"The whole point of life is to explore endlessly what is not yet known, to constantly add more knowledge." We want to learn more about the world, understand others, and live a more abundant life. In these newly published books, either a chronicle that can be opened at any time to a certain historical scene or a story; or a "heraldry science" that records the ever-changing trajectory of thinking; or a general reading that slowly unfolds a picture of an unfamiliar field, these books bring readers new experiences because of their fun or pioneering nature.
Heraldry of Thinking: A Kaleidoscopic Trajectory of Thought
When you first see this name, you may feel confused, and the author Shibusawa Ryuhiko said in his solution: "Heraldry may be a strange word. I expect my thoughts to move with the pen shaft, to draw a shape in the abstract void. Like a kaleidoscope of toys with mirrors inside, the trajectory of thinking is ever-changing, and I look forward to drawing a useless, irresponsible and beautiful coat of arms. Thus, it is a work of distinctly personal style, a record of Yoshimitsu Katahashi flashing in the author's mind and the "budding of ideas", which are recorded and expected to eventually bloom into a "flower of fiction".
In recent years, more and more such books that seem to be "semi-finished products" have appeared, such as the Northeast novelist Jia Xingjia's "Scrawled Grass", which is composed of sixteen series such as shijing, township, wind and material, and deformity, each of which is a fragment of no more than 163 words, which is a sharp white depiction of the city and human feelings, and many fragments also have a lot of room for further expansion.
"Thinking Heraldry" is a work of a transitional nature in the process of moving from a naturalist essay to a fictional work in the style of a short story, which is "a transitional work" by Ryūhiko Shibusawa, who likes to write dark and strange stories, and does not have to follow a certain reading order, and simply and piecemeally records the author's treatment of Borges, Kafka, Sade, Proust, Ellen Poe, and the iconic figures of modern Japanese literature and folklore, Mori Ogura, Izumi Kyoka, Nagai Hokaze, Yasunari Kawabata, Comments on Yanagida Kunio and Japanese classical literature and Chinese works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, Zhuangzi, and Afterword of Search for God. What the author is most concerned with is the certain groundbreaking and interesting nature presented in these works.
For example, in the chapter "About Dreams", Shibusawa Ryūhiko concludes: "Japanese people usually lack the spirit of geometry, and the dream world of topological love, whether it is representative song collections such as "Manyoshu" to "New Ancient and Modern Waka Collection", or other monogatari and diaries, unfortunately, I have not been able to find images composed of clear perspective from them." But there is only one example, that is, a poem in the "Manyo Collection"—"I have a secret lovesickness, I would rather be known?" When the jade box is opened, it is a dream. ”
The poet "placed a jade box in the center of the closed dream space, which is like a jade handcamp full of dream contents, and when the lid of the box is opened, it is like a magic lamp that is full of dream content, filling the impression of the entire dream space." According to Ryūhiko Shibusawa, the "box" presents a polysemy feature in this small poem: "This box has a clever ingenuity, and it is not impossible to think of it as a container for dreams and souls, right?" In order to keep the soul from drifting away from the place, the box usually has to close the lid tightly. In addition, the box can also be used to symbolize the female yin, so opening the jade box also means committing to the man. ”
And if you think about it, isn't the dream a consciousness that invades in order to fill the emptiness of sleep? If the thoughts in your chest become more and more hot, and the pressure of the flesh rises rapidly, the lid of the jade box will naturally open. When the lid is opened, the dream that condenses inside the box immediately spreads, filling the void. This is how love dreams work. Of course, this principle is also about love. As a female singer who loves metaphor and rhetoric and is full of wisdom, Kasagi girl can grasp such principles. ”
How to Prove You're Not a Zombie, How to Crack Einstein's Puzzle: About You and Yourself
How to Prove You're Not a Zombie and How to Solve Einstein's Puzzle are both books on philosophical paradoxes by Jeremy Strom, founder of the British Philosopher's Magazine, translated by the publishing brand Unread. It's easy for readers to be attracted to "unread" books, such as "Did I Make You Cry?" "Put the world in a matchbox", "Whenever my mother and I talk about art, she says "Oh""... "Unread" seems to be the publishing brand that likes to give books strange names, and always keeps the titles very long, so that the words are densely arranged on the colorful book covers.
The subtitle of "How to Prove You're Not a Zombie" is "28 Philosophical Problems to Expand Thinking", which is not a book that wants to introduce readers to what philosophy is and what is the limitation of thinking, perhaps it is the two-way interaction and iteration between readers and the market, and we will find that social science books and philosophy books that are not packaged into stories and have no flowers are difficult to achieve good results in the market.
In terms of content, take the second verse of the book "Are Your Neighbors Zombies?" In fact, this section deals with "free will, determinism, personality identity, and other mental problems," philosophical terms that are enough to dissuade most readers, so that in the following discussions, these propositions are packaged in a variety of specific stories and situations, sometimes a situation made up by the writer, and sometimes a real experimental scene and case. For example, "How to prove to your neighbor that you are not a zombie" is about "how we can make sure that other people are mental beings because we can't know their inner state."
For example, in response to the "identity of personality" question, imagine that when you need to take a place, you walk into the scanner, the instrument will record the exact state of each molecule in your body, and then destroy your body. When the replicator of the place you want to go receives this data, it will copy an exactly the same body.
Is that copied by you still you? In the "Reference Answers" section dozens of pages later, you'll learn about the issue of "identity of personality," especially what a person must have to do to remain. If you think you continue to survive, then you most likely think that whether a person survives depends on some form of psychological continuity. In short, you might think that a person will survive as long as they retain their memories, experiences, and personalities. Conversely, if you think you can't survive, then you most likely think that physical continuity is what matters most. In other words, you might think that as long as a person's body continues to exist in its current full form, he is alive. Although both views are supported, most philosophers prefer the idea of psychological continuity.
How to Prove You're Not a Zombie takes the reader into the traps and dilemmas of thinking, finding a psychological and philosophical basis for the choices you make.
Elements and Human Civilization: How Do Elements Influence Human Civilization?
Does the legendary alchemy exist? How did the discovery of copper shape the great Bronze Age and become a key factor in the rise and fall of dynasties during the Song Dynasty? What element does the Yinshan petroglyphs that store ancient mysterious information rely on to be able to last forever? What is the mystery of the Thousand Year Stainless Sword of the Yue King?
These questions can be found in a recently published chemical and humanistic science book, Elements and Human Civilization. As a central discipline of natural science, the history of chemistry and the history of mankind are closely followed. From pottery and wood to later bronze and iron, to plastics, fibers and semiconductors that can be found everywhere in modern society, each material has made great changes in human society.
Sun Yafei, a doctor of chemistry at Tsinghua University, in the book "Elements and Human Civilization", selected gold, copper, silicon, carbon and titanium to represent the five major elements of human civilization in different periods, from the mysterious alchemy and the adventure stories of gold hunters to the "Bronze Age" with the heaviest sense of history; from the silicon oxygen, which accounts for three-quarters of the earth's crust, to the food, clothing, housing and transportation of human beings, and even the closest relationship with human beings themselves to carbon; from being able to make artificial joints, Titanium, which can also be used in the manufacture of aerospace aircraft and thus greatly expands the limits of what the human footprint can reach, talks about the discovery of the nature of the periodic law of the elements and the production of the periodic table...
Chemical elements always seem to be related to boring and difficult, Sun Yafei in "Elements and Human Civilization" in a more interesting way to tell, for example, in the interpretation of the Ghavani battery, Sun Yafei used the centennial overhaul of the Statue of Liberty as an example to explain how this chemical phenomenon acts on what we see every day; and when talking about silicon, the author begins with a trip to the Hetao Plain and looking for petroglyphs on the way, guiding the reader to imagine that one of the most handy elements in the process of human civilization - silicon, On this trip to the site of the Ming Great Wall, he talked about silicates and the making of bricks, pottery, and porcelain from the scenes he saw.
The author intercepts some classic moments or representative objects of the civilization period, from the ancient rock paintings scattered on the roadside, which are no more than some buildings such as submarines, monuments, and grand theaters. Re-understanding them from the perspective of chemical elements is a unique way to condense the slightly empty concept of human civilization into specific events, from which we can more intuitively see the role played by different chemical elements in the entire long river of history.
There is a lot of content in "Elements and Human Civilization" to rethink some of the phenomena that have emerged in history from the perspective of chemistry and elements.
The author starts from the money shortage that occurred during the kaiyuan heyday of Tang Xuanzong, the production of commodities in the Tang Dynasty was unprecedentedly prosperous, but the coins circulating in society did not increase accordingly, so there was a problem of deflation, the financial concept at that time was not mature, And Xuanzong and the ministers discussed whether to open up private minting and use private forces to get rid of the dilemma of insufficient currency. The ministers did not comment on this, the uncle of the state Yang Guozhong, who favored the dictatorship, recruited a group of peasants to come to mint coins, but because of the lack of skill, they went in opposite directions, and finally had to listen to the advice of the inspector Yu Shiweilun, recruited craftsmen with high salaries, increased the amount of currency issuance, and the annual minting volume once reached 327,000 taels, which finally alleviated the crisis. After the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, the power of the feudal towns increased, and the warlords hoarded copper money, and in the chaotic world, the trade routes were blocked, and the copper trade was particularly hindered. Some feudal towns played the wishful thinking of smelting iron and minting money, and by the time of the Song Dynasty, various iron coins were already circulating throughout the country, seriously disrupting the market.
Why can't iron coins alleviate the money shortage? China has gone through a long Bronze Age, why is there still a shortage of copper? Sun Yafei analysis: On average, about 50 grams of copper are contained in every ton of soil and rock. This value is almost 50,000 times that of gold, so in ancient China after the Warring States, the mining rate of copper was basically matched with the rate of commodity production, and there was no currency crisis. But no matter what, the reserves of copper are always limited, so with the development of society, it is bound to reach a critical point, and the monetary system dominated by copper collapses as a result. For ancient China, the shortage of money since the Middle and Tang Dynasties was this tipping point.
The reason why the money shortage from the Tang To the Song Dynasty lasted so long, from the perspective of chemical elements, is actually very simple, that is, the monetary experts of the Tang and Song dynasties could no longer find a substitute for copper.
As Sun Yafei proposed, chemical elements are not cold symbols, and the chemical reactions they participate in do not only occur in the laboratory. In fact, behind any chemical element, there is a very strong humanistic flavor. Each element is unique, and they have different spectra that reflect different aspects of human civilization.
"Jazz Chronicles": "Pinning popularity on the elite is doomed to failure from a historical point of view"
The book "Jazz Chronicles" edited by Mervyn Cook, a professor of music at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, uses 350 color and black and white pictures to connect the 115 years of global development of jazz. Starting from the origin of jazz in the 19th century, the book "Jazz Chronicle" introduces the development, spread, rise and fall of jazz in chronological order and in stages, observes the interaction and collision between jazz and other art forms such as classical and popular music, and introduces the styles, genres, important figures, bands, and works that have influenced future generations.
Jazz, like film, is another major contribution of the United States to 20th-century culture, and jazz is now in its second century of existence. Over the first hundred years, jazz absorbed and transformed many of the technological innovations of early classical music at an astonishing rate, distilling centuries of musical expertise into dazzling styles and structures that led to a wide audience—from the mass pop market to a narrower intellectual class than the avant-garde art of the 1960s.
Tracing the history of jazz, we can see that it has evolved from its infamous beginnings, through the popularity of the Swing era, into serious art music, like any other modern art form, intellectually and emotionally retaining audience interest. The story of jazz, without digging deeper, can reveal the racial conflicts that led to the early development of jazz. Slaves transported from West Africa to the New World, with their musical traditions, used the songs and dances of tribal work to help themselves adapt to forced labor. When rhythmic language, expressive transliteration techniques in African vocal music, and the fusion of structures and harmonies borrowed from European music favored by white slave owners, the basic elements of jazz were formed. After the universal emancipation of blacks in 1865, black religious music paved the way for two musical genres that guided the early jazz styles. They are Ragtime and Bruce, both of which appeared in the 1890s.
By the 1930s, jazz continued to be respected by intellectuals, but it still hadn't completely shed its early association with sex and life at the bottom. During Prohibition (1919-1933), jazz was inextricably linked to illegal drinking, and then the abuse of hard drugs was introduced, and addiction led to the premature – and often impoverished – death of many talented musicians, and the reputation of jazz was constantly damaged. Jazz seems to stem more from slavery and racial discord. Beginning in the early 1930s, many American jazz musicians chose to emigrate to France, where they had a higher social status and a higher level of appreciation from their listeners, and they were welcomed for it. In the 1930s, the three genres of art, pop and jazz were closely intertwined, and it can be said that there is no one before, no one has come after.
Whites probably pushed the commercialization of jazz to the top in the late 1930s, and black musicians tried to regain the initiative in the arts, eventually leading to the decline of swing bands after World War II. The West Coast style developed in Las Vegas in the 1950s, with white musicians dominating. There was a serious crisis in the mid-1960s, with potential new generations of jazz fans switching massively to the relatively fresh pop and rock market. By the early 1980s, fusion styles seemed to be coming to an end, and many musicians who became famous in the field of synthetic music returned to playing jazz, (sometimes unnaturally) borrowing elements from earlier styles.
The author argues that jazz has always been worried about its own popularity, but pinning its popularity on the elite is historically doomed to failure. Louis Armstrong was criticized in the 1930s for bending over for commercial gain, and since then the generational feud between jazz elites and populists has become acute. Marzaris's personal commercial success is ironic, as it owes much to the tireless promotional efforts of CBS (and later Sony), which propelled Davis to Fusion Jazz 40 years ago.
Jazz is now as rich as classical music, and listeners are often confused. For more than a hundred years, jazz has caught up with its outstanding musical predecessors, both in quantity and quality. As in the past, jazz musicians now influence each other, the only difference being that the migration of musicians has added an international twist to jazz. Jazz styles continue to spread and transform in an exciting process of musical penetration, which is essentially similar to the origin process of jazz.