Bodhisattva, God, Allah, Goddess, Proust in the spirit of heaven!
In the field of literary research, Memories of Time Past has been held to the same level as other works, but it must not be let literary hooligans get their hands on it. Benjamin's Proust theory is ok, and the master's theory is complementary. Proust's little lecturer? Someone will come to check your French level and whether you are qualified to speak. Pound's teaching is well known: "The perfect criticism of this book should be written in only one paragraph, which must be seven pages long and can only use semicolons." Can you do it? I understand the attitude of academic professors. Speaking of this "it", I always smile at the old cat stealing big fish, which is beautiful beyond words. What I pursue is the standard of talking about Zen: don't say, don't say, saying is wrong.
Yes, academic literary criticism is a snobbish activity. Fortunately, our position has always been relatively low-key. Grandpa taught me that literature is a kind of beauty, which can be seen from a distance and approached, but it cannot be dissected, because people are beautiful. Why not take out their internal organs and see if they are gifted? Poison beautiful women. With this lofty admonition, even if we learn the timely literary theory of the great truth after the new criticism, we really dare not roll up our sleeves and use it indiscriminately for fear of sudden beauty. Think like this, and you will be happy. It took me three months to read it, and I wrote 20,000 words seriously, thus completing this seemingly impossible task.
After more than ten years, time has changed from the initial flowing water to the mighty Yangtze River today, and I began to understand Proust's mood. Looking back at the beauty, I think she is not cold, but gives birth to a homely sense of closeness, so I summon up courage to say something. I'm not talking about the stream of consciousness, the triple perspective, the theme of time, the prototype of characters, the structure of cathedrals, or the academic issues involved in philosophy. No, I'm not talking about "there", I'm talking about the common "here".
On the surface, the theme of French literature is love, sex or fraternity. Deep down, there is always a desire for equality. Around its core, it is like a double egg, one is money and the other is status. More money than the bourgeoisie, better position than the nobility. The bourgeoisie with money and no status covets the status of the nobility, while the nobles with status and no money envy the money of the bourgeoisie. Judging from the historical trend, the decline of the aristocratic class is an inevitable trend, but the aristocratic class is struggling to maintain its position by virtue of Bourdieu's cultural capital such as family background, lineage and taste. To this day, this invisible division still exists in France. From this background, Reminiscence is really French.
In the first part, the world of the protagonist Marcel Jr. has two paths: Swan's side is the mansion of the new bourgeoisie; Gail mount's house is over there. It's a noble mansion. The narrator does not elaborate on Marcel's family background, but it can be seen that his mother's family is a local squire who lives next door to one of the best big capitalists. His father is a government official and has close ties with the "former ambassador". Generally speaking, his social status should be regarded as "semi-upper class". Yes, this is exactly what Thackeray called a "snob". Marcel's longing for two "over there" is beyond words, especially the Gail Mount family and all the people named Gail Mount, all of which are shrouded in a mysterious aperture. Relying on recommendation, chance and hard work, Marcel not only became a guest of Swan, but also had complicated emotional entanglements with Swan's daughter Hilbert. He also made a friend named Gail Mount, who was the tenant and salon guest of the Duchess of Gail Mount, and has since become one of the most fashionable and noble circles. Adult Marcel is a playboy who is not enthusiastic enough, a rentier who doesn't show off much, and an elegant salon person who is insignificant. The wealthy family relieved him from the troubles of livelihood, and his healthy body and temperament made him indifferent to fame and fortune. So, in addition to his love life, he lived as a bystander in his entanglements with others, and his great interest was "discovery"-but it turned out that when I was a child, I caught a glimpse of my uncle's girl in red, which was later odette. Albertina's same-sex lover Andre was later Hilbert's same-sex lover. Rachel, Sanlu's beloved lover, used to be a low-level prostitute. The lovely Baron Charles is not only gay, but also sadistic. Some of these findings were suddenly revealed by the crackling sound, and some were slowly revealed by the long running water. In thirty years, Marcel saw people around him dancing, exchanging identities and counterpoint in a strange way. Madame Verdylan, a vulgar bourgeois, remarried twice after her husband's death and became the new lady of Prince Gail Mount. Rachel replaced Rabema as a famous actress. Mrs. odette Swan, nicknamed "Love God", was rejected by the Duchess of Gail Mount because of her humble background. Later, she became the baroness of Foshville and privately the mistress of the old Duke of Gail Mount. The most typical one is Hilbert, who has never been accepted by the aristocratic world because of her mother. However, through a series of dazzling marriages and bequests, she first became "the richest heiress in France" and then married St. Lu, becoming the noble new Duchess of Gail Mount-the gap between "Swan Side" and "Gail Mount Side" was finally bridged. By the end of the movie "Time to reappear", the banquet in Prince Gail Mount's palace was still a shadow of incense and incense, but the old nobles from famous families had quietly made a curtain call, and the bourgeois army was replaced by the main force of the banquet. When Marcel saw these "old friends" at the party, he couldn't help feeling that things had changed and changed beyond recognition. I have always liked the French movie of the same name (1999). Marcel walked around the party politely, sometimes with his head tilted slightly and his fingers cocked, posing as the standard posture of that era. His sleepwalker suddenly smiled, very understanding and distant. In my opinion, this should be Marcel's standard expression: everything you know, everything you can say.
Remembering the past can be regarded as a history of the times, but it should be regarded as a history of consciousness and a special initiation novel. With the passage of time, Marcel's understanding of things and people has become more and more mature. For example, when he was a teenager, he criticized Rabema's acting skills and thought that she was not passionate enough. Later, he realized that passionate performance is the worst and simple performance is the most difficult. Only then did he understand the Excellence of Rabema. In order to reflect the development and change of consciousness, Proust calmed down and let the characters appear repeatedly at different times and places, thus gradually forming a clear "circular image" like coloring an oil painting. For example, the Duchess of Gail Mount, whom Marcel admired, appeared in the theater scene of absolute beauty and was amiable to Marcel; And when Marcel looked forward to seeing it, he became as cold as ice; At the dinner party where Sharon finally opened her heart to Marcel, she was so talkative, vulgar and mean that Marcel wanted to leave several times. In the end, the scene where she snubbed the swan was particularly snobbish, cold and disappointing. Through these different scene arrangements, on the one hand, the duchess is shaped into a three-dimensional and multi-dimensional character image, on the other hand, it reflects Marcel's cognitive process and describes how his expectation field of vision is revised and subverted by practice.
Psychologically and consciously, the most attractive and complicated thing is of course love. Swan's infatuation with odette's lover and Sanlu's infatuation with Rachel are neither real odette nor real Rachel, but women in self-fantasy, which have great power and often lead to the pain of love. Although Marcel learned a lot from other people's love, his own love is just a mess that is constantly being cut. If you don't tell this "love story" again, you really can't show Proust's Excellence. At first, young people fell in love. Marcel loved Hilbert, a girl who fell in love at first sight on the path where hawthorn flowers were blooming, with an image and a name. When there are no obstacles to love-unfortunately, young people like drama, and if there are no obstacles, they will create obstacles-Hilbert suddenly becomes cold. What's more, Marcel's first love ended because of his negative feelings about love and subsequent misunderstanding. A few years later, among a group of beautifully dressed girls, he fell in love with Albertina just because she was so cool. Albertina stood him up on a date. He was on pins and needles. At that moment, Marcel realized that he was in love with Albertina. Meanwhile, his feelings for Hilbert have passed away. Albertina was born in humble origins and his whereabouts were mysterious, but it was jealousy that made Marcel want to stop. Intellectually, he knew that he should make a clean break and make a promise to his mother, but the next day he changed his mind and confessed to his mother in tears: "I finally understand now, because I will never change my mind again, because I can't live without it." I must marry Albertina. " Marcel imprisoned Albertina and spent a lot of money on her, but Albertina ran away. In his anxiety, he waited for Albertina's reconciliation letter, but people always copied themselves. Just like in the past, he was angry with Hilbert and deliberately made it come true. Marcel's full love was expressed on the writing paper, and it became a dear John letter with posturing and reserve. After several days of suffering, he lost his self-esteem and sent a telegram asking Albertina to come back. Albertina died accidentally in a riding accident. Regret and despair plunged him into the abyss of destruction. One day, while he was walking, he saw a girl whose behavior was similar to that of Albertina. It was none other than Hilbert. The passage of time diluted his nostalgia for Albertina. A fancy letter made him realize that he no longer loved Albertina, but at this moment, Hilbert announced that he would marry San Lu. Later, Marcel and Hilbert resumed their contact, because the obstacle between them had been removed, and that was his love for her. Most dramatically, in the last movie, Hilbert told him that she had always loved him since she was a teenager on a hillside path with hawthorn trees. Unfortunately, at this time, Marcel has lost interest, because he no longer feels the sadness that love failed to experience at the beginning-"In this world where everything will dry up and disappear, compared with beauty, one thing will collapse, be destroyed more thoroughly, and leave fewer traces at the same time, and that is sadness."
If the reader is smart, it is not difficult to find the "mentality" of the protagonist: what you can't get is the best, what you get is not as good as what you get, and what you get in reality is far less than what you remember. According to the author's classic statement, "the only real paradise is the lost paradise" and "the happy years are the lost years". Therefore, little Madeleine snacks are used to show Kampot Ray, uneven slates are used to remember Venice, all love is used to remember, and all years are used to remember. Marcel's story is enough to make us cry out for sympathy. Like him, we are snobbish and vain, useless and harmless; Like him, we stay in our own small universe and imagine occupying a brilliant seat in endless time. For him, "the real life, the life that is finally discovered and understood, and therefore the only life that has really been experienced, is literature." How many readers will smile when they read this? In the past, I firmly believed. Now, I have questions.