Unforgivable Indifference
—A Book Report of The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
刘策 Midarroh
Class 1103
The Casual Vacancy is a 2012 novel written by British writer J. K. Rowling. The book was published worldwide by the Little, Brown Book Group. It was Rowling‘s first publication since the Harry Potter series, her first apart from that series and her first novel for adult readership. The novel was the fastest-selling in the United Kingdom in three years.
The novel is set in a suburban West Country town called Pagford and begins with the death of beloved Parish Councillor Barry Fairbrother. Subsequently, a seat on the council is vacant and a conflict ensues before the election for his successor takes place. Factions develop, particularly concerning whether to dissociate with a local council estate, ―the Fields‖, with which Barry supported an alliance. However, those running for a place soon find their darkest secrets revealed on the Parish Council online forum, ruining their campaign and leaving the election in turmoil.
After questioned by The New Yorker about the theme, Rowling remarked, ―This is a book about responsibility. In the minor sense—how responsible we are for our own personal happiness, and where we find ourselves in life—but in the macro sense also, of course: how responsible we are for the poor, the disadvantaged, other people‘s misery.‖ Rowling‘s publisher once claimed that the book was a ―black comedy‖, but Rowling rejected it, saying that the story was more of a ―comic tragedy‖. Indeed, as the story turns to the close, especially when the teenage girl Krystal kills herself, the whole atmosphere is shrouded with unspoken sadness.
Death of Krystal Weedon
Krystal Weedon is a 16-year-old girl who lives with her mother Terri and her 3-year-old brother Robbie in the Fields, a district of low-income families. Terri is a prostitute and Krystal is half one, making casual loves with her classmates. Most of the time, it is Krystal who takes care of Robbie because her mother is a heroin addict and an ignorant caregiver. Krystal suffers a bad relationship with Terri mainly due to Terri‘s low determination that results in her failure in rehabilitation.
Krystal is in the rowing team of her school and plays quite an important part in it before Barry Fairbrother, the coach, dies. Barry is particularly fond of her, who helps her find her strengths and encourages her. Her life becomes brighter and happier. However, Barry‘s death changes everything.
As the casual vacancy happens, the fate of the Fields and also Bellchapel, the clinic through which Terri gets free methadone for her rehabilitation, falls in uncertainty. If the clinic is closed,
then Terri can‘t make it, and she will lose the custody of Robbie, which Krystal tries her best to avoid due to her intense love for him.
However, days before the election, a meeting is held in Pagford Church Hall, which eventually comes to a decision that the Fields will be taken out of Pagford‘s jurisdiction and that Bellchapel will be shut down.
Terri relapses for the last time and unfortunately, in a vain protest against her mother‘s drug dealer, Obbo, Krystal gets raped by him. Spurred on by the hatred for her family and the desire to start a new one elsewhere, Krystal has unprotected sex with her last lover in an attempt to become pregnant. It is during one of these instances that Robbie runs away from the love-making pair under the bushes in a park, falls into a river, and finally gets drowned. Krystal feels so distraught she commits suicide by taking a heroin overdose in the bathroom.
Unforgivable Indifference
Why not kill all heroin addicts?
Why not kill all prostitutes?
Why not kill all criminals of any kind?
Why not kill all gay people?
Why not kill all those with contagious diseases?
Why not? They are messing the world! They are breaking the harmonious uniformity! They are overwhelming the children!
Don’t you think those depraved addicts themselves are marijuanas to society?
Don’t you think those prostitutes serve as the intermedium of venereal diseases and profane human nature?
Don’t you think those criminals are like pests disturbing civilians’ peaceful life?
Don’t you think those gay people are disgusting and they are so shameless to make AIDS everywhere?
Don’t you think those sick people are threatening the health of normal people?
Then, why not kill them all?
My apologies that I have to begin with this rubbish. I know that these words are actually too extreme to be uttered, and people don‘t say them at all in real life. However, this rubbish of thinking roots in many people‘s subconscious.
(Please Read: Appendix I: )
From the excerpt we can get that those councillors except Dr. Parminder merely focus on the defects of the Fields and Bellchapel, debating fiercely for excluding those vulgar low-class folks from their peaceful town forever. They don‘t want extra trouble and responsibility to help them out of poverty. They refuse to change and accept, holding that their rights of pursuing a placid and stable life cannot be challenged and that any deed attempting to make them accept new things is supposed to be illegal. They are too conservative and conservation always results in ignorance and ignorance always sparks indifference.
The other day, I came across a 16-year old boy on an internet forum. He said he was gay and was diagnosed of AIDS. Many people commented that they felt shocked of his age, and then, quite
to my surprise, they cursed all gay people and wished they all die of AIDS as soon as possible. They said they were quite sure that they had no discrimination against gay people and meanwhile demanded that gay people should not reveal themselves in public and make them disgusted. I am confused—if they really have no discrimination against them, then why gay people have to be described as disgusting and deserve no rights as hugging or kissing publicly as they ―normal‖ people do? Do they know their pains of being not straight? Or are they just standing by, laughing at them, which becomes something enjoyable and indispensable in their lives of commonplace?
Actually, this indifference to lives of the minority sometimes trigger their hatred towards society and (further) erosion of mind. People may say that to those addicts, gays, or patients with incurable diseases, the crime rate is higher than the average and many of them have psychological problems. But the thing is, does the mere attention to these unfavorable phenomena actually assist in switching them into favorable ones? From this point, punishments out of selfishness and ignorance are absolutely not enough.
A great man always has insight into miseries of the less and the mess.
When something inhumane happens, we are supposed to not only condemn and punish the culprits but reflect why this happens and how to prevent future occurrences, and to do the latter, we have to explore the culprits‘ daily life and investigate the causes of their twisted personality.
Earthly sufferings are always intensified by people‘s indifference. When ordinary people see someone who‘s not so decent as them, they reject him and even fear him, discriminating against him unconsciously. They think he is abnormal and should not have appeared in their lives. They are only interested in the negative social impacts he leaves and by magnifying them, they call on all the world to stop him from being who he is. They never seem to consider why he becomes like this and how to help him. They just despise him, ignoring his pains of living such an ―abnormal‖ life.
This indifference is unforgivable.
Conclusion
The Casual Vacancy features a range of social issues, including rape, racism, heroin and marijuana use, pornography, domestic abuse, child abuse, self-harm and suicide. In this novel, Rowling depicts almost twenty main characters and no one of them is absolute good or evil. What she strives to show is the true human nature. No one alone is responsible for this tragedy yet it happens somehow—it‘s the outcome of human weaknesses.
References (URL) (Appendix II: )
http://en./wiki/The_Casual_Vacancy
Appendix I
Excerpt from Part Four, VIII
―......
?I don‘t know how many people saw Barry‘s article in the Gazette,‘ said Parminder. Every face was turned towards her, and she tried not to think about the anonymous post or the journalist sitting behind her. ?I thought it made the arguments for keeping the Fields part of Pagford very well.‘
Parminder saw Shirley, who was writing busily, give her pen a tiny smile.
?By telling us the likes of Krystal Weedon benefit?‘ said an elderly woman called Betty, from the end of the table. Parminder had always detested her.
?By reminding us that people living in the Fields are part of our community too,‘ she answered. ?They think of themselves as from Yarvil,‘ said the farmer. ?Always have.‘
?I remember,‘ said Betty, ?when Krystal Weedon pushed another child into the river on a nature walk.‘
?No, she didn‘t,‘ said Parminder angrily, ?my daughter was there – that was two boys who were fighting – anyway—‘
?I heard it was Krystal Weedon,‘ said Betty.
?You heard wrong,‘ said Parminder, except that she did not say it, she shouted it.
They were shocked. She had shocked herself. The echo hummed off the old walls. Parminder could barely swallow; she kept her head down, staring at the agenda, and heard John‘s voice from a long way off.
?Barry would‘ve done better to talk about himself, not that girl. He got a lot out of St Thomas‘s.‘
?Trouble is, for every Barry,‘ said another woman, ?you get a load of yobs.‘
?They‘re Yarvil people, bottom line,‘ said a man, ?they belong to Yarvil.‘
?That‘s not true,‘ said Parminder, keeping her voice deliberately low, but they all fell silent to listen to her, waiting for her to shout again. ?It‘s simply not true. Look at the Weedons. That was the whole point of Barry‘s article. They were a Pagford family going back years, but—‘
?They moved to Yarvil!‘ said Betty.
?There was no housing here,‘ said Parminder, fighting her own temper, ?none of you wanted a new development on the outskirts of town.‘
?You weren‘t here, I‘m sorry,‘ said Betty, pink in the face, looking ostentatiously away from Parminder. ?You don‘t know the history.‘
Talk had become general: the meeting had broken into several little knots of conversation, and Parminder could not make out any of it. Her throat was tight and she did not dare meet anyone‘s eyes.
?Shall we have a show of hands?‘ Howard shouted down the table, and silence fell again. ?Those in favour of telling the District Council that Pagford will be happy for the parish boundary to be redrawn, to take the Fields out of our jurisdiction?‘
Parminder‘s fists were clenched in her lap and the nails of both her hands were embedded in their palms. There was a rustle of sleeves all around her.
?Excellent!‘ said Howard, and the jubilation in his voice rang triumphantly from the rafters. ?Well, I‘ll draft something with Tony and Helen and we‘ll send it round for everyone to see, and we‘ll get it off. Excellent!‘
A couple of councillors clapped. Parminder‘s vision blurred and she blinked hard. ......
......
?… and one of the projects we‘ve got to look at is Bellchapel,‘ said Aubrey. ?I thought I‘d have a word, because, as you all know, it‘s the Parish that owns the building—‘
?—and the lease is almost up,‘ said Howard. ?That‘s right.‘
?But nobody else is interested in that old place, are they?‘ asked a retired accountant from the end of the table. ?It‘s in a bad state, from what I‘ve heard.‘
?Oh, I‘m sure we could find a new tenant,‘ said Howard comfortably, ?but that‘s not really the issue. The point is whether we think the clinic is doing a good—‘
?That‘s not the point at all,‘ said Parminder, cutting across him. ?It isn‘t the Parish Council‘s job to decide whether or not the clinic‘s doing a good job. We don‘t fund their work. They‘re not our responsibility.‘
?But we own the building,‘ said Howard, still smiling, still polite, ?so I think it‘s natural for us to want to consider—‘
?If we‘re going to look at information on the clinic‘s work, I think it‘s very important that we get a balanced picture,‘ said Parminder.
?I‘m terribly sorry,‘ said Shirley, blinking down the table at Parminder, ?but could you try not to interrupt the Chair, Dr Jawanda? It‘s awfully difficult to take notes if people talk over other people. And now I‘ve interrupted,‘ she added with a smile. ?Sorry!‘
?I presume the Parish wants to keep getting revenue from the building,‘ said Parminder, ignoring Shirley. ?And we have no other potential tenant lined up, as far as I know. So I‘m wondering why we are even considering terminating the clinic‘s lease.‘
?They don‘t cure them,‘ said Betty. ?They just give them more drugs. I‘d be very happy to see them out.‘
?We‘re having to make some very difficult decisions at District Council level,‘ said Aubrey Fawley. ?The government‘s looking for more than a billion in savings from local government. We cannot continue to provide services the way we have done. That‘s the reality.‘
Parminder hated the way that her fellow councillors acted around Aubrey, drinking in his deep modulated voice, nodding gently as he talked. She was well aware that some of them called her ?Bends-Your-Ear‘.
?Research indicates that illegal drug use increases during recessions,‘ said Parminder.
?It‘s their choice,‘ said Betty. ?Nobody makes them take drugs.‘
She looked around the table for support. Shirley smiled at her.
?We‘re having to make some tough choices,‘ said Aubrey.
?So you‘ve got together with Howard,‘ Parminder talked over him, ?and decided that you can give the clinic a little push by forcing them out of the building.‘
?I can think of better ways to spend money than on a bunch of criminals,‘ said the accountant.
?I‘d cut off all their benefits, personally,‘ said Betty.
?I was invited to this meeting to put you all in the picture about what‘s happening at District level,‘ said Aubrey calmly. ?Nothing more than that, Dr Jawanda.‘
?Helen,‘ said Howard loudly, pointing to another councillor, whose hand was raised, and who had been trying to make her views heard for a minute. Parminder heard nothing of what the woman said. She had quite forgotten about the stack of papers lying underneath her agenda, on which Kay Bawden had spent so much time: the statistics, the profiles of successful cases, the explanation of the benefits of methadone as against heroin; studies showing the cost, financial and social, of heroin addiction. Everything around her had become slightly liquid, unreal; she knew that she was going to erupt as she had never erupted in her life, and there was no room to regret it, or to prevent it, or do anything except watch it happen; it was too late, far too late …
?… culture of entitlement,‘ said Aubrey Fawley. ?People who have literally not worked a day in their lives.‘
?And, let‘s face it,‘ said Howard, ?this is a problem with a simple solution. Stop taking the drugs.‘
He turned, smiling and conciliating, to Parminder. ?They call it ―cold turkey‖, isn‘t that right, Dr Jawanda?‘
?Oh, you think that they should take responsibility for their addiction and change their behaviour?‘ said Parminder.
?In a nutshell, yes.‘
?Before they cost the state any more money.‘
?Exact—‘
?And you,‘ said Parminder loudly, as the silent eruption engulfed her, ?do you know how many tens of thousands of pounds you, Howard Mollison, have cost the health service, because of your total inability to stop gorging yourself?‘
A rich, red claret stain was spreading up Howard‘s neck into his cheeks.
?Do you know how much your bypass cost, and your drugs, and your long stay in hospital? And the doctor‘s appointments you take up with your asthma and your blood pressure and the nasty skin rash, which are all caused by your refusal to lose weight?‘
As Parminder‘s voice became a scream, other councillors began to protest on Howard‘s behalf; Shirley was on her feet; Parminder was still shouting, clawing together the papers that had somehow been scattered as she gesticulated.
?What about patient confidentiality?‘ shouted Shirley. ?Outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!‘ Parminder was at the door of the hall and striding through it, and she heard, over her own furious sobs, Betty calling for her immediate expulsion from the council; she was half running away from the hall, and she knew that she had done something cataclysmic, and she wanted nothing more than to be swallowed up by the darkness and to disappear for ever.‖
Appendix II
无法原谅的是我的无动于衷（李小丢/评）
昨天中午，一个星期的阅读历程终于结束的时候，耳机里传来蕾哈娜的?umbrella‘，醇厚的女声有力的打着节拍，―When the sun shines, we‘ll shine together.Told you I'll be here forever,Said I'll always be a friend,Took an oath I''ll stick it out till the end.‖看着最后一页，在教堂里大家又开始合唱这首歌，眼泪终于不受控制的滑落，我没有嚎啕大哭，只是格外的心酸，在我合上封底的时候，我又迫不及待地翻开了第一页，这本书，读一遍显然不够。
建议要阅读本书的读者，最少要做两个工作：1、一定要听一下蕾哈娜的?umbrella‘，这首歌的歌词会有助于你更快的了解人物；2、最好自己画一下人物谱系，搞清楚谁家里都有谁，否则在阅读前100页的时候，你会迷失到人名的汪洋大海里茫然无措，以至于不能尽快的融入到故事的氛围中去。
对HP的书迷来说，阅读《偶发空缺》就像是一场华丽的冒险，因为罗琳的这次转型十分的彻底，就像是周杰伦新专辑开吼《大河向东流》或是斯蒂芬金写了《简爱》一般的令人震撼。如果这本书假托别的作者名出版，那么，没有人会把它和罗琳扯上任何关系，想要在本书里找到哈利波特系列的蛛丝马迹，都是徒劳。这是一本一点儿都没掺水的严肃的纯文学作品，继承了传统英国文学的现实和尖刻，忘了波特吧，这是本成人小说，当然，如果心智成熟的未成年人也可以乱入。
就现实意义和对人性的深度挖掘上来看，这本书的价值要远远高于HP系列。一个类型文学作家能够直面现实，并且扛上那些社会责任，总是令人敬佩的，作为一个身家10亿美元的作家来说，罗琳完全可以沿着她开拓的路线一直走下去，或是就此封笔，可是她居然还能有这样从零开始的勇气，而且做得完全不逊色于那些以―正统‖自居，曾对罗琳作品的文学价值不屑一顾的作家和评论家。
由于罗琳自身经历等原因，她一直对于英国的医疗和社会保障体系保持着异乎寻常的关注，她建立了数个慈善基金，捐出1亿美元用于多发性硬化病的研究，并且参与了伦敦奥运会开幕式的演出，很多人只注意到她朗读的是童话故事《彼得?潘》，而没有注意到她参与表演的那个环节要表现的主题是在世界率先实现全民免费医疗的英国医疗系统。显然，罗琳意识到，作为一个作家，她除了捐赠她的财富之外，更有力的武器是她的笔，文字的力量可以扭转一个人乃至一个时代的思维惯性。她的书带我们走进了贫民家庭，把他们的遭际剖白给我们看，相信看了此书，即使没有潸然泪下，也会因此受到震动，开始去思考善恶之间的模糊边线。
这个故事从来不是像?umbrella‘那首歌开始唱的那样，是个―好女孩变坏啦‖的故事，而是一个在生活徒然失去重心之后，重新寻找那把可以遮风避雨的大伞，重新找寻生活意义的故事。对主人公之一，问题少女克里斯塔尔来说，她本来以为可以永远站在巴里?菲尔布拉泽的大伞下得到庇护，可是，随着故事开篇，巴里的猝死，结束了这一切。
巴里的死，掀开了原本安静平和的帕格镇不为人知的种种内幕。在复杂的人性面前，巴里像是硕果仅存的圣人像，可是，这也难保是居民们的又一次道德美化，参考罗比死后他们的反应就知道了。巴里是维系富人区帕格镇和贫民区丛地之间的脆弱的连接线，随着他的死，结束了这微妙的平衡，无数双眼睛在盯着这个偶发空缺，想要占据这个举足轻重的教区议会席位，很多竞选人和他们的支持者认为，这关系到帕格镇的未来，这个人的当选将决定丛地未来的划归，以及一些社会保障机构——例如说戒毒所能否正常运行。随着竞选的到来，各
种不堪的秘密也将一一浮上水面，这一刻，人性的弱点暴露无遗。
有人把罗琳在这本书里的写作方式和狄更斯相提并论，窃以为，罗琳更近了一步。书中林林总总塑造了接近二十个主要人物，罕见脸谱化的平面人物（有几个配角因为篇幅和角色所限性格比较单一）。故事里更没有真善美和假丑恶的对立，道貌岸然的人物也有真情流露的一面，柔弱无助的人物也有性格缺陷的一面，罗琳着力要展现的，是真正的人性，人性复杂变幻，内心纠葛的一面，故事里，每个人的灵魂都不是纯白或纯黑的，都有白中之黑和黑中之白，真实的人生便是如此，鲜有纯粹的颜色，不过是一片迷糊的灰色地带，随着外界的触发条件展现出不同的颜色。
每一个看似美满的家庭中都存在着各式各样的问题，健康、心理、家暴、叛逆、出轨……五花八门，只不过都被拉下的窗帘掩盖在幸福的表象之下。从这个角度来看，洋洋自得的帕格镇居民和他们所鄙视的丛地―那些人‖之间并无太多的区别，只不过丛地的人们的悲剧是被活生生的扒开了给人看，他们失去了生活的平衡。而那帮以体面人自居的绅士们还要一点点的摧毁他们重回生活正轨的希望，把他们视为有害的―垃圾‖。
没有人关注过―垃圾们‖的生活，就像特莉回忆的，有几个对她很好的社工，可是六点之后，她们都按时下班回家，再次离开她的生活。因此她和克里斯塔尔早就习惯了被人抛下，习惯了自己想办法解决问题。
当结尾的悲剧大爆发的一刻，相信读者会和书中人一起思考，悲剧是如何产生的？谁应该为此负责？是越来越削减开支的医疗保障制度？还是流于形式的社工制度？或是那几个亲眼目睹罗比一个人在河岸边哭喊着寻找姐姐却漠然置之的人？可是，我们发现，我们没法站在道德的制高点上轻易地指责任何人。因为我们一直对他人的苦难无动于衷，不作为也是一种罪行。他人有罪，我也有罪，冷漠、嘲笑、无动于衷……这些都是我们所犯的罪行。
这就是罗琳对于灵魂，尤其是对于自我的拷问，她没有将悲剧的产生仅仅归结为制度或是政体，伟大的文学一定是超越政治的，肯定不是把控诉制度对人的压迫作为最大的目标，人性的软弱是超乎政治和国界存在的一种广泛的共通性，作家没有站的远远地居高临下的描写这些故事，而是始终在自我反思，反省自己是不是也做了帮凶。
正如莫言在谈创作中提到的，―要直面自己的灵魂，就是?把自己当罪人写‘这个阶段，对自己心理和灵魂的解剖，这是一个突破口，我们在许多冠冕堂皇的借口之下，掩藏着很多个人的自私、怯懦、卑微，许多都是逃避。‖ 看了这本书，我无法原谅的，就是我日渐冷漠的内心，和对于弱势群体的无动于衷，我们每个人，或许都是悲剧的制造者而不自知。结尾的一缕曙光，仿佛给了我们一点希望，也许会有一个更好的帕格镇出现，但是更重要的是，我们如何改变我们的无动于衷，去避免类似的悲剧发生？
这是一部充满了野心与诚意的作品，除了示爱，我实在想不出更好的结尾方式了，罗琳阿姨，我爱你！你陪伴了我的少年和青年，我希望，你能陪伴我走过更长更远的未来，谢谢你！
P·S 关于翻译，我说几句，翻译很流畅，没有什么特别不舒服的地方，也没有妨碍理解之处。尤其是下半部，我觉得很好，想要感受一下的，可以去豆瓣阅读看看试读章节再决定。
（这篇文章我真的是非常非常的喜欢，我自己写不出来，英文书评写的也是相当混乱，但我希望能够借这篇文章更充实地表达我的观点，所以就附在了这里）