“今朝有酒今朝醉”

2009.3.12

有资料表明，电影在经济萧条时期会逆势繁荣，经济繁荣时期反而会不景气。

1982年美国失业率高达10%，但看电影的人数增加了10.1%，达到大约11.8亿人次。那一年的最卖座电影正是《E.T.》。到了1985年，经济高速发展，观众却减少了约12%。

如今历史似乎在重演。仅在2009年的头两个月，美国的电影票房收入就达到17亿美元，电影票销售量比去年同期增加了17.5%。与此同时，美国经济的下滑有目共睹。

有学者认为，经济困难时期人们想在电影中寻求慰藉，想忘掉烦恼，还想有多一些人作伴。电影院里的黑暗也给事业遭到挫败的人一些安全感。严肃沉重的电影这时候是不吃香的。

我倒是认为，除了上述原因之外，在经济萧条的时候加大消费力度——包括看电影——的人中间，有一部分是抱着“今朝有酒今朝醉”的心理，反正这钱越来越不值钱，还不如把它花掉。

至于是不是如那则小幽默所说，美国人认为买电视机花的钱其实给了中国，买电脑的钱给了印度，买水果蔬菜的钱给了墨西哥，只有看好莱坞电影和棒球比赛才能把钱留在美国，于是大看起电影来，那就不得而知了。

“以闲为自在，将寿补蹉跎”

2009.2.8

牛年这个年过得有点沉重。虽然来往拜年也拜了，亲戚们的麻将摊也经常摆，但家人心中都有牵挂，因为有人住在医院里，在北京动完手术来广州还要动手术。手术后白天黑夜都由家人轮流陪护。连我的手提电脑都要征用，让她看影碟。她又娇气，动不动大呼小叫，把大伙儿折腾得够呛。

面对这种形势，我再三斟酌后向妻儿提出不要给我搞生日聚餐了，气氛不合适。他们同意了，于是不提此事。果然也没有别的人想起来，儿子为此还有点不平：老爸的生日他们怎么就不放在心上呢？

其实，过年也好，过生日也好，用时髦点的话语来表达都是一种建构（construct），是人为的，只不过被自然化了（naturalization）。一旦去自然化（denaturalization），就有人不习惯，是谓执着。

执着是心态不平静的表现。我觉得再有价值的东西都换不来一个澄明的心境，至于退休后能否多拿一些养老金这种事就更不在话下了。

巧的很，唐代诗人刘禹锡也是在过年时有所感触，写下了“以闲为自在，将寿补蹉跎”的诗句。颇为豁达大度！

不过，这只是“起、承、转、合”中“转”的两句。前面“起、承”的四句却是：“弥年不得意，新岁又如何。念昔同游者，而今有几多。”相当的伤感和焦虑！也许刘禹锡是经过自省后才形成“以闲为自在，将寿补蹉跎”的人生态度的吧！

附原诗：岁夜咏怀

弥年不得意，

新岁又如何。

念昔同游者，

而今有几多。

以闲为自在，

将寿补蹉跎。

春色无情故，

幽居亦见过。

A Satire on Love: Reconsidering A Midsummer Night’s Dream

2007.10.6

In one of Byron’s adolescent poems there are such lines:

If Apolo should e’er his assistance refuse,

Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove,

Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse,

And try the effect of the first kiss of love!

(“The First Kiss of Love” from Hours of Idleness)

Indeed, love is considered one of the eternal themes of literature, but it is unduly idealized by many men of letters. This folly has long been the cause of the suicidal bitterness of the disillusioned youngsters.

Of course there are writers who have tried to remind us that love is not all roses. Some warn us that the pleasure may give way to a savour of sorrow:

Rose kissed me to-day.

Will she kiss me tomorrow?

(“A Kiss” by Austin Dobson)

Others laugh at it ironically:

Out upon it, I have loved

Three whole days together;

And am like to love three more,

If it prove fair weather.

(“The Constant Lover” by Sir John Suckling)

Yet none of them can equal Shakespeare, who, without reservation, strips off Love’s veil of purity, takes away her crown of supremacy, wipes out the halloes of sanctity around her head, and has her face revealed. Then we are taken aback: Lo, love can be so ugly!

Love is mingled with bloody enslavement. Theseus says:

Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,

And won thy love doing thee injuries. (I. i. 16-17)

Love is the source of discord. It turns friends into rivals, as in the case of Helena and Hermia, and the parental affection into a deadly hatred.

Love can be used as a means of torment: Oberon, by magic, makes Titania love a beast-like creature, takes advantage of her embarrassment and demands of her the changeling.

And Love is also astoundingly inconstant. The fairy king steals away from the fairy land and verses love to Phillida, and he has another mistress, Hippolyta, too. The fairy queen loves Theseus, and the latter, unable to stand her temptation, has abandoned three lovers. Demetrius once made love to Helena and “won her soul,” but now he courts Hermia.

What is even more amazing is that this serious and sophisticated idea is handed out to the audience in the wrapping of a comical atmosphere. The more lively and the more jocular the stage is, the more thought-provoking the play.

The ridiculous remarks of Bottom and the other clowns, who are borrowed from England, sparkle with wit and truth from time to time. On the contrary, the refined verses uttered with much ardour by the enchanted lovers can but make them the real fools in the play, or in life as Puck points out:

Lord, what fools these mortals be! (III. Ii. 115)

The caricatured performance of Pyrumus and Thisbe and the mockery at it by the Athenian audience bring forth a question: Is it worth it to die for Love?

Even the happy ending embodies another satire. Without being disabused of the charm of the love juice, Demetrius is made to love one he does not love at all. And Helena senses that. She sighs:

I have found Demetrius, like a jewel,

Mine own, and not mine own. (IV. i. 197-198)

Poor Demetriuses and Helenas! They live in a world where true love is so rare; marriage with true love is even rarer; but marriage without love is unfortunately everywhere.

The basis of the comedy is the magic of the love juice, which, as the forfeited pound of flesh or the three caskets, is fabulous. This fantasy, however, is only a device to put us off our guard so that when Shakespeare makes one of his sudden dives into truth our unpreparedness renders the unexpected vision all the more striking. If I were the director, I would interpret and stage the comedy in such a way as to make the audience ponder, after their laughter dies away, over the following question:

What is the value of Love?

Wit & Judgement

2007.10.4

英国哲学家Locke在他的Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) 中谈到Wit 和 Judgement 的对立时说：

“And hence, perhaps, may be given some Reason of that common Observation, that Men who have a great deal of Wit and prompt Memories, have not always the clearest Judgement, or deepest Reason. For Wit lying most in the Assemblage of Ideas, and putting those together with Quickness and Variety, wherein can be found any Resemblance or Congruity, thereby to make up pleasant Pictures and agreeable Visions in the Fancy; Judgement, on the contrary, lies quite on the other side, in separating carefully, one from another, Ideas wherein can be found the least Difference, thereby to avoid being misled by Similitude, and by Affinity to take one thing for another. This is a Way of proceeding quite contrary to Metaphor and Allusion;…”

Wit 和Judgement 的对立其实是poetry 与reason 的对立，所以Locke才特别点了metaphor 和allusion 这两种诗歌创作中常用的手法。Reason 需要精确，而poetry 需要suggestiveness。太外露的诗就乏味了。故此，Reason operates more naturally through prose than through verse.

要命的suggestiveness！以汉语为母语的中国学生写英语作文常常就在这上头栽了跟头。也许因为中国是诗的国度吧，就连古典文论也是suggestive的，即所谓“点到即止”。评诗有诗品，品茶有茶韵，都是suggestive。兵书亦如此。哲学书如《庄子》也是suggestive的。换言之，中国写文章的传统是综合性的，亦即Locke所说的“putting those together with Quickness and Variety”。而英语的prose传统却是分析性的。从小熟读中国文章的中国学生，综合性的传统已经深入骨髓，所以写起英语记叙文来就一味描写，以求“情景交融”。写起英语议论文来则不会使用“however, of course, nevertheless, as a matter of fact　”这一类connectors， 因为他们认为转折的意思已经在句中suggest了，无须多费笔墨。至于写topic sentence， 就更难得记起来了。要知道，中国的古文是不分段的，不但不分段，连标点符号都没有。现代散文虽然分段，但由于是“assemblage of ideas”，通过许多侧面去suggest，用中学语文老师常说的就是“形散神不散”，所以一般也没有topic sentence。

不过，中国学生学起parallelism这种修辞手法来就容易多了，因为中国古代的赋、骈文及律诗所用的主要修辞手法是“对句”或“对仗”，与英语的parallelism有异曲同工之妙。在这方面常见的毛病则是由于语法概念不清导致句子结构两边不平衡。

照Bishop Sprat 在1667年提出的标准，英语prose应该是“a close, naked, natural way of speaking”。