Formal Diary | Fiction against reality

A while ago, when I was rocking a small rock in the fishing village of Omiliao, I went to the more than three bookstores in "Guevara by the Sea" at noon one day. Because it was 228 consecutive holidays, the selection of books in the small corner of the store obviously echoed White horror.

At that time, I read it for a long time and was attracted by the title of "The Blood of the Sun is Black". Although I often choose books, buy books, and borrow books with a purpose, this book is not, I almost decided to buy it after reading the first few pages. The author of this book is teacher Hu Shuwen.

Tonight, I was fortunate to attend the online lecture held by the New Taiwan Peace Foundation - "Transformation Justice in the Absence of the Perpetrators" Lecture Series (5): Resisting Reality with Fiction - Fiction Navigating the White Terror Ruins.

In fact, I read very little literature related to white terror, and I signed up for this lecture for Teacher Hu Shuwen.

At the end of the lecture, I asked the following questions:

 Under any incident of violence (including the White Terror), the trauma of violence is usually written from the perspective of the victim.

I would like to ask when we talk about the "perpetrators" that are absent in transitional justice, do we mean the state, a specific institution, or an individual?

Can literature be implemented to "target" individual perpetrators? In other words, how can literature make "anonymous" perpetrators appear?

However, is it possible that the individual perpetrators are also victims of the system?

In fact, when I asked the above question, it was selfish; in the question, I used "state violence" to wrap "sexual violence". Although, the two have something in common in my opinion, especially when I read "The Blood of the Sun is Black", I have such a strong feeling.

I wonder if, when I'm writing about my traumatic experiences, even though it may not be called "literature", can I achieve some kind of "revenge" in the process of piling up and publishing these words? ?

And can literature forcefully accuse the perpetrator, or even the society that accommodates the criminal individual?

This is a complicated issue; maybe "Fang Siqi's Paradise of First Love" is just the first wing of a butterfly, and the promotion of an issue definitely requires more diverse voices from the society.

However, Ms. Hu Shuwen's reply to the "functionality of literature" made me "slow down" (the following are my real-time notes, which may not fully explain the teacher's original intention):

 Literature is not about punishing anyone.

The usefulness of literature is its uselessness. Because of its uselessness, there is room to accommodate differences in cognition and understanding between people.

In this way, literature will not become political propaganda.

As I slowed down, I thought:

Indeed, at first I didn't think about "punishing" anyone; more often, "writing" was just an emergency escape.

The element of "accusation" still exists, but the two may not be comparable.

Because, I don't really want to hurt anyone.

If we look back at the title of this lecture - Fiction against reality , perhaps to some extent, it can be said that it just echoes the "uselessness" of literature?

Precisely because it is not a propaganda slogan of a specific political party, precisely because it is not written in black and white on a contract, and precisely because of its anonymity and substitutability, it is nothing but nothing.

And when I write (attempt to) use "fiction against reality", I don't want to pursue a decision like a court decision, nor do I want to give readers a binary answer that is either black or white, more At that time, I was more immersed in this complicated problem that could not be solved, and the only thing I wanted to do, and the only thing I could do, was to lay the problem out in the sun and invite you to "watch" together.

This is my "reality", please watch my reality.

Although in the real world the perpetrator is absent because I still can't convict him in any way, in the fictional world he is everywhere.

Maybe this sounds a little scary, but what I want to say here is that because it is an empty box, it can be filled with anything, including what the real world cannot contain and cannot reach.

Ah, I seem to have written a diary with a very empty conclusion.

Forget it, that's it, it's my way of comforting myself.