Lu Xun, Eileen J. Cheng (editor), Kirk A. Denton (editor) · 1918–1936 (essays); 2017 (this edition) · PDF · Calibre ID 4214
Resurfaced in Give Them Nothing to Watch (2026-10-04).
Role in the triad
Refusal: the spectators’ side; the writer who leaves medicine because a beheading was watched as a show, and wants to ‘give them nothing to watch’.
Why this book
Found by searching the catalogue for ‘decapitat’ and ‘spectator’. Directly contradicts Kadare: the head show is not the people’s literature; literature exists to cure the watchers. The editors’ note that the slide was never found and is elsewhere a shooting gives the set its theme of unreliable heads.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “Citizens of an ignorant and weak nation, no matter how healthy and sturdy their bodies, can serve as nothing more than subject matter for or spectators of meaningless public displays.” (Preface to Outcry, 1923, trans. Eileen J. Cheng, p. 21)
- “The masses (especially in China) have always been spectators at a play. If the sacrificial victim is bold and brave when he takes the stage, they are watching a tragedy; if he cringes and cowers, they are watching a farce.” (What Happens after Nora Walks Out, 1924, trans. Bonnie S. McDougall, p. 261)
- “There is nothing you can do with people like this; the only cure is to give them nothing to watch.” (ibid., p. 261)
- “Beheading is the best method, since they’ll neither speak out nor think anymore.” (The Divergence of Art and Politics, 1928, p. 212)
- “The neck is the most delicate part of the body, so we invented decapitation; the knee joint is capable of bending, so we invented the gesture of kneeling” (The Decline of the Western Suit, 1934, trans. Eileen J. Cheng, p. 280)
- “Efforts to find this slide have come to naught” (Editors’ Introduction, p. 8)
Themes
Ah Q · decapitation · gesture · kneeling · literature as cure · May Fourth · Nora · onlookers · photography · Sendai slide · spectators · spirit vs. body · unreliable autobiography