Deep in the courtyard, which little bike with chrome handles?

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The first time I got the book, I was surprised that it was actually thin, and after reading the introduction of the book, I found that this thin, short novel contained a lot of information.

I once read a saying: "You can always believe in the romance of France, and one day when the romance is gone, you can still believe in their humor."

This sentence is probably the best interpretation of the book, and the best way to narrate the author. The author of the book is Georges of France. Perek is a famous contemporary French novelist, and this book is also the author's early masterpiece.

He is a core member of the "Uripo (Potential Literary Workshop)", obsessed with various forms of expression, constantly questioning the challenges and boundaries of writing. Therefore, in the author's works, we can see those humorous and absurd, light and bizarre writing styles, and the novels are short and concise. There are also avant-garde narrative techniques, exquisite rhetorical techniques, and included challenges to the limits of language.

Deep in the courtyard, which little bike with chrome handles? It is not difficult to see the writing style mentioned above. With the help of such a tool of expression, the author mocks the war in French history that discredited France, the collapse of the Fourth Republic, the birth of the Fifth Republic, and the complete liberation of Algerians from colonial status and independence, while also expressing their disgust for war.

Deep in the courtyard, which little bicycle with chrome handles?" "" is actually a very simple story, the characters in the story are living in the historical background of France at that time, in order not to go to the front line of various efforts, but the ending is still tragic.

01 In order not to go to the front line, I want to cripple my feet

Why the narrative method of this book is absurd and bizarre, probably because after you read this book, you don't even understand what the protagonist is.

Is it called ×× Carla? Or Karamanlis? Or Caravour? Or Caravasch? ...... In order to match the story with the characters, I can only recognize the word "Carla" from the name.

Did the author make this arrangement because the author's memory was too poor? Or is it a problem with the spelling of the name? In fact, it is not, such an arrangement, in fact, implies that in this war, there are many people like Carla. They originally lived an ordinary life, and they wanted to live a carefree life with the people they loved.

But the cogs of history push them to abandon everything in front of them and go to an unknown country, to conquer, to fight, to build merit. But no one asked them if they really wanted to go.

So, when they saw the conscription order, all they had in mind was that in order not to go to the front, and not to be considered a deserter, or to disobey the order, they intended to cripple their feet, although they might eventually have to go to the front, but they could delay it for some time. Maybe the war would end before they were wounded.

From this we can see that no matter what era we were born in, we do not like war. Just like today, we still don't like war.

Some wars are for our independence and freedom, but some wars are lied about. Like the French war against Algeria, they concocted many war lies that were not made public until many years later.

However, the damage caused at that time could not be repaired back in the past.

02 History is like a cog, we are all pushed forward

Carla ×× in the book, and his group of friends, made a lot of attempts, envisioned many ways to cripple themselves, and in the end, what we saw was failure. So, in the end, the choice is to get yourself drunk, throw yourself on the road, and resign yourself to fate.

However, fate eventually put him on the train that went to the front, so many times, we didn't seem to have a choice. Even, choosing is the same as not choosing.

In order to shape such an expression, the author sets up many absurd plot descriptions in the book. For example, when a group of people decide to help Kara ×× cripple themselves, how well prepared they are.

This also includes a lot of psychological descriptions, as well as various prejudgments about what will happen, and speculations about the various outcomes they will encounter. However, everything is useless in the end.

What is also impressive is their depiction of the various plots before the crippling of Carla, which is a bit like going to accomplish a big thing collectively, or even doing a very meaningful big thing.

"Call everyone who can call..." This sentence actually sounds more like a farewell, or a walk. However, it is not, Carla is not someone who wants to go to the front, he just wants to live quietly.

In the portrayal of these words, even if you have not seen the end, you feel that their contrived efforts cannot be accomplished.

Perhaps, when we are to history, sometimes we really can't choose for ourselves. We have reason to believe that every soldier who goes to the battlefield is not a belligerent person, but many times, our personal will cannot be separated from the operation of the gears of history.

03 There is no such person here called Kara or something

Eventually, when they had to accept it, Carla was already on the special train to the front. So, a group of them planned to give Carla a ride before he left the country.

They also made all kinds of preparations, as if they were going to do a big thing, and prepared a lot of things. When they met the special train, they also saw a lot of different pictures next to the train.

There are parents to children, between couples, on their own, veterans to recruits... Then when a group of people shouted kara ×× on the special train, they shouted for a long time and did not see kara come out to answer.

It wasn't until later that someone suddenly replied, "There's no one here who you call kara or something." Then a group of people got out of the car with a confused look on their faces.

The story ends in a description like this:

"We had to give in to the facts: this Carararico, either not on this train, or didn't want to talk to us."

Abruptly stopped. The story is over. Seeing this, everyone actually can't help but smile. The story is really humorous. As for whether Carla is in the car or not, everyone can use our imagination to guess.

Friends who have read the book, and then think about the various efforts made by this group of people before, in fact, they want to laugh even more. In today's parlance, it is called "white work".

The more meticulously the authors wrote about their efforts, the more ridiculous the story became to read. One might ask, why is it that the whole book sees That Carla has been hiding from the front line, but what about the friends who helped?

Probably just because the name "Carla" appeared on the recruitment list, and the others did not appear, who knows? But are these friends really brave? Not really. Especially when they were speculating about the consequences of helping Carla, it was not difficult to see that they were also afraid of being implicated.

This actually reflects another problem, the premise of bravery, which is premised on protecting oneself. Like the little bicycle with the chrome handles, it carried its owner back and forth between its hometown and the troop garrison, and in the end it didn't come in handy.

In that historical context, Carla is a supporting role, the captain is a supporting role, the sergeant is a supporting role, and all of them are supporting roles in history. It's like that little bike with chrome handles deep in the courtyard.

When we read literature in this category, it is very important to understand the historical context behind it. A story like this, absurd, humorous, and at the same time meaningful, without a background as a guide, we can easily pass it as a funny story.