Maurice Huret in his famous article gave an outline of Charles Strickland's life which was well calculated to whet the appetites of the inquiring. With his disinterested passion for art, he had a real desire to call the attention of the wise to a talent which was in the highest degree original; but he was too good a journalist to be unaware that the "human interest" would enable him more easily to effect his purpose. And when such as had come in contact with Strickland in the past, writers who had known him in London, painters who had met him in the cafes of Montmartre, discovered to their amazement that where they had seen but an unsuccessful artist, like another, authentic genius had rubbed shoulders with them there began to appear in the magazines of France and America a succession of articles, the reminiscences of one, the appreciation of another, which added to Strickland's notoriety, and fed without satisfying the curiosity of the public. The subject was grateful, and the industrious Weitbrecht-Rotholz in his imposing monograph has been able to give a remarkable list of authorities.The faculty for myth is innate in the human race. It seizes with avidity upon any incidents, surprising or mysterious, in the career of those who have at all distinguished themselves from their fellows, and invents a legend to which it then attaches a fanatical belief. It is the protest of romance against the commonplace of life. The incidents of the legend become the hero's surest passport to immortality. The ironic philosopher reflects with a smile that Sir Walter Raleigh is more safely inshrined in the memory of mankind because he set his cloak for the Virgin Queen to walk on than because he carried the English name to undiscovered countries.
莫利斯·胥瑞在他那篇馳名的文章里簡(jiǎn)單地勾畫了查理斯·思特里克蘭德的生平;作者有意這樣吊一下讀者的胃口。他對(duì)藝術(shù)的熱情毫不攙雜個(gè)人的好惡,他這篇文章的真正目的是喚起那些有頭腦的人對(duì)一個(gè)極為獨(dú)特的天才畫家的注意力。但是胥瑞是一個(gè)善于寫文章的老手,他不會(huì)不知道,只有引起讀者“興味” 的文章才更容易達(dá)到目的。后來(lái)那些在思特里克蘭德生前曾和他有過接觸的人——有些人是在倫敦就認(rèn)識(shí)他的作家,有些是在蒙特瑪特爾咖啡座上和他會(huì)過面的畫家 ——極其吃驚地發(fā)現(xiàn),他們當(dāng)初看作是個(gè)失敗的畫家,一個(gè)同無(wú)數(shù)落魄藝術(shù)家沒有什么不同的畫家,原來(lái)是個(gè)真正的天才,他們卻交臂失之。從這時(shí)起,在法國(guó)和美國(guó)的一些雜志上就連篇累牘地出現(xiàn)了各式各類的文章:這個(gè)寫對(duì)思特里克蘭德的回憶,那個(gè)寫對(duì)他作品的評(píng)述。結(jié)果是,這些文章更增加了思特里克蘭德的聲譽(yù),挑起了、但卻無(wú)法滿足讀者的好奇心。這個(gè)題目大受讀者歡迎,魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲下了不少工夫,在他寫的一篇洋洋灑灑的專題論文【《查理斯·思特里克蘭德,生平與作品》,哲學(xué)博士雨果·魏特布瑞希特-羅特霍爾茲著,萊比錫1914年施威英格爾與漢尼施出版,原書德文。(作者注)】里開列了一張篇目,列舉出富有權(quán)威性的一些文章。制造神話是人類的天性。對(duì)那些出類拔萃的人物,如果他們生活中有什么令人感到詫異或者迷惑不解的事件,人們就會(huì)如饑似渴地抓住不放,編造出種種神話,而且深信不疑,近乎狂熱。這可以說是浪漫主義對(duì)平凡暗淡的生活的一種抗議。傳奇中的一些小故事成為英雄通向不朽境界的最可靠的護(hù)照。瓦爾特·饒利爵士【瓦爾特·饒利爵士(1552?—1618),英國(guó)歷史學(xué)家及航海家】之所以永遠(yuǎn)珍留在人們記憶里是因?yàn)樗雅L(fēng)鋪在地上,讓伊麗莎白女皇踏著走過去,而不是因?yàn)樗延?guó)名字帶給了許多過去人們從來(lái)沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)的國(guó)土;一個(gè)玩世不恭的哲學(xué)家在想到這件事時(shí)肯定會(huì)啞然失笑的。
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