Chapter 16 Appendix Strange and Secret Travels

Every story is related to various realms of human beings, because we are our own kind, which makes every reading meaningful and touching.A couple, after the tsunami, went from Shanghai to Thailand and experienced a wonderful and mysterious trip.This kind of travel is weird and dangerous. On the one hand, this kind of weirdness comes from the event itself, and on the other hand, it comes from the heart of the individual—husband Li Li and wife Zhang Lan accidentally picked up an ivory pendant during a lonely and noisy trip. , the two-headed god baby seen in Thailand, the ghost that suddenly appeared in the mirror of the Sheraton Hotel, the beautiful and enchanting Caucasian woman, and the drug addict Frank who died suddenly on P Island, and the passionate girl Dou who was destroyed by love Ah, even Chano from the hotel, Lang Sai the boatman, mysterious cries, and the white boy looking for his mother, etc... The story unfolds in such a pure and tense atmosphere, with characters appearing successively, interspersed with dreams, and mysterious Miserable shouts and music.Such a novel narrative strategy is amazing, completely different from the reading taste and aesthetic experience we usually accept.

I have always believed that in literature, the classification of genres is a forced distinction of art itself.The artistic value of a novel does not lie in the genre and subject matter, how to write and what to write is always a matter of form.The reason for saying this is that everyone has unanimously classified novels into categories, and even some works are forcibly limited to popular works that cater to the taste of the public.In this regard, I don't think so.In recent years, I have read almost all of Li Ximin's horror novels, and my deep impression is that these novels are only attractive, and they also directly explore and show the spiritual plight of people in rural and even urban areas.For example, in his original "Blood Money", "Daughter of Gu" to "Book of the Dead", "The Spirit Picker" in recent years, etc., the themes expressed are probably different groups of people living in a certain social environment and spirit. Alienated behavior and mental distress in situations.So-called fear is nothing more than a tactic or even a shell for the narrative.

Similarly, Li Ximin's recently completed novels have consistently developed the secretive and eerie, frightening and tense styles presented in his previous works.The only difference is that the background of this novel departs from the southern countryside that the writer is familiar with, especially the spiritual fear and fear caused by the suppression of people's heart, dignity, and right to life in the southern countryside that the writer or deliberately publicizes. Bizarre and violent incidents have extradited fear to the foreground of current life, in such an era of world unification and great openness of culture and communication.From this point of view, Li Ximin can be regarded as a leap or transformation in the creation of horror novels by writers.

The story structure of the book is streamlined, a couple, a strange experience and inner storm during a trip.In my opinion, the scene of this novel is grand and open, secluded and deep.Gives people the tension and pleasure of reading.Furthermore, in my opinion, there are two amazing highlights in this novel.One is an in-depth and useful discussion and confirmation of human nature and modern marriage; Li Li and his wife Zhang Lan are a loving couple, but the husband has a strong desire for different opposite sexes.Even just after having sex with his wife, he had sex with Doya, a girl who is ignorant of the world.This made Zhang Lan feel a kind of helpless despair.But they are in love, and both feel that the other is irreplaceable in their personal lives and hearts.It is in this contradiction that the good and evil sides of human nature are fully exposed, and it is timely and confusing to read; the other is: this novel adopts a roundabout narrative method, leading to a common murder—— In the end, the murder and murder relationship between Cheng Deyong and the "black spirit" Wan Wei who lost the "red shoes"-material and love are closely connected, but they can never be equated.When matter becomes the medium and substitute of love, the spiritual world of modern people will be chaotic and never peaceful.

In other words, all fears come from the human heart and have nothing to do with the outside world.At the end of the novel, the upstart Cheng Deyong’s constant pain in his heart seems to be a huge metaphor: what people face may not be the real life of grotesque and endless desires, but more often, what they face is inner struggle, interrogation and torture. The "heart and mouth" seems to be something that each of us must touch and explore. Human conscience or the natural spiritual and moral "Tao" is always at work.From these two points, the value of Li Ximin's new novel is not that it provides us with a good-looking story, but more importantly, this novel explores the emotional confusion, The "conscience" held by everyone poses a huge spiritual pressure on the individual, the good and evil of human nature, and of course, the erosion and liquidation of human nature by the current surging materialism.