小说与文学2019newyorker.com编辑精选
文学的缓慢与知识的阴影
The Slowness of Literature and the Shadow of Knowledge
导读
这篇《纽约客》文章讨论文学之"慢"：衡量一本书不该看读完要多久，而看它的影响能延续多久——那些写于遥远年代、基于与我们截然不同假设的作品，仍能说出我们是谁。对写作者来说，它提供了一个重新理解"作品寿命"与"经典何以经典"的视角。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
衡量自己作品的标准不妨从"读者多久读完"换成"读完之后能在他心里停留多久"。
- 02
写小说时要敢于直接进入人物头脑、让人"听见"他的想法——这是散文叙事独有、影像无法复制的力量。
- 03
论证"经典为何长久"时，选《吉尔伽美什史诗》《圣经》这类真正塑造过世界的文本作例，比只举精英文学更有说服力。
- 04
引用别的学科（如历史）做类比时，要先分清它的标准：历史重在考据与真实，文学重在想象，混为一谈会削弱论点。
HN 评论精选
历史在考据与真实性上的标准不同于文学，值得作为独立的"世界的读者"单列。
作者说科学与文学都是世界的阅读者，迟早都会把我们带到"不可读"的边界。我想问：把历史也加进来凑成三足鼎立是否多余？如果论点是科学与文学都以令人着迷的方式反映社会、泽被后世，那历史是否因为被当成文学的子集就被排除在单独讨论之外？文章指出，不只是非虚构，散文、诗歌、史诗这类虚构作品同样是文化不可磨灭的印记。但在我看来，历史在价值和研究、真实性的标准上都与这些作品差异足够大，值得单独考虑——毕竟历史常常重演，它记录的正是科学和文学所引发或记录的那些起伏的结果，像一串路标，标记着巨大的成功与失败，并说明它们为何、如何发生。
FillardMillmore查看英文原文
> Science and literature alike are readers of the world. And, sooner or later, both lead us to the unreadable, the boundary at which the unintelligible begins. I wonder, would it be redundant to include history with these two and make it a trio? If the case being made is that science and literature are both reflective of society in a way that continues to fascinate the mind and inform future generations for time immemorial, is history as a subject or practice somehow precluded from individual consideration because it is a subset of literature? As the article notes, it is not only non-fiction, but fiction like prose, poetry and epics that have proven themselves to be an indelible mark of culture and the force of ideas and imagination. History, at least in my opinion, is different enough from these kinds of works in both its value and its standards of research and veracity that it merits consideration. After all, history has proven that it often repeats itself and, in a way, history represents the results of these indefatigable undulations caused by, or recorded in science and literature. It is a series of guideposts in a sense, serving as records of massive success and massive failure and charting out exactly why and how it came to be this way.
小说独有的"进入他人头脑"的通道，是电影无法替代的。
读小说最妙的地方，是让我们觉得自己待在别人的脑子里，能听见他们的想法——这在现实生活里做不到，在电影里也做不到。看电影时我们仍然觉得是"我"在看着那个场景。
galaxyLogic查看英文原文
A fantastic thing about reading fiction is that it allows us to feel we are in somebody else's head. We can HEAR THEIR THOUGHTS. That is not possible in real life nor in movies. Watching a movie does not create this illusion because we feel we are still we, looking at the scene.
论证"古书仍能照见今人"时，应举影响更深远的经典而非精英文学。
作者说：我不是在想读完一本书要多久，而是想它的影响能持续多久；还有那种奇怪的现象——即便写于别的时代、基于与我们截然不同的假设、有时对我们极其陌生的文学，仍能继续对我们说话，还能告诉我们一些关于自己是谁的事，一些我们本来看不到、或会看歪的事。我认为《圣经》《吉尔伽美什史诗》《薄伽梵歌》《古兰经》这类作品更能说明作者的观点：很久以前、在迥异处境下写成的书，仍能告诉我们自己是谁。这些书对我们世界的影响，显然远超卢克莱修的诗或《浮士德》。
RcouF1uZ4gsC查看英文原文
> I’m not thinking of how long it takes to read a book but of how long its effects can be felt, and of the strange phenomenon that even literature written in other times, on the basis of assumptions radically different to our own and, occasionally, hugely alien to us, can continue to speak to us—and, not only that, but can tell us something about who we are, something that we would not have seen otherwise, or would have seen differently. I think other works such as the Bible, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Bhagavad Gita, and the Koran would have made the authors point much better about how books written a long time ago and in very different circumstances still can tell us who we are. Surely, these books have far more influence on our world than Lucretius's poems or Faust.
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