读毛姆的《刀锋》

读完了毛姆的《人生的枷锁》，又一鼓作气读了他的另一部作品《刀锋》。这部小说比较短，250多页，前后花了大概九天时间。

 

个人觉得《刀锋》没有他的其他两部作品《月亮和六便士》《人生的枷锁》来的精彩。写下一点读后感也是强迫自己动动笔，加深些印象，为日后翻读留下一鳞半爪。

 

作者在这部小说里以真实的第一人称身份(毛姆)讲述他所知道的几个故事。在此罗列一下小说里的几个人物。

 

主人公Larry是参加过第一次世界大战的年轻飞行员。战争的血雨腥风让他亲眼目睹身边生龙活虎的战友，顷刻间生命陨落。退役后，他心中留下的创伤和阴影无法抹平。他迷茫，沮丧: 如果生命可以如此短暂，人应该怎样活着？人生的意义何在？为此，他放弃意中人，身边的幸福，和一份唾手可得、报酬丰厚的工作，流落欧洲，欲踏破铁鞋寻找答案。他当过煤矿工人，做过邮轮上的发牌生，他历经人生各种体验，读书钻研，求救传教士，如此这般，依然困惑不解。最后他踏上东行印度国之路，在禅和佛教里找到部分答案。他决定结束漂泊生涯回国，继续他低物质欲望的苦行僧生涯，因为在他看来，钱不能带来自由，精神世界的自由快乐才是人终极的追求。

 

Larry有个青梅竹马的女朋友Isabel，两人感情笃深。可到了谈婚论嫁的时候，面对Larry希望她跟随他浪迹天涯、过简朴生活的请求时，Isabel拒绝了，从此两人分道扬镳。Isabel嫁给了倾慕她已久的富家子弟Gray, 婚后恩爱幸福，Gray对Isabel百依百顺，两人享尽荣华。但是1929年的经济危机让Gray和他父亲(两人都是股票经纪人)的财产一夜之间化为乌有。Gray父亲心脏病去世，Gray一蹶不振，失去工作、家业，病痛缠身。是Larry带着他从印度学到的一种意念法让他摆脱疾病，重新振作起来。

 

Sophie是Larry和Isabel从小的玩伴，后来嫁人生子过着幸福的生活。但是飞来的横祸夺走了她心爱的丈夫和孩子，从此她酗酒、吸毒、卖淫。Larry试图拯救她，跟她结婚，但因Isabel从中作梗，Sophie再次犯酒瘾逃离Larry，未果。Sophie的最后结局很惨，她遭人割喉，抛尸大海。

 

小说中还有一个名叫Suzanne的女人, 她穷苦出身，迫于生活，游走于欧洲巴黎画界，给人当模特，做情人。多年后又邂逅一位富商，做了他定期的情人，在富商太太去世后修成正果。

 

小说中值得一提的一个人物是Isabel的舅舅Elliot. Elliot是个出入名利场的有钱人，极其在乎自己的地位声望，常常不吝钱财，邀请各界名流开party, 他左右逢源，广交朋友，为人既势利又慷慨善良，可即便他这样处处与人方便，对别人有求必应，当他自己病入膏肓时，却门前冷落鞍马稀，受过他无数好处的达官贵人早已将他遗忘，可谓世态炎凉。更可怜的是，一辈子周旋于社会上层的Elliot，死之前还相信天堂里也有等级，他进了天堂也将是那里的座上宾。

 

小说里的这些人物从某种角度把社会众生相摆在读者面前。作者对人物的描写勾画非常细腻，从人物的外表开始，直到人物内心，而人物又是置身于他所熟悉的欧洲、美国历史文化传统中，所以写得得心应手，人物个个鲜活真实。然而，不知道作者是不是想增加小说的深度，这部小说又如他其他作品一样，贯穿了他的很多关于人生哲理、宗教的思考和内容，让人物游离于宗教艺术之间无法自拔。作者还在小说后半部加了一个章节详述他与主人公Larry的对话，宣称这一章读者可以省去不读，但这一章却又是他创作的最早出发点，那便是小说的主题，小说的书名《刀锋》或许也源于此: 人的救赎之路很窄很难，如在刀锋上行走那般，喻指世人不可能像主人公Larry一样不羁世俗凡尘，不被名利钱财束缚，自由自在，也就是基督教里形容救赎之旅是在"走窄路"，是同一个意思。

 

我个人对哲学宗教了解不多，各国的历史文化了解的更少，所以读的过程，如上一本《人生的枷锁》一样，有些背景知识人物不能意会，不能click， 更不能产生联想。当然，任何一部小说融入哲理宗教的内容是无可厚非的，但是这部小说里大段的这些描述，那种想寻找答案又给不了答案的纠结和探讨，让读者也跟着彷徨迷茫，因为到底有没有上帝，人的信仰应该如何，人死后灵魂是不是永存等等这些话题是没有答案的，而正如小说的结局，每个人物最后各得所需，正如生活在这世界的人各有各的活法一样，为名也好，为利也罢，精神上的快乐，物质上的享受，世界因他们的存在而纷呈多彩多姿。作者似乎在刻意渲染神秘超自然的超凡脱俗，有意识地渗入宗教人生哲学色彩，这在我看来反而削弱了作品本身，留下了点滴雕琢的痕迹。

 

 

quotes:

 

"The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard."

“The path to Salvation is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.”

"I couldn't go back now. I’m on the threshold. I see vast lands of the spirit  stretching out before me , beckoning, and I’m eager to travel them.”

"Well, love isn’t a good sailor  and it languishes on a sea voyage. You’ll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang that before you sailed seemed intolerable.” 

“The man I am writing about is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.”

“I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.”

“Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.”

I suppose it was the end of the world for her when her husband and her baby were killed. I suppose she didn't care what became of her and flung herself into the horrible degradation of drink and promiscuous copulation to get even with life that had treated her so cruelly. She'd lived in heaven and when she lost it she couldn't put up with the common earth of common men, but in despair plunged headlong into hell. I can imagine that if she couldn't drink the nectar of the gods any more she thought she might as well drink bathroom gin.”

“I only wanted to suggest to you that self-confidence is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling. It whirls its victim to destruction in the highest affirmation of his personality. The object doesn't matter; it may be worth while or it may be worthless. No wine is so intoxicating, no love so shattering, no vice so compelling. When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself? At best he can only sacrifice his only begotten son.”

“You attach more importance to money than I do.'

'I can well believe it . . . You see, you've always had it and I haven't. It's given me what I value almost more than anything else in life - independence. You can't think what a comfort it's been to me to think that if I wanted to I could tell anyone in the world to go to hell.”

“. . . Endless duration makes good no better, nor white any whiter. If the rose at noon has lost the beauty it had at dawn, the beauty it had then was real. Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it to the premise of our philosophy. We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing too.”

“There are psychologists who think that consciousness accompanies brain processes and is determined by them but doesn't itself exert any influence on them. Something like the reflection of a tree in water; it couldn't exist without the tree, but it doesn't in any way affect he tree. I think it's all stuff and nonsense to say that there can be love without passion; when people say love can endure after passion is dead they're talking of something else, affection, kindliness, community of taste and interest, and habit . . . Of course there can be desire without love. Desire isn't passion. Desire is the natural consequence of the sexual instinct . . . That's why women are foolish to make a song and dance if their husbands have an occasional flutter when the time and place are propitious . . . what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose . . . Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction but impediment . . . When passion seizes the heart it invents reasons that seem not only plausible but conclusive to prove that the world is well lost for love. It convinces you that honor is well sacrificed and that shame is a cheap price to pay. Passion is destructive . . . and if it doesn't destroy it dies. It may be then that one is faced with the desolation of knowing that one has wasted the years of one's life, that one's brought disgrace upon oneself, endured the frightful pang of jealousy, swallowed every bitter mortification, that one's expended all one's tenderness, poured out all the riches of one's soul on a poor drab, a fool, a peg on which one hung one's dreams, who wasn't worth a stick of chewing gum.”

“You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection".”