Do We Know?

【活动回顾】| 知否？
【Review】| Do We Know?
时间：11月24日，周六，13:00-14:30
Time: November 24, Saturday, 13:00-14:30
地点：言几又
Venue: Yan Ji You
主题：他们不知己行
Theme:They Know Not What They Do
作家：Jussi Valtonen（芬兰）
Writers: Jussi Valtonen (Finland)
主持人：张鸿（中国）
Moderator: Zhang Hong (China)
11月24日下午，第三届中欧国际文学节相关活动在深圳言几又书店举行。活动当日，芬兰作家Jussi Valtonen与主持人张鸿女士展开了一场别开生面的对话。本身作为作家、编辑及出版策划人，主持人张鸿循序引导，逐步深入话题，谈话环环相扣，内容涵盖了Jussi新作及相关主题，如家庭关系、科学发展及脑神经科学的真伪。过程中，主持人与嘉宾碰撞出思想的火花，他们的很多观点都被对方深表赞同。
On November 24, the 3rd EU-China International Literary Festival Shenzhen event was held in Yan Ji You bookstore in the afternoon. Finland writer Jussi Valtonen and the moderator Zhang Hong started a heated discussion. AS a writer, editor and curator herself, Zhang Hong spread the discussing topics layer by layer and presented a thorough and in depth conversation. Their words covered Jussi’s new book and some of the key themes in it such as family relationships, the development of technology and beliefs and hype about the brain. During the workshop, there were clashes and splashes of thoughts and they agreed with each other a lot.
本场嘉宾Jussi Valtonen是来自芬兰赫尔辛基的作家，现居住于纽约。同时，他也是心理学家，曾在美国学习神经心理学。新作《他们不知己行》在芬兰荣登畅销榜，并获芬兰最高文学成就Finlandia奖。这本书被翻译成10国语言，在各国上架。同时，很快将由中国国际广播出版社出版。
Our guest Jussi Valtonen is an author from Helsinki, Finland and now lives in New York, America. He is also a psychologist and studied neurotic psychology in the United States. His latest novel “ They Know Not What They Do” was a bestseller in his native country and was awarded the Finlandia Prize, the nation’s highest profile literary award. The book was being sold in many regions and countries in 10 versions of its translated work. Also in China, it will be published by China International Radio Press in no time.
Jussi表示，自己虽然来自芬兰，但目前居住在纽约。最早来到美国时，并没有感到太大的不同。他自己也说英语，所以在生活上没有感到太大变化。但是，当他再次回到自己的祖国芬兰时，他才意识到两国之间存在的差异。首先是人口差异。美国的人口比芬兰庞大许多。其次，当他回到芬兰后，他非常怀念美国式的沟通。觉得美国人的交流能够兼容并蓄，包含着很多不同的视角。另外，作为来自北欧的作家，他也意识到了与美国教育上的不同。
Jussi came from Finland but live in the US now. When he first came to America, he felt some similarity. Not much difference actually. For example,they share the same language. But after he came back to Finland from America, he felt great differences. First of all, the population. US has much more population than Finland. He also said: “In Finland, what I missed most is that the US has so much communication and so much perspectives.” As a writer from North Europe,he also felt the difference in education.
提到两个地区之间的差异，尤其是文化上的差异，Jussi的新作《他们不知己行》中也有体现。小说主人公Joe来自芬兰，后来和来自美国的Alina结婚并组建家庭。Joe以为两人的不同文化背景并不会成为他们日后生活的阻碍，然而事实并非如此。讲到这里，主持人提出了下面的话题：我们经常比较中西方的文化差异，但是通常我们讲到西方文化时，会不自觉地把美国作为西方文化的参照物，或者说，认为美国就代表了西方文化。但事实上，欧美众多国家之间也是存在差异的。对此，Jussi表示赞同。他说，就如同自己一样，当不同地区不同国家的人汇聚在一起，生活在美国时，并不会明显感到差异。但是他各自回到了自己的祖国，就会发现，彼此之间由于不同的文化背景而存在的明显不同。就好像中国地大物博，不同地区的人们文化和习俗也是不同的。
Mentioning the difference between the two regions, especially the cultural difference, it was also showed in his latest work “They Know Not What They Do”. The main character Joe from Finland married American women Alina. He thought it would be easy. But later he felt the difference. Here brought the moderator’s next topic: we usually compare culture between Asia and the western world. But we always think the US as a representative of the West. Yet actually, the culture among countries in the west are not the same to begin with. Jussi agreed this idea. He said, just like himself, when people with various nationalities came to live in the US together, they feel the same. But back to their homeland nation, they feel different originated from different culture background. Just like in China, through different regions, its not the same as well. People all have their own culture and customs.
回归作品本身，主持人张鸿讲到昨晚拜读了Jussi的新作节选，读出了小说中对于人性的洞察。Jussi坦言如是，因为他觉得能够表达人性的作家才是一位好的作家。品读文学，我们首先需要的是一个，明确的主题，还希望看到作者的独特性。而对于人性的洞察和解读是支撑作品的主心骨。至于写作的技巧，只是锦上添花。这就是为什么Jussi在自己的作品中，并没有过分强调写作技巧。他能注重揣摩故事主角人性的一面，使得整个故事自然而完整。
Back to his novel, moderator Zhang Hong read some extract last night. She felt the novel had some insight about humanity. Jussi said: “I like express humanity, because that makes me a good writer.” When we read literature, what’s most important thing? What do we expect the most? First, a clear theme and the uniqueness about the writer. And among all these, the perspective and illustration of humanity is the support. Skills and techniques come second. That is also why in the novel, there was not so much techniques. It was more about the character itself. The whole story felt natural and complete.
故事的主人公是一位神经科学家，而Jussi自己也是一名神经心理学家。那么，神经心理学究竟是什么呢？Jussi表示，其实研究神经和心理，就是研究大脑如何影响我们的认知功能。
这是一个有趣的话题，人类目前对此的研究还没有很深入。大脑是一个极为复杂的器官，Jussi认为，我们很难从科学的角度完全客观的呈现人类情感和认知。因为情感，就是主观意识的体现。小说中也传达了他的这一观点。
In the story, the main character is a neuroscientist. Jussi himself studied that field too. So what is neuropsychology then? Jussi said, studying about neurotic and psychology is studying about how the brain affect our knowledge. It’s an interesting topic. But till now, we don’t have much study on it. Brain is a very complex organ. It’s hard to acknowledge humanity objectively. Emotion is subjective. The idea is also conveyed in his book.
当今世界，AI（人工智能）技术盛行，并且在不断发展壮大。甚至出现了可以模仿或者感知人类感情，捕捉大脑意识的技术。然而霍金先生生前给我们留下的最后警告竟是：人工智能将摧毁人类。的确，信息技术如潮水般向我们涌来，人类还处于不断适应的阶段。我们可能还没有完全清楚地意识到信息爆炸给这个时代所带来的真正意义上的改变。从短信、邮件到社交网络媒体，如中国的微信，这些信息技术的发展演变表面上拉近了人们的距离，实则使人们之间心灵的距离两极化，变得更远。因此，对于信息技术，对于科技的迅速发展，Jussi持有谨慎态度。
Nowadays, AI( Artificial Intelligence) technology is developing rapidly. There are even some cutting edge technologies that can imitate people’s emotion and capture their brain activity. Yet the last warning from the world-renowned scientist Stephen William Hawking was: AI will destroy human. Indeed, with technology and information pouring towards us, human being is still adapting. We may not fully understand the real change it brought us yet. Messages, emails and social media like Wechat in China, are seemingly bringing people together. Yet it also polarize us. The distance between us is even further. Thus, author Jussi is being cautious about the soaring development in technology.
最后，现场的讨论再次回归文学本身。“写作技巧和精打细磨是非常重要的，但更重要的是如何利用技巧写出更好作品。好的作品是危险的，好的文学是牵动人心的，让人难以预料，惊喜不断。”想必Jussi的这番话会在读者心中激起层层涟漪，值得回味。
In the end, we went back to literature. “Techniques are important, but what is more precious is using the skills to render better literature. Good literature should be dangerous and exciting. Be hard to anticipate and be there the surprise.” Jussi’s words are worth pondering.