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Publish: 聯合文學

drinker

drinker

MOP$133.00
MOP$133.00
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All memories are wet

It is a novel by Liu Yichang,
It is also the inspiration for Wong Kar-wai's film "2046"

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"Top 100 Chinese Novels of the 20th Century"
"Top 100 Hong Kong Novels of the 20th Century"

This book "The Drunkard" describes how an intellectual who is not very mentally balanced due to being in this depressing era uses self-abuse to survive. ──Liu Yichang

"The Drunkard" was first serialized in "Sing Tao Evening News" in 1962, and was published as a book in Hong Kong the following year. Known as "China's first stream of consciousness novel", it later inspired director Wong Kar-wai to make the famous movie "2046".

The novel unfolds in the first person and is divided into forty-three chapters. The longest one is about ten thousand words, and the shortest one is only twelve words. The author describes this as "a story about how an intellectual who is not very balanced mentally due to being in a depressed era uses self-abuse to survive." The background is Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s.

The protagonist is a professional writer. Although he is full of ideals and ambitions, he is trapped by the current situation. He wants to write serious and avant-garde literature, and supports his friends to publish the "Avant-garde Literature" magazine in a difficult environment. However, his script creation is blocked. Piao Piao usually makes a living by receiving royalties from popular martial arts novels and even pornographic novels. Inwardly, he couldn't agree that he catered to the public and became a writing machine in order to survive. Furthermore, because his ideals were difficult to practice, he resorted to drinking to drown his sorrows in life, but when he sobered up, he became even more disgusted with the world. The writing of stream of consciousness deeply and delicately depicts the character's painful mood and entanglement, just like being drunk and making people magnify all their own feelings. In addition, the author's criticism of the times and literary comments can be seen through the novel; such as movie montage ( Montage's technique does not focus on clear story development, but in the end, one can read the atmosphere of an era and the difficulties of an industry in fragmented emotions.

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