引用
Ξ Reading the Novel-- The Process of Searching the Truth
- 2008-08-01(09:34) /
- Ξ 其他
People are accustomed to ask for an answer when they face things which are unknown before. In this high developed culture, when people want to know these unknown things, they are used to follow the rational consideration, use the deductive and inductive ways to discover the answer. For instance, William is the standard of this kind people. The process of seeking the murderer, the process of searching the formula, the process of looking for the answer, all of them can be considered as the process of finding the origin and the truth. These processes are in the novel The Name of the Rose and Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. Following will discuss the difficulty of trying to find the origin and the truth.
In The Name of the Rose, one of the main topics is how William tried to find out the murderer in the abbey. Although there is no 「real」 murderer in these events, in fact, all these events happened coincidentally. The one who only we can consider him as a murderer is Jorge, but the motivation makes him spread with the poison in the book is he does not want anyone to read the second part of the Aristotle's Poetics. Thus in this process of searching the murderer, although William uses his talent and profession to collect the clues and tries to find the murderer behind the curtains, it is useless, since there is no 「real」 murderer. Then, the truth William looks for is not the truth he wants to get. Nowadays, in the world, people always try to find the 「truth」 or the 「answer」 to explain the things they do not know before. Since the God gave the authority of naming to Adam, this world has combined with lots of names, uncountable names. Even the words every author uses in their writing are also the combination of lots of names. Nevertheless, the name is just like a tag, which is used to be recognized each other easily. The essence is just the thing we use in the world; the name does not have any function that cannot be used. The last sentence in The Name of the Rose is: 「[S]tat rosa pristine nomine, nomina nuda tenemus」 (The Name of the Rose 502). People only have the name of the rose, but except the name, the beauty of the rose, the fragrance of it, are the essences which really construct the 「rose.」 Juliet says: 「[T]hat which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet」 (Romeo and Juliet: II.ii.43–44). It will not be different when the rose has the different name, since the beauty and fragrance of the rose are unique, these unique elements are the factors combine into a rose, other flowers will not have the same appearance and smell.
Nowadays, it is difficult to ask people abandon those names, or ask them stop trying to find the answer. Because people's culture is constructed under these names from ancient culture to currency, it cannot be denied that these names help make this world in order. In recent ideological trend, people discover there are full of the names and signs around the life. Hence someone starts to search the way to escape form those. However, they have been one part of our life since long time long time ago, it is difficult to leave them. In other words, if people wanted to escape from them definitely, they would cut the relationship with this society. In the contradiction, the action of trying leaving these names and signs is another type of process, which is searching the 「truth.」 It is the hard way to do so, since the truth people want to find out has been packaged in many and many boxes which are called different names. The author of The Name of the Rose Eco, Umberto says: 「[I] was handed a book written by a certain Abbé Vallet, Le Manuscrit de Dom Adson de Melk, traduit en français d'après l'édition de Dom J. Mabillon (Aux Presses de l'Abbaye de la Source, Paris, 1842) 」 (The Name of the Rose 1). Then, the version we read is translated from Itlian, it is hard to trace the original version of The Name of the Rose (or the closer name: Il Nome Della Rosa). Moreover, it cannot be assured that the whole manuscript can be translated completely, and without any mistranslation or lost part in the 「origin.」 Both the origin and the truth, are packaged with different appearances, thus when people want to try looking for the inner origin or fact, people will get lost in the process easily. In John Barth's short story 「Menelaiad,」 he uses another writing skill to reproduce the famous story 「The Troy War.」 The 「Myth」 can be considered as the most original text, but it is impossible to back to that origin. These outside decorations (signs, names, translations, and so on), make people in nowadays become further away from the truth, the origin people seek.
Usually, we have a lot of clues to find out the answer what people want, or having tools and skills to help people. However, most of time, people are too confident to believe the truth, the origin can be find out absolutely. It can be discovered by these clues or through tools. Nevertheless, once people have this attitude, they will be got in the trap easily. When William and Adso get into the finis Africae, William considers that he has solved all mysteries, and he confesses he was misled by the prediction of Apocalypse from Jorge: 「『[W]hat a fool…』『Who?』 『I. Because of a remark of Alinardo's, I was convinced the series of crimes followed the sequence of the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse'」 (The Name of the Rose 469). Although William is a talented detective, when he appears in the novel first time, he has shown his abilities, and, although he has enough clues to surmise who is the schemer, he still got confused in these signs. Because he is too confident to his ability. Nowadays, in the daily life, most people when face to the unknown things or have the question, people will ask the deductive and inductive reasoning to find out the answer they want. William does so. It is one way to be closer to the 「real」 answer, which is called the truth, but as just mentioned before: the 「origin」 and the 「truth」 is the most inside object, there are plenty of boxes wrap it. Furthermore, it is easy to become a habit when people are used to depend these methods to solve the problem. Like William, he always uses deductive and inductive reasoning to surmise the 「truth,」 and ignore the possibility of coincidence. He is similar to the other detective: Lönnrot, who is the detective in Jorge Borges' short story 「Death and the Compass.」 Both of them are consider there is a murderer in the murder. Lönnrot's colleague Treviranus thinks the murder is by accident: 「We all know that the Tetrarch of Galilee owns the finest sapphires in the world. Someone, intending to steal them, nust have broken in here by mistake. Yarmolinsky got up; the robber had to kill him」 (Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings 77). But Lönnrot does not think so, he concludes that is a murder which is planned. In the end, he finds out the murderer, unexpectedly, the murderer is someone who is going to kill Lönnrot. As a result, Lönnrot dies in his consideration.
Back to the process of searching the origin and the truth, it is like the process of seeking a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest in 「The Library of Babel」: 「Someone proposed a regressive method: To locate book A, consult first a book B which indicates A's position; to locate book B, consult first a book C, and so on to infinity」 (Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings 56). One day, it will be discovered absolutely, but the time one has to use is very long, there is no one even knows how long one has to pay to find out that book, since there is no one who can live so long, neither. Therefore, the process of seeking the origin or the truth has the goal, and one can discover that ultimate answer, unfortunately, human being does not have enough life to face that coming day. Despite of the problem of time, the space is also another problem. Both libraries in 「The Library of Babel」 and The Name of the Rose are very large and constituted of lots of rooms. The library of Babel is just like the universe, and the library in The Name of the Rose is a labyrinth. Furthermore, the mirror in the library in the novel is also the entrance of the finis Africae; normally, the mirror is the object which can reflect other objects in front of it. But the mirror here does not reflect them honestly, it transforms the appearance of the original objects, makes the images become strange. As a result, few people know this secret pathway towards the finis Africae, which can stand for the origin and the truth mentioned before. Hence, the origin and the truth people search may have different look, even change into the appearance we could not believe.
Since the truth and the origin are packaged into lots of boxes, and may be decorated by many different appearances, and all human beings do not have such long time to tear down them to see that key of heart. Although one of the advantages of human beings is people owe the curiosity, which makes people make efforts searching those truths and origins. Until now, it seems those processes of seeking the truth and the origin are developing but less meaning; because they make our daily life has surprises sometimes; but people still do not understand what is that 「ultimate」 answer, since there will be some new discoveries after a period while people claim they have some 「new」 discovery (or more original).
In The Name of the Rose, one of the main topics is how William tried to find out the murderer in the abbey. Although there is no 「real」 murderer in these events, in fact, all these events happened coincidentally. The one who only we can consider him as a murderer is Jorge, but the motivation makes him spread with the poison in the book is he does not want anyone to read the second part of the Aristotle's Poetics. Thus in this process of searching the murderer, although William uses his talent and profession to collect the clues and tries to find the murderer behind the curtains, it is useless, since there is no 「real」 murderer. Then, the truth William looks for is not the truth he wants to get. Nowadays, in the world, people always try to find the 「truth」 or the 「answer」 to explain the things they do not know before. Since the God gave the authority of naming to Adam, this world has combined with lots of names, uncountable names. Even the words every author uses in their writing are also the combination of lots of names. Nevertheless, the name is just like a tag, which is used to be recognized each other easily. The essence is just the thing we use in the world; the name does not have any function that cannot be used. The last sentence in The Name of the Rose is: 「[S]tat rosa pristine nomine, nomina nuda tenemus」 (The Name of the Rose 502). People only have the name of the rose, but except the name, the beauty of the rose, the fragrance of it, are the essences which really construct the 「rose.」 Juliet says: 「[T]hat which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet」 (Romeo and Juliet: II.ii.43–44). It will not be different when the rose has the different name, since the beauty and fragrance of the rose are unique, these unique elements are the factors combine into a rose, other flowers will not have the same appearance and smell.
Nowadays, it is difficult to ask people abandon those names, or ask them stop trying to find the answer. Because people's culture is constructed under these names from ancient culture to currency, it cannot be denied that these names help make this world in order. In recent ideological trend, people discover there are full of the names and signs around the life. Hence someone starts to search the way to escape form those. However, they have been one part of our life since long time long time ago, it is difficult to leave them. In other words, if people wanted to escape from them definitely, they would cut the relationship with this society. In the contradiction, the action of trying leaving these names and signs is another type of process, which is searching the 「truth.」 It is the hard way to do so, since the truth people want to find out has been packaged in many and many boxes which are called different names. The author of The Name of the Rose Eco, Umberto says: 「[I] was handed a book written by a certain Abbé Vallet, Le Manuscrit de Dom Adson de Melk, traduit en français d'après l'édition de Dom J. Mabillon (Aux Presses de l'Abbaye de la Source, Paris, 1842) 」 (The Name of the Rose 1). Then, the version we read is translated from Itlian, it is hard to trace the original version of The Name of the Rose (or the closer name: Il Nome Della Rosa). Moreover, it cannot be assured that the whole manuscript can be translated completely, and without any mistranslation or lost part in the 「origin.」 Both the origin and the truth, are packaged with different appearances, thus when people want to try looking for the inner origin or fact, people will get lost in the process easily. In John Barth's short story 「Menelaiad,」 he uses another writing skill to reproduce the famous story 「The Troy War.」 The 「Myth」 can be considered as the most original text, but it is impossible to back to that origin. These outside decorations (signs, names, translations, and so on), make people in nowadays become further away from the truth, the origin people seek.
Usually, we have a lot of clues to find out the answer what people want, or having tools and skills to help people. However, most of time, people are too confident to believe the truth, the origin can be find out absolutely. It can be discovered by these clues or through tools. Nevertheless, once people have this attitude, they will be got in the trap easily. When William and Adso get into the finis Africae, William considers that he has solved all mysteries, and he confesses he was misled by the prediction of Apocalypse from Jorge: 「『[W]hat a fool…』『Who?』 『I. Because of a remark of Alinardo's, I was convinced the series of crimes followed the sequence of the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse'」 (The Name of the Rose 469). Although William is a talented detective, when he appears in the novel first time, he has shown his abilities, and, although he has enough clues to surmise who is the schemer, he still got confused in these signs. Because he is too confident to his ability. Nowadays, in the daily life, most people when face to the unknown things or have the question, people will ask the deductive and inductive reasoning to find out the answer they want. William does so. It is one way to be closer to the 「real」 answer, which is called the truth, but as just mentioned before: the 「origin」 and the 「truth」 is the most inside object, there are plenty of boxes wrap it. Furthermore, it is easy to become a habit when people are used to depend these methods to solve the problem. Like William, he always uses deductive and inductive reasoning to surmise the 「truth,」 and ignore the possibility of coincidence. He is similar to the other detective: Lönnrot, who is the detective in Jorge Borges' short story 「Death and the Compass.」 Both of them are consider there is a murderer in the murder. Lönnrot's colleague Treviranus thinks the murder is by accident: 「We all know that the Tetrarch of Galilee owns the finest sapphires in the world. Someone, intending to steal them, nust have broken in here by mistake. Yarmolinsky got up; the robber had to kill him」 (Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings 77). But Lönnrot does not think so, he concludes that is a murder which is planned. In the end, he finds out the murderer, unexpectedly, the murderer is someone who is going to kill Lönnrot. As a result, Lönnrot dies in his consideration.
Back to the process of searching the origin and the truth, it is like the process of seeking a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest in 「The Library of Babel」: 「Someone proposed a regressive method: To locate book A, consult first a book B which indicates A's position; to locate book B, consult first a book C, and so on to infinity」 (Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings 56). One day, it will be discovered absolutely, but the time one has to use is very long, there is no one even knows how long one has to pay to find out that book, since there is no one who can live so long, neither. Therefore, the process of seeking the origin or the truth has the goal, and one can discover that ultimate answer, unfortunately, human being does not have enough life to face that coming day. Despite of the problem of time, the space is also another problem. Both libraries in 「The Library of Babel」 and The Name of the Rose are very large and constituted of lots of rooms. The library of Babel is just like the universe, and the library in The Name of the Rose is a labyrinth. Furthermore, the mirror in the library in the novel is also the entrance of the finis Africae; normally, the mirror is the object which can reflect other objects in front of it. But the mirror here does not reflect them honestly, it transforms the appearance of the original objects, makes the images become strange. As a result, few people know this secret pathway towards the finis Africae, which can stand for the origin and the truth mentioned before. Hence, the origin and the truth people search may have different look, even change into the appearance we could not believe.
Since the truth and the origin are packaged into lots of boxes, and may be decorated by many different appearances, and all human beings do not have such long time to tear down them to see that key of heart. Although one of the advantages of human beings is people owe the curiosity, which makes people make efforts searching those truths and origins. Until now, it seems those processes of seeking the truth and the origin are developing but less meaning; because they make our daily life has surprises sometimes; but people still do not understand what is that 「ultimate」 answer, since there will be some new discoveries after a period while people claim they have some 「new」 discovery (or more original).
Works Cited:
1. Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. New York: New Directions, 1964.
2. Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. Trans. William Weaver. London: Vintage, 1998.
3. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. London: Thomson Learning, 2002.
2. Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. Trans. William Weaver. London: Vintage, 1998.
3. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. London: Thomson Learning, 2002.
Reference:
1. Barth, John. Lost in the Funhouse. 1968. New York: Anchor Books, 1988.
AUTHOR: 甜姐兒xavier
DATE: 08/02/2008 06:32:12
IP: 122.146.242.11
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