Things in Nature Merely Grow

这是一部非凡而又反抗性的著作，作者是知名作家李翊云，她对失去儿子詹姆斯的痛苦有着深刻的接受。

“没有好的方式来表达这一点，”李翊云在这本书的开头写道。

“没有好的方式来陈述这些必须承认的事实。我丈夫和我有两个孩子，都失去了他们：文森特于 2017 年去世，享年 16 岁，詹姆斯于 2024 年去世，享年 19 岁。两人都选择了自杀，死在离家不远的地方。”

没有好的方式来表达这一点——因为语言不足以表达。死亡只需一瞬间就能成为事实，“时间轴上的一个点”。现在，李翊云生活在这个点上，她开始思考和推理，寻找可能为詹姆斯留有一席之地的词语。李翊云尽其所能：不仅写作，还做园艺、阅读加缪和维特根斯坦的作品、学习钢琴，并在死亡旁边思考地生活。

这是一本写给詹姆斯的书，但不是一本关于悲伤或哀悼的书。正如李写道：“永不消逝的动词是存在。文森特过去是、现在是、将来也永远是文森特。詹姆斯过去是、现在是、将来也永远是詹姆斯。我们过去是、现在是、将来也永远是他们的父母。没有现在和过去，没有现在和将来，只有现在、现在、现在和现在。”《万物生长》是李不屈不挠精神的见证。

A remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance from celebrated author Yiyun Li as she considers the loss of her son James.

“There is no good way to say this,” Yiyun Li writes at the beginning of this book.

“There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged. My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.”

There is no good way to say this―because words fall short. It takes only an instant for death to become fact, “a single point in a timeline.” Living now on this single point, Li turns to thinking and reasoning and searching for words that might hold a place for James. Li does what she can: including not just writing but gardening, reading Camus and Wittgenstein, learning the piano, and living thinkingly alongside death.

This is a book for James, but it is not a book about grieving or mourning. As Li writes, “The verb that does not die is to be. Vincent was and is and will always be Vincent. James was and is and will always be James. We were and are and will always be their parents. There is no now and then, now and later, only, now and now and now and now.” Things in Nature Merely Grow is a testament to Li’s indomitable spirit.

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