How long does it usually take to read a novel? How many hours, a day, a month? Wang Wenxing, a professor at National Taiwan University, advocates slow reading and only reads one novel a year. It took him half a year to explain a novel of more than 5,000 words. Someone compiled his explanation into a book and published it, and it was very popular among readers. This book is called "Nine Lectures". It is mainly Professor Wang Wenxing's explanation and analysis of the writing methods, techniques, and central ideas of "Dollhouse". It can be said to be an appreciation book that teaches people to write, or it can be said to be a book that teaches people how to appreciate writing. This is a method book for teaching people to read intensively.
Wang Wenxing, professor of the Department of Foreign Languages ??and Literature at National Taiwan University, is from Fujian. He was born in 1939 and grew up in Taiwan. He is one of the founders of the magazine "Modern Literature" and has published "Family Changes" and "Fifteen Novels" "The Man Who Backed the Sea" and other books. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate in literature from National Taiwan University and in 2009, he won the Taiwan Literary Award. He studied abroad in the novel writing class of the University of Iowa in the United States and received a master's degree. He mainly teaches novel courses at National Taiwan University and advocates intensive reading. So he spent half a year talking about Mansfield's "A Doll's House", which is the source of "Nine Lectures".
Mansfield, the author of "Dollhouse", was born in 1888 and died in 1923. She was British, but because of her love for Russian culture, she felt that she was a Russian in terms of character. I first knew about this writer because of an article by Xu Zhimo - "Mansfield". This was a condolence article written by Xu Zhimo when he heard about Mansfield's passing. Later I learned that Xu Zhimo was the only Chinese writer who had ever seen him. The people of Mansfield have only met each other once. Mansfield is the founder of New Zealand literature and a well-known cultural feminist. Most of his works also focus on women's living environment, such as "Garden Party", "Happiness", "At the Bay", "Dollhouse", etc. It is no exception. It mainly writes about the interactions between a group of students and describes the difficult situation of children from poor families in capitalist society.
Reading the book "Nine Lectures" is like a teacher giving you a lecture. It has original text display, Chinese translation, questions and explanations, discussion and analysis, and almost every metaphor in the article is chewed up. The analysis was thorough, and Professor Wang Wenxing’s occasional questions were also very instructive. After reading this book, you will probably understand how the novel should be structured, how to choose words and sentences, what is good about the article, why it is written in this way, and other reasons. What impressed me deeply while watching "Nine Lectures" was Professor Wang's description of toffee, as well as the description of the expressions of the two sisters, one complex and one simple, one moving and one still, and the little yellow light at the end echoed back and forth. and its meaning.
For example, in the description of toffee, the original text is "The small door with shiny yellow paint is like a thick piece of toffee." Professor Wang admired this metaphor very much, and Professor Wang said it was good For example, it must be similar in shape and expressive. We can associate the four key points of the toy door from the memory of toffee, such as color, shape, thickness, and brightness. Therefore, comparing the door to toffee is a good analogy. At the same time, the most important thing is that toffee belongs to children. The world is something that children are familiar with. If we use jewelry as an analogy, it does not belong to children's experience and is not a good analogy.
Another example is the small yellow light at the end of the article. The younger sister Elsie has been taciturn, timid and withdrawn throughout the article. In today's terms, she is a bit autistic. However, in the last paragraph, Elsie not only made some actions but also said something - "She stretched out her hand." She stroked the feathers on her sister's hat with one finger and showed a rare smile. "I saw the little lamp," she said softly. Professor Wang explained that this passage has several meanings. , First, my sister is different from before. Why? Because she was happy, and the reason for her happiness was that the lamp touched the beauty of her sister's heart; secondly, the lamp symbolized the kindness of human nature, Ji Caiyi's kindness in sharing toys with children from poor families, and Elsie's innocence and innocence; Third, lamps are a symbol of beauty, and people can feel beauty regardless of whether they are rich, poor, intelligent or stupid. While watching, I felt that the lamp might also have the meaning of being lonely in the middle of the night and cherishing each other, because Ji Caiyi received less love from her family than her sister, and Elsie also suffered from depression and low self-esteem for a long time, so although they are in different classes, their situations are Similar.
In addition to a few impressive explanations, I followed Professor Wang Wenxing’s ideas and learned how to read intensively, savor the essence of a book, and how to appreciate and appreciate a book.
Nowadays, in the fast food culture, the Internet is full of people who read several books in a few days, but how many of them are truly understood and mastered after reading? Don’t you know that fast is slow and slow is fast. So sometimes you still need to calm down and slowly comprehend and experience. The cover of "Nine Lectures" reads: "Reading slowly means not missing every word and solving every word. A good novel is like mathematics, every word is useful - even the punctuation is useful." This may be the same as what the ancients often said about book reading. A hundred times its meaning has the same effect but the same approach as before. If we just stick to the same formula and don’t ask for deeper explanations, then how can we write articles that are logically clear and witty?
Let’s see how Professor Wang Xingwen’s “Nine Lectures” achieves intensive reading? After each translation, he would ask several questions for everyone to discuss, such as the color and placement of toys, the color matching of clothes, the language and actions of the characters, etc. He also asked why it was written like this, what is its use, and what does it mean for the following text? Meaning etc. In the past, when I read novels, I focused on the development of love affairs and gripping plots, and most of the detailed descriptions and plot arrangements were rushed through.
If it hadn't been recommended by others, I would have thought this book was bland and unremarkable. After reading it, I would have been surprised to find that it is crude and simple. It is just what a layman sees as fun, and an expert sees the door.
Bite off more than you can chew. Slow is faster. Intensive reading and slow reading are also ways of reading and experiencing. Good articles are suitable for us to read slowly and slowly, so that we can appreciate the precipitation of time and the fragrance of time.