Essay: The Evolution of introversion

Introverted evolution

Dong Yihao

On The day of 423 World Book Day, I would like to write a little bit of text, because in the era of the epidemic, what it means to read is very meaningful. But by chance, I encountered some transactional work, and when I had time to write at night, it was late at night, and I didn't feel excited, and I felt that what I wanted to say was that after all, you understood, and it was better to be silent than to repeat it.

What a hero

A person is powerless to describe a hurricane, all he can do is build himself. The age of hero mythology is long gone, and even Don Quixote has long disappeared. These days I wonder, if in ancient times, what kind of "hero" would I become? If it was the Three Kingdoms, I would not have become Cao Cao but Liu Bei; if it was a journey to the west, I would not have been a great sage but a Tang monk. The fact that these two soft representatives were able to become heroes and even succeed was not because of the external image, but because of the introverted power. We worship Xiang Yu, Sisyphus, and Achilles because of the beauty of tragedy, but only because of a romantic literary complex. Outside the legends, outside the power of culture, people are not pursuing to become a tragic model, but to follow liu bang, Hermes, Apollo and other so-called authoritarians. Therefore, I am still thinking that the "hero dream" that a person has developed since childhood is actually illusory, it is difficult for us to define the meaning of "hero", if you look at this word dialectically, you will find many flaws and even loopholes that are difficult to justify, and if everyone goes to be a hero instead of becoming a wise man, speaking by strength, then human beings will never reach the final civilization.

Liu Beili can't carry the top and the plot is not enough, but he has a rational assessment of himself - understand his weaknesses, in order to know the main direction of attack. Tang Monk led three apprentices with very different personalities, who were able to give full play to their talents and unite to look forward, and leadership was not easy. For a simple example, with your own belly, can you cry like Liu Bei because of the rebirth of his hips? If your subordinates have a complicated background and don't listen to the command to shake the air in the middle of the world, can you swallow the air into your stomach like a Tang monk? It can be seen that even the recognized "nest fee" is not easy to be ah. Their strong self-discipline, selfless tolerance, and perseverance to not give up until they reach their goals are actually introverted practices.

The so-called introverted practice, in addition to the inner care of "seeking oneself", the way of fulfillment is naturally to "read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles", and open the door to the vast world through the accumulation of reading. When you are powerless against the world, passively sit and watch everyone, numb cheap entertainment is readily available, and the place where people eventually open up the gap is not in the place of some entity, but in the depths of the spirit. It is hard for me to imagine that the destruction of all knowledge of the past would be the beginning of a new culture and the rise of a new civilization. Human beings are so weak that it has taken hundreds of thousands of years to form this little bit of spiritual wealth.

Naturally, reading books does not become a hero. But what is even more difficult for me to imagine is that when a person faces death, he realizes that his life is so hasty and so ignorant, and he has not yet had time to taste the truly clear holy water in the fountain of life. I came into the world for a while, but I went with the flow and participated in the parade of others. When the excitement of the tide dissipates with the wind and smoke, and the grand language turns into a bubble on the beach, perhaps you will understand that life would have another form, that is, "love wisdom".

He is not wise that is not wise for himself. At this age, the dream of a hero has long been shattered. Looking back at that year, don't say that you became Liu Bei, maybe you want to become a Taiping dog and you can't get it; don't say that you want to become a Tang monk, maybe you want to become a sweeping monk without being qualified. Just like the people who write the crossing novel, they all have to become princes and nobles, but they did not expect the real crossing to be successful, perhaps they saw a beautiful woman holding a sea bowl and Standing in front of the bed, earnestly advising: Just take the medicine.

So give up the illusion, honestly read, there may be salvation in this life.

Reading notes

The above is too much. Like the maugham short story writing paradigm, first a long talk came up, and then the first person began to tell the story. My view of Maugham's novel is similar to that of Wang Anyi, that is, after reading his long works, I feel that the name is exaggerated, to be honest, whether it is "The Moon and Sixpence" or "Blade", it feels that the style and rhythm are not lively and jumpy, and the structure and story are not surprising. But it wasn't until after reading his short story that Fang was impressed. Maugham's short stories are interesting and interesting, and the language is not fancy, the writing structure is three paragraphs: discussion plus story plus short commentary; the story structure is three paragraphs: the progression of the three W plus the narrative plus the reversal of the plot. From February to April, I sporadically read seven collections of Maugham's short stories by the Humanities Society, about a month in between, and interrupted the reading out of visual fatigue with this "syllogism." Tonight I finished reading the last of them, Portrait of a Gentleman.

Maugham's contemporaries, the evolution of the novel's techniques was already very active, such as Faulkner. I didn't read much throughout April, and in addition to Portrait, there was his "Gluttonous Man" and Hesse's "Under the Wheel" and Fenchelstein's "A Brief History of Fascist Lies." While reading Faulkner's On My Dying Days. "When I'm Dying" felt like watching a horror movie at first, and the constant switching of perspectives was too hasty, like a rickety short shot, which would make people dizzy if they did not compare the character index. Faulkner's approach to writing has certainly become more mature, even without a character index, which can distinguish the perspective of the character (such as Llosa and even Stetson), and even to the extent that Tokarczuk writes the plot to pieces. As for Faulkner's inability to discern or fully explain it in terms of "stream of consciousness", because this hasty brushwork is difficult to accurately grasp the essence of rapidly changing thinking, and even makes people feel a little sloppy. Therefore, Maugham seems too serious when compared to him, just like the meticulous old butler in "The Long Day Will End" described by Kazuo Ishiguro. This also led me to write down a text in my mobile phone memo: "The choice of narrative style is not entirely individual, but also stems from nationality, even if it is an unconscious choice." That is to say, in order to be universally recognized, it must first conform to the laws of thinking and habits of the nation, and only then can the uniqueness of the written symbols be established.

The fame of Hesse's "Under the Wheel" is very dubious, and neither the plot nor the description nor the structure are considered to be the best in the world. If the subject matter is dominant, there are more depictions of adolescent external performance, and psychological delicate depictions are rare, if it is to emphasize psychological research, then it is not like a rigorous case sample. Although I have had the experience of the protagonist in the book, such as falling from a top student to the bottom of the class, and I have also had the trouble of being like a sponge soaked in water and no longer being able to absorb book knowledge, I think that if it is simply for this, then it is not profound. Hesse did not find a positive outlet for relief, he simply recounted such a story. But maybe literary history is not written that way, it only comes from my own feelings.

My attitude towards literary history is this: history is history, facts are facts, and facts are facts. Literary history is a preconceived conclusion, not your own reading experience and language interpretation, if you do not read the original works and only look at the conclusions, you will not know why they will go down in the annals of history, which have richer content, universal values recognized by mankind, whether spiritual values or technical values.

As for Maugham, what impressed me the most was that he portrayed a large number of Chinese scattered in the South Pacific. We always feel that Chinese are introverted peoples, but this ability to take root in the world has a strong extroverted energy. We could have lived in a more open world, but unfortunately the ancient rulers didn't want that. If all this is the case, the "shepherds of the Son of Heaven" will become a bubble, and how can the sheep who go out to become Jehovah be more "safe" and affordable?

Crabs are reborn

World Book Day on that day of the transactional work is nothing more than to write a few summaries to cope with the inspection, prepare the yearbook materials to report and run the process, and then prepare some materials for the interview of the city television station to find the ancient city of Andongwei (see the previous article), after completing the interview, I feel that my homework is still not good, and today I searched for some academic articles on the Internet to learn and understand, such as the architectural specifications of the Ming Dynasty Health Center, the integration of the military households of the Wei House, the situation of the Ming Dynasty warships (ships) and so on. In particular, the construction of Dapeng City and Hainan Health Center gave me a new understanding. History is like this, you don't go to him, he doesn't come to you.

That night, before going to bed, I sent a circle of friends: "The whole world is reading, I didn't read today." Not only did he not read it, but he did not even write about reading it. Maugham's short story "Meshuw" wrote a hermit who aspired to make a world famous book, accumulated material for decades, and did not write until his death. Maugham said he was so happy that he didn't get the loss he got when the writing was done. I think it's one of the most interesting novels he's written. ”

But a hermit like this, I think, can be used as a poster child for the unsuccessful introverted evolution. Life is a process of continuous breakthrough, and it must be constantly discarded at the same time as constantly breaking through. Just like the molting of a crab, the pain of separation of flesh and bone when molting, and the weakness of the short period after molting, it is also a necessary process for growth. The same is true of our inner growth, there is always a break, there is always a moment of weakness, if we disarm at that time, then there will be no disaster. Life goes on and on, evolution continues, never born as strong as iron, only through painful tempering can we continuously enhance the ability to survive.

2022.04.27

One point number Dong Yi Hao