Le Chat du Rabbin (Rabbin) is a series of comics by The French humanist cartoonist Joann Sfar, which has been published seven times since 2002. "The Cat of the Rabbi" is set in the cultural space of the Jewish community in the small North African town of Algiers in the early 1920s, but its acceptance is clearly not limited by the spatial scope described above. The humanistic issues involved in the work are generally adaptable beyond time, so the series of comics has achieved good response in France and overseas countries since its launch. No matter what language the reader's friend reads it, it seems that they all get their own reading pleasure from it. The Chinese translation of the first four parts of "Rabbi's Cat" was introduced and published by Sanlian Bookstore in 2017, and under the relevant articles of Douban Reading, you can still see the reading experience shared by readers Chinese the world.
Compared with "The Cat of the Rabbis" as the "fame" of the French humanist comic classic, this allegorical story about kittens is quite simple when it comes down. The little gray cat lives with his owner, Mr. Shifa, and one day he swallows the parrot in the family, inadvertently acquires the ability to speak, and from then on half a foot into human society, starting the adventure of the protagonist of the growth novel. "Rabbi's Cat" uses "speaking" as a switch to activate the narrative power device of the story, so that human issues such as language, reality, time, faith, and death can alternately develop from the whimsical and witty background of the work. In this regard, the humble article "The Fable of Language: The Literary Tradition of the Rabbi's Cat" has been elaborated and will not be repeated. Here, I would like to talk about another core topic in the work that is closely related to "speaking", but so far seems to have not been noticed by domestic readers and critics: reading activities.
According to the story of author Juan Shifa, after the little gray cat accidentally gained the ability to speak, it seemed that naturally he also acquired the ability to read. It can not only follow its master and read and study the Pentateuch of Moses and the Jewish codes of Mishnah and Gemara, but even use the texts it has read to learn from each other, to understand and fight against Mr. Shifa's teacher, which has caused the latter to be defeated.
Stills from The Grey Cat of the Jewish Elders (2011).
After a creature can speak, can it be able to read and read books? Does language proficiency and reading skills necessarily be acquired at the same time? The narrative of the original "Rabbi's Cat" comic book is tightly paced, and this issue is brushed over and not explained. Careful enthusiasts will find that this logical detail was later completed in the film of the same name (also translated as "The Grey Cat of the Jewish Elders" in China). In his film of the same name released in 2011, Euan Shifa deliberately added a new narrative passage. By expanding the frame of the original comic book, the film depicts a verbal confrontation between the owner Mr. Shifa and the little gray cat, and makes up for the lack of logic in the story. In the original comic, this frame originally depicted Mr. Shifa's daughter, Miss Zarabia, holding a kitten and reading Stendhal's "The Red and the Black", and the caption on the screen reads "He is afraid that I will teach his daughter badly". In the movie, the camera turns and Mr. Shifa's angry face appears.
He asked his daughter and kitten in a stern voice, "What are you reading?" Then I realized another serious question: How did this little gray cat who loves to lie learn to read? At this time, the kitten shrugged his shoulders proudly and told Mr. Shifa that he had always been literate and had learned it with Miss Zarabia, but he had always used meowing to read, so Mr. Shifa, as the owner, did not know this fact. Language skills are divided here by the author in two, and reading and speaking belong to two parallel rivers that do not communicate with each other. According to the design of this story, although the little gray cat is a newly acquired ability to speak, in fact, it has been secretly enlightened for a long time, and it is not a pure illiteracy who is illiterate. The logic of the kitten's ability to speak and read is basically self-justified here.
Interestingly, the film is more complementary to the narrative added to the comic than the comic, in addition to bridging the logical details of the story, it is more confident to swing the stroke and pull out the narrative thread at the other end of the work along the theme of the novel "The Red and the Black". Just as La Fontaine writes fables with interest and a preference for free flow of writing, Euan Shifa is also accustomed to breaking through the stereotypical linear narrative mode when creating, and likes to carelessly create a story branch that is sloping out of the way. The three words "Red and Black" made the owner, Mr. Shifa, vigilant. The question of when the little grey cat will be literate is no longer important, what needs to be done now is to ban this dangerous reading behavior in time. He called The Red and the Black a political novel, blaming kittens for luring their daughters into reading books like this. In the face of Mr. ShiFa's anger, the little gray cat was as dismissive as ever. It sat on the lap of Miss Zarabia and said, "Oh, master, this is a romance novel..."
Romance novel or political novel? This question of either-or, the researchers and readers of "The Red and the Black" have debated for nearly two hundred years, and there is still no conclusion. Stendhal uses his delicate observation and precise control to truly recreate the historical picture after the Restoration of the Bourbon Dynasty in France in "The Red and the Black". The subtitle of the novel, "The Year of 1830", is aptly illustrative of the novel's true reflection of the political situation that preceded the July Revolution. Secret envoys, civil wars, constitutional abolitions, coups, revolutions, and political affairs and political situations abound in the novel, and it is no wonder that the owner of the kitten, Mr. Shifa, wants to shout that "The Red and the Black is a political novel."
However, in the eyes of kittens who are new to reading, "Red and Black" takes on a different look: it is a book of love and happiness. The little grey cat lay on the chest of Miss Zarabia, rubbing her face affectionately with her head, and read the following sentence from the book with satisfaction: "The appearance of Jullien frightened Madame de Reiner to death, and soon the most cruel uneasiness came to torment her." ...'Oh my God! Is this the so-called happiness, the so-called being loved? The kitten's reading instincts were not wrong. "The Red and the Black", a novel written by julien Soleil, a provincial commoner youth, does paint a remarkable depiction of the political situation in the undercurrent of Charles X of France, but it is also a rare emotional novel classic from the perspective of imitating the psychology of love. Stendhal's own deep interest in the subject of human emotion, especially his unique study of the philosophy of emotion through his essay "On Love", has brought "The Red and the Black" as an emotional novel to a height that no other French fiction writer had previously reached. Therefore, for "The Red and the Black", it is only regarded as a political novel, which is really suspected of buying and returning pearls. The translator, Mr. Guo Hong'an, once wrote in the preface to his translation: "If calling 'The Red and the Black' a romance novel gives people a sense of narrowness, it is more natural than calling it a political novel, and it does not make people feel suffocated." Although Mr. Shi Fa is a scholar of good character and full of economics, his reading accuracy is far inferior to that of a kitten who can only speak for a long time.
How to understand the significance of the scene in "The Rabbi's Cat" where the little gray cat reads the novel "The Red and the Black"? In the whole work, after the little gray cat learns to speak, there are only two scenes of reading French literature. In addition to "The Red and the Black", which appears at the beginning of the story, it is the "Fable of La Fontaine" that the little gray cat read aloud in the second volume when preparing for Mr. Shifa's dictation exam. The metaphorical significance of these two textual details that interact with classic French literature cannot be underestimated. If the connection between Rabbi's Cat and La Fontaine's Fable can be seen as an echo and nesting of the two works in terms of creative genre, then it and Stendhal's "Red and Black" constitute an introverted mapping in the creative theme.
The two quotations that little gray cat reads in the film are from the fifteenth chapter of the original "Red and Black", "Chicken Song". In this chapter, jullien, after a long and tangled psychological struggle, finally takes the crucial step of taking the initiative to seduce Madame de Reiner, and the love relationship between the two people has made substantial progress. This night, Yu Lian, who had been thinking about flying yellow and tengda, temporarily abandoned his obsession with the traces. In the arms of Madame de Reiner, he enjoyed unprecedented pleasure, a sigh of love and happiness. However, it is worth noting that even in this sweet moment, the young Jullien still cannot honestly face his inner world. He is always thinking about how to play the role of an experienced lover, how not to let people see the youth of his past emotional life. Even after the meeting and farewell to Madame de Rainer, Jullien continued to test his own behavior repeatedly when he was alone, trying to confirm from every detail in his memories that he had played the role of a veteran of the love scene perfectly.
In the face of love, Jullien has never been able to be honest. He could neither honestly face the true feelings that had sprung up in his heart, nor could he honestly appreciate the true affection expressed by Madame de Reiner. Thus, for a long time, he had lost touch with true happiness. Not being honest enough was the greatest misfortune of Jullien's life. The fifteenth chapter of the novel, "Chicken Chirping", will be placed at the limit of emotional activity, highlighting this state of honesty. It should be noted that The Red and the Black explores the theme of love and happiness, never only from the perspective of pure human emotion. Stendhal deliberately introduces the problem of "honesty" into the storyline, which makes "The Red and the Black" get rid of the limitations of the usual emotional novel, no longer talking about love and happiness, but expanding the horizon of the novel's theme to a deeper and broader level: only honest people can get happiness in the true sense!
In the preface to the translation of "The Red and the Black", Mr. Guo Hong'an elaborated on the inevitable connection between "sincerity" and "happiness" in Stendhal's pen. He pointed out that "The Red and the Black" is actually about how a young man moves from confusion to sobriety on the road to happiness, and the novel aims to explore the question of how people can be happy; and the answer to this question, Stendhal laid the groundwork from the beginning of the novel. By depicting the complete failure of Yu Lian in the first half of his life in the pursuit of fame and profit and the inability to face himself honestly, the novelist finally reveals that sincerity is the only way to happiness.
The three inscriptions in the whole book of The Red and the Black also prove this point structurally. The inscription at the beginning of the first volume of the novel is a sentence from the fake Todanton: "True, harsh truth." The beginning of the next volume quotes Saint-Beuve: "She is not beautiful, she does not rub rouge." Both inscriptions are explicit and implicit, both intended to emphasize the importance of "authenticity." As for the third inscription, which appears under the novel's general table of contents, is a phrase written in English: To the happy few. If you read the three inscriptions together, they constitute the key to interpreting the real writing intentions of the author of "The Red and the Black". If there is no truth, how can we talk about happiness?
Has Mr. Shifa's little grey cat read the novel's "true taste" from The Red and the Black? Euan Shifa does not write much ink and ink in the comics and movies to answer. However, if we get close to the work and savor the words and deeds of the little gray cat after reading "The Red and the Black", I am afraid it is not difficult to come up with an answer.
Mr. Shifa was afraid that the little gray cat would bring his daughter and would not allow them to have any more contact. In order to return to the arms of his beloved lady as soon as possible, the little gray cat had to engage in a fierce debate with Mr. Shifa's teacher in order to qualify for the rite of passage and become a real Jewish kitten. Mr. Shi Fa's teacher does not learn any techniques, and the mud is not ancient.
The little gray cat keenly grasps the other party's logical loopholes, creates traps with lies, and reveals the hypocrisy and stupidity of the other party. It lied that it was the embodiment of God and was testing the other party in the form of a cat, and Mr. Shifa's teacher was sure to win the plan, and hurriedly knelt down to pray for the kitten's forgiveness. This deliberate lie is no longer a sign of insincerity. Using it as a weapon, the little grey cat pierces another kind of insincerity embellished by knowledge and learning. This insincerity of clinging to authority and using knowledge to make manners is obviously more harmful.
Knowing this, when we read the end of the first part of the manga, we will naturally not be surprised by the author's arrangement. The little gray cat has always despised one of Mr. ShiFa's students, who plays with knowledge, despises women, and is usually full of benevolence and morality, but in private he often does something that violates morality and faith. Until one day, the little gray cat accidentally saw the man sneaking into the brothel for fun, and discovered his side of the struggle between desire and faith. Cracks appeared in the mask of hypocrisy, and honesty emerged in the most unexpected way that the little grey cat had done to its most hated man. The kitten suddenly felt that he liked this person a little. After all, honesty is the only path to true happiness, isn't it?