The three masterpieces, Stream of Consciousness, Memories of the Past, Ulysses and The Sound and the Fury, are hard to read. Together with One Hundred Years of Solitude, they often appear in all kinds of "the list of the most difficult literary masterpieces in history".
When I was reading the history of literature, I often saw the introduction of stream of consciousness, but unfortunately I never had time to read the original. The epidemic gave me a chance. Recently, I spent four days watching The Sound and the Fury. Here are some ideas about stream of consciousness:
Stream of consciousness novels are pure literature written for writers. Literature is divided into two categories: one is pure literature written for writers, which is characterized by innovation and show, and is experimental and pioneering. Stream of consciousness novels are such works; The other is popular literature written for the people, such as martial arts, fantasy, fairy tales and so on. Pure literature looks dull and obscure. Its purpose is not to cheer readers up, but to provide writers with new writing skills or express new ideas. Subsequent writers can absorb nutrients from these works in order to create all literary works, including popular literature.
Stream of consciousness is an unpopular writing skill in China. Stream-of-consciousness novels are very tiring to write and read. In order to reflect the normal operation mode of human brain thinking, the author not only often breaks sentences without punctuation, but also often switches thinking scenes at will. In the process of saying A, he thought of B, and then C ... The Sound and the Fury. The first three chapters are from the perspective of Bangui, Quentin and Jason, and the fourth chapter is from the perspective of God, focusing on Dilcey, the maid. In Bangui, Bangui is an idiot with an IQ of only three years old. His thinking and observation angle are different from ordinary people. In addition, more than 100 thought scenes have been switched. Without notes, he can't understand it at all. Quentin is a person who loves and hates his sister Katie and is ready to commit suicide. The illusion of honeysuckle smell often appears in his brain, and his mind itself has twisted parts (for purity, he would rather accept the burning of hell). Quentin's thought scene is also constantly jumping and switching. In order to express this kind of thinking jump and association, the author should not only disrupt and splice the events, but also make the jump and association look natural and tired to write, which I am afraid can't be done without genius. Readers are also very tired to read, just like talking to a mental patient, which makes people crazy and depressed.
In addition, the stream of consciousness also reflects the differences between eastern and western aesthetic standards. In western aesthetics, "truth" occupies a high proportion in "beauty". In the west, the pursuit of truth is also the pursuit of beauty, such as human statues, paintings and other arts are typical cases. Following this aesthetic thought will naturally produce a stream-of-consciousness novel that truly shows the process of human thinking. But for oriental aesthetics, implication and euphemism are a major feature. For example, The Book of Songs expresses one thing to another in a way of "comparison" and "xing". There are also writers in China who are influenced by the stream of consciousness, such as Yu Dafu and Mo Yan, but on the whole, the stream of consciousness is cold.
Reflection:
1. Is the stream of consciousness really an improvement? Is it necessary for consumers to know the molecular structure inside the computer when buying it? Is the direction of literature understandable or incomprehensible? Must literature pursue truth? Fiction and social science research cannot be equated. No matter how true the novel is, it can't replace sociological research. The obscure stream of consciousness is the main reason for its unpopularity.
Second, does the stream-of-consciousness novel have "aesthetic feeling"? Literature belongs to art, and the standard of art is beauty. Magic realism conveys subtle feelings through exaggeration and synaesthesia, which can make readers feel "beauty". Stream-of-consciousness novels are abstract and can't convey these feelings intuitively, but the abstraction is not the poetic abstraction of poetry, but the abstract with complicated logic, which is hard to understand. Where can we feel "beauty"?