Chapter 4 fourth quarter

19 Those entomologists were strange fellows: they completely ignored the young woman, though she listened intently, laughed when she should, and looked serious when they were serious.Evidently, she didn't know anyone in the room, and she was hiding panic in the diligent reaction that no one noticed.Fan Sheng got up from the table, walked into the group where the girl was, and talked to her.They quickly broke away from the crowd and lost themselves in the conversation, which started off lightly and never ended.Her name is Julie, she works as a typist, and she helps the chairman of the Entomological Society to do some chores; she has nothing to do after the afternoon, and she takes this opportunity to come to this famous castle to spend the evening with these people who frighten her but are curious, because until Until yesterday she had never seen an entomologist.Fan Sheng was very comfortable with her, he didn't have to raise his voice, on the contrary, he lowered his voice so that others could not hear him.He led her to a small table, sat down facing each other, and put his hand on hers.

"You know what," he said, "it's all about the voice. It's more important than having a pretty face." "Your voice is beautiful." "You think?" "Yeah, I think so." "But too faint." "It sounds good. As for me, my voice is ugly and harsh, like an old crow's melon, don't you think?" "No," Fan Sheng said with a little tenderness, "I like your voice, provocative, not submissive." "You think?" "Your voice is just like your person!" Fansheng said enthusiastically, "Your person is also not servile and provocative." Julie was very happy to hear what Fansheng said: "I believe what you say."

"These guys are stupid," Vanson said. She couldn't agree more: "Exactly." "Some self-important fellow, Bourgeois. Did you see Baker? An idiot!" She totally agrees.These people completely ignored her existence, and hearing what they said made her happy, and she felt revenged.She has become more and more fond of Fan Sheng, he is good-looking, cheerful and simple, and he is not arrogant at all. "I think," Vanson said, "make a big fuss with him..." The words echoed: like a naughty promise.Julie smiled, eager to clap. "I'll get you a whiskey!" He walked to the bar at the other end of the hall.

20 At this time, the chairman presided over the opening of the seminar, and the participants walked out of the venue noisily, and the hall was immediately crowded with people.Beck chatting with the Czech scholar: "I'm very moved by your..." He hesitates to give a sense of how difficult it is to find the right words to describe the talk given by the Czech scholar: "...your... witness. We seem Forgotten too quickly. I want to assure you that I am acutely aware of what is happening in your country. You are the pride of Europe, which itself has little reason to be proud."

The Czech scholar made a roughly rebuttal gesture to show his modesty. "No, please don't contradict," Baker went on. "I insist. You, you, the intellectuals of your country, have shown unrelenting resistance to communist oppression, the courage we often lack, the courage Such desire for freedom, and I would even say such bravery for freedom, you have become an example for us to follow. Besides," he added, hoping to add a layer of kindness and a tacit understanding to his words: "Budapest (Budapest) It's a beautiful city, full of energy and, shall I emphasize, utterly part of Europe."

"You mean Prague?" said the Czech scholar timidly. Ah, hateful geography!Baker sensed his small mistake, suppressed the anger provoked by this inappropriate colleague, and said: "Of course, I'm talking about Prague, but I'm also talking about Cracovie, and I'm going to say Sofia (Ba, I mean St. Petersburg, I think of all the cities in Eastern Europe just liberated from a huge concentration camp." "Please don't use the word concentration camp. We often lose our jobs, but we don't go to concentration camps." "All Eastern European countries are full of concentration camps, my dear friend! Actual or symbolic concentration camps, it makes no difference!"

"Please don't use the term Eastern Europe," the Czech scholar continued to retort: ​​"Prague, as you know, is a Western city like Paris. Charles University, founded in the fourteenth century, was the first university in the Holy Roman Empire. University. Jon Yus, who taught at the University, was, as you know, a Lutheran pioneer, a great reformer of the Church and of spelling." What medicine did the Czech scholar take wrongly?He kept correcting his interlocutor, who was furious, but still tried to maintain the enthusiasm in his words: "My dear colleague, please don't be ashamed of Eastern Europe. France has always had the greatest affection for Eastern Europe. Please recall Your waves of immigration in the nineteenth century!"

"We didn't have any waves of immigration in the nineteenth century." "And what about Mickiewicz? I'm proud he has France as his second country!" "But Mikkiewicz is not..." the Czech scholar continued to refute. At this moment, Inma Junata joined in; she gestured broadly towards her photographer, then, pushing the Czech scholar aside with her hand, she stood beside Baker and said to him; Jacques-Alain Berck..." The photographer put the camera on his shoulder: "Wait a minute!" Inma Junata paused, looked at the photographer, and then said to Baker: "Mr. Jack-Alan Baker..."

twenty one An hour earlier, when Baker had seen Inma Junata and her photographer at a seminar, he had thought he would yell.But at the moment, the anger provoked by the Czech scholar was stronger than that of Inma Junata; he even smiled at her a little, thanking her for saving himself from the old foreign pedant. Encouraged, she said with cheerful and explicit affection: "Mr. Jack-Alan Baker, you have had a sensual moment in this insect seminar which you attended by fateful coincidence..." She brought the microphone to his mouth. Baker replied like a schoolboy: "Yes, we were honored to host a great Czech entomologist who was forced to spend his life in prison as a service to the world. We were deeply moved by his presence ."

Being a dancer is not only a passion but a point of no return; when Dubeg overwhelms him at a dinner with an AIDS patient, Baker travels to Somalia not because of his excessive vanity but because he must save That bad dance move.At this time, his family felt that his words were dull and boring, and he knew that something was missing, a little seasoning, an unexpected idea, a surprise.So instead of pausing, he continued until he saw a figure approaching him in the distance, which sparked his inspiration: "I also want to take this opportunity to announce to you that I propose to form a Fartier entomological society. (Surprised at the idea, he immediately felt much better.) I was just talking to a colleague from Prague (who pointed vaguely at the Czech scholar) and he was very pleased and thought of a man from the last century This society is honored by the name of the great exiled poet, who was the perfect symbol of the friendship between our two nations. Mickiewicz. Adam Mickiewicz. The life of this poet, As an admonition, reminding us that everything we do, be it poetry or science, is a rebellion. (The word "rebel" decisively energizes him) Because man is always rebellious (he glows now, He himself knows this), doesn't he, my friend, (he turns to the Czech scholar, who immediately appears on camera, nods his head for "yes".) You testify with your life, with your sufferings That, yes, you confirmed it to me, that man is man because he always rebels, resists oppression, not only for the sake of resisting oppression..." (He pauses for a long time, only Peng Defan knows Use this long, effective pause; afterward, say in a low voice :)…

And also to rebel against a state of existence that we did not choose. " Rebellion is not our chosen state of existence.That last sentence, the quintessence of his extemporaneous speeches, startled himself; a sentence of utter beauty; instantly elevated him from politician's preaching to the ranks of his country's greatest souls: Camlls ) might write such a sentence, or Malraux, or Sartre. Inma Junata, utterly blissful, gestured to the cameraman, and the camera turned off. At this time, the Czech scholar approached Beck and said to him: "It is beautiful, really, very splendid, but please let me tell you that Mickiewicz is not..." Baker, still intoxicated after this public speech, interrupted the Czech scholar mockingly and loudly in a firm voice: ": I know, my dear colleague, I know as well as you, Mikje Viz is not an entomologist. It is rare for a poet to be an entomologist. But apart from this defect, poets are the pride of all humanity, and entomologists, and yourself, are among them, if you do not object. " A burst of unbridled laughter rose, like long-simmering steam: in fact, all entomologists couldn't help laughing since they realized that the gentleman who was touched by him had forgotten to read his speech.Baker's rude words finally made them relieve their scruples and let them laugh out loud. The Czech scholar was dumbfounded: Where is the respect shown by his colleagues less than two minutes ago?How could they laugh, how dare they laugh?How can people turn from admiration to contempt so easily? (Of course, my friend, of course.) Is affection so fragile, so unstable? (Of course, my friend, of course.) At this time, Inma Junata approached Baker.She said loudly and drunkenly, "Baker, Baker, you're amazing! That's what you are! Oh! I adore your sarcasm! Even though you used to hurt me with it! Do you remember middle school? Baker, Baker, Do you remember calling me Inma Junata? The bird that disturbs your sleep at night! Disturbs your dreams! We must make a film together, an interview with you. You should agree that only I have the right to do so." The laughter of the entomologists made up for the failure of the Czech scholars, and the laughter echoed in Baker's head and made him float; Action without thought.Let's forgive him for what he's about to do.He took Inmajunata by the arm, pulled aside so that no one could hear, and said to her in a low voice, "Go away, you old bitch, go away with your sick neighbors, birds of the night." , the horrors of the night, the nightmares of the night, my stupid memories, my muddled monuments, the rubbish of my memories, the stinking excrement of my youth..." She listened to him and couldn't really believe what she was hearing.She thought that these terrible words, which he spoke to others, to confuse and deceive his audience, she thought that these words were just a trick she could not understand; she asked softly and innocently: "As what to me Saying this? Why? How do I know?" "What you gotta know is what I said! Literally! Literally! Bitch is like a bitch! Nasty is like Nasty Kick, nightmare is like nightmare, shit is like shit!" twenty two At this time, from the lobby bar, Fan Sheng observed the target of his contempt.The whole scene was performed ten meters in front of him, and he didn't understand the content of the words.One thing is quite clear: Baker behaves in front of his eyes just as Peng Defan has always described to him: a mass media clown, a sensationalist, a self-important dancer.No doubt, because of his presence, there will be a TV crew who favors the entomologist!Fan Sheng watched him attentively while studying his dancing techniques: the figure with his eyes constantly turned to the camera, the agility with which he perpetually turned before the crowd, the elegance of the gestures he made to attract attention.When he took Inma Junata's arm, Fan Sheng couldn't help shouting: "Look at him, the only thing he cares about is the woman in the TV station! He didn't hold the arm of that foreign colleague, he didn't Doesn't care about his coworkers, especially when they're foreigners, TV is his only master, only mistress, only concubine, because I bet he has no other, because I bet he's the silliest man in the universe. " Strangely, this time his voice, though unpleasantly weak, was clearly audible.In fact, the moment he was experiencing was an opportunity when even the faintest sound was enough to be heard.It's the time when whatever you think is irritating.Vanson deduced his thoughts, witty and sharp, and he spoke of the dancers and their covenants with the angels, more and more pleased with his eloquence, and he swayed it like climbing a ladder to the sky.A bespectacled young man in a three-piece suit listened patiently and looked at him like a lurking beast.Later, when Fan Sheng ran out of words, he said: "Dear sir, we can't choose the era in which we live, and we all live under the camera. From now on, this will also be part of the state of existence. Even when we wage war When we are protesting, we cannot succeed without a camera. We are all dancers, as you point out. I would even say: We are either dancers or we are deserters .My dear sir, you seem to feel that the times have moved forward. You can go back! Go back to the twelfth century, would you? But then you may rebel against the building of Catholic churches, seeing them as the barbarity of modernity !Then go further back! Back among the monkeys! There is no threat of modernity, and there you will be safe, in the immaculate paradise of macaques." Faced with a sharp attack, the most humiliating thing is not being able to find a sharp counterattack.In a burst of indescribable embarrassment and mocking laughter, Fan Sheng, cowardly, retreated.After a minute of frustration, he remembered that Julie was waiting for him. He drank the wine in the glass that he unconsciously held in his hand, put the glass on the bar, and picked up two glasses of whiskey, one for himself and the other. To bring it to Julie.