Rascal

Author: Wang Shuo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Culture is too frightening, like food. If you don’t eat, you die. If you do, it shapes you. I doubt its core has been encoded into our genes, so it no longer needs to be acquired through education. I feel like I’m swimming in the ocean, with endless waves rolling on, wondering when I’ll reach the other shore. Like a newly fallen primitive person from a tree, with a clear, innocent mind. About these books, I personally think they are a witness to a dark age. To live, to live in self-invented and self-satisfied illusions, this is perhaps the fate of a writer. Understanding it is useless. These books were all written ten years ago or earlier. Back then, I was very self-assured, believed in many things, disbelieved in many others, had strong desires, and thought what I knew was everything. The people, scenes, and conversations in these books are from what I experienced then. They weren’t special in life, but I found them interesting because I didn’t know more, and I wrote them down with pretense. These scenes are gone, these people have scattered, those who are alive have aged prematurely, and I no longer speak or view myself in the same way. Sometimes, I feel I’ve lost the ability to continue writing. When I was young, I thought there were many important things ahead, and that as long as I kept running, I’d see them. But when I walked past, I realized the important things had already happened behind me and were gone. Moving forward, there’s just an empty void. There’s nothing to regret about the past, and no accidents—everything was necessary. I don’t believe one can have more than two choices.