读记：《志摩全集》（二）

领略艺术与看山景一样，只要你地位站得适当，你这一望一眼便吸收了全景的精神；要你“远视”的看，不是近视的看；如其你捧住了树才能见树，那时即使你不惜工夫一株一株的审查过 去，你还是看不到全林的景子。所以分析的看艺术，多少是杀风景的：综合的看法才对。

--《济慈的夜莺歌》

总能不经意间有共鸣，仿佛夜间忽然传来夜莺的歌，心痛神醉。

你我从今起对爱的生活负有做到他十全的义务。我们应得努力。我们的爱，并不浅薄。即使有道德罅隙，也是最精纯完美的。

-- 《爱眉小札：日记》：

恋情中总是如此，只是诗人的感触更加细腻，苦闷也愈加深刻。志摩是幸还是不幸？

Reading Note: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2)

One again, I saw the controversial topic: the agricultural revolution is the biggest trap in human history.

Before Homo sapiens adapted to the life of farming, they lived the life of foragers and gatherers. They spent on average 3 hours per day for gathering food, and the rest of their day at their leisure. They took in multi-nutritional food and lived free life. Compared to our ancestors' life, the agricultural Homo sapiens lived more miserably. Their whole life was tied to the growing of wheat, rice, potatoes, and other staples, spending endless hours toiling under the sun.  They had less leisure time, and their single source of food--wheat/rice--made them malnutrtional, whereas their ancestors were able to gather and hunt all types of food, wild berries, figs, wheat, nameless vegetations and mammals.

The tie to a single source of staple, though in total sum exceeded what gathers could have gathered in the wilderness, nonetheless made human lives less secure. A band of gatherers were able to move to the next stop when the current stop ran out of food, but farmers were tied to their lands. When a famine stroke, they were doomed. They also suffered more from home-borne diseases. Smallpox and many other horrifying epidemics were transmitted from home pests to Homo sapiens. In comparison, hunter-gatherers were always on the move, so there's less time for diseases to spread. Even if a whole band was struck down, they were separated from other bands; thus, epidemics would be less likely to foment.

The controversy of agricultural revolution is essentially a discussion on the significance of individual sufferings and species prosperity. It is tempting to say now, thousands of years after the revolution, that the revolution is the necessary foundation for the current wealthy society, but remember, to a starving man thousands of years ago because of famine, you would never convince him:"You suffering is necessary for my wealthy life thousands of years later."

It is thus insufficient to measure the success of a species solely by the number of living units that carry the species' DNA. Individual life quality also matters. Chickens and cattle are probably one of the most successful species from evolution and natural(human) selection, as they are populated over the world, but, individual chick or cattle suffered. Chicken raised for their meat are slaughtered when they are a few months of old, while they could have lived for years. Female cattle are constantly fertilized throughout their life for milk. Their offsprings are usually separated from their mothers the time they were born. Some cattle are raised in a small cage, so their muscle are not grown, so they can turn into juicy steaks in plates. Are they successful? Yes, and no.

读记：《志摩全集》（一）

我太喜欢志摩了！我将呐喊，我将高呼，我将亲吻这孩童般真性情的诗人作家。记得开篇的一篇悼文中写志摩，在英国的雨中冲入朋友家门，激动地拉住朋友的手便往外冲。“彩虹！”年轻的诗人头也不回，又冲入雨中。这就是志摩，精力旺盛，情感充沛，纯真至性的志摩。

人们本来都是会飞的，只是大部分人到了人世，长大了，便忘记了飞行。有些人翅膀的羽毛脱落了，有些人把翅膀去当铺抵押了，有些人的翅膀被胶水粘住了。志摩，只有飞翔与徜徉。

我辈俗人，不知所言。

Reading Note: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (1)

I came across this book from Zuck's book recommendation list, and have been enjoying reading the first two chapters so far.

The first two chapters talked about the physical evolution of Homo sapiens (the wise man), and its unique ability to talk about fiction and the consequences. Homo sapiens did not stand out from other species of animals until recently. One physical characteristic of sapiens is its large brain volume, which enabled it to think more intellectually. However, it was hard to tell if that was a blessing or cursing at the ancient savannah age, because a larger brain means more energy is needed to sustain it, whereas those energy could have been diverted to develop strong muscle. From the better side, large brains enabled sapiens to build tools, such as stone arrows and axes. One quite interesting theory was that Homo were talented marrow hunters, because only Homos could use their stone tools to crack open bones and suck marrow, possibly from the carrions of larger animals' game.

Another interesting fact is that sapiens were adapted to stand on two legs, which limited their pelvis sizes, inevitably making them smaller. As a result, females were having a hard time to give birth to new borns. By natural selection, those females giving birth prematurely, thus having smaller infants, could give birth more easily, so humans ended up being born prematurely, as compared to other animals. A kitten may live independently when it was still several-week-old, but human toddlers are helpless for several years, if not dozens. This makes it hard for a mom to raise a child by herself--a tribe/band's resources may be needed to raise a single child, thus those who have better social skills survived.

By the way, did I mention that Homo sapiens were not the first Homo to stand on two legs? Homo erectus were. Strictly speaking, we are not the only human species that ever existed, but the only surviving human species. Other species existed too, such as Neanderthals. There are two theories of why we were the only surviving species. One was that we drove all other species into extinction; the other was that they got mixed into our species through mutual breeding. While the latter being politically incorrect (because it suggests different races are actually genetically different), I was more interested in why sapiens won over other species. The ability of our language to describe fiction was the answer. We can describe abstract things, such as "God", "faith", and "patriotism". Those provides a way of cooperation between a large group. In a small group--a group less the size of magical number 150--members are able to cooperate through intimate relationship, through gossips and rumors. Yes in a large group, say a middle sized Chinese city of one million people, it is impossible to know all other 999,999 people intimately, yet we are still able to live together and function as a city. The basis was a common acknowledgement of fiction, in this case, a sense of a country, of us being in a city that we need to protect and develop. This sense only exists in human imagination, and could only be developed upon a genome basis.

Reading Note: Life of Pi (2)

Done with the book. Pretty good story for a casual read!

Does the author want to convey some meaning about life? Apparently. You only believe what you  see. This is from the scene at the ending of the book, when Mexican custom officers interrogated Pi of the cause of shipwreck. Neither of the officers believed Pi's story of survival on a life boat with an adult Bengal tiger for ~220 days, of the zebra, the orangutan, and the hyena, of the carnivorous island, of the blind Frenchman who got devoured by Richard Parker. Ironically, when Pi told them a second story that's metaphorically close the real one but "without animals", the officers found it disgusting and horrible, and had to admit that the first one was more interesting.

If I have to contrive some deeper meanings for the story, I will relate to the starting of the book, when Pi was a pious boy--pious to the God, not to a specific religion. The thing that kept popping up through Pi's torment was Vishna, St. Mary, Salvation, and Hallelujah. He always had a grateful heart. Even when they made it to the bank of Mexico, Pi was murmuring in his gratefulness toward Richard Parker, who had been a life threat throughout the trip and was leaving him unceremoniously, that he wouldn't have survived without R.P. being around.  

tl;dr: grateful heart, and open-mindedness. One may well start exploring how this is relevant to the current refugee crisis and terrorism, but enough is enough. I don't think the author expected shoulder such a heavy political burden when he wrote the book.

箫的哀婉，笛的跳脱，琵琶的铿锵：听《青空》

谭宝硕是我很喜欢的笛箫演奏者。《青空》是其于日本留学时创作的钢琴，琵琶及笛箫的合奏曲，具体背景可参见所附链接。

开篇此曲以箫声铺下一个哀婉空廓的背景，不带凄迷，而是纯粹的不加掩饰的哀，而箫的声质本身所带有的旷远将这种哀情愈加渲染升华。间，箫以一个短音结尾，同时琵琶一声裂帛，《十面埋伏》的排兵布阵感炸裂般弥漫，铿锵的节奏感瞬间敲击人的神经。笛声介入，灵活的吐音，跳跃的节奏，一洗开篇的哀情。这一段很有些北派笛爽朗明快的感觉。

私自认为若是末尾高潮处能以琵琶引领全曲，或许能仿《埋伏》，令听者心惊肉跳，只是不知是否会符合作者的初衷？

Reading Note: Life of Pi (1)

Having just finished reading half of the book LIfe of Pi, I am writing some random notes (I hope to force myself to scribble something other than codes every now and then):

It was a quite an interesting read. I wouldn't say it was a great book, something at the same level as say, War and Peace, but for casual book reapers it is a good appetizer. Other than the well known plot of the book, famed by its movie, about an Indian guy managed to coexist with an adult Bengal tiger after a ship wrack on the Pacific ocean, another pearl from the book is the author's control of the language, straightforward and humorous. He never tried to decorate profusely some intricate philosophy of  religion, but each word conveyed some meaning that was really easy to grasp. 

Talking about humor, one scene I liked was when the priests (or someone equivalent in other religions) of Christianity/Muslim/Hinduism caught the boy Pi while he was on a walk with his parents. All of the priests thought Pi was a pious worshipper of his own religion, never realizing that he actually converted to all three religions, at the same time. Apparently, a bicker broke out between three priests, and when they interrogate, essentially, which religion Pi was really into, Pi, innocently, said:"I just want to love god!" Three priests smiled, unnaturally, and turned away. I just couldn't stop laughing reading this piece, which was somewhat intentionally sarcastic? More related revealing are probably coming in the next half, so next time.