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<h3>"One Side Of The Other"</h3>
This is the latest collection of novels by the writer Gu Qian, which includes the author's works in recent years, as well as the articles he has just begun to write. The editor said that Gu Qian likes to write real things - some stories can indeed see the traces of real people and real events, such as the passages in the story to make a living in Haikou, as well as the passages that go to work in foreign-funded domestic journals, all have the shadow of his own resume; Gu Qian also admits that the novel does begin with "I", of course, he also explains why it is full of so many "I", in life, "I" is not important, in a sense, "I" is the source of stupidity. And the reason why he wants to write so many "I" in the novel is to make up the story a little more true.
What adds more to the realism of these novels is that at the end of the novel collection, Dogzi wrote a trek for Gu Qian, who recalled that when he first went to Nanjing in 1998, in order to interview the "fracture" movement, he first met Gu Qian, Han Dong, Zhu Wen, and Wu Chenjun in Xinjiekou Civic Square, and later they often drank and even got drunk in Xinjiekou Square. When he calls him "Teacher Gu", he calls the citizen and the bastard, and when he calls him "Gu Qian", he refers to the writer and the reader.
Previously, Interface Culture included Gu Qian in the list of wild writers and interviewed him at his home in Maigaoqiao, Nanjing. Gu Qian's novels feature many gatherings of friends, cards, and drinks, and during the interview, his friends also smoke and play cards in his living room. In the interview, Gu Qian talked about his life and writing, Cao Kou would also turn in to supplement or irony, Cao Kou also said that the two of them enjoyed plum blossoms in Meihua Mountain in winter nights, and went to the county town to play and eat people's flowing water mats. This group of friends cares more about life than they do about literature.
<h3>Charming Monsters: Literary Friends such as Dracula, Alice, Superman, etc</h3>
Little Red Riding Hood, Dracula, Alice, Sleeping Beauty, Faust, these fantastic characters accompany the growth of countless people. In this book, bibliophile Alberto Manguel analyzes and reads the classic images of these films, fairy tales, and folklore, combing through their historical evolution and influence on himself, such as Alice sparking discussions about madness and reason, Little Red Riding Hood leading people through the dark forest, and Faust asking how much the soul still has in a time when everyone craves money and fame.
Angela Carter, who loves to rewrite fairy tales, argues that all cradle stories are elaborately disguised political allegories, and she divides the animal figures in fairy tales into two types: one dangerous and devastating, such as the big bad wolf in Little Red Riding Hood; and the other is the intelligent and helpful little animal, both of which represent human animality and instinct. The animals in fairy tales are, to her, the repressed desires of people, the "beasts of human nature."
It is worth mentioning that Alvato Manguel's memoir "With Borges" has also been introduced Chinese version. In the 1960s, at the age of 60, Borges met Manguel, a 16-year-old bookstore clerk, who began to read books for Borges and began to understand Borges's reading preferences, personality loneliness and eccentricities from a personal perspective.
<h3>America's Bottom</h3>
After 20 years as a trader on Wall Street, Chris Anald set out to explore the U.S. beyond Manhattan's central business district. He walked into the underclass that people avoided and listened to the stories of prejudiced people about their lives. From Maine to California, through urban and rural areas, his journey lasted three years and was 240,000 kilometers long, and he also recorded the journey to complete the book in words and pictures. Anard likens American society to a class, and people like him are kids sitting in the front row of the classroom, strugglers eager to learn and succeed, usually career careerists, political liberals, and there are many blind spots in the line of sight; the students in the back row are children who don't like school, they are either forced to quit school to earn money, they are distracted for various reasons, and they are more likely to be tied down somewhere than the good students in the front row.
Chris Anard holds a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University, and America's Bottom is his first book. Regarding the works of american underclass life, in recent years, we have seen "The Lamentations of the Countrymen" by the "low-class elite" who recount their life experiences in the "rust belt" of the United States, as well as the sociological work "Sweeping Out the Door" that studies rent evictions and the "Sidewalk Kingdom" that records street life. "My Life at the Bottom" may be more similar to this book, the author Barbara Allenrick and Chris Anard were born into working-class families, and they both struggled along the way, earned a doctorate in science (Barbara Allen Rick is a Doctor of Biology at Rockefeller University), and both returned to the bottom of the American life after "success". From these works, we can see more clearly the lifestyle of the so-called "bottom" people, and discover the essence of poverty from these specific daily games.
<h3>Japan and the Shackles of History</h3>
Today' Japan is still the world's third largest economy, but when the outside world mentions it, people often think of problems such as low birthrate, unpopular society, and M-type society. What's wrong with Japanese society, and why is it? Seeking the cause of Japan's predicament, R. Taggart Murphy, professor of international political and economic economics at the University of Tsukuba, set his sights on Japan's political and economic history from the Heian period onwards. In his view, the shackles of Japan had been forged as early as 1603 when the Tokugawa shogunate implemented a policy of lock-up, and the shogunate's obsession with order and stability, directly injecting the concept of hierarchy into the militarized state capitalist system established by the Meiji Restoration, not only dragged the world into the quagmire of war, but also caused modern Japan to bear a heavy historical debt.
Postwar Japan, which was committed to rapid economic development, has not escaped the shackles of history – although Japan has won overseas markets with its labor system, technology and assets, in the face of the new products and services brought by the Internet, traditional Japanese companies have begun to stagnate. Lies about the construction of national myths and war narratives, as well as the xenophobic sentiment stirred by the Abe government, have also put new shackles on Japan. Where is The Way Out for Japan? The author sets his sights on the Winter Olympics figure skating gold medalist Yusuke Habu, arguing that the athlete who has won the world's favorite with his friendly attitude has forcefully refuted the Japanese policy since the Abe government.
In fact, many phenomena in Japanese society, such as aging, the collapse of the financial system, the failure of monetary policy, overcapacity, etc., may be the future that many countries and regions in the world will face, so it is more common to find the historical shackles of Japan. This book belongs to the Oxford University Press "Everyone Needs to Know" series of books on modern Japanese history, and can also be regarded as a companion to "The Mystery of Japan's Power Structure" introduced by Shinshin Culture last year.
<h3>Understanding the World: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy</h3>
Understanding the World: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy is the first volume of the history of philosophy written by the German philosopher Prechte for a general audience, from the beautiful coast of Asia Minor, the birthplace of Western philosophy, to the monasteries and study houses, churches and universities of the late Middle Ages. The author integrates philosophical thinking into the story to help people understand issues that are closely related to life, such as "What is a good life?" What is truth? Is there justice? If so, how is it possible? Does life have meaning? What is man's place in nature and the universe? ”
The author, Richard David Precht, is a philosopher and writer, Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leufranne in Lüneburg, and the author of the best-selling philosophical book "Who Am I?" If there are me, how many of them are there? "Love: A Confused Feeling" and so on.
<h3>The Rise and Fall of the Russian Empire 1613-1917: Three Hundred Years of the Romanov Dynasty</h3>
This is a popular science work on the history of the Russian Empire. From 1613 to 1917, under the rule of the Romanov dynasty, Russia went from a backward and poor country despised by the West to a powerful empire with unparalleled territory, not only defeating the invincible Napoleon, but also involved in European politics, but also falling from the peak to destruction. These three hundred years have been marked by events of reform, passionate love, intrigue, tyranny and failure, and it is this history that has laid the foundation of modern Russia and formed the foundation of the Russian national spirit.
Readers can see the historical stories of 18 tsars, such as Peter I, who led Russia to modernization but killed her own son; Catherine, who was born as a foreign peasant woman but became the first empress of Russia; Ivan VI, who ascended the throne from an early age, but was imprisoned for more than twenty years, and it was better to live than to die; Catherine II, who opened up the territory and brought Russia to its peak, but was known for the chaos of her private life; Alexander I, who defeated the French invasion and spent time in Europe, but always lived in the psychological shadow of killing her father; cowardice and incompetence, Nicholas II, who allowed the harem to intervene and finally destroyed the empire and himself. This book belongs to the "Firefly" book series, which features light reading and interesting history.
<h3>"Happy Urban Habitat: Designing with Neighbors to Make Life Happier"</h3>
In the modern city, how to live the life you yearn for? The book points out that the standard of urban life that people expect, private cars, suburban villas, and one-stop shopping malls do not help people achieve happiness goals: the closed management of suburban villas is not safe, private cars are easy to block the road; one-stop shopping malls become blood clots in the city; and excessive commuting hours make marriage and children's lives in a dilemma. Interestingly, the authors also point out that people live in suburban homes for fresher air, more open environments, while low-density neighborhoods can be obesogenic, and that driving between suburbs and urban areas carries a higher risk of developing diseases such as arthritis and chronic lung disease.
Why is it that at a time when material life is unprecedentedly prosperous, people are not getting happier? The author said that it is the architecture and urban concept that has gone wrong in the past hundred years, and the judgment of people's living has also been distorted, the author examines the construction and development of the world, demonstrates the urgency of urban design with environmental planning and psychological ideas, and emphasizes that urban design that is not humane enough must be changed. Correspondingly, individuals should have their own initiative—to be close to their neighbors, to embrace nature, to return to the human scale. This book is committed to revealing the truth that the invisible elements of living are equally important; that good architecture and environmental design should promote popularity and interpersonal trust; and that people need to understand that the "beggar-thy-neighbor" attitude will ultimately detract from their own happiness, and living in harmony with their neighbors can make life more comfortable.
<h3>Patient Zero: A Counter-Written History of Modern Medicine</h3>
History celebrates the triumph of war disease but forgets the patient, and the book treats the patient rather than the doctor as the protagonist of the book, emphasizing the medical significance of the patient's obstacles and pains: they promote the birth of new diagnoses and therapies, shake old medical theories, and correct the mistakes of the healers or torture their prejudices. The book consists of the stories of 25 Patient Zero, examines social and cultural events from the perspective of small people and everyday trivia, reflects on the development of the medical and health industry, and opens up thoughts on the future of medicine.
The author of this book is both a general practitioner and a popular science writer, and in the book he writes about the patient as the protagonist. In connection with this, the author proposes that in modern society, diagnostic culture has become mandatory on the one hand, natural death has disappeared, doctors must mark the cause of death on the death certificate, on the other hand, diagnosis has become irrelevant to the patient's own experience, and the doctor informs the patient of the disease, and the patient has no perception of it. Because medicine can detect potential diseases, does medicine no longer need patients? At first, some people felt that they were sick before medicine was born, and now the patient is no longer the initiator of the doctor-patient relationship, and with the doctor, the patient knows his illness. The authors say it is surprising that our fellow citizens are very meek in accepting the diagnosis of a disease they have never experienced at all.