小说与文学2021newcriterion.com
一切皆奥威尔
All Is Orwell
导读
这篇《新标准》杂志的文章审视乔治·奥威尔身上的“矛盾”：他一面批判集体主义，一面又批判资本主义；他明知西班牙内战是一场打不赢的战争，却仍然为它而战。作者试图用这些矛盾来质疑奥威尔的洞察力。几位评论者则认为，文章举出的例子恰恰说明奥威尔拒绝用非黑即白的框架看世界，而这正是他的写作能够长久流传的原因。对于写作者来说，这是一次很好的提醒：要警惕把“复杂”误读成“自相矛盾”。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
同时批评对立双方，并不等于自相矛盾；让文章经受住时间考验的，往往正是这种不站队的独立判断。
- 02
不要为了论证方便，把人物简化成黑白分明的符号；保留其复杂和犹豫，人物才可信。
- 03
当你在文章里提出“某人有矛盾”时，先自查：是真矛盾，还是他只是拒绝二元对立？
- 04
用一句话概括复杂事件必然显得简陋，写作者应意识到这种概括的局限，并在文中交代它。
HN 评论精选
同时批评两种制度不算自相矛盾，反倒是奥威尔的优点。
文章有意思，但有些论证相当薄弱。作者举出奥威尔两句话：一句说集体主义导致集中营、领袖崇拜和战争，另一句说资本主义导致垄断、排队领粮和战争；然后作者似乎认为这两句话互相打脸，正好证明奥威尔也难以承认令人不快的事实。可是资本主义和共产主义都可能（也确实）有缺陷，这里根本不存在矛盾。能够同时批判两者，大概正是奥威尔的作品经久不衰的原因。
opaque查看英文原文
Interesting article, but some of the arguments are pretty weak. >“Collectivism leads to concentration camps, leader worship, and war.” >"Capitalism led to the creation of monopolies ..., to food lines, and to war" The author seems to think these two statements are a damming contradiction, which proves > "When it came to recognizing unpalatable truths, it seems that Orwell had as much difficulty as the next man." However, both Capitalism and Communism can be flawed (and are), there is no contradiction here. The ability to critique both is probably why Orwell's work endures.
所谓“矛盾”的例子，其实只证明他拒绝黑白二分。
文章说奥威尔多么矛盾，还列举了一堆例子。但我觉得没有一个例子真的显示出矛盾，它们只说明奥威尔没有用非黑即白的方式过活。
billytetrud查看英文原文
The article talks about how contradictory Orwell was, and lists a bunch of examples. But I don't think a single example shows any contradiction at all. It simply showed that Orwell didn't live his life in black and white.
质疑作者对奥威尔“简单化”的指控，并为一句式概括的合理性辩护。
谁能解释一下作者这段话到底想说什么？作者说奥威尔对西班牙内战的解释“完全脱离历史与文化语境，任何对这场冲突稍有了解的人都会觉得它简单到近乎幼稚”，还质问：既然有“堆积如山的反证”，他为什么仍认定这场仗值得打？可我觉得，任何对一场战争的一句话总结都难免简化；如果一方是君主派、法西斯和军事独裁者，那么奥威尔那种说法在我看来相当合理。作者这么写，让我以为自己漏掉了某种替代解读，可我想不出来。“堆积如山的反证”到底指什么？莫非是说法西斯主义比冒险搞共产主义更好？这种论调在历史上似乎反复出现。
ZeroGravitas查看英文原文
Could anyone summarize what the author is likely to mean by this part: > Why, then, did he determine that it was a fight worth fighting? Bravely, and at some cost to his health, he fought an unwinnable war for a unrealizable cause. But he still believed it was right to have fought and to have gone on encouraging others to continue doing so. Despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary, the issue, in his view, was simple: “Shall the common man be pushed back into the mud, or shall he not?” > This explanation, entirely bereft of historical and cultural context, is bound to strike anyone half familiar with the history of the conflict as simplistic in the extreme, even simple-minded. Orwell wrote: “I myself believe, perhaps on insufficient grounds, that the common man will win his fight sooner or later . . . . That was the real issue of the Spanish war . . . and perhaps of other wars to come.” I mean, it's fair to say that any one sentence summary of a war is going to be somewhat simplistic, but if one side has monarchists, fascists and military dictators on it, then it seems reasonable to me. Just the way the author writes it, I feel I should know of some alternative take that it seems like I don't. What do the "mountains of evidence to the contrary" suggest (in this author's view)? Presumably something along the lines of fascism being better than risking communism, which seems to a strangely recurring historical motif.
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