The Dust Settled is a novel by Tibetan writer Alai. The novel shows the unique Tibetan customs and the romance and mystery of the toast system. In 2, The Dust Settled won the 5th Mao Dun Literature Prize.
The jury of the 5th Mao Dun Literature Prize gave an award speech: The novel "The Dust Settles" has a unique perspective and "has rich Tibetan cultural implications. A faint layer of magic color strengthens the opening and closing of artistic expression, and the language is light and charming and full of clever poetry, which shows the author's outstanding artistic talent.
The novel tells the story of a prominent Tibetan old Maiqi Tusi, who gave birth to a foolish son with his Han wife after drinking. This fool, who is recognized by everyone, is incompatible with real life. However, it is this fool who has a premonition and behavior beyond the times, does not play by common sense, and suddenly suggests planting wheat when the rest of the toast is planting poppies all over the world. As a result, the opium supply exceeds demand and nobody cares, and Aba area is shrouded in the shadow of famine and disability.
A large number of hungry people fled to Maiqi's office, and the territory and population of Maiqi's family reached an unprecedented scale. As a result, Young Fool married a beautiful wife Tana and opened the first border trade fair in Kangba. Young fool returned to Maiqi Tusi Guanzhai, and was treated like a hero. He was also jealous and hit by the young master, and a bloody affair about the inheritance right within the family quietly began.
Second Young Master hides his fangs and claws under the cover of his reputation as a fool. However, he is not soft on his opponents and potential opponents, although this kind of blow is also hidden, such as dealing with his brother and a group of ignorant toast.
The Second Young Master is a natural master of playing with the world. The wealth, force and recent grain harvest of the Maggie Tusi family enable the Second Young Master to display his skills in an orderly way at a higher level, especially his kung fu, which makes him relaxed and comfortable. First of all, he used the team of Rong Gong's female toast to combat the attempt of La Xueba's toast to plunder food by force. Next, he withdrew the gunner and bomber he sent to the female toast, and in turn used the force of La Xueba's toast to teach the pride of Rong Gong's female toast. In the second step, he used the killer who wanted revenge to easily kill his rival and rival in love-his brother.
As for the ending of the novel, just like the lyrics of the prophetic song that the second young master sang loudly while kicking the railing, "What was prepared did not happen, and what was not prepared happened"; The most exciting part of the novel is its middle part, specifically from the beginning of the second young master's management of the northern granary to the end of the toast conference. This paragraph describes the entrepreneurial process of the second young master who is recognized as a fool and is actually intelligent, broad-minded, ambitious and far-sighted.
when the second young master was lying on the railing and saw the hotel owner coming towards him, he had a chance to avoid and fight back, but instead of avoiding, he created conditions for the hotel owner's vendetta. This shows that the second young master made up his mind to die before this. Originally, the army didn't want to execute him, because his brain "kept up with the times", but the second young master thought that "death and keeping up with the times are two different things", and similarly, living has nothing to do with keeping up with the times. The second young master chose to be killed by the hotel owner. First, it can calm his guilt for his brother. Second, in this way, the hotel owner is bound to be investigated, which may implicate his red Tibetan brother. In that case, it can be regarded as revenge for his brother who grew up together. After the gentleman was assassinated by the "timid killer", the second young master had at least one chance to catch the killer brothers and eradicate the future trouble; But the second young master didn't do this, and he kept this disaster right under his nose, which is very intriguing. The explanation for this illogical and irrational phenomenon can only be that the killer brothers are the cards left by the second young master for the unpredictable future. But people are not as good as the sky. In the end, this pair of cards was reserved for themselves.
At last, the official village of Mai Qi's family collapsed amid the rumbling sound of guns of the People's Liberation Army attacking the remnants of the Kuomintang. Disputes and vendettas disappeared, and an old world finally settled.
In the description of Alai's novels, the cultural tradition of Aba Prefecture is quite different not only from the Han nationality area, but also from the traditional Tibetan power center area. The rules and regulations of Tibetan Buddhism have almost no effect in front of the toast system in Aba Prefecture. There is no real Buddhist cultural atmosphere there. There is no real living Buddha, and there are no devout believers. What they believe in is violence and money, and they follow the extremely primitive and naked survival law.
this work by Alai is ambitious. He tried to construct an epic of Kangba culture dating back to ancient times.
At the same time, in order to strengthen the readability of the work and enrich the content and plot of the story, the author deliberately sets the hero as a fool. Although this fool is not completely stupid, he sometimes looks like a very clever man. Judging from the expression of the novel, the author didn't mean to describe the hero as a smart man who plays the fool. The "I" in the work is really a fool who sometimes acts smart but sometimes is really stupid.
Although some behaviors of fools make people feel a little warm humanity, they still can't hide this deep evil. In the end, everything collapsed and the dust settled. It's just that this collapse is actually sudden, and it has nothing to do with cruelty or kindness. It has nothing to do with the behavior of all the characters in the previous books, good or bad, success or failure, gain or loss, good or evil. It's nothing more than a larger irresistible one who follows me and dies against me. The whole novel seems to have constructed an illusory world for us. The world seemed to have existed very truly, but it collapsed in a blink of an eye and was never found again.