(no subject)
往事回思如細雨，舊書重讀似春潮
往事回思如细雨，旧书重读似春潮
"Our memory of things past is like a light rain. Old books re-read are like the spring tide."
- 汪曾祺
can't sleep. just finished reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler.
i love books, and this one is special. it hits me on a several different levels. the stories he tells are ones from contemporary China about real, everyday, and yet, somehow extraordinary people. he weaves in news events that are still relatively fresh: 9/11, Afghanistan, the Hainan planes, WTO, the Olympics, with a story about a Oracle bones scholar, which unfolds like a mystery novel meet documentary.
i was laying in bed wondering what it'd be like to live his life -- to get to know people like he does; to spend time finding the stories that speak about culture and emotions and history. it's not news and it's not fiction. the genre narrative non-fiction, until now, has not stood out to me. i've always liked travel writing, but this book, his writing has made me realize that this is my thing.
how illogical would it be for me to up and leave this (new life of 8 weeks?) and try to write stories. roam around the world, freelancing, surviving off of creating narratives like his; affecting people like these stories affect me. they make me think really hard about identity and culture and privilege. they lend me a sense of kinship with really different people. that they are Chinese and my contemporaries gives me the sighs. i think, in a way, he built me a bridge to China by telling me stories.
yay.
往事回思如细雨，旧书重读似春潮
"Our memory of things past is like a light rain. Old books re-read are like the spring tide."
- 汪曾祺
can't sleep. just finished reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler.
i love books, and this one is special. it hits me on a several different levels. the stories he tells are ones from contemporary China about real, everyday, and yet, somehow extraordinary people. he weaves in news events that are still relatively fresh: 9/11, Afghanistan, the Hainan planes, WTO, the Olympics, with a story about a Oracle bones scholar, which unfolds like a mystery novel meet documentary.
i was laying in bed wondering what it'd be like to live his life -- to get to know people like he does; to spend time finding the stories that speak about culture and emotions and history. it's not news and it's not fiction. the genre narrative non-fiction, until now, has not stood out to me. i've always liked travel writing, but this book, his writing has made me realize that this is my thing.
how illogical would it be for me to up and leave this (new life of 8 weeks?) and try to write stories. roam around the world, freelancing, surviving off of creating narratives like his; affecting people like these stories affect me. they make me think really hard about identity and culture and privilege. they lend me a sense of kinship with really different people. that they are Chinese and my contemporaries gives me the sighs. i think, in a way, he built me a bridge to China by telling me stories.
yay.