WATERFALL > ISSUES > 2009 SUMMER | What's your function in life?
issue | A Clean Well-Lighted Place | Andrew Bevington
“It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanliness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.”
The above passage is the climax of Hemingway’s “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” which is the principal source for this body of work. In the story, Hemmingway’s protagonist rejects the view of death through old religious structures and implies that the rigid ceremonies of the church are only a distraction- a means of coping with an indifferent universe. The story is decidedly existential in nature and filled with the symbolism of dark and light. The story is a catalyst that has led me to explore themes of isolation, time and its passing, darkness and mortality within a modern, urban context.
一個乾淨明亮的所在
「那是一種他很了解的虛無。全都是虛無飄渺，人也虛無飄渺。所需要的只是虛無、光亮、乾淨以及一種井然有序。有的人生活在虛無之中，可是從沒有感覺到，但是他知道一切全都是虛無，無止境的虛無。我們的虛無，願那所顯現的名諱虛無，願那王國虛無；願虛無將虛無行在虛無就如同在虛無。求這次虛無賞給我們日用的虛無；求你虛無我們的虛無，如同我們虛無別人一樣；請虛無我們不要讓我們陷於虛無；但救我們免於虛無。虛無。」
以上是海明威短篇故事《一個乾淨明亮的所在》的重要段落，這篇是主要激發我創作的靈感來源。在故事中，主人翁透過舊式宗教的結構來反對死亡的觀點，並暗示那些教堂裡的死板儀式只是一種消遣－一種與冷漠宇宙相處的方式。這個故事絕對帶有存在的本質，並且充滿黑暗與光明的象徵。這個故事促使我探索關於孤立、時光和它本身的流逝，以及在現代都會的景況中的黑暗與死亡。
