语言与文风2020theguardian.com编辑精选
此刻即当下：小说中现在时态的兴起（2015）
Make it now: the rise of the present tense in fiction (2015)
导读
本文梳理英语小说中现在时叙事（尤其第一人称现在时）的兴起，并追问它究竟是带来紧迫感，还是只是一种表层的新鲜感。对写作者来说，它值得一读，因为时态不只是语法选择，还直接决定叙述者与事件的距离、悬念和可信度。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
时态选择无法靠一套规则推导出来，日常讲故事时我们会自然切换；写作时不妨先按直觉写，再回头看时态是否服务于叙事距离。
- 02
现在时确实更“当下”、更有推动力，但如果作者没有明确理由就改用现在时，读者容易读成刻意的做作，甚至需要好几页才能适应。
- 03
新手常本能地涌向现在时（第一人称现在时尤甚），这本身不是错，但要有意识地判断它是让叙述更紧，还是只是在回避讲故事的难度。
- 04
用现在时之前先想清楚叙述者的位置：他是在事情发生的此刻说话，还是事后回望？这个设定一旦松动，全篇的可信度都会受影响。
HN 评论精选
时态规则说不清，现在时是新手的一种本能偏好。
有些人对时态意见很强硬，但在日常闲聊里，讲过去发生的事，用过去时或现在时都很自然。你试着把“什么时候用过去时”的规则说清楚，就会发现这些规则很难总结、也很难讲明白。有意思的是，现在时似乎是新写作者天然偏爱的写法，就像新手作曲者和乐手偏爱某些调式和和弦进行一样。
klodolph查看英文原文
Some people have pretty strong opinions about this but in casual conversation you’ll naturally use either past tense or present tense to tell stories set in the past. Try and explain the rules for when to use past tense and you’ll find that those rules are a difficult to formulate or articulate. The weird thing is that apparently, using present tense is something that new writers gravitate towards. Kind of like how new composers and musicians gravitating towards modes and chord progressions.
第三人称现在时罕见，但若由叙述者的视角设定支撑，就能成立。
第一人称现在时确实在增多，但第三人称现在时呢？我知道一个扎实的例子：诺奖得主奥尔加·托卡尔丘克的《雅各布之书》。而且它从序言起就站得住脚——整本书是一个将死或陷入昏迷般恍惚之人的视角（无论那是真实的还是魔幻的，就不剧透了）。
danpampelon2查看英文原文
First person present tense is on the rise, but third person present tense? One solid example I know of is the Nobel prize winner Olga Tokarczuk's "Books of Jacob". And even there it is justified from the very prologue as everything there is POV of a person who dies or falls into a comatose trance, be it real or magical, I don't want to spoil you.
合作写作中新手常无视前文的时态惯例，径自改用现在时。
这也是新手容易掉进去的坑。我运营一个创意写作网站，让一群作者合作写分支小说，类似“自选冒险”，但更偏文学，选择关乎人物和情节，而非单纯的迷宫探险。我们提倡用第三人称过去时，但有趣的是，新作者常常一进来就把头几章写成现在时——哪怕他们接着写的前几章是过去时。
tunesmith查看英文原文
It's also something that beginning writers fall into... I run a creative writing site that is for groups of authors to write collective branching fiction together. It's like choose-your-own-adventure but with a slightly more literary focus, where choices are about character and plot choices, rather than just like dungeon exploration. As part of that we encourage third-person past tense, but it's interesting how frequent it is that a new author will come in write their first couple of chapters in present tense - even if the chapters they are following up on are in past tense.
读者对时态突变极其敏感，只为“更动态”而换时态往往得不偿失。
我读过一本书，作者（菲尔·里克曼，我很推荐他的《十二月》）我一般很喜欢，他一直用过去时，但新书换成了现在时。读起来非常刺耳，我重来了好几次才读进去，而且只是因为大脑学会了忽略时态才成功（补充：那是断断续续好几天里试了好几次，并不快）。我猜理论上是说这样更有动感、更“此刻”，实际上它更像一种无谓的做作，最终什么也没增加。
throwaway_pdp09查看英文原文
I read a book where the author I generally liked (Phil Rickman, I really recommend December https://www.amazon.co.uk/December-Phil-Rickman-Standalone/dp/0857896954) used past tense but for a new book switched to present. It really jarred and I had to make several restarts before I got into it, and that only happened because my brain learned to discard the tense (edit: several retries over a period of days; it wasn't quick). I guess the theory is it makes it more dynamic, now-ish. In fact it just seems a trivial affectation that ultimately adds nothing.
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