色与空之书：一本小说 [书评]
露丝•奥泽基（Ruth Ozeki）
[维京出版社，560页]
这是一种现代的阅读体验，讲述了更深层次的真理和佛教哲学，是一种礼物。
露丝•奥泽基写了一本小说，读者是那些喜欢可爱的、有缺陷的人物，并愿意让他们的散文浸润在佛教哲学中吸引人的美丽故事的粉丝。这也是为那些喜欢以最好方式搅乱自己思想的人写的。
The Book of Form and Emptiness, her most recent novel, has been nominated for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
三个主要角色
We’re introduced to three major characters: First, there’s Benny Oh, a teen who has lost his father in a tragic accident and begins to hear objects speaking to him. He is labelled as having schizoaffective disorder. Is that true? Maybe, or perhaps he’s simply a sensitive soul who can channel the objects around him and give them voice.
他的母亲是安娜贝尔，她拼命地抓住物品，成为一个囤积者。她收集的是也能对她说话的物品，只是以一种不同的方式。最后，还有“书”，它只想被书写和阅读。是的，你没看错：“书”是一个主要角色。他尖刻、睿智、富有哲理。
这是一部关于物和其人，以及人和其物的小说。我们把意义强加在物体上，或者我们觉得自己这样做了。但如果物体也把它们的意义强加给我们呢？这是一条双行道。它们是我们的设备，我们也是它们的设备。我们需要彼此。
是班尼在写“书”，还是“书“在写班尼？有时，在阅读时，我无法分清什么是真正发生的，什么是虚幻的。
精彩的配角阵容
The cast of supporting characters here is wonderful. The Aleph is a teen artist who is also homeless and addicted, and is friends with The Bottleman, an old, wheelchair-bound Slavic homeless poet. Benny’s safe place is the local library, and they befriend him there, where they all hang out frequently. As Benny struggles with the voices he hears, the old poet charges Benny to find a philosophical question to test if he is truly mad:
"但这就是‘问题’所在！" 本尼嚎啕大哭，用手拍打着自己的耳朵。"我不知道什么是真的，什么是假的！"
"是的！"老人感叹道。"正是如此！现在你知道你的问题了！"
"我知道？"
"非常肯定，"瓶子人说。"一个好问题。非常有哲理。"
"它是什么？"
“瓦特是真实的?”
"但我告诉你，我不 知道 什么是真实的！"
"你当然不知道！因为这就是令它成为一个美妙问题的原因。"
Even as Benny spends time trying to answer his question—what is real?—his voices give agency to the objects around him, making them characters in this story, too. Here, scissors want to stab, bats want to hit, boots are made for walking and vacuum cleaners want to clean. After being beaten up one evening, Benny finds the Aleph and the Bottleman at the library. He tells the Bottleman:
"我们家里的吸尘器不想打扫，"他说。"它从来没有想过要打扫。它不吸尘。"
"真可悲，"老人说。"一个不吸尘的吸尘器已经失去了它的存在价值。踢男孩的靴子也失去了它的道德指南针。"
旺盛的生命力和元气
I found the tone of this book to be exuberant. Even when sad things were happening, even when there was trauma on the page, one felt safe. I think it’s because the message is to wake up to the fact that we’re all connected, not isolated beings suffering on our own. Everyone and everything here, even the most minor characters, are held by Ozeki and written by the Book, with great kindness.
这种善良让我想到了Metta。Metta是一个巴利语单词，意思是爱-仁慈、善意或友好。它是佛教中培养的四种 "崇高境界 "之一，它是一个相当美丽的概念，同时也有实际用途。通过关注友好和仁慈概念，与Metta交上了朋友，我正试图用这个视角来对待他人和世界。有时候这很难做到！
Ozeki is a Zen Buddhist priest, ordained in 2010, so perhaps it’s not surprising that The Book of Form and Emptiness felt imbued with Metta, as if the whole tome was bathed in it. Because the Book is a character, I sometimes felt as if I was holding Metta in my hands, even if it was just a library book. Weird but wonderful. This made the reading experience quite lovely.
奥泽基写到本尼在图书馆独坐时的一次经历，那时候他似乎变得精神不振......但“书“叙述了这一场景，并称这是“解开束缚”。我们可以称它为对一切都有联系的意识。
"用言语来形容‘解放束缚’的这种无限性真不太可能！在一瞬间，我们目睹了处于星座边缘的星座，处于变化中的组合体。我们察觉到活力四射物质的动态流动，具体化为一个大理石或棒球棒，一只运动鞋或一个故事，一个爵士乐曲或一个病毒传染，一个卵子或一个古董勺子。……在那晚的这种“解放束缚”状态中，你遇到了所有过去和可能存在的东西：色与空，以及色与空的缺失。你感觉到什么是完全开放，与物质融合，让一切进入。"
言语需要界限
I’d love to talk about form and emptiness as a Buddhist concept here, but I think I’m going to leave it be, because I don’t totally understand it, and even superficial research on the topic produces pages-long complexities. Also, if I wrote about everything the book made me ponder, this review would probably go on far, far too long.
As one character notes near the end of the Book, when talking about words, “They need boundaries. Without some discipline and constraint, they can just go and say anything they please.” Ah, words. They just want to be written. And I’d love to write more and more about The Book of Form and Emptiness, but I’ll contain myself and simply encourage you to read it yourself.
«相关阅读» 时不待人：菩萨之道的及时指南[书评]»
图片一。Pixabay; 图片二: Pixabay</a
