We Are the Cat

出版者:Random House Inc

作者:Bain, Terry

页数:176

出版时间:2006-8

价格:CDN$ 21.00

装帧:HRD

isbn号码:9780307339188

具体描述

Do you wonder what your cat is thinking while stalking the tablecloth fringe or racing through the living room on clearly important but ultimately mysterious business? As a mere human being, or “Lap” as they call our kind, you might never guess the complexities of the feline mind. But fear not, dear reader, you are about to be taken into the confidence of a cat.

The Door

“When we are inside the house we are often thinking of the outside, of how many cats may be walking through our yard, sitting on our fences, leaving scentmarkings for us to find. So we go to the door and wait at the door and wonder, again, what on earth is the purpose of the door.”

A Paper Bag

“We have spent many hours attempting to discover the secrets of the paper bag, to no avail. Even when we surprise it, leaping from a high place, the paper bag acts exactly the same way, and we find no creature inside. How does that work? By what physical laws does it operate? It is a mystery. And we do love a good mystery. Just not at our expense.”

In the Sink

“We do not understand or appreciate your fascination with our occupation of the sink portion of the household. The reasons we are here, in the sink—despite the risk of wetness—are obvious, are they not? The sink is cooler than most places in the house. The coolness from the sink surrounds us as no other coolness can surround us. If there was a sink Out of Doors, that would be one less reason for us to come home at night. But there isn’t a sink Out of Doors. So here we are. In the sink. Trying to sleep. Just a nap, you know.”

Hilarious and clever, silly yet profound, We Are the Cat brings you into the inner life of cats, revealing the many joys hidden in a piece of string, the deliciousness of sleeping in a sink or in the sunshine, the endless mystery of what is on the other side of the door, and what our cats really see as they observe us from their perches.

A NOTE FROM AUTHOR TERRY BAIN’S CAT

Dear Reader,

When we first heard that the “author” of this book—or, as we sometimes refer to him, Scratch—was writing about us, we were nonplussed. But then we gave it some thought. Some timely and careful consideration. And we have come to the following conclusion: We are not inclined to allow him to write a book about us. We have been watching him, and reading what he’s written so far—the book about dogs and such, with references to us scattered about—and we do not entirely approve. (We also would ask why on earth he would choose to write about dogs before writing about cats. This we feel speaks directly to his character, and we therefore must assume that he is more seriously flawed than we previously thought. So, no, he should not write this book.)

It isn’t that we don’t agree with much of what he has written about dogs (though what we have read makes little sense to us. We understand “reading,” and “language,” but the sense it makes is much like dogs themselves—that is, not much sense at all). We would hope that should he write a book about us that we will not be made the butt of his jokes. We are in favor of people knowing us better so as to leave us alone more often (when we want to be left alone), or to appreciate us as they should (when we want to be appreciated). But we are not in favor of a book that does not take us seriously, or that paints a picture of us that is untoward, or that is otherwise not written by a cat. He is not a cat and therefore should not be allowed to write such a book, no matter how seriously he writes about us, no matter how catlike he seems to be at times (or doglike, as it were, which we think should disqualify him altogether). We do not wish him to speak for us. We will speak for ourselves.

Kind regards,

Swiper

用户评价

这本书，说实话，刚拿到手的时候，我还有点犹豫。封面设计得挺有意思，那种略带复古的色调和粗粝的质感，让人联想到一些老电影的剧照。我本来是冲着那个据说非常独特的叙事视角去的，毕竟现在市面上太多千篇一律的“英雄之旅”了，我渴望一些真正能让人耳目一新的东西。翻开第一页，作者就用一种近乎散文诗的笔触，描绘了一个极其日常却又暗流涌动的场景——一个清晨，阳光穿过百叶窗，在木地板上投下斑驳的光影。那种细腻到令人窒息的观察力，让我瞬间被吸了进去。角色之间的对话，初看起来平淡无奇，像极了我们日常生活中那种欲言又止的交流，但你仔细咂摸，会发现每一个停顿、每一个省略号背后，都藏着巨大的情感张力。尤其是关于“记忆的不可靠性”这个主题的探讨，作者的处理方式非常高明，他没有直接抛出哲学思辨，而是通过主角不断修正自己对过去事件的描述，让读者亲身参与到这场“真相重构”的游戏中。这本书的节奏感把握得极好，前三分之一是缓慢的铺垫，像是在为一场即将到来的风暴积蓄能量，每一个微小的细节都埋下了伏笔，等到中段情节开始加速时，那种豁然开朗的震撼感，真不是一般的文学作品能给予的。我甚至在阅读过程中，会不自觉地停下来，对着窗外发呆，试图捕捉那些被我忽略的生活片段，思考自己那些被时间磨平棱角的往事。

这本书无疑属于那种“读完需要静默消化很久”的类型。它没有激烈的冲突，没有明确的善恶对立，整个故事弥漫着一种深沉的、近乎宿命论的忧郁。作者的笔触极其克制，情感表达常常是“留白”而非“渲染”。例如，书中有一段关于家庭疏离的描写，仅仅通过对一张旧照片上灰尘厚度的描述，就将那种日积月累的隔阂和无可挽回的遗憾表达得淋漓尽致。这种“少即是多”的写作哲学，我个人非常推崇。它迫使读者必须主动去填充那些未被言说的部分，让阅读本身成为一种二次创作的过程。但这种高度依赖读者主动性的阅读体验，也带来了一个问题：它的门槛设置得太高了。如果你在阅读时稍有走神，或者对作者的哲学倾向不甚了解，很容易就会错过那些至关重要的暗示。我感觉作者在创作时，心中已经有了一个非常清晰且复杂的哲学框架，而他试图将这个框架“移植”到文字中，但移植过程中的损耗是不可避免的。这本书更像是献给那些已经对文学形式有所研究，并渴望在阅读中进行深度反思的严肃读者的“私语”，对于一般消遣性质的读者来说，它可能过于深奥和沉重了。

拿到这本书后，我花了整整一个周末才勉强啃下三分之一，坦白说，它对我来说算是一个相当大的“挑战”。首先，它的语言风格非常晦涩，充满了大量生僻的、似乎是作者自创的复合词汇，初读时简直像在破译一份加密文件。我不得不经常停下来，查阅那些我完全不熟悉的典故和背景知识，这极大地打断了阅读的流畅性。我原本期待的是一个引人入胜的故事线索，但这本书似乎更偏爱对“存在”本身的探讨。它大量的篇幅用来描绘环境的氛围，比如对某个废弃工厂内部光线和气味的详尽描述，那种潮湿、金属锈蚀的味道几乎要从纸页里飘出来。书中没有明确的主角，或者说，每一个出现的人物都只是一个符号，一个承载着某种哲学概念的容器。我个人不太喜欢这种过于“抽象”的处理方式，它让我的情感很难投入进去。我需要一个能共情的对象，一个我可以为之担忧、为之欣喜的灵魂，而这本书提供的，更像是一份冷峻的实验报告。尽管如此，我必须承认，作者在构建世界观的严密性上确实下了苦功。那些看似无关紧要的设定，在后半部分会以一种近乎数学推导般的精确性串联起来，形成一个逻辑自洽但情感疏离的整体。它更像是一部需要“智力投入”而非“情感共鸣”的作品，读完后留下的更多是知识上的满足感，而非心灵上的触动。

这本书给我的感觉，就像是走进了一座结构复杂、但光线设计极其考究的迷宫。它的叙事结构是那种非常大胆的“非线性”叙事，时间线被切割、重组，反复在不同角色的记忆碎片中跳跃，读起来需要高度集中精神，否则很容易迷失方向。我特别欣赏作者对于“场景转换”的把控，那种从一个极度喧嚣的集市场景，瞬间切换到一片万籁俱寂的雪原，中间没有任何过渡，完全依靠读者的想象力去弥合那巨大的鸿沟。这种处理方式，初看之下会让人感到突兀和眩晕，但一旦适应了作者的节奏，就会发现这正是作者想要营造的“意识流”体验——现实的碎片化和不可预测性。书中涉及了大量的历史隐喻，我猜想作者一定对某些特定历史时期的社会心理有着深入的研究。那些关于权力结构、集体无意识的描写，都非常尖锐和深刻。但话说回来，也正是因为这种复杂的结构，这本书的“可读性”大打折扣。我必须承认，我好几次都不得不翻回到前几章，重新梳理人物关系和时间节点，这对于一个追求轻松阅读体验的读者来说，无疑是一种负担。它不是那种你可以边喝咖啡边享受的书，它要求你放下一切，全神贯注地与作者进行一场智力搏击。

我对这本书的整体印象是“惊艳”与“疲惫”的复杂混合体。作者的想象力简直是天马行空，他构建了一个几乎完全脱离我们现有物理法则的社会图景。在这个世界里，颜色会说话，声音有重量，而情感的表达甚至演变成了一种复杂的仪式。这种极度的“超现实主义”风格，让阅读过程充满了解谜的乐趣。我最喜欢的是作者对于“感官错位”的描写，比如当角色感到极度悲伤时，他们闻到的却是初夏的丁香花香，这种强烈的反差，比直接描写悲伤本身要有力得多。然而，这种极致的浪漫主义和实验性，也带来了叙事上的不稳定。有时候，情节的推进显得过于依赖突发的“灵感”而非内在逻辑，导致一些关键转折显得有些生硬和牵强。我感觉作者似乎过于沉迷于创造新奇的意象和表达方式，而忽略了故事内核的打磨。读完之后，我能清晰地记住那些奇特的画面和精妙的句子，但我却无法清晰地回忆起“故事到底讲了什么”。它更像是一本概念艺术集，而非传统意义上的小说。对于那些追求叙事连贯性和情节逻辑的读者来说，这本书可能会带来不小的挫败感，但如果你是视觉系和概念探索的爱好者，它绝对值得一试。