I picked up this well-known novel, and the dust settled several times. I turned over a few pages and put it down. But everyone said yes, which aroused my curiosity to find out. After many years, whether I am more mature psychologically or have an understanding of the development of the times, I still picked up this novel and read it enthusiastically. My mood can't be calmed for a long time. The fate of the characters in the novel affects me and makes me seem to be a part of it. Together with them, I experienced the ups and downs brought by the changes of the great era to individuals and groups.

For me, as a Han boy, the environment described in the novel makes me feel very strange. Tusi culture, Tibetan culture, exotic humanities and customs, geography and landforms are all unheard of and unseen by me. Perhaps, this is why I couldn't substitute it into the story of the novel when I first read it! I was a little distracted when I was reading in front, but I accelerated the pace from the middle part, getting better and better, and the final topic was climax.

The background of the novel is the 1920s, 1930s and 40s, which is the most turbulent period for China society and country. Sichuan and Tibet are still relatively closed, and people seem to still live in the ancient serfdom era. Except for the ruling class, the public knows little about what is happening outside, and many people always have the idea that "the mountain is high and the emperor is far away". Just like Bai Jiaxuan in Chen's White Deer Plain, earth-shaking changes are taking place outside. Lu Zilin came back from town and told him that the weather was going to change. Bai Jiaxuan still does his own work. He feels that no matter who is the emperor, it will have no impact on his life. He should pay the rent as usual and continue to pay the imperial salary. However, the era of feudal serfdom and bloody plunder has long since ended. After all, the transformation of society from one form to a new one will go through ups and downs. Under the wheel crush of the development of the times, this is an irresistible force for individuals.

It is against this background that the characters in the novel The Dust Settled have thrived on this land from generation to generation. However, what they don't know is that the changes of the times are gradually affecting the fate of everyone here from the periphery. The fool second young master and brave young master of Maggie's family, the executioner who sticks to the ruling class system in Tibet and the officials of the Republic of China who bring new things every time, the Han wife of Maggie's family and the native Tibetan toast queen, guns and broadswords, poppies and wheat, syphilis and primitiveness, and so on. These are in stark contrast. At the end of an era, their actions and thoughts are antagonistic. Even if the second young fool used his wisdom and what he saw and heard to build a modern town in the border area, it was only a flash in the pan.

The power and economy of Maggie Tusi's family from prosperity to prosperity is actually a blip before death and a carnival before death. In the course of history, everyone's efforts are a drop in the bucket, just like a gladiator stopping a car, and ultimately it is in vain. Individuals are like a dust in the universe, and the dust will eventually settle, which is their absolutely irreversible fate.

A Lai, a writer, said: "1In May of 994, I sat by the window, facing a green birch forest on a hillside not far away, and heard the cuckoo chirping from the village ... I turned on the computer, and the dribs and drabs accumulated in my attention to local history over the years suddenly showed a vague, vibrant and meaningful look at that moment. As a result, the first line of "Dust Settled" fell on the screen. "

After a lot of investigation and accumulation in previous lives, it took nearly a year to finish writing this book, but the road to publishing has experienced ups and downs, and it has been tossed among major publishers and repeatedly rejected. It was published by People's Literature Publishing House four years later. After publication, it received a great response, and it was translated and published in 15 countries one after another, winning the highest prize in domestic literary circles in one fell swoop. The subsequent adaptation of TV series can be said to make the novel and the author fame and fortune again. Because this novel is unprecedented in both writing theme and ideological realm, it is both serious and artistic, and its special theme, unique perspective and unique writing techniques have brought readers new experiences in reading. Although the novel is fictional, the turbulent era of the last century written in the novel is realistic. Because of the legendary nature of the novel story, it is like a fable story divorced from realism, with metaphor and romanticism. Although it reads like a dream, it is very philosophical and clear when you think about it carefully.

I saw Alai say in the preface: "Of course, such novels will not be written in the way of bestsellers now. I also don't want my novels to be refined and popular. I believe that novels that truly depict their spiritual picture will choose their own readers. "

It can be seen that Alai is a proud and lonely novelist, and this pride and loneliness are vividly reflected in the novel. The novel takes the second young fool of the Maggie family as the first perspective, and tells the whole process of the Tibetan Tusi family from prosperity to extinction due to the historical changes of the great era through a "fool" perspective. Maybe that's why Alai tells stories from a fool's perspective. The whole book really reads like a fool whispering in your ear, and it has a damp and warm feeling. The most wonderful thing is that there are a lot of figurative sentences in the text, which not only feel beautiful to read, but also have deep meanings when you think about it carefully. Fool's thinking is not understood by so-called normal people, and it is lonely. The so-called normal people will not interfere too much with the words and deeds of fools, and fools are very free. As a silly son of a big toast, he has the supreme power of ordinary people, and freedom can bring him unlimited space to play. Anyway, if you don't do well, no one will blame you. Who can blame a fool for doing something wrong?

So the fool in the novel can "do whatever he wants". Even if he has said many times that he has seen the future, people will never regard this as an "alarmist" or "warning the world", but will only think that he is talking nonsense. But as readers, we live in the "future" seen by the second little fool, and we know what he said is true.

Turbulent times, foreign environment, complex human heart, politics, rights, desires, love and hate intertwined, resulting in this great novel. The shock brought by historical changes has made this snowy plateau undergo earth-shaking changes. The last big chieftain in the world who represented the noble class in Tibet had to accept it at that time, and its decline and sorrow can be imagined. As the lowest Tibetans, they are very eager to get rid of this serfdom era as soon as possible. Of course they want to be their own masters, and the oppressed life in the past is best gone forever. From all this, we see the declining edge of an era, and people are at a loss about the unknown future. In addition, because of the unknowability, it will give birth to a little expectation and hope.

The torrent of history will never be reversed, and individuals can only drift with the tide, and all retrograde resistance forces will go up in smoke. Even if it is a toast like Maggie's big toast, although it once commanded this snowy plateau land, these old forces will eventually settle down in the face of the development of the times. Dust is not the seed of dandelion, it takes root and sprouts where it falls, and dust is dust. Falling and freezing is its only ending.

Text/Lin Zexu Lin Ze

Pictures/from the Internet

Editor/Lin Zexu Lin Ze