你若不伤，爱就无恙

不是每一个人，到了三十就自动“而立”，到了四十就已然“不惑”。看看身边，一把年纪还没活明白的女人太多太多。过去，你只怕赚钱的速度赶不上父母老去、孩子长大的速度。如今，你是否问过自己：你内心成长的速度是否赶得上肉身衰老的节奏 你精神丰沛的所得是否抵得过情爱消逝的所失 你格局视野的开阔是否超越了柴米油盐的烦扰 你气度学识的增长是否抵御了烟火流年的侵蚀 岁月只会流逝，不会凭空给谁惊喜。你不应白白受苦，更不该空空老去。 伍迪·艾伦说：曾经我白发苍苍，如今我风华正茂。生活刻薄相欺曾令你白发苍苍，而如今的风华，正踏着过去浴火重生迤逦而来。

朝圣

当我们踏上朝圣之路时，我觉得自己已经实现了年少时的一大梦想。你就是我的巫师唐望，我在追寻超凡之境的道路上重温了卡斯塔尼达不朽的传奇。我千方百计想塑你为英雄，却通通被你断然回绝。我们的关系由此陷入紧张，直至我最终明白：超凡之境恰在凡人之路上。如今，这一领悟成为我人生的珍宝，将伴我终生，使我去面对一切。我想与他人分享这一领悟，为此，谨以此书献给你，佩特鲁斯。

偶然的创造

我们碰巧成为自己，但我们可以不止于此。

如何读，为什么读

Melville was not a Christian, and tended to identify with the ancient Gnostic heresy, in which the creator God of this world is a bungler and impostor, while the true God, called the Stranger or Alien God, is exiled somewhere in the outer regions of the cosmos.Early, major Faulkner is a kind of unknowing Gnostic; West, Pynchon, and McCarthy in their different ways are very knowing indeed. My subject is how to read their best fiction, and why, and not how to instruct my own readers in ancient heterodoxies (at least not here!), but the first sequence of four novels that I have chosen, in the wake of Melville, achieve their negative splendors in modes parallel to Gnostic visions, as we will see.