Wen | sticky book monster
"Half of a Man is a Woman" is Zhang Xianliang's most representative novel, and it is also the first literary work in China to break through the "sexual forbidden zone".
Zhang Xianliang shows his fluent writing, profound thoughts, and a very profound understanding of human nature, love and the times in this work, which is undoubtedly a good work. My biggest regret after reading this work is that I didn't read it earlier.
This is a "thought-type" novel that takes you on and on, because the author has incorporated his philosophy into the story.
What is "sex", what is "love", what is "soul", what is "time", and why is half of men women? In this work, people with similar souls can find resonance, which is not only the literature of the reflective era, but the eternal topic of human beings.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the initial awakening and prolonged repression of instinctive desires</h1>
After Zhang Yongxuan met Huang Xiang in the bath for a long time on the riverbank, the consciousness of "sex" was initially awakened. As he describes in the article:
"And in me, the woman in the dream is either very abstract: an unformed, earthworm-like soft body, a late Picasso-style color, a cloud of flowing white clouds or light smoke. But I'm going to tell me desperately and convince me: This is a woman! ”
In this novel, the woman is a desire, a special emotion that has been suppressed for a long time and has not been cathartic, it is not just "sex", but refers to all the instinctive, primitive, and reasonable appeals of human beings. But in those particular times, this demand was less than satisfied.
When instinctive desires are not satisfied, people are repressed, which is the repression of the individual and even the entire era.
It had been eight years since Zhang Yongxuan and Huang Xiangjiu had met again, and Zhang Yongxuan had also been depressed for eight years, and that Shadow lingered in his heart. Later, he married Huang Xiangjiu, but it was driven by instinctive desire. Two people who are also "labor reformed", can also be said to be the combination of two people who have bad fate, live at the bottom, and are not accepted by the public, such a combination is not love, to be precise, it is a mutual need, and the group is warm. Zhang Xianliang's statement on marriage is that marriage is not the result of love, but the result of chance.
What a naked irony, people enter marriage because of "love", and consider the conditions that have nothing to do with love before marriage, that is, to prepare for future life, love has nothing to do with life, or has little to do with it, love is a feeling, life is practical, so marriage is actually the result of chance.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > hidden in "sexual disorder" events, reflections on love, marriage, human nature, and morality</h1>
On the night of Zhang Yongxuan and Huang Xiangjiu's new marriage, Huang Xiangjiu discovered Zhang Yongxuan's "sexual disorder". According to Zhang Yongxuan's words, this is because of the result of long-term repression, because there are no women during the "labor reform", so the best way is not to think about women.
Mourning is greater than death of the heart, and all of man's "non-divided thoughts" are killed in this environment. The "sexual barrier" here is not just "sex" itself, but the gradual loss of human instinct.
Because of Zhang Yongxuan's "sexual disorder", Huang Xiangjiu's derailment is only a matter of time.
The derailment of Huang Xiangjiu is one of the biggest and most intense points of discussion in this book, and it is also the core conflict of the whole story.
Many comments say that the book is written entirely from the perspective of men, and huang Xiangjiu's image is only a woman in the eyes of men, not a real woman. There is a suspicion of machismo.
In this marriage, whether there is love or not is difficult to say, but it is certainly not "sexual". Because there is no "sex", so look for "sex", which forms a conflict between morality and human nature.
The book says, "It's better to live without morality!" It's hard to have a moral day! ”
This sentence naturally has a peculiar irony of that era, but it is also thought-provoking today. Morality is a ruler, and people often measure others, not themselves. When measuring others, "life is better". When measured by others, "life is not good" People live in this mutuality.
Zhang Yongxuan filed for divorce because he could not fulfill his husband's responsibilities. Huang Xiangjiu disagreed, saying that if she let outsiders know, it would be as if she wanted that. "Sex" is shameful to say, and like most instinctive appeals of that era, it is a "sin."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > can the spirit and the flesh really be separated? </h1>
Huang Xiangjiu still cheated, and this scene was still seen by Zhang Yongxuan. But she is still very good to Zhang Yongxuan, and seems to be a pure spiritual love. This made Zhang Yongxuan feel confused, even trance-
I've seen a lot of literature and movies about "sex", at least on the level of "sex" and "love", spirit and flesh are inseparable. In "Mrs. Chatailai's Lover", in the face of her husband who is paralyzed in the lower limbs, even if connie loves her husband again, she still pursues "sex" and finally falls in love with another person because of "sex". The same is true in "The Bed of Stones", in the face of a husband with a "sexual disorder", the woman cannot suppress the desire for the servant Alai.
I don't know in life, at least in all the literature and movies I see, "sex" and "love" are inseparable, and without either of them, it is impossible to form a stable relationship between men and women.
This incident became a knot in Zhang Yongxuan's heart, but under another coincidence, Zhang Yongxuan recovered his "sexual ability". This made Huang Xiangjiu excited, but this excitement was temporary, because that derailment became an insurmountable gap between the two, and Zhang Yongxuan deliberately expanded this gap indefinitely.
divorce.
Sooner or later, I want to divorce, Zhang Yongxuan told Huang Xiangjiu. However, Huang Xiangjiu seemed to love Zhang Yongxuan so much that he didn't want to leave at all. This paragraph has also been criticized by many female readers, believing that it is a vicious fantasy of men.
In fact, this novel should not be limited to eating men and women, at least this is not Zhang Xianliang's original intention, "sex" refers to instinctive desire in literature, and it is more impactful to express it through the form of "sex".
Huang Xiangjiu gave love to Zhang Yongxuan, but gave his instinct to another person. So is love the desire of the body or the fusion of the soul? Is marriage the product of spiritual resonance, or is it a union of physical attraction to each other?
Do you have to fight for a reason?
In fact, not necessarily, whether it is love or marriage, or anything else, the noble soul needs and instinctive primitive desires have never directly conflicted, they complement each other and achieve each other.
So half of the men are women, and half of the women are also men.