Animal Wise
Virginia Morell
6/26/2017
讀書會新近讀了本講述不同動物，由微渺的螞蟻說到大象，海豚及狗的書，書名 "Animal Wise" by Virginia Morell. 其中探討研究動物的心智和感情，在近年來頗有新發現。立論中：動物有能力學習，並非全由基因決定行為，書中提到的研究之一即以螞蟻為例證。動物亦有感情包括同理心-- 如海豚及大象：大象會守護在死去的同類身旁，久久不肯離去，也會記得離散數十年的同類親友，海豚則會救助其他動物脫離險境，包括人類在內。
動物和人的關係有不少模式，有些為柤上肉如牛羊豬豕，有些則為僕友如馬和狗。問題是人類一直以來自許為萬物之靈，有些甚而認為萬物中只有人類才有靈魂，其餘在進化轋中低於人者所具備的僅為 programmed behaviors 如 Pavalov 對狗做的實驗。當然現今的學者已明白更多昨日論斷之誤。
然而人類最大的問題在於心態：有人説是「以人為中心的思維模式」。歸結到底是人類的強者心態，在動物界中以神自居，強行主宰其他生物的命運，或者以一己好惡來替牠們做決定。所謂的 Anthropomorphism （賦以人性特質）小則養在家中的寵物如鸚鵡教牠說人話，小狗教牠學站、握手等人類的動作，或是將其打扮成各式各樣人的形象就像去參加化妝舞會一樣。大則強行改造動物基因，近數世紀來培育出許多不同體型及性向的貓狗，終極目標不過是為廣開客源，製造市場需求的新品種以飽私囊。再就是早期人類在拓荒或遊獵過程中對野生動物之濫殺，造成了許多動物絕種，近世紀以來雖有國際立法保護瀕臨絕種動物，亡羊補牢勉強補過，並無法挽回這些對自然界的損害。
人在動物園區的優越感甚至推及到不同人種，以為某些人種或是智慧不足、或是沒有靈魂（如未開化的人種），用這些立論支持他們自己的私心去奴役其他種族，這在上個世紀的世界各地甚至今天還經常發生。
Grace
Friday, September 29, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
My Antonia by Willa Cather
My Antonia (1918)
By Willa Cather
9/14/2017
Willa Cather is one of the early 20th Century American writers along with contemporaries such as Theodore Dreiser ("Sister Carrie", 1900) and Sinclair Lewis ("Main Street", 1930) who wrote about ordinary people in their days and gave the characters they portrayed distinct faces and voices with a place and time evoking reminiscence of the early days of the settlers.
"My Antonia" is about the immigrant families around the late19th Century in Nebraska who struggled against hostile elements and poverty making a life for themselves with hardworking and dignity. While immigrant experiences are overall similar those who came to settle in this part of the world are filled with stories to tell what they left behind in the old countries they came from.
Mr. Shimerda, a Bohemian, left behind him an intellectual and cultural surroundings more sophisticated than the home he found here in a dugout cave where his family lived like primitive people. The two Russian neighbors Peter and Pavel on the other hand came to the new land to escape the stigma of a nightmarish experience back home which laden them with guilt and scorns from their country men. Immigrants in recent history more or less came to this country in search of a better life. Nonetheless they were not equally rewarded. Those stories made up the first part of the narration of the book.
Antonia, our heroine, the elder daughter of Shimerda, was put to work alongside her older brother doing a man's work starting at a tender young age. Antonia's father later on committed suicide in disillusion of the new world and in a desperate attempt to rid himself from the burden of his large Bohemian family.
A few more female characters in the book however persisted in climbing the upward social ladder on their own. Among them, Lena, a Norwegian immigrant's daughter from another prairie farm, despite the bad girl image bestowed on her by the town and country folks alike, her effort as well as her talent landed her amid the rank of successful fashion designers of the days.
As time moved on and progress gradually emerged in this desolate land, lives in general were moving from rudimentary subsistence to more luxurious environment. The second part of the book' dwells in the transition as our narrator Jim Burden's family moved to a nearby town.
This is a rather universal theme. We can easily find parallels in many other societies. Taiwan, for example, has gone from similar social transformation from early 20th century's simple folk lives in farms or towns to the late century's affluence in urban dwellers.
Aside from the immigrants' experience which the author shed in ample amount and realistic details, I also enjoyed reading the book for her prosy writing which breathes fresh air every page you turn. Her depiction of the countryside often fills with imageries from nature our immigrant farmers surrounding themselves with on a daily basis. We can easily conjure vivid pictures in our mind's eye from passages filled with such florid colors mixing with all sorts of sounds and smell coming from outdoors living and from inside the dwellings of farm structures.
Colors splashed over page after page such as: copper-red grass, gold-washed sky, the blond pastures, ash grove or flowers blooming in pink and purple masses. Intimate account of farm life brings back our own childhood where sunshine was as bright as gold and grass as lustrous green when we were young.
All the while an undercurrent of social structures and mores of a time surfaced in between lines where prejudices against new immigrants and women in general were rampant. It was hard living for the immigrants and their sons and daughters, but in the end those who help themselves also get help when they need it the most. This includes those came from narrator Jim Burden's grandparents who often came to their aid in time of distress. There were also less than decent folks around such as the loan shark in town who fed on the less fortunate. All of them however were real people, characters the author used to know or encountered in her younger days living on Nebraska prairie.
Facing all these difficulties, the handful of immigrants' daughters, including Antonia, ultimately reached their goal of making life better for themselves and provides their offsprings with decent living. Success means different things for each one of them. Antonia was leading a happy life when Jim Burden revisited the prairie years after they separated in their youth. She now built herself a house furnished with necessary amenities and with many children and a husband around. It was a typical American Dream fulfilled for any immigrant at least in those days. Without a doubt this book is an excellent work of art and an important study of a time and place in American history.
Grace
.
By Willa Cather
9/14/2017
Willa Cather is one of the early 20th Century American writers along with contemporaries such as Theodore Dreiser ("Sister Carrie", 1900) and Sinclair Lewis ("Main Street", 1930) who wrote about ordinary people in their days and gave the characters they portrayed distinct faces and voices with a place and time evoking reminiscence of the early days of the settlers.
"My Antonia" is about the immigrant families around the late19th Century in Nebraska who struggled against hostile elements and poverty making a life for themselves with hardworking and dignity. While immigrant experiences are overall similar those who came to settle in this part of the world are filled with stories to tell what they left behind in the old countries they came from.
Mr. Shimerda, a Bohemian, left behind him an intellectual and cultural surroundings more sophisticated than the home he found here in a dugout cave where his family lived like primitive people. The two Russian neighbors Peter and Pavel on the other hand came to the new land to escape the stigma of a nightmarish experience back home which laden them with guilt and scorns from their country men. Immigrants in recent history more or less came to this country in search of a better life. Nonetheless they were not equally rewarded. Those stories made up the first part of the narration of the book.
Antonia, our heroine, the elder daughter of Shimerda, was put to work alongside her older brother doing a man's work starting at a tender young age. Antonia's father later on committed suicide in disillusion of the new world and in a desperate attempt to rid himself from the burden of his large Bohemian family.
A few more female characters in the book however persisted in climbing the upward social ladder on their own. Among them, Lena, a Norwegian immigrant's daughter from another prairie farm, despite the bad girl image bestowed on her by the town and country folks alike, her effort as well as her talent landed her amid the rank of successful fashion designers of the days.
As time moved on and progress gradually emerged in this desolate land, lives in general were moving from rudimentary subsistence to more luxurious environment. The second part of the book' dwells in the transition as our narrator Jim Burden's family moved to a nearby town.
This is a rather universal theme. We can easily find parallels in many other societies. Taiwan, for example, has gone from similar social transformation from early 20th century's simple folk lives in farms or towns to the late century's affluence in urban dwellers.
Aside from the immigrants' experience which the author shed in ample amount and realistic details, I also enjoyed reading the book for her prosy writing which breathes fresh air every page you turn. Her depiction of the countryside often fills with imageries from nature our immigrant farmers surrounding themselves with on a daily basis. We can easily conjure vivid pictures in our mind's eye from passages filled with such florid colors mixing with all sorts of sounds and smell coming from outdoors living and from inside the dwellings of farm structures.
Colors splashed over page after page such as: copper-red grass, gold-washed sky, the blond pastures, ash grove or flowers blooming in pink and purple masses. Intimate account of farm life brings back our own childhood where sunshine was as bright as gold and grass as lustrous green when we were young.
All the while an undercurrent of social structures and mores of a time surfaced in between lines where prejudices against new immigrants and women in general were rampant. It was hard living for the immigrants and their sons and daughters, but in the end those who help themselves also get help when they need it the most. This includes those came from narrator Jim Burden's grandparents who often came to their aid in time of distress. There were also less than decent folks around such as the loan shark in town who fed on the less fortunate. All of them however were real people, characters the author used to know or encountered in her younger days living on Nebraska prairie.
Facing all these difficulties, the handful of immigrants' daughters, including Antonia, ultimately reached their goal of making life better for themselves and provides their offsprings with decent living. Success means different things for each one of them. Antonia was leading a happy life when Jim Burden revisited the prairie years after they separated in their youth. She now built herself a house furnished with necessary amenities and with many children and a husband around. It was a typical American Dream fulfilled for any immigrant at least in those days. Without a doubt this book is an excellent work of art and an important study of a time and place in American history.
Grace
.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
"Reading Alice Munro"
9/16/14
Dear Friend*：
Hope this note finds you at a less busy and relaxed time which may not come by for a while. We had a wonderful time reflecting on Alice Munro's stories at our meeting last Monday. Although there are only 8 of us, each of us had quite a few things to say about her stories. The following is a few of my thoughts after reading her short stories collection titled "Carried Away". I enjoyed reading them all, particularly: "Hateship, Friendship, ....etc.", " Runaway" and "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" the latter was made into a recent film played by Julie Christie "Away from Her".
Her stories often feature females with relationship problems and those in the above mentioned stories were especially intriguing to me. In the first story "Hateship", Johanna, a woman with no background and no prospect in any type of relationships was able to succeed in a marriage beyond her means by way of some mischiefs of two teenagers. The ending of this story was skillfully woven into the last few lines. By means of an obituary ad. of her past employer, we learn what happened in her new life she created for herself instead of an epilogue many Victorian style novels use in the past.
In "Runaway", Carla is yet another woman suffering from the bombardment of irrational demands from her husband. The ending of the story (withheld here so as not to spoil the fun for potential readers) is a surprise to me. Being a modern reader, I was expecting to find her landing a life free from the dominance of a not very kind husband but it did not turn out this way.
The third story "The Bear Came over the Mountain " though seems to be narrated from the point of view of the husband Grant, the focal character is really the wife Fiona. It is indeed a very touching story and the film based on the story is also equally well done.
I could go on and on just to recite the interesting characters including the minor ones in some stories and the unusual twists and turns in several of them.
Hope you can find time to read just a few stories some other time.
*This was a letter I sent to Jane C. Telling her about the book we just discussed at our monthly which she missed while traveling.
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