EuDs

Reading "Life and Death Fatigue"#

Mo Yan, because I had previously, to be precise, in high school, done a reading exercise with one of his articles as the text. I found that article too oppressive when I read it, so I never liked it. So even though I had a collection of his short stories, "White Dog on a Swing," on my bookshelf, I never bothered to flip through it.

"Life and Death Fatigue" can be considered the first book of his that I've read.

Also during high school, my Chinese teacher recommended this book, and I remember the recommendation clearly: it tells the story of a person's multiple reincarnations, very interesting. I wanted to read it back then, but it wasn't until the day before yesterday, several years later, that I finally picked it up and read it.

On the evening of March 7th, during an elective class, I chose this book to pass the time, but I couldn't stop once I started reading.

There is a saying that people tend to associate unfamiliar things with things they are more familiar with to gain a sense of security. Although I don't really like the following description, I unconsciously linked "Life and Death Fatigue" with "One Hundred Years of Solitude." Because I feel that both of them use the brushstrokes of magical realism to describe a family. I also thought of "The Ordinary World" and "White Deer Plain" because they both describe stories from the eve of the founding of the nation to the period after the reform and opening up.

Here are some impressions of this book:

• Changes in narrative perspective. Very interesting. When I was reading the first few chapters, suddenly there was a "you," and I felt it was very abrupt. It wasn't until later that I realized it was Ximen Nao, who had been reincarnated as an adult, or rather, it was Lan Qiansui having a conversation with Lan Jiefang. I find this change in narrative perspective very interesting. What attracted me the most in the book was what happened around an animal with human-like thoughts. But there are places the animal cannot go, things the animal cannot see, and it can become tiring to always have the animal's perspective. So using this dialogue format is really clever.

• Frequent appearances by the author. Among the novels I've read, this is probably the first time I've seen the author appear in the story by name, and it almost runs through the development of the story, even driving the development of the story. Mo Yan takes Lan Jiefang to see Lan Jinlong mating with Huang Huzhu on a tree, and later introduces Pang Chunmiao and Lan Jiefang meeting. The main storyteller of the story also appears multiple times in the book, giving his evaluation of Mo Yan. This is also quite novel. Although I don't really like it because I feel it's a bit excessive, I think of that picture: someone holding "To Live" and asking Mo Yan for his autograph, and he signs it, but signs it as Yu Hua. Thinking of this, I have a good impression of Mo Yan.

• Ending. In fact, in the penultimate chapter, Mo Yan is about to end the story, and he says this:

  Dear readers, the novel should end here, but many characters in the book do not have a final ending, and it is the wish of most readers to see the final ending. So, let our narrative protagonists - Lan Jiefang and Big Head - rest for a while, and let me - their friend Mo Yan - continue their conversation, and add another tail to this seemingly endless story.
  I think Mo Yan said this very well. I appreciate endings that tie things up nicely, but as a reader, as someone who has gotten into the story, I still want to know what happens to the characters in the book. So I read these fifty-four chapters, and after finishing it, I even felt a bit regretful. Because when you explain everything, when you finish telling the story, it often loses some of its beauty. I prefer Chapter Fifty-Three as the ending, with that sentence as the ending:
  Everything that comes from the land will return to the land.
  Recently, I watched Hayao Miyazaki's "Porco Rosso," and at the end, the author deliberately left out some details, which made it even more beautiful.

  Let's talk about a few characters in the book:

  • Blue Face.

    I have never planted anything for a day, but I have worked in the fields. However, I bid farewell to my slipper. But I still have a special fondness for the land. I thought about the reasons, which may be related to the time I spent at my grandparents' vegetable seed stall during primary school, or maybe it's related to the rice fields that accompanied me for more than two years in high school, or maybe it's related to the descriptions in the small stories I've read. In short, I have some feelings towards the land, towards agriculture. Therefore, not only for this reason, I will talk about Blue Face first.

    What I admire most is his toasting the moon. It appears twice in the book, at least that's how I remember it. One time is when the children get married, and his wife Yingchun gives him a bottle of wine, and his first glass is a toast to the moon.

    He poured the wine from the bottle and waved it towards the moon, shouting with a fervor and a tragic and desolate tone that I rarely see: "Moon, for more than a decade, you have accompanied me in my work. You are the lantern given to me by the heavens. You shine on me as I plow and hoe the fields, as I sow and transplant seedlings, as I harvest and thresh... You don't speak, you don't get angry or complain, and I owe you a lot of gratitude. Tonight, let me offer you a pot of wine to express my heart. Moon, you've worked hard!"

    There is also a time during the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet.

    Your father held a glass of wine and poured it towards the moon. The moon trembled for a moment, and the moonlight suddenly dimmed, as if a layer of mist covered its face. After a moment, the moonlight became bright again, more gentle and melancholic. Everything in the yard, the houses, trees, people, and dogs, all seemed to be immersed in clear light blue ink.

    It's so beautiful, so romantic. Toasting the moon is not an invention of Mo Yan or Blue Face. Li Bai's "Drinking Alone Under the Moon" has the line:

    I raise my cup to invite the moon, and together with my shadow, we become a party of three.
    But I feel that it doesn't have the same beauty as Blue Face pouring wine to the moon. He treats the moon as a labor partner, rather than enjoying himself because of loneliness like Li Bai. When Blue Face makes an agreement with the dog Xiaosi later on, he also mentions the moon.
    "Old Dog, you bear witness, and the moon bears witness too. This place, I have laid claim to it, and no one can take it away from me."
    I like his attitude towards the moon.

This could be considered my first book review, or perhaps a better way to put it would be my thoughts after reading. I don't have the qualifications to evaluate or criticize these books. I'm just expressing my thoughts on reading. After finishing a book before, I naturally had some thoughts, but due to laziness and the habit of immediately searching for other people's book reviews after finishing a book, my originally vague thoughts would be occupied by the thoughts of others, so I didn't write them down. This piece can be said to be the first time I've overcome that laziness and consciously chose not to search for book reviews. After finishing writing this time, I feel pretty good. At least I've tried to express some of my thoughts in writing.

• March 9, 2023