Exploring Lu Xun’s REVENGE I
Huiwen
(Helen) Zhang[1]
What does the title
remind you of? What (personal and collective) memories are evoked?
In the world of Lu Xun: The Loner,
Diary of A Madman, Dead Fire,
Epitaph,
The Wanderer, etc.
Other world literature/cinema
on “Revenge”
What does the title
promise? What expectations are encouraged?
Blood, violation, trauma,
resentment, justice, desire, patience, insanity, sacrifice, reward, regret,
irreversibility, nothingness, etc.
What does the word “revenge”
almost inevitably involve?
A back story that introduces
and establishes a binary relation, e.g. between victims and criminals (the
slaughtered vs. the slaughterer)
How are you prompted to
envision the story before moving to the first line?
A narrative response to the multiple
question: Who seeks what type of “revenge” on whom, for what, through what ways,
and with what consequences?
Paragraph 1
Cut: the narrator opens
the text with a cut that implies—or
even illustrates—a surgery.
Is this a surgery of human body or human
nature or both?
Twist: the
pseudo-scientific opening is immediately followed by a revelation of the
fictional nature through the image of “silkworms climbing up a wall.”
Is the reader exposed to (and hence compelled to examine) a section of
human body or a fragment of human nature?
Are the associations stimulated by “silkworms” positive, negative, or
neutral?
Why is the word “dense” repeated? In what
respect is “density” relevant?
Presence & absence:
3 often negatively-connotated verbs, “bewitch, incite, and tug,” address the
present interaction; 3 often positively-connotated verbs, “cuddle, kiss,
embrace,” address the absent interaction.
Why do silkworms “with all their might” desire?
Why can they not “cuddle, kiss, embrace?”
(Self-)Deceptive affection? Impossible communication?
Nothingness of
self-centered endeavors? Perpetual suspension (of …)?
Nirvana: type 1, of
silkworms with desperate desires
“Sinking, intoxicating”: both descriptions imply passivity (lack of
self-motivation, resistance, etc.) and surrender (to gravity, temptation, etc.)
What’s the difference between Lu Xun’s ‘Nirvana 1’ and the Buddhist
Nirvana?
Cf. Oxford entry: Buddhism—The
realization of the non-existence of self, leading to cessation of all
entanglement and attachment in life; the state of being released from the
effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth.
What’s the difference
between “Nirvana” and “life’s Nirvana?”
Paragraph 2
Echo of the cut: a sword and a
surgery knife
“One single strike”: the vulnerability of human skin (i.e. the physical
life)
“Arrows,” “flood”: intensity and immediacy of bloody slaughter
Twist: the slaughtered/victim
instantly becomes the slaughterer, while at the same moment the slaughterer turns
into the slaughtered/victim.
In neither case is “victim” necessarily negative: being a victim opens
possibilities of accessing Nirvana!
Weapon of the slaughtered-turned-slaughterer: icy breath and pale lips—in
the name of revenge?
In the Chinese original
there is no gender specification; the
binary context of she/he or him/her is avoided by using gender-neutral
pronouns. Why so?
Nirvana: type 2, of the
slaughterer-turned-slaughtered &
Nirvana: type 3, of the
slaughtered-turned-slaughterer
Affinities: “soaring, climaxing”—in striking contrast to type 1 of the
silkworms
Differences: loss of
humanity (i.e. the spiritual life), fleeting, momentary experiences gained
under specific circumstances vs. loss of blood & warmth (and presumably the
physical life), lasting, perpetual experiences of seemingly unconditional immersion
Paragraph 3
“This way, therefore”: distinct, curious transition—fake
causation or convincing logic?
If fake causation: why bother faking it? How can a pseudo-argument
benefit the story?
If convincing logic: in
what sense “therefore?” What back story is told about “the two of them” before
their first appearance in the text? What
connections can be made between “the two of them” and the pair of slaughtered/slaughterer
in Paragraph 2?
“Naked” yet “gripping swords”: primitive, confrontational—bare body,
equipped hand
“In the vast wilderness”:
geographic/cultural extreme chosen to create narrative gaps
In the middle of nowhere—both “the two of them” and the
reader of the text:
Who are they? What is their gender (as in Paragraph 2, no gender specification)?
What is their relationship?
Where do they come from? How do they end up here?
Why are they (at least
seemingly) determined to fight a duel?
Paragraph 4
“About to”: whose voice/assumption?
Observed from whose view?
“Embrace” and “slaughter”: two extreme possibilities—either or? Both at
the same time?
Paragraph 5
“Passers-by”: how can
people pass by a “vast wilderness?”
It sounds rather like pilgrims “from
all directions!”
What is the sacred temptation or promised spectacle?
Is “hurrying here” individually motivated or a fanatic ‘mass flow?’
What generates the
incredible energy of the pilgrims—morbid curiosity, unbearable dullness, lack
of imagination, comfort of being together, anonymous, and hidden, fear of being
alone, distinct, and exposed?
“Silkworms,” “with all
their might”: immediate reminder of the opening—passivity, surrender, and
Nirvana type 1
In contrast to the
tension between the ‘audience’ and the ‘stage actors’: the absence of
communication among the audience
“Ants ready to haul away a cured fish head”: new scene/comparison—effective
description of absurd eagerness and laughable seriousness
“Pretty clothes,” “empty hands”—in striking contrast to “the two of
them”: civilized yet weak (incapable of survival in the vast wilderness)
“Stretch their necks to
enjoy and examine the embrace or slaughter”: a response to the question: whose
view/assumption? Observed from whose view? The passers-by!
Only the two extreme possibilities are considered by the passers-by
worth happening or worth watching.
Only when the passers-by themselves are physically safe can they enjoy
and examine the risky adventures of “the two of them.”
“Enjoy and examine”:
first enjoy, then examine—the examination is to defend, excuse, and justify the
joy!
“Forefeel”: the “sweat
or blood” of others on “their own
tongues”
How directly and intensively are the
passers-by engaged in the presumed duel!
“Embrace or slaughter” “sweat or blood”: the two extreme possibilities
make no difference to the passers-by:
Weird symbiosis of zealous interest and perfect
indifference
Paragraph 6
“Yet”: against whose
expectations?
The passers-by-turned-audience
The reader of the text
Each of “the two of them”
The vast wilderness as a stage for—
The duel between “the two of them”
The duel between “the two of them” and the passers-by
The duel between human beings and the nature
The duel between human lifespan
and eternity, etc.
Wording: repetition and reversal combined through “but”
Repetition: enhanced poetry; but also enhanced boredom
Reversal: an absolute
denial of not only the action (embrace/slaughter) but also the intention
“The vast wilderness”:
unchanged by the sudden arrival of the passers-by
A superior, mocking, and disrespectful smirk of the
wilderness at the passers-by?
Irrelevance, inexistence, lack/absence of
being/humanity of the passers-by?
Who is now viewing and speaking?
Paragraph 7
Repetition: enhanced
poetry; yet even more enhanced boredom
Who is now bored?
The audience in- and outside of the text (passers-by and the reader) by
the non-happening.
“The two of them” by the audience, by each other,
and by themselves.
The wilderness by the
absurdity of human behavior and community...
“Round, limber bodies”:
implication of health and strength
Impossible to see the bodies of the passers-by through their “pretty
clothes;” a possible reason for them to wear clothes: cover their unhealthy,
stiff, less presentable bodies.
A possible reason for
“the two of them” to be naked: primitive pride in their primitive figures;
intact self-confidence; independent of decoration and cover.
The anticipated “withering”
of the “round, limber bodies”: a price of revenge?
A revenge of “the two of them”
on the passers-by for their fanatic gaze and comfortable
indifference by acting against their
expectations
A revenge of “the two of them” at the cost of suppressing their own
desires and abandoning their initial plans, of aging without visible activities
and living seemingly in vain
Is the revenge worth the sacrifice (price/cost)?
Paragraph 8
“Bored/boredom”: one of
the key words eventually emerges to the text surface
The passers-by “hurry
here” in hopes of escaping boredom, yet end up in being “drilled” by boredom so
intensely that they “lose life’s joy.” Is this how they pay for their ‘crime’ (of
trying to entertain themselves via morbid gazes)?
“Drilling”: a reminder
of the “silkworms,” yet more negative, painful, tormenting.
Victim of boredom
(those who are bored) <=> generator of boredom (those who ‘contribute’ to and reinforce boredom)
“Dry throats and
tongues”: opposite of their “forefeeling” the fresh taste of others’ “sweat and
blood”
Irony. Effective revenge?
“They look at one another in blank dismay”: the first time the
passers-by seem to care about/communicate with one another—however, a false
care/communication after all.
Paragraph 9
“The vast wilderness”:
the last and only triumphant
The passers-by (and probably also “the two of them”) are no more than a
temporary, replaceable ‘decoration’ to the wilderness, just like the pretty
clothes to them
The vulnerability of human beings—regardless of life style
The nothingness of revenge—regardless of whatever
result
“With the gaze of the dead”: loss of the physical life, gain of the penetrating
eyes?
“Enjoy and examine”:
reversal
Those who intend to gaze <=> those who are
eventually gazed
Parallel to the reversal: the slaughtered <=> the slaughterer
“Stand withered,”
“witheredness”: both perished
No absolute winner in revenge.
“Bloodless slaughter”:
another keyword of the story, seemingly opposite of the ‘bloody’ opening
Physical implication/reading vs. spiritual implication/reading (Diary of a Madman; The Kite)
Bloodless slaughter of whom by whom—
of the passers-by by “the two of them”
of “the two of them” by
the passers-by
Nirvana: type 3, of the
actors-turned-audience or the gazed-turned-gazer
Parallel to that of the slaughtered-turned-slaughterer (Paragraph 2)
Perpetual immersion in “life’s
soaring, climaxing Nirvana”—what is gained at the end? At what cost?
Back to the Title
A modern Chinese
counterpart of Much Ado About Nothing?
A parody of eventful revenge tragedy genre?
Make sense of Revenge:
Revenge on the passers-by (audience I)
Revenge on the text reader (audience II)
Revenge on each of “the two of them”
Revenge on blood
Revenge on humanity
Revenge on the vast wilderness
…
[1] My lively
gratitude to Christopher Ellers, James Amstutz , Kristin Love, Mary Caro Franko
and William Hall for their dedicated, unique, and inspirational contributions
to the night discussion on January, 24, 2013.
Notes rather than prose seem a brilliant way to signal the shift in focus from explanation, from the closing of gaps and the solving of problems to the continual opening of new issues, new questions, new choices, the demand for new decisions and the obligation to engage in new work!
ReplyDelete