不能说的秘密

Nolan's Odysseus is no Homeric hero, but a guilt-ridden modern who accidentally speaks Confucian: Greek scholar_我的网站

美女与野兽

一 |

Illustration: Liu Rui/GTChristopher Nolan's new film has attracted considerable attention from audiences and critics around the world. Particularly interesting is its reception in China, where the Beijing premiere provided the occasion for a conversation between Nolan and the Chinese political philosopher Zhong Shu.
We shall first consider some of the positive and negative appraisals of the film, before turning to its significance for Chinese viewers and, more broadly, to possible comparisons between the philosophical and cultural traditions of East and West. This commentary draws primarily on reviews by Emily Wilson in the London Review of Books and in The Atlantic, and Daniel Mendelsohn in the New York Review of Books, as well as on questions raised by Zhong Shu.
It should first be acknowledged that Nolan has produced an impressive action movie, condensing and abridging most of the major episodes of Odysseus' adventurous journey back to Ithaca. Avoiding digital technology based on artificial screens, he gives the story an unusually tangible quality.
The film also benefits from a distinguished cast, whose performances illuminate the different strands of the narrative as conceived by the director. At the same time, the viewer is invited to reconstruct the complex temporal layers of the epic, extending from the fall of Troy to Odysseus' homecoming (nostos), his reunion with Telemachus and Penelope, and the harsh punishment of the suitors.
Many objections concerning anachronisms in costumes and armor, the use of American English, details of the Mycenaean or Archaic periods, or the casting of particular characters seem unfair. Some degree of anachronism is inevitable, and the pursuit of historical or textual fidelity would ultimately be futile. Nolan was obliged to omit or substantially rework parts of the original narrative in order to fit it into a three-hour film. Some omissions are nevertheless regrettable -- notably the treatment of the Cyclops episode and Odysseus' descent into the Underworld, as well as the complete omission of the Phaeacian episode and his encounter with Nausicaa.
There are, however, more serious grounds for concern with regard to the central idea underlying Nolan's reinterpretation of the Odyssey. In his attempt to convey a modern moral message largely alien to Homer's world, Nolan presents an Odysseus who has surprisingly little in common with the "complicated" (polytropos) man depicted by the ancient poet. The ethical ambiguities of a shrewd and resourceful character, ready to deceive and to commit violence in pursuit of his ends, are largely absent from Matt Damon's Odysseus. Instead, we encounter a hero repeatedly tormented by guilt for atrocities perpetrated or condoned during the Trojan War and consequently seeking some form of atonement.
Zhong Shu is therefore justified in asking Nolan whether he intends to "Christianize" Odysseus. The filmmaker seems to have moved him, almost imperceptibly, from what anthropologists have described as a "shame culture" -- the world of Homer, in which honor and fame, as perceived by others, are of central importance -- to a "guilt culture," characterized by an internalized sense of responsibility and remorse for wrongdoing. This latter moral orientation emerges with classical Greek ethics, particularly with Socrates and Plato, and reaches its fullest expression in Christian and post-Christian conceptions of morality.
Nolan appears to believe that such a transition toward guilt follows naturally once we recognize the force of a commitment to "Zeus' law," particularly in the obligations of mutual hospitality (xenia). He connects these obligations with a version of the "Golden Rule," understood as a principle of reciprocal respect in our treatment of others.
This, however, is problematic as a construal of Homeric morals. Early variants of the Golden Rule can be found from the fifth century BC onwards in Democritus and Isocrates, and later in Epictetus and, of course, in the teachings of Jesus. More importantly, the moral conscience Nolan attributes to Odysseus not only "Christianizes" him; it arguably "Kantianizes" him as well. "Zeus' law" is presented almost as a universal proto-categorical imperative, something that could readily be endorsed by Kant. This differs significantly from the ancient injunction against hybris: the warning against excessive pride, the transgression of human limits, and the violation of the divine and cosmological order that we encounter throughout Homer's epics.
One may, of course, concede to Nolan the artistic right to create his own Odysseus: a depressed war veteran, conscious of the dangers of violating moral rules, and concerned with preserving the normative foundations of civilization. The difficulty lies elsewhere. Nolan's attempt to accommodate this new hero and his moral psychology within the narrative framework of the original Odyssey is not entirely successful. The result is a tension between the Homeric story the film seeks to reconstruct and the modern moral drama superimposed upon it. This tension, I believe, accounts for much of the film's weakness.
When we turn, however, to the horizon of the Chinese tradition, a more intriguing possibility emerges. The moral dimension of Nolan's Odysseus may be closer to certain aspects of Confucian thought than to the Homeric model. Confucian relational role ethics can be interpreted as encouraging a form of moral self-consciousness in which responsibility, integrity, and the cultivation of the self become increasingly internalized. In this qualified sense, one might speak of a movement from "shame" towards something resembling a "guilt" culture.
The Golden Rule is also prominent in Confucian teaching. Furthermore, the demand to examine and rectify one's conduct in accordance with yi (righteousness), while cultivating ren (benevolence or humaneness), can be understood as pointing toward a more inward and spiritual form of the Greek nostos: a return not simply to one's geographical home, but to one's moral center, situated within a network of relationships.
In addition, Nolan's relative downplaying of divine intervention, and his tendency to integrate the divine dimension into a more naturalistic moral order, may make his construal more congenial to the practical ethos of Chinese philosophy than to a worldview grounded explicitly in metaphysical theology.
There is, therefore, a certain paradox. Although Nolan's film may be criticized as an interpretation of Homer, its very misreading of the epic may enable it to contribute to a dialogue between East and West. By transforming Odysseus into a figure whose moral conscience combines Christian, Kantian, and perhaps unexpectedly Confucian elements, Nolan brings into contact traditions that otherwise belong to very different intellectual worlds. His Odyssey is not true to Homer's spirit. But precisely for this reason, it raises questions about how different civilizations understand responsibility, moral identity, the relation between the individual and the community, and, ultimately, the meaning of returning home.
The author is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Secretary of the Center of Greek and Chinese Civilizations. [email protected]
。北京时间8月20日，佩顿・沃特森交易完成后，詹姆斯・哈登续约骑士已经提上日程，多位记者报道，双方预计很快会达成协议。哈登回归骑士，早已不是这个休赛期悬在克利夫兰上空的谜团。真正的疑问，是薪资。骑士通过多方先签后换交易从掘金得到沃特森之后，哈登的薪资前景一下子清晰了很多。正是哈登愿意耐心等待，才让骑士有机会完成这一系列阵容运作。薪资专家马克斯的数据显示，在重新签约哈登之前，骑士距离第一土豪线还有大约2900万美元的空间。另一位薪金专家戈兹兰测算的精确数值为2840万美元，他同时提到，骑士还可以通过裁掉惠特莫尔并使用工资分期摊配规则，进一步释放操作空间。无论采用哪种方式，哈登现在能够拿到的最高起薪接近3000万美元。哈登选择等待，留给骑士操作窗口今夏早些时候，哈登拒绝了自己价值4230万美元的球员选项，内心期待可以和骑士敲定一份新合同。

二 | 骑士没有立刻签下哈登，否则球队后续操作空间会被锁死。这是球队刻意做出的规划。哈登同意推迟签约，让骑士可以继续寻觅补强人选，给管理层留出重塑阵容的时间，之后再确定留给哈登的合同额度。骑士一直在市场上寻找另一名实力派前锋，库明加与沃特森都是他们的目标。想要得到这类球员，骑士就必须清理部分薪资，同时还要在第一土豪线之下保留足够空间用来签下哈登。施罗德是第一块倒下的多米诺骨牌。上周骑士把这名老将后卫交易至夏洛特，换回特雷・曼。紧接着就是今日这笔规模更大的重磅交易。

三 | 沃特森同意和骑士签下一份4年8800万美元合同。骑士将马克斯・斯特鲁斯送往快船，把特雷・曼转手送至奇才，并且送出2031年无保护首轮签，作为给到掘金的核心交易筹码。骑士如愿得到了心仪的前锋，而这一切得以实现，离不开哈登的耐心等待。骑士手握近3000万空间留给哈登这笔交易附带一条关键限制条件。马克斯指出，由于骑士是通过先签后换得到沃特森，2026‑27赛季骑士被锁死在第一土豪硬工资帽。

四 | 因此，剩余的约2900万空间就变得至关重要：骑士绝对不能越过这条红线来给哈登开工资。戈兹兰提出了一种挤出更多薪资空间的可行方案：对惠特莫尔执行工资分期摊配，可以进一步提升薪资弹性，能把哈登的最高起薪推至接近3000万美元。即便如此，这份薪资对比哈登拒绝的4230万球员选项，依旧有不小降幅，但金额差距只是故事的一部分。