[Matters old man check-in] A truce in literature

I received Matters' personal "Creative Achievement Data Report" today. Some numbers are really unexpected, but it generally confirms that the direction of my recent thinking is correct, and it also allows me to see my own shortcomings and need to work hard to adjust place. More importantly, in addition to the friends who love literature along the way, I also found a few loyal readers who silently supported me, for which I am deeply grateful.

free writing paradise

The reason why I joined Matters was because I was a subscriber of End Media. At that time, one of the projects in my hand was related to blockchain technology, and I had basic knowledge; and I was fed up with articles being reprinted, plagiarized, dismembered, and plagiarized Being bullied by readers, I want to establish author name rights and time fingerprints for published articles to protect intellectual property rights; plus I like the style and philosophy of@张洁平, so I naturally applied to join.

In its first year, Matters was still an invitation-only platform, and almost all articles on the platform were written by well-reputed and well-educated journalists and professionals discussing public issues. Because I don't have enough understanding of many issues, I mostly dive into the text without expressing opinions, just desperately absorbing knowledge. Later, when I became more courageous, I began to publish some articles on related topics that I knew and were relatively partial. At that time, I really felt that the articles on Matters were wonderful.

Later, the platform opened up, and it cooperated with Likecoin, and several big Vs on other platforms brought people in to play, and the ecology of Matters has changed a lot. I watched many people come and go with a cold eye. In addition to the authors who are diligent in publishing and of excellent quality, there are also those who announce their closure and then come out again, or the horror lovers who love deeply but always slander the platform and the team, but refuse to leave even if they die Yes, all prove that Matters' charm is extraordinary.

In the creative achievement data report, what I value most is the overall effective reading number of users VS visitors. My situation is 2:1 (another author I know well and has excellent article quality is 1.5:1), which can be seen from Matters SEO/ SEM does a great job, and interesting articles on Matters are widely read by people off the site.

Even in Western free societies, the Chinese media under the control of red capital has used money or power to restrict the freedom of writing in Chinese, either explicitly or covertly. Matters, which advertises that "writing is the smallest unit of freedom", has no advertisements, no membership fees, and authors can develop as much as they want. It is one of the few last pure lands for Chinese writing. I cherish it very much, and I am more willing to do my best to protect it.

art of dialogue

The discussion of public issues is the art of dialogue and compromise.

Reading articles discussing public issues in Matters this year has sometimes been a real torture.

A Chinese writer in Vancouver wrote such a sentence in his novel:

You can take a girl out of Chinatown, but you can not take Chinatown out of a girl.

Freedom is scary. Climb out of the wall, you can speak freely, remove the restrictions, and then? When the black and white, us vs. their ideology and values are challenged, you are at a loss, right? There are no government agencies and schools to provide standard answers, no one to tell you what to think and do, you have to be responsible for your words and deeds, and no one can blame you for mistakes. Such freedom is terrible, right? ! So, you would rather retreat back into the wall, or hold on tightly to everything you may not like but know well, brandish a pen knife to people with different opinions, be aggressive, talk to yourself, stick to your position, refuse to communicate, let alone compromise ⋯⋯

" To communicate with a person, one must be prepared to talk to his entire life experience ."

Why not put down the knife in your hand, the fear in your heart, tell your own story, and start a conversation?

Independent Thinking Plasterer

Last year, I read a lot of books related to Taiwan history, which was a supplementary lesson plan I set for myself. Because, when I was growing up, this piece was completely missing from the school education curriculum.

This year, my reading focuses on Taiwanese literature . Different from the habit of reading a book from the beginning to the end in one go, the four volumes of " Let the Past Become the Present: Selected Novels of Taiwan's White Terror" and the five volumes of " Selected Essays of Taiwan's White Terror " published by Spring Hill Publishing House let me read them with ease. Very sad, I can only read one or two articles a day. After reading, I need to compare some materials, and then quietly think about it.

Some vague shadows and incidents in childhood memories, and whispers between relatives and friends, gradually became clear.

Last week, I was honored to hear @春山Publish editor-in-chief Zhuang Ruilin talk about "Uninterrupted Free Practice: A Publishing Memo for the Next Round of Democracy ", which is full of harvest and inspiration.

Novels are written with people as the unit.
Literature/fiction is a reminder of human nature and frees us from the arrogance of knowledge.
Literature reminds us to slow down and understand issues from a distance.
The details and subtleties of human life are presented in the form of novels.

Only through reflection and review of the past can we draw a picture of our own life experience.

"The expectation of the future is generated from the interpretation of the past."

Let's use the pens in our hands to tell each other our stories, shall we?

Before we start the conversation, let's take a moment and read each other's stories.

During the discussion of planning the "Taiwan Bookstore" of the Canadian Taiwan Cultural Festival, a child in the team who doesn't like reading asked me to summarize the content of a book with images, so that she could understand the charm of a book. It's really a big test for people. My gut reaction is to give her a Mind Map similar to @读书堂" One Person Company" office workers can also read.

But what about novels? Especially suspense mystery novels, if they are drawn as mind maps according to the plot, unless they are the kind of readers who read the ending before deciding whether to read the book, they probably won't buy it, right? (Do you dare to spoil the thunderstorm? Kill you!)

Think about Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea", represented by pictures, probably only the old man, the sea, a small boat, and a big shark? How to express the wonderful sentence descriptions and inner emotional struggles in the book? This puts the connoisseurs of book cover and illustration to the test. How to display it outside the book cover?

This is the practice of reading pen, take " Swamp Girl " as an example. By the way, " Swamp Girl " was my favorite last year. After reading the Chinese version, I immediately bought the original English version and the audiobook. The translation in the Chinese version is good, but the original poems in the book have more vitality. Through the natural and fluent text description and the reader's wonderful southern American accent, it feels like being in the swampland of North Carolina, picking shells and feathers with the heroine Chia. Only by immersing yourself in Chia's world and going through the natural trials with her, can you have empathy for her behavior and not judge her.

The world constructed by words is fascinating, even if it is a film and television work, it still needs a strong literary work to adapt it. According to Editor-in-Chief Zhuang's description, many of the most popular Korean film and television works recently are adapted from real cases or inspired by the authors. " Fix " by Lying Axe is also a mystery novel adapted from several real cases in Taiwan. Dealing with the subject of human nature with literature can transcend the barriers of language, race and culture.

Editor-in-chief Zhuang's understanding of publishing in society:

Publishing is both the mirror image of this nation and the foundation that enables the daily referendum to be truly exercised. Of course, it also shows the beauty and sorrow of this community.

She concluded the lecture with the metaphor of "From Revolutionary to Plasterer".

I very much agree.

Do not forget the original intention, in the boring day after day, build our ideal brick by brick. Disappointment in the process is inevitable, but this is the homework of our generation.

I will continue to write stories on Matters.

Hope to read your story too.

(The masthead image has been authorized to be used by Editor-in-Chief Zhuang Ruilin.)

Quoting from the fifth season of Matters Freedom Class :

Books on "literature" (the current decline of literature may mean that more and more people are leaving reading. I think literature is an important place of truce. We may have different positions on many issues, but we can all Readers of literature. Literature can help us temporarily put aside our own position and approach stories and emotions. Novels can bring us emotional empathy.)

Broken Dreams Trilogy

everything i told you about that mountain

stupid things we did

Traveling in Taiwan

New Treasure Island

I'm reading @黄崇凯's " New Treasure Island ", which is very interesting, but I have to mobilize a lot of books, movies, and art memories to read smoothly (who told me that I don't have enough knowledge about Cuba and Latin America, I have learned a little A little Spanish but it’s still a pain in the ass), stop and Google Maps information from time to time...

On May 20, 2024, after Taiwan's first aboriginal president took office, it was discovered that there had been a major exchange between the residents of the two islands of Taiwan and Cuba: 23 million Taiwanese woke up on the island of Cuba adjacent to the United States. Strange Caribbean Sea. Eleven million Cubans came to the island of Taiwan, which faces China across the strait.

The Taiwan issue is no longer an issue between China and Taiwan, but an issue for the whole world. ──Liao Wenkui's "Formosa Speech"

Isn’t the background of this story interesting? Go to Momo for a trial reading!