A "Reflection on the Fate of Mankind in the Epidemic Era" - Commenting on Lu Xinhua's Novel "Miller"

Since the publication of the blockbuster "Scars" in 1978, the writer Lu Xinhua has not been a prolific harvest in terms of the number of literary creations in the past 40 years. In addition to "Scars", he also had a greater impact on the literary world, as well as "The Forbidden Woman", "Wounded Soul", "Wealth Like Water", "Three Bookism" and so on. These works show that although his identity has undergone the transformation from a well-known Chinese writer to a Chinese-American writer, his original intention has not changed, from "Scars" to "Wounded Souls", the materials of his novel works are still more taken from the urban and rural changes in the land of China, and the impact and transformation that they have brought to the Chinese from material to spiritual, from thought to concept, from morality to psychology. In 2019, he was elected President of the International New Immigrant Chinese Writers' Pen Association. His novel "Miller" (published in Jiangnan, No. 6, 2021) shows the changes in Lu Xinhua's thinking and creation in recent years. Compared with his previous works, whether it is the breadth of the subject matter, the depth of the description, the openness of the vision, and the ambiguity of the characters, they are not the same, and therefore make many readers who have read this new work feel "shocked".

One

First of all, the novella tells the story of the "adventures" of two characters from different worlds in a foreign country and the reversal of their roles, identities and destinies in their lives. The novel begins with an acquaintance between "I" (Terry) and the protagonist Miller at the Los Angeles Carmes Playing Cards Casino and their later encounters: "At that time, I was a casino dealer, and he was a player at my table. I've given him a lot of cards at the table, and he's tipped me a lot at the table. And when I left the casino a few years later, I came across a flea market in Seb Switzerland. However, by this time our identity had reversed, he was a merchant or a hawker in the market, and I became his customer. He sold me green bamboo, iron begonia and pine red plum, etc., and I paid him dollar cash. "Generally speaking, between casino dealers and gamblers, leaving the casino and the table, there will be less intersection, and the dealers have to face so many different kinds of casino players every day, why does "I" have a deep impression on Miller? It's because he's "more friend than friend!" If I think of what happened when I was a dealer, I will be the first to think of him"; or is he reduced to a flea market peddler because he gambles like a gambler, scatters all his family wealth, and loses all his belongings? Such logical reasoning is common in many works with the theme of quitting gambling. "Miller" does the opposite, although it is the protagonist, but it revolves around the different identities and psychological feelings of "I" and him who have met several times. Who is this life loser and ill-fated person who wrote "That Book of Wealth Like Water" for "I" later to "inspire"? The novel uses layers of bamboo shoots to show the unique life philosophy and life attitude of the former "monks" step by step. At first, "this person with a smile, a speech and demeanor like Maitreya Buddha, and even a man named Miller", although he "blatantly violated the Buddhist precepts and became a gambler sitting at my card table", he "seemed to not care about winning or losing, and winning or losing was not concerned about his heart", and even when "I" kindly reminded him to "receive what is good when he sees it", he replied: "What is good?" He added that "I am not here to gamble money", which made "I" suspicious, but had to admit: "This must be a high person." As "I" had more contact with Miller, I found that he did not come to the casino "to gamble money", but more seemed to come to "show up": it was his guidance in the casino like a bodhisattva apparition that finally made "me" realize: wealth "is all water, it will flow all the time", prompting me to get rid of the temptation of money in the casino and return to writing and ink, "After that, I became a veritable freelance writer, often traveling back and forth between China and the United States, writing, lecturing, and also doing charity, not only away from the casino, Even far removed from all the memories about the casino. This reminds us of the author's own life experience. In the author's previous works, the enlightenment about his life and wealth from the casino table is mainly reflected in his documentary essay collection "Wealth Like Water", and is rarely revealed in the novel. "Miller" combines the two, and the "I" (Terry) in the novel is both the narrator and the party; it is both the embodiment of the author and the audience or customer of "Miller", and several identities are superimposed, which greatly enhances the sense of substitution and authenticity of the novel. From the perspective of accepting aesthetics, the social function and aesthetic function of the work are realized in the reader's reading, and the enhancement of the sense of substitution and authenticity can undoubtedly strengthen the reader's acceptance and sense of convincing. This is also one of the reasons why some of today's pure fiction "crossing" novels are increasingly snubbed by readers. Through the casino "adventures" of these two characters and the exchange of their life roles and the reversal of identities and fates, "Miller" shows that even in the Western world and crazy casinos that "only recognize money and do not recognize people", there are also the "enlightened people" from the East, reminding people not to "lose themselves" in the world of money, as Miller said, "People are easy to lose themselves." Losing someone else is also losing oneself. ”

Two

Secondly, the theme of "The Fallen Man at the End of the World" is reproduced and the image interpretation of the helplessness, helplessness, helplessness and difficulty of grasping the fate of life in the real world. "Miller" is not a fictional version of "Wealth is Like Water". The world has changed dramatically in the era of the epidemic, and the characters of the writer's pen have also changed significantly. In "Miller", we can no longer see some of the more pure characters in Lu Xinhua's previous novels: such as Wang Xiaohua ("Scar"), a Zhiqing who blindly obeyed the "organization" and caused the tragedy of family ethics; Ma Junqi, the production captain who "committed suicide" by drinking pesticides in the political whirlpool like Ah Q; Shi Yu ("The Forbidden Woman"), an oriental witch who opened her naturally closed body in the United States and had a "blood collapse". The characters in these novels are easier to classify into a certain genre, but "Miller" (Jonson) can hardly attribute them to a certain type of character: he is both a monk who has escaped into the empty door and is bent on cultivating a "leak-free" body, a player in and out of the casino table and a "master" who understands the mysteries of money; he is both a "murderer" who has been wanted for many years by his native Cambodia and a self-reliant man who has kept his "innocence" wherever he goes for decades. He came from an unknown source, and in his own words: "I can't tell you exactly where he is." I've been in Thailand, France, Greece, Italy and Spain and can speak seven Chinese. However, my birthplace is Cambodia. He added, "Of course, more than three generations should also have Chinese ancestry." "It can be said that he is a "man of the earth" who has wandered the world. But this monk from the jungle temple in Cambodia, in order to avoid the disaster of killing, stepped through thousands of mountains and rivers, and finally fled to the "Goddess of Liberty" country, "renunciation" is both his fate and his metaphor. The author writes about the complexity and diversity of this character image with a broader international perspective: born during the "Red Revolution" in Cambodia, his whole family was killed, his only "sister" was separated, he experienced 9981 difficulties in life, "renunciation" became a real "homeless and unfinished" uprooted, originally escaping from the dark slaughterhouse of killing and killing, but also floating in the red dust world of the West full of various senses and spiritual temptations, and finally falling into the bottom flea market that could only barely make ends meet. Although there is a "leak-free" religious cultivation as a spiritual support for his treatment of others in the world, there is no more powerlessness, helplessness, and helplessness for people (even if they are "high people" who have an aura on their heads) in the real world who cannot control their own destiny. Moreover, the control of people's life and death fate is even impossible to grasp in the epidemic era: "I" finally brought to him the "sister" Tutu of "Miller" who had been thinking about and thinking about for nearly half a century, but the dramatic scene of the recognition of brothers and sisters who had experienced sorrow, suffering and separation ended with the sudden death of "Miller", declaring the fragility and helplessness of human life. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the world has become a different place. The tragedy of human life is staged every day under the ravages of the epidemic with the number of thousands of deaths, which is the "Sphinx mystery" that human beings cannot grasp and dominate their own destiny in the epidemic era.

In addition, the multiple meanings of "monasticism" and the dissolution of the "global village" in the epidemic era and the exploration of the survival philosophy of the "isolated" state of people. After the global spread of the epidemic in the past two years and the adoption of lockdown and "isolation" policies in various countries, Lu Xinhua's philosophical thinking on the plight of human existence and its actual situation and how to get rid of this "cage" of life has obviously been revealed in "Miller". In "Miller", the author deeply expressed his deep concern and deep reflection on the fate of mankind in the epidemic era: "The whole world seems to be suffering from frostbite, almost all countries, all human members are controlled and restricted by the seemingly small new crown pneumonia virus, can no longer travel and visit relatives and friends as they want, and even breathe as freely as before, and everyone's face is covered with a medical mask like a fig leaf, so that it is completely unrecognizable." "Why home? It is not only a metaphysical philosophical proposition, but also a proposition for the survival of human beings at present. Therefore, the "monks" in the novel are not just Miller who once escaped into the empty door, "I" and Tutu, etc., in a sense, are people who have gone to the country and left home, and during the epidemic period, they are "waiting for a home to return". The greatest change in the world today is the disintegration and disappearance of the "global village". In the era of the "global village", people of different countries and different colors have increasingly close and frequent exchanges, and the barrier of space has increasingly been crossed and eliminated by the convenience of transportation. However, the advent of the epidemic era has rapidly changed the pattern of close and frequent interpersonal communication in the "global village" era, and "isolation" and "closure", which are medical means to curb the spread of the virus in the world, have now become the norm for people to get along with each other. "Isolation" and "closure" first make interpersonal relationships change from intimacy to alienation and separation; secondly, from mutual trust and mutual kindness to mutual wariness and neighborhood between people. The brothers and sisters in Miller, "the reunion that crossed about half a century and the vast Pacific Ocean, the reunion that was finally achieved after crossing the swamp of suffering and the suffocating thoughts, as well as the spiritual and material barriers of the world", could not have been expected to die. When Miller's sudden death requires first aid, "sister" Tutu is at a loss, "I" remind her that "may need artificial respiration", but both of them invariably wonder if he is "infected with the new crown virus" and "will it be new crown pneumonia"? Although the family affection quickly overcame the fear of "the terrible contagiousness and fatality of the new crown pneumonia", Tutu, under the guidance of "I", did a long period of artificial respiration on the "brother" mouth to mouth, and finally returned to heaven. The ambulance pulled away the dead Miller, "a female doctor told us he would be taken to a nearby hospital for testing to see if he was infected with COVID-19." We were also asked to find a place to test and to contact people as little as possible and self-isolate for a week. ”

From "renunciation" to "home", from "wandering the world" to "self-isolation", the great changes in the world in the epidemic era were keenly captured by Lu Xinhua and written into the novel "Miller".