Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 2 Preface to the 30-Year Commemorative Edition of Wildfire (2)
But after the [-]s, the "Vulture" that erodes freedom has a flowing appearance, and its outline is not easy to recognize.American writer Philip Roth pressed Kerima with sharp words:
. . . What I am about to say may strike you as arrogant and conceited—the free rich admonishing the free poor of the dangers of getting rich.You fought for years for something, something you needed like air, and I would say that the air you fought for was a little corrupted... as the Czech Republic became a free, democratic In our consumer world, you writers find yourselves beset by new adversaries from whom, oddly enough, a repressive, lifeless totalitarianism once protected you.Especially troubling would be an adversary who is the all-powerful arch-enemy of literature, knowledge, and language...an adversary that has virtually ignorant the entire language of mankind.I'm talking about commercial TV, which is all vulgar and shallow - not because of a stupid state attorney's control ... but because of its entertainment.

You and your fellow writers have had a hard time breaking out of the intellectual prison of totalitarianism.Welcome to the Absolute Entertainment World.Do you not know what you are losing, or do you already know? [1]
(Can you see the "omnipotent enemy of literature, knowledge, and language" in Taiwan's reality? Or, can you defend this "enemy"? What do you do with Ross's question?)

After reading this, I closed the book, and instead of looking at how Crema dealt with this problem, I asked myself: When I wrote "Wildfire" 20 years ago, did I know "what are we losing"?Did I know that the freedom I pursued would invite another kind of enemy, a philosophy of life that takes vulgarity and superficiality as its fashion, aims at "absolute entertainment" and takes marketing and consumption as its highest guiding principle?Did I know that politicians may become soulless high rollers, politics may become pure merchandising, political ideas may be emptied and turned into power struggle techniques, and intellectuals may scramble for nothingness For the noble, and the masses, may be more intolerant than ever.Did I know that the high ideals of journalism could become an embarrassing irony that, freed from authoritarianism, television is ruled by falsehood and childlike stupidity?When I wrote "Wildfire", did I know that college students 20 years later may no longer have the innocence of "Kindergarten University", but instead justly laugh at profoundness and reject thought? (College students in the 70s would walk with Russell and Nietzsche books under their armpit, pretending to be "profound". College students in the 21st century, what are they "pretending"? Are people exaggerating the "nothingness" and "strawberry" tendencies of the new generation? Here, can we discuss the semantic intricacies of so-called "postmodern" and so-called "modern"?)

I have to be honest, no, I didn't expect that.In fact, you can't say to someone who can't breathe, who craves air, "That air is full of impurities, it's corrupt, so keep it in the house." You just can't say that.

Answer with Kafka

On August [-], [-], Kafka wrote a line in his diary: "Germany declares war on Russia.—Swim in the afternoon." It hit the World Trade Center and exploded, and the building collapsed like a computer game." What about yours?)
Kafka is a thoroughly private individual, not a social being or a citizen of action.The turbulent waves at the national level are as important as his going to swim in the afternoon; the catastrophe that will kill millions or tens of millions of people is equal to his little leisure time.Is there anyone more egotistical, more nihilistic than he?
But he wrote such books as "The Trial" and "In the Place of Exile".The degree of alienation of human nature in these books, every line is like a prophecy dripping with blood, predicting the catastrophe of mankind that will happen 15 years later.

Klima uses Kafka to answer Rose's challenge:
These works (of Kafka's) only testify to a creator who knew how to express profoundly and truly an experience that is entirely personal, while reaching beyond the personal or social realm... Literature does not need to hunt around for political reality, or Even frets over institutions that come and go; he can transcend them and still answer the questions that institutions raise in people's minds.This is the most important lesson I have learned from Kafka myself. [2]
Kafka, who puts swimming and war on the "Equality of Things", appears to be nothingness on the surface, but in fact, his "profound and real" makes his personal ego experience cover and even surpass the national ego experience.That is to say, to withdraw from the "big narrative" of state society and gain freedom does not mean the evacuation of meaning, the cynicization of value, the trivialization of narrative, the hollowing out of idealism, and the amnesia of tradition (these They are all Europeanized sentences, bad Chinese, but you tell me if there is a more precise sentence pattern).You can withdraw from the "big narrative", but you can't leave "profound and true", and you can't leave some of the simplest, most primitive but most eternal principles, such as humanity, such as beauty, such as the distinction between good and evil, such as thought and literature. (Even this, do you want to challenge?)
Crema cannot actually answer a global trend presented in Roth's question, but rest assured, he tells Roth, with some pride, that in his country "literature has always enjoyed not only popularity but also Respect... In a country of less than a thousand and two million inhabitants, books by good authors, in Czech or in translation, have circulations of thousands."[1000]
If Ross asked me the same question, would I have the same confidence in my own society and my own youth as Kerry did?It is said that our authors and intellectual elites are "profound and true" enough to discern the boundary between freedom and nothingness; that our readers and young people have enough taste to detect the "absolute entertainment world" that takes advantage of the void. To rule over all, to identify the "enemies of literature, knowledge and language", to resist the commodification of idealistic consumption, to discern the authenticity of value?

I think I will ponder for a long time.

(OK, how do you answer Ross?)
I don’t know who invented the term, calling young people in the 21st century the “strawberry family”; it means that the “strawberry family” lives softly and lightly, without any oppression in their lives, so they cannot withstand oppression.At the same time, because there is no authoritarian politics, no oppression, and no object worth resisting, of course there is no reason or necessity to ignite "wildfire".

In fact, I don’t believe in the term “strawberry family” at all—every age has people who think and people who don’t think; it’s even more inconceivable that the so-called “there is no object worthy of resistance”.Is it not just an authoritarian politics that oppresses us?Authoritarian politics is so big that it forces us to focus all our attention on it while ignoring other oppressions that, when authoritarianism is absent, come out in full force, pervasively, infiltrating TV shows that are almost insulting in taste, Into the trampling of employees' human rights in corporate management, into the fanatical clamor of nationalists, into the violence of the majority in democratic operations, into the falsification and monopoly of the news media...the so-called oppression, where there is only one face?Regarding the oppression of the spirit of freedom, the era of authoritarianism and the era of democracy have occurred in different forms, so which era does not need people who light the fire? (Anyone can go online to write their own opinions and knowledge into the definition of the term, and anyone can also revise the definition made by the guy in front, and then wait for the person behind - if he has more accurate information, more incisive opinion, overthrow you.)
June 21, [-]

Savan Drive

Walked like this in the [-]s

——I have often seen your masterpiece criticizing the current disordered social phenomenon. Every time I read it, my eyes are full of tears and I can't help myself.

——I showed the newspaper article to my child, and he said he wanted to photocopy it, but he said he didn't dare to post it in class, because he was afraid of the discipline department, and we have been living in fear.

——To tell you the truth, I also want to leave Taiwan.I dare to predict that China will be an eliminated nation, not by others, but by the rope in its own hands, really, really.

——"Red phobia" is an incurable psychological illness of our nationals, and like the Black Death, everyone is afraid of contagion.

——At present, you are well-known enough that "relevant parties" dare not act rashly.But be careful: drive, walk, and go to the street, you have to pay attention to it, and beware of "violent spirits" coming out.I think you understand what I mean.

——Your book and China Times have been banned in our unit.Although I don't agree with this approach, the formation of the army is that it must know how to obey orders. The "China Times" was banned because of the "Wild Fire Collection" article.This is a document issued by the political and warfare department, which is a "confidential document".

——Do you know how the small people survive in Taiwan, an island with severed diplomatic relations, weak foreign trade, small land, large population, and underdeveloped industry and commerce?Do you know that the government only collects taxes, regardless of unemployment benefits, labor laws are incomplete, workers are injured, workers are fired, and they cannot find a job. How does it solve the seven things that open the door every day?Do you know that the mine workers died and became vegetative, the government and labor insurance benefits are a drop in the bucket, half of the private donations are kept by the Taipei County Government, how do the children of the miners live?

— You are a traitor to the nation!

The age of deja vu

December [-] was an unusually cold winter.I was in Taiwan Adventist Hospital waiting to give birth. Looking out of the window from the hospital bed, the sky had a particularly clear and clean blue color.

"Wildfire Collection" appeared in bookstores and roadside bookstalls. 21 brushes were printed in 24 days.The book in my hand, because I didn't press it enough time, the cover was still upturned.Four months later, one hundred thousand copies had been sold.

The Kuomintang newspapers began an almost daily attack.

Without the government led by the Kuomintang, no one can survive.Even wildfires that want to "make trouble" will have to keep silent at that time, otherwise they will not be able to escape the end of being fought and slaughtered!

We must solemnly declare to the world that the Chinese living in Taiwan today, led by Taipei, may have deficiencies in their political system, social structure, national customs and customs, but they are absolutely healthy, have no syphilis and sores, and can love and be loved. Only ××××…carriers like Long Yingtai, we have the right and the responsibility to publicly despise her.

Criticism from outside the party has another tone:
Long Yingtai blamed the readers, "Why are you not angry? No action?" She didn't know (or deliberately ignored)... What system made them become that "angry" look?Isn't it a joke that Long Yingtai asked people to exert "public opinion" pressure on the vast majority of "legislators" who would never re-election?

...Any individualistic rebellion is inherently ineffective...Long Yingtai obviously did not realize this.She continued to uphold individualism and American freedom, and finally had to encounter the final hurdle: the most closed, suppressed, and persecuted individual freedom is none other than politics. …Finally she attacked the political force and, as in previous cases, was banned.

...However, why was there "Free China" in the [-]s, "Wenxing" in the [-]s, and "University Magazine" in the [-]s, but there was only one Long Yingtai in the [-]s?Does this mean the decline of liberalism?

I have never responded a single word to the abuse and intimidation launched by the Kuomintang, because I disdain it.There has never been a single line of justification for criticism from outside the party, because I am afraid of throwing a mouse: I cannot let those who are waiting to destroy me know my writing strategy.

12 years have passed.Taiwan's society has been completely reborn in the past 12 years. Yes, it has been completely reborn, but the changed physique and appearance are still so similar to those of 12 years ago, which is surprising.

In March [-] He Huaishuo wrote:

The recent "Jiangnan" case and the "Ten Faith" case, like a violent storm, almost brought everything to a standstill in society... An official who also participated in the decision-making of this series of incidents pointed out sadly: "What is backwardness? It is almost like ours. look.” Traffic chaos, air pollution, ecological destruction, fraudulent businessmen, unrest, corruption…

The editorial of "China Times" on August [-], [-] read:

The Matsu air crash, Winnie typhoon disaster, street fighting, one after another shocking scene, one innocent life lost after another... Disasters and public security have reached a level beyond common sense, and what really reflects is that the entire ruling machine has fallen into a semi-paralyzed state.

So when I wanted to write a little historical testimony for the "wildfire phenomenon" in the [-]s, I didn't feel at all that the white-headed palace lady was talking about Tianbao's legacy, as if it was a lifetime away; I felt that the [-]s was too recent yesterday, The time is long, but the road is not very far.

I walked this way

There used to be an old gas oven.The gas leaks, and the gas permeates the inside of the box.Without knowing it, I lit a match and bent to open the box door.

There was a "bang"; no, there was no explosion.It's just a cloud of anger rushing towards my face, a burst of heat, and my eyebrows and hair are already scorched.

Taiwan in [-] was a "stuffy" gas oven, and "Why Aren't You Angry, Chinese" was a match without a core.

My social education has begun.The excited letters from readers opened up to me the unhealed wounds that Taiwanese society has covered up for a long time.An unfair system oppresses the people, and it can be oppressed for a long time because it is supported by a social philosophy: a social philosophy of submissiveness and self-defense.Those who see through the injustice of the system know that things cannot be done and turn indifferent; those who have not seen through have long been taught that patience is a virtue and endurance is an obligation.But boring, this is a society where there is no place to appeal for grievances.

The Jiangnan case, the Ten Faith case, and the poisoned corn case are all visible and serious incidents that shake the "fundamentals", but in invisible places, the personal tragedies and grievances of small citizens are fending for themselves.

In [-], school teachers could be taken away by "relevant units" for questioning in class.Works exhibited at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum can be altered because the "whistleblower" is suspected of being red.Pre-officials serving in the army can be beaten, killed, or disappear, and their news is blocked.Motorcyclists can fall into pits dug by government construction units and die without compensation.

In 180, international human rights organizations said that there were [-] and [-] incidents of suppression of speech in Taiwan.

The voices that dare not speak out, the pain that has nowhere to pour out, poured into the desk of a writer who seemed to represent justice.Non-Party publications circulated underground, roamed around the fringes, and circulated among a few people.Most ordinary citizens don't watch, dare not or don't want to watch.The power-seizure awareness of non-Party publications makes ordinary citizens who are accustomed to stability and fear turbulence feel suspicious and fearful. The "Wildfire" series of articles is the first time that many people have seen critical texts in the mainstream media that do not beat around the bush.Although the text is full of appeal and incitement, its character of transcending parties and not involving power makes people "reassuring".The most direct criticism is contained in the perceptual text, which makes people's hearts boil.

(End of this chapter)