去年底在纽约客读了这篇Can a video game be prestige TV? 就一直在期待它的上映。虽然我对僵尸设定毫无兴趣。但是凭着Craig Mazin的信任还是开追。结果就是我和小朋友都变成了这个剧的狂热粉。甚至开始研究是不是需要进一个Playstation去玩玩这个游戏。
今天刚放出第三集。出乎意料的好看。Craig Mazin确实是可以信赖的剧作人。第三集尤其好。讲了一个爱情故事。跟切尔诺贝利一样，剧集播出期间还有同步放送的博客。游戏制作者老在暗示接下来Ellie跟Joe之间会有各种背叛，让我很忐忑。继续靠着对Mazin的信任追下去。相信他不会把观众带到沟里去。阿弥陀佛。
非常易“读”，大概三四天时间听完了。最大的亮点是用语言，翻译和各种词汇的辞源来做魔法这根线。从中文古文到拉丁文波斯文到梵语。有趣的跨文化链接让人目不暇给。对我而言最大败笔是简单粗暴的批判殖民危害的布道式的世界观。后者非常有大学新生作文的味道。让我想起电视剧《白莲花度假村》里面类似的观点，但是白莲花至少带些自嘲没有这书作者这么自以为是。这种传教士口气写小说的方式还让我想起1984.
仔细梳理了一下为什么作者对殖民主义的批判这么让我不适。看到有书评里提到作者的反面人物塑造的太单一，只是一味的坏而没有理由。凭这一点就不如Harry Potter。 对殖民地和鸦片战争的描述也给我类似的感觉。也许不单单是作者，很多现在的时事评论也有同样的问题。所有这些让我不适的粗旷的分类好像都起源于这种论调里特意淡化或者避而不谈甚至混淆的被殖民地的政府的作用。用书里大英帝国和清朝中国的例子来解释一下。书中很自然把小说里的坏人和大英帝国的政府连在一起，腐败的政府，贪婪的东印度公司，坏人魔法师辅助帝国扩张并因此暴富。但是说到中国，就只讲人民的苦难，但是避而不谈清政府在制造这些苦难的重大作用，其实清政府和大英帝国的政府有本质区别吗？当然更不会去谈受苦的人民大部分在面对“境外势力”无论是大英帝国的政府势力还是像书中主角这种二鬼子都跟愿意维持继续受苦的民意。
书的标题把重点放在暴力的必需性这一点也是不停的让我想起法国大革命和文化大革命。主角那种想毁掉一切的意愿跟毛用来煽动红卫兵的措辞是一模一样的。
我想这也是为什么R F Kuang的小说被归到young adult这一类别的原因。简单的非黑即白的世界观跟The Hunger Game是同道。
坏话说完了，可以讲我爱的书中的高光。各种语言词汇的渊源。一个字就是一部历史，或者人类发展史。。。太有趣了。
“Nice comes from the Latin word for “stupid”,’ said Griffin. ‘We do not want to be nice.” Nice comes to us by way of the Old French nice (‘weak, clumsy, silly’), from the Latin nescius (‘ignorant, not knowing’).
“The English made regular use of only two flavours – salty and not salty – and did not seem to recognize any of the others. For a country that profited so well from trading in spices, its citizens were violently averse to actually using them; in all his time in Hampstead, he never tasted a dish that could be properly described as ‘seasoned’, let alone ‘spicy’.”
“New words in English were a game to him, for in understanding the word he always came to understand something about English history or culture itself. He delighted when common words were, unexpectedly, formed from other words he knew. Hussy was a compound of house and wife. Holiday was a compound of holy and day. Bedlam came, implausibly, from Bethlehem. Goodbye was, incredibly, a shortened version of God be with you.”“Tabby cats were named after a striped silk that was in turn named for its place of origin: a quarter of Baghdad named al-‘Attābiyya.”
Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.
The phrase tantú （坦途）literally meant ‘a flat road’, metaphorically, a ‘a tranquil life’. This is what he wanted: a smooth, even path to a future with no surprises. The only obstacle, of course, was his conscience.
The Persian word farang, which was used to refer to Europeans, appeared to be a cognate of the English foreign. But farang actually arose from a reference to the Franks, and morphed to encompass Western Europeans.”
The origins of the word anger were tied closely to physical suffering. Anger was first an ‘affliction’, as meant by the Old Icelandic angr, and then a ‘painful, cruel, narrow’ state, as meant by the Old English enge, which in turn came from the Latin angor, which meant ‘strangling, anguish, distress’. Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your ribs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breathe.”
It doesn’t translate well into English. It means “whereabouts”. A place where one feels like home, where they feel like themselves. She wrote out the kanji characters for him in the air – 居場所 – and he recognised their Chinese equivalents. The character for a residence. The characters for a place.
最近新出的我很喜欢的两个剧集居然都是第五季。
《使女的故事》大结局第十集十分动人。很同意剧作人的说法“the most romantic season for Nick and June, even though they were physically far apart.” 有《英伦病人》的感觉。两个人花了整整一季来说服自己对方不再需要自己。可以各回各家，分道扬镳了。Nick “was trying on the Gilead shoes.” Nick相信Lawrence的说辞要把Gilead改好。他也认为在多伦多June是安全的。但是最后知道Gilead开始暗杀June而且几乎得手，他放弃了一切换来在她依然昏迷时看看她。最后在桥上和Mark Tuello的对话让我泪目。
Nick: I will keep my end of the deal. You just keep her safe.
Mark:I will do everything I can.
Nick: That’s not good enough. Gilead wants her to suffer, they will keep coming for her, then her family. They won’t stop. I need to know you will protect her.
Mark: When you met June, when you were at the Waterford’s. You still held rank in the eyes, didn’t you?
Nick: Yes, most of the drivers work for the eyes.
Mark: That would give you the chance to run. Maybe not Canada. But there were places you could have gone. You could have run away with her.
Nick: [Thoughtful for a bit] She has people who care for her. She doesn’t need me. I’m nothing.
Mark:No, you are not. Commander. Not to her.
另外一段June 对Luke说的话在豆瓣小组变成了“警世恒言”
《王冠》
第五季是从1990到1997。继续学习英国历史。俄国最后的沙皇一家的死居然跟英国皇室的决定有关。这个是我之前从来没听说过的。貌似还是真的。另外BBC和皇室的关系，大雨中查尔斯王子在交付香港的演说，还有埃及商人Fayed和Edward贴身管家Sydney间的故事也都很有意思。
两部剧明年出第六季都是最后一季了。很期待。
小桂桂力荐的《The Broken Earth》奇幻小说系列我断断续续听了好几遍。非常喜欢。重听时注意到之前漏掉的一个细节，唤醒 Stone Eater的第一个人造人Kelenli和她的后代创建的就是”lorist”（说书人）这一种”职业”。
最近全世界各种走回头路，发现说书人的存在其实真的很重要。历史的延续全要靠说书人。
Ursula Le Guin的中篇小说集 《The Found and the Lost》。最近读完了很喜欢。觉得比看过的她的长篇要好不少。选中的小说各种题材，层次丰富，人物多样，设定巧妙。除了Vaster than Empires and More Slow 和The Matter of Seggri 下面三篇也很喜欢。
３。A Woman’s Liberation – 想象了一个实行奴隶制度的星球，以女奴隶为前锋的反抗革命历程。清醒锋利的描述，人物刻画也非常厚重多面。
４。Dragonfly – 地海系列的故事，一如既往的好看。真是喜欢地海这个奇幻世界啊。
５。Paradise Lost – 把Wall-e这个故事重新写了一遍，加入了很多社会和人性的思考。非常有意思。
据说blanchett 为了这个电影学了弹钢琴，指挥和德文。全都完美呈现。定制西装穿得超级帅！剧本颇风趣否则会睡着。开幕近二十分钟的访谈讨论古典音乐各种 内行书袋直接把我们家小朋友看睡着了呼噜打得山响😱 后面音乐和情节出来就好多了。
“What do you mean, you’ve never heard of Lydia Tár? Come on, you must know her. She was a protégée of Bernstein’s. She’s the one who conducted orchestras in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and New York before taking charge of the Berlin Philharmonic. She has a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy—the royal flush of accolades. It’s true that she happens to be a fictional character, incarnated by Cate Blanchett in Todd Field’s new movie, “Tár,” but that is a footling detail. This woman is alive, ominously articulate, crisply styled, and all too present. She burns like a cool flame.”- Cate Blanchett Is Imperious and Incandescent in “Tár”
Anthony lane的影评一般情况下跟评的电影关系不大。我主要是看他怎么利用电影来抖聪明。但是偶尔他的影评评的特别到位。这次是后者。看完电影再读这篇觉得评的很合我意。
The Handmaind’s Tale第五季在Hulu上开播了，每周放一集，上周放到第七集。一如既往的好看和感动。
年初小朋友申请订阅crunchyroll看日本动漫。而且看到好片子会把我按在沙发上，把我的手机电脑都收走逼我跟他一起看，非常不容置疑的安利方式。先后安利给我的两个片子都非常好，让我不由得对小朋友的电影审美钦佩起来。
看完去豆瓣上看评论才发现导演细田守是宫崎骏之后日本最被看好的动漫导演。画中的细节，各种静物画一样的空镜头，电影镜头的运用，音乐，和叙事都非常精湛。
看到结尾我和小人都哗啦啦的流眼泪。小朋友说自己第一次看完并没有哭，但是跟我再看一遍就动了感情。他尤其喜欢结尾放演员表时的音乐和配合的这一家子经历的各种定格瞬间以照片形式回放。跟我第一次看是英文配音，不过瘾又把日文原版的放了一遍。等于是我看了两遍他看了三遍。
是个有十三集的连续剧动漫。每集二十分钟。叙事手法娴熟，各种致敬好莱坞经典，每集讲述一个都市普通人的故事，但是彼此之间有着各种明暗线关联。据说最后是个悬疑片。虽然以东京为背景，但是入木三分的人性是全世界的都市中人都熟悉可以带入。小朋友已经看完，我才看到第四集。很惊艳。豆瓣评分高达9.5！
《康斯坦丁》
今天在豆瓣看到《康斯坦丁》要拍续集，贴的基努·里维斯剧照帅的没朋友。我诧异，这部要拍续集的2005年上映的电影我居然都没有听说过。赶紧捞出来看了。哇塞！太好看了。简直就是Matrix的异度空间的双胞胎兄弟啊！服化道都超级讲究，除了演员还在用翻壳手机让人觉得有点年头了。其他都看不出来是将近二十年前的电影。对话情节也很幽默。
偷几张上面连接里的剧照
看完到豆瓣上找了一篇天主教科普影评《适合当天主教扫盲的片》这才圆满了。影评里关于路西法lucifer和米迦勒Michael的圣经故事也很好看。原来天使造过两次反。Michael在伊甸园里诱惑夏娃，Lucifer不肯臣服于耶稣（上帝的人世儿子)揭竿而起。
除了Keanu还有Tilda Swinton演的天使Garbriel还有Peter Stormare演的Lucifer也都相当好看。现在我也可以期待一下续集了。
Ursula K. Le Guin的 “The Found and the Lost”短篇小说集中文版刚出版。也是在豆瓣看到力荐，发现自己没有读过。前两天去旧金山公立图书馆借了英文有声书，刚听了两个半故事，觉得简直太好了。虽然说是短篇但是人物巨多，时间线巨跳，听得糊里糊涂，就去把电子版也借出来，听两耳朵读两页。觉得Ursula K. Le Guin真是女性写作的奶奶，那不勒斯四部曲和Broken Earth Trilogy写到的东西Ursula K. Le Guin很久前就开始写了。。。
第一篇”Vaster than Empires and More Slow” 就被惊艳到。瑰丽而奇异的异世界，优美而精致的深入人性。在豆瓣看到标题来自这首诗
To His Coy Mistress
by Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we make him run.
刚看完第四篇”The Matter of Seggri”。 想象一个跟地球相反的女性社会，男性只是用来传种接代或者装饰起来观赏的花瓶（战斗花瓶）。各种让人莞尔的妙句：
the man have all the privilege and the women have all the power.
…that learning was very bad for men: it weakens a man’s sense of honor, makes his muscles flabby, and leaves him impotent..“What goes to the brain takes from the testicles,” she said. “Men have to be sheltered from education for their own good.”
we don’t let the men kill each other, we protect them, they’re our treasures.
this is a terrible place to be a man.
Maybe some day it will be possible for a boy to choose his life. Among your peoples a man’s body does not shape his fate, does it? Maybe some day that will be so here.
Even highly educated, enlightened women have difficulty accepting men as their intellectual equals.
今晚又跑去眷湘吃晚饭。餐馆生意非常好，啤酒鸭居然卖完了。米粥同学叫了干锅大肠。超级好吃。我又叫了贡菜炒腊肉，小朋友赏脸跟我们一起吃晚饭，给他叫了蛋炒饭和一个不辣的干锅花菜。
小朋友喜欢这家餐馆因为马路对面有一家亚式甜食店，他们做的日本甜食薄饼比日本城的还好吃，主要是他们的 crepe边缘是脆的。甜食店的窗口摆了一排各种宫崎骏人物和台湾街头小食的街景。
298 Broadway, Millbrae, CA 94030, United States
(closed on Tue)
三年的疫情，经常听到经营不下去的餐馆关门。幸运的很，我们喜欢的餐馆几乎都幸存下来，居然还有疫情期间开张的我们的新宠。
以前一直抱怨半岛上离旧金山近的地区没有好吃的湘菜。后来留湘在San Mateo开了分店我们去了一阵子，再后来这家眷湘在Millbrae2019年冬天开张，我们第一次去已经是疫情期间，只能外卖。我们就买了好久他们的外卖，几乎每个菜都很好吃。非常辣。米粥同学每次都吃的满头大汗。只能外卖的时候我们经常点他们的口味鱼，大大一盘，当时的小伙子侍者写的一笔好字。今天又去吃，点了啤酒鸭和贡菜炒腊肉都非常好吃。现在的小姐姐侍者还送了我们一个香辣猪耳朵前菜。
Easterly Millbrae
上海点心都不错，生煎包尤其惊艳。小笼包小馄饨菜饭都很好吃。疫情过后好像还没有恢复之前的火爆，我们周末五点半六点半时间去，一般等了二十分钟就可以有座位。
阿拉上海I-Shanghai Delight
19年在恶人谷写的这篇推荐文，发现忘了在这里备份。正好这两天在看第三季电视剧集。很喜欢。搬过来再加几句。
=====2019.4.3===============
尽最大努力不剧透的来写一篇读后感。希望谷里的同学都去看，真是非常好非常值得的一种阅读体验。剧也推荐，可以当前菜，剧拍得很忠于原著。
Elena Ferrante这名字在纽约客出现过几次。我知道这是个意大利的”匿名作家“。顶着这个笔名写了一系列畅销小说。那不勒斯四部曲(neapolitan novels)是最新的一个系列，也是最红的。而且小说以女性视角来写。据说功力非凡。史无前例。更有意思是作者坚决不露面。只有TA的编辑知道其真面目。所以大家沸沸扬扬猜来猜去。甚至有人说是位男作家冒着女人的名字写的（这是有多大男子主义啊！写的好的小说就一定是男性作家？！！）
最近四部曲被翻译成了中文，豆瓣上常看到大家在推荐。我也一直存了心要去读。但是一直没有做到。去年感恩节假期的时候，发现HBO在播一个新剧”我的天才女友“（My Brilliant Friend)第一季。就是根据四部曲改编的。看了半集就爱上了。拉上妈妈一起看。后来连小人都兴致勃勃跟我们追了几集。我猜因为第一季里两个主人公女孩子在小学，有很多小学生们打架吵架的情节小人很有共鸣。因为还在联播，一直追到十二月中期才看完第一季。不甘心等剧了解下文。在等每个礼拜更新的时候就买了Kindle 版，哗哗哗看得手不释卷。剧追完了书也看完了。真好看啊！好像我所有的按钮都被这书按了一遍。爽得不得了。
从来没有读过更深刻更直面现实更细致的描述女性成长的书。不仅是女性间的友谊，还包含了为人母，为人妻，为人情妇，以及性向。写作风格也是独具一格。真是当得起”史无前例“这个评语。诚实，直接，而且感人。I’ve never seen anyone else writing about being a woman like the author has done.
故事讲的那不勒斯一个贫民区里两个女孩子一生的友谊。时间跨度从五十年到到八十年代。很多地方，她们的生活跟我们生长的中国好像啊。其中一个女孩子后来离开那不勒斯去米兰/翡冷翠读书成家，当时她面对的文化冲击，简直像极了我离开中国到美国时的情形。书中人物对待政治（那不勒斯/意大利的政局）也很像我记忆力中国孩子对待政治的态度。都是不可信的但是又无法摆脱或者改变。总是带着怀疑的滤镜。
以前听说过意大利的Red Brigades. 但是主流媒体好像都没有详细报道过Red Brigades变成这么暴力的起因，也就是他们对抗的法西斯们有多暴力。这些细节让我想到如今的美国和西欧。不寒而栗。
意大利是多么奇怪的一个国家，几乎跟中国一样奇怪一样暴力。。。
纽约客上各种有关报道
The New York Review of Books: Italy’s Great, Mysterious Storyteller
纽约客剧评之一： A Prada Ad for Working-Class Gloom, but with Shades of Humble Tenderness
The language is Italian and its dialects. The genre is neorealist melodrama, with a sumptuous nostalgia for the Golden Age films of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Luchino Visconti. The costumes and art, with their deep colors and stylized shabbiness and sumptuous austerity, are like a Prada ad for working-class gloom. The bricklayer’s son seethes about economic injustice while sporting an excellent maroon turtleneck. 
The atmosphere is thick in a way that sometimes verges on self-parody and sometimes feels appropriate amid the ferocity of the friendship between Elena and Lila and the intensity of the adult intrigues as the children understand them. Tales of adultery and usury roll down to their ears by way of gossip, misheard whispers, and cautionary folklore, and they snowball into thrilling myth. Beneath the show’s heavy coats of operatic varnish and prestige-TV enamel, it demonstrates a humble tenderness.
两个女孩子小时候的居民楼。我觉得跟我从小住的苏联老大哥帮忙建的宿舍楼好像！
刚看了一篇作者访谈，这段话很好的描述了本书。我当初推荐给好朋友时，她也问这书／剧是不是很暴力？我当时一愣。剧／书中的情绪很暴力，但是并不是美国电影那种暴力，因为几乎是不见血的。但是情节很“暴力”人物情绪也是。
I’m comforted by stories that emerge through horror to a turning point, stories in which someone is redeemed as confirmation that peace and happiness are possible, or that one can return to a private or public Eden. But I tried to write a story like that, long ago, and I discovered that I didn’t believe in it. I’m drawn, rather, to images of crisis, to seals that are broken. When shapes lose their contours, we see what most terrifies us, as in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” and Clarice Lispector’s extraordinary “Passion According to G.H.” You don’t go beyond that; you have to take a step back and, to survive, reënter some good fiction. I don’t believe, however, that every fiction we orchestrate is good. I cling to those that are painful, those that arise from a profound crisis of all our illusions. I love unreal things when they show signs of firsthand knowledge of the terror, and hence an awareness that they are unreal, that they will not hold up for long against the collisions. Human beings are extremely violent animals, and the violence they are always ready to use in order to impose their own eternal, salvific life vest, while shattering those of others, is frightening.
－https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-tu … a-ferrante
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很喜欢Lenu和Pietro的演员。他们在佛罗伦萨家里那些鸡毛蒜皮的小口角演的生动又妥帖。比看书时感觉要活泼合理。昨晚看到最后一集好看的让人喘不过来气，Lenu跟Pietro坦白自己跟nino有婚外情，要和Nino去法国。Pietro把她拖到两个小女儿跟前逼她跟女儿解释。Lenu一边试图跟女儿解释自己爱上了别人，一边眼色哀求Pietro。Pietro愤怒又无助最后哭倒在平静的Lenu身边。演的拍的都超级棒。
看到七十年代意大利女性在米兰上街要求拥有对自己身体的所有权，避孕药是违法的需要偷偷摸摸的像地下工作似的开出来，法西斯和红色旅在街头暴力相向。三年前读书时觉得，哇，意大利真落后。如今再看，发现，原来美国还不如意大利呢。
最近历史学家余时英老先生去世，豆瓣上看到好多各种缅怀文章，我一脸问号（从来没听说过这个人）看了一圈，被秦晖的士人风骨这好文感动了一把，就去搜了一下秦晖。然后就看到这个最近上传到油管，2016年秦晖解析文革之谜的视屏：四种叙事与历史真相。简直太好看了，简明扼要，我好像终于开始明白文革是怎么回事，我中学的老校长文革时为什么会被打死，凶手为什么至今招摇过市还可以衣锦还乡。文革中死去的人都是些什么人，我们如今纪念的张志新遇罗克又相似与不同在哪里。党偷换政治概念跟GOP如出一辙啊！再然后就是各种西方共产党人对文革的浪漫幻想是多么的错。。。当然最重要是更多了解了毛是怎么运作的，邓小平和陈云相似不同在哪里，等等等等。。。
我得把秦晖老师被禁的那本“走出帝制”找来读一下。。。
顺手推荐一下2015年这篇纽时关于秦晖被禁这本书的文章，不错。
https://cn.nytimes.com/culture/20151229/cc29qinhui/
在同为历史学研究者的人民大学教授张鸣眼中，今年63岁的秦晖教授是”中国唯一一位能做思想史还能做中国史、能做思想史还能做经济史、能做古代史还能搞现代史的人”。秦晖对中国历史一直以来有一个富于创见的宏观判断：中国历史之重点就是一头一尾的两次转型：第一次是从周代的分封制向秦代的郡县制（亦即作者所说的“帝国制”）转变，第二次则是晚晴以来的帝制向共和、民主、宪政制度之转型，而第二次转型，经历了百余年之久，却仍处于未完成状态，且很难预料究竟何时能够大功告成。中国“走出帝制”之不易，是整本书最为核心的主题，也是其他论题展开的基础。同时，作为读者，我们隐约可以猜测到：可能正是由于作者将周朝灭亡之后三千多年的中国历史以“秦制”加以概括，暗示了中国至今仍然处于帝制社会，专制仍是中国政治的底色，从而引来了审查者的严重不满的原因之一。