Eel's Journey
About This Novel
Eels are one of nature's strangest creatures. To this day, we still know very little about it. European eels are born in the Sargasso Sea, an ocean with hard-to-define boundaries, and then travel to the coast of Europe, where they swim into rivers and streams to live. After living peacefully for decades, when the biological clock rings, it will complete its last transformation and embark on a long journey back to its birthplace, where it will reproduce and die. If it cannot start its journey, it seems to wait for eternity and never change. For more than two thousand years, eels have remained a mystery. Aristotle was convinced that it had no gender, and Freud was repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to find its genitals. No one has ever seen eels mating. The mysterious eel fascinates Patrick. Just as elusive as the eel is the complex and subtle relationship between him and his father. He explores the fields of literature, art, religion and the history of science, while reminiscing about his childhood days spent fishing for eels with his father. The eel's unknowability, its clumsy and romantic life journey, are like metaphors, triggering our thinking and understanding of survival and death, purpose and meaning.
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Silence😶I won't be able to eat any more eels from now on
Adopting a double-line parallel structure, the natural science popularization of eels is intertwined with the narrative of the bond between the author and the eels. Through the author's memories, I can imagine the steamy and sparkling scene. The air is mixed with the smell of grass, earth, and, oh, a little bit of mud from the waterside. Where do eels come from and where are they going? Rather than exploring eels, the author is exploring himself. To be precise, he is the mammal least in danger of extinction-human beings. In short, it is recommended to read 📖 --Excerpt "Of course one can find meaning in places that another person cannot even comprehend, but shouldn't that meaning be part of the situation? Shouldn't the situation be at least larger than the person? Ultimately, one needs to be part of something that has continuity, to feel like one belongs to something eternity that began before it existed and will continue to exist after it is gone. One needs to be part of something bigger. When we talk about human experience, we are not talking about the experience of a single person. We are talking about shared human experiences that can be passed on, retold, and relived. Perhaps we can better identify with the eel's fate than the salmon's programmed life course of being unable to act independently. Perhaps that's why the eel, with its mysterious inaccessibility, is such a fascinating creature. Because it is easier for us to understand a person who carries a secret and does not directly reveal who he is or where he comes from. The mystery of eels is also the mystery of humans. Finding your place alone in the world is perhaps the ultimate and most universal of all human experiences. When there are no events or experiences to divert our attention from time, time becomes a monster, an intolerable thing. Knowledge has its boundaries after all, and we should be happy about that. Faith requires you to give up part of your logic and reason. "
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Community(0)
Official(1)
Silence😶I won't be able to eat any more eels from now on
Adopting a double-line parallel structure, the natural science popularization of eels is intertwined with the narrative of the bond between the author and the eels. Through the author's memories, I can imagine the steamy and sparkling scene. The air is mixed with the smell of grass, earth, and, oh, a little bit of mud from the waterside. Where do eels come from and where are they going? Rather than exploring eels, the author is exploring himself. To be precise, he is the mammal least in danger of extinction-human beings. In short, it is recommended to read 📖 --Excerpt "Of course one can find meaning in places that another person cannot even comprehend, but shouldn't that meaning be part of the situation? Shouldn't the situation be at least larger than the person? Ultimately, one needs to be part of something that has continuity, to feel like one belongs to something eternity that began before it existed and will continue to exist after it is gone. One needs to be part of something bigger. When we talk about human experience, we are not talking about the experience of a single person. We are talking about shared human experiences that can be passed on, retold, and relived. Perhaps we can better identify with the eel's fate than the salmon's programmed life course of being unable to act independently. Perhaps that's why the eel, with its mysterious inaccessibility, is such a fascinating creature. Because it is easier for us to understand a person who carries a secret and does not directly reveal who he is or where he comes from. The mystery of eels is also the mystery of humans. Finding your place alone in the world is perhaps the ultimate and most universal of all human experiences. When there are no events or experiences to divert our attention from time, time becomes a monster, an intolerable thing. Knowledge has its boundaries after all, and we should be happy about that. Faith requires you to give up part of your logic and reason. "
