( John
Irving, Courtesy of http://www.john-irving.com
)
I finally watch John Irving on TV, talking about his recent novel
“Last Night in
Twisted
River”.
He is the author of “The World According to Garp”, and one of the
American writers that Haruki Murakami (村上春樹)
admired the most.
A few years ago, Haruki was invited as a visiting scholar by some
famous Universities in
USA.
During the visit, he specifically went to meet John in person for
an intensive and deep discussion on some literature issues. Haruki
is also a main translator for John Irving’s novel into
Japanese.
In December 2009, John Irving came to
Vancouver
for the international writers’ festival. He was invited by channel
4, a special channel for interviewing famous professionals, esp.
writers, artists, and young businessmen.
When talking about the procedure of finishing his famous novels,
John signed: “I’m actually not writing full time, you know, I have
a lot of things to do every day, such as children stuff. I only can
write after I settled all those things.”(Not the original sentence
but approximately)
What did he mean “those things”? I think only those taking care of
their kids all the way by themselves, following the western
standard, would understand the true meaning of “those
things”.
As a parent, first, we have to prepare food for the kids following
the nutrition guide from the health department, esp. every weekday
lunch, bring them to after school activities, stay with them for
bedtime reading, talk and listen to them at their levels, that is,
from daycare to elementary to secondary school level.
Second, we need to clean up using a specific cleaning liquid for
different area of the house.
In the supermarket, you will see there are many kinds of Lysol, one
for dining table, cutting board, one for toilet and tub, one for
floor. They all carry the same name with different ingredients. You
can not mix different detergent at one time. You need to be clear
about the functions of each one. Yes, ingredients catch our
attentions whenever we choose our food, detergent, or even utensils
such as a food container. At the same time, we also need to educate
young ones about all these.
In the food, we have to check all ingredients to avoid those that
might cause allergy to our kids, those that could bring in Trans
fat, with too much saturate fat, or Vitamin C, etc., those
unnatural, preservative and man made.
For bedding, curtains, table cloth, etc., we have to wash them once
every other week. There might be some pets cleaning, lawn mowing,
house fixing, car repairing, etc.
It is a responsible parent’s mission list, however, if you do not
follow, your life would be much simpler and you will have more time
on your own business, but children could bare bigger risk at that
household.
From the frown lines like train tracks on John’s forehead, I can
imagine how busy life he has been leading for the past decades. I
think it is beautiful. I also think it is John’s motivation of
writing those novels. Only those would like to take children life
quality serious would understand the meaning of those lines on his
forehead.
John Irving作品: The World According to Garp （盖普眼中的世界）
The Cider House Rules
The Hotel New Hampshire
and more on
http://www.john-irving.com