Reporter | Pan Wenjie
Edit the | Forest people
"White Bird Falls into the Jungle"
During the 2008 southern snowstorm, a girl was on her way home, and her footprints on the snow stopped in the barn. Who exactly caused her disappearance? A nine-year unsolved case has changed the lives of many people. Among them, Liang Hao, a tutor who was taken as a suspect, encountered countless criticism and hatred.
How exactly did the girl leave the barn and where did she disappear? What kind of hidden feelings are behind the relationship between Liang Hao and the girl? The book "White Birds Fall into the Jungle" not only focuses on revealing the final puzzle, but also in the process of revealing suspense, tracing the mental journey of the little people who are despised and marginalized, portraying seemingly happy and devastated families, and revealing the dark places in family affection and neighborhood relations. "I often hear relatives, friends, neighbors and neighbors describe the 'ambiguity' that the parties are accustomed to in the eyes of the parties in a tone like a shocking conspiracy, but I think this attitude of constantly enlarging the details of life is very valuable." In the opinion of the author Beckbang, "ambiguity" is the nourishment of suspense novels.
Everything We Should Know
How do a male writer write about pregnancy? The work of Irish writer Donal Ryan is short, lyrical, colloquial, and sometimes brutal. He often depicts Irish towns and villages in postmodern decay, and the sad, hopeful people who inhabit them.
Divorce in Ireland requires four years of separation, and the book's protagonist, Melody Shee, can't stand her husband. She had three miscarriages after marriage, and her husband was secretly out of town, so at the age of 33, she fell into a childless and angry marriage, choosing to conceive the 17-year-old boy's child while tutoring a homeless son. The novel is designed according to the progress of pregnancy, gradually revealing to the reader the feelings of pregnancy in October and the past stories of light or dark.
People: Text, Stage, Screen Characters and the Art of Cast Design
McKee won a BAFTA award for the series "Indicting Citizen Kane". In 1981, he was invited by the University of Southern California to teach the "Story" course. In 1997, McKee published the best-selling book Stories: Materials, Structure, Style, and Principles of Screen Play, and he felt that there was no need to attend training courses and seminars after writing this book. The book, however, had the opposite effect, and when he arrived in various parts of the world, theaters and auditoriums were crowded with people who wanted to hear him. He went on to publish Dialogue: The Verbal Performance Art of Text, Stage, and Screen, and now People: The Art of Text, Stage, Screen Characters, and Cast Design for Chinese readers, and the book is the end of McKee's "Art of Fiction Trilogy." The primary purpose of the book, he writes, is to enrich the reader's understanding of the human nature of fictional characters, sharpen creative techniques, and "help you invent a complex and never-before-seen cast of characters." In the book, he takes examples from Shakespeare to Breaking Bad for analysis.
Although he has given his own answer on how to write a fictional story, McKee knows that the creative process is a personal trait of the author, and no one can teach who to create the story and characters. And, the road to writing has been long and arduous, and he was once asked in an interview to give "the best advice" to emerging screenwriters, saying: "Go to the gym and work out." Writing can be exhausting, but you have to get up, put the script under your arm, and knock on every door until your knuckles bleed. It takes the energy of a five-year-old, the concentration of a chess master, the faith of a preacher and the courage of a climber. So, stay in shape. ”
"Presence: 21 Stories about Women's Economics in Japan"
This year has been the year of Chizuko Ueno in publishing, with six books by the Japanese feminist released in Chinese editions this year. Her revelations about the current situation of Japanese women in her work have also resonated with Chinese readers. How did the plight of Japanese women at work come about? In today's declining economy, declining birthrate, and aging population, what is the value of discussing women's issues?
Japanese women used to overkill in the workplace. In 1999, Kathy Matsui, a Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs, coined the term "female economics" to show that increasing women's labor force participation in Japan would promote Japan's economic and social development. In this book, Bill Emmett, former editor-in-chief of The Economist, interviewed 21 Japanese women, including politicians and business executives, and used their life experiences to tell how changes in laws, policies, and customs have promoted women's employment, and how women's thinking and ability to work have affected the workplace and social environment. The authors argue that many men in a society that still misogyny, are reluctant to see this, but whether men are happy or not, Japan is destined for a far more female future, "the difference is only whether Japan is willing to embrace this future and make the most of its potential." ”
"Acting in Humble Things: Chinese Society and People in Microhistory"
When Wang Di, chair professor at the University of Macau, was teaching in the United States, he once had dinner with two American colleagues, and colleague A said that because colleague B's father was good, he named his dog after B's father. Colleague B, who was present, not only did not think there was a problem, but was very proud. At that time, Wang Di felt that if it was in China, it would be considered an insult. Another thing is that he went to a colleague's memorial service, where many people were reminiscing about interesting things about getting along with the deceased, and laughed constantly. He thinks that in China, laughing at memorial services is absolutely impossible, and in the past, the village even had to hire people to cry.
From these personal experiences, Wang Di feels that different societies and cultures have many different social practices. The question is, how do these differences come about? This is the question that social history is trying to answer. This book is to explain all aspects of society in China, especially since the Song and Yuan dynasties, and to show the evolution of society. The book is divided into two volumes: the upper and the lower. The previous volume, "People, Everyday and Culture," focuses on Chinese's daily life and culture. The next volume, "Family, Community, and Law," deals with family, community, and law. Cutting-edge research on Chinese social history is used, with a macro and micro perspective, but the author uses an easy-to-understand way to explain it to the general reader.
The Dilemma of Affluence: An Analysis of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
The Dutch were once described as the Chinese of Europe, meaning that the Dutch were as good at business as Chinese. What exactly makes them like this? Simon Schomar, a British historian and professor of history and art history at Columbia University in the United States, argues that "the true particularity of the Dutch world lies not in the attitudes or actions of individual individuals, but in the way in the collective consciousness that connects them to each other." ”
Astonished by the Dutch "precociousness", which took only two generations to become a world empire, Sharma draws on Geertz's "deep drawing" theory of cultural interpretation, using historical artifacts, documents and exquisite works of art to depict the culture and society of the Dutch Golden Age. He details the wealth of the Dutch and their ostentatious consumption, while also paying attention to how they were bound by Calvinism and harbored a fear of being corrupted by happiness. There are also critics that the book ignores much of the Dutch colonial history.
"Fish Don't Exist"
David Starr Jordan is the founding president of Stanford University and a taxonomist. He believed in the naturalist Luis Agassi's idea that there is a ladder inside nature, with bacteria at the bottom and humans on top. Fish are a warning about what it is like to indulge in basic survival needs. Jordan is also active in collecting fish, believing that if people study fish, they will be able to understand which organisms are worth emulating and which are not. This way, one can find the right path to the top of the ladder. Pursuing this, Jordan found order in his life and continued to achieve success in his career, and later joined the promotion of eugenics.
Unlike Agassi's view, Darwin's ideas were difficult for taxonomists of the time to accept, Darwin believed that species, the eternal and unchanging taxonomic hierarchy that taxonomists deem, were nothing more than the creation of man himself, and he believed that nature had no boundaries and fixed boundaries. For Darwin, the parasite was not a nuisance, but a miracle, a wonderful case of adaptation. The abundance of life in this world proves that there are countless ways to survive and reproduce. In the 80s of the 20th century, Darwin's views were more recognized. Later taxonomists realized that the classification of fish obscured subtle differences, they were actually very different, and that the concept of fish was nothing more than a human illusion, and fish really did not exist. Realizing that fish don't exist has made a huge difference in the life of author Lulu Miller. Miller reveals the philosophy and meaning of life through his search for the trajectory and thoughts of David Starr Jordan.
Waiting for the Weekend: The Origin and Meaning of the Weekend
The Bible records that God created the world in seven days, the first day with light, the second day with air and water, the third day with land, sea, and plants, on the fourth day with the sun, moon, stars, day and night, seasons, days, and years, on the fifth day with all kinds of animals, and on the sixth day God created man. On the seventh day, when all heaven and earth were created, God rested and blessed this day, which was designated as a holy day. So people still rest on the seventh day of every week. From religion to the weekends we practice today, how did the seemingly conventional weekend come about? The author of this book, Witold Rybczynski, saw that how much leisure time a person can have depends on the customs of his place and the strength of the union to which he belongs. Too many people are left out, though. The poorest poor are not socially well-off and must work continuously, often 12-14 hours a day, with Sunday being the only opportunity to rest. However, some people do not even have this kind of respite and have to work seven days a week.
But "wherever there is a choice in this matter, the pattern of life is characterized by an irregular alternation of work and leisure," a pattern that historian E.P. Thompson calls "a round of work alternating with a round of idleness." Aristotle once said, "We work for leisure." His views were widely shared.