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A review by mxethanollan
一個人的聖經 by Gao Xingjian, 高行健
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I think my thoughts on Gao's literature has changed dramatically in the past year. Well a part of me definitely liked him for his rebel against the Chinese government (to which I resented way too much at the time). Well I think now I am able to see the politics better, I can assess his stuff more objectively.
One Man's Bible is one of my favorites of his, the scale isn't as large as Soul Mountain, but it's close. The 2 perspectives, representing past and present, were really nicely crafted. Their split and eventual joint is an extremely powerful metaphor for one's coming in terms with their trauma. Gao's anti-authoritarian sentiment throughout his oeuvre is almost too obvious in this book. One may read this semi-autobiographically, and I don't blame them. The narrator has too much in common with Gao and as I've mentioned... it's almost painfully obvious, which definitely contributes to his ban in China.
My reading from Gao's work comes back to his social liberalist beliefs. He is very strongly pro freedom of expression, which does not align with the current political climate in China. The sentiment is always good, but it does bother me now more as a lot of narrators in his books are quite hedonist and nihilistic. I think this sort of moral relativist message from his works do make them quite morally flawed... like how the existentialists are widely critiqued because of their pro-pedophilia arguments.
Regarding Gao's writing style... oh how I have come to here. His idea of a cold literature is... interesting. I think One Man's Bible is in nowhere "cold" as he liked it to be. I guess it may have occurred in bits so I think interpreting them as a sort of post-traumatic stress response is perfectly great. I would definitely say the non-fiction collection "Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather" is way "colder". And it just doesn't work (for me... but for most people I would imagine). I can read one or two smaller scale work in that writing style, but oh fuck no. His idea about conveying the beauty of the literary art through language itself just does not work for me. Everything's fine but when he said he does not want to tell stories one would wonder... what is writing for then? I cannot accept I am essentially reading a piece of visual art through words (I guess the best image I can find is as if you're reading a Jackson Pollock painting). He has the ability to write very good stories, but he just chooses not to, and often in seemingly pretentious ways.
One Man's Bible is one of my favorites of his, the scale isn't as large as Soul Mountain, but it's close. The 2 perspectives, representing past and present, were really nicely crafted. Their split and eventual joint is an extremely powerful metaphor for one's coming in terms with their trauma. Gao's anti-authoritarian sentiment throughout his oeuvre is almost too obvious in this book. One may read this semi-autobiographically, and I don't blame them. The narrator has too much in common with Gao and as I've mentioned... it's almost painfully obvious, which definitely contributes to his ban in China.
My reading from Gao's work comes back to his social liberalist beliefs. He is very strongly pro freedom of expression, which does not align with the current political climate in China. The sentiment is always good, but it does bother me now more as a lot of narrators in his books are quite hedonist and nihilistic. I think this sort of moral relativist message from his works do make them quite morally flawed... like how the existentialists are widely critiqued because of their pro-pedophilia arguments.
Regarding Gao's writing style... oh how I have come to here. His idea of a cold literature is... interesting. I think One Man's Bible is in nowhere "cold" as he liked it to be. I guess it may have occurred in bits so I think interpreting them as a sort of post-traumatic stress response is perfectly great. I would definitely say the non-fiction collection "Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather" is way "colder". And it just doesn't work (for me... but for most people I would imagine). I can read one or two smaller scale work in that writing style, but oh fuck no. His idea about conveying the beauty of the literary art through language itself just does not work for me. Everything's fine but when he said he does not want to tell stories one would wonder... what is writing for then? I cannot accept I am essentially reading a piece of visual art through words (I guess the best image I can find is as if you're reading a Jackson Pollock painting). He has the ability to write very good stories, but he just chooses not to, and often in seemingly pretentious ways.