Mo Yan and Murakami Haruki: Masters of Humor Writing

By Lin Shaohua

The rhetorical devices used in Mo Yan’s works are typically full of humor.Examples are seen in the following lines: Roosters stride like a first-grader; their eyes were wide open like a young cock lost in meditation; so tired that the chest draws out like a cackling hen; sunlight is pawing the girl on the face; eyes are rolling like windmills; he feels his pounding heart is hitting against his ribs like a caged hare; his heart is beating like a poor small mouse; the two cheeks puffed up like old rats with mouthfuls of grains running across the field in autumn; the master’s body is set in motion, tireless like the nodding machine in the oil field; a piece of purely blue steel, forged out of a steelmaking furnace converted from the incinerator, is as mysterious as the iron born from a concubine conceived by holding the bronze column; the woman’s look was as barren as saline and alkaline land where no crops are seen; whenever the telephone rings, we rush over like a leopard pouncing on an antelope; with one pound of soy sauce flushing down the empty stomach, the throat still feels like a small trumpet—to name but a few.

Similar rhetorical devices are commonly found in Haruki Murakami’s works.Take his description of eyes for example.Kobayasi Midori looks at me with narrowing eyes, as if she is gazing at a collapsing house one hundred meters away; the man glances at the Disney watch on my wrist like a vet examining a cat’s injured front paws; he takes a quick look at me for about one fifth second as if he is looking at the door mat; she rounds her lips, staring at my face as if she is taking in the view from the hilltop of what is left behind after the f lood; she studies the business card as if it is a piece of rag; a close look at my gunpoint like a tourist watching a well; the kangaroo is gazing at the green leaves in the feeding box like a composer running short of talent; the eyeballs behind the glasses are inquiring me like a deep-sea predator hunting its prey; he has fixed his eyes like anything on my face as if I am the major part of the topic; my wife is staring at me without a blink as if she is searching the dawning sky for some distant stars.

From the above examples, we know that Haruki Murakami is also a writer with a great sense of humor.However, if we study them more carefully, the slight difference will show.Mo Yan’s style is based on his personal reallife experience, with common rural items coming from his pen, while Murakami’s style is mostly based on imaginary situations or images.

More examples from their speech are as follows:

One day in March of 2003, Mo Yan made a speech at Stanford University in the US.He mentioned how Chinese people in 1960s braved the cold and pangs of hunger, “Although we were starved back then, we all believed that we were the happiest of all, and two thirds of the world’s population, including American people, lived in woes, and we were responsible for their rescue.”

Honestly, partly because I was born at that time, I couldn’t help cooing with laughter when I read these words.He also talked about the clothing shortage, “At that time we all showed our stunning ability to resist cold.Even the birds shivered with noisy chirping due to the freezing weather, yet we could stand the cold naked below the waist.My admiration for myself then was great, for I used to be so strong, many times better than what I am now.”

In his October lecture at Kyoto University in Japan of the same year, Mo delivered a different style of humor in front of smartlydressed gentlemen and ladies clad in beautiful gowns, “During the past four years (Mo’s last speech at Kyoto University was four years ago—author’s note), I’ve shrank by about one centimeter, lost about three thousand hairs, and collected about one hundred wrinkles.Occasionally, I look at myself in the mirror, grieving over the mercilessness of time.However, when I met my Japanese friends, noticing that the past four years didn’t seem to leave any trace on their face, I instantly cheered up.” A perfect example of implied and covert humor! Moreover, in his speech at the University of California, Berkley, Mo mentioned Faulkner, “He told me that a writer should tell lies boldly and shamelessly, fabricating not only novels but also personal experiences.”

In the similar way, Murakami presented his views about telling lies in his speech at the Jerusalem Prize Award Ceremony, “As a novelist, or in other words, as a smart liar, I arrived here in Jerusalem.All liars are not novelists since, as is known, politicians, diplomats and other officials lie a lot as well—and so do second-hand car salespeople, butchers, and contractors.The difference between them is that lies from a novelist are not subject to moral condemnation.In fact, the bigger the lie, the greater the novelist, and the better he will be valued.Today I’m not going to tell lies, but tell truth as much as possible.I don’t tell lies on several days throughout a year, and today happens to be one of them.”

In so doing, both of them humorously turned the negative word “lie” into something of a proper act, meanwhile mocking the great writer Faulkner as well as serious politicians and diplomats.Unlike the joke-style suggestive or glib and cynical humor, it is apparently an implicit and indirect one, or a game of wisdom.It is witty, unique, and funny, like the evening twilight beaming through the paper window, gentle and evocative.It is also a humor of high quality based on real-life situations and good education.

(FromA Little Solitude, China Writers Publishing House.Translation: Wang Wen)

莫言與村上：誰更幽默

文/林少華

莫言的不少作品在比喻上是不乏幽默感的。試舉幾例為證：公雞步伐很大，像一個一年級小學生；眼睛瞪著，像一只深思熟慮的小公雞；累得氣喘吁吁，凸起的胸脯像有只小母雞在打鳴；日光像一只爪子，在姑娘臉上撕著，抓著；雙眼像風車一樣旋轉著；他感到急跳的心臟沖撞著肋骨，像一只關在鐵籠中的野兔；他的心臟像只小耗子一樣可憐巴巴地跳動著；兩個腮幫子像秋田里搬運糧草的老田鼠一樣飽滿地鼓著；大師的身體像油田的抽油機一樣不知疲倦地運動著；這個由化尸爐改造成的煉鋼爐，煉出了一塊純藍的鋼，就像國王的妃子抱了銅柱而受孕產下來的那塊鐵一樣玄妙；女人們臉上都出現一種荒涼的神情，好像寸草不生的鹽堿地；電話每響一次，我們就像豹子撲羚羊一樣躥過去一次；空口喝了一斤醬油，嗓子還像小喇叭似的等等。

相仿的幽默比喻在村上春樹的作品中可謂舉不勝舉。這里僅以關于眼神者為例：（綠子）瞇細眼睛（看我），那眼神活像眺望對面一百米開外一座行將倒塌報廢的房屋；男子用獸醫觀察小貓跌傷的前肢那樣的眼神，瞥了一眼我腕上的迪士尼手表；他先看我看了大約五分之一秒，活像在看門口的擦鞋墊；她略微噘起嘴唇，注視我的臉，那眼神活像在山丘上觀看洪水退后的景象；她像看抹布似的細細看那名片；用觀看印加水井的游客樣的眼神死死盯著我端起的槍口；（袋鼠）以才華枯竭的作曲家般的神情定定看著食料箱里的綠葉；眼鏡內側的眼珠卻如物色特定對象的深海食肉動物一般探我的底；他還是煞有介事地久久盯視我的臉，就好像我是問題的一個主要部分；（妻）目不轉睛地盯著我的臉，眼神竟同正在搜尋黎明天幕中光色淡然的星斗無異等等。

看這些關于眼神的比喻的例句，不難看出村上是個相當有幽默感的作家。不過若仔細品讀，還是會讀出村上和莫言之間微妙的差異。相對而言，莫言的比喻幾乎都是基于自身生活體驗或身臨其境的實際觀察，比喻的對象多是鄉間實實在在的尋常景物。而村上筆下的，大半是虛擬性存在的場景或意象。

下面再從演講中摘幾個幽默例子。

2003年3月的一天，莫言在美國斯坦福大學演講，講到二十世紀六十年代中國如何饑寒交迫：“那時候我們雖然餓得半死，但我們都認為自己是世界上最幸福的人，而世界上還有三分之二的人——包括美國人——都還生活在‘水深火熱’的苦難生活中。而我們這些餓得半死的人還肩負著把你們從苦海里拯救出來的神圣責任。”

說實話，也是因為同代人感同身受的關系，看到這里我禁不住一下子大聲笑出來。他接著講冬天如何沒有衣服穿：“那時候我們都有驚人的抗寒能力，連渾身羽毛的小鳥都凍得唧唧亂叫時，我們光著屁股，也沒有感到冷得受不了。我對當時的我充滿了敬佩之情，那時的我真的不簡單，比現在的我優秀許多倍?！?/p>

同年10月在日本京都大學演講的時候，面對西裝革履的紳士們或一身套裙的女士們，他到底不好講如何光屁股了，但照樣幽默：“我在四年里（距上次演講時隔四年——筆者注），身高大概縮短了一厘米，頭發減少了大約三千根，皺紋增添了大約一百條。偶爾照照鏡子，深感歲月的殘酷，心中不由得浮起傷感之情。但見到諸多日本朋友，四年的時光在他們臉上似乎沒有留下任何痕跡……于是，我的心情頓時好了起來。”如何，夠幽默的吧？潛在的、靜靜的、肉笑皮不笑的幽默。還有，一次在美國加州大學伯克利分校演講時講到?？思{：“他告訴我一個作家應該大膽地、毫無愧色地撒謊，不但要虛構小說，而且可以虛構個人的經歷?！?/p>

無獨有偶，村上春樹2009年年初在耶路撒冷文學獎獲獎演講中也有關于說謊的言說：“我作為一個小說家，換句話說，作為以巧妙說謊為職業的人來到這里，來到耶路撒冷市。當然，說謊的不都是小說家。諸位知道，政治家屢屢說謊，外交官和軍人說謊，二手車推銷員、肉店老板和建筑業者也說謊。但小說家說謊和他們說謊的不同之處在于：小說家說謊不受道義上的譴責。莫如謊說得越大越高明，小說家越能得到人們贊賞和好評……可是今天我不準備說謊，打算盡可能說實話。一年之中我也有幾天不說謊，今天恰好是其中的一天?！?/p>

就這樣，兩人以幽默手法輕輕顛覆了“說謊”這一負面詞語，將其變成理直氣壯的正當行為，還捎帶將大作家福克納和嚴肅的政治家、外交官們戲謔了一番。很明顯，這里的幽默既有別于打情罵俏的“段子”式幽默，又同油腔滑調、憤世嫉俗的王朔式幽默大相徑庭，而屬于含而不露、引而不發的幽默，或者說更接近一種智力游戲，機警、別致、俏皮，如秋日傍晚透過紙糊拉窗的一縷夕暉，不事張揚，而又給人以無限幽思和遐想，乃是一種高品質的兼有切身體驗和教養背景的幽默。

（摘自《小孤獨》作家出版社）