#我在头条搞创作第二期 #
"My mother is so beautiful that she doesn't need to work." "She would take wine from under the sink and drink. But she's my mom, and it's okay if you don't like her. "How nice it would be if you could protect her forever."
- Ing-Douglas Stewart
Douglas Stewart was born in 1976 in Glasgow, England. At the age of sixteen, his mother died of excessive drinking. Douglas Stewart then moved into a boarding house on his own, completed high school and went on to university to major in textiles. He has worked as a fashion designer for several brands and currently writes full-time. These ups and downs later became the inspiration for his creations.
"Shuggie Bain" is Stewart's debut novel, pinning on his endless memories and love for his mother. He wrote the book for ten years, was rejected 32 times, and won the Booker Prize upon publication, making Stewart the second Scottish writer to win the prize after James Kellman.
After winning the Booker Prize, Shuggy Bain also entered the public eye, and the book was named "Book of the Year" by The Telegraph and The Times. After its publication, the book reached number one bestseller in the Los Angeles Times, third in the New York Times, and was named one of the best publications of the year by several media outlets. In addition, Shuggie Bain was shortlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, the Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was nominated for the Carkiné Medal for Outstanding Fiction.
"Shuggy Bain" takes the transformation and revitalization of Glasgow since the 80s of the 20th century as the background to reproduce the decline of the sense of place and belonging of the people at the bottom of the city. The narrative of the novel is based on the relocation trajectory of the protagonist's family.
In the 80s of the 20th century, with the implementation of neoliberal policies, the British city of Glasgow experienced mine closure and high unemployment, and the entire city fell into poverty. Between 2003 and 2007, the overall life expectancy of city dwellers was 15% lower than that of Liverpool and Manchester, who had also undergone deindustrialisation, and was known for its "Glasgow effect", which was characterized by poverty, alcoholism and psychological crisis.
Shudge's parents, who reorganized their family, and their three children scrambled to find a place to live, and eventually squeezed into their grandparents' home in Glasgow's Belvedere community, where towers, cramped spaces, and dilapidated environments allow many residents to spend their days playing cards and drinking.
Shugi's mother felt depressed in the narrow room on the sixteenth floor and couldn't help but lean out of the window. Eager to have more space, the family believed their father's lie that he had abandoned the family in order to improve living conditions, thinking that they could move to a new home with a front yard and garden.
When the family arrived, they found that their new home was located in an abandoned mining area, where the roads were narrow and dusty, surrounded by swamps of peat ash, the pit at the end of the street occupied the entire horizon, and in the low-rise residential area of the mine, families were separated by the same white clothesline and gray clothesline, a bleak and silent scene.
After living in the mine for nearly eight years, Shudge, his mother and brother moved again through the municipal low-rent housing replacement project and came to Glasgow East with great anticipation. There are basic living and entertainment facilities on both sides of the streets in the East District, but the residential buildings are densely connected, and only a few gaps in the corners can see the blue sky; There is very little green space in front of the building, and every green space is crowded with children.
The Shudge's home in the East End was once a gangster gathering place in Glasgow, and in the 80s of the 20th century became a welfare area specially set aside for the social underclass, which is actually the result of the urban regeneration plan to redistribute land interests through capital.
The mining area in the novel is almost completely forgotten, and the friends Shuji's mother made at a drinking party in the city center have never heard of such a place. The mine's only railway station was also abandoned for a long time due to lack of funds, and the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh galloped across the mine's wasteland, separating the miners from the whole world, forming an invisible border that never stops.
The relocation of the Shuji family has become a metaphor for people at the bottom who cannot find any sense of belonging in the city. They may have a quiet, peaceful dream for a moment, but they are always homeless.
There is a detail in the novel: the thrift dealer gives little Shuggy a box of dirty balloons, telling him that it is printed with the loudest city slogan of the time - Glasgow is better. Shuji asked sharply: "Better than when?" ”
If local identity and attachment are always based on co-shaped cultural symbols and commonly accepted cultural concepts, then the novel presents the opposite picture: in the process of deindustrialization, the bottom of society is not only facing the dilemma of material life, but also squeezed and rejected by progressive rhetoric in the process of building cultural cities, and cannot establish a local identity.
The novel tells the story of the Shuji family's twelve years of life, more than half of which was spent in the mining area after the end of the industrial age, which is full of relics of the industrial era - mine pits, slag mountains, swamps.
Home to two generations of miners, few new faces come to live here, and when the Shugi family moved in, the kitchen was still driping the clothes of the former occupants. Life here is awkward and embarrassing, and the former miners and their families have no income other than receiving meagre relief, and are almost left to fend for themselves, because the mining area has not started work for several years and there is little work to do here.
The neighbor taught the Shugi family to use a pin to open the lock and take the coins thrown in from the meter. The miners' casual tavern is now a place for desperate men to escape their lives, who would rather owe their families than squander their alms. Women struggle to raise children, do "arithmetic problems for motherhood" every day in a tight life, and "the face becomes a museum of outdated hairstyles and thick makeup" in daily alcoholism.
Domestic violence is rampant in mining areas, cases of abuse of women and children are common, and emotional betrayal is the norm. The marginalized old industrial areas are in urgent need of change, both in terms of material life and mental state, and need to restore normal family life, work order and community ties, but the novel does not believe that the historical tradition of industrialism can help people reconstruct their sense of dependence and identity with the place.
In a symbolic clip, Shuji's brother is caught in the copper wire in the mine cable in order to save money for school, and is found by patrolmen trapped in a mudslide-like slag mountain and difficult to escape. Knowing that he would not be able to pay the fine if caught, he fled, and in the process he severely injured the patrolman, thus losing the last guardian of the mine.
Shuggy's father, a taxi driver, found in the process of picking up and dropping off passengers that the city was changing, and people could tell from people's faces that Glasgow was losing its meaning.
More importantly, the forces to organize the struggle of the working class no longer existed in the deindustrialization era, and workers lost the ability to fight collectively. The banks of the Clyde River, which Glasgow people are most proud of, were once the most prosperous places of the workers' movement, and were known as the "Red Clyde River", but now they are the burial places of the underclass.
Boatmen who have been driving ferries since their parents' generation rescue those who "silently and intentionally fell into the river and did not want to be rescued". A female passenger confided her helplessness in Shuji's father, whose husband suddenly received a notice of dismissal after twenty-five years in the steel mill but received only three weeks' salary, and her husband asked the factory owner how he would support his family in the future, and the factory owner replied ruthlessly without even blinking: "Let's try your luck in South Africa." ”
When deindustrialisation begins, her son will face the harsh reality of unemployment, and she does not know what to turn to to cope with the changing times, so she can only repeat: "They should work in Glasgow and eat their mother's cooking." ”
In Shuggie Bain, Stewart dissects the workings of the mechanisms behind urban regeneration on the one hand, and on the other hand he is inclined to capture a hope that keeps life moving forward.
In the novel, Shuggie's mother is the leader of the family's destiny, and although she cannot lead the family out of trouble, she has a valuable quality that can ignite hope, and it is through the portrayal of this quality and its influence that Stewart explores the possibility of the individual at the bottom as a "doer".
Shuji's brother painted with a bird's eye view of the mines, thinking, "If this house was designed, what a miserly man this designer is." What about the tin car in the design drawing? What about farm animals? What about fluffy green grass like thorny sea corals? Looking at the miners in black jackets down the mountain, he wondered in his heart: "Does the designer not like colorful, pleasant character composition?" ”
Shuji's mother, Agnes, was also inevitably affected by the environment of the mining area, and not only failed to stop drinking, but became more addicted to alcohol. She was an alcoholic and drank vodka like tap water, spending all of her thirty-eight pounds on relief every Monday, even though her children were hungry. Young Shuggy had to take care of his drunken mother, so worried all day that he had diarrhea every time he came home from class.
Shuji once hooked his mother's little finger and promised her that he would not leave like his brother and sister. He leaned over his mother and prepared three teacups for her: the first was water, which was used to moisturize her throat; The second cup is milk, which is used to relieve stomach acid; The third glass is wine. Mom will only take the third cup first...
But the novel also portrays the unique vitality of her mother, Agnes: when she is not drinking, she always wears delicate makeup "crawling out of the grave and holding her head high", with hairspray in her hair, lace-up heels on her feet, and a beautiful coat. In the eyes of other women in the mines, she was like the Queen of England who had moved here.
Shuji's father abandoned his wife and children in a mining area almost isolated from the outside world, and he wanted to completely destroy Agnes, but Agnes tenaciously created a unique life with a strong sense of self: she couldn't bear to see the neighbor girl with dirty hair all day, so she found an opportunity to "catch" her and help her comb her neatly; She moved the neighbor's abandoned freezer to the backyard on a hot summer day, rinsed it and filled it with water, so that Shuji could enjoy the coolness inside; She encouraged Shuji, who was taunted by the neighbor's children while dancing: If I were you, I would continue dancing and don't let them succeed.
The few bright colors in this obscure novel come from the roses that Agnes planted in the corner garden, although the roses she secretly dug up from the green belt of the main road with Shuggie. The large blooming flowers even seem too eye-catching and ostentatious in the dirty mining area, which may be one way to become visible.
In the eyes of the teenager Shuji, her mother Agnes "can't help with arithmetic homework, and sometimes she can't eat the hot food she cooks when she is hungry", but her dedication to a good life can make people burst with courage and confidence, even if they are ridiculed, they want to keep dancing. The numb women around Agnes despised her and couldn't help but be attracted to her, and her neighbor Colleen, who usually regarded Agnes' words and actions as heinous, ended up being one of the few people who attended her funeral.
The woman who attended the retreat wished that she would be as skillful as Agnes, envied her for decorating the house, and praised her for being clean even in the worst of times. The novel does not think that Agnes has the ability to reflect on the times, but only uses her to suggest that imagination and creativity are indispensable for survival.
Thinking about Stewart's upbringing, his becoming a designer is probably inspired by this imagination and creativity, and he believes in the ability of individuals to transform the environment.
Anxious about the prospects for the survival of the next generation in industrial zones, Shuggy Bain sets its sights on teenagers, one of the groups most affected by deindustrialization.
Shuji is out of place with these teenagers, he does not like football and collision games, and does not swear or bully girls, so he is constantly viciously taunted and bullied by boys of the same age. Half-brother Lick couldn't help but make Shuggy act "more masculine" and always taught him how to behave.
Eugene, a former miner who had a relationship with Shuggie's mother, even gave him a broken copy of "A Primer on Scottish Team History" as a treasure book, hoping that he would be more like other little boys. So, Shuji tried to remember the results of each team's victory and defeat, and practiced walking normally in the reeds as his brother suggested. There is no lack of Stuart himself in Shuji, and the novel portrays Shuggy as a teenager who strives to grow up with a tough will in a difficult life, not only to affirm the moral character of self-reliance and self-improvement, but also to broaden and even change the definition of a tough guy.
In Stewart's view, young people at the bottom should abandon the stereotypical gender stereotypes they have been indoctrinated since childhood and seek more diverse career choices, thus interrupting the cycle of "continuous transmission and reproduction of identity in individuals and groups". Like Shuggie's older brother Lick, he is skillful and loves to draw, and when he is working alone outside, "he is usually so nervous that he almost reaches the shoulder of his ear to put it down". But he always insisted on his artistic dream in a difficult life, and finally received an admission letter from the art school, which also meant that he broke through the professional fate of the youth at the bottom.
summary
Set in Douglas's hometown of Glasgow, Shuggie Bain's Booker Prize-winning novel "Shuggie Bain" is a strong autobiographical story about the emotional conflicts and psychological traumas experienced by families at the bottom of the city between 1981 and 1992.
"Shuggy Bain" portrays the inextricable life plight of the people at the bottom, examines the objective causes of the dilemma, and explores the possibility of changing the trajectory of destiny, thereby responding to and reflecting on the most significant change in Glasgow since the 80s of the 20th century, that is, the deindustrialization of the city.
On the one hand, "Shuggie Bain" reveals the living conditions of people after the deindustrialization of the Scottish industrial city of Glasgow in the 80s of the 20th century from the perspective of grassroots families, and on the other hand, on the basis of examining local historical traditions, it explores the possibility of reconstructing the "sense of place" at the bottom of the city.
By questioning the logic of urban regeneration plans, Shuggy Bain attempts to awaken the sense of autonomy at the bottom of the city, calling on them to fight for the rights of citizens in order to regain a sense of belonging. The novel's moral inquiry into the history of Glasgow's urban development, and the in-depth exploration of the relationship between sense of place and tradition, individual initiative, and urban cultural structure, show the novelist's serious thinking on the issue of urban deindustrialization.