On Summer at Grandma's House
This is a very short science fiction novel. I first read it when I was in high school.
At that time, I just thought that this novel was very warm, not anxious, and could comfort people.
Ten years later, I encountered several setbacks at work, and I remembered this novel and searched it. I reread it several times.
Ten years have passed, and the world is moving faster and faster.
Those who have not graduated have to worry about their studies, those who have just graduated have to worry about not being able to find a job, and those with experience have to worry about being unemployed.
The protagonist Zhanzhan has delayed graduation from college, broke up, and may also have a little trouble finding a job.
However, Zhanzhan went to his grandmother’s house: the refrigerator is an oven, the oven is a dishwasher, the dishwasher is a water purifier, the water purifier is a trash can, the trash can is a CD rack… The coffee pot is a pen holder, the pen holder is a lighter, the lighter is a flashlight, the flashlight is a jam jar…
Here, Zhanzhan is always worried that he will make mistakes and always “disrupt” his grandmother’s plan.
One time, when Jingjing and I fought, she said that I always went about things impulsively, inconsiderately, immaturely. She’s right, I think. She was complaining about the way I always forgot to call her, but I know my problem goes further than that.
In the trough, I often encounter such mistakes, from a small problem, extending to my own personality, and then I feel that “the problem is not just this one thing.”
However, the grandmother said: “Don’t worry”, “If you want to make a certain step right, the only way is to take another step in this direction“.
With the grandmother’s “Don’t worry”, the protagonist applied for a job at the Patent Office; because of the tension of the guilty conscience at the beginning, he found a girlfriend; the grandmother’s patent was also applied and transferred.
Ten years ago, I felt that this novel, which constructed such an ordinary world with a little bit of strangeness and a little bit of specialness, was a very spiritual novel.
Many years later, when I think of this novel, I feel more that although I am as tattered as this world, don’t panic, don’t worry.
Who are you, really, other than the sum of everything that’s happened?