26 Glances at the Corner of Time

Author: Pan Meng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: At the crossroads of eighteen, watch twenty-six movies that record the splendor and sorrow of growing up. I walked barefoot in a white dress, step by step, across the river of time. At the turn of 18, I couldn’t help but keep turning back to look. The stories of men recorded in the form of 26 letters, which left important memories in my growth, those lotuses of emotion and thought that bloomed in my life scattered in the river, swaying, remained the same. Three major literary journals—Furong, Huacheng, and Writer—jointly launched these three major publications simultaneously. Reader and Youth Digest newly reprinted. Furong: "Through the joy and sorrow of youth, she used magic to leave the sound of time in the hourglass." Huacheng: "In the process of writing, she inevitably gained a rare understanding of her peers, her words radiating the taste of sunlight and grass, warm and bright, like a little angel with wings." Writer: "The initial tremor of youth blossoming is enough to transcend the noisy barriers of the secular world. Everything is presented in a pure and subtle state." Unconventional imagination—Preface to Pan Meng’s Twenty-Six Glances at the Corner of Time Pan Jun said he had promised his daughter that I would write a preface for this. I guess Pan Meng agreed to her dad. After reading some chapters, I already felt Pan brother was overly diligent—why add a cliché preface to such good writing? I’ve always said our generation is just paving stones. Today’s young people are widely knowledgeable, unlike us who couldn’t find a few books to read back then; today’s young people are broadly thoughtful, unlike us who squeezed into one path back then; today’s young people are naturally free, unlike us who were trapped in self-made pools. Pan Meng’s articles, above all, the angle and her unwillingness to lag behind impressed me. I’ve always disapproved of simulation. God gave people the ability to write, not necessarily to copy reality, but to expect life to present multiple possibilities. For example, the tragic song on Wujiapo has remained in one face, one set of words, and one moral judgment for hundreds of years, which is truly frustrating! The multiple possibilities of life are clearly not in appearance but in the inner self, especially the inner self of the writer, the writer’s unique perspective and answers to the rigid appearances of this world. This requires imagination. The richness and monotony of angles are indeed proof of a flourishing or withered imagination. And absurdity—If everything in reality is flowing smoothly before your eyes, where does imagination grow from? Imagination and absurdity across the country, I think, are the source of angles and forms. Don’t tell me so much about other people’s stories—6 billion people, you can’t even argue with two, I just want to see your unique angle on life, I just want to hear you from a different voice of reality, I only care about what attitude humans can have toward life. Pan Meng’s articles satisfy me. It is precisely the unconventional imagination or attitude toward life that creates the extraordinary father-daughter relationship between Pan Jun and Pan Meng. "A Letter to My Father" chapter made me want to cry and rejoice, filled with countless emotions. Nowadays, people often sigh and shake their heads at the utilitarianism and indifference in human relationships. In fact, attitudes toward others are nurtured in the family. And whether a family is beautiful or not doesn’t depend on anything else—it depends on—just like society—whether it truly values love and freedom. Pan Meng watches her father’s back and laments his "heroic decline"—Pan brother, enough, let her see. —Shi Tiesheng A beautifully packaged, delirium-style collection, absolutely centered on the protagonist "I." Generally, such writing either comes from someone with extreme narcissism or from a teenager who hasn’t yet grown up. This book belongs to the latter. The author Pan Meng is the daughter of the writer Pan Jun, eighteen years old. From the photos in the book, she still looks very beautiful. At only 18, Pan Meng has already several years of writing experience. This girl who has just started her freshman year in college is different from many idol-level writers—her writing seems to align more with traditional literary concepts. In this novel titled Twenty-Six Glances at the Corner of Time, Pan Meng ingeniously uses 26 English letters as a guide, describing 26 different life moments through the imagery, sounds, and more of these letters. And each moment is related to a man—these men include her relatives, teachers, and friends, as well as historical figures, and even the most famous fictional character—Ah Q. With the companionship of these men, the child grows up, between the fictional and the non-fictional, an 18-year-old girl records her own journey of growth.