Almighty painter

Chapter 785: Interview with Mr. G and Ms. K

"The Elena family should go to hell!"

——Gu Weijing——
"You are ill, sir."

Her words were blunt and without any disguise.

If a woman is a cancer doctor, reading out a patient's test results in this tone would seem too cold and unsympathetic.

But she is Anna Elena.

The person she interviewed was another bad guy who was involved in the business of fake paintings and money laundering.

This tone seems just right.

"This is an obvious thing...cough cough." The man grinned on the phone and coughed vigorously twice.

During the conversation, Chen Shenglin kept coughing softly, but the cough at this moment did seem a bit deliberate.

"Are you concerned about my health?" he asked sarcastically.

"Or is this some kind of insult from you, my noble Lady Elena? I once thought that people like you would not curse when they get angry. It seems that everyone will show their true colors when they are angry. The Countess also curses."

"I said you were a bitch, and you said I was sick. I really complement the Elena family."

There was a sense of pride in the middle-aged man's tone.

Not only was Hao not angry, but he was actually very happy when he found that he had finally broken through Anna's calm and indifferent shell.

"I'm not a person without temper. I rarely curse at people, but when I get angry, I might want to pour coffee on someone's head or hit their head with a pen."

The woman thought about it and said uncertainly, "That scene should be quite scary for others."

Then she changed her tone to one of great confidence: "But when I say you are ill, sir, I am not insulting you. I am just stating the facts, from a technical point of view. I am not referring to whether you have any physical illness. What I mean is that your illness is mental. Technically speaking, your mind is very sick."

"Have you ever been to a psychologist for counseling? Has it ever been mentioned that you might be suffering from a personality disorder?"

Anna really seems like a psychiatrist.

She was writing down the interview notes in a notebook while talking into the receiver.

"what?"

For the first time since the interview began, Chen Shenglin was stunned by what Miss Elena said.

"This is quite complicated. Different psychologists and experts in the field of mental illness often give their own explanations for the causes of a person's mental problems. Behavioral psychology, morphological psychology, structuralism, functionalism, Wundt, Carl Jung, Wittmann..."

The woman randomly gave a few examples.

"In short, there is a view that the two most common mental problems in life are called neurosis and personality disorders."

"Neurosis often places the blame on others, while personality disorders are the opposite, with people with these disorders often placing their own blame on others. Both disorders are common in the art world."

"Some psychologists believe that everyone in the world, regardless of how much they earn, will suffer from some degree of neurosis and personality disorder, but someone as serious as you..."

"Rare."

Anna said.

"You are unwilling to take any moral responsibility. You think the world is inherently bad. You hate the world. You think good and evil have no meaning. You think you never had a choice. The reason you are who you are now, the reason you do bad things, the reason you commit evil deeds, are all the responsibility of your elders, environment, education, government, and even fate, and never your own responsibility. You think the world is a big dye vat, dyeing you into this state, and then blaming you. It's really unfair."

Brother Hao stopped laughing.

This sounds familiar.

Just a few weeks ago, in his Xihe Club, a person about the same age as Miss Elena had said exactly the same thing to him.

He just doesn't have the technical skills that women have.

A surge of anger surged in the middle-aged man's chest.

Gu Weijing could say this.

He is too young and doesn't know the truth about this world. He has a childish innocence, like the rising sun.

The rising sun can shine stubbornly with a tender attitude, firmly believing that the bright glow will last forever.

Such a dust-free luster is terrifyingly hot.

Chen Shenglin was left with many holes in his eyes.

But Chen Shenglin had a strong doubt in his heart, or to be more precise, a strong expectation and a strong desire.

Where there is sunrise, there is sunset.

A pure childish heart is something that only pure children can possess.

Years later.

When Gu Weijing rose high and slid to the other side of the sky, touched the clouds, experienced ups and downs, and understood the whole appearance of this world - he would eventually understand himself.

A person has only one destiny.

Everyone is just following this established path.

But how could Miss Elena say such a thing?
As the heir of the Elena family, she should be born with insight into the rules of this world. She should know that there is no good or bad person in this world. There are only people who break the rules and will be punished, and people who break the rules and will not be punished and make a fortune.

She should be someone exactly like me.

"Is there anything wrong with what I said?"

"It's neither right nor wrong. People cannot choose their environment, and a chaotic environment naturally breeds darkness. But this does not mean that morality is meaningless. Morality teaches us not to compromise with darkness. Morality teaches us what it means to be human, and this is the meaning of a person's growth. A cowardly person can only be a shadow of the environment, but a brave person can be the light in the darkness."

"But let me be frank. The Elena family did something evil, and it is natural for you to do something evil. It is two different concepts."

"Sir, a lot of what you said today is correct. But if you think the Elena family did something bad, what you should say is--"

Anna paused, she hesitated for a moment: "You should say that the Elena family should go to hell, not that I should do the same bad thing again, which is only natural."

"The Irina family did not obtain wealth and land by doing good deeds and loving art. The gold coins of my ancestors are also stained with the blood of ordinary people. You ask me if this is a bad thing. Yes, it is of course a bad thing. Any rebuttal is a quibble, and any quibble is powerless. In the slave trade, even if you just keep silent, it is a mild crime. Ms. K's freedom, her balls, tea parties, the money she spent on studying art, and even the skirt she wears are all supported by many, many children who have no freedom."

"Everything I said was true. I have no intention of denying it. To deny it would be to deny the lives of my ancestors. If you paint these things in a bright and glorious light, their lives will not become more glorious, but more illusory."

"So you're saying they're ancients? A simple phrase about ancients justifies all the evil deeds. This excuse is really useful."

The middle-aged man said sarcastically, "You are turning a blind eye to the evil deeds that happened in the past. This is no different from covering your ears and stealing a bell."

"There is a difference. They are ancient people, and it is meaningful to make moral judgments on history. Its significance is not to make us forgive their past crimes, but to make us understand ourselves today." "We should have empathy towards the ancients," said Anna.
-
“Anyone who writes about the history of ancient Chinese philosophy should have a sympathetic understanding of the ancients’ theories before he or she can start writing.”

——Chen Yin-ge, "Review Report on Feng Youlan's History of Chinese Philosophy"
-
"If we go back thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, to the slave society, there were probably only two kinds of people in the world: slaves and slave owners. Going back even further, all the great and wise kings, glorious emperors, and wise sages in ancient Europe...including all the artists, philosophers, or scientists, Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Archimedes, who among them was not a slave owner, or had not received support from the empire?"

"Epictetus was born a slave with nothing. He was severely whipped by his master in his childhood and suffered lifelong disability. But after he regained his freedom, he became the private secretary of Nero, the most famous cruel emperor in Roman history."

Anna talked freely.

(Note: Ancient Roman philosopher.)
"Isaac Newton was keen on buying shares of the South Sea Company. The South Sea Company controlled the trade monopoly of the South American colonies and the local slave monopoly. That was the craziest and bloodiest era of the slave trade. Ship owners would throw sick black slaves into the sea alive, chain by chain, with iron chains. They would abandon mothers in front of their sons and throw their brothers into the ocean in front of their brothers."

"One hundred and forty years after Sir Isaac Newton lost 20,000 pounds and nearly went bankrupt due to the stock bubble, another Englishman, Joseph Mallord William Turner, learned about the tragedy on the slave ship during the slave trade. He was so sad that he used this as the subject to paint the most representative watercolor painting in the entire history of romantic painting, "Slave Ship."

"Complex short lines, depressing brushstrokes, turbulent sea and sky, restless light and shadow, and the sinful ship under the storm - this is the most famous painting in human history that records the sins and sufferings brought about by human trafficking. It is the most important representative work in Turner's life."

The woman's voice echoed in the office.

The light from the window seemed to freeze between her eyebrows.

Her voice was not loud, but was as clear as if it had been washed by water. It did not sound sharp, but had a tenacious resonance that caused the surface of the teacup on the table to ripple constantly.

it has started!

Secretary Elliot, who was watching this scene nearby, screamed in his heart, it really started, is the legendary "Anna moment" about to appear again!
She had a premonition.

Whenever the lady makes comments in this tone...

A few minutes later.

Anna always achieves victory like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

In normal state, "Anna's Sharp Comments" are like steel needles, which spew out sharp sarcasm and make others sway left and right, and cry out in embarrassment.

And this kind of "Anna's Sharp Comments" when going all out is like a sharp sword, a scimitar, and a sledgehammer, which can knock the opponent into pieces with a clang, leaving others unable to even scream.

Sir Brown had proved the accuracy of Elliott's premonition several times with his swollen cheeks.

"But on the other hand, Turner was a British man with a strong 'empire heart' throughout his life. He condemned the slave trade in the colonies and cheered for the old empire that occupied a quarter of the world's land. Like all British painters in the past, he praised the strength of the imperial navy in his paintings and implicitly satirized the French navigation technology. He happily became a member of the Royal Society, always liked to show others his status in the upper class, and was proud to serve the great empire."

"Now we are faced with this problem—" Anna paused.

The woman concluded, "Does this mean that Socrates was defending slavery and singing its praises, and that the great physicist was also guilty of the unforgivable sin of the slave trade?"

“Does this mean that the tears Turner shed for the story of black slaves were crocodile tears? He was just being hypocritical. He took the money he earned from colonies while criticizing colonial trade. His art was all fake, and he was not qualified to talk about art at all.”

Anna paused.

"Is not it?"

The woman nodded.

"No, of course. Yes, guilty. On the first question, if I were the judge, I would bang the gavel on the table and say--"

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt about it. There is no argument about it."

Miss Elena actually held the short red fountain pen in her hand and knocked the metal carved pen cap on the back end on the desk. With a clang, it sounded like the judge striking the gavel hard.

I wonder if Gu Weijing, who is far away in Singapore, could hear this crisp "clang" sound, and find out that someone hated him so much yesterday that he wanted to hit his big dog head with a pen... would he feel a chill in his forehead?

"I declare the crime guilty."

Anna said.

"No explanation is weak, no defense that they were just trying to make a little money can fill the pain of the slaves who worked until they died, the slaves who were thrown into the sea and drowned, the slaves who watched their loved ones thrown into the sea and drowned."

"Socrates' so-called pursuit of freedom of his soul was, of course, only the freedom of Greek citizens, the freedom of slave owners, not the freedom of slaves. Newton wanted to use his mathematician's wisdom to make a fortune in the stock market, but every gold coin he invested in the South Sea Company was throwing the black people on the ship into the sea."

"So—why are we still commemorating them?"

"Why are students in schools today still reading Socrates and calling Isaac Newton a great man, celebrating him as perhaps the greatest Englishman who ever lived?"

“Because they are ancient people.”

"Corruption is like a surging tide, drowning everything, greed slowly rolling in... The judge became a broker, the bishop ate the common people, the monarch played with the cards in his hand for a few pennies..." The woman recited a few lines of poetry, "This is a poem by Alexander Pope that satirized the South Sea Company stock incident that I read when I was a student. The entire British Isles, from the monarch to the common people, are all crazy about the rising numbers on the stock exchange. Newton is just an ordinary one among them. We should sympathize with him, we should understand him."

"To sympathize with Newton and understand Socrates does not mean that you do not sympathize with the plight of black people in colonial trade, or understand the plight of slaves who worked to death in the fields. These are two completely independent things."

"Just as I say that what Ms. K went through was great pain and suffering, it does not mean that the pain and suffering that those children in factories and child laborers in mines of the same era went through was not pain and suffering. These are two completely separate things."

"When I evaluate the good and evil of something, I will put it in the context of today's social concepts. Newton bought South Sea Company stocks, and the Elena family committed many evil deeds in history. What's wrong is wrong. I just wanted to say that factories all over the world were doing the same thing, and mines all over the world had the same conditions. My ancestors just did the same thing as everyone else."

Anna pursed her lips.

"It's too ugly. It's too pale to say that blood is blood, and that's history. But when we want to understand a historical figure, we should put it in the historical context."

“Socrates, Newton, Turner, my ancestor, Ms. K. In their own fields, they are giants, sages, and brave men. But outside their own fields, they have become ordinary people, part of the torrent of the times.”

“Only in this way can we understand the responsibilities that society has placed on them and the responsibilities that they have chosen to take on. Only in this way … can we understand the courage and strength that their lives contain.”

"Some seemingly wrong choices were normal things, or even so-called 'correct' things, for everyone at that time. But now, the seemingly correct and commonplace normal actions, if normal, may have required great courage and firm spirit to support everyone at that time."

"If you don't understand this, you can't understand the greatness of those who changed this and no longer divided people into slaves or slave owners. Because of this, and because of all these, Lincoln became the most important president in American history."

Miss Irena recalled that when she was a child she learned French and read Balzac's novels.

The Paris he describes is a huge zoo.

The protagonist of every story of Balzac is a beast in a cage, who is glorious and invincible in his own story.

But when they step out of their small cage, into other people's stories and into the great tide of the times in Paris, they continue to struggle fragilely.

So let’s use this story as an introduction and the opening words of this interview?
[When I was a child, Mr. Verman, who was invited by my aunt to teach me 19th century French literature, was a fan of Balzac. Bal——]

Miss Elena was multitasking.

She didn't want to wait until she returned to Singapore to slowly sort out the manuscript, so the woman wrote the opening introduction of the interview article in her notebook at a very fast speed while answering the middle-aged man's questions.

"So I can answer your second question."

"Socrates lived on slaves, which means that the freedom he talked about was limited, but it does not mean that his exploration of freedom was false. This was a small progress of his time. Turner loved the glorious British Empire, which may mean that his criticism of colonial trade was limited, but it does not mean that the strokes he painted on the canvas to depict the dark colonial history were full of hypocrisy. This was a small progress of art..."

"The slave ship is more important than all of Turner's portraits of aristocrats."

(End of this chapter)