After "Macbeth", about fate and free will
Both Untitled and Untitled 2 discuss about one common topic—Fake or Real. No matter Ning or the character in “Untitled 2”, they both try to find the “truth” in falsehood. In “Untitled”, Ning is pretty sure that ghost around him is real, though they’ve been trapped in robots, but Ning doubts about his own existence. Ning tries to find the evidence that he is a real person and different from those robots; he asks spiders about “real human”; he relates those evidence to himself and thinks that “maybe I am one of those toys: made with newer, better technology, until I could pass for the real thing"(Untitled, 15) . In “Untitled 2”, the character also seeks for the “truth” in a world that consist of fake. He get angry about finding out even the old man and the falcon on the street is fake; he tries to save the last “real” thing in this world; he asks the nurse to accompany him "Come and look at the fish in the waterways with me. Maybe they're the only creatures in this world who live real lives" (Untitled 2, 17).
They both seeks for the truth and live in a world that full of fake, the only difference is that proving the existence of himself is the purpose of Ning, while seeking for real thing around him and saving them is the purpose of the character in “Untitled 2”. In other words, Ning is unsure about himself, while the character in “Untitled 2” is unsure about the outside world he lives. However, at the end of both stories, they find the meaning that is important most for them—for Ning, it is the meaning of life that he “grew up on this street, ran along this street. Now he is finally going to die on this street, just like a real person” (Untitled, 25); for man in Untitled two, it is the right to make choice, even “the only truly free choice that he can make is the taste of coffee” (Untitled 2, 20). They both get what they pursue at the end.
For “Untitled”, it is unexpected for me to read a story that is written from a totally different point of view, because all the characters actually come from a famous fairy tale in China. In this story, the author makes all the characters become souls that have been trapped in robots, and sets the background that people get sick of them, because they are not excited as they do at the beginning. In facts, it implies the society in nowadays—people trap in small boxes; they show everything they are capable of to others, but when others get sick of it, it becomes a monologue with no audience. That is the truth of the “real” world, but few people have the encourage to face it. The story expresses that with a point of view that can be accepted by people, but also tells the “truth”, and that’s the point that surprised me. For “Untitled 2”, it is really interesting that the end of story is connected to the start of it. It feels like it is telling a dream, but when people actually think about it, or try to understand the “dream”, it tells people something that might be ignored or cannot be seem in their daily life. The author creates a “fake” Lijiang to tell a “dream” to express an idea that in the reality, there is few things can be controlled by people themselves and this is an uncomfortable “truth” for people to take it.
In “Untitled”, fate is be trapped in Ghost street and be toys for people. For Ning, fate is being a toy for Xiao Qian, but he is lucky that Xiao Qian does care about him and treat him well. However, even though Ning has doubts that he may not a real person, he still makes his own choices—"when I grow up, I'll leave”(Untitled, 6)—asks questions, and think about things—"how can I know for sure," I ask, "that I'm a real person"(Untitled, 16). In “Untitled 2”, fate is being controlled by someone else and living in the world with no freedom and truth. To be more specific, it is working in a cubicle and doing work twice than others with no place to hid or escape. On the other hand, free will is the courage to trace the truth and face it, even though he knows that he lives a world full of fake, he still has the hope to save anything that could be real and tries to make choices whenever he can. However, both characters’ fate and free will are different from Macbeth’s. Macbeth is the one who chooses to accept or follows the “fate” to live. His free will helps him with deciding to live as the prophecies while he has the chance not to, but no matter Ning or the man the “Untitled 2”, they do not have the chance to live their own life—where they live and how they should live already been controlled by “larger power”.
To be clear, Untitled 1 here-->百鬼夜行街; Untitled 1—>丽江的鱼儿们
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