The Great Voyage Vol. 261: "Undemolished Life", by Li Weichang, published by Yilin Publishing House.
In the current era of reading diversity and fragmentation, Maugham said that reading is a refuge to carry with you, and I think that the habit of reading is to use books to build yourself, an impregnable fortress that allows you to avoid some disasters in life. Today we combine reading, starting with a photo.
If some of my content has been fortunately read by you, you must have seen the above picture more than once, I often use it to talk about reading, reading content, I think this picture is not only for me, it makes people feel that it has a shocking heart and a wake-up effect on people. This picture was once used as the cover picture of my circle of friends for a long time, and it took a long time, in an offline book club, a friend chatted with me about the story.
Looking at this photo, it is like the magic of Dumbledore's meditation basin, and I can enter the scene through this photo, the hum of bombers flying by echoes in my ears, the ruins and broken walls after being bombed fall from time to time, the roof collapses and the reinforced concrete is torn, and bricks are everywhere, giving people a sense of ruin and desolation. But this picture does not make people feel that it is a roar and a cry, but a unique kind of tranquility, in the ruins there are three well-dressed gentlemen in top hats, standing calmly in front of the unspoiled bookcases to select books, and the bombing does not seem to have happened, in sharp contrast to the collapsed building.
According to this picture, it was taken in October 1940 during the German bombing of Britain, and the library that makes people feel more sacred because of the damage after the bombing is the Dutch House Library in Kensingshire, London, England. The three gentlemen in the picture, or looking up and looking, or thinking, or holding a book and flipping through the book, let us see a quiet, hidden, upward force, they focus on the refuge of books, everything outside the body seems to be destroyed by war and other means, but in their hearts the spirit is long-lasting, they can still immerse themselves in the life that has not been destroyed by reading.
For this picture, the young writer and critic Li Changwei saw more and deeper content, and it was used for the cover of his book "Unstructed Life". In this era of impetuousness, high speed and high pressure, and shallow reading, Li Changwei still enjoys the slow life of reading, and has written a large number of essays, these books he read and the essays he wrote, like building a strong brick, his life may be disturbed by some world events, but his life cannot be destroyed. As the Russian philosopher Herzen once said, "Books are the most patient, the most patient, and the most pleasant companions." In any difficult and difficult moment, it will not abandon you. ”
Books and life can be seen in each other. A writer writes a book, and the writer is in the book. Baudelaire, Flaubert, Chekhov, Chandler, Nabokov, Matsumoto Kiyoharu, Keruak, Grass, Naipaul and other literary figures, Li Changwei will read all the coefficients of their works to get a record of what they think, but also collide with ideas, just like Li Changwei takes you to explore in the "literary forest" of writers, to see every writer and character, there is a brilliant and displaced life. "Accepting my imperfect habits, accepting my own lack of strength, and accepting my own unwillingness are all my personal writing meanings." If it can arouse some small resonance of others, it is a joy that can be encountered but not sought. ”
The British dramatist Shakespeare once said, "Books are the nourishment of the world." Life has no books, as if there were no sunshine; wisdom has no books, just as a bird has no wings. "The Undemolished Life" from a book to a person, from a clue to lead out a story, from the book to the outside of the book, witnessing countless brilliant and displaced lives. To take a small example, in the book "Kerouac in Our Village", Li Changwei brings the real things around him into the world of "On the Road", the good Han uncle in the village is living into kerouac's pen, this is the best interaction between literature and reality, of course, more content I still hope you can read in the book.
Finally, we return to the cover of the book, Li Changwei once said, "When the title and cover of the book are determined, you will find a more sad thing, that is, you have written a book, many articles, but what you want to say and what you can say seem to be in this title and cover." "Li Changwei, you and I are the three gentlemen in the "Dutch House Library", we are equally displaced in the current "current wars and horses", and all we can do is to read books on the ruins and find our spiritual strength when the smoke of war has not yet cleared.