"The value of books may be to find the living present from the dead past." Shuji Terayama once wrote in "Throw Away the Books and Go to the Street".
Who is Shuji Terayama? He is a famous Japanese poet, novelist, playwright, director, subversive and avant-garde visual style, also known as a monster, a fantasist, a rebel cultural standard-bearer and a "screen poet". Shunji Iwai, Wen Enko, Tadashi Yokoo, Moriyama, Tadao Ando, Mori Irai, Shuntaro Tanigawa, Noboru Morimi... Many other people in the Japanese literary and art circles have received inspiration and inspiration from his works.
Shuji Terayama
Among them, the well-known photographer Moriyama Daichi can be called Terayama's "brain-dead fan", and after becoming famous, he repeatedly mentioned the profound influence of idols on himself: "Shuji Terayama's reading volume is staggering, and he often lends me some books." Thus, at the beginning of the founding year, I was constantly inspired by him. "He wrote poems for me in my first photo book." We also rode around in the car together, I painted, he wrote prose, there were various forms of cooperation. ”
The first photo album of Moriyama Avenue invited Terayama to accompany the poems, and the theater filmed was the Teraiyama Shuji Experimental Theater. With Terayama's transformation into the theater world, the two worked less and less together. Later, Terayama became famous overseas with film and television works such as "Throw Away the Books and Go to the Street", "Pastoral Festival of the Dead", and "Goodbye Box Boat". He died of cirrhosis in May 1983.
Recently, Shuji Terayama's prose essay collection "Fantasy Library", "Famous Quotes in the Pocket", and "Shuji Terayama's Happiness" were launched by Purui Culture, which is related to a set of the most complete and latest collection of Shuji Terayama's works in China, and the follow-up series will also publish works such as "Shuji Terayama Youth Theory", "Teyama Shuji Youth Song Collection", "Who Is Not Homesick", etc. "The value of books may be to find the living present from the dead past." As Shuji Terayama says, wandering the amazing and grotesque avant-garde literary universe with the people in the book may find unknown values buried in the text.
"Fantasy Library" is Shuji Terayama's masterpiece that combines fun and cold knowledge. In this book, a woman's hair can pull an elephant, the Danes have ridden a frog over the Andes, the emperor in the harem has become a horse, every man who buys a spring is called John, taking off his shoes means the beginning of the act of love, there is a famous book in the belly of a frozen fish, a medieval woman with a beard, and the news of restricting kissing...
In his usual whimsical style of sensitivity, sentimentality and humor, Terayama quotes scriptures from myths, folklore, or advertising lists and pictorials, from which you can get a glimpse of the artist's huge reading volume and genius imagination.
"Generally speaking, just by looking at the hairstyle, both men and women can guess their approximate personality, age, class and identity. When the Vietnam War was in full swing, anti-war youth in the United States founded a music magazine, "Hair", emphasizing that long hair is a symbol of the concept of "evading military service", and New Music leader Takuro Yoshida once sang in the lyrics: When my hair is shoulder-length, let's get married!" ”
Shuji Terayama by Huang Bijun Translated by Pu Rui Culture | Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, February 2021
"Famous Quotes in the Pocket" has the wisdom crystallization of Goethe, Lu Xun, Dazaizhi, Camus, these ancient and modern Chinese and foreign writers, there are the stars of du fu, Byron, Tagore's poetry, there are also shakespeare, Arthur Miller's dramatic ghosts, and there are also the worlds of light and shadow in "Wild Strawberries", "Waiting for Godot", and "The Night Is Not Quiet" reappearing between the lines.
In this book, Shuji Terayama guides us through the famous sayings, embarking on a journey to touch and approach the truths of the world, thinking about the happiness and joy, pain and loneliness of being born as human beings:
"The phrase 'Only separation is life' is my motto. My thinking, even today, remains discriminatory, and when I was going to go head-to-head against the evil forces that stuck to their old habits and wanted to unify people, it was only by insisting on the separation of several ideas (habits and beliefs) that advocated the maintenance of the status quo that I succeeded. ”
"What is actually needed now is not a famous quote. In fact, we need a mundane line of text, or a few words. However, I have made a big fuss about my 'famous sayings' in old notebooks and published them here. The reason can be expressed in the words of Berto Brecht's "Heroes": "The age without famous words is unfortunate, and the era when famous words are needed is even more unfortunate."" ’”
[Japanese] Shuji Terayama by Zhou Ying Translated by Pu Rui Cultural | Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, February 2021
So, what is happiness? Faced with this ultimate question, Shuji Terayama said, "What we have lost in our time is not 'happiness,' but 'happiness.'" "Shuji Terayama's Theory of Happiness" records his self-analysis of happiness again and again, and also writes about his revision and criticism of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign happiness theories, and overturns the existing boring happiness theory, using imagination and performance to examine what is true happiness.
Although there is no clear answer to "what is happiness", there is no doubt that we will all look forward to encountering happiness from this.
"Saying the word happiness always makes people blush, because people usually think that it is the word used by adolescent boys and girls, and after embarking on the real road of life, they should not mention those two words again." But Thomas Mann's famous phrase "He who despises politics can only have politics that is despised" applies equally to happiness. What keeps happiness devalued is not happiness itself, but ourselves who despise the word happiness. ”
Shuji Terayama by Yang Ling Translated by Pu Rui Cultural | Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, February 2021
"I am unfortunate, please love this unfortunate me"! Shuji Terayama also shouted so.
In the world of art and literature, he uses fantasy and humor to perform and release, liberating himself from being defined. In the end, he completed this encounter, adventure and hunt about happiness and unhappiness. If you have also felt "unfortunate", you may wish to take a look at Shuji Terayama. Maybe you will find the essence of happiness between the lines, that is, "love yourself". Back to Sohu, see more