Is it to choose sixpence on the ground? Or choose to look up at the moon in the sky? It seems that every few years, Maugham's books set off a reading boom among the masses. Maugham also has a large number of fans of writers. The writer Mao Jian once brought Maugham from the literary field to the public eye by writing "My Uncle Maugham". Why do we still love reading Maugham today?
01
Maugham's first impressions
Compared to tomes like bricks, or dozens of pages of writing a cup of tea, Maugham can be said to be a very easy writer to read. Most of his works have rich storytelling, with distinct personalities and ups and downs.
Maugham is recognized as a "very storyteller" writer
There is even a vague sense of always encouraging everyone to break through the constraints of morality and money to pursue inner freedom and joy - Maugham's protagonists, all kinds of shackles, all kinds of breaks and divorces, and then run to Mauritius... In short, life is all kinds of thrilling, and all kinds of windward messes in the heart...
The film adaptation of the novel of the same name, The Veil
It is no wonder that, in the words of the writer Mao Jian, Maugham lived a life of a single person and lived ten lifetimes of ordinary people. Born in Paris in 1874, William Somerset Maugham had a happy childhood loved by his parents, but with the death of his parents, Maugham, who was less than 10 years old, was sent to his stereotypical uncle to raise, and the lonely and miserable childhood life cast a painful shadow on his soul and developed his later lonely, sensitive and introverted personality.
Maugham in his youth
As an adult, In addition to the identity of a writer, Maugham was also a playwright, studied medicine, worked as a spy, drove an ambulance, worked as a midwife, married, had children, and had long-term same-sex lovers... In addition, his footprints have spread all over the world, from Europe to the Far East, from China to Latin America, from the South Pacific to the United States... Maugham was once known as the "world traveler", a title he could not have overstated even in today's highly trafficked world.
Film based on the novel "Love Emerald"
"Just saying he's a writer is already 'narrowing' him." Mao Jian, a writer who has loved Maugham for many years and a professor at China Normal University, said, "Maugham's own life is more exciting than all his books. Strictly speaking, Maugham was not a writer who wrote by imagination, not a writer like Borges or Tolstoy. All his novels add up to the sum of his life. ”
02
Movies are on the spot
Perhaps because of such a rich story, Maugham's books have always been the favorite of film adaptations. His novel "The Veil", which is based on his Chinese experience, has been adapted into a film of the same name starring Edward Norton, "Love Emerald" is adapted from his novel of the same name in his later years, and "Becoming Julia" is derived from his "Theater Style"...
The movie "Becoming Julia" is adapted from the novel "Theater Style"
According to incomplete statistics, nearly 700 times his texts have been adapted to various stages, plays, and movies, including a novella that has been adapted more than 30 times. Not only are the number of changes wrong, many of Maugham's works have been very successful in filming. But at the same time, it seems that this has also become a one-sided proof that "Maugham is a second-rate writer".
"We seem to have an impression that the better the book, the easier it is to adapt it into a movie, for example, the film and television of "Dream of the Red Chamber" is easy to fail, and "Madame Bovary" is changed once and failed." Mao Jian said, "This will easily produce an iron law in contrast to this — you can adapt it so easily, which means that it is not a great work." Actually, this is a misunderstanding. Maugham is a case in point, and it is through Maugham that the style of first- and second-rate writers can be opened. It's like reopening modern and contemporary literature through Zhang Ailing. ”
03
First-class and second-rate
Speaking of "second-rate writers", this is exactly what Maugham famously said about himself. In a sense, he is redefining the second stream, and redefining the writer.
Maugham, who has worked tirelessly all his life, calls himself a "second-rate writer"
In Mao's view, Maugham even redefined morality. "In his writing, many of the characters that we thought were problematic, or the words that were problematic, such as 'chastity', were rewritten and changed by him."
The novel The Veil is based on Maugham's experiences in China
In his creation, Maugham has created many female figures of pleasure-seeking, betrayal of marriage, and watery Yanghua, which some people think is a kind of "misogyny", and Mao Jian holds different views on this.
The film of the same name based on the novel The Veil
"What's wrong with women who are having fun? She can have fun at the same time, or she can be very naïve at the same time. In a sense, Maugham puts the concepts of human 'bipolarity' or 'duality'—innocence and sensuality, worldliness and sophistication—on a person who at the same time assembles something very pure and something that has desire. Mao Jian said.
In Mao's view, Maugham brought honor to second-rate writers. Just like Zhang Ailing said, "I like money", Zhang Ailing gave the honor to money, making people feel that it is normal to like money. Maugham said the same, "When he speaks of second-rate writers, second-rate writers all over the world are rehabilitated by him, and when he says that this woman is very lascivious, lasciviousness itself acquires a new sense of morality, and these things are adjusted by Maugham." ”
Maugham's women tend to have multi-dimensional personalities
Interestingly, Zhang Ailing is a fan of Maugham, and in the way of writing, whether it is the perspective of a bystander or the ability to turn gossip into writing materials, maugham's essence is deeply rooted. Maugham's writing of Blade offended many friends around her, and a large number of Zhang Ailing's texts were based on real family events, and even she did not dare to publish "Little Reunion"...
Q&A
Hairy tip
Writer, professor at East China Normal University
MW: Why has The Moon and Sixpence been on fire until now?
Mao Jian: "The Moon and Sixpence" pointed very clearly in that year: people with ideals look at the moon, and people who are busy making money guard the sixpence on the ground, and the contrast is very obvious. And today the relationship between the moon and sixpence is reset, or revised. In his novels, the person who pursues the ideal seems to be a relatively flat person today. The protagonist of "The Moon and Sixpence" just thinks about painting and doesn't want to do anything, just like the protagonist of "Blade" wants to read all the time, which may have been the pursuit of ideals in Maugham's time, but it is also a kind of lying flat in today's context. So "The Moon and Sixpence" has been reset today, and it is still interesting to revisit Maugham today. This is also the reason why Maugham has always been contemporarized, and the topics he sets can always be compared in new contexts.
MW: There are many novelists, how did Maugham produce so many golden sentences?
Mao Jian: There are a lot of words in Maugham that are very classic, all with some irony, such as he said, 'Those dead people, when they die, they look particularly dead', how to understand this kind of words? It's a golden sentence, it's aphorism, or it's a satire. It's Maugham's sense of humor, British sense of humor. At that time, Maugham already had a kind of today's 'bullet curtain discourse', or the golden sentence of this era. Tolstoy's words would not appear on the barrage, Tolstoy's words would have to be large to get, and Dostoevsky would not be today's barrage. But every sentence of Maugham's words can be placed on the barrage, and he has a kind of thing that grasps the aura of the future.
MW: Maugham's own life is very legendary, how do you see his two-sidedness?
Mao Jian: Maugham spent more than 6 months a year in the Far East, seeking all kinds of fun, but his diligence and self-discipline reached the point of terror. He had to bring a box of books with him every time he traveled, and he was a doctor and a spy, both of which were very boring and required endurance that was different from ordinary people. In his later years, we danced square dancing at the age of 70, but Maugham still wrote for 3 hours a day after the age of 70. He never hid his pursuit of a luxurious, sound dog and horse life, and at the same time he shut himself in a window and kept writing, which is also the two sides of Maugham's unity, he himself is more valuable and interesting than his novels, and he himself has many dimensions.
"Reading Maugham" book list
The Moon and Sixpence
The Moon and Sixpence
Translated by Yao Jinqing
Reader Classic Library | Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House
The Razor's Edge
Blade
Translated by Wu Shujing and Song Zongwei
The Painted Veil
The Veil
Translated by Liu Yongjun
EDIT—2Y
The image comes from the Internet