帶著什么樣的希望去流浪?——讀《流浪地球》有感

◇ 文 |田 東

說(shuō)實(shí)話，寫(xiě)下這個(gè)標(biāo)題，我是很有幾分猶豫的。如同一個(gè)姑娘第一次赴心儀對(duì)象的約會(huì)，把衣櫥的服裝都換上兩遍，仍找不到最能凸顯自己魅力的那件一樣。我在腦子里糾結(jié)了一遍又一遍，弄得自己都快去流浪了，還是找不到那個(gè)可以讓我眼前一亮、心中頓時(shí)安定下來(lái)的標(biāo)題。

可標(biāo)題總是要有的。

就像希望。

哪怕這個(gè)希望是傷痕累累的，脆弱的，晦澀的，甚至是灰暗的。

一如大劉在《流浪地球》中借“我”的父親、那位人類空軍的近地軌道宇航員所說(shuō)：“你聽(tīng)著親愛(ài)的，我們必須抱有希望，這并不是因?yàn)橄Ｍ娴拇嬖冢且驗(yàn)槲覀円龈哔F的人。在前太陽(yáng)時(shí)代，做一個(gè)高貴的人必須擁有金錢、權(quán)力或才能，而在今天只要擁有希望，希望是這個(gè)時(shí)代的黃金和寶石，不管活多長(zhǎng)，我們都要擁有它！明天把這話告訴孩子。”

然而，對(duì)于希望，僅僅是有無(wú)的問(wèn)題嗎？

To be honest, I am a little hesitant about what I am going to write down.Try to imagine a girl going for her first date. She has tried on all her clothes twice but still cannot find the right one. That is how I feel now. I rack my brain and almost have a rush for wandering, but fail to come up with a perfect title for my book review.

However, a title is a must.

Just like hope.

Even though the hope might be beaten-up, fragile, cryptic or gloomy.

As is said by “my” father, the astronaut in the book The Wandering Earth written by Liu Cixin, “Listen, my dear, we must have hope, not because it really exists, but because we must be a decent man. In the pre-sun era, a decent man must have money, power or talent, but now, hope is all that matters. Hope is the gold and gem of our time. As long as you are alive,you must have it! Tell this to your child tomorrow.”

However, is hope simply something we can or cannot have?

借著電影的大熱，我也不能免俗地又把書(shū)翻出來(lái)細(xì)細(xì)品讀了一遍。不得不說(shuō)，自由的個(gè)人書(shū)寫(xiě)，終究要比復(fù)雜又嚴(yán)苛的電影工業(yè)生產(chǎn)來(lái)得更波瀾壯闊。

無(wú)法否認(rèn)，這是一部硬核科幻小說(shuō)。且不說(shuō)那些占據(jù)了半個(gè)天空、高達(dá)一萬(wàn)一千米、如同一座金屬高山的地球發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)，也不說(shuō)“記憶遺傳技術(shù)”“全息森林”“反物質(zhì)炸彈”等科技范十足的新名詞，單是小說(shuō)的開(kāi)頭，就硬得不能再硬了：我沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)黑夜，我沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)星星，我沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)春天、秋天和冬天。我出生在剎車時(shí)代結(jié)束的時(shí)候，那時(shí)地球剛剛停止轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)。

初讀小說(shuō)，可能有些朋友會(huì)有些困惑：書(shū)名中流浪的本意是無(wú)目的的隨處游蕩，可故事里最大的梗——帶著地球逃離即將氦閃的太陽(yáng)——目的明確得不能再明確。但讀完全書(shū)，你卻不得不感嘆，這個(gè)名字取得真好，恰如其分，甚至說(shuō)是畫(huà)龍點(diǎn)睛也不為過(guò)。“流浪”加上“地球”，營(yíng)造出的那種巨大的蒼涼和迷茫，非常準(zhǔn)確地表達(dá)了全書(shū)的精神氣質(zhì)。

從某種意義上說(shuō)，也折射出了作者的精神氣質(zhì)。

Since the motion picture of “The Wandering Earth” has become a blockbuster, I take the chance to re-read the original novel. I should say the world unfolded in the novel is much more magnificent than the one visualized by the sophisticated film industry.

It is no doubt a hard-core science fiction. Mountain-like Earth Engines of 11,000 meters that rise high and cover the sky, science fictional concepts such as “memory genetic technology”, “holographic forest” and “anti-matter bomb” contribute to the “hard-core” of this science fiction. On top of that, the story begins in an unprecedented hard-core way: I have never seen the night. I have never seen stars, nor have I seen the spring, autumn or winter. I was born by the end of the Brake Time when the earth had just halted rotation.

Some readers are probably confused when first reading the novel. The book title The Wandering Earth hints that the earth is about to wander, which is also the hook of the story. And wandering seems to be an aimless journey. However, human have an aim,and that is to take the earth away from the exploded sun. When you finish the book, your confusion will be resolved. You cannot help wondering what a perfect name it is for the story. The words “wandering”and “earth” have created tremendous gloom and loss, which accurately reflects the ethos of the book.

In a sense, it also reflects the ethos of the author.

在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上，有很多對(duì)劉慈欣以及他的作品的評(píng)價(jià)和討論，幾乎大部分都會(huì)進(jìn)入到對(duì)三觀的爭(zhēng)論乃至互噴。對(duì)此我無(wú)意介入。但對(duì)于不少人所說(shuō)劉的文筆就是小學(xué)生水平這點(diǎn)我不敢茍同。且不說(shuō)文筆對(duì)于大多數(shù)科幻小說(shuō)而言是最不重要的一環(huán)，平心靜氣地說(shuō)，寫(xiě)得出“木星的大紅斑就處在天空正中，如一只紅色的巨眼盯著我們的世界，大地籠罩在它那陰森的紅光中”這樣文字的小學(xué)生，估計(jì)得是花錢上過(guò)新概念作文培訓(xùn)班的那種吧。

從《流浪地球》到《三體》，個(gè)人的命運(yùn)似乎都不是大劉關(guān)注的重點(diǎn)。他的筆下，個(gè)人都如塵埃般微小到微不足道。他們的悲歡離合，命運(yùn)變遷，都是為一種全新的生存體系服務(wù)的?？梢哉f(shuō)，這個(gè)體系，才是劉慈欣小說(shuō)的真正主角，人類及其命運(yùn)，只是建立這個(gè)龐大體系所需要的眾多浩如煙海的磚石中的一塊。個(gè)體的奮斗、吶喊，幸福、悲哀，在這個(gè)體系的映照下，都打上了蒼涼的烙印。

在這部格局龐大的小說(shuō)中，空間籠罩整個(gè)太陽(yáng)系，時(shí)間橫跨兩千多年，一百代人被置于一場(chǎng)未知的流浪旅途中。作者通過(guò)對(duì)地球流浪計(jì)劃的鋪陳，討論了人類自古以來(lái)就在反復(fù)糾纏的終極問(wèn)題——生死。

“你在平原上走著走著，突然迎面遇到一堵墻，這墻向上無(wú)限高，向下無(wú)限深，向左無(wú)限遠(yuǎn)，向右無(wú)限遠(yuǎn)，這墻是什么？”

小說(shuō)剛開(kāi)始沒(méi)多久，還是學(xué)生的“我”向他的老師“小星”提出了這樣的問(wèn)題。

問(wèn)題的謎底是——

死亡。

甚至，大劉筆下的生死已經(jīng)不單單只對(duì)人類而言，還有地球。

比如文中的“靈兒”對(duì)“我”說(shuō)，“地球就是宇宙中的一個(gè)小水泡，啪一下，什么都沒(méi)了，有什么好怕的呢？”

在這樣的背景下，大劉在文中發(fā)出下面的感嘆也就不奇怪了。

There are loads of comments and discussions from netizens on Liu Cixin and his works, most of which end up internet troll and personal attack. I do not want to judge. However, I think it is unfair that many say Liu’s style of writing is as lame as an elementary school student. First, style of writing plays a minimal part in science fiction. Second, it is too demanding for an elementary school student to write such words, “the giant red spots of the Jupiter rests in the air, staring our world like a giant eye,shrouding the earth with the gloomy red light”.

In his novels The Wandering Earth and The Three Body Problem, individual’s fate is never a concern to the author. To him, it seems like individuals are as insignificant as dust. Their joy and sorrow in the vicissitudes of life all succumb to a complete new system of survival. This system, we can say, is the real protagonist of Liu Cixin’s novel. Individual fate is only a brick in the construction of this tremendous system. The struggle, effort, happiness and sadness of a person are dwarfed by the system and get lost in vain.

The novel presents a colossal structure in terms of both space and time. It transcends the entire solar system over two thousand years, during which time a hundred generations are trapped in an unknown wandering journey. The author elaborated the Wandering Earth Plan to draw light upon the intricate theme haunting the mankind: life and death.

“Suppose you are walking on a plain and suddenly come across a giant wall in front of you. The wall is infinitely large in all four directions. What would the wall be?”

At the beginning of the novel, “I”, as an elementary school student by then, proposed the question to teacher “Star”.

The answer is——

death.

Furthermore, Liu Cixin brought the meaning of life and death a step forward, not just for humans,but the earth as well.

For example, “Agile” told “me”, “the earth is just a small water bubble in the universe. It can vanish in a flash, so what’s to be afraid of?”

In such a context, the following words by the author seem not so hard to understand.

在這個(gè)時(shí)代，人們?cè)诳此膫€(gè)世紀(jì)以前的電影和小說(shuō)時(shí)都莫名其妙，他們不明白，前太陽(yáng)時(shí)代的人怎么會(huì)在不關(guān)生死的事情上傾注那么多感情。當(dāng)看到男女主人公為愛(ài)情而痛苦或哭泣時(shí)，他們的驚奇是難以言表的。在這個(gè)時(shí)代，死亡的威脅和逃生的欲望壓倒了一切，除了當(dāng)前太陽(yáng)的狀態(tài)和地球的位置，沒(méi)有什么能真正引起他們的注意并打動(dòng)他們了。這種注意力高度集中的關(guān)注，漸漸從本質(zhì)上改變了人類的心理狀態(tài)和精神生活，對(duì)于愛(ài)情這類東西，他們只是用余光瞥一下而已，就像賭徒在盯著輪盤的間隙抓住幾秒鐘喝口水一樣。

類似的觀點(diǎn)，大劉在他的另一部小說(shuō)《朝聞道》中也提到過(guò)——“當(dāng)愛(ài)情因個(gè)體的異化和融和而消失，當(dāng)藝術(shù)因過(guò)分的精致和晦澀而最終死亡，對(duì)宇宙終極美的追求便成為文明存在的唯一寄托，他們的這種行為方式也就符合了整個(gè)世界的基本價(jià)值觀。”

對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，即使考慮到作者的工科背景，這樣的觀點(diǎn)也無(wú)法接受。至少在目前——套用大劉在小說(shuō)中的命名，即所謂的“前太陽(yáng)時(shí)代”——愛(ài)情和藝術(shù)，對(duì)于人類來(lái)說(shuō)是如同空氣和水一般的存在。因?yàn)椤皭?ài)情，就是要成為一個(gè)人”，而“藝術(shù)是發(fā)揚(yáng)生命的，死神所在的地方就沒(méi)有藝術(shù)”。

如果真如大劉所說(shuō)，愛(ài)情和藝術(shù)都消亡了，那么人類在這場(chǎng)長(zhǎng)達(dá)幾千年的漫長(zhǎng)流浪中，靠什么來(lái)保持內(nèi)心的安寧，拿什么來(lái)安慰那無(wú)處安放的靈魂呢？

難道就靠電影里那樣躲在地下城的洞穴里打打麻將斗斗地主？

或許，在如此殘酷的故事里，面對(duì)如此殘酷的現(xiàn)實(shí)，這才是真正的問(wèn)題：

一個(gè)不需要愛(ài)和美的地球，會(huì)需要什么樣的希望，它又將流浪何方？

In this era, people are confused when seeing films or reading novels of four centuries ago. They do not understand why people in the pre-sun era cared so much about life and death. Their confusion is ineffable when they see the protagonists suffer or even cry for love. In their era, overwhelmed by the threat of death and the desire to survive, they can hardly feel anything except for the solar status and the location of the earth. The high intensity has gradually changed the psychological status and spiritual life of humans. Love becomes a dispensable element of life.People only peer at it like a gambler taking in some water at the interval of a game.

Liu Cixin put forward similar view in his another fiction Doctrine At Dawn——“When love vanishes as individuals alienate or merge, and art perishes for extremely refined and intricate, the pursuit of the beauty of the universe will become the one and only hope of the civilization. And human behavior will then conform to the fundamental values of the world.”

However, I disagree with his view though considering the author’s engineering academic background. At least now, in the “pre-sun era” as is named by Liu Cixin in the novel, love and art is what air and water to humans. “You have to become a human to love”, and “art is to promote life. In the realm of death, there is no art”.

If love and art perish as the author said, how could humans have inner peace and comfort their unsettling souls in the wandering of thousands of years?

By playing mahjong or poker in the underground caves?

Perhaps, in such a cruel story, the real question in face of the relentless reality is:

What hope does the earth have when love and beauty is absent and where will it wander?