美國動物醫院協會報告指出, 70%的受訪女性表示,他們從寵物犬身上得到的關愛越多過於先生或小孩。
2021年8月31日 星期二
《Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat 為什麼狗是寵物,豬是食物》Hal Herzog
2021年8月29日 星期日
《莒哈絲傳》
《被欺騙的男人》
他每時每刻都在說謊,對所有的人撒謊,編造自己的生活。早在真實的話語形成之前,謊言就已經到了他的唇邊。他甚至感覺不到謊言的經過。他不會在波特萊爾或喬伊斯的問題上撒謊,也不是為了炫耀或讓別人相信他曾有過的奇遇而撒謊!不,不是這方面的。他在羊毛衫的價格上撒謊,地鐵的路線,電影的場次,和同伴的會面,某次談話,完整的旅行,城市的名字,還有他的家庭,他的母親,他的姪子。就是這類無足輕重的事情。
路易-勒內 德弗萊證實了這一點,他補充說:但是瑪格麗特和他一樣善於撒謊。他們互相欺騙。這是一種令人難以置信的關係。他就是謊言的具體代表,但是我喜歡他這樣。我還記得我們曾打算一起到多洛米蒂山去旅行。我和瑪格麗特在一起,本來和雅爾羅約好在羅馬碰頭。下著大雨,我們白等了好幾天。他根本沒打算來。
雅羅爾嘲笑一切,真理,愛情和死亡;他只尊重唐璜和作家。在他眼裡,瑪格麗特是個情人,但也是一個他喜歡和欣賞的作家。
瘋狂
瑪格麗特還談論她自己,談得很多,尤其是要談自己,除了自己,什麼也不談。她那時的朋友都可以證明這一點:她將自己關在自戀的籠子裡,不要對話者,不停地重複著她的勇氣,她的天份和她是個天才。瑪格麗特驚異於自己所獲得的成功。她像個輕佻少女一般,給自己添枝加葉。她對自己進行修修補補,屬於她的莒哈絲。開始的時候她還不可避免地把這當作一種消遣,只是鬧著玩的,並不清楚,也不是真正地想這樣,瑪格麗特越來越遠離莒哈絲了。如何繼續保持她的成功呢?建立神話。瑪格麗特在她活著的時候親手炮製了莒哈絲崇拜。自此以後她毫無羞恥之心談論自己,所有朋友、同伴和兄弟姊妹都這麼說。不能忍受就只有離開。瑪格麗特什麼都不怕。她說:“我的名譽,我才不在乎呢!錢,我也沒有。所以我只做我喜歡做的事情。別人從來不做自己喜歡做的事情。”她給人一種放開纜繩的感覺:“我隨我自己去。”這麼長時間以來,她害怕瘋狂,這麼長時間以來,“大家”,尤其是男人都說她總有一天會瘋的,但是她現在不再害怕了。瘋狂從此以後成了別人豎在她面前嚇唬她的東西。她越是氣餒,這種原初的混亂就越是可怕,她就越是害怕,越是恐懼。她將自己工具化了。這一點是她自己說的:“我在寫作的時候,有一種精力極度分散的感覺,我不再擁有我自己,我成了一個漏勺,我的腦袋滿是洞洞,我也無法解釋自己究竟寫了什麼,就是這樣,因為我無法在我寫的東西裡辨認出它們來。所以這些東西來自於其他地方,我寫作的時候不是我一個人。”
慾望
莒哈絲又回到了自己的歷史之中,仍然想澄清她和母親之間的關係:在這扇關閉的門後究竟發生了些什麼?在表達母親所經歷的痛苦的時候,她仍然很尊敬她,但同時也沒忘了和她清一清帳。有時她覺得她勇敢,美妙,有時又覺得殘忍,惡毒,不公正。瑪格麗特說母親不是一個完美的女人。她認為她和丈夫之間從來沒有過慾望,而她成了寡婦之後,她就躲了起來,不再需要肉體的歡愉。她是不是因為不想像自己的母親那樣生活,所以她才從來不掩飾自己勾引男人的慾望,並且高聲宣布自己很貪慾,也很喜歡肉體之愛?必須注意到在莒哈絲的時代,還很少有女人敢於承認對於肉體歡愉的嚮往。瑪格麗特自少女時代開始就一直聽從身體的需要。有很多不願透露姓名的男人都異口同聲地說瑪格麗特很擅於勾引。男人的英俊外表,他的優雅,他的魅力,他的雄性氣質,她會談個沒完。瑪格麗特是愛情方面的專家。聽她吹噓一個男人如何如何英俊真的是一種享受,就像一個花花公子在談論漂亮姑娘一樣。她說生活應該也只能聽憑慾望的管理,儘管它可能把生活弄得一團糟,這就是她的愛情哲學,是她獨特的方式,在這種方式裡,人處在激情之中可以大聲地叫出來。沒有體會過這種肉體激情的人對其他事也一無所知,她不停地說,一種甚為肯定的神氣。
2021年8月23日 星期一
《精準預測 Signal and Noise》Nate Silver
2021年8月13日 星期五
《不穩定無產階級 The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class》Guy Standing
2021年8月11日 星期三
Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu
In that way, Sifu had gotten this old without anyone noticing. Including your mother-deemed to have aged out of Asian Seductress, no longer Girl with the Almond Eyes, now Old Asian Woman-living down the hall, their marriage having entered its own dusky phase, bound for eternity but separate continue to work in order to be able to support him and for that she needed a minimum amount of rest and peace of mind, all true, and that they were better apart than together, also true. The reality being that they'd lost the plot somewhere along the way, their once great romance spun into a period piece, into an immigrant family story, and then into a story about two people trying to get by. And it was just that: getting by. Barely, and no more. Because they'd also, in the way old people often do, slipped gently into poverty. Also without anyone noticing.
There's just something about Asians that makes reality a little too real, overcomplicates the clarity, the duality, the clean elegance of BLACK and WHITE, the proven template and so the decision is made not in some overarching conspiracy to exclude Asians bu because it's just easier to keep it how we have it. Two cops roaming the city. The precinct, the car, the bar after work. The decision is made but it's not a decision at all, it's the opposite. It's the way things are. You do the cop show. You get your little check. You wonder: Can you change it: Can you be the one who actually breaks through?
As, everyone knows, water hates poor people. Given the opportunity, water will always find a way to make poor people miserable, typically at the worst time possible.
"I have to talk with an accent because no one can process what the hell to do with me. I've got the consciousness of a contemporary American. And the face of a Chinese farmer of five thousand years ago. Asian Man. It's a fact. Look it up. No one likes us."
2021年8月5日 星期四
《思考的熱情:七位女哲學家的故事》Ingeborg Gleichauf
Hannah Arendt, 1906 - 1975
思考本身並沒有政治的意義,但其作用則延伸到日常的政治生活中。“思考乃是一個將自己一分為二的沈默對話,啟動我們本體中的差異,這個差異存在於意識之中,其所產生的副產品即為良知;判斷力則是在思考使人自由的作用中產生的副產品,使思考具象化,並得以在外在的世界中發揮功能。在外在世界中人總是無法獨處,永遠過於忙碌,以至於無法思考。
2021年8月4日 星期三
《拒看新聞的生活藝術:如何不看新聞卻又能掌控資訊流》Rolf Dobelli
2021年8月3日 星期二
《Portrait of a Marriage》Nigel Nicolson
”I did not know Violet. I met her only twice, and by then she had become a galleon, no longer the pinnace of her youth, and I did not recognize in her sails the high wind which had swept my mother away […]. I did not know that Vita could love like this, had loved like this, because she would not speak of it to her son. Now that I know everything I love her more, as my father did, because she was tempted, because she was weak. She was a rebel, she was Julian [Vita’s alter ego], and though she did not know it, she fought for more than Violet. She fought for the right to love, men and women, rejecting the conventions that marriage demands exclusive love, and that women should love only men, and men only women. For this she was prepared to give up everything. Yes, she may have been mad, as she later said, but it was a magnificent folly. She may have been cruel, but it was a cruelty on a heroic scale. How can I despise the violence of such passion?”