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A Fortune-Teller Told Me de Tiziano Terzani

A Fortune-Teller Told Me

Autor Tiziano Terzani
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 23 apr 2002

Impactul lui Tiziano Terzani asupra jurnalismului internațional a fost monumental, transformând reportajul de război și analiză politică într-o formă de explorare profund umanistă a Orientului. În A Fortune-Teller Told Me, găsim o premisă care pare desprinsă din ficțiune, dar care a dictat realitatea unui an întreg: un corespondent de cursă lungă, obișnuit cu rigoarea faptelor, decide să asculte profeția unui ghicitor și să renunțe complet la zborul cu avionul în 1993. Ceea ce începe ca o măsură de precauție superstițioasă se transformă într-o călătorie inițiativă prin Asia, de la bordul unor trenuri lente în Birmania până la bărci ce străbat fluviile din Laos.

Considerăm că forța acestui volum rezidă în dualitatea autorului. Terzani nu își abandonează spiritul critic, dar își deschide mintea către un univers al misticismului pe care modernitatea îl ignoră adesea. Abordarea jurnalistică evocă profunzimea din Asian Journals de Joseph Campbell, însă acolo unde Campbell caută mitul universal, Terzani caută supraviețuirea spiritului local în fața globalizării. Stilul este unul reflexiv, ritmul fiind dictat de viteza de deplasare a mijloacelor de transport terestre, oferind cititorului răgazul de a observa detalii care, de la înălțimea unui avion, rămân invizibile. Nu este doar un jurnal de călătorie, ci o meditație despre destin și despre cum limitările autoimpuse pot deveni porți către libertate. Recomandăm această lectură pentru felul în care reușește să transforme o „amenințare cu moartea” într-o renaștere spirituală și profesională, oferind o perspectivă rară asupra unei Asii aflate la răscrucea dintre tradiție și progresul brutal.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780609809587
ISBN-10: 060980958X
Pagini: 384
Dimensiuni: 142 x 232 x 28 mm
Greutate: 0.49 kg
Editura: Crown Publishing Group (NY)

De ce să citești această carte

Recomandăm această carte oricărui cititor care dorește să descopere Asia dincolo de clișeele turistice. Veți câștiga o perspectivă unică asupra legăturii dintre intuiție și realitate, învățând de la un jurnalist de elită cum să încetiniți ritmul vieții pentru a observa profunzimea lumii. Este un motiv concret de a explora cum o simplă superstiție poate deveni catalizatorul celei mai autentice experiențe de viață.

Despre autor

Tiziano Terzani a fost timp de trei decenii corespondentul pentru Asia al reputatei reviste germane „Der Spiegel”. Experiența sa vastă s-a cristalizat în ani petrecuți în Vietnam, China, Japonia și Thailanda, fiind martor direct la transformările radicale ale continentului. Din 1994, s-a retras în India, trăind mare parte din timp în Himalaya. Opera sa, care include titluri precum „The Forbidden Door” și „Good Night, Mister Lenin”, este marcată de o tranziție fascinantă de la analiza politică rece la o explorare spirituală și filosofică a condiției umane în raport cu istoria și destinul.

Extras

Life is full of opportunities. The problem is to recognize them when they present themselves, and that isn't always easy. Mine, for instance, had all the marks of a curse: "Beware! You run a grave risk of dying in 1993. You mustn't fly that year. Don't fly, not even once," a fortune-teller told me.

It happened in Hong Kong. I had come across that old Chinese man by sheer chance. When I heard his dire words I was momentarily taken aback, but not deeply disturbed. It was the spring of 1976, and 1993 seemed a long way off. I did not forget the date, however; it lingered at the back of my mind, rather like an appointment one hasn't yet decided whether to keep or not.

Nineteen seventy-seven . . . 1987 . . . 1990 . . . 1991. Sixteen years seem an eternity, especially when viewed from the perspective of Day One. But, like all our years (except those of adolescence), they passed very quickly, and in no time at all I found myself at the end of 1992. Well, then, what was I to do? Take that old Chinese man's warning seriously and reorganize my life? Or pretend it had never happened and carry on regardless, telling myself, "To hell with fortune-tellers and all their rubbish"?

By that time I had been living in Asia solidly for over twenty years -- first in Singapore, then in Hong Kong, Peking, Tokyo, and finally in Bangkok -- and I felt that the best way of confronting the prophecy was the Asian one: not to fight against it, but to submit.

"You believe in it, then?" teased my fellow journalists -- especially the Western ones, the sort of people who are used to demanding a clear-cut yes or no to every question, even to such an ill-framed one as this. But we do not have to believe the weather forecast to carry an umbrella on a cloudy day. Rain is a possibility, the umbrella a precaution. Why tempt fate if fate itself gives you a sign, a hint? When the roulette ball lands on the black three or four times in a row, some gamblers count on statistical probability and bet all their money on the red. Not me: I bet on the black again. Has the ball itself not winked at me?

And then, the idea of not flying for a whole year was an attraction in itself. A challenge, first and foremost. It really tickled me to pretend an old Chinese in Hong Kong might hold the key to my future. It felt like taking the first step into an unknown world. I was curious to see where more steps in the same direction would lead. If nothing else, they would introduce me, for a while, to a different life from the one I normally led. For years I have traveled by plane, my profession taking me to the craziest places on earth, places where wars are being waged, where revolutions break out or terrible disasters occur. Obviously I had held my breath on more than one occasion -- landing with an engine in flames, or with a mechanic squeezed in a trapdoor between the seats, hammering away at the undercarriage that was refusing to descend.

If I had dismissed the prophecy and carried on flying in 1993, I would certainly have done so with more than the usual pinch of anxiety that sooner or later strikes all those -- including pilots -- who spend much of their lives in the air; but I would have carried on with my normal routine: planes, taxis, hotels, taxis, planes. That divine warning (yes: "divination," "divine," so alike!) gave me a chance -- in a way obliged me -- to inject a variant into my days.


From the Hardcover edition.

Recenzii

“Terzani’s thoughtful progression provides great pleasure because he is more open to the people, and people are always the real journey.” —Book Page

“A marvelous traveling companion, Terzani entertains us with his reflections on subjects from astrology to political violence, from the depravity of Bangkok to the sterility of Singapore, and introduces us to the characters he meets along the way.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“An extraordinary and nuanced account of a journey through the Far East and Southeast Asia.” —Library Journal

Notă biografică

For thirty years, Tiziano Terzani has lived in Asia, reporting on its wars and revolutions as Far East correspondent of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. Born in Florence, he was educated in Europe and the United States. Since 1994 he has made New Delhi his base.

Descriere scurtă

An utterly charming and engaging travel book that offers vivid portraits of unusual corners of Asia, told by a skilled raconteur whose eyes were open wide. "Los Angeles Times Book Review"
Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to risk flying for an entire year, Tiziano Terzani a vastly experienced Asia correspondent took what he called the first step into an unknown world. . . . It turned out to be one of the most extraordinary years I have ever spent: I was marked for death, and instead I was reborn.
Traveling by foot, boat, bus, car, and train, he visited Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Geography expanded under his feet. He consulted soothsayers, sorcerers, and shamans and received much advice some wise, some otherwise about his future. With time to think, he learned to understand, respect, and fear for older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity. He rediscovered a place he had been reporting on for decades. And reinvigorated himself in the process."

Descriere

Now in paperback, this work by Terzani, a jet-age Asian correspondent, recounts his year of traveling the Far East by foot, boat, bus, car, and train--but never by airplane--while rediscovering the land, the people, and himself.