Five Spice Street

Looking at it from a grand historical perspective, from the roof of the thatched cottage, we saw that this X had all along been mixed up with the rag-tag crowds and danced with a mask. She had been sneaky, sometimes hidden and sometimes visible. She was the kind of inferior person who was always in the majority. People who underestimated the enemy thought that in ‘‘the blink of an eye,’’ she would disappear no later than tomorrow or the day after. Opposed to this mistaken belief, our optimists thought that the future would be rosy and beautiful, yet the task arduous. Madam X certainly wouldn’t vanish in ‘‘the blink of an eye’’ (though the day would eventually come). We had to watch her actions carefully, rapidly work out our hypothesis, and draw up a blueprint that would be more real than her real existence-as vivid as a movie. If she took one step, we had to take five and see what she would do. She came up with an idea the day before yesterday, and today we’ve figured out the place, the name, and everything! Even though ‘‘nervier’’ and more daring, she can’t hold out much longer in the face of our collective will. She can only move quickly to announce that ‘‘the new experience is finished!’’ Then she’ll lie in her small room and moan soundlessly. And if a certain person again approaches to listen closely, he’ll hear no melody. Conditions are ripe to end that mysterious ‘‘blink of an eye.’’ Then everything in the world will be young forever, X will retreat from this earth, and the brief note about her in the annals of history will offer a new and different explanation. That explanation will turn into a riddle-like symbol. Years later, when our children and grandchildren ask about this symbol, a white-bearded, tottering old man will tap the cover of the annals with a withered finger and tell them: ‘‘Shhh. This is the secret to success. Please study the diagram of the maze.’’ Wow! The diagram of the maze is blossoming and resplendent. Following the diagram, a large group of children and grandchildren will climb to the roof of the thatched cottage and to the mountaintop. And the lonely forerunner that was the writer? They will eventually exhume his name.

8. THE RATIONALITY OF THE WIDOW'S HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION AND STATUS

Throughout the story of our Five Spice Street, the widow has been a glittering presence, and we want to sum up her historical contributions and discuss her character.

Thus far, we have described only her external image and physique, as well as the aspects of her character that derive from them. Our impression seems to be: her special stature and essence are responsible for her important position on Five Spice Street. This ‘‘specialness,’’ the source of her contributions, consists of her provocative sexual power, without which her contributions (rated almost as highly as those of the geniuses) would most likely have gone unnoticed by both the elite and the people. We need to correct this impression.

Our conclusion is just the opposite: her brilliant status on our Five Spice Street as a sort of heroine, the people’s love and esteem, didn’t result from her individuality but from her universality and typicality. To begin with, the widow’s sexual power lasted into her old age, and it was precisely this that most characterized Five Spice Street. People on Five Spice Street were full of youthful spirit. On the whole street, you could hardly find a single impotent man or frigid woman. Everyone was a master of sexual techniques. Everyone was in high spirits about ‘‘spare-time recreation’’-even old men of eighty and youngsters of thirteen. The people here are healthy, creative, and ambitious. Madam X called them ‘‘counterfeit,’’ never imagining that in her quest to become prominent, people might become suspicious about her own sexuality.