10周年紀念，大概應該要說句「恭喜」，或「10周年致慶,祝大展鴻圖」諸如此類的話吧？但我又想不出有什麼值得慶祝的…
執筆之際，正在看BBC的特備節目HK:10，卻忽然因為Glasgow機場恐怖襲擊新聞中斷了，想起在Glasgow的好友會在今天乘飛機去旅行，擔心得很，不停打他的手提也聯絡不上，最後因得知機場內無人受傷後才放心下來。
香港在過去10年縱經歷了不少風浪，但畢竟從沒受到恐怖襲擊或在這種陰影下生活，所以香港人還是應該慶祝可以在和平的環境下攪最擅長的小圈子活動。
Archive for June, 2007
Recommended by Joseph, I read this book written by DM Thomas, in which Freud was depicted as the analyst for a woman with hysteria. I am sure this book satisfies Freud’s fans as it contains lengthy details of analysis.
I expected the whole book to be about Freud and his patient and the analysis, somewhat like a case study, but no. Freud disappeared midway and the rest was about the woman’s life and career after treatment and the subsequent Holocaust. Not that it’s badly written, but it was just way out of my expectation of the book and I felt I was cheated - where was Freud? To me, the first part and the second part of the book can be completely separated - the hysteria of the woman had nothing much to do with her experience of the Holocaust.
I dislike the last chapter on afterlife. I think this is just silly.
Switzerland was never on my “travel list”, though I have visited it three times in the last two months (these days I always end up in places I never plan to go). As a land filled with breathtaking sceneries, no doubt it is, or perhaps the only, arcadia on Earth.
I revisited Jungfraujoch, it was still awesomely beautiful. The snow under the sun almost blinded my eyes. Nature is truly wonderful. I hope climate change wouldn’t rip off the mountain’s dazzling white dress.
More photos from here.
This book by Bernhard Schlink is about a man’s love affair with an older woman during WWII. He felt in love with her when he was a teenager, but she left him suddenly one day. They re-encountered several years later in the court room, when she was on trial as a Nazi SS guard and he was a law student observing her case. He then discovered her secret - that she was illiterate. He read stories and recorded them on tapes and sent them to her in prison. Slowly she taught herself how to read and write and wrote letters to him, but he never wrote back. After serving in prison for 18 years, and on the day of her release, a tragedy happened…
On surface “The Reader” is a love story, but in essence it explores the guilt and shame and the complex feelings the German second generation had towards the evil-doings of the Nazi government, participated by their parents. The crimes committed were too horrifying and beyond the younger generations’ comprehension and forgiveness, but they didn’t know how to confront their parents, or the people they loved that were involved in these crimes.
This is a gripping and psychologically complex book. There are many books on Holocaust and Nazi crimes, but this is one of the first that is devoted to portraying the emotions of the second generation. Some critics accused Schlink for trying to use illiteracy as a possible excuse for some Nazi criminals, and claimed that illiteracy and the capacity of moral judgment are not related. I only partly agree. The woman was clearly an involuntary victim of her uneducatedness.
The plot was complicated but intriguing. Johnny Depp was absolutely brilliant. Chow Yunfat… I don’t think he’s really famous for being a good actor, and he sounded quite unnatural to me when he’s acting in english.
原裝版, 好骨痺…
福佳版, 哈哈哈!
I struggled through this book when I was lying on the beach in Croatia. Having been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005, it certainly has its merits, such as a very rich plot, and some very witty and vivid dialogues. But overall speaking I don’t like it, first because of the horribly small font size which is deterrring and significantly slows down the reading pace. Second, it’s a book about African Americans and Zadie Smith uses a lot of local slangs and phrases which I don’t understand, as I have little knowledge of black culture and language. Do they really like to say “shit” in every sentence and for everything??
From the above map you can tell where I have been for the last 10 days - Austria (Vienna), Slovakia, then all the way down to Istria in Croatia where I spent a whole week in a sea-side apartment. 10 hours drive direct back to Frankfurt via Slovenia, Italy and Austria.
Istria (name of the province) is a popular resort area for Europeans, and not so well-known to the rest of the world (especially Asians). Sharing the same apartment building with us were Italians, Austrians, Spaniards, Dutch, Germans, Romanians and Hungarians. As it’s only one hour away from Italy, Italian influence was strong and people there were all bilingual in Croatian and Italian. It’s a pity that there were only rocky beaches but no sandy beaches, but perhaps that’s why the Adriatic Sea was very very clean.
Alcohol were very cheap in Slovakia and Croatia. In Istria restaurants offered schnapps for free. You could even get free ones when you walked pass the queue of restaurants along the harbour front when the waiters and waitresses tried to lure you into their shops with the smelly spirits.
A diamond skull by Damien Hirst.
French directors are probably the only few ones who still shoot this kind of musical movies in which the protagonists sing all the time. 8 Femmes from Ozon is an example, and Pas sur la bouche from Alain Resnais is another. An enjoyable comedy.
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