Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life
約書亞·普拉格: 偉大作家筆下生命年歲的智慧
Joshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is going to be a very good year,
particular in store for me,
and sentiment to be a man,
而化身的結晶,
wasn't writing about me.
the subject of his book,
還有他書中的主人公,
along the same great sequence:
恆定的生命規律中了:
and confinements of childhood;
and frustrations of adolescence;
and millstones of adulthood;
and resignations of old age.
"It will happen to me as to them."
“我所將經歷的一切,也許別人也將經歷。“
where they become narratives
成為了大家都可以讀識的
if it passes into anything."
它能变成书中的扉页。”
a thought leapt to mind:
一個想法從我腦中閃過:
there were, somewhere,
assemble them into a narrative.
我就可以把它們串成一段敘事的故事
wrote William Trevor.
這是“一個小心翼翼的年紀”。
and later an injury to me
也是後來我所得的重創,
could not be assumed.
only postponed the inevitable,
推遲了不可避免的死亡的事實,
what circumstance did not.
year by vulnerable year
what was fleeting,
a glimpse into the future,
I was quickly obsessed,
我就已經被迷住了,
for ages and ages.
through our first hundred years.
of sudden revelations,"
是一個充滿著豁然開朗的年齡。”
that such insights were relative.
and so age more slowly.
所以我們衰老得慢。
the phrase "the yellow leaf"
用“落葉”
used it to describe himself at 36.
形容當時36歲的自己。
can swing wildly and unpredictably
the same age differently.
as the reflection in the mirror,
and less sure of who one is;"
of preparation into active life;"
the doors to rooms
visualizations you see here,
and an apotheosis," wrote Nabokov --
納博科夫寫到。
what we've experienced.
the list with my grandfather,
we are sure we will not die,
named Edwin Shneidman was right
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Prager - JournalistJoshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own.
Why you should listen
Joshua Prager writes for publications including Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior writer for eight years. George Will has described his work as "exemplary journalistic sleuthing."
His new book, 100 Years, is a list of literary quotations on every age from birth to one hundred. Designed by Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer who created the I ♥ NY logo, the book moves year by year through the words of our most beloved authors, revealing the great sequence of life.
His first book, The Echoing Green, was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. The New York Times Book Review called it “a revelation and a page turner, a group character study unequaled in baseball writing since Roger Kahn’s Boys of Summer some three decades ago.”
His second book, Half-Life, describes his recovery from a bus crash that broke his neck. Dr. Jerome Groopman, staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, called it “an extraordinary memoir, told with nuance and brimming with wisdom.
Joshua was a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2011 and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Hebrew University in 2012. He was born in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, grew up in New Jersey, and lives in New York. He is writing a book about Roe v. Wade.
Joshua Prager | Speaker | TED.com