Chapter 13 Chapter 12 Hats Off

It is hard to say whether this sermon will have any effect on us here.The examining magistrate Othon declared to Dr. Rieux that Father Paneloux's speech was "absolutely irrefutable."But not all opinions are so positive.The sermon, however, gave some a little clarity to hitherto vague notions, and made them feel that they were condemned to an unimaginable imprisonment for an unknown crime.Some went on with their ordinary lives, trying to adjust to this confinement; others, quite differently, only wanted to escape this catastrophic prison. At first people tolerated their isolation as much as they tolerated any temporary inconvenience, which was merely a disruption of some of their habits of life.But suddenly they discovered that it was a life of illegal imprisonment: under the sky, under the sweltering heat of summer.At this time, they vaguely feel that this captivity has threatened their lives.Sometimes in the evening, when the cool air revives them, they often do desperate things.

At first, whether by coincidence or not, it was from this Sunday that the terror in the town was widespread and deep enough to make one suspect that the people in the town had begun to really realize their situation.From this point of view, the atmosphere of our city has changed a bit.But really, it's a question of whether the atmosphere has changed or the psychology has changed. A few days after the sermon, Rieux and Grand talked about the incident on their way to the outskirts of the city.In the dark, Rieux bumped into a man who was staggering along the road and was not going any further.At this time, the street lamps in the city, which were lighting up later and later, suddenly lit up.The street lamp behind them suddenly illuminated the man, who closed his eyes and laughed silently, and there were large drops of sweat on his pale face, which was tense because of this.They went around.

"That's a madman," said Grand. Rieux had just taken his arm when he noticed that the clerk was trembling nervously. "It won't be long before there will be only madmen in this city," said Rieux. He was so tired that smoke came from his throat. "Have something to drink." They entered a small café, where only a single light over the counter was lit, and people were talking softly, for some unknown reason, in the dim reddish light.Rieux was surprised to see that Grand asked for a glass of wine on the counter, drank it down, and said that it was very fierce.After that he wanted to leave.Outside, Rieux seemed to hear moans everywhere in the night.Above the street lamp, a low whistling sound came from somewhere in the dark night sky, reminding him that the invisible plague god was constantly stirring up the hot air.

"All right, all right," said Grand. Rieux wondered what he was going to say. "It's fine," he said, "I have my job." "Yes," said Rieux, "this is an advantage for you." Rieux decided not to listen to the whistling, and asked Grand if he was satisfied with his work. "Anyway, I think I'm doing pretty well." "Will it be a long time?" Grand seemed very excited, and the alcohol was already in his voice. "I don't know either. But that's not the problem, Doctor, it's not the problem, it's not the problem."

Rieux guessed in the dark that he was waving his arms, and as if something he had prepared suddenly came to his lips, he uttered it in a continuous flow: "You know, doctor, what I hope is that someday when my manuscript arrives In the hands of the publisher, he stood up and said to his assistants: 'Hats off, gentlemen!'" This sudden statement surprised Rieux, who seemed to see his friend raise his hand to his head, and then with a wave of his arm, made a gesture of taking off his hat.The strange whistling sound from above seemed to be getting louder. "Yes," said Gemin, "it should be perfect."

Although Rieux did not know much about the customs of the literary world, he had the impression that things would not be so simple to do, and that publishers probably did not wear hats in their offices.But it was also difficult to tell, and Rieux thought it better not to talk about it.He could not help but listen again to the mysterious howling of the plague.At this time, they had approached the district where Grand lived. Because the terrain there was relatively high, a breeze blew in, cooling them down and blowing away all the noise in the city.Grand was still talking, but Rieux didn't quite hear what the good old man was saying. He only understood that the book he was talking about had already written a lot of pages, but the author wanted to complete the work. , I really racked my brains. "For one word, often all night, all night, all week, all week...sometimes just for one conjunction." At this point, Grand stopped to grab a button on the doctor's coat, and a series of voices It spat out indistinctly from his toothless mouth.

"Doctor, you always know that it's not too difficult to choose between 'however' and 'and' if necessary. It's not so difficult to choose between 'and' and 'then' It is more difficult to decide which one to use between 'then' and 'then'. But there is indeed a more difficult problem than that, that is, whether 'and' should be used or not." "Yes," said Rieux, "I understand." He said and went on.The other looked embarrassed and chased after him. "Excuse me," he murmured, "I don't know what I did tonight."

Rieux patted Grand on the shoulder lightly, offered to help him, and expressed interest in what he had to say.The other party's mood calmed down a little, and when he came to his house, he hesitated for a while and invited Rieux to come to his house for a sit down.Rieux accepted the invitation. Gemin invited Rieux to sit at a table in the dining room. The table was covered with manuscript paper with very small handwriting and scratched lines of corrections. "Yes, that's it," replied Grand, addressing Rieux's inquiring gaze. "Would you like something to drink? I have some wine here."

Rieux declined.He looked at the manuscript paper. "Please don't read it," Grand said. "It's my first draft. It's giving me a headache, a terrible headache." He himself was looking at all these manuscripts.His hand seemed irresistibly drawn to one of them, and he picked it up, shining it through the uncovered bulb.The paper trembled in his hands.Rini noticed that the clerk's forehead was wet. "Sit down," said Rieux, "read to me, please." The clerk glanced at Rieux and smiled sympathetically. "Okay," he said, "I really want to do that, too."

He kept looking at the manuscript paper, waited for a while, and then sat down.At the same time, Rieux was listening to the vague humming in the town, which seemed to answer the howling of the plague.At this moment, Rieux had a particularly keen sense of the city unfolding beneath his feet, of the people imprisoned in it, of the stifled howls of terror stifled in the night.Grand raised his deep voice and read: "On a beautiful morning in May, a gallant female knight was galloping along the flower paths of the Bois de Boulogne, astride a splendid bay mare. ’ After Grand finished his sentence, neither of them said anything, when they heard again the indistinct din of the wretched city.Grand put down the manuscript and continued to gaze at it.After a while, he looked up and asked Rieux:

"What do you think?" Rieux said that this opening made him eager to know what happened next, but the other party excitedly said that this point of view was wrong.He patted his manuscript paper with his palm and said: "Here I can only write a general idea. If I can perfectly describe the scene I imagined, if my sentences can match the rhythm of this horse trotting' one, two. Three, one, two, three' together, then the rest of it goes more smoothly, especially with a very rich imagination at the beginning, which makes it possible for them to say: 'Hats off'." But to do this, he still has a lot of work to do.He would never agree to go to press as it is, because although the sentence satisfies him sometimes, he also understands that it does not quite correspond to the actual situation. bordering on a cliché.That is at least what Grand meant.Speaking of this, the sound of people's running footsteps came from outside the window.Rieux got up from his seat. "You'll see me do something," said Grand, turning his face to the window, and added: "When it's all done." The sound of running was heard again, and Rieux had gone downstairs into the street, and two people ran past him.It seemed that they were running towards the gate of the city.There are people in our town who, bewildered by the heat and the plague, have lost their minds and are trying to get out of the city by trying to get away with it.