What We Do Now

出版者:Melville Pub House

作者:Merians, Valerie (EDT)/ Johnson, Dennis Loy (EDT)

页数:201

出版时间:2000-11

价格:CDN$ 17.00

装帧:Pap

isbn号码:9780976140764

具体描述

"If you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you." -Benjamin Franklin

In a galvanizing call to arms in the wake of the presidential election, an all-star line-up of leading progressive voices and cultural figures has joined together in a Melville House "instant book" urging opponents of the right not to give in to despair and to launch an immediate counterattack. The project is the result of a round-the-clock effort that saw Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Greg Palast, Lewis Lapham, Nicholas Kristof and others working through the Thanksgiving holiday to write a series of passionate manifestos outlining a variety of new ideas for life in a post-11/2 world. The result is a powerful collection that also features economists environmentalists, media critics, feminists, anti-war activists, novelists, poets and satirists writing about what to do in their key areas of expertise. "Our feeling was someone had to do something immediately," explains publisher Dennis Loy Johnson, who edited the book along with co-publisher Valerie Merians. "The marvelous energy that had gone into the election was turning into despair, which was only making the rise of the right all the more emphatic." The quality of the contributions is remarkable, adds Merians. "This is no normal 'insta-book,'" she says. "The essays are extremely well written and thought out. We've organized them into a coherent game plan. We've even got an appendix of contact info." "The best part is the heat," says Johnson. "It's really inspiring stuff. People were whooping down the phone line when we called them with the idea. They dropped everything to write all night." WHAT WE DO NOW from Melville House includes: Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, and Greg Palast on voting reform ... Lewis Lapham and Nicholas Kristof on how to re-organize the Democratic Party ... Harper's Magazine publisher John R. MacArthur on supporting labor by fighting free trade Tax attorney Maud Newton (famous, by the way, for her literary website) on tax reform... Biologist Sandra Steingraber on renewing the fight for the environment... Martha Nussbaum on improving international relations... Cass Sunstein and Jamin Raskin on court reform... Columbia history professor Eric Foner on keeping a historical perspective ... Feminist Robin Morgan and Esther Kaplan on countering the rise of fundamentalism in our schools and courts ... Danny Schechter and feminst Jennifer Pozner on media reform... Earl Ofari Hutchinson on winning back the black fundamentalist vote... Leslie Cagan, who organized the giant 500,000 person demonstration during the RNC in August, and Medea Benjamin, who disrupted President Bush's RNC speech, on what activists can do now... Fiction writers Percival Everett, George Saunders, and Steve Almond, and poet Alicia Ostriker, on the cultural implications, and how to respond... Billionaires for Bush on how really rich people can work to keep their money... and more. . .

用户评价

这本书最大的特点，或者说最让人头疼的地方，就是其对时间维度的处理。它几乎是碎片化的，章节之间的时间跳跃毫无预兆，前一页还在描绘二十年前的某个决定，后一页可能就直接跳到了十年后的某个后果，中间所有的过渡都被省略了。这迫使读者必须像侦探一样，在不同的时间点之间来回穿梭，试图找出事件发展的逻辑链条。起初，我常常感到迷惑不解，无法将这些事件按时间顺序排列，感觉自己像是在一个巨大的时空迷宫里打转。作者似乎故意打破了线性叙事的传统桎梏，试图探讨“当下”的复杂性是如何由无数个被遗忘或被重塑的过去共同决定的。这种手法带来的阅读体验是极度跳跃和非线性的，它要求你必须时刻保持高度的警觉，随时准备好调整你对“现在”的认知。它不是在讲述一个故事，而是在呈现一个多维度的认知模型，让你不得不去思考时间本身到底是不是一个可靠的参照系。

我发现这本书在对“环境”的描写上，达到了令人叹为观止的程度。它不是那种简单地勾勒出背景，而是将物理空间、社会氛围乃至心理场域全部融合成一个有生命的实体，这个实体反过来对人物的行为和命运产生着不可抗拒的推力。作者笔下的城市、房间、乃至荒野，都带着强烈的象征意义和压迫感。你读完会觉得，与其说是人物在推动情节，不如说是这个“世界”在吞噬或塑造着人物。每一个角落都有着历史的沉淀和未言明的规则，这些规则比任何法律条文都更具约束力。举个例子，某个章节对一栋老旧建筑内部光影的描绘，足足用了三页篇幅，但读完后我竟然能清晰地“感受”到那种潮湿和衰败的气息，仿佛自己也身处其中，被无形的墙壁挤压着。这种对氛围的极致渲染，几乎达到了令人窒息的程度，也使得书中人物的挣扎显得尤为悲壮和徒劳。

从主题深度上来看，这本书似乎对“选择的代价”进行了极其彻底的解剖。它没有提供任何道德上的救赎或简单的答案，反而将每一次看似微不足道的决定，都延伸出了如同蝴蝶效应般的巨大连锁反应。书中的人物似乎都生活在一种持续的“后见之明”的痛苦中，他们清楚地知道自己当初的选择如何导致了后来的困境，但又无力回溯或修正。作者的笔触非常残酷，他毫不留情地揭示了人类行为的不可逆性。我读到一些决策点的反复出现，每一次都以不同的面貌呈现，让人深刻体会到生活并非只有A或B两个选项，而是无数个可能性的交织点。这种对“如果当时……”的深刻挖掘，让这本书充满了沉甸甸的哲学重量，它迫使读者审视自己的人生轨迹，思考我们现在所处的位置，究竟是无数次“不得不为之”的结果，还是真正自由意志的体现。读完后，心里留下的不是故事的起落，而是一种对自身存在状态的深刻反思和一丝挥之不去的宿命感。

这部作品的语言风格极其冷峻、克制，仿佛作者本人是一个站在高处、俯瞰众生的观察者，他记录下发生的一切，却极少施加个人的情绪判断。我读到一些段落时，甚至能感受到一种近乎冰冷的精确性，句子结构复杂，信息密度极高，充满了专业术语和晦涩的哲学思辨，这让初次接触的读者会感到一种强烈的疏离感。它不像那种温暖人心、或者让你拍案叫绝的畅销书，它更像是一份极其精密的学术报告，只不过载体是虚构的故事。我必须反复阅读才能完全消化其中一句话的全部内涵，因为作者善于使用排比和长句来堆叠意义，每一个词语的选择都经过了千锤百炼，绝无半点冗余。这种文学上的“硬核”程度，无疑抬高了阅读的门槛，但对于那些沉迷于文字肌理和结构美学的读者来说，这简直就是一场盛宴。只是，如果你期待的是那种一目了然、情感外露的叙事，那这本书可能会让你感到彻底的迷失和挫败。

这本书的叙事节奏真是让人捉摸不透，一会儿快得像是追赶末班车，一会儿又慢得像是在品味陈年的红酒。作者似乎特别热衷于在看似无关紧要的细节上大做文章，比如某个角色的某个习惯性小动作，或者某个场景中光线的细微变化。这种处理方式，说实话，有时候挺考验读者的耐心的。我好几次都忍不住想问：“重点在哪里？”那种情节的推进感，不像传统小说那样一环扣一环，更像是一张由无数细小线索编织而成的网，你需要花上大量精力去辨认哪些是承重的主线，哪些只是装饰性的花纹。更别提人物塑造了，每个人物都有着多重身份和复杂纠葛，你以为看清了谁是谁，下一秒作者就能给你扔出一个完全颠覆你认知的小传记。这种不按常理出牌的写法，无疑是反商业套路的，它要求读者放弃被动接受的阅读模式，转而主动去构建故事的意义。我得承认，当那些零散的碎片最终在你脑海中拼凑出一幅模糊的图景时，确实有一种“顿悟”的快感，但通往这个快感的路径，铺满了荆棘与迷雾，绝对不是一次轻松的旅程。