On the day of World Book Day, on Douban, I saw that the friends who paid attention to it sent a radio to complain about the marketing propaganda of Fan Deng's reading. In fact, earlier, in the circle of friends, I also saw the owner of an independent bookstore posting a dynamic, asking what his bookstore had done wrong, why he was "targeted" by Fan Deng's reading, and promoted it in their live broadcast.
On the other hand, there are also some people who will enjoy sharing their experience of listening to books every day in the circle of friends, these books are widely covered, including psychology, sociology, management, literature, etc., but most of them are interpreted and digested, and then filtered out with a simple and easy-to-understand theory, and then returned to the reader (listener). In the end, it may only be left to teach you how to manage subordinates, how to talk to the opposite sex, how to manage time, the tragedy of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and its reflections, and so on.
Therefore, Fan Deng's reading has always attracted a large number of "believers" at the same time, but it seems to be looked down upon by some readers, which is a rather interesting phenomenon.
Last year, a friend from high school called me and told me about the gap between my major and the job search process, about my spiritual and material poverty, and about my anxiety and confusion. When it came, he asked me if I could recommend some books for him to read, because he thought that reading books would make him understand a lot of things, and when faced with real problems, he would not be so confused as he is now. At that moment, I didn't know how to answer him, I just wanted to scold Fan Deng for reading.
In his cognition, reading is necessarily "useful", people read in order to be able to effectively solve some practical problems, in fact, this is also the general mentality of the vast majority of people, so it has created a listening platform like Fan Deng's reading in The country. The independent bookstore mentioned above has four big words "useless books" in the conspicuous place of the store, and the boss believes that the books here are useless books, so don't expect to find answers to the real world from the books, which is equivalent to asking for fish from the wood.
Why do readers who love to read hate Fan Deng's reading, who aims to popularize "reading"? It turns out that one is aiming at "usefulness" and the other is emphasizing "uselessness", which is rooted in the differences in the attitudes of the two to reading, which is also reading, but reflects two completely different concepts of life.
Such a discussion is also involved in the film "Zishan Fish Recipe", although it is not the entire core of the film. The film tells the story of Ding Ruoquan, a minister of the Joseon Dynasty, who became involved in a political struggle in 1801 because he believed in "heresy", Christianity, and was sent to the edge of the dynasty to spend the rest of his life on the island of Montenegro. On the island of Montenegro, he established a relationship of mentorship and friendship with the talented fisherman Changda, who taught Changda a subset of the history of the Bible who wanted to get ahead by reading, and Changda told Ding Ruoquan the knowledge of various fishes so that he could assemble them into books.
The story is simple, in the relatively dark period of the dynasty, the literati doctor was very politically powerful, where can the knowledge learned in his life be used? Such situations and emotions, as a Chinese audience, are not difficult to perceive. In ancient Chinese history, too many famous humanists were relegated to a barbaric land far away from Kyoto, where they even spent the rest of their lives in obscurity.
Confucianism pays attention to the practical application of the scriptures, and learning must be useful, but if it cannot be used, should we not learn it? Therefore, the ancients will integrate the concepts of Confucianism and Taoism, teaching people how to be born, how to enter the world, how to protect themselves in times of chaos and disorder, and how to become the pillars of the country when the king's way is soup. Similarly, at the beginning of the Zishan Fish Recipe, Wang said to Ding Ruoquan: "Politics is actually a trap, and those with high positions of power, especially those who have high positions of power, must learn to be patient, and eventually have a day of reuse." Therefore, at that time, most of the readers, even if they were lonely and useless, were waiting for the day when they could learn to be useful, and they did not completely lose hope.
But this film is in a state of despair that does not see the usefulness of learning at all. Ding Ruoquan had no hope of turning around politically, and spent his entire life on The Black Island; Chang Da was confined to his birth and family situation, and occasionally had the opportunity to go out to become an official, but after witnessing the gap between what he learned and what he saw, he still returned to the island and made a living by fishing.
During this period, changda and Ding Ruoquan also had a disagreement, and Changda believed that Ding Ruoquan was familiar with reading a subset of the history of the bible, but spent the rest of his life compiling a fish encyclopedia that was completely useless. And Ding Ruoquan asked what was Changda's purpose in studying? To be an official? Simply not enough to qualify.
This is an ultimate torture for reading, for the purpose of seeking knowledge: for what? At the end of the film, Changda goes from seeing the mountain is a mountain, to seeing that the mountain is not a mountain, and finally returning to the realm of seeing the mountain is a mountain, in fact, the film affirms the non-utilitarian nature of reading.
The film has an ending, but reality does not. In fact, to this day, the debate on this issue still exists, but after reading became more popular, the meaning of reading is not to be an official, but whether it is "useful" or not. Therefore, we can see that Fan Deng is supported by some people and despised by some people.
Liang Wendao talked about some of his views on reference books in a program, saying that he used to think that books were divided into three, six, and nine grades, but once when he was waiting at the airport and saw a pregnant mother-to-be holding a parenting book intently, he suddenly felt that books should not be divided in this way. It's books, needed by some people, and that's enough.
Fan Deng's reading is like this, but it is not only like this.
I resent the content of a series of interpretations and listening books such as Fan Deng's books, but the most fundamental reason is that it is too certain and too convincing. Because its reading group stems from its own material and spiritual anxiety and urgently needs a definite answer, the utilitarian nature of its reading becomes very obvious. One of the most direct results of this is that reading a book on the psychology of love will be a guide to the methods and techniques of love; reading "Dream of the Red Chamber", he will tell you about the weaknesses of the characters and the experience gained; what about reading Borges? I don't know what to read...
In short, this way of reading will eliminate the non-utilitarian content of a book according to the reader's needs, and then instill the content point of view that meets the needs to the reader, so that a book is "read". And it is always overlooked that the non-utilitarian nature of reading happens to be a very wonderful moment in the process of reading. Is the output of a more blunt point of view, a concise answer, really the ultimate appeal of reading? The reflections and questions in the process of reading are probably far more important than the conclusions.
At the end of the writing, I remembered that when I graduated from my senior year, I had dinner with my father and his friends. During the banquet, it is inevitable to hear some life advice given by the elders. When I learned that I was studying liberal arts, my father's friends were a little surprised: What is the use of learning this? Can I make money? Then it was like a sudden realization: Oh, you can also take the civil service exam!
I didn't want to make a sound, just a little disgusted, and because he was so determined that he lost his imagination and couldn't see any other possibilities.