《局外人》读后感
I finally finished The Stranger after leaving it on my shelf for ages—though “finished” feels like an odd word here, since I only realized the novel had ended after rereading the conversation between Meursault and the priest several times. It really is a surprisingly short book.
To be honest, I wasn’t overwhelmed by emotion. But I clearly sensed what the novel was trying to satirize: a society where moral judgment outweighs objective facts when confronted with reality. The court decides Meursault’s murder of the Arab was premeditated simply because he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral. His atheism and rejection of divine salvation only deepen the public’s perception of his guilt. (Though personally, I did feel he had some antisocial tendencies, that still shouldn’t justify the court’s biased and backward logic.)
In The Silent Majority, Wang Xiaobo writes something about morality that I find strikingly relevant—not only to this novel, but to society today:
“Society does not always serve the individual; it is also a place of heckling. Everything you do must win others’ approval, earn some applause. It is this dynamic that leads to what is called self-excitation.”
Meursault, as a nihilist, lives with an utter detachment from meaning. His refusal to participate in this “self-excitation” triggers discomfort in others. In a society obsessed with ritual and affirmation, his quiet resistance—his refusal to fake emotion, or to seek redemption—becomes a form of provocation. For most people, failing to play by the social rules deserves punishment. And when it’s moral nonconformity, the reaction is even harsher.
To Meursault, morality is void of inherent meaning. Death is inevitable—so the timing of his mother’s passing doesn’t matter, nor does his reaction to it. Sadness becomes irrelevant. But society recoils at this, because it thrives on the performance of grief, of guilt, of faith. His indifference forces others into an even louder moral frenzy. Regardless of whether the murder was intentional, death is the only acceptable verdict—because the judge, like the crowd, needs to do something to perform righteousness. Like urging him to believe in God, it’s less about saving Meursault than about satisfying the collective desire for moral applause.
Note: The idea of “self-excitation” is borrowed directly from Wang Xiaobo, who described it like this:
“If the microphone and speaker loop into each other, you get a deafening feedback. The sound from the speaker reenters the mic, amplifies hundreds of times, and loops again—until it’s unbearable. This is what technicians call ‘self-excitation.’”
(Get the metaphor, yeah?)
断断续续看完了搁置许久的《局外人》，不得不说确实是一本篇幅极短小说。在我反复品了好几遍神父与莫默尔索的对话中才反应过来小说已经完结了。
坦白来说感触不大，不过感受到了小说想讽刺的那种在现实面前伦理道德要大过于客观事实的社会现象。法官仅凭默尔索“没有在母亲的葬礼上流泪”就由此推断他杀死阿拉伯人是早有预谋，而不信宗教不向往上帝的救赎更是加深了他者判于他的罪孽（虽然看完后个人觉得默尔索确实有点反社会倾向，但这不应该成为法官主观判断混淆前因后果的证据）。
《沉默的大多数》里王小波关于道德的观点我个人觉得不论放在小说还是当下社会都特别形象。“社会对个人不是只起好作用，他还是个起哄的场所，干什么事都要别人说好，赢得一些喝彩声，正是这件事在导致自激。”
而对于虚无主义者的默尔索来说，正是他对事情的无意义态度引起的“不自激”行为导致了周遭的“自激”。对多数群众来说，不遵循社会规矩就活该受惩罚，更何况是道德上的离经叛道。
但道德于默尔索而言本就是虚无的含义，妈妈的离去只是早晚，所以离去的具体时间也显得无关紧要，那么有关悲伤的情绪也显得不值一提了，就像人总会死一样。循环往复，群众对谴责道德的“自激”现象就更深了，哪怕默尔索只是杀了人（不论蓄意无意），他的结局也只是死路一条。因为法官（群众）需要去刻意做些什么来突显出他们的崇高道德，就像执意让默尔索去信上帝一样，让群众喝彩他们的好。
注：关于“自激”直接照抄原文了：“假如话筒和喇叭串了，就会闹出这种毛病，喇叭里的声音又进了话筒，放大数百倍出来再串回去，结果就是要吵死人——行话叫做“自激”。”（意会吧）