When reading the novel "The Submarine in the Night," I thought it was a kind of exploration, a glimpse into the utopia in the author's heart, which is the submarine constructed by Chen Chuncheng. The novel begins with a coin thrown into the sea by Borges, but ends with the real life of an unrelated adult. The only connection between the two is that a wealthy businessman, driven by obsession, sends someone to search for the coin and captures a mysterious blue submarine on film. This submarine is the embodiment of the boy's imagination.
The boy cannot concentrate in real life, but he possesses extraordinary imagination that can turn fantasies into reality. He sees the black and white keys of a piano turn into pandas, turn into penguins. He hears Mozart and feels like he is flying into the galaxy on a hot air balloon. He can sleep in a lotus pod, swim in the clouds, walk on a blackboard, and freely enter and exit countless worlds.
Later, he discovers that his fantasies are not just imagination, but can even establish some connections with reality. As long as he creates his fantasies in enough detail, they become another kind of reality. Influenced by his grandfather, the boy invents a submarine. The second floor of the submarine has the same internal structure as the second floor of his house. Every night, when his parents are asleep next door, he transforms into a captain and goes on adventures with Bulbasaur and Pikachu. This adventure continues until his second year of high school.
After a heavy conversation with his parents one evening after self-study, his parents make him realize that he has spent these years immersed in the underwater world, neglecting his aging parents in reality. The reality of the college entrance examination, employment, and marriage, which are beyond his consciousness, is pushed to the forefront by his parents, and he tastes the flavor of anxiety.
In the following three days, he tries to study seriously, but still can't help but daydream. The cracks on the classroom walls, erasers, and even the names of the editors on the front pages of textbooks can make the vines in his mind extend. But during these nights, he no longer goes into the submarine. On the third night, he made a solemn decision: Imagination has detached itself from him, so he imagines that his imagination truly becomes a cluster of pale blue light, like the tail flame of a firefly, leaving his body and soaring like a comet.
The ending is predictable. Without excessive imagination, he becomes a person who can focus on studying and living a normal life. He works in an advertising company and becomes a famous painter. However, he permanently leaves his submarine at the bottom of the sea in 1999, along with Pikachu and Bulbasaur, pressing the pause button. He says that his flame was extinguished when he was sixteen, and his so-called career after that was just a few strands of smoke rising after the flame went out.
"I have repeatedly painted a picture. In the center of the deep blue background, there is a deeper blue. Some say it looks like a leaf, some say it looks like an eye, like a whale in the sea. People speculate about the hidden meaning. In fact, there is no meaning at all, it is a submarine. My submarine. It travels in the eternal night. It will forever, forever hover in my deep blue dreams." In his farewell letter, he left behind these melancholic words.
There is also a foreshadowing at the end of the novel. On a summer evening in 2166, a child picks up a small piece of metal on the beach, looks at it, and throws it into the sea. Thus, the story comes to an end.
After finishing the novel, I am amazed by the author's smooth writing style and abundant imagination. Chen Chuncheng himself also said that this novel is a deep reflection of himself. The connection between the coin and the submarine, which has been criticized by many, is solid. He said that he used an X-shaped writing technique, and the two only have one intersection. The submarine was originally just a secret in his heart, but after writing this story, it became something to show to others. Each piece is marked with a date, and every time he sees a date, he recalls what he was doing at that time.
The time of this novel is October 28, 2017. It was my first formal job after graduation. At that time, I was full of infinite enthusiasm, but not for the job itself. It was to escape the psychological pain and seek self-worth in work. From 2017 to 2019, those were probably the two most challenging years of my life.
I have never had such transcendent imagination, nor have I piloted a submarine into the depths of the sea. But in my imaginary world, I am occasionally a person. Occasionally, I am a cat. I invent a flying device that I strap to my arm, allowing me to fly in the sky. I experience various world disasters and, when the end of the world comes, I can find a roadside tavern with fellow travelers to have a drink. Perhaps I am a murderer, perhaps being chased by ghosts. I escape in a truck and drive freely in the air.
But sometimes, I am also abandoned, abandoned by family, abandoned by loved ones. The me in the imaginary world has strong and acute emotions, but the me in reality does not. Perhaps it has been unconsciously hidden, or perhaps the imaginary world has exhausted my emotions, and it can no longer be consumed in the real world. Just like in this novel, Chen Chuncheng also expended a lot of imagination. Because sometimes, imagination only exists in the mind. Once it is put into words, it needs precise description to recreate the atmosphere of the imagination.
I believe this is the power that reading brings to me. It is a refuge for my spiritual world, and a way for me to find answers to my questions. It allows me to transcend time and catch a glimpse of people in distant places, delving into their spiritual worlds. As for this novel, I cannot judge whether it is good or bad because a person's inner world should not be debated.