Chapter 1886 Art or Reality?

Jim Williams' two nephews and nieces actually have nothing to do with the Williams family. Their surname is Brown. The person in charge of reception is Williams' nephew Arthur.

"Hey, man, you guys are in a hurry. My mother only made some special snacks, nothing too formal. Please forgive me~"

After greeting each other, Arthur Brown apologized.

Yang Cheng also responded politely, "It's us who have taken the liberty to disturb you. Just don't take offense~"

The Moser Mansion, which has now been transformed into a museum, does not look as bleak as described in the book, and is very popular. Of course, it is time for the museum to close at this time. Except for a few tourists who are still shopping in the souvenir shops downstairs, most of them are Already gone.

Arthur took them to the living area on the second floor, where they were greeted by an oil painting portrait of Jim Williams.

The left and right sides are the living room and the dining room respectively. What makes Yang Cheng more confused is that there are no servants on the entire second floor. Has the Williams family fallen to this level?

Arthur's mother, Jim Williams' sister Mary Williams, was busy in the kitchen at this time, and many dishes were already on the table.

Charles said, "Savannah and Charleston are similar in terms of food. Since the two cities are located at the mouth of a low-lying river, outsiders call our place the 'Lowlands,' which has created unique 'Lowland' cuisine." .”

Yang Cheng still knows this little knowledge. Most Americans like to eat male crabs because they are afraid that the roe of female crabs will stain their hands. However, in Charleston and Savannah, there are special female crab soups that look different. It has a unique flavor. After all, it is difficult to find this delicacy in other seaport cities in the United States.

Unexpectedly, Mary Williams would also cook this dish. In addition, he also saw the "sesame crispbread" he had seen in the open-air market before. According to Charles, this is a traditional snack that many people have forgotten.

Representatives of "Low Country" cuisine include "Shrimp Polenta", a stew of shrimp, sausage and cornmeal, and "Frogmore Stew" named after the small Georgia fishing port of Frogmore. .

Before the abolition of slavery in the United States, a large number of black slaves were engaged in hard work such as fishing and planting rice locally. The big fish harvested from fishing were given to the plantation owners. Only the small shrimps that the plantation owners did not like could be obtained by the black slaves. When the slaves stayed, the black slaves would stew shrimps, potatoes, corn, celery, sausages and other unrefined ordinary ingredients together, stewing them into the fragrant "Furogomo Stew", "Furogomo Stew", "Furogomo Stew" The dish itself is a living history of the Lowlands.

Unexpectedly, eating a meal can still give a sense of history. Yang Cheng felt that today's meal would be fresh in his memory for a long time.

The dishes were not yet ready, so Arthur invited everyone to sit down and chat.

Just on the phone, Charles expressed his intention to come. In fact, if the two of them didn't have business connections, he would not agree to this kind of thing. After all, it involves family privacy.

But Charles was his very important partner, and he couldn't afford to offend him, so he had to hold his nose and admit it, and he had to let his mother cook in person.

Although Charles is like the third grandson in front of Yang Cheng, in Charleston and Savannah, he is also an out-and-out 'aristocratic'. He must make a power ranking list and firmly enter the top ten. .

Facing such a person, Arthur did not have the courage to say no.

"Sit down, what do you want to know?" Arthur's expression was as helpless as possible. There were countless people who tried to ask him about secrets over the years, but most of them were fooled by him.

Charles said, "Although it is rude to do so, I think everyone is curious about the outcome of the case."

Arthur spread his hands, "Actually, everything written in it, including what people are circulating now, is true! The case ended with the sudden death of my grandfather.

As for the revenge theory of ghosts, I can't give you an answer. "

In the book, the author sets up Savannah as a big stage, and everyone here is unwilling to be someone else's supporting role:

The antique dealer who dominates the social life of Savannah people with Christmas parties, the old black man who walks a non-existent dog, the woman who can sing 6,000 songs, the slutty lawyer who is always in trouble but always charming and lovable, who is born as a man. The "Queen Savannah" who changed her gender and became a sexy beauty, all of them are weird. They all let their souls stir and strive to make their own voices heard on the lively stage.

As for whether one's own behavior is wrong or right, and how it affects others, Savannah people probably don't care.

Just like in the cemetery at midnight, the half hour before 12 o'clock belongs to "good", and the half hour after 12 o'clock belongs to "evil". Good and evil alternate and are intricate. The author tries to vividly show the unique human nature of the United States.

But this is after all, even if a real case is revealed, it is still the original. Since it is, there must be artistic changes or appropriate exaggeration.

The luxury of mansions and parties cannot hide the sinful activities behind the scenes; under the luxuriant wealth and bustle, what often ends up is loneliness and loneliness. However, people still flock to this empty vanity fair like moths to a flame. Obviously, , this part of Savannah is the epitome of the sinful and seductive beauty of the South.

But someone once said: the furniture style of the second half of the nineteenth century can be fully described and analyzed only in a kind of detective story that mainly tells the horror stories that happened in the apartment.

The placement of furniture also serves as a setting for deadly traps, and the layout of the suite dictates the victim's escape route.

This kind of detective began with Edgar Allan Poe. From the 1860s to the 1890s, the bourgeois interior scenery-the huge decorative panels on the surrounding walls were full of reliefs, and the sunless corners were placed with Potted palm trees, balconies behind stern parapets, long corridors filled with the singing of gaslight flames - fit only for the dead.

The lifeless lavish interiors are comforting only if dead bodies are present.

Even more interesting to the detective than the Oriental scenery are the scenes in the rooms of Oriental dignitaries - Persian rugs and upholstered chairs, hanging oil lamps and Caucasian daggers. . .

Death always comes as scheduled, and it feels more like irony. At the end, after several court trials failed to reach a conclusion, the rich suspect suddenly died at home, and the location was exactly where the murder occurred. Is it really the work of an innocent ghost? Rather than conforming to the expectations of readers or capitalist aesthetics?

This is Yang Cheng's only doubt. Is it possible that Jim Williams couldn't stand the rumors and committed suicide out of fear of crime?

Or is it the work of someone related to the victim during his lifetime?

Arthur suddenly said, "I can show you the study, where my uncle died. Since then, no one has used the room."

Yang Cheng readily agreed. Back then, John Berlant had captured his writing material without much effort, and everyone was willing to talk about themselves in front of him.

As I have said many times, this is a city of gossip. Everyone in Savannah loves to gossip, not only about the living but also about the dead.

Anything can become a bizarre event, such as a very simple thing, something that happens in every house in daily life, "Before leaving the room, Mrs. Jones put on her coat."

But when it comes to Savannah people, it becomes, "Before leaving the room, Mrs. Jones put on the coat that her third husband had given her before he shot himself in the head with a gun."

According to the French positivist theory of Danner's school, character personality is directly related to geography and climate: in the south, where there is plenty of sunshine, people are enthusiastic, while in the north, where the climate is cold, people are often indifferent.

If this is the case, then perhaps the warm and humid "Coast Empire" climate and the lazy and laid-back atmosphere of the South have given rise to the Savannah people's love of gossip. In fact, this is Savannah people's favorite pastime. Activity.

This murder that whets people's appetite comes belatedly only halfway through the book.

Although the quiet town was awakened by the huge gunfire in the mansion of respected antique dealer Jim Williams on that misty morning, the murder was not a stunt that the author planned to deliberately describe.

In Berlant's writing, this murder seems to be just to introduce more characters in the small town. The JC who is full of mistakes, the arrogant district attorney, the fatuous and stubborn old judge, and the defense lawyer team are eager to end the trial. The jurors who later went home to cook, and the witch who never guessed the bright cards but played tricks on others were all involved.

The entire murder case, along with the lawsuit, was a grand party. You know, parties are a tradition in Jim Williams' family and the "goal in life" of Savannah's upper class.

Every Christmas, Jim Williams carefully selects his guests. He writes their names on file cards and divides them into two piles, one for the winners and one for the losers.

Anyone who offended him during the year was bound to be snubbed at party invitations. Unfortunately, he had to spend the Christmas parties in prison in the years after the case.

This lawsuit dragged on for eight years. Jim Williams tenaciously filed appeals three times. In the fourth trial, the jurors made a verdict within a quarter of an hour. They were worried that notifying the judge immediately would appear too hasty, so they sat in silence again. It took three quarters of an hour to announce.

Throughout this protracted lawsuit, Berlant has been telling the readers in his unhurried tone, and he has not forgotten to add some secrets about Savannah between the lawsuits. Everyone here has a secret. There's a dirty little secret, and the murder is just one of a series of small town gossip stories.

And it all started in the study room in front of Yang Cheng and the others, which was neither big nor small, decorated with simple, low-key luxury!

"As you can see, the scene here is still intact as it was when the crime occurred. Except for necessary cleaning, every book is placed in the same position. You can visit it at will~"

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