Sands of A Cross Section

The novel “Sands of A Cross Section” takes the homonym of “killing”. Between two storylines of suspenseful narrative, the protagonist either traveled through mountains hills, valleys, cliffs, swamps, or went back and forth between high-altitude battlefields, low altitude villages and human gathering residences in the border areas. Sands, dirt, ashes filled everywhere, where life went by in the blink of an eye. Yet the passers-by in the daily pace had mistaken collective madness for prosperity and collective hypnosis as sweetness. In all the interactions that can and cannot be chosen, human beings inevitably developed multiple aspects. From then on, all resistances of individuals equaled merely surviving.

Perhaps killing never represented killing, freedom never represented freedom, and engulfing never represented engulfing. Choosing to exist or not, to stay or to leave, we were all members of the accomplice structure before our final jump. The term “Cross Section” originated from the special route pattern of mountains in Taiwan. The process of crossing the ridgeline also contained dangerous obstacles that many long-day mountaineers faced. The scene in this novel awakens distant dreams that the author had deeply fallen for, and the midway of her and many others’ fading life. At the same time, through the residential buildings in the war zone and the short-lived desert cities, she examined the past that she had witnessed and experienced in person which had yet sort out in detail. The novel was based on Yunjie’s real encounters, along with fiction narratives, through writing and recollection, she sought reconciliation for all the moments that could no longer come back to life.

《橫斷之沙》，取「殺」之諧音，懸疑敘事的雙主線中，主角抑或穿梭於高山、中級山、溪谷、斷崖、沼澤地，抑或往返於高海拔戰地、中低海拔鄉村、遙遠邊境的人類群聚地。含沙之處，生命如白駒過隙，然而日常步調裡的過客，將集體瘋狂誤以為繁盛，將集體催眠視為甜美。所有能選擇與無法選擇的關係或互動中，人類無可避免，發展出多重面向。從此以後，世間所有個體的抵抗，皆是劫後餘生。

或許殺戮不代表殺戮，自由不代表自由，吞噬不代表吞噬。選擇存在、不存在，選擇留下、或者離開，在縱身一躍前，你我都是共犯結構的一員。「橫斷」一辭，源自臺灣山林特殊的路線型態，跨過稜線的路途亦充滿著長天數旅者務須謹慎面對的障礙地形。故事喚醒作者自身曾深刻依戀的遙遠夢境，與漸行漸遠的生命中途。同時透過戰爭地帶的民居，及曇花一現的沙漠城市，作者揭開實際目睹、經歷卻未能細細整理的過往。小說裡以作者大半真實的際遇，加上部分虛構，透過書寫與回憶，向所有不再醒來的時刻，尋求和解。