At a time when everything can be written, as the oldest book variety, "biography", it is still the "highlight" in a wide variety of publications. There is a market to produce products, and books are no exception. So, why do readers like to read biographies? When publishers are launching upgraded editions with the times, how should readers open them?
Interpret Van Gogh in psychoanalysis: the starry sky originally had a special meaning
See the author of Strangers in the World: A Psychological Biography of Van Gogh (East China Normal University Press, February 2022), Albert M. J. Rubin' major is a professor of clinical psychiatry, and I think I'm going to read a "Van Gogh biography" that is unique among van gogh biographies because of its alternative approach.
Almost from the moment Van Gogh was born, Lubin used the "ruler" to measure how Van Gogh, who was inexhaustible in appearance and lonely and paranoid in temperament, had "refined" himself into the great painter Van Gogh.
In addition to the famous "Desire to Live: The Biography of Van Gogh", I have read several Van Gogh stories and seen the well-made cartoon "The Mystery of the Beloved Van Gogh Starry Sky", which will eventually become a classic. Rao is like this, the process of reading "Strangers in the World: Van Gogh's Psychological Biography" has become the process of re-understanding Van Gogh - the title of the book is so appropriate, we only see the hilarious Van Gogh who is hooked up with shocking paintings such as "Sunflower" and "Starry Sky", but we can't see Van Gogh who is lonely day and night in the creation of "Sunflower" and "Starry Sky". Therefore, even today, when almost everyone knows Van Gogh, he is still a stranger in the world. And Lubin tries to let us understand Van Gogh sympathetically through this special van Gogh biography, and on this basis, we can appreciate Van Gogh's earth-shattering works to obtain a more plump sense of beauty. Indeed, this van govt biography, which the author calls a "psychological biography," restores us almost a brand-new Van Gogh. The paper is short and long, just to talk about how Lubin interpreted Van Gogh in the Arles period, why his painting style suddenly became bright from the previous gray, and why the famous "Starry Sky" brought a strong sense of dizziness to the viewer.
Lubin believes that Van Gogh spent his life trying to improve the melancholy and withdrawn personality formed by his mother's neglect and even indifference. Although arles' sunshine and style allowed him to create a warm and harmonious "Sunflower", from his hometown of Zindert to the Hague, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Newnan and other places to seek the paradise in his heart, Van Gogh slept in the wind, and his health was seriously damaged when he was originally weak. Coupled with always changing all of his brother Theo's financial support to canvases and paints, he often ran out of food, resulting in malnutrition, which made Van Gogh suffer from dizziness. Therefore, rather than saying that "Starry Sky" fully shows the artistic characteristics of Van Gogh's works, that is, the colors are brilliant, the ink is heavy, and there is a sense of "the sky spinning", it is better to say that the brilliant starry sky on the canvas is van Gogh's own eyes, but when the disease struck, Van Gogh chose to complete the leap from a mental illness patient to a great painter. The paintings, which are now in vogue, document Van Gogh's difficult leaps. Today, we are willing to indulge in Van Gogh's dizziness, in fact, we are paying tribute to Van Gogh who broke free from the shackles of disease.
Five versions of "Lover": a reflection of Duras's mental journey
Also jumping out of the "presenting the life of the master" is this book Margaret Duras: The Darkroom of Writing (Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, June 2021 edition). This is a new work by Huang Jie, a professor of french at Nanjing University who has been paying attention to Duras since he was a master's student. In her own afterword, there is such a passage: "As far as I know about the biographies of Duras at home and abroad, there have been more than a dozen kinds in France alone, and there are no less than six kinds that have been translated and imported in China..."
It is not surprising that since the publication of the novel "Lover", especially the film of the same name based on the novel, has been screened worldwide, Margaret Duras's popularity has spread all over the cape, and everyone is talking about Duras. It's just that the writer is so deeply pickpocketed, the legend that belongs to Duras should have been thin, right? "What new materials, new angles, new discoveries can I have?" After reading this book, we know that it is the self-humility of huangxun.
In the first chapter of the book, the third stanza Lover, Huang Yun wrote plainly: Duras used five texts, 'Notes on The War and Other Texts', 'The Against the Pacific', 'The Cinema of Eden', 'Lover', and 'Lovers of Northern China'—to create five versions of 'Lovers' for the reader. The question is, it is not that there is no subject matter to write, why did Duras write the story of "lover" five times? After so many years of diving in duras's text world, he really knew the Tao in it.
On the tenth anniversary of Duras's death, France published Notes and Other Texts of the War, based on manuscripts and notebooks donated during her lifetime. In the book, the man whom Duras calls Leo is version 1.0 of "Lover": "There is a luxury sedan, a huge diamond ring on his hand, a silk suit, speaks French, comes from Paris, and is polite." Leo, who was not clearly nationalized by Duras at this time, fell in love with "a short, flat white girl with freckles on her face and two heavy braids behind her," as in later versions. And the white girl? "It's not so much that the white girl falls for Leo as she is seduced by his luxury car and the huge family wealth behind it."
Based on the contents of the notebook, The Against the Pacific Ocean was published in 1950. In this 2.0 version of the "Lover" story, the man has changed his name to Ruo, and the little white girl has the name Susan. Mr. Ruo, known as "Monkey" and "Toad" by Susan's family, is still Susan and her family's money bag, and Susan enjoys the gift that Mr. Ruo gave her, but when Mr. Ruo kisses her on the lips, she "seems to be slapped" in the face.
The advent of "Eden Cinema" in 1979 marked the birth of the 3.0 version of "Lover". It is still Mr. Ruo who is dressed up, mr. Ruo who is still obsessed with white girls, but after 29 years of fermentation by the author, Susan's feedback on this emotion has improved, and she is less disgusted with his kiss, "the prototype of the lover has been completed", Huang Said.
The image of the lover will be fullened until five years later. In 1984, "Lover" was published, and as we know, the 4.0 version of the "Lover" story told in the first person has completely degenerated into a vague and poignant love story.
With the popularity of the film "Lover" adapted from the novel, and with the novel "Lover" winning the Goncourt Prize, the story of the lover written in the notebook has been "successful" and can be faded from Duras's memory, right? But Duras, the owner of the memory, felt that "Lover" had not yet ended the "lover" story in the notebook. In 1991, "Lovers of Northern China" came out. In the 5.0 version of the "Lover" story, the "Lover" not only dumped the white girl, but also charmed the mother and calmed the big brother because of his funny and knowledgeable conversation - from the 1.0 version to the 5.0 version, the "lover's" dress and behavior did not change, and the value judgments projected by Duras were updated version by version.
A biography, is it necessary to enable the comparison of works, which is usually used when analyzing works? Huang Eden told us that behind the update of the Lover's version is Duras's mental journey, which corresponds to the changes in the world pattern. In 1950, when Duras wrote The Against the Pacific, the international situation could not be honestly presented by Duras in her eyes, especially her inner lover, and this psychological pressure continued until she wrote The Cinema of Eden. At the time of the creation of Lover, Huang Wat wrote: "It is old, and the memory has changed under the repeated action of intentional or unintentional forgetting and reproducing. And the scandal didn't matter to her anymore. This statement is extremely, but it should be added that by 1984, Duras was no longer afraid to reveal to the reader the true face of his lover and his true feelings about his lover. In 1991, when "Lovers in Northern China" was published, "Lovers" finally found the self-confidence and love that had been coming for a long time, and female writers finally had the courage to frankly express their love stories with their lovers.
Disdainful of dwelling on the superficial Duras legends, the entire biography guides the reader to dive into Duras's text to understand Duras, so this Duras biography is shown in the forest.
Classical music as a backdrop: Musician biographies highlight professionalism
The realization of the weight of the author's increase in the expertise related to the master began with Music in the Castle of Paradise: The Biography of Bach (Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, May 2020 edition).
The author of the book, Sir John Elliot Gardner, is a Bach research expert who has conducted and performed the best Bach since 1964 with like-minded musicians in an orchestra focused on ancient music performances.
In this biography, Sir Gardner chose the most difficult way to penetrate, that is, to outline Bach's seemingly calm but actually choppy life by telling the most outstanding works of Bach's works. More than 300 years ago, Bach's ingenious ideas in his works made it difficult for us to understand today, and Sir Gardner was the "bridge builder" who helped us reach Bach, and under his exquisite lectures, learning to understand Bach's huge number of works is no longer a dangerous road.
Another biography of a musician that shares the similarities with Music in the Castle of Paradise: A Biography of Bach is The Biography of Wagner (Translation Forest Press, August 2021).
The 800-page "Biography of Wagner" of course presents Wagner's "hologram", a thousand-faced Wagner, written by the author on one side of the color, so that readers have to sigh: Wagner's life is also too dramatic. However, how can Wagner, who is no more dramatic, have to be blessed with the Ring of the Nibelungen, and how can such an author be satisfied with recreating a superficially lively Wagner, who has a background in music and music theory and has worked as a violist in the orchestra? Therefore, the backbone of Wagner's biography is Wagner's masterpiece, a set of four operas "The Ring of the Nibelungen".
Whether it's the Bayreuth Festival Theatre, which specially stages The Ring of the Nibelungen, or the Grand Theatres around the world, which occasionally perform the play, and who have the privilege of being a guest of honor, how many people can proudly claim to have understood the Ring of the Nibelungen? This opera is based on ancient Nordic legends, not to mention the Chinese audience who do not know so much about European culture, even Wagner fans in Europe may not be able to understand it. But the author of Wagner's biography already knows the connotation and cultural value of the play, so half of a "Wagner biography" is telling the reader how to open the opera correctly—this is another biography that explores how the biographer lived forever because of his work, an upgraded version of the biography.
For a long time, biographies of celebrities became synonymous with inspirational books. We read biographies, as if only to understand the struggle for celebrity fame, in order to gain the courage to forge ahead. After having a conventional standard for biography, publishers are willing to publish biographies of authors who "willfully" add expertise, which can be described as a long-term vision. They certainly anticipate that the sharp increase in difficulty in reading may lose readers who are accustomed to "old-fashioned" biographies, but they may also allow readers who are willing to "tiptoe" to taste the "sweetness" of biographies infused with expertise, that is, to understand or even understand the connotations of Van Gogh, Duras, Bach, and Wagner who became masters. The news that "Bach Biography" has sold well makes us believe that the upgrade of the taste of biographical readers is just around the corner. Just, are our biographers ready? After all, to write a highly professional biography, you must have the knowledge reserve of "bench willing to sit cold for ten years". (Wu Mei)
Source: Wen Wei Po