Chapter 14 【Appendix 4】

<Brewing a Rebellion of Lust> Zhang Juanfen Jiang Xun's prose is famous for its beauty, his poems are sympathetic, and his aesthetic theory is profound. The title of the short story collection "Because of Loneliness" that has recently been compiled into a book is also romantic; Thoughts, full of blood, stumps, and endless desires.Jiang Xun deals with these provocative themes in a cold and detached way of writing, so what appears in the book is not blood gushing from a fountain, but dried blood stains; not a fleshy and vital body, but frozen severed limbs; not joy The joy of liberation, but the tearing of rationality, is a sad and confusing sensory experience.

The writing of this series of novels began about three years ago when Jiang Xunfu stepped down as the dean of the Fine Arts Department of Tunghai University.The seven-year administrative work of the head of the department and the longer teaching of aesthetic theory courses aroused many doubts about himself. The more proficient he is, the more he gets tired of analyzing and controlling the aesthetic experience with rationality.Jiang Xun described that while he was giving lectures endlessly, he felt strongly that a black liquid was constantly secreting in his heart.In the book "Because of Loneliness", we can clearly see that these repressed deep-seated passions and sensory experiences in real life are emerging uncontrollably from the cracks of rationality, spreading around, and brewing a passion mutiny.

This erotic rebellion is firstly manifested in the incomplete structure of the novel. In <Hot Dead Parrot>, the brightly colored, ostentatious, post-modern parrot only appears abruptly at the beginning and end, but the middle part is full of young assistants confessing to the old doctor's complicated desires; in the first half of <Tongue Test>, tongue, labor The relationship between things such as sex, reproduction, and female consciousness is still unclear, but in the second half, the tongue cannot be used to express opinions, but it has to be used to play vocal games. The focus is shifted to political persecution; The housewife who feels the deepest loneliness suddenly rekindles hope for the alienated relationship between husband and wife, and her emotions appear incoherent.

The metaphors in many novels also make readers have the urge to ask questions clearly. "Anarch's Hair" writes about the student movement, and "Theory of Pig's Feet with Thick Glands and Body" insinuates Taiwan in the theory of Taiwan independence as a pig's foot cut off from a pig's body. These novels are all curious: Are Jiang Xun's works expressing political ideas?If so, what is he trying to express? For Jiang Xun, the aforementioned structural and metaphorical questions are not easy to answer.Because this series of novels is written in a situation that is reactionary to rationality, the pen often moves randomly, and the elements of emotional guidance are more than rational construction.For example, the article "Theory of Thick Glands with Pig's Feet" was originally intended to be written about Wanluan in Pingtung, but in the middle of writing it developed an association with Taiwan independence and pig's feet, which Jiang Xun himself did not expect.Some students also asked frequently after reading "Anarch's Hair": Are you for or against the student movement?In fact, when he was writing, he was thinking about the French student movement he participated in in 1968.In the end for or against?Jiang Xun said he was stupid when asked.I just think that people must believe in something when they are young, even if they become disillusioned later, it doesn't matter.

The most stern of the six novels may be "The Finger of the Woman's Bright Moon".The woman Mingyue lost 680,000 yuan in cash and the nine fingers tightly attached to it on the street; Jiang Xun made the woman Mingyue shake her hands with only one thumb left in front of us from time to time in a black humorous way; He doesn't directly describe her blood and pain, but he calms the indifference and calmness of passers-by and the police, and quietly arouses the faint pain when reading."Because of Loneliness", which was selected into Erya's "81st Anthology of Fiction", the story in the process of writing is very warm.Out of concern for a good friend, he originally wanted to write this novel with a pedophile man as the first person, but he was not satisfied after writing four or five consecutive articles, and he always felt that there was a layer of separation.This frustrates him greatly: one cannot fully understand another after all!In the end, he writes in the first person of a housewife with a surprisingly sensitive sense, and writes his sympathy and tolerance for pedophiles, although he can't fully understand it.

There are innocent and straightforward female characters appearing in this novel several times, such as the apricot in "Hot Dead Parrot", the leaf in "Anarch's Hair", and the vulgar and shallow Taiwan in "Theory of Thick Glands with Pig's Feet". Island Girl and more.In fact, there are many descriptions of gender oppression in Jiang Xun’s novels, such as the isolation and helplessness of housewives, the hardships of single mothers, and the marginal position of female members in revolutionary actions, etc., but they lack in-depth discussion and havetily complained with coquettish complaints (Xingzi, Tai island girl) or goofy optimism (the housewife in "Because of Lonely") sidesteps heavy oppression.

Jiang Xun has a very detailed description of sensory experience, such as the connection between the root of the tongue and the muscles under the eyes in "Tongue Test"; other than vision, the first-person hearing of the housewife in "Because of Loneliness" is It was especially wonderful: I even felt that he could hear my eavesdropping, and stopped occasionally, as if he was checking. At that time, my heart beat faster, as if someone had discovered my improper eavesdropping, and I quickly sat up.Although full of sensual descriptions, dry thinking passages can still be seen everywhere in the book; it seems that the surging passion is brewing a rebellion, but the hard head still does not give up trying to think about the meaning of hugging in the loneliness of the city. "Because of Loneliness" takes the entanglement and dispute between lust and reason as the main axis, and unfolds the author's self-discovery and self-salvation.Although many social and structural power relations are gently touched and slipped through in this collection of novels, as a creator, the introspection ability, honesty and courage displayed by Jiang Xun are enough to surprise people .

The original June 1993 issue of "Eslite Reading"