The cloud also retired.
no.10 Five Generations and Nine Chapters
Zheng Yefu, Shanghai Joint Publishing Co., Ltd., October 2023.
It's still that Zheng Yefu. More than 20 years ago, he was one of the authors of the first Harvard-Yenching Academic Series and was selected to publish a book called "The Theory of Cost". Some commonalities in the writings of scholars at that time are reflected in this batch of books: whether Qian Mansu writes Emerson and the United States, Dong Xiaoying writes ** Jin, or Feng Chongyi writes Russell, there is no lack of "big" atmosphere, great ambition to do some pioneering work, and there is no lack of profound arguments, but there is a lack of consideration in the structure and details of the text, and often sacrifices "readability" for the pursuit of the completeness of reasoning. "Five Generations and Nine Chapters", like "The Theory of Consideration", "The Theory of Trust", etc., has outstanding advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that he is good at understanding problems from a macro perspective, his three views are steady and unbiased, he does not vote for what the times like, and he has a set of opinions and some new theories when examining and debating the historical theories of his ancestors. The disadvantage is that he is as stubborn as ever, lacks self-reflexive sensitivity, and does not take the reader's feelings properly, he says that a lot of historical materials are quoted because historical materials themselves are excellent stories and words, although the words are good, but his interpretation of historical materials is inevitably too little.
This book is very intellectual, which can enhance readers' interest and understanding of the history of the Five Dynasties, but it also tests reading patience. Judging from the text, Zheng Yefu is the kind of author who will never allow the editor to change a word, and this inexplicable self-confidence has created his style and limited his development. Many of the analytical passages contain the meaning of "I will say this, you will understand it for yourselves", but they are not so relaxed, which shows that the author cares too much about himself.
no.9 The True Presence
George Steiner, translated by Duan Xiaoli, East China Normal University Press, August 2023.
The more the world threatens the human spirit, the more elegant George Steiner's writing becomes. In this book, which appeared in 1989, Steiner stands at the end of another humanistic cycle to summarize it. He has already seen some fundamental shifts on the horizon: "the exponential growth of the use of computers", which are "not just practical tools", but even shake the way and structure of aesthetic consciousness.
What is commendable is not this foresight, but his analysis of deconstructionism, a trend of thought that he has always hated, reveals its emergence, which fundamentally overturns the original meaning and interpretation, and how its "meta-theoretical" nature keeps pace with the advent of a "post" era. Through Roland Barthes, Steiner found that even before digital technology was popularized into everyday life, a future centered on "bytes and numbers" was already present in the vanguard of textual criticism. The continuous analysis in this book may be a demonstration of no substitute for those who want to grasp the aesthetic tastes and ideas of the 2020s.
no.8 End of the Day
Translated by Hu Ye, Yunnan People's Publishing House, October 2023.
Hakka was followed by an Eppenbeck book, and as an aspiring author, she tried to fit the most important propositions in as much space as possible. An Austrian girl who came into adulthood in 1920, her mother came from a Galician Jewish family, and under the painstaking management of her father, she managed to break away from Jewish identity. Superimposed on ethnic identities are political identities: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the creation of the Soviet Union, the girl who lost her homeland, attracted by left-wing ideology and sought to enter a new social system, only to wait for her in post-1935 politics**.
* There's a lot of subtle humor, silent despair, and unspoken sarcasm. "She wished she was a simple-minded person, simple enough to send her daughter away with 'ingratitude'", "Even if her tongue enters another person's body while kissing, her inner self is always outside the other". Some of the knowledge is hard to read, such as when it is written that there are no trees outside the Jewish cemetery, and the author says that those who do not know think that the land is deserted or because there is a railroad passing through it, but in reality, the trees are not planted to prevent "the roots from overplanting between the bones" so that the body of the deceased will be incomplete on the day of the Last Judgment. Judaism's ritual design is always meticulous and reasonable.
Another major takeaway from reading this book is that there is a Jewish ballad in the book that hints at the "theory" on which the famous picture book "Grandpa Must Have a Way" is based. The grandfather in the picture book is a seamstress and a master of dressing, and he can be useful for a whole piece of fabric no matter how small it is, but the ballad sings about the condition of the Jews. Like a piece of fabric that is still suitable for use as it is cut, they shrink step by step in the harsh environment, and persist in living until they can't live anymore, in order to complete a story that can be told.
no.7 Post-Truth
Lee McIntyre, Zhang Meihua, Xiang Xinyi, Beijing United Publishing Company, October 2023.
The truth needs to be defended. The first step in confronting the post-truth is to understand it. There is a third sentence on the cover that does not say: "To know it is to fight it." As the hot word "roll" suggests, the biggest feature of this era is that all kinds of things are pursuing to "roll" everyone into it, so that people can adapt their own prison clothes to **, adapt the restricted range of activities to their homes, and take the imposed cognition as their own ideas. This book, like every work that is serious about the ills of networked, digital, and intelligent life, also tells readers that it is the Internet technology giants that collect and produce data that need us, not us.
However, we can't just use their services on our own, upload preferences and opinions, and quickly become a mechanical node in the flood of data. "Post-truth" is built on the premise that "truth doesn't matter." It inspires a general misanthropy and apathy, because since any information is at your fingertips**, you naturally don't care which is more meaningful, more "true", and more worthy of being taken seriously.
The abandoned truth has thus become the plaything of ambitious people, who may not deliberately conceal and fabricate the truth, but they can take advantage of the public apathy and burnout, and they use words that cater to the misanthropic mentality, often expressing a rejection of contemporary issues such as climate change, and it is harder than those involved to reflect on all this** wrong, and perhaps feel that holding this mindset is exactly what mature people do, a way to participate in politics. "Post-truth" is one and the same as political apathy and the crisis of democracy. The author says that although there are "not many" ways to combat it, the most important thing is to hold the "idea of truth" and not forget it. As long as a person refuses to live in a society that ignores the truth, he is a sober fighter.
no.6 Under the cover: The Creation, Production and Reception of a **
Clayton Childers, Zhang Zhiqiang, Wang Fei, East China Normal University Press, August 2023.
Once a book manuscript enters the stage of choosing a title, it leaves the writing stage and enters another process - I believe that countless people who write books for a living understand this feeling. They all say "books are commodities", but everyone wants readers to think of them as something more than ordinary commodities with pricing, production dates, and shelvesThey want buyers to buy the book preferably by the author's name, and secondarily by a title that appeals to them.
The more field works like "Under the Cover", the better, and its clear, plain, thoughtful and powerful narrative can impress a person who loves to read "willing to hear it". Some common sense is analyzed as "phenomena", e.g. Jk.Rowling's new work in 2020 set a record of selling one million copies in three weeks, which is the effect of "name";Other details show the author's empathy, such as an author's request to use a high-value photographer's work as a cover image, the publisher believes that this is due to the author's vanity, but for the author, from the use of this **, you can see your position in the publisher's mind. This kind of gambling and analysis is really quite good.
no.5 Consuming Images: Stylistic Strategies in Contemporary Culture
Stuart Evan, Translated by Fang Shangqin, Chongqing University Press, August 2023.
The cognitive ability of the vast majority of people can only distinguish between right and wrong, and those who can pay attention to style can enter the higher level of thought. Style is about beauty and ugliness, about elegance and vulgarity, or about acceptable and unacceptable. It is so powerful that it can change a person's state of mind, influence his behavior and perception of right and wrong;High creation is often related to creating a style, to lead, rather than to satisfy the needs and tastes of many.
Consumer society and civil society have their own language, and when it speaks through images, people cannot get rid of its indoctrination, and the producers of images and languages are often experts in insight into social psychology. The author often uses the word "exploitation" to describe the process by which the individual's judgment and likes and dislikes are filed, and the intangible things that enter people's eyes and ears are exposed and parsed one by one under Evan's pen.
no.4 Take-off at Dusk
Translated by Helen MacDonald, translated by Zhou Wei, Century Wenjing, Shanghai People's Publishing House, June 2023.
What a wonderful thing it is to write. MacDonald is another writer who likes to write by observing animals, but her writing is so different from other similar writers I can think of, she is always present herself, and she makes the sense of presence go through to the end;She narrowed down the big concept of "human activity" to a step on the dirt and picking a mushroom in the grass. She has never been pretentious when it comes to comparing people to animals, when she writes about the swift's home, she says that "the area of my own life is a trivial part of my life, a place to sleep, eat, work and think", and she writes about the Wicken Marsh, where she once brought her little niece here, and the niece asked her, "Did the animals here come from a zoo?".”
Starlings flying", she started with the matter of losing her passport and reissuing it;In "The Deer in the Headlights," she talks about how Britain moved toward political populism in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, and then makes the striking observation: The deer often implies a conservative worldview. In places with abundant natural landscapes, it is much easier to be fraternal;In the book's "Crowd" section, she writes that when she sees a large flock of birds up close, people react differently, "some laugh, some cry, others shake their heads and sigh, or they use obscenities"—a description I relate to.
no.3 "Sakura and the Beast: Ueno Zoo in the Center of the Empire".
Ian JTranslated by Miller by Zhang Tao by Guangqi Books, July 2023.
Almost every sentence in the book from the first line to the end was fresh – whether it was a zoo built in 1882, Japan in the decades since then, and the animals in it, it was new to me. I'm comfortable with that East Asian indifference and alienation to a certain extent, but when the main character in my heart is an animal, I refuse to adapt. Perhaps the author writes too well, but the Ueno Zoo in this book is, in my opinion, an "institution", and even when it is at its most stable and popular, it brings not so much fun but constant warnings.
The zoo's 1943 campaign for animals is undoubtedly the climax of the book, but the author still warns about the post-war animal protection policy. He said that the "pursuit of endangered species" is usually justified in the name of children, who will always have an appetite to see rare animals. This is a grim sound, and it completely reconstructs the old theme of environmental protection.
no.2 Seasons Song".
Translated by Ted Hughes, translated by Zhao Si, Guangxi People's Publishing House, October 2023.
See also Ted Hughes, known for his "strength" and refining his power in this book. Hughes's sentence is not suitable for partial quotations, but once extracted, it acts as a radioactive element, altering the aura around it.
When the moon comes, the whispering hum of the wind through the sky is like a bassoon. And the earth responds all night long, like a bass drum. "Wheat grains are like yellow gold ingots, and seeds ......Each one is a sleeping princess - her kingdom has not yet come. Writing about spring, Hughes said that "the lean little bull of winter is just pretending to eat the grass that has not yet grown", and in front of the interesting picture, he can realize that "lean" is not only used to describe the little bull, but is actually a characteristic of winter;Writing about the summer, after talking about the "drunken battle" of flowers, Hughes describes the truth with this shocking sentence: "Some ugly little swelling is coming, and the dwarf truth of the prize race."
The title of the translator Zhao Si's postscript is too accurate: "The magician who updates the reader's perceptual system". It's a wonderful renewal, enough to reinstill enthusiasm into a person—a man who has been blessed with poetry.
no.1 Qin and Han Dynasty Craftsmen".
Translated by Li Andun, translated by Lin Zhihui, Shanghai Joint Publishing Co., Ltd., July 2023.
Therefore, the heavens will descend on people, and they must first suffer their minds and work their muscles and bones ......Although Mencius's words are inspiring, his famous words in another place subvert himself: "Those who work hard govern people, and those who work hard govern people".
Artisans are not much valued, let alone revered, "Rolex" in any society, but the reason for their neglect is obvious: the written records are written by "aristocrats, politicians, and princes" who have money and leisure, and the artisans themselves are as silent as the peasants. One of the things that Li Andun was particularly concerned about when writing this book was not only to observe the craftsmen in the Qin and Han dynasties at that time, but also to imagine their real existence among the three religions and nine streams. For example, after quoting Confucian scholars such as Bangu on the exaltation of the meaning of the craftsman (that the perfect craftsman reflects the virtues of a virtuous king), he immediately pointed out that ordinary people would have a different view, and he found a basis in Han Fei's theory of the "five beetles" and specific laws that the craftsman was a profession whose integrity was highly questionable.
This book is very well informed and written, and the author (or translator) has a deep skill in using Chinese verbs, and the words used in expressing opinions are frugal and meaningful. For the stonemasons to excavate limestone, the author uses "swinging a hammer", "striking a chisel", "chiseling out a gap", "wedged into a crack", "hammering", and "splitting a large piece of limestone" to describe the processSpeaking of stonemasons in Shandong Province making portrait stones, the carved servants of the Duke of Lei "terrified mortals with every blow." There is a great deal of speculation in the book, and each time, the author leads the reader to a fascinating conjecture, and when it comes to the lack of historical information, he regrets it together. Emperors such as Emperor Wu and Emperor Xuan, celebrities such as Liu Xiang and Zhang Heng are intertwined, and the aesthetics of artifacts and the conclusions of archaeological practitioners are intertwined.