出版与作家生涯2019theguardian.com
谁是真正的“骰子人”？一部邪典小说背后难以捉摸的作家
Who is the real Dice Man? The elusive writer behind a cult novel
导读
这篇《卫报》特稿追查邪典小说《掷骰子的人》（The Dice Man）作者卢克·莱恩哈特（本名乔治·科克罗夫特）的真实身份：一个过着平静生活、与书中疯狂主角截然不同的隐士作家。对写作者来说，它提供了一个关于"高概念设定如何驱动叙事"的绝佳案例——一条荒诞规则如何撑起整本书，又如何困住作者与改编者。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把一条极端规则交给主人公（用骰子决定一切），情节就能自动生成冲突；高概念设定的力量在于它替你想好了下一步。
- 02
设定要算清"概率账"：一旦规则允许毁灭性选项，故事逻辑上几乎必然滑向自我毁灭，作者应自觉利用而非回避这个必然性。
- 03
同一个母题可以写成相反的调子——"把决定权交给外部力量"既能写成混乱与自毁（《掷骰子的人》），也能写成开放与积极（《Yes Man》），价值取向决定作品气质。
- 04
大量依赖主人公内心独白的小说很难改编成影视；写作时要意识到"把说明都藏在脑子里"的代价。
- 05
邪典地位往往来自一个可以被读者亲身实践的荒诞规则——读者会真的去掷骰子、抛硬币，这种可操作性本身就是传播力。
HN 评论精选
同一母题下，规则的取向决定结局基调；设定若必然包含毁灭选项，故事注定滑向自毁。
把《掷骰子的人》和《Yes Man》（原著而非金·凯瑞电影）对照很有意思：两本书都是把决定权交给外部力量，前者拥抱随机，最终走向混乱与自毁；后者拥抱肯定，多数结果积极而有建设性。我读《骰子人》时最大的问题是它其实很受限——你能选的只是一组离散选项，而书似乎在鼓励你总把毁灭性选项放进去，那按概率迟早伤到自己。作为哲学或工具，它对我没什么用。《Yes Man》却实实在在改变了我的人生：室友下班回来说"有人临时退出演出，半小时后出发，去不去"，你压下疲惫去了，遇到后来交往几年的人。
Zhyl查看英文原文
It's interesting to compare "Dice Man"[0] with "Yes Man"[1] (the book, not the Jim Carrey film adaptation). Both books are about people putting their decision making to an external force (Dice man with a die, Yes Man by accepting any offer or invitation that he was given). Dice Man embraces randomness which ultimately leads to Chaos and self destruction. Yes Man embraces positivity and most of the outcomes are positive and constrictive. One of the main issues I had with Dice Man when I read it was that you were kind of limited in a way because you were making a discreet set of decisions and it seems like the book was encouraging you to always include destructive options, which would occur (intrinsically) with a probability of some multiple of 1/6. To abuse the gamblers ruin, this basically means that if you're including destructive options, then you're almost certain to do damage to yourself eventually. To that end, it didn't really seem that useful to me as a philosophy or as a tool. Not in any meaningful way. Yes Man, on the other hand, feels like it has greatly changed my life for the better. Your flatmate comes home from work and says to you "I've just had someone pull out of a gig. Want to come? I'm leaving in half an hour". You go, putting aside the fact that you're tired and were looking forward to some quiet TV. You meet someone who you end up dating for a few years. Or how a friend at college invited me to a talk given by local companies in the area offering industrial placements (year long internships taken as part of the degree). It was in 5 minutes time and I wasn't on the 4 year course that the placement was a part of. I had a free period so I went. Off the back of that I changed my course to the 4 year, applied to one of the companies that presented. I got the placement and off the back of that learned basically all the technical skills that got me my first job out of college. So on and etc. I can't see the dice really allowing for that kind of flow, unless you use a d20 and heavily stack all of the options with positive, enriching and life affirming options. Which, really, isn't what the Dice Man book encourages at all. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Man_(book)
心理独白撑起的小说虽迷人，却天然难以影视化。
我小时候在父母书架深处翻到这本书，觉得极迷人，直到今天还会想起它，犹豫不决时抛硬币而不是掷骰子。让我意外的是作者本人竟如此正派温良。很棒的一本书，电影改编流产很可惜——大概因为它大量的铺陈都在主角脑子里，很难影像化。
orf查看英文原文
I found this book at the back of my parents shelf when I was much younger and found it fascinating. I still think of it sometimes even today, and flip coins rather than roll a dice when I'm indecisive. I'm surprised that the author is so wholesome. Brilliant book, and it's a shame the film adaptation has fallen through. I guess it's a bit hard to adapt as a lot of it's exposition is inside the main characters head?
一份以"强烈观念前提"著称的邪典小说书单，适合作家对照阅读。
从没听说过这本书，还有哪些真正的"邪典小说"？文章提到卡斯塔尼达的《唐望的教诲》，我还想到约翰·福尔斯的《魔术师》、黑塞的《玻璃球游戏》，当然还有《禅与摩托车维修艺术》。还有别的吗？
kthejoker2查看英文原文
Having never heard of this, what other true "cult novels" are out there? They mentioned Castaneda (The Teachings of Don Juan) in the article, I also thought of The Magus by John Fowles, The Glass Bead Game by Hesse and of course Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. What others are out there?
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