大眾媒體可以影響一個國家的閱讀品味,本書因為加拿大電視台CBC的閱讀節目Canada Reads而獲得廣泛的關注。本書也獲得幾個加拿大文學獎的提名。這本書《Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan's Mountains & Coasts in Search of My Family's Past》是一本跟台灣有關的英文旅遊文學,它的作者Jessica J. Lee(李潔珂)是一位加拿大籍的台裔混血環境歷史學家,目前正在劍橋大學擔任研究員。媽媽是台灣移民,老爸是英國威爾斯人,出身於加拿大,大學在加拿大就讀,接著前往英國深造取得碩博士,研究領域是環境歷史和美學。書名取得很有巧思:「雙木成林」,把中文字”林”拆成兩棵樹,兩棵樹組成一座”林子”。副標題直接把內容講明白了,Jessica來台灣旅遊,走訪山岳和海岸,同時追尋自己母系家庭的歷史。
“ Edward Said wrote of the human habit of romanticizing loss, the tendency to render and celebrate in literature the irrevocable gaps rent between peoples and the places from which they come. I turn to his words often, finding in their exactitude an articulation of my own feelings. Said wrote of the ways we aestheticize a lonely death. I think of the trees—once spread far but now diminishing. My grandfather died—skin on brittle bones—without us. His memory came undone, but the places he lost were not forgotten. They were written into him in ways he could not have known: in language, in body.
He wasted away once he could no longer eat, his heart failing in the night. Gong died alone, and it is for this aloneness that I have not forgiven myself. Nothing in this death could be called beautiful.
For so long I have treated Taiwan as a haunted place, guided by memories that are not mine. I’ve carried the weight of my grandfather’s death into the landscape, guilt and grief intermingled. But his death and Po’s have brought me new possibilities for knowing. Sadness has lightened, grown lean on my bones. I find in the cedar forest a place where the old trees can span all our stories, where three human generations seem small. The forest stands despite us. “ 你可以自己去體會,如果整本書都是以此類筆觸書寫,能不能寫進你的心裡? 我喜歡她低沉、哀傷、內斂,卻又充滿生命力的內心獨白。薩伊德的這種關於故土及離散的知性內裡,哀婉動人,卻並非每個人都可以體會。
以前讀過一本關於南極的旅遊書寫《In Bed with Douglas Mawson : Travels around Antarctica》,作者是一位澳洲的科普作家,受澳洲政府之邀登上補給船,前往澳洲的南極營地進行例行性的補給,船上還有兩位藝術家。原來澳洲政府希望透過文藝創作,讓更多民眾認識澳洲和南極的關係,同時又能擔任傳聲筒,讓民眾了解這些政府計劃的故事,他們的觀察也能當作未來政策的參考依據。對我一個來自台灣的讀者而言,我得以從澳洲人的視角,認識南極洲的探險歷史,也加深了我對澳洲的好感~ 我不知道台灣有沒有類似的政策,但這種政策應該可以使公眾的文化生活更加豐富吧。
這本書是作者的第二本書,她的處女作《Turning : A Year in the Water》題材也很特別,博士班畢業後曾經到德國柏林住過一年,在當地的學術機構交流,Jessica一直渴望與身邊的人和土地建立更緊密的連結,所以她在柏林的那一年,前往柏林周遭的52座湖泊游泳,並將這些經驗寫下來。如果你喜歡文學,應該可以”想像”置身於水中引起的那種輕飄飄的靈動感,不愧是環境歷史(美)學家,空間詩學應當如此演繹~