、情趣万千；后者巧妙精致。二者在幽默的深度上却非常一致。

读卡夫卡和博尔赫斯的小说，你还会处处感到作者那种要自己来充当上帝的气魄。他们不是要制造出这个世界里的东西，而是要造出从未有过的东西；他们不是要讲巧妙的故事，而是要讲不可能出现的奇迹。他们的作品里有一条界限，那就是凡是已有的，全不是他们感兴趣的，他们的兴趣仅仅只在那种混沌的、孕育着"有"的"无"当中。处在有与无之间的迷雾后面的城堡和可以将他们的新世界邪恶地增殖的镜子，就是这种创造物--一种说不清道不明的存在。这是一种斩断了记忆的创造，艺术家要获取的，是仅仅属于他自己的纯粹的时间，这种时间同外界无关，只能从生命本体的最深处以自力更生的方式生发出来，其过程也许很神秘，其形式却是可以把握的。下面的一段话很形象地描绘了这种创造： 他知道，模造杂乱无章的梦是一个男子汉所能从事的最最艰难的工作，即使悟透了超级谜和低级谜也一样。因为它远比用沙子搓绳或者用无形的风铸钱困难……为了使工作得以重新开始，他等待着满月的到来。到来之后，他利用下午的时间去河里沐浴净身，还礼拜了天上的神灵，念过了一个强大无比的名字的标准音节，然后睡觉。他几乎立刻做起梦来，伴随而至的是一颗心脏的跳动……终于，他有了一个完整的人，一个不能站立、不会说话、双目紧闭的小伙子……他苍白地感到了宇宙的声音和形态。他离去的孩子便是靠心灵的这些细微感觉哺育成长的……魔法师自然也担心那孩子的前途。因为他是自己在一千零一个秘密夜晚里，一点一滴、一丝一毫地想出来的。同上，第101~104页。 那位魔法师就是艺术家本人的化身。他要造出他的世界里的第一个人，这个人是一个影子，同时又是最真实的存在，魔法师在虚与实的两难中打磨着自己那痛苦的精神，奇迹终于发生了。 再看看卡夫卡是如何描述的： Ｋ这一阵一直在睡觉，虽然并不是真正睡着，而是迷迷糊糊半醒半睡，也许在这种状态下他听比尔格说话比起先前在那种困得要命却硬挺着不睡的状态下听起来更清楚，比尔格的话一字一字地撞击着他的耳鼓，但厌恶感减弱了，他感到自由自在，现在已经不是比尔格揪住他不放，现在只是他在时不时地向比尔格的方向伸手摸索，惟恐失去这种享受，Ｋ还没有深深沉入酣睡的大海，但已经泡进睡神为他预备的一池清水当中了。谁也不许再来抢走他的这点小小的清福！这时他依稀觉着自己似乎取得了一次巨大的胜利……，292页，河北教育出版社，1998。 卡夫卡要让他的主人公成为上帝，把命运抓在手中，为此主人公只能运用那惟一的武器--幻想，来同现实、同已有的陈旧的记忆对抗。他在灵魂最清晰的状况中（身体半睡半醒），在理性丧失了防御能力之时，勇猛地直抵核心之处，在那里演出了颠覆的好戏。 工程仿佛是难以设想的，其难度正如卡夫卡要将万里长城修建成通天塔。可两位艺术狂人就是要成就难以设想的事，他们的理想不在这个世界里，而那个世界，要靠他们自己从空虚中创造出来，这种创造又是建立在对已有的世界的否定之上的。就这样，他们自己成了情绪阴郁的人，因为要彻底否定，因为要抽空存在的根基，也因为自己的创造得不到证实。每进行一次创造，伴随喜悦而来的，总是那同一不变的失落感，作者找不到参照来说明他的作品，只能用再次的创造来使自己确信，而那再次的创造带来的又是更大的失落，如此恶性循环，没完没了。这种情况是由这种新型创造的本质所决定的，艺术家因而背上了沉重的十字架。 不论从整体还是从单篇来看，卡夫卡和博尔赫斯的小说都是一种达到了新的高峰的现代寓言。在一种绝对理念的支配下，他们不约而同地将日常生活变成了寓言，因而让阅读者在寓言中有身临其境的感觉。如此彻底的颠覆和纯净的升华在以往的文学中是很少看到的，从中读者也可以窥见艺术家们对精神那种偏执的关注，那种不顾一切的沉迷。他们永远不说庸俗的话，他们写下的任何一个句子都与世俗无关，如果读者带着世俗的问题到作品中去找共鸣，那绝对是找错了门。这样的作品是灵魂的寓言，人先要解决灵魂的问题才能从根本上解决世俗的问题，当然所谓"解决"也不过是挑起矛盾，启动自审的机制，在寓言的意义上重新认识自身的一切。特殊种类的文学要用特殊的方式来阅读。新型的现代寓言第一次集中地提出了精神的无限性或时间的永恒性的问题，它使读者相信，真的有一个与我们大家公认的世界并存的独立王国。作者已经在寓言中将他追求这个王国的全过程记录在案，当中既描述了王国对他发生作用的情况，也描述了他的生命冲动如何反过来改变王国的形式的情况，所有这些都历历在目，并能引起读者的共鸣。这样的文本往往给初次接触它的人一种意在言外的陌生感，只有那些在灵魂旅途上经历了沧桑的人才比较容易抓住核心。 当时我便恍然大悟，这不是指西班牙人居住的那条大街深处的圆屋顶大楼，而是指某种更神秘、更重要的事物。当人们谈起世界代表大会时，一些人讲得隐讳莫测；另一些人则放低声音；还有一些人则显露出警觉或好奇的神态……对我来说，有着某种梦幻感觉的世界代表大会，仿佛要使它的代表不慌不忙地去发现它所追求的目标，以及了解他们的同僚们的名和姓。《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，433~434页。 以上是博尔赫斯在中关于那个王国的描述。主人公经历了精神炼狱的历程，达到大彻大悟的境界之后，也明白了人要让那个王国再现，就必须进行梦幻的创造，在创造中来感受王国的存在。人并不一定要改变外部的生活，人只要改变自己的心灵，就能不断接近那个王国，因为改变了心灵的人的生活已在寓言的观照之中，人只要不放弃已获得的精神状态就可以了。 卡夫卡则是这样描写那个王国的： 城堡的轮廓已渐次模糊，它仍一如既往，一动不动地静卧在远处，Ｋ还从未见到过那里有过哪怕一丝一毫生命的迹象，或许站在这样远的地方想辨认清楚什么根本不可能吧，然而眼睛总是渴求着看到生命，总是难以忍受这一片死寂。每当Ｋ观看城堡时，他往往有一种感觉，似乎他在观察着某人，这人安然静坐，两眼直视前方，但并非陷入沉思而不能对周围事物作出反应，而是自由自在、无忧无虑，犹如一人独处……，107页。 他的主人公通过凝视感到了寓言的存在，这个寓言不是由他想出来的，而是由他通过竭尽全力的奋斗创造的，他创造了寓言，他的生活也就成了寓言的生活，除此之外不存在别样的生活。所有那些辛酸、痛苦和恐怖，不都是由于人执意要追求高尚的精神生活，妄想把世俗的生活变成城堡似的寓言吗？主人公就是因为否定了世俗，才会发了狂似的向城堡突进的。 读者进入这种寓言的感觉是分外新奇的，那就像一次脱胎换骨，周围的一切都熠熠生光，都在讲述着那个古老的、永恒的故事，人的思绪被带到很远很远的，从未去过、而又无比熟悉的地方，那里也许是故乡，也许是葬身之地，一切曾拥有过的，都在那里得到了新生，世俗里的一切都像变魔术一般获得了永恒，而音乐般的讲述永不停息： 傍晚有一个时刻，平原仿佛有话要说；它从没有说过，或许地老天荒一直在诉说而我们听不懂，或许我们听懂了，不过像音乐一样无法解释……《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，193页。 博尔赫斯和卡夫卡的作品中处处充满了张力，这种张力之大超出了世俗的判断，使人不由得联想到它必然来自一种极其强韧的心灵。读他们的小说，你会经常联想起鲁迅的名篇《墓碣文》中的话： ……于浩歌狂热之际中寒；于天上看见深渊。于一切眼中看见无所有；于无所希望中得救…… 当作家对自身的存在厌恶到了极点，绝望到了极点，眼前一片黑蒙蒙时，如果他仍拒绝放弃生命，他就会获得那种辩证的眼光，这种眼光不但可以解救他，还能促使他在接受现实之际不放弃追求。并不是作家向丑恶妥协了，只不过是他明白了这丑恶是生命的前提，他只能在默认它的同时，又与它进行不懈的斗争，由此就形成了那种难以理解的巨大张力。由于这种张力来自根源之处，所以是无限的，即，人的行为无论多么荒谬，也是出自那扭曲的人性；人的存在无论采取多么丑陋的形式，对美的向往是其根本。对立的两极以古怪的方式纠缠在一起，"像阳光般金光闪亮的猛兽和像夜晚一般黝黑的人"《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，304页。总是不分离；最美的美女特奥德里娜在死亡之际用蔑视一切的表情表达着对自身丑陋的超越；《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，288页。最阴险的、无耻的杀手原来就住在自己的内心；《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，165页。残暴的奴隶贩子莫雷尔成了令人赞叹的艺术冲动的象征；《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，5页。希特勒成了人向灵魂勇敢进取之力。《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，268页。在卡夫卡的作品中则处处笼罩着理想之光，那种永恒的光，映照着地狱里的生活，让爬虫一般的小人物怀着鹰的自由的梦想。在他的三部曲里，你可以感到天堂之光是如何从最初的朦胧中喷薄而出，直到最后照亮整个灵魂的过程： ……那是一个由扭曲了的人的形象和各色各样车辆顶盖组成的、不断重新组合着的混合物，从中还升腾出一个新的、猛烈增加的、更狂乱的由喧闹声、尘土和各种气味组成的混合物，而这一切则被一束巨大的光线攫住和渗透，它一再被大量物件分散带走并且又热情地带回来，对于受迷惑的眼睛来说它显得十分有质感，仿佛在这街的上空一块盖住一切的玻璃板每时每刻都一再被人用全力打碎。，《卡夫卡全集》第２卷，33页。 就是这一束来自天堂的光伴随主人公一直到了城堡，使他在无比下贱绝望的处境中不曾堕落，在"做坏事"的时候脑子里不曾黑蒙蒙。他在认识了自身深重的罪恶之后还要承担着这罪恶引来的恐惧去撞击那惟一的城堡之门，如果不这样的话，阴森的死亡屠刀就会落下来。需要一种什么样的卑贱与顽强，人才能在这双重的夹击之下死里逃生啊。表面的脆弱只是种假象，当心中有了天堂之光后，人就会变得无耻、胆大、狡诈、贪婪，像博尔赫斯笔下的那些恶棍一样，区别只在于艺术家是为了灵魂的生存，而灵魂又不得不依附于肮脏的肉体。只要人还有一口气，人就不会停止对自身的批判，在灵魂的事务上不存在温情，矛盾双方的对峙早已白热化，这一点是由历史决定了的。 由于天生的一双慧眼，艺术家看见了灵魂深处的可怕景象，他不是像一般人那样很快地掉转目光，他反而长驱直入，向人性的根源之处进发，把这当成终生的事业。像古代骑手一样，他用无数次野蛮的冲锋来同自己的影子较量，在获取胜利的狂喜之际深感彻底失败的悲哀。 值得注意的是两位艺术家的小说都堪称在潜意识的艺术探索方面是走得最远的。读他们的小说，你会深深体会到，人的潜意识或灵魂深处绝不是一团糟的、无规律可循的世界。进入那里头之后读者才会恍然大悟，原来真正混乱而又不真实的，其实是外面这个大千世界。也许因为那种地方只存在着人所不熟悉的真实--那种沉默的、牢不可破而又冷漠至极的东西，进去探索的人在最初往往是一头雾水，辗转于昏沉的混乱中不知如何是好。但这只是最初的感觉，只要坚持下去，世界的轮廓就会逐步在头脑中呈现，那是会发光的轮廓。当然这并不是说，认识就因此已经达到；那是一个无限漫长的过程，每走一步都像是从头开始，目的地永远看不到，如果你因为疲乏而停止脚步，世界的轮廓马上就在你头脑里消失，而你将被周围的黑暗所吞没。将这类作品与那些观念先行的作品区分的最好方法就是看人是否有可能一开始就一劳永逸地"把握"作品，凡是可以把握的那些，都不是出自潜意识的创造，而是出于理性的构思。潜意识创造的文学给人类的认识开拓了一个无限丰富的新领域，这个领域的探索绝对不是弗洛伊德的心理学可以取代的，所以博尔赫斯在小说中借艺术家奎因的口，对那种用弗洛伊德的心理学来滥套文学作品的做法表示了深深的厌恶与反感。他在《巴别图书馆》这篇故事中将他所感觉到的潜意识世界做了一番生动的描绘--人在那个有着六面体的世界里做梦，在梦中达到认识的无限性。参观了巴别图书馆，领略了它那精致绝伦而又变幻不定的结构之后，人对自己的潜意识的世界除了感到由衷的赞叹之外就是那种不能把握而又企图把握的痛苦了。这是块试金石，它试探出人的勇气、力量和创造欲。卡夫卡的潜意识行为更为狂放，一种来自心底的强力的朦胧情绪统领着他的全部叙述。可以肯定，在创造时一切都没有被意识到，只是那从未见过的风景引诱着作者的笔比他的头脑先行。从作品里处处可以看出，人的理性意识是多么的笨拙和机械，多么无力而又苍白，就像那个永远在犯错误，一心要痛改前非却又屡屡重蹈覆辙，笨头笨脑的Ｋ一样。然而理性意识虽然有这样多的缺陷，它却是人惟一可以用来监督自己的潜意识活动，不让它浮出表面的，最为忠实可靠的严师。潜意识的创造也只有借助于它的清醒的认可才能发挥出最大的效力。所以读者在感到作者那种狂野想像的迸发的同时，也会感到背后那种高超理性的引导。这种特殊的引导并非像一般人理解的那样是一种限制，而是相反，它是解放，是对于潜意识的更深的开掘的启示。正如同城堡官员克拉姆对Ｋ的不断启示：闯得头破血流也要继续往前闯，越用力越有希望。这就是艺术家那有独特用途的、反对常规理念的理性，这样的理性艰深地嵌在文本之中。 文中还有一种来自生存处境方面的特征就是表达上的模棱两可。不论是描述还是人物的对话，你都能感到那种矛盾的撕扯。读者总是无法确定，究竟是这个意思呢？还是相反的意思？作者到底要表达什么？如果你遵循以往的阅读经验去揣测，那简直是缘木求鱼。实际上作者的意愿就是一个矛盾，作者不能干干脆脆地确定自己要不要活（也许他确定的是自己该死），只能等待他体内的冲动来做出最后回答，他的文本就是对他自身这种状况的忠实记录。卡夫卡往往以饶舌的叙述来表达其隐秘的意志，只有当那意志挣脱了对立面的纠缠时，读者才会恍然大悟，明白种种的纠缠究竟是为了什么。在中，Ｋ逢人就要解释，那是种极其烦人的解释，他周围没有人听得懂（很可能是故意不懂）。他一遍又一遍地向房东、毕小姐、叔父等人唠叨着自己的"清白"（活的理由），每次都要从头说起，寻根探源，把自己说成一个好人，但每次都被对方的态度所否定。然而这种否定真是那么绝对吗？深入地体会就会发现，Ｋ周围的每一个人都是法的看门人，他们对Ｋ的拒绝实际上是种特殊的引诱与邀请。他们引诱Ｋ向法的大门不断发起冲击，邀请他进行一次又一次的决斗。所以表面的拒绝根本不是拒绝，而是相反；表面的判死刑其实是促使他活得像个真正的英雄。整部小说就是这种暧昧意志的曲折表达。目睹了主人公经历的那些顽强的挣扎之后，你会感叹那种生的欲望是多么了不起，哪怕是最严厉的自审也消灭不了它，只是从反面促使它变得更加强烈了。于是在中被执行了死刑的Ｋ在中又以更加惊人的活力新生了，其表演也更为潇洒。而博尔赫斯的故事中，总有一种强大的力席卷着主人公，将他带向死亡迷宫的核心。从表面看似乎也是他要他的主人公死，只有深入进去才知道原来那是一种相反的意志，这种意志由于密不透风的自审而难以伸张，要靠主人公杀出一条血路来。如前面提到的对于平原的描述，平原究竟要对失去了肉体自由的主人公说什么？当然是要他仅仅用自己的脑袋去获得精神的自由，去体验最高级的"活"；对于那种体验，语言是干燥的，那么抛开语言倾听平原的音乐吧。各种类型的主人公，都被逼到那种生死相交的境地，是因为艺术家要通过他们每一个人去体验那种高浓度的活法，那种自己与自己决斗的、刀光剑影的生活。 现在我们明白文中模棱两可的描述的根源了，它来自艺术家对自身的彻底批判和否定，来自于城堡似的严厉的自审，当然更来自于艺术家冲破这一切的原始活力。原始的活力发动起来之后，每次都遭到毫不留情的镇压，那镇压不是为求得内心的平静，却是为了挑起更疯狂的叛乱。这样奇怪的表达在以往的文学中的确很少看到，因为艺术家坚信："灵魂可以不要慈悲，单有信仰就足以进入天国。"《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，58页。艺术家的残忍可以达到中阿玛丽亚那样的程度，即用拒绝爱情、自愿受难来表示爱情，用不活来活，由此读者也可以看出他的内心是何等的阴暗。 两位作家的小说里还充满了关于自由的崭新的阐释，那种哲学意义上的阐释是有悖于人们的世俗理解的。自由是卡夫卡一开始创作就接触到的最大的问题。在《美国》中，少年卡尔一到美国就看到了自由女神像，他渴望自由，但他还不知道自由是什么。直到他历尽了苦难，读者才能慢慢悟出，原来他所经历的这一切正好是他所渴望的自由生活。而自由本身是什么呢？它是从悬崖上跳下落地前的快感；它是被钳制在狭小的棺材里的梦想；它是西方饭店地狱制度折磨下的顽抗与追求；它也是布鲁娜妲那高高的阁楼上面的艺术生活；最后，它还是城堡旅店院子里雪地上那绝望的等待……这样一种可怕的自由，人却要不惜一切代价去追求它，如果不是被内面的欲望逼得要发疯了又是怎么回事呢？像卡夫卡这样深邃的心灵是懂得自由的含义的，他同样也懂得自由意味着什么样的承担，但他又不是通过头脑的推理来搞清这一切的，他用不着推理，因为汹涌的欲望在跃跃欲试，灵感会告诉他一切。与此相对应，博尔赫斯的自由阐释更为阴森，在那种风景里一切生命的气息都要被窒息，却有血红的云浮在空中……、《永生》、《马可福音》、《凶神蒙克•伊斯门》、《另一次死亡》等等等等，一系列的意象令人战栗，中了魔的艺术家一头扎进那种氛围的营造中，就仿佛越恐怖，越不可思议，精神就越能获得解放似的。对于这样阴森的自由，人还有什么可说的呢？所以梦一般的贝雅特丽齐在热情高涨之际说道： 啊，夜晚，呵，温柔共度的黑暗；呵，爱情宛如躲藏着的河流在黑暗中流动；呵，在两人结成一体的幸福时刻；呵，在结合中进入梦乡……《博尔赫斯文集•小说卷》，444页。 语言显得是那样的幼稚可笑，而她给主人公留下的无穷无尽的煎熬就是自由。 最后，两位作家在创作中都不约而同地选择了以艺术本身为创作的题材的方式，几乎在所有作品中都紧紧地抓住了这个主题，这在文学史上也是少见的。正如博尔赫斯借他的人物奎因所说的："我不属于艺术，我属于艺术史。"的确，那些最尖端的艺术，讲述的都是人类精神史，即时间本身，也即艺术本身。《美国》中的少年卡尔，在精神之父舅舅、精神之母女厨师长、艺术女神布鲁娜妲等人的协助下，在地狱般严酷的精神生活中磨砺自己的灵魂，终于战胜了自己的幼稚、软弱和伤感，而渐渐强大起来，成了一名男子汉，同时也就半朦胧半自觉地走进了艺术的舞台--俄克拉荷玛剧院。在那里成了艺术家族的一员，由此确定了其终生的追求。更为成熟的则是表演生涯的记录。Ｋ决心要过一种与众不同的生活（哪怕这种决心是下意识的），即，将生活变成表演。他之所以要这样做，是因为内心矛盾的逼迫，因为他再不豁出去当艺术家，他这一生就等于没活。所以成熟的Ｋ，自觉地选择了这种险恶的生活方式--用严酷的自审（直至判死刑）来促使生命力不断爆发。Ｋ的精神生活因而比朦胧的《美国》中卡尔的生活更为可怕：处处都是陷阱，无论人如何挣扎都是死路一条，人觉得自己失去了活的理由而又还在活。在这个故事中，艺术家通过表演把自己逼上死路，那种忠于艺术的决绝贯穿于故事的始终。写在最后的则是艺术境界的大彻大悟。主角Ｋ经过了长途跋涉之后，终于又回到了艺术的故乡，但此故乡已非彼故乡，城堡比俄克拉荷马剧院已大大地升华了一个层次，而表演者Ｋ，也已成了个非常老练的演员。城堡中的Ｋ，已经明白了在艺术的境界里人是找不到活的理由的，惟一的理由便是体内那抑制不住的冲动。所以Ｋ，为了让山坡上那近乎虚无的透明的城堡寓言活在自己的心中，只能不断地冲动，在冲动中刷新关于城堡的体验，让克拉姆老爷那纯粹的意志通过他Ｋ的精彩表演得到实现，从而在精神上与城堡联为一体--而其实，那城堡本来就是Ｋ自身的一分为二。再看博尔赫斯，几乎他的所有的故事，谈论的都是同一件事--艺术的形式感，也就是精神的形式。的确，离开了形式，艺术还能是什么呢？与普遍流行的将艺术庸俗化的潮流相对抗，博尔赫斯用各种各样的故事来展示艺术本身那变幻无穷、美不胜收的形式，以此来讲述他的艺术理想。《心狠手辣的解放者莫雷尔》叙述了原始创造力与最高理性达成一致的壮观场面；《汤姆•卡斯特罗……》叙述了艺术发展的规律；《皇家典仪师小介之助》讲述的是艺术生存的意境；《巴别图书馆》讲述的是艺术境界的探索；《曲径分岔的花园》讲述的是迷宫连环套般的艺术求生；《布洛迪的报告》则提供了来自艺术故乡的传真报道……所有这些，无一例外地执著于那同一个主题，但又给人以出乎意料的惊奇，只因为那件事具有可以无限变化的形式（无限分岔的时间）。 先行者已经逝去了，在那黑暗的王国里，还有人在继续他们那绝望的事业吗？还有人企图重现不朽的时间吗？这问题是属于活着的人的。我深信，心灵一朝被照亮，整个人生都将被改变。勇敢的先行者已经用他们那种英雄主义的生，向我们指明了超越死亡之路，而我们在阅读时发自心底的共鸣，也在应和着他们呼吸的节拍。