My September 21 post "Eggers and Red Sons" discusses two red books: my copy of The Circle by Dave Eggers, and the dream-book Unhenned.
William Wright's September 21 post "St. Elmo's Fire and a Few Good Men" discusses the phrase Code Red and traces it etymologically to the idea of a Red Codex, or book.
Leo's September 22 post "'I Am Not Learned'" deals in some depth with the Red Book of Westmarch, from which Tolkien's novels purport to have been translated.
Today, September 24, one of my adult students told me, "Young people in Taiwan today get most of their news from YouTube, Facebook, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu." I knew that Douyin is the Chinese name for TikTok, but I'd never heard of Xiaohongshu. Apparently it's a major social media platform in Mainland China and is gaining popularity in Taiwan. Xiaohongshu means "Little Red Book." How funny is it that China's answer to Facebook is literally called Little Red Book? That phrase usually refers, in English, to Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, whom the Chinese call "The reddest red Sun in our hearts."
2 comments:
The initial July mention of The Circle went completely over my head; not so much the photo of your copy. I have one too, bought within a few years of release (to be pedantic, I'd say the cover is orange-red). I did read it at the time; being more actively interested in tech back then, its mega-Google dystopia chilled me to the core.
Checking Wiki to refresh on plot details, it notes The Circle is run by "Three Wise Men"; one of them, the original founder, somehow turned coat and worked at destroying his own company. I also found a sequel was released in 2021. Look at that cover -- a similar symbol came up earlier this year, yes?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circle_(Eggers_novel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Every
The only other red book I have at easy hand is a recent softcover copy of Lord of the Rings, appropriately enough.
I've never heard Little red book in English as a reference to Mao but I never read about Mao or looked up the phrase in a search engine. Little red book in English to me means a book of sluts phone numbers as it was used in movies in the 80s that way. You might think I've confused it with a little black book. But no that's a general contacts list. Little red book is a book of alutty ex girlfrienda numbers to call on for a booty call, based all on what dudes in movies said. What movies? I don't remember.
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