／zxd

What happened to him? I left a voice message today. Hope he is OK.

Maya is right in the sense that your writing does have some elements that makes one think of Amy Tan. You mentioned that you wrote this for your American friends. I think they would read it with great interest and will enjoy reading it. The challenge, however, is how to make others, that is people who do not know you, feel interested in reading it. What would intrigue their interest? What would convince them that by reading it they would gain some benefits? Gain more useful or interesting knowledge? Have fu

I'm not sure why Maya post her chapters in her cafe. If she seriously consider writing this as a novel for publication, she shouldn't post it on web for free, and I look forward to it in its book form in bookstores. If it is meant to be an exercise for writing fictions, here I may contribute my 2 cents of comments. I saw some previous comments and dialogues on these chapters, such as pop vs. serious literature. I don't think Maya's problem or difficulty here is not to know how to write in a more popular

Did you read his book《思路花语》? Is it as good as the other one that you have introduced, something called "wise words of a foolish man?"

博览与狂放是玛雅通常招人喜爱的原因，但我最为欣赏的是她联想的奇妙和推理的精致，全是神来之笔，非努力所及。

章诒和的这几篇文章是本世纪初最重要的文字。有这样的好文章读，活的便算是有意义了，总算今天没白过。

嘿，男人也会生病啊。我就一直在咳嗽，一个月了。人说陪公子读书，我这是陪美女生病呀。看来艳福不浅。zili弄出个玛雅旧诗，我还以为是他特地为玛雅写的。刚要说玛雅这会儿该高兴了，病也该好了。没想到是美女自画像。不过都一样，挺精神的，看着舒坦。

Quite interesting. The book title is good too.

酷毕了。Ha, ha, ha.

Is this article finished? Seems not end yet.

Thanks for the quick response. You are truly a living encyclopedia, in its absolutely positive sense, of course. Getting out of holiday blues? Cheers.

美文。可读，可醉。我向来不喜欢读同辈人或同代人的游记，这篇算是例外。有史，有议。叙事抒情恰到好处。自然，随意。古今中外人物辈出。

It's a good name. I don't blame you for the change you made to it. You got a good reason to do that. The first time I saw your name I felt I like it, not because of its connection to a flower or plant but because I felt it is musical, somewhat connecting to a musical instrument. Of course you may not like that instrument, just as you don't like that flower. But that has completely different images in my mind. It associates with romance and Chinese minorities. In my childhood, that represents the west, the w

翻案文章不容易写，因为并不是要把黑说成白，白说成黑。最近看到好像是沈默克的文章谈毛诗。许多观点不错，如指出毛诗有许多他人参与写作修改。但不可全盘否认毛的诗词功夫。汪曾祺晚年谈到毛将他的“迎来春天换人间”改为“迎来春色换人间”，颇有尊拜一字师的味道。顺便想起xw的诗里有“想起那么多好女儿，嫁了顽夫，含泪归居”一句。“归居”不知是否有意从“归宿”转变而来。我倒觉得“归宿”更顺耳通俗也响亮些。“归居大不易”似乎一般也另有所指。我这里班门弄斧，练习汉字，望指正。

I always love poetry singing in Shaoxin Yueju (越剧) by those playing the roles of 小生. I wish I could have post their 宫商角征羽 here, just like what xw did for twinkle star. xw wrote: > 举例说吧，就象一首英文小歌: > > Twinkle Twinkle | Little Star - > How I wonder | what you are ? - > Up above the | world so high - > Like a diamond | in the sky. - > Twinkle Twinkle | Little Star - > How I wonder | what you are ? - > > 1 1 5 5 | 6 6 5 - > 4 4 3 3 | 2

This discussion seems interesting and going around through a weird or unexpected path. I may decide to read Fountainhead someday. But let me ask you something entirely different. Have you ever read anything by or about Anais Nin? It strikes me that her phenomenon is somewhat similar to what we recently saw in China, namely women writers using their bodies to write fictions. Any comments on it? I remember you said something on the subject, but I couldn't find it. So I just post this question here. Is economy

I'm home, with the family, of course. It's family time, big time in the year. Just being amused an hour ago as I was reading Maya's and others' talks in CND on the philosopher. I can't even remember if I have or have not read his "happy philosophy", but I do know that ever since I have heard of his big name, my philosophical question for life has become this: Where or how can I find hapiness, now that I know I'm not a genious. One idea or solution comes from a reading of now-I-forgot-what that says: sma

Ezra Pound once wrote: "Knowledge is not culture. The domain of culture begins when one has 'forgotten-what-book'." If Mr. Chien was not a Chinese, he would be remembered and respected the most as a novelist. Knowing 7 languages (plus ancient and modern Chinese makes it 9) is certainly impressive. To apply all that to literature studies is even more admirable. Only Chinese, however, would have made such a big fuss about it. The ruling class (or kings) as well as the society in general gave such special resp

Sorry about misspelling of my name in previous post.

Ha, ha, ha... That's because we don't understand humor, and therefore we cannot discuss serious questions. "Ugly" or "beautiful" gegeneration, the labeling doesn't matter, if we understand humor. That generation is labeled as the "lost generation" in the west. Again, lebeling doesn't matter. But whoever in western politics does not win over the votes from that generation is surely LOST. I was appalled by the fact that we still see people targeting a geneal group of people in political talks. Remeber

Again, quite well written. I'm really glad to see that my dry words helped to produce some beautiful language. As for content, I think I can accept or agree with all of it. What is missing, however, is a dynamic view. What will interest me the most is not an analysis or answer from a static viewpoint. Rather, I was asking about a historical trend. If we hold a more or less Taoist view, we may think of the currently observed historical trend as a dynamic cycle with two elements waxing and waning in turns. If

Quite well written. I was actually thinking of Lu Han when I posted my previous piece on expressing nobility in literature. Again, this is an coincidence I love to find in life. From reading Lu Han's recent writing, I somewhat have a sense that he is one of the few who still cares about writing or displaying nobility in prose writing. He still likes to express or appraise some kind of nobility in human nature, while the current trend or fashion (including Mr. Yu) is devoting its energy in exposing the d

This is not just a Chinese phenomenon. It applies to Western literature as well. In fact it started in the west. Someone said it started from Mark Twain. China did not follow the trend closely, partly because of the Party's monopoly and control. After that control was removed or began to be removed in the 1980s and 1990s, it is pretty much a Chinese phenomenon too. Here is what I recently read in Ezra Pound's essays: "Most good prose arises, perhaps, from an instinct of negation; is the detail, convinci

Are these peoms written by xw? Did he write in Chinese and then translate into French? Or vice versa?

A great book review. If every professor of literature can write a book review as good as this one, I have to change my view of that profession. If any professor of literature in my college days could write a book review as well, I might have tried to join that profession. If more people can write a book review this well, we may abolish that profession. This is a review with unique characters.

According to Edward Said, an intellectual is not only independent from government or masses or mainstream, he/she is only functioning as an intellectual when his or her independent thinking is somewhat against these things. In other word, my understanding is that when a scholar is serving the government, he is not functioning as an intellectual anymore. So the roles are rotating. When you are in the cabinet and I am not inside the government I am functioning as an intellectual. When I serve the government a

I first read this one in CND and wondered why it wasn't posted here. Among all of Maya's essays, this is one of my favorites. Question: If 卡萨诺瓦直至去世，都非常注意他的仪容，他从不简衣陋食，他戴撒了金粉的假发、喷着香水、口袋里是烫贴平整的手绢。 and 华伦斯坦经常外出，卡萨诺瓦的受到佣人与厨子就在卡萨诺瓦生活的所有细节上折磨和作弄他。他在街上遭到下人的殴打和戏耍。卡萨诺瓦写了21封信痛斥城堡管家Faulkircher毫无仁义，铁石心肠。他与管家之间的龌龊，让人唏嘘长叹。虎落平阳被犬欺，卡萨诺瓦，这个曾经征服整个

This is where a picture worth or better than a thousand words. Where did this fashion come from? Why never occur again? Even a porn artist does not have such great imagination. I was speechless.

I totally agree with Maya when she wrote: 谁说文字要让位于图像，七格实在不必从文字王国中“突围”，文字真是妙啊，别的媒介比如图像就不能像这样让人浮想联翩。100个人读到这一段会有100个不同的画面。 文字的魔力在于“激活”人的想象，文字让图像、让真实、虚幻同时在脑子里驰骋。 As an example, I would like to cite an article I have just finished reading a moment ago at CND (小尼：我的火车) http://www.cnd.org/my/modules/wfsection/article.php%3Farticleid=4179 Perhaps I shouldn't praise another girl's writing her

Due to my ignorance of the contemporary Chinese literature and its writers' circle, I have never heard of him and never read any of his works. But this is a good and interesting article, and the interview convinced me that we may have the good luck to see a real and good writer who has just arrived in the corner. He seems to have everything ready and everything he need to become a good writer. By the way, that quoted formal review is the best illustration to help us understand why this promising writer