Saturday 16 November 2013

All Things Predictable

I've never been the kind of person who invests time trying new things; the world, to me, has always been horribly easy about change, leaving me in a constant state of yearning for stability and all things predictable. I prefer revisiting old experiences, cafés and bookshops, places I have been, known, and become familiar with. I like the security of knowing what I'm heading for.

Books have been, from a certain time early in my life, a familiar companion. Constantly looking for new books is actually, as I have recently come to realize, not an exception to my sense of security. Though never altogether in one single book, the calming sense of predictability is this: that somewhere, in some language, is a character who has the same brokenness, doubts and longings just as I have had. Suddenly my own life has also become predictable; some author has already imagined/experienced it all for me, and the future becomes slightly lucid. 

It is absurd to say one's identity is in books,  but I guess in my case it is reasonable to say that my sense of self is in a book somewhere. At least, at the age of 25, this is one of the many things I have come to believe.

4 comments:

J said...

我卻認為我們總不會、無法,甚至是不能成為我們所想的我是。一切的可預測性都來自一種由自我投射而出的暗示,或者,渴求。但往往我們有著一雙不夠長的手,怎麼都搆不牢那以為可被抓住的軌道。可我們總會認為,自己早已進入了恆常運行的軌道之內。畢竟這個社會,是這整個社會牽引著我們朝向了某種「必然」的可預測性。我們往往難以脫離的是不由自主的社會牽引,並且,牽引的力量還可能來自思考本身。於是,模控學(cybernetics)儼然成為了人生的未來選項。可是同一杯拿鐵不會相同,同一張CD的第七首歌也不會相同,同一本書的第五章的第十七個腳註旁的眉批也不會相同。只是,我們老了。

Liz Chang said...

其實我們對於未來的想像、未來的選擇,還是僅止建立於過去的既定與已知;或者說,未來的想像只是過去經驗的投射與延伸。除非刻意的選擇,否則將來的我往往與現在萬分把握或想像的截然不同。我認為還是大部分的時間我們根本不夠清楚自己要的是什麼,甚至「我是誰」;或是,來不及明白就先"老了",無論哪種層面。

J said...

所以,關鍵反而不在於嘗試成為「我不是、非我」,因為這樣的前提必然建立在我們需要先清楚確認自己的已是,可是這如果不是一種擬象(simulacrum),又還能是什麼?恰恰因為它就只能是一種擬象,我們永遠不可能達成明證(Evidenz)的要求,不可能存在直接觸碰到「我是誰」的直觀確認。故此,反倒是要能先反思「我是」之不可能,並基於這個不可能才可能打開了「我不是、非我」的空間。可是,我們也確實在各個層面不停「老去」,因此,這是一場在衰老與思考之間的拔河。思考當然也必衰老,但怠惰、倦勤於思考才更具有致命的殺傷力。

Liz Chang said...

哎呀所以反而是回到疲乏與否的問題,以及know thyself的不可及。其實會不會就是因為不可能認識自己,反而想出許多自我以外的事物,進而出現許許多多的知識理論等等,也是挺有趣的是不? :)

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