我對小孩子是從來沒有多大感覺的。可是既在夢裡,少不免有點反常,我比我平時的為人有愛心得多了,非常慈祥的問那小女孩:你叫甚麼名字?她說:寧靜。
2011年6月24日 星期五
2011年6月23日 星期四
《福婁拜的鸚鵡》Julian Barnes
- 別將我歸類成那些為性而愛或洩慾後便作嘔的普通傢伙。不:在我身上,一旦激起的感受不會快速減退。我心裡的城堡一建造出來,馬上就長出青苔;不過要過很長時間,城堡才會變成廢墟,而且不會全部變成廢墟。
- 我的內裡有種激進的、私密的、苦澀而不止歇的厭煩,阻止我去享樂,讓我的靈魂透不過氣來。這種東西會以各種形式顯現出來,就像溺水狗腫脹的身體仍會浮出水面,即使牠們的脖子已經綁上了石頭。
我不太在乎巧合,巧合令人毛骨悚然:巧合讓你暫時感覺到生活在這樣有秩序、上帝都安排得好好得宇宙裡會是什麼模樣,祂在你得肩頭後面看著,有關這個宇宙的計劃,不時丢給你一些露骨的暗示。我寧願相信事情是混亂,是不負責任的,也是永遠暫時性的瘋狂 - 去感受人類必然的漠視、殘酷、愚昧。
- 對我來說,如果我是你的丈夫,我們在一起可能會快樂。在我們快樂之後,我們就會憎恨彼此,這是很正常的。
悲傷裡充滿了時間,除了時間還是時間。
- 像我們這樣的人一定都信仰著絕望。什麼樣的人就有什麼樣的命運,換句話說,要能對什麼都無動於衷。藉著說出“就是這樣!就是這樣!的話、藉著凝視腳底下的黑洞,我們才能夠繼續保持鎮靜。
- 幸福的三個必要條件 - 愚蠢、自私和健康;不過若是少了愚蠢,其他兩項便也無用了。
2011年6月20日 星期一
《深夜小狗神祕習題》Mark Haddon
質數就是你把所有的數學模式都去除以後餘下的數字。我覺得質數就像生命一樣,是非常合邏輯的,但你永遠也想不通那些規則,即使窮畢生之力去思考也不能。
2011年6月19日 星期日
《出事 情》Christian Gailly
不、不,請聽我說,不,這樣子是不行的,替我想想,我就平靜了嗎?自從認識您後我就再也不平靜了,畢竟,我想說的是⋯⋯。是的,喬治,你想說的是什麼?他說:我不明白您拒絕見我的理由,我又不會把您給吃掉,他原本要說「把您給殺了」,過於極端,他於是將動詞殺掉換成吃掉,枉然,既然是要吃掉,不管吃的是什麼,都得先殺掉。她感覺到的就是這樣。當下她開始感到害怕。
他站在梯子的高處,並沒有認出那名來自波爾多的貝爾納員警,他頭上帶著一頂警帽。再次大喊,但這次的叫喊聲近乎動物性:蘇珊出事了嘛!他差點摔下來,但奇蹟似地被有關慕伊兒的念頭支撐住,念頭大概是這樣:那麼我就能自由自在地愛她了。
2011年6月17日 星期五
《再見 柏林》Christopher Isherwood
她很愛打探關於我的事,但只是像牛一樣徒勞地將頭在柵門的欄杆間穿進穿出。她並不特別希望柵門打開。
莎莉似乎認識在場每一個人,全都直呼他們親愛的和寶貝。就一心放蕩拜金的女人而言,她似乎驚人地缺乏生意直覺和智慧。她浪費了大把時間在勾引一名年長男士,而那男士顯然寧願跟酒保聊聊。稍後,我們全都有點醉了。接著莎莉得去赴另一個約,經理也坐到我們這桌來。他跟弗里茨談論起英國貴族。弗里茨如魚得水。如同往昔,我又一次決定,再也不要踏進這種地方。
有了孩子會讓你變得極端原始,像是某種野生動物之類的,只想保護幼小。唯一的問題是,我沒有幼小可以保護⋯⋯ 我想這是我現在對每個人都這麼暴躁的原因。
「你知道嗎,莎莉,」我說,「我最喜歡你的地方就是,你非常容易相信別人。從不輕信他人的人都好乏味。」
假若奧托希望羞辱彼得,彼得也以他不同的方式希望羞辱奧托。他想強迫奧托某種程度上屈從他的意志,而奧托本能地拒絕這種臣服。奧托的自私自然而健康,就像頭野獸。如果房裡有兩張椅子,他會毫不猶豫選擇比較舒服的那張,因為他根本沒想過要鼓勵彼得的舒適。彼得的自私就沒那麼坦率,比較聞名,比較執拗。只要用對方法,他會做出任何犧牲,不論那有多麼不合理或多麼沒必要。但當奧托理所當然似地挑了比較好的椅子,彼得立即將此視為不能示弱拒絕的挑戰。依他們倆的個性,我想這情形沒有解套之道。彼得注定要不斷爭鬥以贏得奧托的誠服。而當他最後停止這麼做時,就表示他對奧托完全失去了興趣。
2011年6月3日 星期五
Money - Martin Amis
Uniformed men stood by impassively like sentries in their trench. I slapped my key on the desk and nodded gravely. I was loaded enough to be unable to tell whether they could tell I was loaded. Would they mind? I was certainly too loaded to care.
You really want to know? ... I get up at seven and write straight through till twelve. Twelve to one I read Russian poetry - in translation, alas. A quick lunch - nothing technical, nothing hard. four to five: European history, 1848 and all that. five to six: I improve my German. And from then until dinner, well, I just relax and read whatever the hell I like. Usually Shakespeare.
Selina says I'm not capable of true love. It isn't true. I truly love money. truly I do. Oh, money, I love you. You're so democratic: you've got no favourites. You even things out for me and my kind.
Happening to have turned out as the human being I am, the first thing I wonder about a woman is: will I fuck it? Similarly, the first thing I wonder about a man is: will I fight it?
Pain is very patient but even pain grows bored occasionally and wants to try its hand at something else. Even pain gets pissed, and craves variety. Pain doesn't always just want to hang around hurting all the time.
My theory is - we don't really go that far into other people, even when we think we do. We hardly ever go in and bring them out. We just stand at the jaws of the cave, and strike a match, and quickly ask if anybody's there.
2011年6月2日 星期四
《留住一切親愛的》John Berger
人民對於正義的欲望繁然無盡。也就是說,對於反叛不公不義的抗爭,以及追求生存、自尊和人權的抗爭,我們不該只考慮它們的直接訴求、它們的組織,或它們的歷史結果。不該把它們簡化成運動。運動是用來形容一群人集體朝向某個明確的目標前進,其結果不是成功,就是失敗。然而,這樣的形容卻忽略了無數的個人選擇、遭遇、啟迪、犧牲、新的欲望、悲痛,和最終的,記憶。這些都是由運動所引發的個人情感,但嚴格說來,這些也都只是運動的偶然產物。
Guy Debord 未卜先知地寫道:“...... 大量生產的商品不斷累積,填滿了市場的抽象空間,彷彿它已打破所有宗教和法律的藩籬,以及中世紀用以維持手工品質的所有法人限制,這同時也摧毀了所在(Place)的自治與質地。
導致當前全球亂象的關鍵字,就是 de-localization (去在地化)或 relocalization(再在地化)。這指的不僅是把生產地移到勞工最低階且管制最少的地方。同時還包含了新興權力瘋狂無比的境外美夢:夢想把先前所有固著於“所在”之上的身份與信任侵蝕殆盡,好把全世界成單一的流動市場。
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一度是鄉野所在的廣大地域,正轉變成一個個特定區劃。其中的過程細節因不同大陸而有極大差別--非洲或中美或東南亞。然而,最初的分隔切劃總是來自其他地區,來自不斷想要滿足其胃口的企業利益,這意味著奪取自然資源(維多利亞湖的魚、亞馬遜的森林、世界各地的石油、加彭的鈾,等等),意味著無視於渣謝土地和水源屬於何人。接踵而至的剝削很快就需要機場、軍事和準軍事基地來捍衛他們吸允的民脂民膏以及與在地的黑手黨勾結合作。緊接著,就是部落戰爭、飢荒和種族滅絕。
這類區劃中的人們,失去了所有的住所感:孩童變成孤兒(甚至長大之後依然),女人淪為奴隸,男人成了亡命之徒。這情形一旦發生,就得花上好幾代得時間,才有辦法回復任何一點家庭之感。每一年,這樣的資本累積,都不斷拉長了“無處鄉”的時間與空間。
2011年6月1日 星期三
Why Look at Animals? John Berger
Their surplus of curiosity, their research (every animal searches, only apes research) make them suffer in two evident ways - and probably also in others, invisibly. Their bodies, forgotten, suddenly nag, twinge, and irritate. They become impatient with their own skin - like Marat suffering from eczema.
And then too, starved of events, they suffer boredom. Baudelaire's l'ennui. Not at the same level of self-doubt, but nevertheless with pain, apathy. The signs of boredom may resemble those of simple drowsiness. But l'ennui has its unmistakable lassitude. the body, instead of relaxing, huddles, the eyes stare painfully without focus, the hands, finding nothing new to touch or do, become like gloves worn by a creature drowning.
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The act of creation implies a separation. Something that remains attached to the creator is only half-created. To create is to let take over something which did not exist before, and is therefore new. And the new is inseparable from pain, for it is alone.
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The peasant way of eating is centred on the act of eating itself and on the food eaten: it is centrifugal and cultural. The first can complete itself in satisfaction; the second is never complete and gives rise to an appetite which, in essence, is insatiable.
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What does the lover choose? He chooses to stake the world (the whole of his life) against the beloved. The beloved concentrates all the possibilities of the world within her and thus offers the realization of all his own potentialities. The beloved for the lover empties the world of hope (the world that does not include her). Strictly speaking, being in love is a mood in so far as it is infinitely extensive - it reaches beyond the stars; but it cannot develop without changing its nature, and so it cannot endure.
The equivalence between the beloved and the world is confirmed by the sex. To make love with the beloved is, subjectively, to possess and be possessed by the world. Ideally, what remains outside the experience is - nothing. Death of course is within it.
This provokes the imagination to its very depths. One wants to use the world in the act of love. One wants to make love with fish, with fruit, with hills, with forests, in the sea.