小说与文学2018harpers.org
在黑暗中阅读：后真相时代，小说还重要吗？
Reading in the Dark: Does fiction matter in a post-fact age?
导读
这篇 Harper's 文章讨论“后事实时代”里小说是否仍有意义；HN 评论把问题引向更根本的层面：事实与叙事并非简单对立，真正困难的是在大量不可验证的信息中保持判断。写作者值得读，因为它提醒我们叙事如何组织事实、可信度如何建立，以及虚构在公共讨论中的位置。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
不要把“后事实”理解为事实消失；写作时应寻找能容纳更多事实的解释，而不是用单一叙事替代事实。
- 02
写作要意识到读者始终游弋在大量叙事与虚构之中，不要假装自己的叙述是唯一客观的事实。
- 03
面对无法核实的报道、图像和音频，写作中应区分亲历、引述与推断，并交代信息来源，帮助读者判断可信度。
- 04
小说和虚构的价值不只在求真，也在提供乐趣和练习辨别叙事；写作可善用虚构呈现事实难以抵达的经验。
HN 评论精选
事实与叙事不是替代关系，写作者应追求能容纳更多事实的解释。
我们并不处在一个“后事实”时代。只是人们更意识到，某一组事实可以支撑一种叙事，而这种叙事会与另一组事实支撑的叙事相冲突。就像科学中的统一理论，我们需要不断寻找能涵盖更多事实的解释，而不是摊手说“太难了！不再有事实，只有叙事！”这种认识论虚无主义其实并不被事实支持 :)
ineedasername查看英文原文
We're not in a post-fact age. We're simply at a time where people are more aware that a given subset of facts can support a narrative the conflicts with the narrative of another subset. Similar to unifying theories in science, we just need to always look for explanations that encompass more facts. Not throw our hands in the air and say, "This is too hard! There are no more facts, only narrative!" That sort of epistemological nihilism isn't really supported by the facts :)
虚构的价值包括乐趣；谎言与虚构一直存在，写作应自觉面对这种环境。
小说重要——它很好玩。即便我们刚刚意识到自己正游弋在一片虚构的海洋中。最近真正变化的，只是我们更有能力察觉糟糕报道和政府愚弄有多严重——我们一直都被欺骗。
benjohnson查看英文原文
Fiction matters - it's good fun. Even if we're just now aware that we're swimming in a sea of fiction. The only thing that's changed recently is that we're now just more capable of being aware how much bad reporting and government tomfoolery is going on - we always been lied to.
当所有媒体都可能被操纵且无权威可依，写作者更要处理可信度以及亲历与推断的边界。
我25年前就从亲身经历知道不能信任新闻报道：如果他们在我就知道事实的事情上撒谎，我又怎能信任那些我不知道事实的事？每次有科学发现报道，总有人抱怨科学新闻错误且误导；我没有背景读科学期刊查证，而且就算能读可能也没用，因为常有假论文被信誉良好的期刊接受发表。深度伪造色情内容的曝光意味着，像我这样没有分析视频真假技能的人，只能假设所有视频都是假的；图像、音频和其他媒体也一样。当我不能信任任何文本、视频、音频、图像未被操纵，也没有可信权威帮我区分真假时，我只能假设一切非亲身经历的都是假的（而连记忆也不可靠，两人对同一事件的体验也不同——所以我连自己也不能信）。这看似虚无、愤世嫉俗，但知道什么都不可信其实相当解放……
irrational查看英文原文
I was thinking about this recently. I already knew from personal experience 25 years ago that I couldn’t trust what is reported in the news (if I know that they lie about things I personally know the facts about, how can I trust them on everything I do not know the facts about?) It seems like every time there is a report about a science discovery, people jump out of the woodwork to complain about the state of science reporting and how the science news is wrong and misleading. I do not have the background to read and understand scientific journals to find out the truth, and it probably wouldn’t matter if I did. There are stories about fake articles being accepted and published by reputable journals all the time. The recent revelation of deep porn shows that someone like myself, without the skills to analyze videos to know if they are fake or not, has to assume that all videos are fake. The same applies to images, audio, and other media. When I can trust no text, video, audio, images, etc. to not have been manipulated and to have no reputable authority that I can trust to help me to distinguish between truth and fiction I am left adrift having to assume that everything I do not personally experience is false (and even then I know that human memory is flawed and no two people experience the same event in the same way - so I cannot even trust myself). This seems like a rather nihilistic and cynical viewpoint, but knowing that I cannot trust anything is actually rather liberating and fills me with optimism. I cannot trust the bad or the good things that are reported.
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