意味深远的暴力

发表于   |   分类于   |  

《教你读懂文学的27堂课》读书笔记

  • 第11课 《你以为暴力只会让你受伤吗》

文学作品中的“暴力”不仅仅只是字面上的意思，结合故事情节和时代背景，“暴力”往往蕴含着深远的意义。

《宠儿》的女主角柴特逃到非蓄奴州，却不想奴隶主追上门，柴特为了孩子不再重蹈覆辙，对四个孩子痛下杀手(最后只有襁褓中的孩子死去)。
表面上看对柴特杀害亲骨肉实在过于残忍，但是事件背后却折射出黑奴对整个奴隶体系的恐惧和厌恶，其程度更胜于死亡。放到这个背景下，柴特反而变成了一个悲剧女英雄。

弗罗斯特的诗《熄灭吧，熄灭——》( “Out, Out- “ )中的男孩，本来在农场上一如既往的干活儿，不想一声“开饭了”让他走神，手中的电锯直接切断了孩子的手，导致孩子后来的死亡。
诗题 “Out, Out- “ 出自《麦克白》中的 “Out, out, brief candle, life is but a walking shadow” ，寓意短暂的生命。正如诗所表现的那样，孩子年纪轻轻就离开人世。一来是对童工的嘲讽，二来，也是更深的寓意，是突显生命的渺小和转瞬即逝。 “No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” 没了这个孩子，世界照常运作。哪怕是那么美好的农场风景，也并不能改变什么，孩子只能在冷淡的环境中孤独的死亡。

文学中的暴力有两种形式。
一是让角色互相杀害或让特定角色自戕，这种暴力就是日常生活中见到的各种暴力。角色间的冲突往往是剧情发展到当下的必然结果；
二是作者为了铺陈剧情、推动情节发展故意让某个角色死，而并不是遭受暴力的人活该倒霉。比如罗伯特诗里的那个孩子。
两者最大的区别在于文本中到底有没有一方犯错、有罪。如果一个角色没有犯任何错就死掉，那凶手一定是作者。

谈到暴力题材的文学作品，最容易想到的就是侦探推理的小说。但是传统的推理小说往往没有重量，也无法带出宏大的主题。为什么？因为推理的文本着力点在于层层叠叠的谜题，而构架一旦沉重，其本身就再难负载更深刻的含义。
推理发展到现在(不同于作者的意见)其实已经发展出了很多不同的路线。从松本清张开始的社会派已经能够在推理的基础上加载更多的社会价值和思考。后来演化的新本格也能兼具谜题的复杂性和故事的社会性(从东野圭吾的小说路数演变能够看出来)。

本书作者还就两类暴力的形式分别举了例子，并发散出更多的含义。
同样，当我们看到暴力的片段和题材，我们要问自己：

这些苦难究竟代表什么意义？
乖舛的命运就故事主题而言有何意义？
其它惨死的著名角色或者神话人物还有谁？
世界上的暴力那么多种，为什么作者选择这一种不选择那一种？

暴力不止是暴力，其暗含的意义要比雨和雪多很多。

Out, Out-


by Robert Frost

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

文中提到的网络可查的作者和书籍