234 chapter six
de hÙngmíng, ér yÊng xiàng f¿ng de håxiào. Gèng qiángliè de xÊntiào bànsúizhe
gèng dà de jìjìng, y©nkàn cúnzhù de yúshuˇÌ jíjiàng bèi h¿gu§ng, jiàoh©n ba! $,
woˇ duÙ xi©ng jiàoh©n, d§ng shù b©i zhÊ wåy§ guÙzào, woˇ méi yoˇu jÊn koˇu yù
yán—woˇ jiù shi bù xiáng zhÊ zhào.
(ЎЬᅶⱘ右. 䰏ᮁⱘ⊇䘧. 䆲⫳ⱘܓཇ. ៤ᔶⱘ⊾∈.
ᓔྟⱘᚽ㔮. ⏋х. ᑇ㸵. Ϟछ. ぎⱑ....
ᛇি, 䖿Փ䩶䪕থߎಲໄ, 䖿ՓдᛃѢ䱤雨ⱘ㗕哴߫䯳ᴹ
ࠡ៥ⱘ䴶ࠄ. ᛇি, Ԛ㽕ሑ䞣ᡞໄ䷇य़Ԣ, ϡ㛑ڣ䇽偖, 㗠
ᑨڣ又欠, ϡ㛑ڣ⚂ⱘ䕄号, 㗠ᑨڣ亢ⱘୌ. ᔎ⚜ⱘᖗ䏇
Ԉ䱣ⴔⱘᆖ䴭, ⴐⳟᄬ䌂ⱘ䲼∈ेᇚ㹿ୱܝ! ଞ, ៥ᛇি
, ᔧ᭄ⱒাР叺㘦ా, ៥≵᳝䞥ষ⥝㿔—៥ህᰃϡ彐Пܚ.)
The acoustic qualities of «File 0» are remarkable but not sophisticated
in what would conventionally be called a poetic way, and transcribing
the Chinese original would add little to the argument. Where there is
rhyme it seems coincidental, and where there is rhythm, that really
is another word for an insistent repetition and parallelism. The text
displays a mechanical, enumerative rhythm throughout, usually with
a noticeable, rigid beat and sometimes fairly maniacal. The resulting
monotony comes across as being of a purposeful kind and ties in well
with other aspects of the text that are reviewed below. The opening
lines of the excerpt from «History of Growing Up» may serve as an
example.
and his listening has begun and his looking has begun and his moving has begun
grown-ups give him hearing grown-ups give him seeing grown-ups give him
movement
for mom say “mother” for dad say “father” for granny say “grandmother”
that dark that turbid that obscure that tangled lump of flesh and bloodThere are many such examples throughout the text, often with a con-
stant number of characters = syllables for each short string in a given
passage, ranging from one to six or seven. Against this backdrop, a
small number of unpunctuated lines in a total over over 300 stand out,
aurally and visually. The final two lines of the excerpt, for example:
i drew a tank on a wall on a clean white wall on a public wall on everybody’s wall on
a collective
wall was drawn a great big tank by me i perpetrated the crime of liberalism must make
a determined effort to mend my ways