Chapter 41 Section 1 Social and cultural background at the end of the century

The writing of desire discourse has existed since the beginning of the new era, and it has gone through a complex development process, from need to desire, from emotion to basic survival desire to greed, carnal desire, indulgence, and from aestheticized desire narrative under the cover of politics , to objectified desire narratives (such as Xinshishi, Su Tong, Jia Pingwa, etc.), and then to ontological desire narratives (later desire texts), as well as body writing, "lower body" and "incarnation" of beautiful women writers.In the writing of this book, we did not continue to use the term of desire-based writing, but called the desire-based texts that appeared in 1993 "desire-based writing".The description of ideological trends is not divided by writers, but by texts, because not every work of every writer centers on desire to narrate, so we prefer to say that a certain text of a certain writer , without categorizing the writer, so-and-so is a writer who writes with desire ontology, because the writer's creative tendency and style are constantly evolving and changing, and simple characterization is unfair to the writer. For example, Jia Pingwa's writing is about desire, talking about desire Most of the writing will talk about him. Can you classify him into the ranks of "desire writing", which is obviously unrealistic and unrealistic.It also writes about women's living experience. Lin Bai's novels are whispering novels, which can also be called desire ontology writing, but Zhang Jie's also writes about women's individual living experiences, and some narratives have imprints of the writer's life. There is no shortage of women's physical experience in the narrative, but the novel's rich social life connotation and cultural heritage, skilled narrative skills, and restrained narrative style all make it worthy of the high praise given by the critics.Therefore, I think it is more scientific to use the narrative subject (such as desire) and style (whispering) of the text to select samples for analysis, and it is also more fair to writers and literary phenomena.

It is not accidental that the ontological writing of desire is treated as a literary trend of thought, nor is it a temporary judgment and interpretation of a certain critic. The emergence of such works in the 1990s does have the characteristics of a trend of thought.Before making a detailed description of this literary phenomenon, it is necessary for us to do a necessary retrospect and trace back to the social and cultural background of its development, because any literary phenomenon has its own internal laws, not some Individuals who "raise their arms and call out" will "swarm the respondent". Without suitable soil, towering trees will not grow. Similarly, without wind, frost, rain and snow, there will be no brilliant rainbow in the sky.Therefore, we should respect the inherent ecological system of literature, look for the law of its development, and guide rather than criticize today's literature.

Since the 1990s, rural civilization has gradually withdrawn from the central position of social culture. The city is no longer a purely political and cultural center, but has become the center of economy and consumption. dominant force.Cities have also gradually become the center of literary narratives. Almost every metropolis has its own "spokesperson". Every corner captures the living mirror image of urban life and describes it in detail.For example, Shanghai described by Wang Anyi and Wei Hui, Beijing described by Qiu Huadong, Guangzhou described by Zhang Xin, Xijing (Xi’an) described by Jia Pingwa, Wuhan described by Fang Fang and Chi Li, Changsha described by He Dun, Suzhou described by Su Tong and Fan Xiaoqing, Wait, every city has its own unique character, which also shows the "local" characteristics of urban literature from one side.

The economic system reform and business wave in the 1990s triggered a frenzy of people "going into the sea" to do business. This wave aroused people's unprecedented strong desire for money and materials. People suddenly understood the meaning and function of materials and money. They It can also be used as a way to release life energy and as a confirmation of the value of life. Therefore, the pursuit of material and money has quickly become a common value pursuit for people.In fact, "the desire for profit, the pursuit of profit, of money (and the largest possible amount of money), is not per se irrelevant to capitalism. It exists and has always existed in all human beings." (1 ) Under the planned economic system, people's desire for material and money is suppressed by political enthusiasm, which is always lurking in the subconsciousness of people. People mistakenly believe that national interests are absolutely higher than personal interests, and individual people do not exist. Collective People should not seek personal welfare; in the 1980s, the enthusiasm for reform covered people's individual desires, and people had a good vision for modernization, thinking that after modernization was realized, personal desires would be obtained unconditionally and naturally. Satisfaction; in the 1990s, the establishment of the market economic system made people realize that the original individual's desire for life had to be fought for by himself, so the "desire for profit" swelled unprecedentedly.Hong Zhigang said: "In an era of extremely inflated desires, urban life is always first pushed into a chaotic and disorderly reality." (2) As the largest commodity distribution center and consumption center, the city not only satisfies people's basic material needs demand, and constantly create new desires through the induction of media and fashion. The state’s policy of allowing some people to get rich first, in the eyes of some people, is the state’s recognition and protection of private property, which is undoubtedly for some people’s fortune. The realization of dreams and dreams of making a fortune gives them policy and legal guarantees, thus stimulating their huge life potential. Many people, especially those marginalized by the current system, flock to cities and "openness" with the ambition to get rich and get rich. City" gold rush, Shenzhen rose from the ground almost overnight. A modern city thrived in the arms of a group of adventurers. Of course, it also created a large number of new types of successful people and business elites.The role of Shenzhen as a demonstration is huge. The dream of getting rich and the dream of the city have become a pair of twin sisters, and they have become the center of desire generation.Therefore, the writers wisely chose the city as the background of their creation, and took material desire and sexual desire as two shortcuts to advance to the hinterland of the city.

Simmel's "Monetary Philosophy" attached great importance to the relationship between modernity, monetary economy and urban life. He believed that life in a metropolis is the juncture of modernity, and a mature monetary economy is the root of the diffusion of modernity in the entire society. Intertwined, representing the intensity and breadth of modernity respectively.He said: "Analyzing currency is to extract the spirit of the entire era." (3) His philosophical research is mainly reflected in the influence of urban life and the development of currency economy on people's daily life experience and inner life, and the influence of modernity. The research focuses on the aspects of aesthetics and inner experience. He believes that the essence of modernity is a kind of psychologism (4)

The narrative pattern of urban desire in the 1990s can be traced back to the "New Sensation School" and Zhang Ailing's novels in the 1930s and 1940s. Wang Anyi's "nostalgic" narrative of Shanghai restores the internationalization that old Shanghai once had. The prosperity and splendor of the metropolis. In the 1930s and 1940s, Shanghai was the largest commercial, financial, and cultural center in Asia, leading the fashion trend in Asia. The fantasy of Chinese writers about the city is always difficult to surpass the splendor and glory of old Shanghai. The city in the 1990s was a world of materialized desires, which "attempted to incorporate all tangible, intangible, material, and spiritual things in the world into the exchange mechanism of the market mechanism, and put them on the balance of money. Measurement will eventually lead to the materialization and alienation of humanism." (5) The city has been "symbolicized" to the maximum extent in the writers' works, and the urban symbols that are full of urban novels to attract attention are: high-rise buildings, Supermarkets, high-end hotels, office buildings, bars, teahouses, cafes, KTV private rooms, sauna rooms, beauty salons, specialty stores, stock exchanges, high-end villas, apartments, rental houses, cars, subways, taxis, overpasses, TV stations , Internet cafes, mobile phones, holiday resorts, towering billboards and flashing neon lights, etc., wandering around in the city are nouveau riche, corrupt officials, successful people, urban white-collar workers, middle class, adventurers, petty bourgeoisie, beauties, handsome men, drug addicts, etc. Prostitutes, prostitutes, gang bosses, younger brothers, bodyguards, impotent people, sadists, rapists, shampoo girls, laid-off workers, Internet worms, alcoholics, migrant workers, nannies, vagrants, etc. These people constitute the main body of the city. The above symbols alone are enough to form a complex discourse system.The city is a materialized existence, which satisfies people's rich imagination of desires, and the pursuit of material enjoyment has become a pursuit of value and a trend of life. The city is like an altar of desire, and things are the only gods worshiped. For things, people have nothing to do. Without hesitation, he sacrificed his body and soul as a sacrifice, and was eventually alienated and became a material slave.The worship of things is concentrated in the blind worship of money. Marx said that money "turns constancy into betrayal, love into hate, passion into love, virtue into vice, vice into virtue, To turn the slave into the master, the master into the slave, the stupid into wise, and the wise into stupid, because money, as the existing and functioning concept of value, confuses and replaces everything and is therefore the essence of everything. Universal confusion and replacement. This is an upside-down world, a confusion and replacement of all natural and human nature." (6) Money has become the core of urban discourse, money = material, "In the material age, women pursue material , man is creating matter". (7) Objects are no longer the means of existence, but become the end of existence itself.Faced with material temptations, after struggling, confusion, and confusion, people consciously or unconsciously fall into the "iron cage" or "golden house" made of material or money, becoming canaries, "little dirty boys", one-sided people.

Guangxi writer Fan Yiping's novel "Women are Beautiful and Men are Smart" is an absolute recognition of the material world. The fate of characters is always influenced by money. Freedom, ideals, individuality, love, and dignity are the value pursuits advocated by the May Fourth New Culture Movement. All have become accessories of money. The protagonist Song Yang said: "I don't even want love and honor. If I don't want money, I'm too stupid." In his view, money is a "general equivalent" that can be exchanged. Everything, including freedom, ideals, personality, love, dignity, youth, beauty, body, etc.As long as the two parties in the exchange think that the two are "equivalent", the transaction can be made.Shanghai writer Tang Ying's "Beauty's Apartment" tells the story of a young, beautiful, shrewd, capable, reserved and self-respecting urban female baby, who has grown up and fallen from despising the girl who sold herself for money to being willing to be a captive of money.The baby's enthusiasm for the rich businessman Andy was initially to keep a cautious distance, and finally Andy attracted her to the charm of a successful man. This charm stems from his wealth and the way he spends money—buying value for her $200,000 apartment.A woman who sells herself purely for money is despised, but money can make an aging, terminally ill man so attractive that a woman thinks she's "attracted" to him, anxious about him, longing to be his. lover.The balance of self-esteem and material desire finally broke through the quantitative change and formed a qualitative change under the continuous accumulation of money weight.This is the "suspected love" that is popular now. Money can dispel people's self-esteem and make people think that love has occurred. In essence, the object of this love is not the rich businessman Andy, but an apartment worth 200,000 US dollars. In other words In other words, any living individual who can pay 200,000 US dollars may make the baby anxious and deeply attracted by him.

Guangzhou writer Zhang Xin’s novel "So What About Love" is about a woman who was abandoned by her rich husband. After earning money, she raised a so-called romantic poet Byron for herself. Comfortable, you can buy everything."A fatalistic narrative mode of "eternal reincarnation" is implied here, and the two representative symbols in the novel are: love and money.The heroine had no money when she was in love, and her husband abandoned her when he had money, and when she had money, she went to support the little boy, but what "Byron" gave her was "comfort". Does she have love?Love and money are like yin and yang, or "day and night", and the protagonist can never have both at the same time, which seems to be the fate of human beings.The author intentionally uses an alternative word—comfort, and avoids using the sacred word love, or the author is avoiding "fate".That's why I named the novel "So What About Love". No love is a kind of deficiency. If there is a deficiency, there will be a new desire-the desire for love, and if the desire is not obtained, it will inevitably be painful. For the heroine, love and money Just like two parallel straight lines will never intersect, the pain of life will never end, and people will never be able to get rid of the fate of "Sysyphus", pursuit-failure-pursuit, never stop.

The German philosopher Schopenhauer is a pessimist. He said: "The root of all human desires lies in needs and lack, that is, in pain. Therefore, human beings are born with pain, and their nature cannot escape the grip of pain. "(8) In the consumer society, for every living subject, love and money are lifelong pursuits. Only when they have both at the same time can people's desires be satisfied to the maximum. Otherwise, the living subject will feel pain. , there will be a sense of lack, as if a fatal blow.In order to get rid of pain, the subject of life will compromise with the real society, give up or transfer the desire that the subject cannot realize in reality, for example, when the pursuit of love is not available, the subject may retreat to seek physical satisfaction—sexual satisfaction or love Game, so "I think, therefore I am" becomes "I buy, therefore I am", "I want, therefore I am".Once people lose their metaphysical pursuit of value, they may seek metaphysical self-satisfaction, which is an important symptom of the degeneration of human nature.Some people say, "Money can't buy love, but it can water love." (9) This sentence is quite profound. Think about the bitter love between the poor and lowly couples in "The Gift of the Magi".Modern people have already subverted Maggie’s love. They actively embrace material and money without the slightest pretentiousness or hypocrisy. It is the declaration of modern people. The squeeze of money and material has already shattered the independent spiritual self of modern people. Love, personality, dignity, freedom, and body have all become commodities up for sale. Just the body, and possibly love.In Zhang Xin's novel "Six Places of Family Love", Jian Liqing said: "When we are poor, we don't understand love." She resolutely gave up Jiao Yueping, an "excellent but poor man", and became Mr. Dirac", a high-end fashion house, the life of the upper class, and started his own business.Facing the suitor, the single aristocrat Feng Meimei (a character in Zhang Xin's "Invincible") said bluntly: "It's not that I don't talk about love, but any woman has a price. I'm not a dedicated woman." , I’m worth the price, and I’ll never pay less.” “Life is short, what I need is to enjoy life.” Their outlook on life is hedonistic, their values ​​are utilitarian, and the principle of realizing desires is equivalent exchange. The way of desire is straightforward and straight to the point, and their choice is voluntary, which is the self-indulgence of the subject of life in desire, and the subject of life has taken the initiative to materialize itself.Just as Fromm said: "He has differentiated from himself, just as the seller of a certain commodity has differentiated from the commodities he wants to sell.... At this time his 'self-interest' has transformed into Concentrate on shaping 'him' into a subject who can employ 'himself', and into a commodity that can earn a good price in the personality market." (11)

One of the important characteristics of modern industrial society is that the social division of labor is becoming more and more refined, and the degree of specialization is getting higher and higher. People are like a screw on a machine or a "dust" in the air, with their own fixed roles.The modern education system mass-produces standardized "labor machines" that meet the needs of the market. The free development of human personality has long been a memory of history. People are alienated by machines and become "one-dimensional people."Urbanites living in modern cities have a distinct sense of role, which is alienated and materialized self-awareness. They strictly follow the operating rules of urban life, push themselves to the market, accept the selection of the market, and Enter the social life according to the social role given by the market, otherwise, he will be marginalized by the market and the city and become a marginal person.People must appear in a specific social role in the city and communicate with others. Human personality is completely suppressed and distorted. Kafka's is being frequently staged in China's modern urban life.Let's take a look at Qiu Huadong's "Public Relations Man", "Fashion Man" and "Direct Selling Man". Everyone has a clear role positioning. A single role positioning makes them lose their ego and individuality, and live with masks all day long, so that I can't figure out who I am, "The reason why people become slaves is that they are enslaved by the emptiness and environment they create." (12) Liu Xinwu said that Qiu Huadong "writes about a kind of successful characters, they live in villas or luxury apartments, their very sophisticated taste in daily life, etc." "He also wrote another One type of people is full of material and desire yearning, young people in the situation who are eager to get rich, some people like Rastignac in Balzac's works." "These new rich people or new desires The rich are very important characters in Qiu Huadong’s novels.” (13) In order to become rich or even richer, these people have to continue to make exquisite parts of industrial social machines, and individuals can only be recognized by society if they voluntarily submit to society .He believes that "in the city, almost all people are one-sided", ("Horses in the City") "I find that I am becoming a flat person, a person without depth" ("All Horses").In his critique of materialized cities, Qiu Huadong obviously accepted the influence of Marcuse's thoughts.Horton's novels focus on those small citizens living at the bottom of society, especially individual small businesses who are obsessed with primitive accumulation and eager to get rich. Due to the imperfect socialist market economic system, coupled with their low personal cultural and psychological quality, and their own legal concepts Indifference, under the temptation of material desires, there is always a desire to get rich, a blind and forbidden primitive impulse, and openly defend this forbidden complex.Wang Anyi's novels such as "Fu Ping", "Love Talk in a Hair Salon" and so on also extended their tentacles to the living space and inner world of the urban lower class.From the writers of the late generation and post-80s, all social classes in the city, from the rich, the wealthy, the successful, the urban white-collar workers, to the small citizens, laid-off workers, hair salon girls, migrant workers and babysitters in the alleys, all get their practical needs, life ideals, and value pursuits. Detailed description and description.The city is the place where desires are born, it symbolizes the highest form of human material civilization, and it is also the abyss of all evils in the world, it both makes people and destroys people.

According to Daniel?Bell distinguished needs and desires in "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism". The desire discourse in mainland China literature in the 1980s, more precisely, should be called the "need" discourse narrative, because it still stays in the human In terms of the satisfaction of the basic survival needs of human beings, these basic survival needs have been suppressed by the mainstream ideology of the "revolution" for a long time, and have become the main object of speech for the restoration of human nature after the "Cultural Revolution". The mainstream literary spirit of the narrative on this level of needs is The continuation of the enlightenment spirit of the "May 4th" new literature. Since the 1990s, literature has undergone a process of secularization. From Wang Shuo’s “hooligan-style” deconstruction, the new realistic “original ecology” restoration strategy, to the use of sex as the core of text narratives, literature has completely completed the transformation from “needing discourse to Narrative" to "Desire Discourse Narrative".In subsequent literary texts, desire is described as the source and driving force of social and cultural production. On some occasions, suppressing desire is as disgusting as "extreme left".This change is closely related to the entry of Western modern and post-modern cultural trends. Postmodernism as a cultural trend of thought began in the 1980s with three Western postmodernist theorists Ihab?Hassan, F?Jameson, Dewey?Folkma’s visit to China and his lectures entered China, but the impact was mainly on the vigilance of the philosophical circles against the “prison of reason”. In the 1990s, with the establishment of the market economic system, the cultural context also changed accordingly. Idealism lost, and the market Socialism and consumerism have quietly risen, people's desires have been mobilized unprecedentedly, the enlightenment and sacredness of literature have been ruthlessly deconstructed by the operating norms of consumer culture, literature has lost its sensational effect, and literature is trying to use " "Post-modern" to save the increasingly marginalized fate of literature, and regard the market as the only value orientation in the spirit of escapism and noble self-abandonment. It is in such a cultural context that desire-oriented writing enters our reading field of vision. With a great fantasy dream of connecting with the world, with a long-cherished wish of globalized paranoia, writers of the late generation have thrown themselves into the warm embrace of postmodernism, but postmodernism is not used to rebel against the "prison of rationality" in desiring writing. Instead, it is used to flaunt avant-garde, trendy, and deep, and is used as a selling point in the cultural market. In the West, modernism and postmodernism, as two literary and artistic trends, emerged diachronically, but in my country, they entered almost simultaneously. That is to say, the objects criticized by Western postmodern critics are emerging or emerging in China It doesn't exist at all.Eagleton said that postmodernism is an illusion, and the objects criticized by postmodern critics do not exist at all.Some people have taken postmodernism out of context, used it according to their needs, or consciously "misunderstood".Therefore, it is necessary for us to make a simple review of "postmodern" and its cultural spirit. Deconstruction represented by Derrida is the philosophical basis and cultural heritage of the entire postmodernist cultural thought.The so-called deconstruction is not meaningless disintegration and subversion of all meanings; it is to reveal the hidden values ​​​​and motivations for construction in the text through careful reading or dismantling of the text.Deconstruction does not believe in the existence of the ultimate source, despises all authority and imaginary centers, and starts from the dismantling of language to subvert the foundation of the metaphysical building and the superiority of "presence", and restore the history suppressed by the civilized order through the writing of texts unconscious, thereby nullifying the grandiose narratives that have become self-evident in modern civilization.This provides a truly open and diverse environment for academic development in a postmodern cultural atmosphere.In the West, postmodernism is the deconstruction of "modernity", and the postmodern nature has the function of fundamentally subverting the order of modern civilization and the discourse of power.Postmodernism emphasizes locality, pluralism, small narrative, uncertainty and difference, etc. In the view of deconstructionists, there is no monopoly on truth and ideas, and any new theory and theory must be reviewed by criticism and endlessly questioned. The meaning is not given in advance, but in generated during the interpretation process.It is firmly believed that all accounts of the meaning of things are finite.Chinese literature in the consumer age has also become an explanation and proof of the rationality and significance of the existing society.In the postmodern context, deconstruction has become a kind of ethos of the times, and deconstruction is for better construction. In the West, there are two main types of postmodernism: deconstructive postmodernity and constructive postmodernity.Constructive postmodernism is rational. It emphasizes the inseparability between postmodernity and modernity, and holds that the postmodern negation of modernity is a dialectical process of negation, and postmodernity is actually the development of modernity, or It is said to be an inevitable stage in the process of modernization. "Postmodern" does not refer to a lawless social state, but a state of multiple coexistence under the invisible and intangible rational checks and balances. Aesthetics is no longer the business of a few elites and geniuses, but a part of the lives of the masses.Postmodern culture gives people a brand-new sense of lack of depth, and people's sense of history is becoming weaker and weaker. Michel Foucault believes that people are short-lived history incarnations, like "footprints on the beach", which will disappear when the waves hit no deposit.Postmodernist cultural practice not only dissolves the self-discipline and narcissism complex of aesthetics and art, but also dissolves the boundaries between art and reality, art and non-art, and even high art and popular art, resulting in the loss of style and charm.A cultural production behavior characterized by mechanical reproduction has become a force mechanism to control the generation of aesthetic discourse, and the meaning of artistic symbols has become diverse and broad, while being subject to a new heteronomy characterized by consumption logic.This transformation has triggered an unprecedented post-modern survival dilemma and survival anxiety on a global scale. People feel unprecedented emptiness, decadence and despair, resulting in a sense of floating and wandering without subject or object. British sociologist Bauman has a famous saying: "Life in Fragments", which summarizes the aesthetic characteristics of postmodern culture.Postmodernism rejects the justification of aesthetics for life, resulting in its total reliance on instinct.In mass society, "if no framework of proper moral order emerges, if people do not possess a reliable sense of moral worth, then a deceptively ineffective order will take its place, and people will turn to alternative and false moralities. "(14) In the field of literature and art, the moral standpoint of writers and artists who criticize reality cannot be lost, because literature and art are sacred, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual undertakings, not just personal subjective display. For the postmodern, only impulse and fun are the real and affirmative life, and the rest is nothing but psychosis and death.The expression in literature and art is to break away from art and move towards psychology: that is, literary creation is not for readers but for authors, and the subject of creation gives up the literary object-real life, and pays attention to the writer's mentality.Writers consciously gave up their mission and responsibility as spiritual enlighteners. If they were forced to give up during the Cultural Revolution, then after the 1990s, writers voluntarily abandoned themselves and literary value.The writer "turned inward" too much, and instead indulged in the writing of instinctive desires, ontologyized desires, unconditionally recognized people's original desires and instincts, and regarded them as the only value and meaning of life. "For outstanding performance.No matter how bold traditional modernism is, it only expresses its impulsiveness in the imagination, without crossing the boundaries of art.Whether their fantasies are demonic or murderous, they are expressed through the orderly principles of aesthetic form.In Wang Meng's works, the protagonist's pursuit of faith and madness; Zhang Xianliang's exaggeration of the contradiction between human primitive desire and spiritual pursuit; Zhang Chengzhi's enthusiasm for reason and human spirit; Lu Yao's narration of ordinary people's living conditions; Zhang Jie's love for women The detailed depiction of psychology; Gao Xiaosheng's profound exposure of the national character of Chinese peasants; and the baptism and transformation of people at different levels physically and spiritually under the impact of reform novels on the tide of market economy.All of these are expressed in the form of aesthetics and in the traditional realism way.As some critics say, it is literature under the "common name", which has always been criticized. In fact, literature in the 1980s once played a huge role in people's spiritual life.Even if literature and art at that time played a subversive role in society, exposing the dark side of society and the ugliness of the human heart, it still stood on the side of order and secretly approved the rationality of form (though not content). The "returnees" all seek to justify the disaster of the "Cultural Revolution" in their works, including the "idealized" narration of that period of life by educated youth writers, sublime the suffering of the "Cultural Revolution", and convey the revolutionary enthusiasm and youthful "" Aestheticization".Postmodernism overflows the container of art, obliterates the boundaries of things, and insists that action itself is the path to knowledge. "Event" and "environment", "street" and "background", not for art, but for the proper place of life.People live to survive, survival has become the first priority of people, and living has become the whole meaning of life, just like the seventh brother in Fang Fang's works and the wealth and honor in Yu Hua's works. In the 1990s, with the gradual establishment and improvement of the market economic system, people's values ​​have also undergone corresponding changes, and the role of the economy in social life has become increasingly prominent. "Only the economy can change people's living conditions, and people only believe that economic interests constitute the meaning of life. Commodity fetishism and consumerism constitute the appearance of society. No one believes in the possibility and necessity of spiritual life." (15) Consumption The purpose of society is to maximize wealth, and it constantly creates new needs and new desires for the masses. "For me, a market economy is something as natural and taken for granted as air. After all, such a system of human economic activities has been established after centuries (or even thousands of years) of exploration. It is the closest thing to human nature. coherent system. But as effective as this is, it is unlikely to establish a worldview, become a philosophy or an ideology, and much less serve as a meaning of life. For many For many people (and especially, paradoxically, those who for years have never expressed a view on a planned economy), the economy has suddenly become a cult, a mass of dogma, which must be justified and compared to such an economy without compromise. The object served by the system, that is, life itself is more important, and things will become not only funny but also dangerous." (16) However, driven by the tendency of desire ontology, consumption and the market have become a kind of "cult" in China at the end of the century.Zhang Yiwu said: "Today's Chinese cities are not only the consumption centers of civilization, but also the places where civilizations are dissipated - where all kinds of desires in life are active. Cities are the treasure chests of desires, the furnaces of desires, and the drivers of desires. In this In the driven and burning desire, some things belonging to culture are burned, and some things belonging to culture survive in the fire.” (17) The modern city as a symbol of modern civilization and the industrial and commercial, financial, cultural industries and consumption The center of the city lures people, and gold diggers, migrant workers, etc. consciously or forced to leave their homes, have poured into the city to seek a new life.While burning desires, people also lose themselves, and consciously identify with and get close to the existing society. The tension between modernism and the world has gradually disappeared. Pioneer writer Yu Hua said: "In the past, my ideal was to give the world a punch." Now "the world has become better in my heart". (18) Abundance of materials gives people a sense of intimacy and satisfaction, and a flat way of life makes people feel relaxed and safe. Someone once commented on the cost of modernization in this way: "In politics, the most obvious thing is the growth and spread of corruption..." "In terms of ethics and morality... the growth and spread of egoism, money worship, and hedonism poison people's morality. soul", "the spirit of dedication and sacrifice... the social morals common to mankind such as honesty, integrity, fairness, benevolence, and harmony have been forgotten by some people, and even openly ridiculed by some people." (19) During the period of social transformation, The huge changes in economic and cultural life have left a deep impression on everyone involved. The writer Liu Xinwu once talked about his inner feelings. He said that around 1985, he still "felt that Chinese society at that time had a tendency of affinity and construction. , so I also tend to describe human nature warmly, believing that human nature is good, but there is still a trend of comprehensive deconstruction in the subsequent social development, and it is still deconstructing today. I also realize that human nature is like a dark abyss, and its evil Things are also profound." (20) This is a writer with a sense of social responsibility, the true feeling of the changes in Chinese society in the past 10 years. After deconstructing all the ideals, beliefs, ideals, truths, and deconstructing the body, "writing on the lower body "Even the upper body is deconstructed, and then deconstructed, people can only turn back into monkeys.Construction is the hardest task we face right now. Havel believes that consumerism became popular in China at the turn of the century, mainly because China has experienced a post-totalitarian period. In this environment, people are indifferent, desperate, and muddling along. The desperation for politics directly leads to the people's indifference to politics.In addition, the political turmoil in 1989 completely disillusioned the "square complex" of the Chinese people. The usual channels for "intervention in reality" and political participation were cut off, political enthusiasm was severely frustrated, and political participation became a routine performance.He said: "Desperation leads to apathy, apathy leads to resignation, a show of resignation to routine - it can serve as evidence of 'mass political engagement'. All this notion of producing 'normal' behavior is one that is deeply pessimistic in nature. ”(21)正是这种政治冷漠直接导致了消费主义的盛行：“一个人越是放弃全面转变的希望，放弃任何超越个人的目标和价值，或任何对一种'外在'方面发挥影响的机会，他的能量就转向阻力最小的方面，既'内在'。今天的人们一心一意地想着自己的家庭和房子，他们在那儿找到安息。……他们在自己的房子里布满各种用具和可爱的东西，他们试图改善他们的食宿，他们为了让自己的生活变得愉快，修建小别墅，照料自己的小汽车，将更多的兴趣放在食物、穿着和家庭舒适上。简言之，他们将兴趣转向他们私人生活的物质方面。”(22)这就是哈维尔说的人的能量的“内在化”，他认为这是后极权主义的根本特征之一，与极权主义时代的禁欲主义完全不同，感官的享受和欲望的不断满足使人们乐此不疲。从经济发展和社会稳定来说，这种倾向在特定的历史时期是有一定社会历史意义的。他说：“从经济的眼光看，它是一种富有意义的推动力的源泉，至少在一定程度上可以发展社会的物质财富，而这是僵硬的、官僚化的、非生产性的国家经济成分几乎不能指望完成的。”那么国家为什么要鼓励这种消费主义，主流意识形态为什么要支持这种能量的内在化呢？其一是为了刺激经济发展，其二是为了把民众的注意力从政治社会问题那里转移开，以便集中精力搞经济建设。国家有系统地引导民众将生命能量转换到私人领域，并将之作为“世间人性满足最深刻、最本质的东西”，是有心理学依据的那就是生命能量“从社会领域的一种逃脱。为了正确地将这种剩余能量分流——如果导向'外界'(指社会公共领域，引注)将或早或迟转为反对他们，反对他们顽固依恋的权力的特殊形式——他们毫不犹豫地将实际上是绝望的生活代用品描述成一种人类生活。为了平稳地操纵社会，社会的注意力被故意转向自身，即脱离对社会的关怀。通过将每一个人的注意力集中在他仅仅是消费品的兴趣上，是希望使他没有能力意识到在他精神上、政治上、道德上日益增长的被侵犯的程度。将他缩减成一个初级消费品社会的各种观念的简单容器，是打算将他变成复杂操纵的顺从的材料。”(23)这段话要说明的是民众实现“消费自由”的代价就是在事实上失去政治自由。也就是说人们的自由度被局限在了“消费自由”领域，人们用政治自由(自由参与的自由)、精神自由(精神个性自由发展的自由)换取了“自由选择某一种洗衣机和电冰箱的自由”。 “通过这种压力的等级制度，人们被设法变成一种消费品中的一个顺从成员。”(24)因为经济发展和社会稳定需要人们沉溺于日常生活的琐屑之中，中等收入阶层的形成就是主流意识形态的一种营造，因为中等收入阶层的比例越大，社会就越具有稳定性，而国家的责任就在于对现有社会财富进行合理分配。因此，与其说是民众主动拥抱消费社会，不如说民众是被迫回归个人的小圈子，热烈拥抱世俗生活和本能欲望，当然，世俗生活的乐趣还是应该肯定和提倡的，那么精神呢？ 在后现代社会，消费社会的导向使得文化在摆脱了国家的直接控制的同时，又落入商品交换的逻辑之中，工作劳动本身已不再是人们欲望满足的源泉和社会理想行为的标准，“生活方式”成为衡量人们身份地位的首要表征。大众消费文化在逻辑上要求人们在一切社会生活领域全面地理性化，因为生存竞争已经遍及生活的各个角落，每一个他者都有可能成为生命主体的竞争对手，要在竞争中立于不败之地，就要知己知彼，为了更有效地保护自己，人们被迫将自己封闭起来，以假面示人，所以，人的情感不是非理性，而是更理性化了，其特征是恐惧、冷漠和封闭。人的情感表达不是失去了控制，而是出自于一种更大、更自觉的自我控制，现实的生存法则要求个体在交往中表现出较大的相互尊重，对他人的行为举止和情感给予最大限度的宽容和谅解，而且还要有能力和智慧去判断他人情感态度、价值观念的“实质”，或者说透过他人的外在行为、话语方式去解读他人的深层心理或潜意识。还要想尽千方百计包装自己，用大众流行语说就是“保持自己的公众形象”，目前，人们之所以对公众人物的私生活如此关注，就是因为公众形象在公众面前的形象是美好的、包装过的，即未必是真实的。在动物界，只有弱小的生命体才想尽办法将自己封闭起来以免受天敌的伤害；在消费社会，只有当人失去安全感时，才会下意识地将自己封闭起来，以分裂的人格出现在不同的社会文化语境之中。 哈维尔对消费时代的解释同样可以用来解释中国当代的身体热。正是在中国1990年代开始的消费主义语境中，五四以来作为政治的身体迅速地转化为消费的身体，带有政治意味的身体叙事迅速转化为围绕时尚与市场旋转的欲望化叙事，女性文学作家将身体和性作为颠覆男性中心话语的武器，激进的青年作家们的身体叙事打出了“反文化、反道德、反理性”的旗号，骨子里却被欲望和文化市场所操纵，他们的文本成为欲望宣泄和释放的土壤，满足或迎合了文化消费者的“窥私癖”，市场成为文学创作内在的协调杠杆。“身体”和“性”的政治性、批判性和颠覆性，实际上不是先天具有的，而是社会历史文化语境赋予它们的。因为长期以来，工具理性在人类的性交往中不断在剥离人的生命原欲，人给予了“性”无法承受之“重”，比如封建王朝惯用的“和亲政策”。当然人类也赞赏柏拉图式的精神恋爱、罗密欧与朱丽叶式的殉情悲剧以及“宝黛”式的纯真爱情，它们虽然违背或超越了性的生物学规律，但人们仍然在执著地、痴迷地追寻着。性本身是无所谓善恶的，它的非生理意义是人的自由意志强加给它的，人追求原始的欲望满足在事实上成为对现存社会秩序的一种无意识的或主观刻意的反抗。欲望本体化写作是后现代文化语境和消费社会共谋的产物，后现代对感性的推崇在文学文本中直接落脚在了人的身体欲望上，“身体”成为观念的“代罪羔羊”。 在西方现代化进程中，身体的发现与确证是深受工具理性压抑之苦的现代人在“哲学肉身化”运动中的重要成就之一，刘小枫认为那是一场“系统的冲动造反，诗人身上一切晦暗的、欲求的本能反抗精神诸神的革命，感性的冲动脱离了精神的整体情愫”，即“本能冲动逻各斯”。(25)费尔巴哈说：“旧哲学的出发点是这样一个命题：'我是一个抽象的实体，一个仅仅思维的实体，肉体是不属于我的本质的'；新哲学则以另一个命题为出发点：'我是一个实在的感觉的本质，肉体总体就是我们的自我，我的实体自身。'”(26)新哲学出发点的确立为“哲学肉身化”奠定了基础，经过尼采、弗洛伊德、福柯、海德格尔、梅洛？庞蒂等西方思想家的发展，身体已经成为一个哲学的重要范畴，与身体相关的欲望也上升到本体论的高度，得到深入的研究和探讨。弗洛伊德说：“禁欲不可能造就强大、自负和勇于行动的人，更不能造就天才的思想家和大无畏的开拓者及改革者。它只能造就一些善良的弱者，他们日后总会淹没在俗众里。”(27)对人的本能欲望的张扬在新时期文学中正是作为人性解放的旗帜高高飘扬的，弗洛伊德的这段话也曾作为欲望话语书写的理论依据频频出现在作家评论家的文本中，英雄人物或成功人士就顺势增加了一种自然文化品格，即他们都具有旺盛的生命力和无穷的欲望，而且不仅是形而上的欲望，还包括形而下的本能的原始的欲望，否则的话，这个人物就一定是备受压抑的，这种类型化的故事迅速成为一种新的叙事模式，不仅被接受者广泛接受，而且被文化市场大肆兜售。但是，并非所有文本中的欲望叙述和身体叙述都是必要的，欲望和身体经常被用来作为卖点来兜售。阎连科说：“我认为，对于一个作家来说，性，是作家最好的一块试金石，是作家的灵魂的镜子。一个作家的灵魂，是黑暗的还是闪光的，通过写性，是可以考验出来的，不光是考验他的艺术能力，还考验他的灵魂的纯净度。”(28)李国文也说过：“……当代小说中，为什么有那么多活塞动作式的性描写，很大程度上属于商业操作，而非文学行为，一句话，是金钱在作怪。”(29)世俗化社会是欲望尤其是物欲狂欢的社会，它处处以生存性快乐为价值准则，是典型的追求“瞬间快乐的享乐主义”文化，而最能给人以生理快感和精神麻痹的就是原始性本能的释放，于是，性成为世俗社会欲望的焦点，也成为世俗社会文学表现的焦点和文化生产和消费市场的最大看点和卖点。 在创作中，许多作家公然宣称：“我更关心的是人的欲望，欲望比性格更能代表一个人的生存价值。”(30)“和我的智力相比，我更信任我的身体”，(31)因为“肉身是活着的唯一证据”。(32)私语化写作的代表林白亲身实践着“肉体就是我们的家园”的论断，美女作家卫慧则坦率地说：“我们的生活哲学由此而得以体现，那就是简简单单地物质消费，无拘无束的精神游戏，任何时候都相信内心的冲动，服从灵魂深处的燃烧，对即兴的疯狂不作抵抗，对各种欲望顶礼膜拜。尽情地交流各种生命狂喜包括性高潮的奥秘，同时对媚俗肤浅、小市民、地痞作风敬而远之。”(33)自述者自以为自己洒脱清高，与一般的小市民不同，当然也不同于自认为是痞子的王朔。 那些作家的创作是为了最大限度地满足他们自身的生存性目的：情感宣泄的生理欲望或经济利益，这些都是功利性的、非审美性的需求，王朔就坦言他写作就是为了赚钱，他认为作家和妓女一样都是从事卖这个行业，“只是出售的东西不同而已”，(34)如果他有个亿万富翁的父亲，他就会为艺术而艺术。事实上，王朔在中国现阶段的社会资源分配中已靠卖文跨入小康，可我们并没有看到他为艺术而艺术的优秀作品，相反，倒有一种江郎才尽的颓势，成了文坛的“匕首”，逮谁骂谁，从鲁迅到金庸，一个也不放过。邱华栋说：“我表达了我们这一代青年中很大一群的共同想法：既然机会那么多，那么就赶紧捞上几把吧……否则下层人就很难跃入上层阶层了”。(刘心武邱华栋：《在多元文学格局中寻找定位》，上海文学1995年第8期)文学创作成为赚钱的工具，纯粹功利的行为。这样的创作不可避免地会受到商业运行法则的制约和利用，以至于“在一般人的眼里，欲望和文化成了一组二元对立，二者永远处于颠覆与被颠覆的关系之中。似乎不是欲望打败文化，就是文化打败欲望一般。其实文化与欲望的关系远不是这么简单。任何时代的文化创造都必须面对当时的欲望表现。不能对当时的欲望发言，谈什么文化创造？当然，放纵欲望，更没有文化创造。这就需要正确处理欲望与文化的关系。”(35)在某些作家的欲望叙事中，作家人为地抽去了感性与理性、欲望与文化之间的张力，试图将二者揉合在一起，从而造成了文本道德的含混。叶兆言的小说写了这样一个荒诞的故事：老四企图用纵欲来证明自己与老婆之间的感情是经得起考验的。这种将纵欲与爱情放在同一水平面上的创作动机本身就表现出了作家价值理性的困惑和道德感的薄弱。竟然还有评论者为之歌咏，称之为“纯情的欲望故事”，(36)难道在纵欲时心里想着老婆就是男性的纯情，就呈现出了“绚烂的形而上之美”吗？李唯的小说《坏分子张守信和李朴》将动用公款嫖妓作为主人公冲破思想束缚的表现，将嫖妓被捕作为主人公太傻的证据，小说还借众人之口表达了这样的观念：很多人更加放荡，可是人家不傻，所以没出事。似乎嫖妓本身是无所谓善恶的，就像吃饭睡觉，纯属个人爱好或个人隐私，一旦被捕就成了坏事。结果“坏分子”一死，一伤心，他们充满遗憾的人生好像还有点令人同情，作家在小说中缺乏一种基本的价值判断，一个社会的道德伦理毕竟是有底线的，突破了这个底线就很难得到接受者的认同。从古到今，嫖妓在中国人传统的价值观念中都是不提倡的，更何况还要动用公款，“公款嫖妓”在任何一个朝代任何一个国家都是违法行为，作家在创作时连这种最起码的法律常识都忽略了，抑或作家压根就是个法盲。