Vistopia
Cover of Reading Life Closely: Restarting the Self Through Twenty Short Stories
Reading Life Closely: Restarting the Self Through Twenty Short Stories
Listen to Literature with Zhang Qiuzi and Rediscover Life
Completed · 45 episodes
Buy for ¥98.00 （Original price ¥128.00）
Audio in Chinese
Student Recommendation: Listening to Zhang Qiuzi Talk About Literature Is as Dizzying and Exhilarating as Wild Mushrooms 00. Zhang Qiuzi: Can Fiction Restart Our Lives? 01. An Affair Reduced to Clocking In: Is Life Destined to Be Dull, Boring, and Vulgar? | The Lady with the Dog Preview and Reading Notes | John Cheever's The Country Husband Zhang Qiuzi × Li Zishu: What Kind of View of Literature Do We Need Today? 02. The Bracelet That Could Not Be Given: How Does Self-Deception Wear a Life Down? | The Country Husband Preview and Reading Notes | Colum McCann's Everything in This Country Must 03. Ophelia Beneath the Stars: When Seeking Meaning, Trust Your Companions and Predecessors | Everything in This Country Must Preview and Reading Notes | David Foster Wallace's Forever Overhead 04. A Bee Hovering on Its Wings: Do Not Give Up on Leading Yourself Higher | Forever Overhead Preview and Reading Notes | Gabriel García Márquez's Tuesday Siesta 05. What Does Death Mean to Those of Us Still Living? | Tuesday Siesta Preview and Reading Notes | Hemingway's The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber 06. Leaving Social Death Behind: Seizing the Moment to Change a Life | The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber Preview and Reading Notes | Flannery O'Connor's Greenleaf 07. A Painful Realization: Does Suffering Have Meaning? | Greenleaf Zhang Qiuzi × About Hot Water: Can Literature Help Me Find Answers to Life? Preview and Reading Notes | Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich 08. A Life Gone Wrong: How Do We Face Our Certain Death? | The Death of Ivan Ilyich Preview and Reading Notes | Kafka's In the Penal Colony 09. Please Cooperate: How Are We Gradually Shaped by Institutions? | In the Penal Colony Preview and Reading Notes | Listener Questions and Cortázar's The Southern Thruway 10. Lessons from a Traffic Jam: If Life Is a Long Temporary State, Why Stay So Tense? | The Southern Thruway Listener Q&A | Imagine Reading Literature as a Pleasant Picnic Preview and Reading Notes | Gogol's The Night Before Christmas 11. Shoes That Do Not Fit: What Can I Do When an Institution Makes Me Uncomfortable? | The Night Before Christmas Preview and Reading Notes | Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener 12. ‘I Would Prefer Not To’: Where Does the Courage to Refuse an Institution Come From? | Bartleby, the Scrivener Preview and Reading Notes | Alice Munro's The Children Stay 13. Morning After the Myth Ends: Intimacy Begins by Accepting That Passion Fades | The Children Stay Zhang Qiuzi: Is World Book Day a Collective Ritual of Absolution? | Vistopia Bonus Preview and Reading Notes | William Trevor's Three People 14. The Geometry of Love: What Binds Us to an Intimate Relationship? | Three People Preview and Reading Notes | Chekhov's The Kiss 15. Imagined Love: Do We Love a Real Person or a Fantasy? | The Kiss Preview and Reading Notes | Elke Heidenreich's The Most Beautiful Years 16. An Eternal Construction Site: If You Can No Longer Love, What May Have Gone Wrong? | The Most Beautiful Years Preview and Reading Notes | Virginia Woolf's Kew Gardens 17. But the Snail Does Not Care: Can Abandoning the Human View Reveal Another World? | Kew Gardens Preview and Reading Notes | Borges's The South 18. Walking into the Wasteland with a Knife: Can Consciousness Determine Matter? | The South Preview and Reading Notes | Edgar Allan Poe's The Balloon-Hoax 19. Technological Fetishism: When Science Becomes Faith, Does Life Improve or Worsen? | The Balloon-Hoax Preview and Reading Notes | Saramago's Embargo 20. A Car Out of Control: How Can We Live More Vigorously in the Material World? | Embargo | Finale