Annual Essay | Can Books Be Read? What Can You Read After Reading? - Minority Report#
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Highlights#
At that time, if I picked up a book, I would definitely read it all the way through. I wouldn't skip or fast forward. I would follow along with the excited heart that was eager for the ending. Of course, this was also because there was an implicit criterion for the book list at that time, which was the classics. This also ensured that I wouldn't read poorly made "patchwork" or "clipping" works.
After more than a decade of reading accumulation, I finally came to a transitional period of dealing with change. When I finish reading a very good story, I will feel extremely empty because I can no longer reproduce the astonishment I felt when I had never seen it before. This emptiness drives me to seek works that can give me the same feeling. I will look for different works by the same author, different works in the same genre, or different works from the same historical period. In the early stages of this process, I was lucky. I was always attracted by new stories because I felt that I still had so many stories to read!
Of course, novelty is always temporary, because once something new is absorbed, it becomes personal experience and becomes one of the standards I use to measure the next story. Naturally, this standard will continue to improve. Gradually, I lost interest in some stories from the beginning, and many books that I came for in anticipation left me disappointed, and I couldn't continue reading after the third page. I think the obvious cause of my condition is that I have lost patience. I would think that if I have already read about the Russian social customs under Tolstoy's pen, there is no need to read a similar story about a Russian family. But upon careful consideration, I realized that the loss of patience stems from my reading habit - the compulsion to read the entire book. I must judge whether this is a bad, vulgar, or stereotypical story before reading it, because if I read the synopsis, it is equivalent to destroying the surprise of the plot in advance, and my reading integrity will also be lost to some extent. This reading habit actually makes me hesitate to read some books. ⤴️ ^eebc27a9
Note: This article is an entry for the "2023 Annual Essay: Share Your Keywords" event. This article represents the author's personal views, and the title and formatting have been slightly adjusted by Minority Report.
Due to the large number of submissions received, some of the shortlisted articles have not been recommended to the homepage. In order to ensure that all shortlisted articles have enough display time during the final evaluation, the announcement of the final results of this essay has been postponed to March 24, 2024. Thank you for your support!
This article participates in the 2023 Annual Essay event. My keyword for 2023 is: reading.
This time, the article I wrote may be different from the style of previous years. I no longer summarize a system or a set of experiences. This year, I want to talk about reading, information gap, and contemporary literature.
Let's start with a story. One day, my mother lost a pair of shoes, but after a series of events including retracing her steps, reporting to the police, and a series of coincidences, she successfully found the shoes. When we were having dinner, she vividly recounted the whole process, with every detail, even repeating the conversation with the police officer word for word, as if pasting a chat record. She talked for 20 minutes, and I said several times, "Skip ahead, summarize what you talked about, and move on to the next part." She ignored my complaints and continued to share her story in a detailed and unorganized manner.
I saw a cleaner there, so I asked her if she had seen my shoes. White ones, leather shoes. She shook her head. Oh, wait, I didn't say it was in the morning, I just asked her if she had seen my shoes. White ones, leather shoes. She shook her head.
At that time, I thought, this is my mother, and I am willing to listen to her share what happened to her, but on the other hand, my years of reading experience make it difficult for me to tolerate such a narrative pace. I enjoy twists, turns, and connections in a story, but I have no interest in expanding a story into a transcript.
Thus, in my mother's narration, my mind began to wander. I remembered that in 2023, my reading underwent a significant transformation. When I was young, reading had two functions for me: it served as a companion and provided an opportunity for dialogue with the wise. Storybooks were the steps leading to distant places, and my imagination rode on the steps created by them to explore and adventure freely. I followed them, exploring, discovering, and adventuring, freely looking down at people like ants from the clouds, or nervously hiding under a big mushroom to avoid heavy footsteps. Opening a book meant jumping from my world into theirs. This sense of displacement fascinated me, and at the same time, their existence enriched my perspective and made me aware of the possibilities.
Works that can convey this sense of immersion are complete, with vivid characters, authentic backgrounds, and skillful storytelling. What interests me and keeps me reading are the twists and turns of the plot that devour my curiosity. The authenticity of literary works includes "emotional truth," "factual truth," and "philosophical truth," which, when combined, do not make people sneer at their absurdity or remain indifferent. The unpredictability of the plot allows me to step out of my life experiences and face the unknown future.
==At that time, if I picked up a book, I would definitely read it all the way through. I wouldn't skip or fast forward. I would follow along with the excited heart that was eager for the ending.====Of course, this was also because there was an implicit criterion for the book list at that time, which was the classics. This also ensured that I wouldn't read poorly made "patchwork" or "clipping" works.==
==After more than a decade of reading accumulation, I finally came to a transitional period of dealing with change.====When I finish reading a very good story, I will feel extremely empty because I can no longer reproduce the astonishment I felt when I had never seen it before. This emptiness drives me to seek works that can give me the same feeling.====I will look for different works by the same author, different works in the same genre, or different works from the same historical period. In the early stages of this process, I was lucky. I was always attracted by new stories because I felt that I still had so many stories to read!==
==Of course, novelty is always temporary, because once something new is absorbed, it becomes personal experience and becomes one of the standards I use to measure the next story. Naturally, this standard will continue to improve.====Gradually, I lost interest in some stories from the beginning, and many books that I came for in anticipation left me disappointed, and I couldn't continue reading after the third page. I think the obvious cause of my condition is that I have lost patience. I would think that if I have already read about the Russian social customs under Tolstoy's pen, there is no need to read a similar story about a Russian family. But upon careful consideration, I realized that the loss of patience stems from my reading habit - the compulsion to read the entire book.====I must judge whether this is a bad, vulgar, or stereotypical story before reading it, because if I read the synopsis, it is equivalent to destroying the surprise of the plot in advance, and my reading integrity will also be lost to some extent. This reading habit actually makes me hesitate to read some books.==
In fact, this is also the process of my information cocooning. It usually means two development paths:
- I have gained some understanding of the background of this era, so I am interested in knowing more, rather than developing more interest in other eras.
- I have gained a sufficient understanding of the background of this era, so I no longer want to see similar things.
On the positive side, the first possibility increases the depth of my reading, while the second possibility broadens the breadth of my reading. However, on the negative side, the first possibility can trap me within a certain scope, and the second possibility can lead to incorrect assumptions about real experiences.
So I thought, why don't I call 110 and see if they can check the surveillance cameras. So I called, and a woman answered the phone, I heard a woman's voice, I said I lost a pair of shoes in this place on XX Road. She asked me where exactly. I said it's here on XX Road, there's a street lamp here, and there's XX Park next to it, I was walking here...
This habit of assumption has not only affected my reading but has also permeated into various aspects of my life. When someone talks about a part of my life that I have had rich experiences in, my caution towards that person increases significantly. Their words become my debate topic, and I cannot stop discerning whether what they say aligns with what I know, and whether it is because they know the true information.
Let's go back to my real reading experience. Although the motivation behind creation is human, the most profound impact I received when reflecting on this is in the "comment section." A "comment section" implies that it should correspond to a specific topic of discussion, but the people influenced by this topic may not have the same experiences. However, taking a sentence out of context and attacking the rationality of the "consensus" based on one's individual experience has become the norm in the comment section. Even I myself cannot judge a person's cultural level, life experience, or knowledge coverage based on a sentence in the comment section. They cannot form a complete person and can only become a sign, a symbol, a plane. The viewpoints of both sides in the comment section, even in cases where they do not intend to argue, can lead to intense discussions due to the information gap, completely deviating from the original topic.
The most familiar example to me is the long discussion that arises from a comment under a video of a cat eating raw meat.
This "comment section ecosystem" is completely different from the reading mode I am familiar with, where sparks of consciousness, inspiration, guidance, or calls are generated through heated debates. However, this "comment section ecosystem" has permeated into every aspect of my life, except for my parents and close friends who live with me and whose thoughts I can predict. Anyone else, more or less, can only become an electronic music tadpole1 because they are not fully understood.
This habit of assumption has had the most profound impact on me in terms of reduced interest in making new friends over the past year. The surplus of experiences has reduced my interest in strangers, and the lack of communication sparks makes me reflect on why I don't use the time of these conversations to obtain more practically useful information. Information exchange with zero entropy is always painful, and the cost of making friends is as high as reading an entire book. "Should I open this book?" My experiences and interests always make me hesitate.
Later, a leader came out and said, "We are at the grassroots level. How can we have such advanced technology!" I said, "But that's how it's shown in movies..." But that person still didn't let me see the surveillance footage. He said, oh, he said it in the local dialect, he asked me if I was from XX, and I said yes, and he spoke to me in the local dialect, saying, "You are from XX, so you..."
However, I cannot live without stories. If there are no stories to read, I will wither away like a flower without water, a person without food, or a bicycle without wheels. Of course, going back to my criteria for selecting books, I can remove the zeroth criterion, abandon the brand effect - the guarantee of good stories provided by classics, and look for those emerging contemporary literature works that have not yet received literary criticism.
Of course, when I say contemporary literature, it actually includes all contemporary "literary forms" that can entertain or inspire me. Screenplays are secondary, and online literature has become the main force of contemporary literature, but it is almost completely contrary to the implicit criteria of storytelling. The plot is often cliché, the characters are often hollow, and the background is often flat. This leads to a much higher time cost for selecting good stories than reading classics. However, on the other hand, these fresh literary forces have positively responded to the market and readers, becoming a literature created by three parties together. The latter is already postmodern in nature, holding up its deconstructive spear to shatter the facade of grand narratives.
The most fascinating aspect of contemporary literature is the clear reflection of social trends in literature. Apart from intentional efforts by authors, the mapping of ideological reflections often brings more fun than the typical reflections in realism.
In fact, although the cost of screening is huge, there are still some excellent works that are worth reading, and even re-reading. Any work that stands out from the tide of the times is born in the tide of the times. Texts that are close to the reality of life are more likely to be understood as containing unfinished words behind them. The historical changes conveyed through subtle metaphors may not only meet the reader's reading interests but also bear the author's ambitious aspirations. Otherwise, look at "The Sun Also Rises," a serialized masterpiece that ultimately established Hemingway's literary status, right?
So I had to go home. But when I passed by that butterfly bridge, I looked back at the original road again, and I saw the cleaner again. I felt unwilling to give up. I had wasted so much time, so I thought I might as well turn around and take another look. So I went there and asked her again. I said I lost a pair of shoes here in the morning. White ones, leather shoes. She said, "In the morning! I wasn't on duty in the morning. I can help you make a call to our team leader." Then she dialed her team leader's number...
Of course, I cannot live without stories. If there are no stories to read, I will wither away like a flower without water, a person without food, or a bicycle without wheels. However, I can abandon living through stories and live my own life. If there are no stories to read, I can create my own stories. Of course, going back to my criteria for selecting books, I can remove the zeroth criterion, abandon the brand effect - the guarantee of good stories provided by classics, and look for those emerging contemporary literature works that have not yet received literary criticism.
However, Chinese contemporary literature has a drawback, which is the presence of blocked words. The signifier generated from the author is transmitted to the reader's mind through the language's signified, and then translated into the reader's signifier through their individual experience. There are already two paths in this process, which may cause deviations. The appearance of blocked words blocks the first path. If the author "diverts," the common and effortless method is to use homophones, while the common but more laborious method is to use a similar expression that completely avoids certain blocked words. If the author does not "divert," the blocked characters will be replaced by "placeholder" symbols. Whether the author resists the blocking behavior or not, this blocked word and the corresponding signified of social consensus will gradually disappear. At any moment when you want to express meaning, this word will become increasingly difficult to use, just like a phone that is used too much and can no longer write.
Because I have absorbed a large amount of online literary materials in 2023, my expressive ability has rapidly declined. I often encounter situations where the signifier is clearly present in my mind, but the signified is detached from the reality, making it impossible for my brain's search function to reach it. In moments when I can't find the right word to express my current feelings or describe the scene at that time, it becomes "You know what I mean, right?" The inability to find a suitable word to express my current feelings or describe the scene at that time has become the main source of my silence last year.
Of course, reading cannot stop. Whether it is new literature, new literary forms, or new trends, they have become a way of life for me to upgrade my system. But the dilemma of expression has not been resolved. It seems that I can only increase the intensity of expression and consolidate the clarity of meaning. At least in 2024, I hope to share more.
Later, I really found it in the gap between the railings on the other side of the road! She hid it so secretly. Oh my god, if I hadn't turned back and asked her one more question, I might have had nothing after these 3 hours. Really, I thought about giving up countless times in the middle, but I felt that I couldn't give up. I had spent so much time, so I asked one more question. I didn't expect to find it! It's so amazing, don't you think?
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- 1An electronic musical instrument toy that looks like a mouth opening and speaking.
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