小说与文学2016newsweek.com
把中国科幻带到西方
Bringing Chinese Science Fiction to the West
导读
这篇报道讲的是把中国科幻（以《三体》为代表）引介到英语世界的出版人与译者。对写作者的价值在于：它提醒我们科幻不只是对未来的预测，更是对当下的寓言；同时评论区真实记录了西方读者对中国科幻“视角陌生、写法不同、翻译失真”的复杂反应，值得拿来反观自己的写作。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把科幻设定当作对当下的寓言来写，而不是当作技术预测，作品才有现实重量。
- 02
陌生文化视角本身就是吸引力：读者会为“这和我熟悉的世界完全不同”而读下去。
- 03
注意“展示而非讲述”与人物塑造：不要在故事中途突然以叙述者身份塞进两个主角都没见过的机密文件，视角切换要有铺垫。
- 04
对话要像真人说话，若每个人物开口都是后现代哲学讲座，读者会出戏。
HN 评论精选
科幻是当下的寓言；异域视角本身构成阅读价值。
时机真巧，我两小时前刚读完文中提到的《三体》。文章说科幻不是对未来的预测、而是对当下的寓言，这说得太准了。我几乎只读西方作者写的西方书，而《三体》是我今年读过最好的书之一：扣人心弦、有悬念、有智性，最有趣的是它提供了一种与西方作品截然不同的世界观。我认为一个真正全球化的文学场域——汇集世界各地的作者、思想和视角——有可能开启文学的下一个黄金时代。
whack查看英文原文
Great timing. I literally just 2 hours ago finished reading Three Body Problem, a sci-fi book mentioned in the article. The description of sci-fi books, not as predictions about the future, but as allegories for the present, is dead on. As someone who virtually always reads western books by western authors, Three Body Problem was one of the best books I've read this year. It was gripping, suspenseful, intelligent, and most interestingly, offered a perspective of the world that differs dramatically from that found in western books. I think a truly global literary scene, featuring writers, ideas and perspectives from all over the world, has the potential to usher in the next golden age of literature.
被主流叙事忽略的民间翻译社群，才是类型文学跨语言传播的主力。
文章完全没提庞大的业余翻译群体，这实在说不过去。中国的网络小说动辄上千章、每章约两千字，正由一个不断壮大的翻译社群在积极翻译。如果你喜欢扁平人物、大量幽默和冒险，可以去看看 /r/noveltranslations。
d0100查看英文原文
Absolute travesty that the immense amateur translation scene wasn't mentioned in the article. Chinese web novels that are 1000+ chapters long, with around 2000 characters per chapter, are being actively translated by a growing translation community. If you like flat characters and lot's of humor and adventure, you should check out /r/noveltranslations
从读者角度指出叙事视角越界、人物单薄、对话不自然等具体写作问题。
还有人也不喜欢《三体》的文字本身吗？我从科学想象和“这确实不一样”的角度很享受这本书，但文笔和情节编排读起来非常费劲。“展示而非讲述”基本没被遵循，人物塑造可以说很单薄。故事大多从两个人物之一的视角展开，却突然有一章极其突兀——作者说“顺便一提，我要把两个主角都没见过的机密文件分享给读者”。除了那个非视角人物（警察）出场的场景，大部分对话听起来更像后现代哲学讲座，而不是真人之间的交谈。这也许是中西写作风格的文化差异，或者翻译中丢失了什么。我读的中国文学不够多，说不好。读得多的人能否说说，《三体》是现代中文写作或中国科幻的典型样貌吗？
andrewfong查看英文原文
Did anyone else not enjoy the actual writing in Three Body Problem? I enjoyed the book from a speculative science and "well this is different" perspective, but the writing style and plotting were very difficult to parse through. "Show-not-tell" isn't much followed. Character development is light, to say the least. Most of the story takes place from the perspective of one of two characters, but then there's one incredibly jarring chapter where the author goes, "Oh by the way, I'm sharing a bunch of classified documents with the reader that neither character has ever seen." And apart from scenes with a single non-viewpoint character (the cop), most of the dialogue sounds more like a post-modern philosophy lecture than actual conversation between real people. Some of this could just be cultural differences between Western and Chinese writing styles, or maybe things got lost in translation. I haven't read enough Chinese literature to say though. For those who have read more, would you say Three Body Problem is typical of modern Chinese writing, or Chinese science fiction?
翻译的词汇偏差会破坏沉浸感；阅读译作也需要经验积累。
《城》三部曲是我个人最喜欢的中国／台湾科幻。我推荐给的一些人因为翻译问题而放弃，但如果你读过《三国演义》，又已经读过相当数量的译作，《城》三部曲是可以像《星球大战》或《沙丘》那样多层欣赏的作品（这个宽泛的比较我是有意为之）。[0] 几个关键词的选择，最明显的是把本该是“星系”或“行星”的地方译成了“galaxies”，会让较真的人瞬间出戏，所以你得抱着“原文的语言构造更好、更有感染力”的心态去读。[1] 我有个纯属轶事的发现：一些把大量阅读时间花在译作上的基督徒朋友，比没有这种习惯的人更能享受译作。另一个轶事是，很少有人喜欢自己读的头几本译作，后面读的就更能享受。
russnewcomer查看英文原文
The City Trilogy ( https://www.amazon.com/Trilogy-Modern-Chinese-Literature-Taiwan/dp/0231128525 ) is my personal favorite Chinese/Taiwanese SF story. Some people I've recommended it to pass on it because of some of the translation issues[0], but if you read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and you've read a decent amount of translated work already[1], The City Trilogy is a work on that can be enjoyed on levels like Star Wars or Dune. (and I make that broad comparison intentionally) [0]A couple of key word choices, most prominently galaxies instead of what should really be systems or planets. the translator made can really pop literal minded people out of the story, and I think that you have to have the mindset that the composition of language is better and more evocative in the original than the translation. [1] I've found, totally anecdotally, that a few of my Christian friends who have spent a good chunk of their reading time reading translations are able to enjoy translated works better than those who have not. I've also found, again anecdotally, that few people like the first few translated works they read, and enjoy the later ones better.
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