引言
這個月我準備寫點人話。
真實原因當然不是如此，我忙得不可開交，還有visa的事情要處理。關於簽證申請的事情，我日後寫一篇文章，教人如何逆向官方的數據接口而讓機器替你盯著系統放出來的面談quota。這實在是一種難民修養，我羞於承認這一點，它多半是你自身所處的真實社會階級所致。在資源充裕的地方，你是沒必要做這種事情。
我清楚這個網站沒什麼人在看，但我努力一月至少寫一篇文章，從這個角度來講我也不是寫給別人看的。在我看來，一個月的時間夠久，你總能發現新鮮事物或者產生更為深刻的思考。要是這點都做不到，我想你的生活應該相當乏味，每一天都是昨天的重複而已：它實質上就是一種隱性死亡，你是活了幾十年，還是一天，沒什麼本質不同。
這個月我分享一篇文章。
浮文
之所以稱為浮文，主要是取自清談廢務，浮文妨要。因為我現在已經有了一些見識，曉得語言不過是一些泡沫性的東西，是不大再會被廉價的表演所打動。哪怕我曾經也是一個遊手好閒，詩酒風流的士大夫。這多半要得益於我的父輩把自身的階級地位敗得乾乾淨淨，以至於到我這一代徹底墮到貧下中農那個階層，沒有任何資產可以去揮霍了。
我是統治階層的後代。你可以從我的祖先希臘人，再及公卿，再到武士，再淪落為地方上的豪強，再到我父輩被劫掠得一無所有，可以清晰地看到一條階級地位不斷下沈的路徑，以及如何從一個技術輸入者到後代淪為土鱉中國人，我自己就是一個現成的活化石。
前一陣子我發現了一篇文章，我已經很久沒有被這樣感動過了。當時我在寫一個叫xkcd手繪卡通簡筆畫的小程序，把這篇文章隱藏在裡面。
Is There a Santa Claus?
太陽報的編輯收到一封信：
1 | Dear Editor: |
然後就有了這篇文章：
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
後記
我不想作過多解釋，實際上你很容易找到它的資料。這篇文章寫於1897年，血腥的二十世紀還沒開始。如果你不清楚何為殘酷的二十世紀，還請移步我之前的一篇文章，你就會明白我為什麼會因此感動。