2025年7月31日 星期四

developed a fully functional bionic eye system功能齊全的仿生眼系統. 系統繞過受損的視網膜細胞,透過攝影機、處理單元和手術植入的微電極陣列直接刺激大腦視覺皮層。The system works by bypassing damaged retinal cells and directly stimulating the brain’s visual cortex through a combination of a camera, a processing unit, and a surgically implanted microelectrode array.

 In a groundbreaking leap for medical science and neural engineering, Australian researchers have developed a fully functional bionic eye system known as “Phoenix 99.” Unlike earlier partial-vision implants, this next-gen device is designed to completely restore sight in people suffering from degenerative retinal conditions. The system works by bypassing damaged retinal cells and directly stimulating the brain’s visual cortex through a combination of a camera, a processing unit, and a surgically implanted microelectrode array.

澳洲研究人員研發出一套功能齊全的仿生眼系統“鳳凰99”,標誌著醫學和神經工程領域的突破性飛躍。與早期的部分視力植入物不同,這款新一代設備旨在幫助患有退化性視網膜疾病的患者完全恢復視力。該系統繞過受損的視網膜細胞,透過攝影機、處理單元和手術植入的微電極陣列直接刺激大腦視覺皮層。 該計畫由悉尼大學和新南威爾斯大學的科學家領導,他們在過去十年中不斷改進這項技術。預計人體臨床試驗即將啟動,動物模型的早期結果也顯示出良好的前景。如果成功,這將是完全視力恢復首次成為現實,而非科幻小說。其影響遠超失明,甚至可能徹底改變我們對腦機介面和感覺假體的理解。


The project is led by scientists at the University of Sydney and UNSW, who have been refining the technology over the past decade. Human clinical trials are expected soon, and early results from animal models have been highly promising. If successful, this would be the first time full vision restoration becomes a reality—not science fiction. The implications reach far beyond blindness, potentially transforming how we understand brain-machine interfaces and sensory prosthetics.

dual. disrepair, disgrace, open-book management. dual-directional fire truck that can drive both forward and backward,

China has introduced an advanced dual-directional fire truck that can drive both forward and backward, designed to tackle urban congestion during emergencies.

But
when the building opened, Pei was panned by Chinese people who had expected him to build a less traditional structure. The building has since fallen into disrepair.


A Julia Child Sequel, the Art of Home Restoration


A new owner is undertaking efforts to revive Mrs. Child’s Georgetown home, which has fallen into disrepair in recent years.


A strong and safe infrastructure is critical to support healthy and vibrant cities. Yet, many of our roads, bridges, water, and sewer systems in the U.S. are in serious disrepair.

Pompeii's Disrepair "A Disgrace for Italy"
The great Roman city withstood a volcanic eruption, but can it survive the current Italian government?



open-book management之 book和下面的book 都指 帳

  1. books Financial or business records considered as a group: checked the expenditures on the books.



Most of the homes in Yebes have never been sold, and they are already falling into disrepair.
Lourdes Segade for The New York Times

Ghostly Towns Also Haunt Spain’s Banks

The ever present wreckage of Spain’s construction boom, like the unsold homes of Yebes that are falling into disrepair, sit as bad debt on the books of Spain’s banks.


disrepair 失修
n.
The condition of being in need of repair: a house in disrepair.


noun
  1. poor condition of a building or structure due to neglect.
    "the station gradually fell into disrepair"

. Petrichor “泥土油”這種香氣主要由土壤細菌釋放的化合物土臭素和乾旱期積聚的植物油組成。 Petrichor doesn’t come from flowers or perfumes it rises from the living earth itself. The aroma is primarily made of geosmin, a compound released by soil-dwelling bacteria, and plant oils that accumulate during dry spells.

 自然之美

傑西卡·桑德斯

·

20分鐘

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人類對雨水氣味的感知能力比鯊魚嗅覺強20萬倍

雨後那種令人感到舒適愜意的泥土氣息?它被稱為“泥土油”,人類對它的敏感度驚人,大約比鯊魚對血腥味的敏感度高出20萬倍。但這不僅僅是一種好聞的氣味;它體現了生命、土壤和生存之間深厚的進化連結。泥土油並非來自花朵或香水,而是源自於生氣勃勃的地球本身。

這種香氣主要由土壤細菌釋放的化合物土臭素和乾旱期積聚的植物油組成。當雨水最終落到地面時,它就像一個觸發器,將這些看不見的分子釋放到空氣中。雨滴本質上變成了微型噴霧器,將土臭素和植物源化學物質噴灑到大氣中,使空氣中瀰漫著那種我們常常聯想到新生、懷舊和寧靜的懷舊氣息。

我們對泥土油的敏感度並非偶然。研究人員認為,隨著時間的推移,人類進化出能夠檢測極低濃度土臭素的能力,這可能是為了找到肥沃的土地或安全的飲用水。有趣的是,甚至有些昆蟲會被泥土油吸引,而有些則會避開它,這表明這種氣味與生命節律有著多麼深厚的聯繫。歸根結底,泥土油不僅僅是雨水帶來的美妙副產品,更是自然與生物之間感官的“握手”,它提醒我們,即使是最簡單的氣味,也可能根植於強大而古老的聯繫之中。




The Beauty of Nature

Humans Can Detect the Scent of Rain 200,000 Times Better Than Sharks Smell Blood
That comforting, earthy scent after rainfall? It’s called petrichor, and humans are astonishingly sensitive to it about 200,000 times more sensitive than sharks are to the smell of blood. But this isn’t just about a nice smell; it’s a deep evolutionary connection between life, soil, and survival. Petrichor doesn’t come from flowers or perfumes it rises from the living earth itself.
The aroma is primarily made of geosmin, a compound released by soil-dwelling bacteria, and plant oils that accumulate during dry spells. When rain finally hits the ground, it acts like a trigger, releasing these invisible molecules into the air. Raindrops essentially become micro-sprayers, launching geosmin and plant-sourced chemicals into the atmosphere, filling the air with that nostalgic scent we often associate with renewal, nostalgia, and calm.
Our sensitivity to petrichor isn’t accidental. Researchers believe that over time, humans evolved to detect geosmin at incredibly low concentrations possibly as a way to locate fertile ground or safe drinking water. Interestingly, even some insects are drawn to petrichor, while others avoid it, showing how deeply tied this scent is to life’s rhythms. In the end, petrichor isn’t just a beautiful byproduct of rain it’s a sensory handshake between nature and biology, and a reminder that even the simplest smells can be rooted in powerful, ancient connections.

dislocation, STOCK PRICE DISLOCATION. obsolescence, ultra modernism, orientation, attaché, lampblack, jeu d'esprit. expresses a sense of urban cultural dislocation, along with anawareness of new anthropological and psychological theories.



Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com › news › articles › tsmc-stoc...


22 minutes ago — The chipmaker's stock in New York traded at an average 24% premium over its local listing in July, up from 17% in April and 7.4% over the past ...
w.bloomberg.com › 新聞 › 文章 › 台積電股票...
22 分鐘前 — 7 月份,這家晶片製造商在紐約的股票交易價格較其在當地上市價格平均溢價 24%,高於 4 月份的 17% 和過去 7.4%…

She derives inspiration from the cultural heritages of the past, both folklore and mysticism, science and obsolescence.


很多人以此為據,認為這是「按計劃報廢」(planned obsolescence)。這個詞起源於大蕭條時代,那個時候,一個地產經紀人給政府提建議,認為可以給消費品人為設定一個有效期,這樣人們就會消費得更多,從而提振經濟。

E. H. Gombrich, Review of Dora and Erwin Panofsky,...


 “Regrettably Crumbs has been forced to cease operations and is immediately attending to the dislocation of its devoted employees while it evaluates its limited remaining options,” the company said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. Those options could include a bankruptcy filing, the spokeswoman said.

ultra modernism (杜威 20世紀初中國 土耳其等國通病)





obsolescent

Translate obsolescent | into German

adjective

  • becoming obsolete:obsolescent equipment obsolescent slang

Derivative

obsolesce

verb
existing systems begin to obsolesce

obsolescence

noun

Origin:

mid 18th century: from Latin obsolescent- 'falling into disuse', from the verb obsolescere

[名][U]すたれ(かかっ)ていること;《生物》(器官などの)廃退,萎縮(いしゅく), 退化;(商品の)陳腐化,旧式化. ⇒PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE



ultra
(ŭl'trə) pronunciation
adj.
Immoderately adhering to a belief, fashion, or course of action; extreme.

n.
An extremist.

[French, from Latin ultrā-, ultra-.]


jeu d'esprit French [ʒø dɛspri]
n pl jeux d'esprit [ʒø dɛspri]
a light-hearted display of wit or cleverness, esp in literature
[literally: play of spirit]

Half of College-Educated Gays Hide Orientation at Work


Study finds that a third are leading “double lives.”


mod·ern·ism (mŏd'ər-nĭz'əm) pronunciation
n.
    1. Modern thought, character, or practice.
    2. Sympathy with or conformity to modern ideas, practices, or standards.
  1. A peculiarity of usage or style, as of a word or phrase, that is characteristic of modern times.
  2. often Modernism The deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the 20th century.
  3. often Modernism A Roman Catholic movement, officially condemned in 1907, that attempted to examine traditional belief according to contemporary philosophy, criticism, and historiography.
modernist mod'ern·ist n.
modernistic mod'ern·is'tic adj.

n. - 現代風, 現代思想, 現代主義

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 現代的傾向, 現代主義, 現代語法, 近代主義
*****
Literary Dictionary: modernism
modernism, a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and avant‐garde trends in the literature (and other arts) of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers. Modernist literature is characterized chiefly by a rejection of 19th‐century traditions and oftheir consensus between author and reader: the conventions of realism, for instance, were abandoned by Franz Kafka and other novelists, and by expressionist drama, while several poets rejected traditional metres in favour of free verse. Modernist writers tended to see themselves as an avant‐garde disengaged from bourgeois values, and disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles. In fiction, the accepted continuity of chronological development was upset by Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust, and William Faulkner, while James Joyce and Virginia Woolf attempted new ways of tracing the flow of characters' thoughts in their stream‐of‐consciousness styles. In poetry, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot replaced the logical exposition ofthoughts with collages of fragmentary images and complex allusions. Luigi Pirandello and Bertolt Brecht opened up the theatre tonew forms of abstraction in place of realist and naturalist representation. Modernist writing is predominantly cosmopolitan, and often expresses a sense of urban cultural dislocation, along with anawareness of new anthropological and psychological theories. Its favoured techniques of juxtaposition and multiple point of view challenge the reader to reestablish a coherence of meaning from fragmentary forms. In English, its major landmarks are Joyce's Ulysses and Eliot's The Waste Land (both 1922). In Hispanic literature the term has a special sense: modernismo denotes the new style of poetry in Spanish from 1888 to c.1910, strongly influenced by the French Symbolists and Parnassians and introduced by the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and the Mexican poet Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera. For a fuller account, consult Peter Childs, Modernism (2000).

****
design

(1920-1960s)
Modernism, also known as the Modern Movement, marked a conscious break with the past and has been one of the dominant expressions of design practice, production, and theory in the 20th century and is generally characterized visually by the use of modern materials such as tubular steel and glass, the manipulation of abstract forms, space and light, and a restrained palette, dominated by white, off-white, grey, and black. Following on from the well-known phrase ‘Ornament and Crime’ coined by Adolf Loos as the title of an article of 1908, later echoed by Le Corbusier in his assertion that ‘trash is always abundantly decorated’, was the notion that the surfaces were generally plain. When decoration was used it was restrained and attuned to the abstract aesthetic principles of the artistic avant-garde such as those associated with De Stijl or Constructivism. Also closely associated with Modernism was the maxim ‘form follows function’ although in reality this was often more symbolic than the case in reality, a visual metaphor for the Zeitgeist or spirit of the age. Nonetheless Modernism found forms of material expression alongside exciting, new, and rapidly evolving forms of transport and communication, fresh modes of production and materials coupled to technological and scientific change, alongside a contemporary lifestyle powered by electricity.

The roots of Modernism lie in the design reform movement of the 19th century and were nurtured in Germany in the years leading up to the First World War. The Modernist legacy is considerable in terms of design (whether furniture, tableware, textiles, lighting, advertising, and typography or other everyday things), architecture (whether public or private housing, cinemas, office blocks, and corporate headquarters), or writings (theories, manifestos, books, periodicals, and criticism). This has done much to cement Modernism firmly into the mainstream history of design. Furthermore, it is also heavily represented in numerous museums around the world that have centred their design collections drawn from the later 19th century through to the last quarter of the 20th century around the Modernist aesthetic and its immediate antecedents. This focused collecting policy has generally been at the expense of the representation of many other aspects of design consumed by the majority in the same period. Typifying such an outlook has been the Museum of Modern Art in New York, established in 1929. The curatorial inclinations of Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, and Edgar Kaufmann Jr. dominated its collecting policy for several decades. A further significant reason for the prominence of Modernism in accounts of design in the 1920s and, more particularly, the 1930s has been the fact that it was underpinned by social utopian ideals and identified with radical avant-garde tendencies opposed to the repressive political and aesthetic agendas of totalitarian regimes that dominated in Germany, Russia, and Italy. In general, official architecture and design practice under Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin favoured an authoritarian, stripped down neoclassical style, leading many progressive designers in Germany in particular to emigrate in the face of restricted professional opportunities and increasing political and social oppression. In dictator Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy, the position was slightly more ambivalent during the 1920s but the Modernist aspirations of those associated with Italian Rationalism found little official patronage in the interwar years. To many eyes in 1930s Britain Modernism was also felt to reflect ‘Bolshevik’ tendencies and was out of tune with the more historically inclined stylistic rhetoric of British imperialism (see British Empire Exhibition), an outlook that oriented Britain away from continental Europe towards the dominions and colonies of Empire. Known also as the International Style from the late 1920s onwards, a later phase of Modernism was also, by its very definition and aspiration, opposed to the strongly nationalistic tendencies in many countries in the turbulent political and economic climate of the 1930s. Less affected by the political turmoil in the rest of Europe were Holland and Scandinavia where Modernism found considerable opportunities for further development and dissemination. After the Second World War the International Style was taken up by many major multinational companies for the architecture, interiors, furniture, and furnishings and equipment of their offices and showrooms, thus promoting themselves through their emphatically modern identity as efficient, up-to-date, and internationally significant organizations in a global economy. In the eyes of some, Modernism's earlier associations with social democratic ideals had been transmuted in its later manifestations to support capitalist ends. Used widely in design and architecture in the 1950s and 1960s, such stylistic traits also attracted increasing criticism from a younger generation of designers, architects, and critics who felt that an abstract design vocabulary that had evolved in the early decades of the 20th century was no longer relevant in an era of rapid and dynamic change, of television and radically developing media and communication systems, and of swiftly developing opportunities for mass travel and the direct experience of other cultures. Such trends found expression in the increasingly rich and vibrant vocabulary of Postmodernism, echoed in the increasingly ephemeral lifestyle enjoyed by those in the industrial world with greater levels of disposable income. Ideas about what was called ‘Good Design’ in the 1950s and 1960s were formally linked to the Modernist aesthetic but without the social utopian underpinning promoted by many of the first generation of Modernists in the interwar years. In Britain such objects were approved by the state-funded Council of Industrial Design (see Design Council) and seen in opposition to the elaborate styling and obsolescence inherent in American design that was becoming attractive to British consumers, whilst in the United States, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, they were also seen as exemplars of European restraint.

A key text that has played an important role in defining Modernism has been Nikolaus Pevsner's widely read book, first published as Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936). It has subsequently undergone substantial revisions (including a major one supported by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1949) and numerous reprints under the title of Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius. Pevsner provides an account of the ways in which John Ruskin, William Morris, and exponents of the Arts and Crafts Movement fought against what they saw as the morally decadent and materialistic indulgence in historical ornamentation, inappropriate use of materials, and ‘dishonest’ modes of construction widely prevalent in Victorian design. This period was seen as a prelude to the clean, abstract, machine-made forms of 20th-century Modernism seen in the work of members of the Deutscher Werkbund and the teachers and students at the Bauhaus. Unlike the stylistic historicism of Victorian design, Modernism was felt to reflect the Zeitgeist. Its first phase emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when arts and crafts principles of ‘honesty of construction’, ‘truth to materials’, and rejection of historical encyclopaedism were reconciled with the mass-production potential of the machine and blended with the embrace of new materials, technologies, and abstract forms. Important in such considerations, the main thrust of which moved from Britain to Germany, aided by the writings and outlook of Hermann Muthesius. He had worked as architectural attaché to the German Embassy in London in 1896, gaining a first-hand knowledge of progressive design thinking in Britain at the time. After returning to Germany in 1903, he was given major responsibilities for art and design education and influenced the appointment to key institutional posts of major figures such as Peter Behrens before taking up the Chair of Applied Arts at Berlin Commercial University in 1907. Muthesius was also a key figure in the establishment of the Deutscher Werkbund (DWB), founded in Munich in 1907 with the aim of improving the quality and design of German consumer products. There were considerable differences of opinion between those such as Henry van de Velde who believed in the primacy of individual artistic expression and supporters of Muthesius who favoured the use of standardized forms allied to quality production as a means of achieving economic success. The DWB and its celebrated large-scale exhibition in Cologne in 1914 attracted the attention of designers throughout Europe including members of the Swedish Society of Industrial Design and some of those associated with the foundation of the Design and Industries Association in Britain in 1915. Another important German exemplar of the exploration of new materials and abstract forms in its modernizing products, buildings, interiors, and corporate identity in the years leading up to the First World War was the large electricity generating and manufacturing company, AEG, whose design policy was coordinated by Peter Behrens.

Despite the massive disruption of the First World War certain aspects of avant-garde activity continued during the 1914-18 period, most notably the work of the De Stijl group in Holland, founded by Theo Van Doesburg in 1917. In Germany many of the progressive ideas at the core of Modernism were developed at the German Bauhaus, founded in Weimar in 1919 under the directorship of Walter Gropius. This radical and influential institution brought together art, craft, and design, allied to architecture, and was influenced strongly in the early 1920s by the ideas of De Stijl and Russian Constructivism. Many of those associated with it were major defining figures of Modernism including Marcel Breuer, Herbert Bayer, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Anni and Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt, and Gunta Stölzl. By the mid-1920s the DWB began to reassert an influence on contemporary design debates, whether through exhibitions such as Form ohne Ornament (Form without Ornament) in 1924 or the recommencement of publication of its propagandist magazine Die Forme. Modernism in Germany was also taken up in the mid-1920s by municipal authorities such as that in Frankfurt that instituted a large-scale housing programme under the City Architect Ernst May, developed ergonomic kitchen designs under Greta Schütte-Lihotsky, and promoted many aspects of a Modernist lifestyle in its magazine Das Neue Frankfurt. Similar developments could be found in many other European cities such as Rotterdam in Holland and Warsaw in Poland, as well as the large-scale Die Wohnung (The Dwelling) exhibition organized by the DWB in Stuttgart in 1927 where a number of buildings by leading Modernists were shown. These included designs by Le Corbusier from France, Mart Stam, and J. J. P. Oud from Holland, and Gropius and Mies Van Der Rohe from Germany and Victor Bourgeois from Belgium, all of which contained furniture and fittings that were characterized by a lightweight Modernist aesthetic very different from the heavy, often intrusive forms of traditional furniture. This collective manifestation reflected the increasingly international orientation of the movement, a dimension that attracted increasing antagonism on the part of conservative manufacturers, designers, architects, and critics who saw the style as un-Germanic and portrayed its designers and manufacturers as Bolsheviks, Jews, and other foreigners. In France, the Modernist cause had been effectively prosecuted by Le Corbusier, sustained by his theoretical writings such as Vers une architecture (1923) and L'Art decoratifs d'aujourd'hui (1925) and promoted in full public view in his uncompromising Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau at the Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels of 1925. His stand against the prevailing decorative ethos of the luxurious pavilions elsewhere on the site was followed through in the establishment of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) in 1929. This was the same year in which another important organization that furthered the international impact of Modernism was founded: the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). In Sweden the Modernist debate was very much to the fore at the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, following which a more humanizing dimension was seen with the emergence of what became known as Swedish Modern with its partiality for natural materials seen in the work of Bruno Mathsson and Josef Frank and articles promoted, manufactured, and sold by Svenskt Tenn in Stockholm. Other Scandinavian examples may be seen in the work of Alvar and Aino Aalto in Finland or Kaare Klint in Denmark. Modernism was also evident in both the graphic and rug design work of Edward McKnight Kauffer that was characterized by the interplay of flat, geometric forms similar to those explored by Marion Dorn, Serge Chermayeff and drawing on the pioneering work of Gunta Stölzl, Anni Albers, and others at the Dessau Bauhaus in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

There were also several ways in which aspects of Modernism could be seen in certain outputs of the later phases of Art Deco, such as the use of flat, abstract shapes, geometrically conceived forms and modern materials in much American design work of the later 1920s and 1930s including some of the furniture of Paul Frankl, Donald Deskey, and Gilbert Rohde. American Streamlining also exhibited a number of modernizing tendencies, also blending new materials with clean, often organically inspired, forms that also drew on abstract decorative motifs symbolizing speed. In fact many dimensions of Modernist design endured throughout the rest of the 20th century, whether manifest in Charles Jencks's notions of Late Modernism or even incorporation as playful or ironic quotation in Postmodernism.

*****
Wikipedia article "Modernism".


orientation

  • [ɔ`ːriəntéiʃən | ɔ`ːrien-]
[名][U][C]
1 (社会などの)方向性, 志向;傾向.
2 (個人の)志向, 信条
political orientation
政治的信条
sexual orientation
性的志向(同性愛者か異性愛者かということ).
3 (環境への)適応;((主に米))オリエンテーション, 進路指導.
4 東向き;(死者の足・主祭壇を)東に向けること;方位の確認.
5 《心理学》定位力, 指南力.
6 《化学》方位;配向(分子の向き).
7 《動物》(伝書バトなどの)帰巣本能.
8 《生物》定位.




許多源於外交(?)用語如attaché 等可考慮:a naval/military/press/cultural attaché

Nodding at a pair of attaché 邊對隨從點頭

專員/隨員
noun
[C]
a person who works in an embassy and has a particular area of responsibility in which they have specialist knowledge:



attaché
noun
[C]
a person who works in an embassy and has a particular area of responsibility in which they have specialist knowledge:
a naval/military/press/cultural attaché



lampblack (noun) A black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink.
Synonyms:crock, smut, soot
Usage:Our pilgrims would have liked very well to get out their lampblack and stencil-plates and paint their names on that rock.



dislocation

Line breaks: dis|loca¦tion
Pronunciation: /ˌdɪslə(ʊ)ˈkeɪʃ(ə)n
  
/

NOUN

[MASS NOUN]
1Disturbance from a proper, original, or usual place or state:rapid urban and industrial development brought immense social dislocation in its wake
1.1Injury or disability caused when the normal position of a joint or other part of the body is disturbed:congenital dislocation of the hip[COUNT NOUN]: dealing with fractures and dislocations
1.2[COUNT NOUN] Crystallography A displacement of part of a crystal lattice structure:dislocations are present due to the accidents of imperfect growth

Origin

late Middle English: from Old French, or from medieval Latin dislocatio(n-), from the verb dislocare (seedislocate), based on Latin locare 'to place'.


2025年7月29日 星期二

Weltliteratur, Goethe Coins a Phrase“I am more and more convinced,” Goethe remarked,“that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. . . .

 'World literature', a term coined by Goethe to suggest the capacity of literature to transcend national and linguistic boundaries.

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford LanguagesLearn more
Welt·li·te·ra·tur
/ˈvɛltlɪtəratuːɐ̯,Wéltliteratur/
Substantiv, feminin [die]
  1. Gesamtheit der hervorragendsten Werke der Nationalliteraturen aller Völker und Zeiten
    "Werke der Weltliteratur"

歌德創造的新詞

「我越來越相信,」歌德說道,「詩是人類的普遍財富,它無時無刻不在展現在成百上千的人身上……因此,我喜歡觀察周圍的外國,並建議每個人都這樣做。民族文學如今已是一個意義不明的術語;世界文學時代即將到來,每個人都必須努力加速它的到來。埃克曼於1835年(即詩人去世三年後)發表了《歌德與他在過去十年裡對話》(Gespräche mit Goethe in den L'énatzten Jahren seines Lebens),此後,「世界文學」一詞便開始流行。這個術語既體現了一種文學視角,也體現了一種新的文化意識,一種對全球現代性正在興起的感知,正如歌德所預言的,我們現在正身處其中。然而,自其提出之日起,這個術語也一直顯得格外難以捉摸:究竟什麼是「世界文學」?哪種文學?屬於誰的世界?它與那些即使在歌德宣布其已過時之後依然產量不減的民族文學有何關係?西歐與世界其他地區之間、古代與現代之間、新興的大眾文化與菁英作品之間,又有哪些新的關係?

如果我們以歌德為指導,困惑只會成倍增加,而這源於他不斷變化的個性——他那不穩定的混合體:謙遜與狂妄自大、世界主義與沙文主義、古典主義與浪漫主義、廣泛的好奇心與自我陶醉的教條主義。艾克曼的記述

既是對這位偉人的描繪,也記錄了他未能

掌握其主題的能力;艾克曼告訴我們,歌德是一顆鑽石,在每個方向都會投射出不同的色彩。而艾克曼則是一顆未經雕琢的鑽石:出身卑微,基本上自學成才,是一位有抱負的詩人和劇作家,他試圖以他所認識的歌德為榜樣,塑造自己的人生和作品。

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他永遠無法與之相比。 《與歌德對話錄》既是歌德的客觀寫照,也是埃克曼本人的主觀自傳,它如同一幅展現教誨、誘惑、影響和傳承場景的畫廊,所有這些都深刻地揭示了文學的世俗性。在埃克曼提供的多重框架下審視歌德的世界文學,我們已然能夠發現所有重要的複雜性、張力和機遇,而這些在我們今天試圖理解我們迅速擴張的世界及其剝落的文學時仍然會遇到。

事實上,對艾克曼而言,歌德是世界文學乃至整個世界文化的鮮活化身。在後半部分,他記錄了歌德的如下言論:「魔鬼為了戲弄和戲弄人類,在它們之中安置了一些如此誘人,以至於每個人都爭相追捧,而他們又如此偉大,以至於無人能及。」歌德列舉了拉斐爾、莫札特、莎士比亞和拿破崙作為例子。 「我默默地想,」艾克曼補充道,「那些惡魔也曾對歌德抱持類似的意圖——他魅力非凡,令人難以抗拒,他偉大非凡,令人難以企及」(271)。即使能與歌德如此親近,埃克曼也經歷了漫長的旅程。他出身貧寒的農村,後來在當地法院找到了一份辦事員的工作。 「那時我第一次聽到歌德的名字,也第一次得到了一本他的詩集。我讀他的詩,不斷地重讀,


那種愉悅難以言喻……我似乎在這些詩中,

反射出了我先前未知的本質(zurückgespiegelt)。 ……我整整幾個星期、幾個月地沉浸在這些詩中……我

所想所言,無一例外都是歌德。 」(Gespräche,21)1 宮廷裡的朋友們

為艾克曼安排了一項為期兩年的獎學金,讓他去哥廷根學習法律。

獎學金結束後,他無力再從事法律職業。他靠著僅剩的獎學金生活,寫詩,並創作了一部文學評論作品《詩歌貢獻,特別關注歌德》,

並將手稿寄給歌德,希望他能推薦給出版商。幾週過去了;埃克曼一無所獲,決定

孤注一擲,親自去拜見歌德。步行到魏瑪,耗時超過一週。 「一路上,天氣炎熱,我感到疲憊不堪,但我不斷

對自己說,我正受到仁慈神靈的特別庇護,而這趟旅程可能會對我的晚年生活產生重要的影響,這種感覺令人欣慰。 」(《演講》,30)

這番話實在太輕描淡寫了。艾克曼此時已經

2 引言

1 總的來說,我會引用

Goethe Coins a Phrase “I am more and more convinced,” Goethe remarked,“that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. . . . I therefore like to look about me in foreign nations, and advise everyone to do the same. National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.” Speaking to his young disciple Johann Peter Eckermann in January 1827, the seventy-seven-year-old Goethe used his newly minted term Weltliteratur, which passed into common currency after Eckermann published his Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens in 1835, three years after the poet’s death. The term crystallized both a literary perspective and a new cultural awareness, a sense of an arising global modernity, whose epoch, as Goethe predicted, we now inhabit.Yet the term has also been extraordinarily elusive, from the moment of its formulation onward: What does it really mean to speak of a “world literature”? Which literature, whose world? What relation to the national literatures whose production continued unabated even after Goethe announced their obsolescence? What new relations between Western Europe and the rest of the globe, between antiquity and modernity, between the nascent mass culture and elite productions? If we look to Goethe for guidance, the perplexities only multiply, fueled by his constantly shifting personality—his unstable mix of modesty and megalomania, cosmopolitanism and jingoism, classicism and Romanticism, wide-ranging curiosity and self-absorbed dogmatism. Eckermann’s account is both a portrait of the great man and the record of his inability to grasp his subject; Goethe is a diamond, Eckermann tells us, that casts a different color in every direction. Eckermann, on the other hand, is a diamond in the rough: of humble origins, largely self-taught, an aspiring poet and dramatist, he seeks to model his life and work on Goethe, whom he knows © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. For general queries, contact webmaster@press.princeton.edu he can never measure up to. Both Bild and Bildungsroman—objective portrait of Goethe and subjective autobiography of Eckermann himself—the Conversations with Goetheis a gallery of scenes of instruction, seduction, influence, and transmission, all of which have much to tell us about the worldliness of literature. Looking at Goethe’s Weltliteratur within the multiple frames Eckermann provides, we can already find all the major complexities, tensions, and opportunities that we still encounter today as we try to grasp our rapidly expanding world and its exfoliating literatures. Indeed, for Eckermann Goethe is the living embodiment of world literature, even of world culture as a whole. Late in his account, he records Goethe’s remark that “the daemons, to tease and make sport with men, have placed among them single figures so alluring that everyone strives after them, and so great that nobody reaches them”; Goethe names Raphael, Mozart, Shakespeare, and Napoleon as examples.“I thought in silence,”Eckermann adds, “that the daemons had intended something of the kind with Goethe—he is a form too alluring not to be striven after, and too great to be reached” (271). Even to be as close to Goethe as he is, Eckermann has come a long way. Raised in rural poverty, he had managed to find a clerk’s job at the local court. “At this time I heard the name Goethe for the first time and first acquired a volume of his poetry. I read his poems, and constantly reread them, with a pleasure that no words can describe. . . . it seemed to me that in these poems my own hitherto unknown essence was reflected back to me [zurückgespiegelt]. . . . I lived for whole weeks and months in these poems.... I thought and spoke of nothing but Goethe” (Gespräche, 21).1 Friends at court arranged a two-year scholarship for Eckermann to study law at Göttingen. His fellowship ending, he could not bear to pursue a legal career. Living penuriously on the last remains of his fellowship, he wrote poems and composed a work of literary criticism, Contributions to Poetry, with Particular Attention to Goethe, and sent the manuscript to Goethe, hoping he would recommend it to his publisher. Some weeks passed; hearing nothing, Eckermann decided to risk everything and go see Goethe in person. It took over a week to walk to Weimar. “Along the way, often made wearisome by hot weather, I kept repeating to myself the comforting feeling that I was proceeding under the special protection of benevolent spirits, and that this journey might have important consequences for my later life” (Gespräche, 30). This is an extreme understatement. Eckermann at this point had no 2 INTRODUCTION 1 In general I will be quoting from the English translation of Eckermann’s book, but that translation is incomplete. Passages I’ve taken directly from the German will be labeled Gespräche. © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher