The invention of the cylinder phonograph at the end of the nineteenth century opened up a new world for cultural research. Indeed, Edison's talking machine became one of the basic tools of anthropology. It not only equipped researchers with the means of preserving folk songs but it also enabled them to investigate a wide spectrum of distinct vocal expressions in the emerging fields of anthropology and folklore. Ethnographers grasped its huge potential and fanned out through regional America to record rituals, stories, word lists, and songs in isolated cultures.
From the outset the federal government helped fuel the momentum to record cultures that were at risk of being lost. Through the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Smithsonian Institution took an active role in preserving native heritage. It supported projects to make phonographic documentation of American Indian language, music, and rituals before developing technologies and national expansion might futher undermine them.
This study of the early phonograph's impact shows traditional ethnography being transformed, for attitudes of both ethnographers and performers were reshaped by this exciting technology. In the presence of the phonograph both fieldwork and the materials collected were revolutionized. By radically altering the old research modes, the phonograph brought the disciplines of anthropology and folklore into the modern era.
At first the instrument was as strange and new to the fieldworkers as it was to their subjects. To some the first encounter with the phonograph was a deeply unsettling experience. When it was demonstrated in 1878 before members of the National Academy of Sciences, several members of the audience fainted. Even its inventor was astonished. Of his first successful test of his tinfoil phonograph, Thomas A. Edison said, "I was never taken so aback in my life."
The cylinders that have survived from these times offer an unrivaled resource not only for contemporary scholarship but also for a grassroots renaissance of cultural and religious values. In tracing the historical interplay of the talking machine with field research, A Spiral Way underscores the natural adaptablity of cultural study to this new technology.
Erika Brady is an associate professor in the folk studies programs at Western Kentucky University. She served as technical consultant and researcher on the staff of the Federal Cylinder Project of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
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故事的叙事节奏掌握得极好,它不是那种一上来就直奔主题的快餐文学,更像是把听众带入了一个漫长而又迷人的午后茶会。开篇的处理极为克制,没有过多的背景铺陈或人物介绍,而是直接抛出一个引人遐想的场景,让我瞬间感觉自己被拽入了一个完全陌生的时空。作者非常擅长利用环境描写来烘托人物的内心世界,那些细微的气味、空气的流动、光线角度的微小变化,都成了解读角色情绪的密码。读到中间部分时,情节的张力开始缓慢积蓄,信息点像被精心隐藏的线索,需要读者自己去串联和拼凑,这极大地提升了阅读的参与感和智力上的挑战。我常常需要停下来,合上书本,在脑海里重新梳理一遍刚刚读到的对话和动作,试图捕捉那些转瞬即逝的暗示。这种需要主动思考的阅读体验,实在是太久违了。相比于被动接受信息的阅读,这种需要“共同创作”的体验,让作品的魅力加倍。
评分书中的人物塑造达到了出神入化的地步,他们与其说是虚构的角色,不如说更像是从历史的某个角落偶然被我们撞见的真实个体。尤其是主角的内心独白部分,那种细腻到令人心惊的自我剖析,简直像是一面镜子,映照出我们每个人内心深处那些不愿为人知的挣扎和矛盾。作者没有给任何角色贴上简单的“好人”或“坏人”的标签,每个人都有着极其复杂的动机和难以言喻的灰色地带。我特别欣赏作者处理冲突的方式——它往往不是通过激烈的争吵或戏剧性的事件来爆发,而是通过一种潜移默化的、日常化的交流障碍来体现的,那种“话未尽,意已明”的疏离感,反而更令人感到压抑和真实。读到某些角色的困境时,我甚至能清晰地感受到他们呼吸的频率和心跳的紊乱,仿佛我已经代入了他们的皮肤去感受这个世界的重量。这种深刻的情感共鸣,让阅读过程变成了一种近乎精神上的移居。
评分这本书的封面设计简直是一场视觉的盛宴,色彩的运用大胆而又细腻,那种层层叠叠的纹理,仿佛真的能让人触摸到时间在流逝的痕迹。我第一次在书店看到它时,就被那种神秘的气质牢牢吸引住了。它不像那些直白地把主题摆在眼前的作品,而是用一种近乎暗示的方式,勾引着你的好奇心。书脊的触感也很有意思,略带粗粝的质地,握在手里沉甸甸的,预示着里面承载的内容绝非轻飘飘的消遣。装帧的工艺看得出是下了大功夫的,即便是放在一堆精装本中间,它依然散发出一种低调而又无可替代的高级感。我甚至花了好几分钟,只是对着封面上的光影变化发呆,思考作者和设计师究竟想通过这些图案传达何种意境。那种缓慢展开的视觉体验,和阅读过程中的心境是高度契合的,都带着一种需要耐下性子去探索的仪式感。我敢肯定,光是冲着这个封面,这本书就值得被收藏,它不仅仅是一本书,更像是一件精心雕琢的艺术品,静静地躺在那里,散发着引人探究的魅力。
评分这本书的语言风格简直是文学爱好者的一场饕餮盛宴,那些句子结构和词汇的选择,充满了古典的韵味,却又丝毫没有显得晦涩难懂。它像是一条精心编织的挂毯,每一句都是一根丝线,紧密相连,共同构成了一幅宏大而又精美的图景。我尤其喜欢作者对动词的运用,它们精准而有力,赋予了静态的场景以强大的生命力。很多段落,我甚至会忍不住把它们重新朗读出声,去感受那种音节在口腔中流转的美妙。它不是追求简洁明了的现代散文,而是拥有一种老派作家的从容和对文字本身的敬畏。这种对语言的精雕细琢,使得即使是在描写最平淡无奇的日常场景时,也充满了诗意和深意。我甚至开始留意自己日常的说话方式,希望能汲取一点点这种文字的张力和美感,这无疑是一次对我个人语言敏感度的绝佳训练。
评分整本书带来的哲学思考是持久而深远的,它不像某些励志书籍那样提供立竿见影的“答案”,而是提出了一系列难以回答的、关于存在本质的诘问。读完最后一页,我并没有那种尘埃落定的满足感,反而产生了一种更强烈的、对周遭世界的“陌生化”体验。它迫使我去质疑那些我一直以来视为理所当然的社会结构、时间概念乃至自我认知。作者没有给出任何明确的方向性指导,只是将一个迷宫的入口摆在了我们面前,剩下的路,必须由我们自己去摸索。这种开放式的结局和无尽的留白,才是这本书真正的价值所在,它让作品的生命力延续到了合书的那一刻之后。在接下来的日子里,我发现自己看待日常的琐事时,都多了一层审视的目光,思考着“为什么是这样,而不是那样”。这是一本需要时间去消化的作品,它不是用来快速消费的,而是用来持续反刍的,非常值得反复品味。
评分加一星同情分,送给那些因留声机而在田野中遭罪的倒霉人类学家们。
评分人类学家与留声机的爱恨情仇。很多好玩的故事,会心一笑的同时感受到技术发展对于学术研究带来的影响。
评分人类学家与留声机的爱恨情仇。很多好玩的故事,会心一笑的同时感受到技术发展对于学术研究带来的影响。
评分加一星同情分,送给那些因留声机而在田野中遭罪的倒霉人类学家们。
评分人类学家与留声机的爱恨情仇。很多好玩的故事,会心一笑的同时感受到技术发展对于学术研究带来的影响。
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