君子不器
The article itself wasn’t much, but I found the historical reference to Taichung’s Central Books to be of interest. Basically the millionaire guy who founded pchome.com and who is from Taichung, Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志), wants to organize a reading group at the old Central Book Store (中央書局) building. According to him,「中央書局是1927年台灣中部仕紳們共同成立的一個帶有強烈浪漫文化色彩的書局。」Err, so I guess in…
First published the same year Hugo Gernsback came out with his legendary science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926, The Young Companion《良友》catered to the tastes of young middle class people, but it was also a force for social change. This fascinating article (in Big5) talks about 《良友》the “natural breast movement” 「天乳運動」 among young women in the…
Tang Fei (糖匪) is one of the more interesting of the Chinese New Wave SF authors in that her work frequently crosses genres and seems, to this reader at least, to be closer to slipstream fiction than SF. 《黄色故事》”Call Girl” Trans by Ken Liu 2013 @ Apex, The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014（Rich…
short review of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt Now that the movie is a flop I might as well publish this overly detailed review of the book I did some time ago. Tartt’s novel begins with Theodore Decker, a thirteen year old New Yorker, visiting a downtown museum with this mother. Lingering on the first…
Hanging around, not doing anything except, like a droog, hanging around. Strange how what is still the most threatening thing imaginable for urban governments is just people loitering, occupying, striking, or just hanging around aimlessly on the streets. An essay along these lines by Susan Buck-Morss, a brilliant scholar of the writings of Frankfurt School…
Excerpt from an interesting 1993 lecture by Tom Leclair on Mao II “The real secret, though, belongs to crowds. Bodies gather together to become one powerful body reciting one powerful idea that will let them forget their uncertainty and their individual bodies. Millions of Maoists create a revolution. Thousands of Moonies chant the end of…