He was paralyzed and only his eyes could move, but he broke through his imprisonment and wrote legendary masterpieces

In Alexandre Dumas's famous novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", Noirtier de Villefort, the father of the villain prosecutor Villefort, is suffering from a strange disease. His body is like a zombie and cannot move. , only hearing and vision are left to keep in touch with the outside world. The book says that only these two organs give him a little life, "like two lonely fires remaining in a furnace of ashes." He relies on his eyes to communicate with people, "Use a pair of living eyes to express all the thoughts in the mind of a corpse."

This rare disease is simply terrifying. It is locked-in syndrome. Because of this novel, this disease is sometimes called Monte Cristo syndrome. Unfortunately, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the author of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", accidentally suffered from locked-in syndrome.

This book was written by Bobby after he fell ill, and communicated with the outside world through the movement of his eyes. This book uses a humorous tone to record his daily life after he fell ill, making readers feel infinite regret. and respect.

Jean-Dominique Bauby (April 23, 1952 - March 9, 1997), French magazine editor and writer, founded a well-known fashion magazine in Paris in 1991 ELLE worked as an editor, had a decent job, a generous income, and two lovely children. His seemingly bright and happy life collapsed in an instant. He suffered a stroke on December 8, 1995, and woke up 20 days later and became a patient with locked-in syndrome. , only the left eye in the body can blink. In the next two years, he relied on his left eye to communicate with the recorder and wrote the book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Le Scaphandre et le papillon" by listening and reading.

Due to an accidental "locked-in syndrome", Bobby was paralyzed and conscious. He felt as if his body was tightly covered by a diving bell, but his mind was flying around like a butterfly. With the help of his sobriety, The consciousness soars in space and time. This is the origin of the title of the book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly".

This book records the daily life of a patient with a rare disease: receiving treatment in the hospital, subtle interactions with doctors and patients, daily life such as praying and bathing, going to the beach with his family, and keeping up with friends. Contact etc. He was unable to communicate normally with others and could only communicate with the outside world by blinking his left eyelid. When he hears a required letter, he blinks and writes a letter, a word, a sentence, and finally the book. It took an average of two minutes to write each word, and the whole book was completed in about 200,000 blinks. It can be said that this book is Bobby's book of life, and it witnesses the greatness of the human spirit.

Despite this catastrophe, Bobby did not regret himself in the book. The book he wrote with his life has a gentle tone and is full of black humor. He takes the pain he encountered lightly and has a positive attitude towards life and life. The insights are thought-provoking. The most touching thing about Bobby is that he knows how to find fun in suffering, letting the butterflies in his heart fly freely through imagination and past memories.

Patients with locked-in syndrome cannot move, and life is boring and boring. However, Bobby knows how to adjust his mentality and find fun in difficult and painful days.

He gave the attending doctors various nicknames and derived secret happiness from them.

He called the sand dune not far from the hospital a "beach club" where he and his family would have fun together on Father's Day.

He deliberately made the person pushing his wheelchair go the wrong way, just to discover hidden corners, see new faces, and smell the smells wafting from the kitchen.

He took the initiative to write letters to his friends, and then received letters from them. He cherished his friends' letters and turned reading letters into a solemn and silent ceremony. This is what he said in the book,

"I received many, many letters. I opened the letters, spread out the letter paper, and displayed them in front of my eyes one by one. As time went by, gradually It forms a kind of ceremony, making the influx of letters a solemn and silent ceremony. I read each letter carefully... These letters are like treasures to me. One day I will take them one by one. Get up and string them together, stretching for several kilometers, floating in the wind, like small flags showing friendship." Paralyzed, with his body as heavy as a diving bell, he escaped from the constraints through imagination.

On an extremely boring Sunday, he relied on his imagination to follow his family to the summer camping ground, watching the children rowing and sketching, watching the injured cat hiding in the corner, and the housewives starting to make lunch. . ——These are undoubtedly reflections of his previous life.

Even though he was paralyzed, Bobby remained ambitious. He wanted to rewrite Alexandre Dumas's "The Count of Monte Cristo", write a play, and become a director. He even conceived a drama in his mind: using his own life as the material, before the illness, his life was smooth, his career was successful, and his family was harmonious. After the disaster, his life took a turn for the worse. Mr. L had to learn to face setbacks. This drama The final scene is when Mr. L discovers that what he encountered turned out to be just a dream!

After accidentally discovering Sinahi Terrace near the hospital, it became his secret garden. He allowed his imagination to run wild and transformed into the greatest director.

He re-shot close-up shots of Orson Welles's "Close Touches," wanted to create a violent storm for Fritz Lang's "The Little Mermaid," and wanted to transform into Piero the Madman with a turban on his head. A long string of dynamite, ready to sacrifice at any moment.

From the text, we can feel Bobby's infinite passion for creation, as well as his attachment to life and life, which makes people feel infinite regret.

In addition to imagination, Bobby also uses memory to let the butterflies of consciousness flutter. He draws nutrients from the memory bank of the past to enrich and enrich his current life.

He looked back on the past when he and his colleagues started a business passionately, and appreciated the philosophy of life while ruminating on the past. Because he had to write a horse racing column, he and his colleagues knew in advance that the horse named "Mithras" would win. However, because they spent too long in the restaurant, they missed the time to place bets and missed the opportunity to earn 20 pips. A bet of one.

Bobby thought this was a metaphor, containing double pain: nostalgia for the vanished past, and guilt for not seizing the opportunity, just like a woman who doesn’t know how to love, an opportunity that she didn’t seize, And the happiness of letting it slip away.

He recalled every detail of his trip with his wife. Even though they traveled long distances and had constant quarrels, he felt happy when he was bedridden at that time.

From the letters of interaction with friends, he recalled all kinds of interactions with friends, and was moved by various trivial matters in life in their letters.

He used to like food without restraint. After becoming ill, he was unable to eat. He could only use the sensory memory bank to awaken the memory of taste and smell. Beef with slightly transparent frozen sauce, apricot egg tart with just the right amount of sourness, sausage that melts on the tip of the tongue, etc. These memories of delicious food are a comfort.

There are many more exciting contents in the book. From the clues, we can piece together his past life - he once had a happy life with beautiful clothes, angry horses, fine wine and beautiful women, and he also lived in glitz and glamour. In the world of fame and fortune, he was indulgent and indulgent, and he was also a bit cynical. This comparison makes people sigh endlessly.

Even aside from the unique and difficult writing style, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is well worth reading. Bobby's writing is exquisite and vivid, and the metaphors are unique.

The metaphor of the diving bell and the butterfly is very vivid.

He lingered on the sickbed like a hermit crab on the rocks.

He said that his illusory dreams were like excerpts from a novel.

Compare gossips to gossiping pigeons.

He maintains a certain proportion of anger, just like a pressure cooker, with a safety valve to prevent it from exploding.

There are many metaphors in the book that make people unable to help but wow.

At the same time, Bobby's writing is full of self-deprecation and ridicule, with strong black humor.

The therapist asked him to hold her hand tightly, but the paralyzed man thought about crushing the therapist's finger bones.

When former friends talked about him becoming a vegetable, he decided to open up his correspondence to everyone to prove that he was more intelligent than vegetables.

He joked about his experience, saying that fate had transformed him into a scarecrow that scares sparrows.

When the patients in the rehabilitation center avoided his gaze and looked at the ceiling, Bobby laughed at himself. Probably these people were afraid of fire and were checking the smoke detectors fixed on the ceiling.

This book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is well deserved to be called a legendary masterpiece that breaks the limits of life. Bobby suffered a sudden onset of locked-in syndrome on December 8, 1995, and woke up 20 days later to finish writing this book. On March 9, 1997, two days after the French version of this book was published, Bobby passed away. The ethereal butterfly flew out of the diving bell and completed a gorgeous transformation.