Excerpts from "Thirty Lectures on Literary Experience"

1. Human beings are a little more complex than cats and dogs. Literature and art must be used to convey what it is like to be alive.

2. Different life situations may have different life feelings.

Literature cannot provide the answer. Literature is useless, we don’t live by imagination. But very rarely, literature helps us escape.

3. We are all afraid of loneliness, madness, and death. Shakespeare and Whitman cannot make us unafraid, but they bring light and fire.

But cultural products need to be judged as good or bad! Is everything measured by "Do I understand it?" "Do I like it or not?"

4. As a college student, how should he deal with studying in fragmented time? What I'm a little confused about is, shouldn't students have plenty of time to study? Who cut his time into pieces? Is this era really fragmented?

5. One of the functions of literature is to oppose cliches. Many ready-made statements are questionable. Literature will also fight against vulgarity.

When faced with something that condenses our minds, we always have a low-level reason to resist.

6. Reading is a personal matter, and reading novels is an even more personal experience.

7. Literary experience may focus on that watermelon: Why did he eat a piece of watermelon during the "Sage's Time"? Can't he eat some oranges or something? The watermelon is so juicy and sticky when it drops on your fingers - maybe cheating is also sticky like this.

8. Today we will talk about "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", a work that the American writer McCullers began to conceive when he was nineteen and wrote it when he was twenty-three.

9. There is a very famous line in Woody Allen's movie, which says that human destiny is divided into two types, one is terrible and the other is tragic.

10. When they remain silent, they are actually quarreling. Two people at home, sitting without saying a word, are actually quarreling silently about something.

11. A person must have some spiritual life to deal with this cruel world.

12. But we are accustomed to the collapse of our hearts. Many people’s hearts are barren. We need to do our best to cope with the life in front of us. In such a situation, it is difficult to ensure that we have a rich life. inner world.

13. Philosopher Kierkegaard said: "Losing yourself can happen very quietly in this world, as if it is nothing. No loss can happen so quietly. Every kind of loss can happen so quietly. Other losses, the loss of an arm, the loss of a leg, the loss of five dollars, the loss of a wife, will all be felt."

14. These two people are in a mutually supportive relationship, just like the letter A, both sides support each other. Only by doing so can you gain a foothold in the world.

But our problem is that we can’t talk to anyone. It’s difficult to find people who can communicate well and support each other.

15. He said that compared with previous literature, one of the characteristics of modern literature is personalization. Modern literature will ask you some questions that are suppressed in a civilized society. It is difficult to talk about them in broad daylight and it is difficult to tell the truth.

16. "We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and human beings are full of passion. Medicine, law, commerce, and engineering are all noble ideals and life-sustaining Necessary conditions. However, poetry, beauty, romance, and love are the reasons for our survival.

17. He does not encourage them to be artists, he wants them to think independently and find their inner passion.

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18. Virginia Woolf’s husband chatted with her and asked why one of the characters in her novels always died. Woolf said that it was for contrast, so that the dead show life to the living. Her husband then asked, Who will die? Woolf replied, poets, those who are like prophets

19. Some people will die from accidents, die from disease, or die like a prophet. In despair. But more people will be slowly swallowed by time. This is actually the essence of life. Our emotions are richer, and we have a sense of tragedy in life, which allows us to better appreciate the abundance of life.

20. Wang Xiaobo has an article called "My Inheritance", saying that the best modern Chinese is written by translators. He said that when he was nearly forty years old, he read "The Lover" translated by Mr. Wang Daoqian. , I know what kind of literary realm a novel can achieve.

21. There is a French theorist named Roland Barthes. He said that the desire to write, that is, eros, is to face the confusion of language, that is, the language that says too much and too little. A state of madness. The French chatterbox is always a bit mysterious. A Frenchman explained it further, saying that writing is about confronting the unspeakable and questioning the inherent collapse of meaning.

22. Canon is a composing technique. A melody appears first, and the same melody appears later to respond. All parts respond to the same part, but the parts with different heights are different. They enter at certain intervals, respond to each other, and circle continuously.

23. I am old. One day, in the lobby of a public place, a man came up to me. He took the initiative to introduce himself. He said to me: "I know you, and I will always remember you. At that time, you were still very young. , everyone says you are beautiful. Now, I am here to tell you. To me, I think you are more beautiful now than when you were young. When you were a young woman, compared with your appearance at that time, I love your tortured face even more now."

24. Professor McGao said that the research on hyperamnesia is not to understand how they remember, but to understand them. How to lose the function of forgetting.

25. The memory experience of an event lies in the comparison of two images, one is the current image, and the other is the past image. There is some complex interaction between the past and the present. function, so that we can form a memory of something.

26. Sometimes, people’s memories are treated roughly and you are not allowed to remember everything.

27. He said that if the living standard of a place improves, people will have free time and a general sense of personal loneliness, so they will have the urge to describe themselves. General loneliness leads to the emergence of "bibliography", and collective "bibliography" in turn enhances the general feeling of loneliness. In the beginning, printing did promote people's mutual understanding, but in the era of "bibliography", writing and talking had the opposite effect. Everyone surrounded themselves with their own writing, as if they were made of mirrors. The wall seals itself in, cutting off all sounds from the outside world. Why does everyone have the desire to express themselves and write a book? Because everyone can't bear to be neither mentioned nor noticed, quietly disappearing from this indifferent world, he wants to come up with some words. Writers are like this, and everyone who wants to express is like this.

28. Let’s take a look at Wang Xiaobo’s “Looking for Wushuang”, which is a story about collective memory. Wang Xianke went to Xuanyangfang in Chang'an City to look for Wushuang, but the neighbors in Xuanyangfang were deceiving him, blinding him, or misleading him with their forgetfulness.

29. A short story "Turn Your Back to the World". Written by a German female writer, she wrote about two sexual experiences. The first date between the hero and heroine was in 1962, just in time for the Cuban Missile Crisis. After that, they didn't see each other for more than 20 years. The second date was in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.

30. This is actually a particularly serious problem faced by a girl who is eighteen or nineteen years old: the world is controlled by men, and men are very vulgar.

31. For those who write novels now, the mobile phone is not just a prop, it will intervene in a character. For example, if we create a character, this character is likely to use a mobile phone to shape himself. The angle of the selfie he takes on social media, the photos he selects, and the short text he writes are actually self-shaping. Like a self-portrait, this kind of performance is both exposed and secret, both clear and distorted, both self-presentation and self-searching, both self-centered and introverted and modest, both self-expanding and self-deprecating. Revealing how we see ourselves and who we want to be.

32. There is a Russian writer named Solzhenitsyn who said: "In addition to the right to know, people should also have the right not to know, and the value of the latter is much greater. It It means that noble souls do not need to be filled with nonsense and empty talk. Excessive information is an unnecessary burden to a person who lives a fulfilling life.

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33. There is also a great scholar named Burckhardt, who was Nietzsche’s teacher. He also said something to the effect that don’t read too many newspapers. Newspapers are tempting. are all things that interest us, but we must note that our spiritual nature and our higher interests should not be too close to what is popular today. It should be connected with the human wisdom of the past.

34. It is normal for writers to have such opinions, because the media cares about the greatest common denominator. They will write whatever the majority of people in this society like to see. But this is not the task of writers. The task of writers is. , is to remind readers that no matter what is happening in the world, there are other things happening at the same time. He wants to write about the things that he feels most deeply in his life, and at the same time, he hopes that readers will pay attention to what the most important thing in his life is and what is outside. Does it matter what is happening? If you put too much energy into the external world, do you still have the strength to look after your heart?

35. But if we think about it pessimistically, we You will find that living in this world is no different than being thrown on a desert island: you have to work hard to maintain your life and live comfortably, and you cannot tolerate any slacking in your life. You will inevitably experience troubles and the people around you. Falling ill, dying, or losing in ruthless competition, you can only rely on your faith to persevere and believe that God will bless you while working hard. This is the real situation of a small person.

36. The eldest son Biff has a line in the play: "The people around me are so mediocre that I have to lower my ideals again and again. "It's easier for young people to understand his pain. He can't find an ideal job and will always have daydreams.

37. How did the playwright Arthur Miller sum up Willy's tragedy? He said: " We regard the competition for the means of survival as sacred, and old Willie truly believed that he did not meet the qualifications for human beings prescribed by the superiors who sat in offices and high-end apartments, clean-shaven, and from those A thunderous command came from the towering place, telling him to succeed. This order echoed in the city where he lived, in the piles of newspapers, but what he heard was not a human voice, but the sound of a violent wind, to which no one could reply in the same way. So I could only stare at the face of the loser reflected in the mirror. ”

38. We must avoid becoming losers in the competition for survival. I saw a joke when I was a child: Two people encountered a bear in the forest. One person quickly put on his running shoes, and the other person said, what? Can you outrun a bear? The man replied, I just need to outrun you. The joke was not funny, but I remembered it for many years. Everyone had different opinions and attitudes, but they all seemed to have different opinions. There is a sentence: I can outrun you.

This is the reality we face. 39. I read another short story from the anthropologist Margaret. Mead, who once served as the director of the American Museum of Natural History, once gave a speech. An audience member asked her, if you go to an archaeological site, what do you think is a sign of civilization? Fish hooks, clay pots, or stone tools? No, it's a healed thigh bone, which is a very important sign of civilization. In the animal world, if you break your leg, you can't go to drink water or find food. If the human thigh bone is broken, it won't heal. Healing means that someone spent time with the injured person, helped him treat the wound, took him to a safe place, took care of him, and allowed him to heal slowly. Meade said that this is the starting point of civilization.

< p> 40. If you want to read "Moby-Dick", you can read it together with a copy of "The History of American Whaling"

"Moby-Dick" depicts the fear and ambition of people when approaching huge things. The huge thing is Moby Dick, the white whale, and the sea that has been rolling like a shroud for thousands of years.

But there is an interesting saying I heard, saying that Western literature is actually all. It is a fanfic of the Bible, at least in the novel "Moby-Dick", it really has this meaning. This whaling story does have an atmosphere of the Bible.

41. Four Hundred. Years ago, the French writer Montaigne wrote an essay, "Philosophical thinking is learning how to die."

42. As the saying goes, when you light up a lamp and talk, you blow out a lamp and you keep company. Two people together form a context.

43. In "Levels of Life", Barnes also mentioned the love of other writers and artists for their wives, one of whom was the French painter Otilon Redon. Redon said before marriage that you can see the essence of a man from his wife, every woman profoundly reveals a man who loves her, and vice versa, he also reveals her character. Lei Dong's words were his observations. He didn't get married until nine years after he said them. After eighteen years of marriage, he said another sentence: "I firmly believe that the 'yes' I solemnly said at the wedding is the most complete and firmest statement in my life, stronger than any other words I have said. "This is truly the most touching love story in the world.

44. Sometimes we really doubt whether that great love exists. There is a poem by Polish poet Szymborska. The first few lines of the poem are as follows: "Happy love. Is it normal?"

Two people are so sweet together, their laughter is harsh, they are so Happiness, can't you hide it?

45. There are often conversations like this in life. One person is asking and the other is answering. The two people are just completing the questions and answers without really wanting to know anything.

46. Medical knowledge is accumulated through illness, and understanding of the body is also gained through surgery. This is the story the body can tell.

47. There is an interesting saying that possession is dual. If you buy and collect small objects, the small objects will also possess you, making you obsessed with purchasing and making you fascinated.

48. But if you have enough love in your heart, sometimes you can appreciate it for yourself and for another person at the same time.

49. George Eliot said that there is no private life that is not determined by the broader public life.

50. The so-called literary idol provides a way of life.

51. “When I listen to the news, the feeling is different from before. It no longer affects my view of the world as it used to. Maybe there is something wrong with the news, or maybe it is The host has a problem, or maybe there is too much information."

52. The good soldier Szeke succumbed to power, but used his story to tell readers a treasonous statement: "Don't identify with the country. Yes, the police are theirs, the army is theirs, they are the people who make up the country. We are the tavern waiters, the laundry ladies, the card players on the street, and the children selling newspapers.”

53. Only things that lack vitality will float like dust, and things that are fertile will sink.

54. For example, if he was arrested by the secret police, he would ask, if I follow you to the police station, should I imitate a dog and walk on its stomach? The police asked, why were you walking on your stomach? "I thought I had no right to walk on the sidewalk if I was arrested," Shuike said.

55. This article is the first chapter of Nabokov's "Speak, Memory", which was first published in "The New Yorker" magazine in April 1950.

56. Nabokov begins this paragraph with a sentence: "Our existence is but a fleeting ray of light between two eternal darkness."

57 .This is the end of the first chapter of "Speak, Memory". He wrote this-

From where I sit, I will suddenly see the rising sky through a window on the west. A spectacular example of emptiness. There, for a brief moment, my father's figure in a white summer suit blown by the wind would appear, stretching spectacularly in mid-air, limbs in strange casual postures, his calm, handsome face turned toward the sky, and then As the invisible person throws him powerfully upward, he will fly into the air three times like this, the second time will fly higher than the first time, and in the last and highest flight, he seems to be leaning forever, with his back Against the blue sky of summer noon, like those characters in heaven with so many pleats on their clothes, flying freely on the vaulted ceiling of the church, while below them, the candles in the hands of mortals are lit one by one, Tiny flames gathered together in the haze of smoke, the priest recited eternal rest, and the funeral lilies covered the face of whoever was lying in the open coffin in the light of the wandering candle.

(Translated by Wang Jiaxiang)

You may not understand. Let me read another version of the translation, omitting the first few sentences -

The article "You will never die of hunger if you study history" said , people who have a lot of metaphors in their heads think more accurately than people who have few metaphors. If you go through college without reading Thucydides, Herodotus, and Gibbon, you have lost important metaphorical skills.

You have to admit that although most humanities scholars are really useless, there are a few writers and scholars who are still great. They think about problems more accurately.

58. He has a very famous article, "Why I Write". He said that people write for no more than four reasons: one is pure individualism, to appear smarter than others; The desire to be talked about by others; the second is aesthetic passion, which is to write beautifully; the third is a sense of historical responsibility, to dig out the truth; the fourth is political purpose, he said, politics here refers to politics in the broadest sense: the desire to push the world to Develop in a certain direction, hoping to change other people's ideas and let them realize which social ideal they should strive for. Orwell said that when he wrote political articles, he also strived to write them beautifully.

59. Orwell is not that kind of genius writer. He faces the world with simple, direct and sober intelligence. He tells us that our task is not to become intellectuals and use a set of gorgeous He uses his own language to become smarter, but relies on his own consciousness to become smarter. A good society should be composed of thoughtful people, and each of us can become a thoughtful person.

60. This is a so-called Kafkaesque absurdity of existence. The novelist Kundera told a true story to illustrate this absurdity. In the 1960s, in the Czech Republic, an engineer went abroad to attend a conference. When he returned to the Czech Republic, he read a newspaper and found an article in the newspaper saying that he had made remarks abroad that were unfavorable to the motherland and that he might want to defect. . The engineer quit. He didn't do any of these things. He went to the newspaper to redress his grievances and reported the problems to the organizational department. The bureaucracy couldn't explain how there was such an article in the newspaper, but it couldn't say that you hadn't published any improper articles abroad. I can't guarantee that you have no thoughts of defecting. The more the engineer thought about it, the more worried he became, and finally, he simply defected. Our ordinary lives may not be so absurd, but you are likely to encounter absurd things and be in situations in Kafka's novels. The greatness of a great novelist does not lie in whether you agree with his ideas, but in that he has written your life in advance.

61. Human stupidity lies in answering every question, while the wisdom of novels lies in asking questions about everything.

62. This proverb is widely circulated. Everyone will think of this sentence when they are too lazy to think. When humans think, God laughs, so we should stop thinking. But Kundera didn't mean to stop thinking. He said that novels are a response to God's laughter. The novel should oppose that monotonous and rigid thinking mode.

63. William James has a book, "Variety of Religious Experience". He said that religion essentially means certain feelings, behaviors and experiences that an individual has alone, making him feel that he is related to what he is. Religious experience is the personal feeling and taste of sacred objects. Without personal communication with God, without personal personal feeling of the sacred, there would be no religion.

64. Poets are indeed alien. A British literature professor said this: There is a magic archer Philoctetes in "The Iliad". He is very skilled, but he has a wound on his body. The wound always emits a foul smell, so the Greeks leave him alone. Live on a small island. Troy could not be captured for a long time. The Greeks remembered that we still had an archer and sent for him. The image of the poet is like the archer Philoctetes, who has great abilities, but ordinary people cannot bear to live with him. The poet always makes people feel that he is an outsider.

65. More than a hundred years ago, Wilde said that only art that the public is not interested in can survive. The reason why there are still good poems in Britain is because the British do not read poetry and have little impact on poetry. We have a bad habit now, that is, we always regard ourselves as cultural consumers. We measure everything by whether we like it or not, and whether I understand it or not. When nothing happens, we like to go to Douban to rate it, but we are unwilling to spend time to understand what we don’t understand. thing.

66. German scholar Benjamin distinguished the difference between stories and novels. He said that stories always give advice and convey experience, but novels rely on books and are born from lonely individuals. Novels show the deep confusion of the living.

Writers will carefully distinguish the difference between stories and novels.