I think there is such a kind of writer who is mentally normal, but his characters have a little mental problem, and he uses the stories of his characters to write vividly about the greed and ugliness in human nature. The British novelist William Somerset Maugham falls into this category.
From the first time I read The Moon and Sixpence, I had extremely ambivalent views of Maugham, indulging in his flowing words and scorning his vitriolic judgments (perhaps not wanting to admit myself at the time).
Many people evaluate Maugham as just a second-rate writer, but judging the excellence of a writer is never a simple matter.
Compared to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Kafka and others, Maugham is indeed a little dwarfed, but his excellent narrative ability is really overwhelming. Second-rate writer, first-class story. That's how Maugham could not be better described. Even Maugham once laughed at himself: "I'm a person, the level of playing cards and writing is the same, and I am the most powerful among the second-rate players!" ”
In this way, Maugham was really an interesting person.
It is the task of the critic to divide the writer into three, six, nine, etc., and for the reader, as long as the story is wonderful to read. There is no doubt that Maugham's story is really good.
Why is that? Because there are so many "good" writers, but few are as "bad" as Maugham, and when a snarky, vain and pompous person is paired with a pair of keen eyes and a smooth pen, the world's most formidable "horror weapon" is born.
A lot of insidious and unacceptable careful thinking will be read between the lines when reading Maugham's works, which makes people feel shocked. That's what I am.
How many virus sores in the world are covered up by fear, and Maugham just wants to take a sharp scalpel and cut it open
You see when I first read "The Moon and Sixpence", "The Veil" and "The Blade", I loved and hated Maugham.
Love stems from admiration for his work, and hate stems from reluctance to admit that he sees the dark side of his heart in his words. It wasn't until I finished reading The Shackles of Human Nature that I let go of my self-esteem and pride, and reluctantly admitted that I was just a selfish member of the crowd.
Someone once said that if Maugham's life experience could be written, it would be better than any of the works he wrote. Lost both parents at a young age, stuttered and disabled, was deceived into marriage, deceived of inheritance, experienced two world wars, and worked as a professional spy......
Although Maugham achieved fame in his old age, he did experience hardships that ordinary people could not bear. Coldness and meanness come from the desolation he has personally experienced.
has experienced the ups and downs of life, but he is more and more able to write about life lightly.
Open any of Maugham's novels, and it seems that the first sentence you can feel that he is whispering: Look, this is life!
Compared with the fantastical stories written by other writers, Maugham wrote about ordinary people from beginning to end. His characters seem to be the readers themselves. In Maugham's writing, you can always find the answer to life.
From a writer's point of view, how would Maugham be evaluated?
Smart, cold, emotional
Maugham was a very intelligent writer. A person who writes well is not necessarily smart, but he is. He was the only one who dared to say that Balzac, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others were not good at writing, but he also said that "great writers need not only writing, but also passion and a desire to narrate."
History would hardly classify him as a writer of Tolstoy's level, but I guess he didn't care about that. On the basis of cleverness, Maugham has a cold and arrogant tongue. So it's not hard to read cynicism in his work.
Maugham is not very good at deliberately creating coincidences for the sake of drama, nor does he drag the characters to "twist and go" for the sake of the plot, and there are not many magnificent and colorful writing techniques, all of which are to point.
Even in an attempt to preach, Maugham would not change the style of his storytelling. So when he tells stories, he likes to moisten things silently, and "wipe" the past with a British smile.
He doesn't like established hypocrisy and likes to mock everything. He's so smart that he has just the right grasp of scale and proportion, making it difficult for everyone to grasp his handle. But if you read a little closer, you will find that many of his cynical poisonous tongues are actually just a gesture he poses.
In his bones, Maugham is a deep novelist, he is too easily emotional, so he needs to use ridicule and poisonous tongue to cover up his feelings. In "The Moon and Sixpence", his feelings are very obvious.
In all of Maugham's works, there are actually two endings, one is the ideal "moon" that enters life through the moonlight, and the other is the "sixpence" that tastes the warmth and coldness of the world, the deceitful and the upside-down. Obviously, the latter is the majority
Maugham, who lived for 91 years, knew too well what life is.
"The Shackles of Human Nature" is a semi-autobiographical novel by Maugham, although the experience of the protagonist Philip in the story is not exactly the same as Maugham's, but I think Philip's several explorations of life truths are also Maugham's several explorations, and the writer's own shadow is reflected everywhere in the book.
Maugham himself once said: "I am not very talented, but I have a strong personality, and I can make up for other shortcomings." Most people can't see anything, but I can at least see what is in front of me. A first-class writer can see through a brick wall, but I'm nowhere near as sharp. ”
When we read the works of first-class writers, we feel that there is a wide, desperate gap between ourselves and the great geniuses, and what is worse yet, this gap is not at all something that can be bridged by acquired efforts.
Reading Maugham's works, however, does not feel this way, as his words seem to be very close to us, from which there is always insight into the truth of life.
A good sentence from "The Moon and Sixpence".
The ground was full of sixpence, but he looked up and saw the moon.
What you have to overcome is your vanity, your desire to show off, and what you have to deal with is your cleverness that always wants to be in the limelight.
I did my best and lived an ordinary life.
Remember that above the ordinary material life, there is a more fascinating spiritual world, which is like the moon in the night sky overhead, it is not dazzling, but exudes a quiet and peaceful light.
It's never too late to start dreaming.
If you think about self-esteem when it comes to love, there can only be one reason: in fact, you still love yourself the most.
(This article is excerpted from "Beautiful Boy (Aesthetic Education)" "Aesthetic Education" |.) Aesthetic Education Magazine Subscription_Magazine Shop:Magazine Discount Subscription Network (zazhipu.com))