Moss

Author: Lin Bai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The Moss was written from 1990 to 1992. It was a time when the author's life was turbulent and spirit exhausted. The author nearly gave up writing. Turbulence and exhaustion had damaged his language ability, and he felt he was about to lose his touch. He refused to accept this, and he wrote the book bit by bit, imagining that one day he would return to that state of writing with effortless grace. The Moss was written this way. Its structure is not rigorous, and its language is not as distinctive as the author's usual style, but it holds immense significance to him. Through writing The Moss, he rediscovered his sense of writing. The past seeped into every object, they swayed and spun, and in the silence, he repeatedly smelled the scent of bygone years. Her town, her sandy street, her great river, the houses with gray verandas, the hibiscus at the door, the docks, the boats, the earthen mounds, the people—illuminated by this rainy night, they all came before her. She suddenly realized that her hometown had not vanished; it was hidden within her, an integral part of her being.