Chapter 18 puppeteer

puppeteer There was a rather old puppeteer on board the ship.He has a cheerful face.If the expression on his face represented reality, he would be the happiest man in the world.He said he was just such a man, and I heard him say so himself.He was my countryman—a Dane; he was also the director of a traveling theater company.His whole crew was in one big box, because he was a puppeteer.He said he had a natural cheerfulness which had been "washed" once by a technical school student.The result of this experiment made him a perfectly happy man.I didn't understand the reasoning right away at first, but he explained the whole thing to me.Here's the whole story:

"It happened in Sluggers," he said. "I was giving a puppet show in the yard of a post office. The audience was very crowded--children, except two old women. Then a man of the appearance of a student, all in black, came in. He sat down, Laughed at the right moment, applauded at the right moment. He was a very unusual spectator! I should like to know who he was. I heard that he was a student of the technical school. This time he was specially sent Go to the countryside to educate the people. "My show ends at 8 o'clock, because the children have to go to bed early - I have to take into account the habits of the audience. At 9 o'clock, the student starts to lecture and experiment. At this time I also become One of his audience. It was a painful thing to hear and see. Most of it slipped over my head and got into the pastor's head, as the saying goes. But I couldn't help it. A thought came to mind: If we mortals can come up with so many things, we must intend to live a long time—a bit longer than our little life on earth. The things he experimented with are small miracles , all done just right, very naturally. A polytechnic student like this would have been a saint in the country in the time of Moses and the prophets; but in the Middle Ages he would undoubtedly have been burned.

"I didn't sleep all night. The next night, when I was doing my second act, the student came again; and that's when I was in a really good mood. I once heard from an actor A story: It is said that when he played the part of a lover, he always had in mind a female guest in the audience. He only acted for her; he forgot all about the rest. Now the craft The student at the school is my her, my only spectator, for whom I really act. When the play is over and all the puppets have come out and the curtain is closed, the technical school student invites me to his room. He talked about my play, I about his science. I believe we are very satisfied on both sides. But I have to reserve, because although he has experimented with many things, he can't say a single thing. Reason. For example, a piece of iron becomes magnetic as soon as it slips out of a spiral-shaped utensil. What is the reason for this? The iron suddenly acquires a kind of energy, but where does this energy come from? I think It's pretty much the same as people in the real world: God sends people bumping around in the spiral of time, so the spirit takes hold of them, and we have a Napoleon, a Luther, or something like that.

"The whole world is a series of wonders, the student said, but we're so used to these things that we just call them everyday events. "So he talked and explained a lot, until I suddenly felt as if my skull had been lifted. Honestly, if I wasn't old now, I'd be off to technical school to study this The way of the world, though I am the happiest man now. "A happiest man!" said he; he seemed to take an interest in my words. Are you happy? "Yes, I say, in any city where my party and I go, we are welcome. Of course, I also have a hope. This hope often comes to me like a goblin--a bad dream--and puts My good mood is disturbed. This hope is: I hope to be the boss of a real troupe, a director of real actors and actresses.

"You want your puppets to be alive; you want them to be living actors," he said. Do you really believe that once you're their director you'll be absolutely happy? "He didn't believe it was possible, but I did. We talked about the subject from all angles, and we couldn't come to an agreement. Nevertheless, we clinked glasses - the wine was excellent. There must be some kind of magic in the wine, or I should be drunk. But it is not; my mind is very clear. There seems to be sunlight in the room - and this sunlight is shining from the face of the technical school student It came out. It reminded me of some gods in ancient times, they were forever young and traveled around the world. I told him this, and he smiled. I can swear that he must be an ancient god who came down to earth, or a kind of god He must be such a character that my highest hopes will be fulfilled, the puppets will be given life, and I will be the director of real actors.

"We drank to this. He put all my puppets in a wooden box, strapped the box to my back, and made me go inside a corkscrew. I can still hear , how I rolled out and lay on the floor. It is a true thing; the whole class of actors jumped out of the box. We have spirits all over us. All the puppets are now famous Artists—that's what they talked about; I myself became the director. Now everything is ready to go on stage. The whole crew wants to talk to me. And so does the audience. "The female dancer said that if she didn't perform on one leg, the whole theater would shut down; she was the heroine of the whole group, and she hoped that she would be treated by that standard. The actress who played the role of queen hoped that After stepping off the stage, everyone still treats her as a queen, otherwise her art will be unfamiliar. The actor who specializes in acting as a messenger also acts like a person who is in love for the first time. In other words, from the perspective of artistic integrity, small characters are as important as big ones. The male lead requires only those scenes of exit, because these scenes will make the audience applaud. The female lead is only willing to perform under red lights, because only this kind of light can It's right for her - she's not willing to perform under blue lights.

"They were like a bunch of flies in a bottle, and I had to squeeze in this bottle with them because I was their director. My breath stopped, my mind was dizzy, and there was nothing in the world anymore. Poor people like me. I'm living among a new race of people. I wish I could put them back in a box, I wish I had never been their director. I tell them honestly that they are nothing more than Just a puppet. So they beat me to death. "I'm lying on my bed in my own room. How I left the polytechnic boy, he probably knows; I don't know it myself. The moonlight shines on the floor; the wooden box lies turned upside down where it shines puppets big and small lay around it, rolling in a ball. But I couldn't waste any more time. I jumped out of bed at once. Fished them all in, some head down, some on their legs Standing. I quickly put the lid back on and sat down on the box. It's worth drawing. Can you picture it? I can.

"Now I ask you to stay inside, I said, I can't make you flesh and blood again!" "I felt a little lighter all over my body, and I felt better again. I was the happiest man ever. This polytechnic student sort of cleaned my head. I sat blissfully, and fell asleep on the box right then and there. The next morning—it was noon, in fact, because I slept unexpectedly long that morning—I was still sitting on the box, very happy, and at the same time realizing how foolish my previous hopes were. I To inquire about the polytechnic student, but he has disappeared like a Greek and Roman fairy. Since then I have been a happiest man.

"I'm a happy director, my actors don't whine anymore, and my audience is happy—because they enjoy my show to their heart's content. I can do whatever I want with my show. I can do whatever I want in the script. I choose the best parts to act, and no one will be angry with me. I have acted those scripts that many people rushed to see 30 years ago, and they shed tears. I despise them. I show them to little children, and the little ones weep, just like papa and mamma. I do Johanne Montefalcon and Deweick, but it's a show Ben, because kids don't like long-running love stories. They like short and sentimental stuff.

"I've traveled all over Denmark. I know everyone and everyone knows me. Now I'm going to Sweden. If I'm lucky there and make a lot of money, I'll be a real Nordic — otherwise I wouldn't do it. I'm telling you this because you're from my country." And I, as his fellow-citizen, naturally wanted to convey this at once—to no other purpose at all. ①Moses and the Prophet are both characters in the Christian Bible Old Testament, living around 1200 BC.In this age, the Hebrews had to think of many ways to solve the problems in their lives because of the uncertainty of moving.Therefore, people with new ideas are respected.

②Under the rule of the church in the Middle Ages in Europe, anyone with novel ideas was regarded as a heretic and burned to death as the messenger of the devil.