Chapter 22 Maomao: Human Guardian Angel Fantasy Literature Writer Peng Gou

One day, a little girl who claimed to be Mao Mao appeared out of the plain. No one knows where she comes from, how old she is, a bit like the song "Olive Tree" whispered: don't ask me where I come from, my hometown is far away... She is thin and unkempt , but a pair of black eyes are big and deep, like cold stars... Mitchell Ender walked towards us. It is a world-sensational time fantasy novel by German writer Mitchell Ender. It has been translated into more than 30 languages ​​including Afrikaans, Serbian, and Croatian, with a circulation of millions of copies. People call it "the hairy phenomenon".

Although it was published in West Germany at that time as a children's literature work, and before that, Mitchell? " was published, but more readers and critics think that "Maomao Ah Dan is not only a children's literature work, but also a full-length philosophical novel written for adults with deep meaning.I remember that the Japanese critic Akira Koguan said something like this in an article: "One of the characteristics of the success that has attracted worldwide attention is that there are many adult readers standing with children... It has become the most basic basis for discussing modern 'time'."

Adachi Tadao, a Japanese German literature researcher, also pointed out in the book "Mitchell Ndebu": "Not only children's literature writers, but also sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, novelists, poets and other researchers have all expressed Of great interest, discussed from their own perspectives. Naturally, adults and children read differently, and despite this, a book like this that has enjoyed so many loves of men, women and children is from Exupery's Star It’s been a long time since The Prince.” In fact, Mitchell? Ender himself does not admit that his works are children's literature.

In 1980, Mitchell Ender put forward this question that has always been in his chest in the award speech "Beyond Children's Literature" of the German Children's Literature Society Award: "Fundamentally speaking, I oppose the existence of a special kind of literature for children. Literary parlance... In our experience, there is no such thing as a subject that the child cares about in principle at all, or that the child does not understand at all. The question is how you describe that subject with your heart, with your head." Mitchell Earl Ender is not a person who likes alarmists. His doubts stem from a fact that has been forgotten for more than a century: Children's literature was originally literature for adults.Mitchell Ender is appealing to people to find the lost source of literary creation - "Children's Innocence", and to find a literature that allows children and adults to participate together.As an effort by Mitchell Ender, cracks appeared in the rock-solid territory of children's literature, successfully encroaching on the two worlds of children and adults.Kazuko Honda, a famous Japanese child culture scholar, wrote excitedly in the book "The Theme Called Children": "It blows up the wall of the realm and shows its power like a quiet dynamite."

Mitchell Ender was born in Germany, and his father Edgar Ender was a famous painter.Mitchell Ender once painted and acted. After publishing two children's literature works in 1960 and 1962, he was silent like a cicada for ten years. In 1971, he left Germany and moved to Italy. Three years later, he accumulated a lot of money and became one of the pinnacle children's literature writers of this century due to his publication.Today's Mitchell Ender is as well-known as Andersen's name.What makes me sigh is that although at least three versions of Mitchell End's works were introduced to our country as early as the 1980s, they are like a few solitary leaves in the water. At the bottom of the water, there was almost no reaction.

What I have to mention here is that when it was published in Germany, there was a long but extremely important subtitle "——The Incredible Story of the Time Thief and a Little Girl".Somehow, it has been omitted from the aforementioned Chinese translations, and nearly all critics agree that it was Mitchell Ender's finishing touch. After this brilliant masterpiece was published in 1973, it won the German Youth Book Award in the second year, that is, 1974.As its subtitle suggests, it tells the story of Momo taking back time from the time thief Mr. Gray. However, Mitchell Ender's account of Mao Mao is vague, and we don't know anything about the girl or her background.

Even on the cover of the original German book, Mitchell Ender's own drawing of Maomao is just a little girl with ragged clothes and disheveled hair facing us.But Maomao's character was portrayed very clearly by Mitchell Ender. She was poor but acted bravely. In order to save the terminally ill human beings, she went back and forth between the two worlds of Hula and human beings regardless of safety; she was not for herself, but for human beings. Fighting to the death with Mr. Gray. In this sense, Maomao is a guardian angel of us humans. If it wasn't for Mao Mao to step forward, we who have long been paralyzed will never rise up, but let our hearts be filled with Mr. Hui's ashes... We want to thank Mao Mao.

In the novel, the abstract concept of time is decomposed into a series of vivid and concrete images: the time thief, the time savings bank, the turtle, the time flower, and the time manipulator Hula... Yes, almost all critics regard it as A book that criticizes society.It lashes out at reality, pointing sharply at the ills of modern civilization.Between the lines, the material desires of modern people.The cruelty and the destruction of human nature are well portrayed.It is a warning, urging us lost sheep to turn around. With the development of the economy, in the tide of materialism, we just blindly pursue the supremacy of efficiency and lose the most pure human nature.This is one of the costliest costs of modern civilization.We are forbidden to smoke in a dark box by physical time, and we build a world in which we are alone.We refuse to love, also refuse to give love, we even forget the bright sunshine.

It was Mitchell Ender who reminded us. Japanese ethics scholar Akane Ohara pointed out in "Thoughts on Fantasy Literature": "As a story, it is full of wit and wit, but as the reading deepens, we are forced to think about time and unknowingly start to reflect on our own. Way of life. It must not be said that it is just a fantasy literature for children." We are almost sunk by the waves of modern civilization, and we who have lost our humanity are like walking on a barren ruins.Yes, we don't know that we are heading towards ourselves.A prison of the mind.Kiyoshi Nomura also sighed in "Children's Books in Germany--The Bond with Adult Books": "As the subtitle of the book suggests, this is a story about people who have lost their humanity and regained their lost humanity." Stories, fantasy works with extremely modern themes."

In the novel, the cancer of modern society is condensed into the image of Mr. Gray.A good world is almost ruined in the hands of these all-pervasive ghosts.So, what does Mitchell Ender's Mister Gray symbolize?Mitchell Ender has such an instructive passage in "Mitchell Ender Says": "Mr. Gray's men finely cut and decompose principles. Only things have reality, and they are the spokesperson of quantitative thinking.” Mitchell Ender has made it clear here that the materialism and its values ​​that were once rampant are compared to Mr. Gray. But Mitchell Ender deserves to be a great writer. He did not superficialize or dwarf Mr. Gray, a malignant tumor of modern society, but gradually revealed the ugliness and cruelty of Mr. Gray.Mr. Gray is a group of crazy and inhumane time thieves, but they never use violence, they just rely on a kind and polite mask to cheat everywhere.It is precisely because of this that kind people fall into their trap one after another.However, this is where the horror lies. Mr. Gray is quite concealed. In reality, Mr. Gray lurks in our bodies like a parasite.So, it's no wonder that Tomoko Ami raised her arms anxiously in her "Interpretation (Maomao)": Mr. Gray lives in our bodies!Although invisible to the naked eye, they are a reality.Looking at them are the eyes of our soul and the eyes of our spirit.

The core of the story revolves around time. We plausibly say: time is money.But Mitchell Ende told us a diametrically opposite answer: time is life, and life is in us.heart.We have indeed abandoned such a statement long ago. Under the pressure of the modern life background, what we consider is only money: a month's salary, an annual salary... At the beginning and end of Chapter 6, Mitchell Ender is We have been warned repeatedly: time is life, and life is placed in people's hearts.Mitchell Ender visualized it as a flower of time with high vitality. He described the flower blooming in people's hearts brilliantly: when the star pendulum slowly got closer and closer to the pool, a huge flower bud emerged from the black water.The closer the pendulum is to the edge of the pool, the bigger the flowers will grow until they are fully open and lie on the water. Maomao had never seen such a gorgeous flower before, it seemed to have nothing but shining colors, Maomao could never have imagined that there would be such beautiful colors in the world... The needle slowly moved back.Just as it gradually left the pool, Mao Mao was surprised to find that the beautiful flower had started to wither.The petals fell off one by one and sank to the bottom of the water... The swinging needle moved to the opposite side again, and it was one step away from the place just now, and another brand new flower floated out from the black water surface. Witnessing the moving scene, can we not feel remorse—we can no longer lose time!Time is deprived, which means that life is also deprived together. At the end of , people regain the lost time. However, how long can all this last?What we see in Mitchell Ender's eyes is doubt. Mitchell Ender was asking. Maomao is also asking.