How do I read Monte Cristo?

 20231023

How do I read Monte Cristo?

It's just a different feeling when you read it in your old age.   First time I read it was eleven,  now I am seventy seven.   Actually, the feeling is the same,  though I can understand it more than before.

Reading a book is completely not the same as watching a movie.  Because the book can provide only language lines for you to read. The reader need to use his imagination to complete the scenario. For example, what does Monte Cristo look like?   Is he tall or short? Or, is there any mustache in his mouth?  You need to use imagination to enrich the words and the action.  You will have your own story within you. If it is in a movies,  you will see an actual actor acting and imagination is reduced. That's why reading can help to develop a brain more.

I was reading my own version of Monte Cristo in my home.  I was enjoying it last night like when I was eleven.   All the feelings have come back. Maybe for the first page I was reading it word by word.  The words are lined up vertically  because it was in Chinese.  I thought I will not try to find an English version or French version,  and I can't read French. The Chinese version gave me warmth.  Although the places are in France,  but the feelings are in China.  Only a talented writer can do this.   You forget everything when you were in the story.  It is the actual feeling ended up in your brain, but not the printed words.   The words are not there.  Although I still need to read it in a traditional Chinese version.  Languages are but a bridge.  You need a good bridge, but you need them only temporarily.  Actually, what you need is the story line. And deeply what you need is the spirit.   You need to free yourself from all the prisons in the world.   You were not allowed to do many things.  You are not free.   But now you are completely free from everything in the story.  You can join Monte Cristo to escape together from the tunnel.   You can make a knife from a spoon like him.   I keep a knife in my pocket since I was eleven from then on.  It was a gift from Monte Cristo.  I thought all men should be like him,  and me too.   My knife was confiscated by a teacher when I was twelve years old.   It made me sad.  The spirit is still here with me together,  thanks for the traditional Chinese version of the book.

No one can take it away from my mind. It is my treasure,  it is mine.

If someone asks me, what do you have?

I know I have the answer.

And I will ask in return:

And you?  What do you have?

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