Forster's Posthumous Writings The executor turned down offers from Joseph Losey, Waris Hussein, Ismail Merchant and James Ivory, and finally handed over the rights to the film adaptation of Journey to India to David Lean. Forster and TELawrence, like fate, "share" the unflattering and boastful aspects of the film. It is well known that David Lean in his Lawrence of Arabia portrayed TEL as a man with a penchant for killing. Likewise, the ending of Journey to India has been rewritten. People accused him of producing his own vision of India, not Forster's. Forster is said to have been influenced by TEL's Seven Pillars of Wisdom when writing the last two chapters of The Journey to India.
TEL began correspondence with Forster in about early 1924, and it is unknown when and where they met. The only thing that is clear is that the two were social celebrities when they met and started their decade-long friendship. The Journey to India was written in 1924. TEL's correspondence with Forster inevitably brings up this new novel from time to time. TEL has a frank and humble admiration for Forster, likening himself to an anthill on the plains, always looking up at the rolling mountains and longing to be one of them. He compares himself to a creature as small as a flea and Forster to a lion, saying, "If a flea can claim to feel like a lion, then allow me to make you think about my work experience (and abandonment) in Arabia. Repeating your history, about situations that cannot be told in an honest way. You stand on a broad level of thought, while I stay on a level of chaotic action... Both are lost." (The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is not entirely Realistic Autobiography) He sees reading Forster's work as "one supremely good thing" that the latter has bestowed upon him, and regularly compares Forster's writing to his own (SPW), naturally humble. Undoubtedly, "A Trip to India" reminds TEL of his experiences and emotions in Arabia, as an Englishman and a white man, in a foreign country.
If excellence of materials meant anything, my book would have been as good as yours: but it stinks of me: whereas yours is universal: the bitter terrible hopeless picture a cloud might have painted, of man in India. You surpass the Englishman and surpass the Indian, and are neither: and yet there is nothing inhuman (like Moby Dick) in your picture. One feels all the while the weight of the climate, the shape of the land, the immovable immensity of the crowd behind... all that is felt, with the ordinary fine human senses.
——TEL 24 July, 1924 The paragraph about A Passage to India in TEL 24 July, 1924 A letter to EMForster
does not want to compare the text with the film, so I only talk about the film itself.
The metaphor of Malabar cave: In the background of chaotic loneliness, the cramped and squeezed space has become an emotional outlet and breakthrough. In "Travel to India", apart from taking pictures of the weird and terrifying echo phenomena in the caves, David Lean did not give the slightest shot of the interior of the caves (such as the gorgeous murals in the title). As a result, for a long time after Miss Guth's accusation against Dr. Aziz, I was puzzled by what she saw in the cave that caused her hallucinations. Mrs. Moore had the psychological effect of repelling the echo, while Miss Guss didn't at first, she seemed calm and interested in the cave at the foot of the mountain. Her transformation started when she reached the top of the mountain. Exhausted, she accepted Aziz's help, and when the skin of the two touched, Ge Si's expression was strange and confused. At this point she suddenly asked about Aziz's marriage and his wife, asking if there was love in his marriage. These ill-timed inquiries cryptically reveal the state of Guss's state of mind: uncertainty about love, swaying to the point where she realizes she doesn't actually love Lonnie - Nigel Colonial magistrate played by Havers. Later, when she entered the cave and lit a match, the most bizarre part of the whole story happened. Aziz called to her anxiously from the hole. Hearing the echo, Gu Si rushed down the top of the mountain like a madman, and fled in a hurry, ignoring the blood dripping from the cactus. Immediately she charged the poor Indian doctor with bad intentions. From this point of view, no matter what is in the cave, all the misfortunes are caused by this trip to the cave. The trip was for two distinguished guests, but first Mrs. Moore had an accident and stayed at the foot of the mountain, and then Miss Guth was greatly stimulated. Is Malabar's hallucination simply a general outbreak of cultural acclimatization, or does it have a deeper meaning? What was the role of the group of idols that Gus saw in the jungle, showing scenes of erotic intercourse? And those wild monkeys chasing Gus? All this shows the strangeness and incomprehension of the mysterious and exotic India in the eyes of foreign British people, and the fear and rejection caused by it, and at the same time, it is also accompanied by the impact of the internal cultural psychology and habits? The constant flashbacks of the statue's look and gesture caused Gus to have an incredible hallucination in Malabar's echoing terror: Aziz was plotting to rape her. For restrained and conservative Britons, such an illusion is alienated from nature. It should be noted that Gus was in an unstable state of mind during the trip to Malabar. Exotic discomfort intensifies and ultimately fuels this psychological effect. Gus found herself alone in India. Not only did she have various difficulties in communicating with Indians, but she even had a barrier of inability to communicate with her close relatives. The whole land she was in was strange and unacceptable to her. When she announced in court that the charges against Aziz were withdrawn, she was abandoned by the British Overseas Chinese Association again, and her psychological loneliness turned into real loneliness.
As a result, Ge Si's loneliness is not only caused by cultural and racial differences—exotic and geographical barriers, but also a kind of ultimate loneliness that comes from the depths of human destiny. The Exotic simply tightened the bowstring and caused it to snap in time. This loneliness will not be healed immediately as she leaves India. Mrs Moore's death on the ferry back to England illustrates this point.
Aziz is another more thought-provoking character. For most of the film, he wears a suit, speaks English, tries to communicate with the British, speaks and behaves humble and respectful, even cautious, lest he be a little uncomfortable, and his face is always overly enthusiastic and even a little flattering. Embarrassed smiles, a little friendly gesture from the British often flattered him. This Indian doctor reflects the mentality of a part of the people of colonial India towards the British as their suzerain. They are both wary of hostility and unavoidable admiration for their elite cultural life. However, after the Malabar incident, Aziz's hopes were dashed, and he took off his suit and changed into an Indian robe. He was deeply aware of the impossibility of this unequal exchange, and that he could not eventually become an Anglicized Indian accepted by the British. He can only be a pure Indian and cannot stand in between. He changed his docile face, and roared at Fitting who came to persuade him, accusing him of favoring his own people, but kindness is a part of universal human nature, and he finally gave up his right of recourse against Gus.
There are two famous words of experience by the colonial police chief who pretends to be a black face. One is that, as far as I know, if the Indians and the British are too close, there will always be havoc. Another is that, as a rule of thumb, the appearance of white people has always been attractive to people of color. He thus deduced that Aziz must have evil thoughts on Gus. The British (?) defending Aziz, the eccentric-looking and mysterious defense lawyer, answered without a smile, even if the woman's appearance was even inferior to the man's? It's a wonderfully poignant satire of the sheer absurdity of the police chief's argument.
After the Malabar Incident, the representatives of the suzerain country, all the British people living in India, showed hostility and judgment to Aziz, except for two British people, Mrs. Moore and the President of the Government University, Mr. Richard Fitting. . Mrs Moore, reluctant to be a witness against Aziz, was sent back to England by her son, a magistrate. Fitting, as always, showed enthusiasm and concern for Indians. He actively helped Aziz, contacted his lawyer to advise on how to defend, and was also worried that the Indian side would overreact and worsen the situation. Both Mrs. Moore and Mr. Fitting were truly kind people who did not dwell on the difficulties of communication brought on by race and colour, but retained in each other a universal humanity--kindness and sincerity that persisted across races, and Love. Communication cannot be relative, but the commonality of humanity between races is absolute.
Aziz, who was a colonial Indian, showed goodwill and tolerance; Mrs. Moore and Mr. Fitting, who were British suzerains, showed sincerity and fraternity; and Miss Guth, who withdrew her case, also showed her courage to face mistakes. , these are the beauty from human nature. At the end of the film, Aziz's understanding of Fitting and Gus shows that racial barriers can be crossed. Communication is feasible, not only among different ethnic groups, but also among individuals within a group of people, as long as the kindness and love that come from nature are preserved. (very main theme)
Let's talk about Gobli, the mysterious and mysterious Indian professor and philosopher played by AG. In the whole movie, he does not appear in many scenes, but every place has deep meaning. By the pool outside Fitting's house, his introduction to the Marabar cave was vague and vague; at the Malaba Tour train station, he deliberately delayed the prayer time to make Fitting late, leaving Aziz alone with the two ladies. went to, indirectly contributed to the subsequent disaster; after Aziz was detained and charged, he ran to Fitting's house to ask the worried Fitting to name his new school in Kashmir, causing Fitting's disgust and questioning; Mrs. Moore When returning to the UK, he took the train to the pier and saw Gobli praying on the platform. Later, Mrs. Moore died of a heart attack on the boat; after the Malaba case, he helped Fitting deliver letters to Aziz, and finally mediated Aziz. He is also related to Feiting. This mysterious Indian professor is as mysterious and incomprehensible as the Indian philosophy he represents, full of fatalism and religious harmony. In the whole movie, when everyone, whether the British or the Indians are in a daze, he is the only one who is calm and calm, as if watching the fire from the other side, as if he has already seen that the world will be resolved in a natural and destined way.
TEL said that Forster surpassed the British and the Indians, and did not favor either side. Does he think he can't do it himself?
(09.11.17)
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