I have always felt that the most regrettable theme in domestic dramas is "small town youth entering the city".
North drift Shanghai drift deep drift, eighteen-line small city out of the tip, all crowded in several big cities.
From the eye-catching talents in his hometown to the vague faces of the CBD workers, little by little.
It's not that no one is filming, it's just a domestic drama, and what theme is finally a love theme.
Unexpectedly, the small-town youth's kind of decadence that can't stay in the big city, can't go back to their hometown, and stuck in the middle will appear in a high-scoring Italian drama.
The third season of "My Genius Girlfriend" has just returned with 9.7 points.
Although the story takes place in distant Italy, it is closer to the life of our small-town youth than any domestic drama.
01
Naples did the subject
The most discussed of the first two seasons is Awakening and Struggle, the more courageous and decisive genius of the two heroines, Lila.
But in the third season, I wanted to talk about Lennon.
Compared with the genius Lila who attracted everyone's attention, Lennon was like the kind of cowardly, dull town I was most familiar with.
From a young age, he was the most well-behaved and studious child in the class, not so personality, and not so popular with boys.
Fortunately, I won the opportunity to go to college, did not become a woman everywhere in the town too soon, and went to the big city.
At the beginning of the third season, Lennon seems to be very successful, the novel is successfully published, and there is a signing party in Milan.
But I still saw in her a palpable uneasiness about being replaced.
How difficult it was for Lennon to go all the way from Naples to Milan, probably like going from Zigong to Shanghai.
I tried to take the exam for a second book that my hometown felt was very cattle and could not be looked at in the north, and finally I really mixed up in Shanghai.
With professors, scholars, and Mrs. Kuo, I went in and out of the Peace Hotel to talk about literature and art, and the world tide.
He also made a young and promising boyfriend of a university professor from a prestigious family, and is about to marry into one of the most cultured families in All Of Italy.
The elite of the big cities accepted her and praised her without hesitation: "I love your book. ”
"Your statement is indeed worth hearing."
I think Lennon must have looked forward to this day countless times.
From a place where the family rules of beating women are proud and the family rules of the hooligans are the universal law, they have migrated to a civilized, pioneering, and white-cut metropolis.
Just like the young people around me who left their homeland to drift, when I first entered the city, I always felt that talent and diligence were my own admission tickets, and in the big city, the struggle will definitely be rewarded.
Unlike the poor in their hometowns, the poor and the rich become rich, the bullies bully the poor, and the poor bully the poorer, which is passed down from generation to generation, and it is never an exception.
Although the housing prices in big cities are so high, the work is so tired, and it is so difficult to take root, as long as you think of the filthy streets of your hometown, those who are rude and ignorant, you feel that it is still a good big city.
Full of hope and enthusiasm, it often takes a few years to drift, and after a little achievement, the truth of the brave new world will be discovered.
Big cities don't just look at ability and don't look at connections, they don't just pursue struggle and civilization, there is no human contact, dog and fly camp.
If you feel that there is none, it is because you have not yet accepted it, you have not yet approached its true rules.
Freedom is because you are insignificant. The elite of the family rooted in the big cities know that you can't shake anything, and you can't bring anything.
You have nothing to do with core interests, and naturally no one has to talk to you and negotiate relationships as you do in the countryside.
So when Lennon was accepted, it was also the time when she found that Milan was not much different from Naples.
She realized that as a writer, she would never be able to know what others really said about her novel.
She was heartbroken for an article criticizing her work, and on the other end of the phone, her fiancé's family comforted her with a wide range of knowledge: "You have to get used to it, scolding you is the heat, enjoy your success." 」 ”
Even understating it, don't care about today's report scolding you, tomorrow, the most famous newspaper in all of Italy, and several articles praising you, we are already preparing to reprint.
Skillful, calm, and decent, it was as if they had planned the fate of their daughter-in-law's debut novel long before Lennon's book was even published.
She was not accepted as a hard-working and talented small-town woman who grabbed a handful on the streets of Milan.
There are ideal young people, and they are always very popular in big cities.
But it was this group that was popular, not the specific Lennon, not one of them.
If she had only talent, Milan would only allow her to stay for a short time.
Hollow out her value, give her a little fame and fortune, and let her willingly and desperately burn in the city's vibrant, prosperous, and never-ending wonderful time.
When she was old, tired, and uninterested, the big city would quickly forget her, banish her, and wait for the next foreigner.
She can be replaced at any time, and the lecture she says she wants to give can be replaced by another person or another event at any time.
The students in charge of the reception of the lecture site did not even know that there was such a lecture, that there was such an "outstanding female writer".
In Milan, there is an endless list of foreigners worth paying attention to, filled with talented minds one after another.
The real entrance ticket is the identity of the wife of a rich man and a university professor.
So it was a dinner party to celebrate Lennon's book, and the guests discussed her fiancé, who had "become a professor at a young age."
He also took his presence as the most wonderful gift to congratulate Lennon.
But even the identity of this fiancée can be replaced at any time.
Even her father, who was far away from home, knew: "He is a man that many girls want to marry." ”
Not going to church without a wedding feast was originally a heinous act in their small town.
But as soon as he heard that he insisted on doing this, the man might not marry their daughter and immediately give up.
Tradition and belief are not so important, and the daughter's own career is certainly less important.
The biggest achievement of this daughter who gritted her teeth and walked out of her hometown in the hearts of her parents was always "marrying a college professor." ”
02
Milan that can't stay,
Hometown that can't go back
In the past, Lennon fought against many things, poverty, class, and gender.
It was because of these struggles that she had the opportunity to go to school, leaving Naples and coming to Milan.
But in Milan, Lennon did not refuse this twisted "acceptance".
Unlike the genius Lila, she was a pure idealist.
Lila hates being bullied, but when she is pursued by the powerful town of Yiba, she can get rid of all this by agreeing, but she turns around neatly and marries a butcher.
Lila also hated poverty, she hated poverty to death. But when her rich husband trampled on her dignity, she left her mansion and clothes to cheat and elope, preferring to become an assembly line female worker.
She didn't live like the people of this world, she hated all the rules of the world, and nothing could satisfy her.
Lennon is not like this, Lennon pursues things that are much more selfish, she is too eager to achieve the leap of class, like every aspirant who only wants to make money.
So when the fiancé's family can provide the opportunity to jump class, even if she knows that they do not recognize their independent talents and personality, she will not refuse.
Because of this, she hates Naples, but she can't cut off the past like Lila, and no longer have contact with her family.
On the contrary, the more "successful" Lennon is outside, the more he needs to return to his hometown.
Only that poor, backward town could fill the "respect" she did not get in Milan.
Although this respect is also very distorted.
The scene of her getting along with her mother in her hometown, every young person who "returns home in gold" will probably feel familiar.
The daughter has a chance, and the mother who has been nagging all her life has her tail cocked in front of the neighbors, but she turns her head but tries to maintain her control over her daughter through verbal suppression:
Don't think you're great like this, you were born to me, don't your tail so high.
Ignoring her, she complained: "You are amazing now, to you, we are nothing." ”
What you are most curious about is not what you do, your future, your plans, but how much money you make.
Every conversation has the potential to lead to money.
One second ago, you were still saying "You are amazing now", and the next sentence will be "You are so amazing, why don't you help your brothers and sisters?" ”
Will be curious about your every action, curious about how much money you spend.
Every time I go out and go home, followed by "do nothing to know idleness", it must be:
"A little bit of skill is wasted." "What are you doing with your driver's license?" Are you going to buy a car? ”
Domestic dramas are always keen to create characters who are sucked dry of blood and angry, such as Fan Shengmei in "Ode to Joy" and Fang Xiangjin in "An Jia".
I don't deny that there are such extreme cases, but most of the people I've met are not asked for as much and usually don't reject them frequently.
Just like Lennon, who was chanted eight times ten times, he relaxed: "I'll put on a tv set for you." ”
But he certainly wouldn't tell his parents how much of his property he had, because he knew in his heart that this little money would not reach the threshold of "wealth" in the city.
It's okay to deal with the desires of my hometown once in a while.
The two sides maintained a delicate balance as if they had a tacit understanding.
Lennon's parents took advantage of her, and she felt "valued" from her parents.
At home, throughout Naples, the writer who returned from Milan was well worthy of "attention".
Everyone was eager to talk to her, to inquire about the big city.
If they ignore them, they will immediately change into a mocking tone: "You are famous now, and you don't want to waste time with us." ”
Lenon was afraid of such attention, but at the same time he could not do without such attention.
All her success must be complete with the support of Naples.
In The Return to the Homeland, it is mentioned that literary and artistic preferences make a person appear more advanced, and this high level is achieved by comparing it with those who do not have the opportunity to touch the art.
In fact, not only art, but also something else.
Lennon's fame will be submerged in the sea of people in Milan, but it will be very loud in Naples;
Lennon's wealth was not worth mentioning compared to her fiancé,but in the eyes of her parents, it was already a living vault.
The more greedy and ignorant the people in the hometown, the more Lennon can truly feel that he is different;
The more her friends from home are trapped and need her help, the more she can feel her strength.
I felt what I had done for ten years and betrayed my homeland.
03
Stuck in the middle of the small town youth,
You can only reconcile with yourself
I saw that familiar feeling of powerlessness in Lennon:
A small-town youth who wanders in the big city can never really leave the town.
"I don't want to be swallowed up by my hometown, but I want to take root in an orderly and hopeful place." Running away with such ambitions, the farther you go, the easier it is to suffer about it.
Like the novel that Lennon wrote, the heroine is free-spirited and enthusiastic and frank, but when Lennon tries to break through the shackles like her, she only feels fear.
The newly known man at the party knocked on her door in the middle of the night, and she only dared to refuse; later, tormented by married life to the point of collapse, she plucked up enough courage to defect from the family, but still shrank back at the last moment.
I thought I was far away from my traditional hometown, but I found that I still couldn't accept the dashing values of "seeking pleasure from strangers" and still abided by the "morality" inherited from my mother.
Cowardice from the bottom will always accompany the small-town youth, and the higher they climb in the big city, the more obvious it is.
At the same time, it is long impossible for them to fully return to their hometowns.
When the rejection of the big city makes people feel suffocated, they go back to their hometown; when the sight of their hometown is angry, they buy a ticket back to the city.
Wherever they go, they can use "back", only they know, and where they go is not "back".
The young people of the town are stuck in the middle, with nothing to lose.
But I often wonder if the young people in the town who are eager to defect are really their hometowns?
The decay, ignorance, and filth of the homeland are obviously the same in the circles of those who are really in the city.
Lennon's elegant mother-in-law, at a dinner party celebrating Lennon's book, praised her son's promotion to professorship:
"We women just need to be happy for a man's success."
Her bookish professor husband was adamantly opposed to her taking the pill, and when childbearing exhausted Lennon, he was not even willing to hire a maid.
"I don't like having slaves in the house."
Lennon walked a road to escape from his hometown, but was irresistibly pulled back to his hometown.
Let the husband decide whether to have children or not, let the husband occupy the study, stay in the kitchen all day and listen to the children cry, the typewriter is in front of him, but he can't write a fresh word.
If Lennon had really been as free-spirited as the heroine of her pen and had the courage to rebel against these things, she probably wouldn't have had the chance to marry into a high-class family.
Later, I thought that this might be the reason why the young people in the small town were "stuck in the middle".
They come to the big cities in search of a "civilized order" and try to rebel against the fate of the bottom; the only way to resist is to become the upper class.
Only in this way can they get rid of the undignified life at the bottom, and even if they become the upper class, they also need to cede flesh and dignity.
There is no difference from the low-level order in the town, "if you don't want to be beaten, you can only beat people".
Winning one win is one less one hit you, winning a group of people you can ride on the head of a group of people - even when you ride on someone else's head, there will be someone riding on your head.
"Order" has never been divided into small towns and big cities, it envelops everything, unbreakable, and no one should try to overthrow it.
At the end of the story, Lennon says that he was "reconciled" with Naples.
She used that land as a source of inspiration, and instead of poorly portraying the free-spirited heroines of her imagination, she turned to writing about the wailing widow in the town, about her poor and depraved genius girlfriend Lila.
Write about the small-town life she knows so well, and use what she once wanted to escape the most to achieve career success.
Rather than saying it's "reconciliation," I'd rather say it's "sobriety."
See clearly the "orderly, hopeful" far away, and the town has the same essence.
Instead of clinging to which one to choose, she would sit in her bright study in Milan and write the dark story of Naples.
While watching with great interest the people in the city stage a civilized drama, he calmly stared at the direction of the town's fate.
There's nothing to escape from and nothing to fit in.
Like a truly free man.