Chapter 5 Eight Million Ways to Die - Pandora's Box

Eight million ways to die?What does this mean?How many ways to die have you seen the most in a detective novel? ——The record I personally know is And Then There Were None (there used to be a translation in Taiwan called "Murder of Nursery Rhymes"), which is Christie's work. Ten people appear in the book, and none of them survives. Even the detective and the murderer are all killed. . Or let's ask another way: why eight million?The answer is, eight million is the total population of New York City (at that time), what does it mean that all New Yorkers are dead?Of course, the novel is not so ruthless. This is just a possibility, a reasonable assumption. The real meaning is close to what the famous Taiwanese novelist Zhu Tianxin said: freedom from dying anytime, anywhere.

In some special time and space, under special circumstances (such as New York or the current Taipei City), people are really fragile and helpless, and will die inexplicably anytime and anywhere, regardless of race, nationality, gender or age. You may just go to the balcony to dry clothes, or drink a cup of coffee at your own dining table, etc. Therefore, we can easily detect that in 1941, US President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the United States Congress The "Four Freedoms" announced in the book are too unrealistic and naive. Death may even find you and complete it before you have time to fear-is this a greater fear?Or think about it in another mood, is it actually a kind of happiness?

Hiding such ideas in the title of a detective novel, it is obvious that the writer is a person with ideas and beliefs. A detective novel writer with such a strong belief in the world should most likely be a cold-hearted private detective of the lineage of Hammett and Chandler. Award "Lifetime Master Award winner, master of contemporary crime fiction.The private detective in his novel is named Matthew Scudder, a former police officer who has left his job and divorced, and a former alcoholic who is recovering from alcohol. Han-type characters are rather close to some kind of freelance workers common in modern society.

Since Hammett and Chandler injected the element of "truth" into detective novels half a century ago, it is difficult for American detective novels to pretend nothing is wrong, and return to Van Dyne and the British classical reasoning tradition on the other side of the Atlantic. , in addition to pastime, there is always a ready-to-use attempt hidden: to describe the human situation, a never-ending wrestling between a lonely individual and an increasingly complex society, as well as weak counterattacks and healing and pain relief after successive defeats, even as blessings Kerner said in his famous acknowledgment speech when he received the Nobel Prize: "When the clock of the doomsday of mankind rings, and fades away from the last sunset, from the silent rock cliff , there will be one voice left in the world: the faint but inexhaustible voice of human beings.”

As far as I know, the famous writer Zhu Tianwen used the word "elegant" astonishingly to describe the private detective Mr. Scudder described by Bullock. Does this make people think of Chandler fifty years ago? The elegant and noble cold-hearted private detective Philip Marlowe?It's quite similar, almost upright, almost smart and humorous, and almost lonely, except that Scudder's image is smaller, ridicule has turned into self-deprecation, bourbon has been replaced by black coffee and Coke, The longing for justice is also cooled to a little fire or hope to warm the cold world-I think Scudder is very similar to Philip Marlowe who is fifty years older.

"So What" Philosophical Questions Bullock spends a lot of ink in each novel (after) writing about Scudder's abstinence and attending AAA (Alcoholics Anonymous) parties. Bullock's own personal experience, otherwise it would be so vivid and flow-like all the way to the end of the debate. But why quit drinking?So what if you managed to go without a drink for another day?Have you become a happier or more valuable person because of it?The people who walk alone in the Greater New York City described by Bullock are not only Scudder himself, but also the policeman, the bartender, the inquiring Danny boy, all kinds of strange prostitutes, and even the teenage little ghost Ajie, all of them are sophisticated Sophisticated people who can see through the end of life at a glance by standing on tiptoe, look twice more, ask two more questions about meaning, and then ask themselves on the spot that they can no longer find a reason to live (a person who has no relatives, no reason, lives alone Old people living on the dole in broken hotels, so what if they don’t drink? This is Scudder’s nightmare of old age), so they are naturally afraid to look into the future and ask "so what" philosophy The problem is that they can only live with their heads down. In addition to biological instincts, what they seek is: as a human being, a little bit of the most primitive kindness, a little bit of the most simple touch, and a little bit of "so what" that you clearly know When they complete their self-set goals (such as solving a case, throwing one-tenth of their income into the church offering box for no reason, one day after quitting alcohol, and so on), they don't ask themselves what they are waiting for, but instead behave naively.

In another Bullock novel, there is a passage in which Scudder asks a bartender for an address, but the bartender refuses to give it. The two get into a fight, and immediately feel that Meng Lang apologizes to each other, "You know, this city."At that moment, the two had a tacit understanding and all their grievances disappeared—this city is New York, the capital of crime, the first place in the "Best Murder City" voted by the American Association of Detective Writers, a place where everyone can die anytime, anywhere, Bullock's novel timeless scenes and themes. The characteristics of New York seem to be known to passers-by all over the world. Many people dare not think about it, but many people are trying to think about it. What will happen in the end if this city continues to be so evil?I remember that there was a Hollywood movie called "Escape from New York" many years ago. The time was set in the future, and it was said that New York had become the largest prison in the world at that time. Get inside and let them survive on their own accord.

Kind of playful and lurid, but not quite right. The reason it's not quite right is that it's a total, pure, uninteresting country of villains, scary is scary, but like a haunted castle, unless you're unlucky or ignorant and accidentally stumble into it, it's fine, you You can stay away from it. If there is something terrible about evil, it is because it is bright and fragrant, and it invites people from afar to come to it.This is true of sex, alcohol, drugs, money, art, power, and even death. I don't want to repeat how many people have said how New York has the best coffee and food, the best theater, art and even movies (they have Woody Allen), the best bridge and so on, I know, They even have the best major league baseball team, and definitely not the best but really the roughest NBA basketball team (but they do have the best street basketball).What I want to point out is that among the people I know, the person who is the most calm and the least lustful may be the novelist Zhong Acheng, but Acheng once told me that every time he went back to New York, "the fuck will happen when he stays there." For half a year, I can't go."The reason is that Acheng likes museums, works of art and paintings, and he can’t finish them-even people like Acheng in New York can be called and kept, and I don’t think there are too many people who can be indifferent.

Like the inscription on the Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor, those who are poor, those who are oppressed, those who yearn for freedom...all may come to me—yes, they all come, what are here. I have always thought that the most beautiful part of Bullock's novels lies in the New York he wrote, this Pandora's box, which allows all the deaths in his writings to shuttle between incomparably gorgeous and incomparably sinister and cruel, just like this In this novel, we shuttle between an elegant black pimp who knows African art well, and his six strange prostitutes who can write poetry and know reportage; Only with the support of the city can this kind of death be established and make sense, and it will not be blown away lightly, just like Hammett and Chandler back then, they can be driven deep and firmly into the novel like iron nails. people's hearts.

I also love the ending of the novel, the last line of the novel. For no apparent reason I always think of a prayer that, according to Vonnegut, came from the mouth of an alcoholic (actually Vonnegut himself, but much like Scudder) who wished never to drink a drop again: "Lord, give me the peace to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference between the two."