文學創作－Lia's Blog

「我在底層的生活：當專欄作家化身為女服務生」，是曾撰寫時代雜誌專欄的細胞生物學博士Barbara Ehrenreich，在隱瞞實際學經歷、切斷一切資源、親身體驗低薪勞動工作後，所發表的一份報告。Ehrenreich在1998年春天至2000年夏天之間進行此一「實驗」，書本於2001年在美初版並引起廣大迴響，台灣出版商遲至今年十月才引進此一社會底層報導的經典作品，然而文中所指出的貧富差距、房價飆漲、勞工階級遭到剝削等問題，卻跨越了時間與國界，仍舊在台灣的經濟現況中肆虐。

從中國時報上得知這本書的當時，我就對作者當初的發想十分欽佩與讚賞。

自由社會大多數的發言權與決定權一向被知識份子所把持，即便是強調平等的左派，也只是站在一定高度來替底層發聲，無法實際從勞動階級的角度來了解他們的問題、謀求解決的方法。真正勞動者的心聲根本沒有人聽得到，先不提他們通常沒有足夠的組織能力去剖析所處的困境、缺乏反抗性與行動力去構築強有力的工會來爭取權利，就算他們有，想辦法把餘力拿去賺更多的錢都來不及了，誰會有那個閒功夫像我一樣坐在這裡寫網誌或從事其他形式的發表？我們所以為的勞動階級生活，不是憑想像就是透過一些片面的報導，但事實上大家對富人的奢華遠比窮人的困頓有興趣多了，留給這些處在社會底層者的除了同情之外，往往還有一種「你就是不努力所以才翻不了身」的責難，無論真實與否，這些人都無從辯白。

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個人分類：文學創作

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Aug 18 Wed 2010 22:25
百吻……之後呢？

前日回家前在書店小逛一下
翻了楊雅晴的「百吻巴黎(下)」
這個女孩紅起來時我人在英國
只把這索百吻的所謂「行動藝術」當成眾多八卦中的一則
瀏覽了這本書後

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個人分類：文學創作

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Nov 07 Sat 2009 10:48
The Devil Wears Prada

After reading the first few chapters of the Chinese version of this book, I decided to buy the original one without much hesitation, which was quite, well, very unusually for me who seldom spend money on publications other than magazines or textbooks. My rationale is that since one can simply stand in the bookstore and finish reading one for free, there is no piont as to pay for it; besides, most books would be read for only once and afterwards they just become space-consuming garbage. So how is this one different? First, all the books in foreign languages are plastic-wrapped and I simply had no choice. Second, I insist on reading in English because having the guess “How was it written in origin?” keeping interrupting me is far too unbearable. Last but not the least, the story about fashion industry and a young woman starting her very first career after college was so attractive that I was indulged in reading it once the book has been picked up.

Not quite finishing it yet but I have identified myself with the first narrator, Andrea, a 23-year-old out-of-college girl who had set her mind on writing for The New Yorker but incidentally became the personal assistant of the most powerful woman in fashion. Her boss was Miranda Priestly, the adorable editor of Runway magazine, but at the same time a tough, mean and picky lady. Though lacking any bit of interest in fashion, Andrea decided to settle down at the position - "a job a million girls would die for" - for one year, hoping such experience in her resume would finally bring her to the career she dreamed for. Isn't that just identical to what I am going through? The only reason I am tolerating all those reasonable and unreasonable obligations, from primary care to inserting or removing some stupid tubes into or from someone else’s nostrils or ureters or blood vessels or whatsoever, is to become a resident next year. While Andrea tried so hard to conceal her hostility from her boss, I pretend sweet and tame to the sometimes arrogant nurses. Humiliation just doesn’t count for us who happen to be in the lowest level of the company. While Andrea's family and b/f do not understand why the job had taken her so much time and stressed her so much, I am lucky enough to have intern friends who can share all the upset and curses.

Having those famous brand names and names of designers, models and celebrities floating through is another marvelous experience. I am acquaint with the fashion stuff, and therefore the semi-real setting brought me even more into it. It is such an amusement to see how the real and made-up characters interacted, and with regard to the author’s former job as working for Vogue, I tend to believe that the story she told was at least 90 % based on truth. The book provided me the chance to peer into the mysterious fashion world, and to be honest I was still astonished by the information even though I thought before I had known enough. I had no clue that a simple shot for an issue would take so much preparations and brainstorming, and while a new pair of Gucci sandals is enough to excite me for one month, people in the upper class do their next season selection from catwalk catalogue even before the collection is yet put in production. The book is to disclose the dark side of the fashion industry, but I, on the contrary, found its vanity even more fascinating. I have never wanted a pair of Jimmy Choo so badly in my life.

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