Wilde and the Double Sou Cafe

My eyes once again focused on the two mysterious and strange old wood carvings. After careful taste, I feel that they are not in harmony with the resplendent western-style elegant atmosphere of the two old people. But there is a special color in the air of the cafe that is familiar to the subconscious but cannot be expressed. What is that? It's a feeling of spiritual freedom.

As early as 1917, a group of recalcitrant literary youths, such as French artists Breton, Apolinel, Argonne, Milo, Ernst, Manley and so on, challenged old traditions and raced up new theories all day on several coffee tables near my right-hand gate. The main theme of their heated debate is: "We stand on the top of the mountains, drink to the mountains and sea, and issue our challenge to the universe." Apolinel put forward the word "surreal" for the first time here, so the double Old Cafe became the birthplace of surrealism. In 1924, Breton officially issued the Declaration of Surrealism, and surrealism spread all over Paris from the tables of the Cafe Shuanglao, affecting Europe, North and South America and some Asian countries. The new trend of thought of surrealism not only permeates all fields of art, but also still affects people's thinking and life.

In addition, few people may have noticed that under the gaze of these two wooden portraits, a lonely, emaciated figure once walked into the double Old Man Cafe every day. No one would have thought that this dull-eyed, strange-looking, miserable underdog was Oscar Wilde, a British genius known as a playwright, poet and essayist on a par with Bernard Shaw at that time.

In 1895, Wilde was still the most popular figure in London social circles. The premiere of his three-act comedy "unplayable" caused a sensation throughout London, and Wilde was being highly respected. In the same year, a Marquis openly reprimanded Wilde as a homosexual because of the discord between his son and Wilde. Wilde was so angry that he appealed to the Marquis to discredit him. As a result, he failed miserably on appeal and was sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison for "indecent behavior with other men". Constance, who always supported his wife, died of illness at this time, so that Wilde had almost nothing after he was released from prison.

In 1897, Wilde was released, unable to gain a foothold in England and deeply saddened by the hypocrisy of the British, so he came to Paris incognito and changed his name to Melnoff. Living in a cheap hotel on Deoza Street not far from Shuangold Cafe. The mental shock caused by the failure of the lawsuit and two years of hard work completely destroyed his health. Wilde stumbled every day and went to the double Cafe alone to pass the time. British director Brian Gilbert's "too unruly Heart" in 1997 faithfully describes the last six years of Wilde's life, from the peak of high-spirited to the bottom of the valley, to the end of his life.

On November 30, 1900, Wilde died alone in a hotel in Paris and was later buried in Paris La Chase Cemetery. In 1992, Oscar Wilde's cemetery was listed as a cultural relic under key protection by the French government. It was not until 1998, a century after Wilde's death, that the British government shyly admitted that Wilde's humiliating trial was a mistake. a belated tribute to the Irish genius was erected in the theater area near Trafalgar Square with the famous words of Oscar Wilde engraved on the base of the statue: "We all have nothing." But some people look up at the stars. "

Oscar Wilde spent the last days of his life in the double Old Man Cafe. I do not know whether this great man, when silently nostalgic and meditating alone, has thought about the course of his life and confirmed his three famous words: first, there are two tragedies in the world: one is not getting what he wants, the other is getting it; second, I will be famous sooner or later, without a good reputation, but also a bad reputation; third, the heart is used to break. Oscar Wilde tasted the two tragedies in the world all his life, not only became famous, but also broke his heart.

Double Old Cafe is famous for the patronage of these literati.