Natsume Soseki was a talented person throughout his life. He only engaged in creation for ten years, but left behind a series of treasures. All his works generally reflect the painful and restless soul of the intellectuals in the Meiji period, and his arduous exploration between Eastern thinking and Western civilization, between illusory ideals and cruel reality, between pedantry and conservatism and the tide of money worship. and painful torture.
In the early days, the author advocated sketching, describing nature and life as a sketch. It requires transcending the dirty customs of the vast mortal world, writing about the truth and beauty of the "selfless realm", and opposing naturalism crawling in the gloomy reality. Therefore, although his early works are based on realism, they have a strong romantic atmosphere, are gorgeous, passionate, eloquent and full of wit. In the middle period, although he once advocated writing transcendent and ethereal sketches, he still couldn't get rid of the sorrow of the world and the sorrow of the soul condensed in the writing. Therefore, the writing style became more realistic and gained new depth. In the later period, I was extremely disgusted with the real society with rampant material desires and selfishness, and the fantasy of "let heaven get rid of selfishness" became the norm of people's hearts. But even he himself couldn't imagine what that Utopia would look like. The text style of his late works is desolate and solemn, and the descriptions of objects and things are subtle and superb.
The literature of each nation or country, generally speaking, is a portrayal of the temperament, character, wisdom and emotions of that nation or country. Like a vast river, it is the history of the nation. Thinking...
"I am a Cat" can be said to be one of the "meditations" of the Yamato nation's spiritual feedback during the Meiji period.
The era of "Cats" is just after the Meiji Restoration. On the one hand, the trend of capitalism is rising. People are learning from the West, looking for individuality, calling for freedom, and self-awareness and market concepts are forming. On the other hand, the inherent values, cultural outlook, and customs of the East, which embrace both obsolescence and excellence, are rising in protest. Sunk, struggling in the sinking...
A group of impoverished intellectuals faced the new trend of thought, both adapting and ridiculing; A difficult time. They are always mocking and making fun of others, but they are always being teased and ridiculed by fate and the times.
The protagonist is a cat. Seeing the world through a cat's eyes was a breakthrough in creative techniques at the time. Today, there are often works that look at people on earth from the perspective of aliens, which also reflects the accumulated habits of the human world. Without a perspective that transcends reality, it will not be fully understood.
Cat Master is very philosophical, eloquent, and satirical about human weakness. For example: "The world's praise and criticism vary from time to place, just like my eyes. My eyes are just big and small, but the comments in the world are confusing right and wrong, and it's okay to confuse right and wrong, because things inherently have two sides. As long as you grasp both ends, you can turn your hands into clouds and turn your hands into rain. This is the mastery of human power." He criticized society and had extraordinary insights: "... maybe the whole society is crazy. A group of people. Mad people get together to kill each other, quarrel with each other, yell at each other, and compete with each other. Could it be that the so-called society is a collection of all mad people, living up and down like cells in living things? ? Maybe some of them have some sense of right and wrong, but they become obstacles, so they created the asylum and sent those people there without letting them see the light of day again. In this way, the people imprisoned in the asylum are normal people. And those who stayed outside the walls of the asylum were madmen. Maybe when the madmen were isolated, everyone regarded them as madmen; but when they became a group and gained strength, they became sane people. Abusing money and power, using many little lunatics to show off their power, and still being praised as outstanding people is not uncommon. It really confuses people. ”
Cat. He was erudite and well versed in the past and present. He cited or praised Homer, Pythagoras, Descartes, Clare, Nietzsche, Beethoven, Balzac, Shakespeare, Confucius, Laozi, Song Yu, Han Yu, Bao Zhao, Yan Shu, Tao Yuanming, as well as countless famous quotes from Chinese and foreign celebrities such as "The Book of Songs", "The Analects of Confucius", "Huainanzi", "Zuo Zhuan", "Historical Records" and so on. He also has a strong sense of freedom and equality. He said: "You can't retail the air, and you can't separate the sky, so isn't it unreasonable to privately own the land?" Mao Gong criticized the current shortcomings, and uttered a series of eternally thought-provoking aphorisms, such as: "Our family cannot We know exactly what force makes the earth rotate, but we know that it is money that makes society move... Even the sun can rise safely from the east and set safely in the west, which is entirely due to the blessing of industrialists." Officials are originally the servants and agents of the people, and the people give them certain powers for the convenience of doing things. However, they think that the power is inherent in themselves and cannot be discussed by the people." Mao Gong criticized Yamato Hun and said: "Because. It's the soul that makes him often trance-like. The general Dongxiang has a Yamato soul, the fishmonger A Yin has a Yamato soul, and the liar, the kidnapper, and the murderer also all have a Yamato soul. He coughed, and a hundred meters away, he said, "Mao Gong also dared to despise the powerful and encourage innovation." He depicted crows defecating on the bronze statue of Marshal Togo and pasted Ito Hirobumi’s photo upside down on the wall.
He said: "If you don't read Shakespeare from the crotch down, literature will perish..."
The cat laughed, laughed, and cursed, all of which became articles. The laughter transformed from grief is the most unbearable.
The cat has so many magical powers, talents and knowledge, and is fair and sharp. Of course, he is a magical cat, a strange cat, and a holy cat. Seeing the world through its eyes, sorrow turns into laughter, how can it not be harsh and harsh! Of course, he is also a vulgar cat and a stupid cat. He pretended to be a sage and gentleman, made many mistakes, suffered a lot, and even didn't know that a wine barrel would drown a cat, and finally lost his life.
Although the novel looks at the world through "cat's eyes", as it is written, the subject of creation is still a "me" among humans, or a neighbor of humans, or another other person (cat) on the earth. If we observe human beings as "I" in the universe or as "he" in eternity, I don't know what kind of wonderful book will be written.
The novel also has a breakthrough in structure. It is based on the cat's vision. It can be long or short, moving east and west. There is no story with a beginning and an end, and there is no logic of plot progression, but it is still enjoyable to read. There was a trend of prose culture in Japanese novels, and the prose culture of some novels was a reflection of the lack of fullness. In "Cats", at the time, it was a charming innovation. Of course, to be honest, the author didn't originally intend to write it this long. Because the first chapter was a sensation, the editor asked him to continue writing, so he laid out the serialization. This shows that he did not have a complete idea of ??the entire chapter. It also shows how he could have written so arbitrarily and as he pleased if it hadn't been for everyone's handwriting.
In terms of language, the style of "Cats" is not quite as bold and ethereal as "Sojourn", nor is it quite as concise and dignified as "Light and Dark", and it is even different from "Heart" and "Ever After". Soft and delicate. Here, both hardness and softness are used, elegance and vulgarity are combined, there are many changes, and the sounds and colors are gorgeous. Moreover, it combines the humor and interest of Edo literature, the classics and sonority of Sinology, and the heartiness and wit of Western literature, so that it can swim freely in the ocean of language and achieve perfection. The writing and ink are sometimes sharp, sparkling and timeless, sharp and full of philosophy; sometimes they are nine-fold and ten-turn, vast and powerful, and good at thinking. Let me quote two wonderful sentences describing scenery and characters. For example, he said sarcastically about the mediocre face of a novice monk: "If the spring breeze always blows on such a smooth face, I guess the spring breeze will be too leisurely!" Description of the scene: "The maple leaves that decorated the red pine forest with two or three vermillions have withered, as if they have passed away. "The sound shook the quiet air of early spring mercilessly, completely vulgarizing the peaceful and prosperous age with soft wind and quiet trees." Some are like satirical poems, and some are like freehand paintings, each has its own beauty.
In short, if you touch or feel his works with an artistic mind, you will naturally appreciate the color, rhyme and even every word of the language as a living entity