Webliminalblog

Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather

I picked up a copy of "Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather" by Gao Xingjian at Central Rappahannock Regional Library on a whim. It was on display, Gao Xingjian had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000, and after reading the liner notes, I had the promise of a good read.

The promise was more than fulfilled. In this collection of stories Gao Xingjian presents glimpses of dreams. The story lines weave in and out of chronological sequence, and also weave reality and imagination - or maybe it's all imagination. The realization of this dream-like experience came, to me, after reading, like waking. All the better is that the dreams aren't just his dreams but our dreams as well. His also a master at using language in his writing, and, it's amazing, that it's apparent even in reading his works in translation.

Here's a quote that I enjoyed. It comes from the story "In an Instant," a story more surreal than the others, and its aptly placed as the last in the book.

"He is sitting at the computer with a cigarette in his mouth. A long sentence appears on the screen. "What" is not to understand and "what' is to understand or not is not to understand that even when "what" is understood, it is not understood, for "what" is to understand and "what" is not to understand, "what" is "what" and "is not" is "is not," and so is not to understand not wanting to understand or simply not understanding why "what" needs to be understood or whether "what" can be understood, and also it is not understood whether "what" is really not understood or that it simply hasn't been rendered so that it can be understood or is really understood but that there is a pretense not to understand or a refusal to try to understand or is pretending to want to understand yet deliberately not understanding or actually trying unsuccessfully to understand, then so what if it's not understood and if it's not understood, then why go to all this trouble of wanting to understand it-- "

Posted by ernie at April 8, 2005 08:09 AM