诉苦

最近在看 Elaine Scarry 的 The Body in Pain。其中有几段话让我印象深刻：

Physical pain does not simply resist language but actively destroys it, bringing about an immediate reversion to a state anterior to language, to the sounds and cries a human being makes before language is learned.

Physical pain has no voice, but when it at last finds a voice, it begins to tell a story.

Physical pain is not only itself resistant to language but also actively destroys language, deconstructing it into the pre‑language of cries and groans… Conversely, to be present when the person in pain rediscovers speech and so regains his powers of self‑objectification is almost to be present at the birth, or rebirth, of language.

剧烈痛苦能“解除语言”，让人只剩呻吟尖叫；但当痛苦被转译进叙事，它又成为精确而深刻的修辞素材。

语言在高压之下变得高效，于是伟大的文学往往是“诉苦”的艺术；我们也因共同的创伤而相互识别和联结，因为语言效率最高的场合就是倾诉痛苦，其余有关爱意、决心和卖弄聪明的一切都是语言的副产品。

痛苦既能毁掉语言，也能铸造语言，关键在于转译过程里有没有一个安全的“容器”：时间、艺术形式、倾听者的耐心。文学之所以幸免，是因为作品本身，就是那只延迟回声的“安全容器”。

处在痛苦中的人呐喊，是为了安抚“无人倾听”的焦躁。越得不到回应，声音便越尖锐、越刺耳。但大多数时候的呐喊虽然能被即时回应，但却没有进入象征化、整合、再创造的文学通道，很难有好结局。因为幸福近于沉默，当一切需求都被回应，语言不再承担求生本能，只剩轻微的回响，更糟的，则是遇见披着救赎外衣却空洞虚假的共鸣，彼此抱团一同沉沦。由痛苦催生的呐喊，往往难有圆满的结局。