小说与文学2015lithub.com编辑精选
村上春树：我成为小说家的那一刻
Haruki Murakami: The Moment I Became a Novelist
导读
这篇是村上春树回顾自己成为小说家的那个决定性时刻，适合写作者思考“创作起点”该如何被讲述。评论里有人质疑这种顿悟是否只是事后建构的记忆，也有人指出村上的作品读到后面容易模式化。读它不只是看名家轶事，更是照见自己写作中的转折叙事与自我重复。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写“决定性瞬间”时，不妨同时写出此前的犹豫、弯路和偶然，否则容易像事后编造的顿悟。
- 02
个人记忆会为故事效果而重组，写作时要对“我一直都知道”这类叙事保持警惕。
- 03
作家形成固定人物与隐喻模式后容易自我重复，写作者应定期检查自己是否在复制成功配方。
- 04
村上对早期弱作的保留态度提醒写作者：旧作的价值不必由作者当下判断，也不必急着让它重新面世。
HN 评论精选
所谓“顿悟”可能是事后建构的记忆；真实的职业或创作起点往往是渐进、反复甚至迷茫的。
他写的这种顿悟听起来几乎像宗教体验。他之前真的没考虑过写作吗？是记忆出了错，还是一种让故事更好看、却不反映真实情况的记忆建构？我自己从没有过这样的体验。我常告诉别人，被问为什么做现在的工作时，我说我10岁就知道想当软件开发者。但那不是突然的领悟。它是在我得到一台Amiga 500、玩游戏、然后意识到自己也能做游戏之后逐渐到来的。我清楚记得一个夏天去挪威姨妈家，带了一本BASIC书，埋头读如何制作酒店预订系统的教程。我完全被迷住了，心想“也许有一天我能靠做酒店预订系统为生”。从那以后，我几乎没怀疑过自己会做这个。例外是13岁那年迷上弹吉他玩摇滚，接下来7年我感到迷茫，因为我真想成为音乐人，但职业前景看起来不现实。直到在英国短暂做过数据录入员，我才得出结论：我得振作起来去上大学。于是我学了计算机科学，现在35岁、有10年软件开发经验，想着“我一直都知道我想做这个”。但我并不是一直知道；写这段话让我意识到这一点。
evjan查看英文原文
This epiphany he writes about sounds almost religious in nature. Did he really not consider writing before that? Does his memory fail him, is this a memory construct that makes for a good story but doesn’t hint at what really happened? I’ve never experienced anything like this myself. I often tell people, when asked about why I do what I do, that I knew I wanted to be a software developer at the age of 10. But it wasn’t a sudden realisation. It came to me after getting an Amiga 500, playing games and then realising I could make my own games. I vividly remember a summer trip to my aunt’s place in Norway where I brought a book on BASIC and devoured a tutorial on how to make a hotel booking system. I was utterly enthralled and thought “maybe one day I can make hotel booking systems for a living”. From then on there was little doubt I would do this. Except of course when I turned 13 and got into playing rock music on my guitar. I spent the next 7 years feeling lost, because I really wanted to be a musician but the career opportunities seemed unfeasible. It wasn’t until after a brief stint as a data entry clerk in the UK that I came to the conclusion that I needed to get my shit together and go to uni. So I studied Computer Science and here I am at the ripe age of 35 with 10 years of software development experience, thinking I always knew I wanted to do this. But I didn’t, and writing this made me realise that.
作家容易陷入自我重复的模式；读者会疲劳，写作者要警惕复制自己的成功配方。
在我朋友圈里，我发现每个人最喜欢的村上作品总是他们读的第一本或第二本。读了几本之后，它们都开始听起来一样。又是一个焦虑的年轻男人寻找一个情感有严重问题的女孩，途中还有一些隐喻很重的梦境片段和会说话的动物。我还没读他最近的书，但我读了他五本，读到第2、3本之后就觉得真的很累、很重复。
howlingfantods查看英文原文
Among my group of friends, I've found that everyone's favorite Murakami book is always the first or second they read. After you read a couple, they all start sounding the same. Another angsty young man searches for a girl with serious emotional issues, and there's some metaphor heavy dream sequences and talking animals along the way. I haven't read his recent books but I've read five books of his and it was really tiresome, repetitive reading after book 2-3.
作家对早期不成熟作品往往持保留态度；旧作的价值常由市场而非作者本人重新判定。
小轶事：1999年我住在台湾，在一家书店发现《Pinball, 1973》的英译本，是Kodansha出的，我猜是给英语学习者用的。那时我已读过村上好几本书（《Wild Sheep Chase》《Dance, Dance, Dance》和《Wind-up Bird Chronicle》），很喜欢，就买下了。读起来还行，但远非他最好的作品（对我来说最好的仍是《Wind-up Bird Chronicle》）。后来我在网上查那个Kodansha版本，发现它从未真正在英语国家发行，相当罕见。于是我放到eBay上卖，大概是2000或2001年。本以为会有点关注，结果出乎意料地有很多人感兴趣，最终卖了大约300美元。当时很高兴，现在也高兴。从这篇文章看，《Pinball, 1973》和《Hear the Wind Sing》现在终于要出普遍发行的版本了。我有点惊讶，因为据我理解，村上认为它们是早期较弱作品，并不特别希望它们重新受到关注。
oska查看英文原文
Small anecdote: I was living in Taiwan in 1999 and found an English translation of Pinball, 1973 in a bookshop there. It was a Kodansha imprint, for English learners I think. Anyway, I'd already read a number of Murakami books by that time (Wild Sheep Chase, Dance, Dance, Dance and Wind-up Bird Chronicle), and enjoyed them so I snapped it up. It was an ok read but far from his best (which for me, still remains Wind-up Bird Chronicle). Later, I researched that Kodansha edition on the net and realised that it had never really been made available in English speaking countries and was fairly rare. So I put it up for sale on eBay, probably in 2000 or 2001. Thought it might attract a bit of interest but was pleasantly surprised when it attracted a lot of interest and eventually sold for something like $300. Can't remember the exact final bid but it was around that. Was happy to sell it for that and still happy now. I doubt it's appreciated in value since then but I could be wrong. Anyway, it appears from this article that Pinball, 1973 and Hear the wind sing are now finally being published in a generally distributed edition. I'm a little bit surprised because it was my understanding that Murakami thought they were early, weaker works and wasn't particularly keen for them to get new attention.
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