• GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I do honestly feel this way a lot, like I must be looking at a different reality than everyone around me. Like I'm fighting in vain for some dead idea of honor and decency.

    • flowernet [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      There's a whole genre of fiction where the crazy protagonist has a clearer view of society than those sane people around him.

      https://www.marxists.org/archive/lu-xun/1918/04/x01.htm

      • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        If I am understanding this correctly, the eating of man is a metaphor for taking advantage of other's labor? Such as the older brother extracting money from the tenants.

        • flowernet [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          yes, but it's also literal. the thief from the Wolf-cub village probably was literally eaten, just like the revolutionary mentioned in the footnotes was a real person. He uses it as both a metaphor for social systems that exploit and destroy humanity, as well as literally as the ultimate indictment of Chinese society's moral degeneration.