The Other Shore by Gao Xingjian Read Free Book Online Page A

of his own self. Traveller has embarked on a journey of being and existence, but he discovers only violence and horror. Evil is ubiquitous in the outside world, but the real horror is that it also lurks inside the self, jumping at any chance to rear its ugly head. Traveller as everyman, or “archetypal man” [0-46] thus finds himself threatened by what surrounds him and what resides within him. In dream as in reality evil is invincible and irresistible, for as Sleepwalker finds out, it is the only means with which to fend for oneself; however, even this recourse to evil represents nothing more than a meaningless resistance against a world of meaninglessness. In the final scene Traveller and all the other passengers are gone; what remains is nothing but an open book which has inspired the nightmare.
    There are three levels of consciousness in Nocturnal Wanderer , each one penetrating deeper into the psyche of the protagonist. The first level is located in the real and objective world of the train coach; here Traveller speaks in the first person. On the second level, Traveller becomes Sleepwalker in the dream. And as he speaks in the second person, he creates a third level of reality made up of self-reflections, where he takes on the role of observer, insulated from the experiencing self of evil, violence, and gratuitous sexuality, a world he finds inexplicable. What happens in the dream world also reflects on the world of reality, for the characters in the dream, Tramp, Prostitute, Thug, and Master have been transmuted into being through and by Traveller’s feelings towards the world he is living in. The products of his mental processes, these “images of the heart” 心像 have ironically become the masters controlling his consciousness. Gao Xingjian has commented that:
     
    Between Life and Death, Dialogue and Rebuttal, and Nocturnal Wanderer are concerned with the state of liminality between life and death or between reality and imagination. They also reveal the nightmare in the inner world of man. In these plays, the relationship with reality only serves as a starting point. What I strive to capture is the reality of the feelings in the psyche, a naked reality which needs no embellishment, and which is larger and more important than all the exegeses on religion, ethics, or philosophy, so that human beings can be seen as more human, and their true nature can be more fully revealed. [0-47]
    In Nocturnal Wanderer , the key concepts are subjectivization and detachment: subjectivization transforms objective reality so as to delve into the meanings hidden behind the facade of the perceptible, and detachment objectifies such transformations as the other, so that a truthful picture of the subject becomes obtainable. Just as he demands that his actors be neutral observers of the performing self, Gao Xingjian also insists that his characters should observe themselves as the other through shifts in narrative mode. In this way the actor and the character he is playing are divided yet unified, and life as a multifaceted reflection of the self is incorporated into art.
     
    Weekend Quartet 周末四重奏 (Zhoumo sichongzou) ( 1995 )
    Gao Xingjian believes in the constant renewal of his craft. With Weekend Quartet , his latest play, he appears to have made a determined effort to try his hand at something different—a realistic play devoid of the rituals and magical spectacles of his recent works. Whereas the previous plays are not keen on characterization, Weekend Quartet is peopled by characters with names and individualizing traits. With their varied backgrounds and personalities, they react differently to the dramatic situations in the plot, functioning like the different musical instruments in a quartet ensemble.
    There is very little action in the four scenes (“quartets”), and there are no crises pushing the characters to the brink of their sanity as in Between Life and Death and Nocturnal Wanderer . The story is made up