姒識 Code Name: Xanadu

My team asked me how was it even possible to read so much between work, family, and all.  Oh well, I spent minimal amount of energy on social media and that is how I save the time to engage in activities that truly matters to me.  Perhaps I was never memetic to begin with.  It is the blessing of being an eccentric, the one who marches to the beat of her own drum.  That being said, I am still struggling with workaholicism, parenthood and sleep deprivation.  When hypocrisy elevated to the realm of art, it is called professionalism :P 

本月書單Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 有時想, 是書選我讀, 不是我選書.  十分玄奧, 不知何時養成的習慣, 閱讀總是雙冊並行.

文風迥然, 穿梭時空互不干擾, 怎麼說弔詭呢?  因為書海廣闊, 擇書時往往興至所致, 進入深度閱讀時, 驟然發現兩部名著竟有巧妙聯繫!  冥冥中, 它倆選擇於某個時間點, 為我開啟奇想智慧的絲路.

 

Like a derivative of Sortes Vergilianae, my September reading illuminates a reoccurring theme of diarchy.  My promiscuous reading pattern often leads to serendipitous discovery.  I did not choose the books; the books have chosen me to read them together:  Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. 

Invisible Cities如詩如諭, 架構微妙, 毋須從頭讀起.  章節極短, 每座城市皆以女性命名, 穿插大汗忽必烈與朝臣馬可波羅行而上對話.  城市有些亙古, 有些虛幻, 有些現代, 有些純粹代表某種精神狀態… 如佐貝伊德城, 坦然圓月下, 巷弄糾結如繩綑, 起源不可考, 然聚集一羣追夢人.  男人做著同樣的夢, 他們都在月光籠罩的夜晚, 追逐一位長髮裸身的女子; 總在某個街角, 失落伊人蹤影.  如艾黛爾瑪城, 抵達這港灣時, 旅人看見的每張臉孔, 皆來自他們童年記憶中, 早該逝世多年的長者.  等到似曾相識的面孔滿溢, 她或他恍然大悟, 自身已死… 這是彼岸的城市.

 

The discourse between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo in Invisible Cities is both metaphorical and metaphysical.  So are the cities that Marco Polo recites to the great emperor.  Some possess peculiar architecture while others symbolize states of ‘being’, be it desire or death.  The readers drift from one dream to another in a melancholic trance.  The book inspired generations of illustrators to reconstruct the cities visually.

城市與城市之間, 大汗和朝臣哲學問答.  忽必烈問馬可波羅, 他描述許許多多遍歷的城市, 獨不聽朝臣提及家鄉威尼斯?  馬可波羅的回答是, 我描述的每一座城市, 都敘述了威尼斯的點滴.  此章結尾是惆悵的馬可波羅, 敘述座座陌生城市的同時, 他亦一點一滴模糊了對威尼斯的記憶.  另一章君臣漫步花園, 忽必烈: 從不見你離開這庭院, 你如何遍遊這些城市?  馬可波羅: 我無論身在何處, 祇要靜心冥想, 便能瞬時回到這花園, 殿下的跟前.  忽必烈: 有時我也不確定自己是否正漫步花園, 還是戰場騎駿馬揮刀衝鋒攻城掠地中… 或許你我不過是兩個乞丐翻垃圾覓食, 邊作忽必烈與馬可波羅的白日夢罷了.

The plotless Invisible Cities drastically contrasts my parallel reading, The Blind Assassin.  The layers of fiction within fiction of The Blind Assassin are masterfully interwoven into a reflective examination of human existence.  I was delighted by the whimsical connection… Atwood’s blind assassin could totally be from one of Calvino’s desolated cities!

 

閱此小書亦如奇幻南柯一夢, 可想像原文優美, 我不懂義大利文, 祇能讀英譯本, 大抵隔了層屏障.

When the aged protagonist Iris speaks in The Blind Assassin, I could not help but to picture Atwood herself.  Candid, spunky, and cynical… perhaps like what Venice means to Marco Polo in Invisible Cities, every character an author creates embodies an essence of the author, too.

The Blind Assassin乃長篇, 多半長篇小說需耐心進入狀況, Atwood文字精銳佈局靈動, 短短幾頁我便上鉤, 書中書錯縱複雜, 回憶與現在式並行.  旁述二戰和戰後的時代, 人心人性的疑惑掙扎, 這部書讀來沈重, Atwood的文字魅力讓人放不下手.  她的MasterClass曾講述小說人物創作, 時間歷煉的重要性, Atwood幽默睿智活躍, 真是令後輩景仰的典範!

For my October read, deciding between Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Penelope Fitzgerald and Angela Carter… to be unveiled at the next blog post :)

Atwood書中書的盲眼刺客, 完全可來自Calvino看不見的城市… 這麼丁點的幽微, 足夠書癡LK會心暢笑大半天, 深覺閱讀的確幸.