Extra Chapter

Author: Wang Shuo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Culture is too terrifying, like food. If you don’t eat, you die; if you do, you’re shaped by it. I suspect its core has been encoded into our genes, no longer needing to be acquired through education. I feel like I’m swimming in the sea, endless waves overwhelming me. When will I reach the other shore? With a clear, innocent mind like that of a newly emerged primitive human from the trees. About these books, I personally believe they are a testament to a barbaric era. To live, to live in self-invented and self-satisfied illusions—this is perhaps the fate of a writer. Understanding it is useless. In my youth, I thought there were many important things ahead, that as long as I kept running, I’d see them. But when I walked past, I realized the important things had already happened behind me, had passed, and the path ahead was once again empty. There’s nothing to regret about the past, no accidents—everything was necessary. I don’t believe a person can have more than two choices. These books were all written ten years ago or earlier. Back then, I was very self-assured, believed in many things, disbelieved in many others, had strong desires, and thought what I knew was everything. The people, scenes, and conversations in these books were things I had experienced. They weren’t special in life—only because I didn’t know more did I find them interesting and wrote them down with pretense. These scenes are gone, the people have scattered, the living have aged prematurely, and I no longer speak or view myself the same way. So sometimes I feel I’ve lost the ability to keep writing.