p.9

We used to laugh at our small selves, saying that I was a bad girl trying to be good and that he was a good boy trying to be bad. Through the years these roles would reverse, then reverse again, until we came to accept our dual natures.

p.23

I had found solace in Arthur Rimbaud … …He possessed an irrelevant intelligence that ignited me, and I embraced him as compatriot, kin, and even secret love. Not having the ninety-nine cents to buy the book, I pocketed it.

Rimbaud held the keys to a mystical language that I devoured even as I could not fully decipher it. My unrequited love for him was as real to me as anything I had experienced. At the factory where I had labored with a hard-edged, illiterate group of women, I was harassed in his name … … It was within this atmosphere that I seethed. It was for him that I wrote and dreamed. He became my archangel, delivering me from the mundane horrors of factory life.

p.26

I would often stop before a grand hotel, an alien observer to the Proustian lifestyle of the privileged class, exiting sleek black cars with exquisite brown-and-gold patterned trunks. I was another side of life. Horse-drawn carriages were stationed between the Paris Theatre and the Plaza Hotel. In discarded newspapers I would search out the evening’s entertainment. Across from the Metropolitan Opera I watched the people enter, sensing their anticipation.

The city was a real city, shifty, and sexual. I was lightly jostled by small herds of flushed young sailors looking for action on Forty-second Street, with its rows of X-rated movie houses, brassy women, glittering souvenir shops, and hot-dog vendors. I wandered through Kino parlors and peered through the windows of the magnificent sprawling Grant’s Raw Bar filled with men in black coats scooping up piles of fresh oysters.

The skyscrapers were beautiful. They did not seem like mere corporate shells. They were monuments to the arrogant yet philanthropic spirit of America. The character of each quadrant was invigorating and one felt the flux of its history. The old world and the emerging one served up in the brick and mortar of the artisan and the architects.

I walked for hours from park to park. In Washington Square, one could still feel the characters of Henry James and the presence of the author himself. Entering the perimeters of the white arch, one was greeted by the sounds of bongos and acoustic guitars, protest singers, political arguments, activists leafleting, older chess players challenged by the young. This open atmosphere was something I had not experienced, simple freedom that did not seem to be oppressive to anyone.

p.47

One Indian summer day we dressed in our favorite things, me in my beatnik sandals and ragged scarves, and Robert with his love beads and sheepskin vest. We took the subway to West Fourth Street and spent the afternoon in Washington Square. We shared coffee from a thermos, watching the stream of tourists, stoners, and folksingers. Agitated revolutionaries distributed antiwar leaflets. Chess players drew a crowd of their own. Everyone coexisted within the continuous drone of verbal diatribes, bongos, and barking dogs.

We were walking toward the fountain, the epicenter of activity, when an older couple stopped and openly observed us. Robert enjoyed being noticed, and he affectionately squeezed my hand.

“Oh, take their picture,” said the woman to her bemused husband, “I think they’re artists.”

“Oh, go on,” he shrugged. “They’re just kids.”

p.49

Robert was not especially drawn to film. His favorite movie was Splendor in the Grass. The only other movie we saw that year was Bonnie and Clyde. He liked the tagline on the poster: “They’re young. They’re in love. They rob banks.” He didn’t fall asleep during that movie. Instead, he wept. And when we went home he was unnaturally quiet and looked at me as if he wanted to convey all he was feeling without words. There was something of us that he saw in the movie but I wasn’t certain what. I thought to myself that he contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.

p.63

Sometimes, during lunch break at Scribner’s, I would go to St. Patrick’s to visit the young Saint Stanislaus. I would pray for the dead, whom I seemed to love as much as the living: Rimbaud, Seurat, Camille Claudel, and the mistress of Jules Laforgue. And I would pray for us.

Robert’s prayers were like wishes. He was ambitious for secret knowledge. We were both praying for Robert’s soul, he to sell it and I to save it.

p.69

In early June, Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol. Although Robert tended not to be romantic about artists, he was very upset about it … … He respected artists like Cocteau and Pasolini, who merged life and art, but for Robert, the most interesting of them was Andy Warhol, documenting the human mise-en-scene in his silver-lined factory.

I didn’t feel for Warhol the way Robert did. His work reflected a culture I wanted to avoid. I hated the soup and felt little for the can. I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it.

p.83

One of the highlights of our days was our trek to the American Express office to send and receive mail. There was always something from Robert, funny little letters describing his work, his health, his trials, and always his love.

He had temporarily moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan … …

His first letters seemed a bit down but brightened when he described seeming Midnight Cowboys for the first time. It was unusual for Robert to go to a movie, but he took this film to heart. “It’s about a cowboy stud on 42nd street,” he wrote me, and called it a “masterpiece.” He felt a deep identification with the hero, infusing the idea of the hustler into his work, and then into his life. “Hustler-hustler-hustler. I guess that’s what I’m about.”

p.107

We headed home holding hands. For a moment I dropped back to watch him walk. His sailor’s gait always touched me. I knew one day I would stop and he would keep on going, but until then nothing could tear us apart.

p.109

I always loved the ride to Coney Island. Just the idea that you could go to the ocean via subway was so magical … …

Nothing was more wonderful to me than Coney Island with its gritty innocence. It was our kind of place: the fading arcades, the peeling signs of bygone days, cotton candy and Kewpie dolls on a stick, dressed in feathers and glittering top hats. We wandered through the last gasp of the sideshows. They had lost their luster, though they still touted such human oddities as the donkey-faced boy, the alligator man, and the three-legged girl.

p.115

One time, when I was sitting in the lobby reading The Golden Bough, Harry noticed I had a beat-up two-volume first edition. He insisted we go on an expedition on Samuel Weiser’s to bask in the proximity of the preferred and vastly expanded third edition … …

It seemed like we milled around in there for hours. Harry was gone for a long time, and we found him standing, as though transfixed, in the center of the main floor. We watched him for quite a while but he never moved. Finally, Robert, perplexed, went up to him and asked, “What are you doing?”

Harry gazed at him with the eyes of an enchanted goat. “I’m reading,” he said.

We met a lot of intriguing people at the Chelsea but somehow when I close my eyes to think of them, Harry is always the first person I see. Perhaps because he was the first person we met. But more likely because it was a magic period, and Harry believed in magic.

p.131

Newly inspired, we walked back to Twenty-third Street to look at our space. The necklaces hung on hooks and he had tacked up some of our drawings. We stood at the window and looked out at the snow falling beyond the fluorescent Oasis sign with its squiggly palm tree. “Look,” he said, “it’s snowing in the desert.” I thought about a scene in Howard Hawks’s movie Scarface where Paul Muni and his girl are looking out the window at neon sign that said The World Is Yours. Robert squeezed my hand.

The sixties were coming to an end. Robert and I celebrated our birthdays. Robert turned twenty-three. Then I turned twenty-three. The perfect prime number. Robert made me a tie rack with the image of the Virgin Mary. I gave him seven silver skulls on a length of leather. He wore the skulls. I wore a tie. We felt ready for the seventies.

“It’s our decade,” he said.

p.156

Robert was devastated that Tinkerbelle had told me not only that he was having an affair, but that he was homosexual. It was as if Robert had forgotten that I knew. It must have also been difficult as it was the first time he was openly identified with a sexual label. His relationship with Terry in Brooklyn had been between the three of us, not in the public eye.

… …

Robert rarely spoke to Tinkerbelle after that. David moved to Seventeenth Street, close to where Washington Irving had lived. I slept on my side of the wall and Robert on his. Our lives were moving at such speed that we just kept going.

p.166

Jim and I spent a lot of time in Chinatown. Every outing with him was a floating adventure, riding the high summer clouds. I liked to watch him interact with strangers. We would go to Hong Fat because it was cheap and the dumplings were good, and he would talk to the old guys. You ate what they brought to the table or you pointed to someone’s meal because the menu was in Chinese. They cleaned the table by pouring hot tea on them and wiping it up with a rag. The whole place had the fragrance of oolong. Sometime Jim just picked up an abstract thread of conversation with one of these venerable-looking old men, who would then lead us through the labyrinth of their lives, through the Opium Wars and the opium dens of San Francisco. And then we would tramp from Mott to Mulberry to Twenty-third Street, back in our time, as if nothing had ever happened.

p.176

Observing people taking in the work I had watched Robert create was an emotional experience. It had left our private world. It was what I had always wanted for him, but I felt a slight pang of possessiveness sharing it with others. Overriding that feeling was the joy of seeing Robert’s face, suffused with confirmation, as he glimpsed the future he had so resolutely sought and had worked so hard to achieve.

p.190

One by one, he shared photographs forbidden to the public, including Stieglitz’s exquisite nudes of Georgia O’Keeffe. Taken at the height of their relationship, they revealed in their intimacy a mutual intelligence and O’Keeffe’s masculine beauty. As Robert concentrated on technical aspects, I focused on Georgia O’Keeffe as she related to Stieglitz, without artifice. Robert was concerned with how to make the photograph, and I with how to be the photograph.

p.192

I never anticipated Robert’s complete surrender to its powers. I had encouraged him to take photographs to integrate into his collages and installations, hoping to see him assume the mantle of Duchamp. But Robert had shifted his focus. The photograph was not a means to an end, but the object itself.

p.200

Our social differences, however exasperating, were tinged with love and humor. In the end, we were more alike than not, and gravitated toward each other, however wide the breach. We weathered all things, large and small, with the same vigor. To me, Robert and I were irrevocably entwined, like Paul and Elisabeth, the sister and brother in Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles. We played similar games, declared the most obscure object treasure, and often puzzled friends and acquaintances by our indefinable devotion.

He had been chided for denying his homosexuality; we were accused of not being a real couple. In being open about his homosexuality, he feared our relationship would be destroyed.

We needed time to figure out what all of this meant, how we were going to come to tears and redefine what our love was called. I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth.

p.208

We were leaving the swirl of our post-Brooklyn existence, which had been dominated by the vibrating arena of the Chelsea Hotel.

The merry-go-round was slowing down. As I packed even the most insignificant of things accumulated in the past few years, they were accompanied by a slide show of faces, some of which I would never see again.

There was the copy of Hamlet from Gerome Ragni, who imagined me playing the sad and arrogant Danish prince. Ragni, who co-wrote and starred Hair, and I were not not cross paths again, but his belief in me bolstered my sense of self. Energetic and muscular with a wide grin and masses of curly hair, he could be so excited about some crazy prospect he would leap onto a chair and raise his arms as if he had to share his vision with the ceiling or, better yet, the universe.

A rag roll with hair of Spanish lace given to me by Elsa Peretti. Matthew’s harmonica holder. Notes from Rene Richard scolding me to keep drawing. David’s black leather Mexican belt studded with rhinestones. John McKendry’s boatneck shirt. Jackie Curtis’s angora sweater.

As I folded the sweater, I could picture her under the filmy red light of Max’s back room. The scene there was changing with the same speed as the Chelsea, and those who had attempted to imbue it with a Photoplay glamour would find the new guard was leaving them behind.

Many would not make it. Candy Darling died of cancer. Tinkerbelle and Andrea Whips took their lives. Other sacrificed themselves to drugs and misadventure. Taken down, the stardom they so desired just out of reach, tarnished stars falling from the sky.

I feel no sense of vindication as one of the handful of survivors. I would rather have seen them all succeed, catch the brass ring. As it turned out, it was I who got one of the best horses.

p.276

Dear Robert,

Often as I lie awake I wonder if you are also lying awake. Are you in pain or feeling alone? You drew me from the darkest period of my young life, sharing with the sacred mystery of what it is to be an artist. I learned to see through you and never compose a line or draw a curve that does not come from knowledge I derived in our precious time together. Your work, coming from a fluid source, can be traced to the naked song of your youth. You spoke then of holding hands with God. Remember, through everything, you have always held that hand, grip it hard, Robert, and don’t let go.

The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off, too. But before I did, it occurred to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all your work, you are still your most beautiful. The most beautiful work of all.

Patti

p.288

There are many stories I could yet write about Robert, about us. But this is the story I have told. It is the one he wished me to tell and I have kept my promise. We were as Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the world. There were temptations and witches and demons we never dreamed of and there was splendor we only partially imagined. No one could speak for these two young people nor tell with any truth of their days and nights together. Only Robert and I could tell it. Our story, as he called it. And, having gone, he left the task to me toe tell it to you.

2. 塞哥维亚的罗马输水道

• 巴塞罗那，罗马古城，葡萄酒坊
• 输水道，纯净，刚柔相济，雄壮却不粗俗
• 古罗马是西班牙最坚实有力的古代史

3. 古老的科尔多瓦

• 哲学家塞内加的出生地（《论心灵的安宁》）
• 并非摩尔人造就，在古罗马时就是文化中心
• 罗马石柱，古桥，到天主教堂
• 罗马人被野蛮的哥特人逼退

4. 小城托雷多的故事

• 西哥特人的京城，近三百年
• 节制，古朴的阿尔坎塔拉桥
• 法兰克公主（信天主教）南下塞维利亚；父子兵戎相见
• 589年，雷卡雷多国王签署对天主教的信仰

5. 阿拉伯人来了

• 711年，北非入侵，直布罗陀——“塔里克的山”（阿拉伯语）
• 西班牙南部，阿拉伯人滞留时间长了，文化就如泉水，渗入了安达卢西亚每一寸土壤
• 阿拉伯西班牙的故事，就是安达卢西亚的故事

6. 阿尔扎哈拉的废墟

• 公元十世纪，阿拉伯科尔多瓦的极盛期
• 阿拉伯城墙，精致朴实，尖尖的四坡头，在西班牙到处可见
• 1012年，柏柏人洗劫科尔多瓦，阿尔扎哈拉宫城几乎被夷为平地

7. 历经沧桑的科尔多瓦主教堂

• 拉赫曼一世，在主教堂上建清真寺
• （五百年后）1236年， “被光复”
• （三百年后）十六世纪，被彻底改造，哥特式教堂从清真寺破顶而出

8. 塞维利亚的故事

• 主教堂，在费尔南多三世攻下之前，就已不再是清真寺了
• 费尔南多三世的圣骸盒，有四种文字

9. 阿尔汉布拉宫的故事

• 格拉纳达摩尔人王朝的终结
• 华盛顿·欧文对查理五世宫殿的贬斥
• 1492年，格拉纳达被攻陷，这一年，哥伦布发现新大陆

10. 带着诅咒的黄金时代

• 塞维利亚主教堂，哥伦布墓
• 瓜达尔基维尔河畔的金子之塔
• 犹太人被驱逐，（一百年后）摩尔人被驱逐（已被称为摩里斯科）
• 十六世纪后，西班牙进入漫长的野蛮时期

11. 马约尔广场随想

• 十八世纪始，比利牛斯山“坍塌”，法国启蒙思想涌入西班牙

12. 戈雅笔画下的战争

• 太阳门广场上的“五月之战”（反拿破仑）
• 戈雅，宫廷画家，晚年的战争悲剧素描
• 法国人一走，西班牙内战就拉开序幕，和法国一样，循着共和，称帝，复辟，公社之间不停倒来倒去的节奏

13. 世纪之交的高迪和“九八”一代

• 米拉公寓，力度，粗矿；巴特罗公寓，极度的精致

14. 不幸的西班牙第二共和国

• 1931年，左翼共和政府上台，两年后，右翼再掌权，1936年，内战打响

15. 迪伯德神庙下的兵营

16. 深歌在枪声中沉寂

• 洛尔加成长于格拉纳达地区，弗拉门戈和深歌的故乡
• 弗拉门戈舞，是吉卜赛的树林，小酒馆的微醺和大醉，卡斯蒂利亚多石的山，安达卢西亚强劲的风，是西班牙不灭的灵魂
• 洛尔加的《骑士之歌》（写的科尔多瓦）
• “格拉纳达，这个城市，杀死了他的诗人”

17. 战争以谁的名义

18. 西班牙内战中的人们

19. 半个西班牙被杀死了

20. 战后西班牙，置之死地而后生

• 佛朗哥“二战”期间的中立

21. 蒙特塞拉特的变化

22. 小镇杰里达和它的古堡

• 延续着中世纪的加泰罗尼亚
• 西班牙多山，在历史漫长的岁月里，始终是分散的，周边对中部的认同并不强
• 杰里达，普通的山区小镇，整洁，安宁，干净

23. 殉难谷的十字架

• 西班牙的内战纪念碑，一个教堂

24. 公投和第一次大选

• 政治制度现代化和文化独立区分开来
• 海滨小城西格斯

25. 到巴斯克去

• 西班牙人热情洋溢而泛滥，宗教和世俗缠绕在一起
• 毕尔巴鄂火车站的壁画
• 河水环绕的老城外，晴朗，有雾气，深绿湿润的群山

26. 格尔尼卡的老橡树

• 巴斯克人更愿意提卡斯蒂利亚而非西班牙
• “埃塔”

27. 古根海姆的骄傲

• 2.23政变，国王，政变之夜出现在电视上
• 从1898年开始，西班牙人苦苦追寻国家富强之路，他们废黜了国王，却换来了国家混乱，他们引进了各色思潮，却导致民众分裂，他们想走强国之路，却在左右极端间振荡，他们想复制一场十月革命，却复制了一场内战灾难，换来了倒退，重新起步和三十六年佛朗哥的独裁统治。终于在佛朗哥死后，用短短几年时间，顺利完成了政治体制转型
• 有时候，人只是凭一种直觉，到过今天的马德里，巴塞罗那，安达卢西亚，也到过毕尔巴鄂，格尔尼卡，还有贴着“埃塔”集会通告的小山村伊利扎德后，看得出他们把一切做好还需要时间，可是我们再不会以为，西班牙王国会变得分裂。几十年来他们在相互走近，而不是渐行渐远……他们在对话，那不只是政治对话，他们一起为加泰罗尼亚的高迪和米罗骄傲，一起为马拉加的毕加索骄傲，一起为巴斯克的古根海姆骄傲……那不是一个封闭民族虚妄的傲慢，罗马人神庙里奏响古乐，哥特人土地上纵马驰骋，阿拉伯人王宫里泉水淙淙，法国人圣坛下轻声祈祷，还有全世界的人，和我们一样，在西班牙的山川河流和大街小巷留下足迹

十九世纪英国文学

5月18日

人类文化至今，最强音是拜伦：反对权威，崇尚自由，绝对个人自由。拜伦的一生是十足的诗人的一生，是伊卡洛斯的一生。

歌德与拜伦如伟人与英雄，歌德是伟人，四平八稳——伟人是庸人的最高体现；而拜伦是英雄，英雄必有一面特别超凡，始终不太平的。歌德诗如交响乐，拜伦诗如室内乐。 拜伦的精神家谱是西方的怀疑主义，而歌德一有机会就赞美拜伦，因为在文学上或生活上，拜伦做了歌德想做而不敢做的事。伟人能够欣赏英雄，但英雄未必瞧得起伟人。李清照诗曰：“所以嵇中散，至死薄殷周。”

那时的诗，已摆脱神话英雄事件，自湖畔诗派起，已倾向生活、爱、儿童、自然，属于感情上的民主主义。他们主张永恒的主题，但方向是向回走的。雪莱与拜伦性格不一样，拜伦因为思想上的不成熟，呼天抢地宣扬他的怀疑，雪莱也因为思想上的不成熟，欢天喜地维持他的信仰。

我认为正统文学对狄更斯写的是通俗小说的批评很煞风景，在他书中，仁慈的心灵，柔和的感情，源源流出。托尔斯泰说：忧来无方，窗外下雨，坐沙发，吃巧克力，读狄更斯，心情又会好起来，和世界妥协。狄更斯的小说结尾，失散或久别的亲友又在一起了，总是夜晚，总是壁炉柴火熊熊燃，总是蜡烛、热茶，大家围着那张不大不小的圆桌，你看我，我看你，往事如烟，人生似梦，这种英国式的小团圆，比中国式的大团圆有诗意得多。

5月19日

哈代是真正的大家，大在他内心真有大慈大悲，他的行文非常迟缓，如此长，温和，读时，心就静下来，慢下来。他写苔丝早起，乡村的种种印象描写，无深意，无目的，就是这种行文，描写，了不起。哈代可以教我的，是气度，向陀思妥耶夫斯基可学的，是一种文学的“粘”度，一看就脱不开。哈代沉得住气，伏笔吗？到后来也不交代了，气度大！陀氏的结构的严密度，衣饰、自然、环境，都不写，全是人、对话，看得你头昏脑涨，又心眼明亮。艺术家贵在自觉，哈代、陀氏是恰如其分地自觉；普鲁斯特、乔伊斯，太过自觉了。

王尔德，幼年即博览名品，眼界气度都高阔，高唱、宣传唯美主义，身体力行。他说：“所有的艺术都是无用的。”又说：“诗像水晶球，使生活美丽而不真实。”他主张“为艺术而艺术”，反功利，反伪道德。大概到四十岁时，我顿悟了：为人生而艺术，为艺术而艺术，都是莫须有的。哪种艺术与人生无关？哪种艺术不靠艺术存在？鲁迅真的是为人生而艺术吗？他的人生观还是比较狭隘的。徐志摩真的为艺术而艺术吗？他和艺术根本是一种游离的状态，没有点，没有面，没有线，所谓江南才子，不过是“佳人”心目中的“才子”。他所有的东西都是浮光掠影。

批评成为一种门类，从英国杂志开始，查尔斯·兰姆，愈近现代愈受尊敬。把愤慨而幽默、渊深而朴素混在一起的，是兰姆。他非常敬重古典作品，喜欢古典作品中的恬静。最好的东西总是使人快乐而伤心。魏晋人夜听人吹笛，曰：奈何奈何？

5月20日

道德力量是潜力，不是显力。好的作品将道德隐得更深，更不做是非黑白的判断。

十九世纪法国文学

雨果和陀思妥耶夫斯基相反：《巴黎圣母院》、《九三年》、《悲惨世界》，宏大，奇怪，振奋人心，用的是故事、情节、场面，人物是为故事、情节、场面存在的。陀的故事情节场面为人物存在，当人物说话时，故事、情节、场面好像都停顿了，不存在了。陀更高超，符合原理。看雨果，就像看旅游风景。

作为一个有心性的男人，人生的快乐无非是有恩报恩，有仇报仇，人生不得此痛快，小说中痛快痛快。但《基督山恩仇记》不是艺术品，我一口气读完，一点不觉得艺术，就觉得我生活了一场，痛快了一场。大仲马是个老板，兰姆是个朋友。

对巴尔扎克，不能用什么主义去解释了，面对他，思想的深度，文体，都免谈。哈代，你要纯性地读，狄更斯，充满友情去读，托尔斯泰，可以苛求地读，可是我读巴尔扎克，完全放弃自己。他的小说，忽然展开法国十九世纪生活。艺术不反映现实，现实并不“现实”，在艺术中才能成为现实。现实是不可知的，在艺术中的现实，才可知。

福楼拜是世界文学中最讲究文法修辞的大宗师，他是个道德力量特别强、又特别隐晦的人物。《包法利夫人》在我看来是道德力量非常强的小说，但在当时，几乎被判为伤风败俗的大淫书。他的艺术力量很奇妙，写极平庸的人与事，却有魅力，仔细看。有美感。

一拿起都德的书，轻快，舒适，像赤了脚走在河滩的软泥上。我特别喜欢他的《磨坊书简》，写法国南方民俗风情，处处动人，用不完的同情心。都德一定模样温厚文静，敏感，擅记印象，细腻灵动，偶现讽刺，也很精巧。其实内心热烈，写出来却淡淡的，温温的，像在说“喏，不过是这样啰”，其实大有深意——也可以说没有多大深意，所以很迷人。

有人把他比作狄更斯、莫泊桑，我想：你们去比吧，我不比。都德不是大家，别的大师像大椅子，高背峨峨，扶手庄严，而都德是靠垫。我不太喜欢二流画家，更不喜欢二流音乐家，却时常看重二流的文学家。

《羊脂球》至今看，还是好。《于勒叔叔》也好，稍感疏浅露骨，《项链》大有名，现在读，可能嫌粗糙了。十九世纪后半叶到二十世纪上半叶，可以解作老派的短篇小说时期。新型的短篇小说，特征是散文化、不老实、重机智、人物和情节不循常规。这种历史变迁，未必是文学的进步进化，而是文学的进展。艺术没有进步进化可言。

十九世纪德国文学、俄国文学

5月27日

看一个诗人，不要完全注意他的诗——他的肖像，散文，他的整个人。海涅没有一首诗我读来完全钦佩，但他的散文，我没有一篇不佩服：逸趣横生，机智雄辩。他的哲学论文、游记杂感，都好透了，处处见到这个人，一看就知道是个大诗人在写散文，左顾右盼，神采风流。

我们所处的时代和尼采的时代相比，是他那个时代好。他的时代，天才大批降生在德国、欧洲。那时代是工业时代。我以为工业时代是男性的，商业时代是女性的——我们处在阴柔的商业时代。

在我作品中看不到这个时代。曹雪芹聪明，抽掉他的时代。他本能懂得时空必须自由。大观园在南京？北京？他不让你弄清楚。莎士比亚对他的时代，毫不关心，他最杰出的几部作品，都不写他的当代。再去看尼采的书：当时的德国连影子都找不到。他把事实提升为诸原则，他只对永恒发言。

普希金被公认是俄国文学的太阳，相当于莫扎特在音乐上的成就。他生来就是诗人。普希金少年就有心冲出狭隘的个人抒情范围。1814年写出《皇村回忆》，引起狂热赞美。有一幅画，画着他朗诵这首诗的高贵姿态。普希金自己呢，独爱拜伦，他说：“我爱拜伦，爱得发狂。”一个人的艺术作品，留在世界上，实在是不死的。对于我，拜伦、普希金完全是活着的。

《猎人笔记》是屠格涅夫的力作，共二十五篇短篇，第一篇发表，批评家就喝彩，接着篇篇精彩。描写俄国中部农村景色、生活、人伦，对含垢忍辱、备受欺凌的农民寄予深切的同情。中国文学不也写农村吗？以阶级斗争的观点写，极其概念化。屠格涅夫用的是人性的观点、人道的立场，至今还有高度。

五十年代到七十年代是他的创作全盛期，《罗亭》，接着是《贵族之家》、《前夜》、《父与子》、《烟》，最后是《处女地》——这些中译本当时销路非常之好。据说读屠格涅夫原文，修辞、文法、结构，极为精美，陀思妥耶夫斯基和托尔斯泰也比不上。即便在欧洲，如此工于文字技巧，也只少数几个。他和福楼拜是好友，两人都是文字的大魔术师。

要从近代的几位文学大人物中挑选值得探索的人物，必是陀思妥耶夫斯基。而当时真正理解他的人很少。越到近代，陀氏的研究者、崇拜者越多。尼采，纪德，一看之下就对陀氏拜倒。要去评价一个伟大的人物，你自己是怎样一个人物？这是致命的问题。

潜意识、无意识、性压抑、变态心理，什么什么情结，比起陀思妥耶夫斯基，哪里比得过！意识流那点手法，三分才气七分用。陀思妥耶夫斯基的大手笔，一味自然，那样奇怪曲折，出人意外，但都是自然的。这才是高超、深刻。不要在陀氏的书中追究思想信仰、道德规范。文学的最高意义和最低意义，都是人想了解自己。

陀氏的小说一传到欧洲，大家惊呆了。相比之下，欧洲作家就显得是无情无义的花花公子。陀氏的粗糙是极高层次的美，如汉家陵阙的石兽，如果打磨得光滑细洁，就一点也不好看了。

安娜身上渗透了托尔斯泰的魂灵。他把自心种种不可能实现的幽秘情愫，放在安娜身上。他的正面流露是列文，大谈社会改革的理想、宗教信仰的探索。《战争与和平》的情节、场面，写得非常好。他写这种大构，粗中有细，从容不迫，顺手写来，极像文艺复兴的巨匠画壁画，大开大合，什么也难不倒他。最后的杰作《复活》，笔力很重，转弯抹角的大结构，非常讲究，有点像魏碑。十足的小说，不准许拍电影、演舞台剧。试以别的小说来比，都会显得轻佻，小聪明、小趣味。

十九世纪美国文学

6月6日

霍桑从艺术家的观点去重视良知问题，这就很好，很好。所以他能把祖先不能说的人性内部的冲突，写成小说，以清教徒的心灵，而不是态度去了解人性，这是他的伟大处。在《红字》中，霍桑把宗教的不可见的道德力量，与情人间的心灵变化，写得非常紧张真实。许多人读后写信给霍桑，讲自己的诱惑、痛苦。

我认为惠特曼真的称得上是自然的儿子。许多人自称是自然的儿子，可他们自己多么不自然。《诗经》，自然的，唐宋诗词，不自然了。惠特曼是非常人间的，当时美国处在上升时期，初期工业时代是浪漫。我同意他的意见：人体好就好在是肉。不必让肉体升华。所谓灵，是指思想，思想不必被肉体拖住。让思想归思想，肉体归肉体，这样生命才富丽。

二十世纪现代派文学

6月12日

现代派文学强调表现自我，不重视环境描写，把个人内心活动作为写作的重心。英雄，伟人，不见了。人物都是卑零的、微末的、畸形的、游离于社会之外的陌生人。以前传统的写实主义，典型环境典型人物这套把戏被抛弃，用象征手法，以具体形象表现抽象概念，认为思想可以还原为感觉。普遍采用意识流，表达主观的内心世界，又开发了潜意识的结构和深度。

柏格森哲学的认识论本质是直觉主义，他认为，人的理性不能认识世界，也不能认识真理。感觉、判断、演绎、归纳等等，都是人造符号创造出来的，不能揭示实在事物的本形和本意，至多提供实在事物的投影。超感觉的直觉，是认识世界、把握真理的唯一方法。中国的庄子去、老子，都是凭直觉创造他们的哲学。莫扎特、肖邦都是凭直觉作曲。释迦牟尼、耶稣，也是靠直觉传道。

6月13日

意识流，仅仅是一种写作法，不是新发明，不能拿这个来反对二十世纪以前的非意识流小说。二十世纪意识流的几位代表作家，我认为没有一个达到成熟完美。平心而论，意识流宜写短篇小说，更宜写散文。现代派小说一上来就嘲骂前辈的文学“不真实”、“不自然”。一百年过去了，现代派小说水落石出，相比前辈，他们更不真实、不自然。

象征主义重视直观的认识和艺术的想象作用，强调音乐性，浓厚的神秘色彩，有独特的美的定义。象征主义认为现实世界后面，隐藏着理念世界。自然风景、人的活动，都不会出现在象征主义作品中。他们要使意念有摸得到的形状，但形状处于从属地位，只是可感知而已。

我认为。文学上现实主义成就最大，象征主义是小儿子，认为现实主义太迂，浪漫主义太傻，但他们从弄权出发，又回到宗教，算什么？古典主义和现实主义不是自己标榜的，莎士比亚，托尔斯泰，哈代，陀思妥耶夫斯基，巴尔扎克，这些人没有提出、标榜什么主义。

6月14日

意识流的四个代表人物：法国的普鲁斯特，爱尔兰的乔伊斯，英国的伍尔芙夫人，美国的福克纳。作为流派，存在二十年。《往事追迹录》的引子《睡眠与记忆》，就写得好极了。伍尔芙夫人《一间自己的屋子》，也是很好的散文。亨利·詹姆斯第一个提出意识流小说方法，把“真实感”列为小说最重要的追求目标，他反对旧小说的程式化、因循。我认为，一个伟大的小说家应是潜意识特别旺盛、丰富，而意识又特别高超、精密，他是伯乐骑在千里马上。梦和艺术是两回事，梦是散乱的、不自觉的，艺术是完整的、自觉的，艺术家的意识及潜意识要特别平衡。“智者，是对一切都发生惊奇的人”，一句话：明哲而痴心。

6月15日

未来主义歌颂机械文明，进取性的运动，歌颂速度，描写大都市，朝拜都市文明，盲目歌颂战争，从都市和战争中发现美：机械美，速度美。未来主义的诗有时代的象征，一般评家很重视所谓时代性，把艺术价值看得平淡次要，我是只看艺术，时代不时代，根本不在乎。时代超强的作家，他赢了，只赢了一个时代，对千秋万代来说，他输了。

表现主义比未来主义强，至今还有影响，他们以荒诞的情节和真实的细节描写来批判社会弊端，刻画人性，反对传统现实主义，认为客观世界已经存在，何必重复？我的问题是：艺术曾经重复过客观现实么？从来没有过。未来主义倾向探讨抽象的哲理性问题；人性和暴力，个人和群众，人的异化，重视社会整体性的东西。它文学上的渊源是波德莱尔（象征主义），马拉美不再表达现实，只写内心活动，瓦莱里说得更透明：诗人的天赋，是创造一个与实际事物无关的世界。

卡夫卡对现代文学影响很大：荒诞、象征、现实，很自由地结合在一起，可以说他在现代文学中开拓了新技法，新境界。《变形记》写出了一种独特的人道主义，被侮辱被损害的人，来爱侮辱他损害他的人。这种转了味的人道主义，很感人，陀思妥耶夫斯基，福楼拜，从来没用过这种手法。

存在主义与萨特

6月21日

存在主义的鼻祖是十九世纪的克尔凯郭尔，他认为人的存在与发展有三个阶段：美学阶段、伦理阶段和宗教阶段。黑格尔把存在和思想同等对待，而克认为，同等对待存在与思想，使信仰失去了地盘，这样，基督教仅仅成为一个环节。后来出了胡塞尔及他的“现象学”，他认为哲学是对纯粹意识的肯定，现象学不把认识主体看做是现实的、社会的、心理的存在，而是把它看成是纯粹的，即先验的。胡塞尔构成了非理性主义的哲学体系。海德格尔是无神论存在主义，他关心“存在”的意义，认为人所处的世界是无法理解的世界，他关心人是如何“存在”的，人孤立无依，永远只能惶恐忧虑。

6月23日

萨特的存在主义有三项：存在先于本质；自由选择；世界荒谬，人生痛苦。前两者是大众哲学，励志哲学，对二战后的欧洲起过安抚作用，进取性很强。叔本华认为自由是不可能的，可是悲观主义不实用，萨特的存在主义，说穿了，是实用的悲观主义。第三原则最真实，否定了第一第二原则。

二次大战，十年光景，战后幸存的一代知识分子，知识有限，很苦恼——什么是人的存在？人在世界上占何种地位？人应该如何看待这个世界？萨特的可贵，是拿存在主义理论去回答这些问题。

6月24日

萨特反对纯艺术，认为艺术家应“介入”他的时代。我的回答是：二流作家，最好介入，一流的，可介入可不介入，超一流的，他根本和时代无关。老子完全克服他的时代，无时代的人，是属于各个时代的人。

战后，冷战形成——在这历史条件下，西方知识分子不得不考虑何以自处。这个背景决定了萨特的写作和介入。四十年代后到六十年代初，是“境遇剧”阶段，那是他的全盛期。他认为人既然在一定的境遇中自由并选择，就必须在剧中表现简单的境遇及他们的选择，这完全是为他的存在主义效劳的。

由于他的存在主义哲学，萨特推演出一种激进的政治立场，他频繁介入政治活动，成为一个知识界的领袖。萨特有幸生在法国。他不是政治家。

1980年4月15日，萨特死，举国悲悼。葬礼时几万人队伍长达三公里，法国人说是雨果葬礼后最隆重的。生前尊荣、葬礼隆重的人，他有限，影响也有限。萨特也好，雨果也好，他们身后的哀荣，太戏剧性，太直截了当，太像政治秀——就说雨果吧，现在看，他的成就远不如巴尔扎克、司汤达、福楼拜。而这三位大天才死时，景况寥落，甚至很凄凉。可见艺术家的光荣决不在葬礼的规模。萨特由于他的“介入”，已经属于他的时代，你可以喜欢他，尊敬他，但只是作为时代象征的萨特。

尼采已经说了：“唯有戏子才能唤起群众巨大的兴奋。”

6月26日

我认为成功的萨特的小说，是《墙》。刑前心理，很多人写过，萨特好在写得很新鲜，看后好像自己也经历了刑前的心理。而且这小说既有现实意义，又有永久意义，永久意义是小说结尾这个偶然性，这个命运，和希腊悲剧原理同。当然，他在小说中强调的还是存在主义第三个命题：世界荒谬，人生痛苦。但《墙》不是存在主义思想的图解，《墙》超出主义，比主义长久。

加缪、萨特，他们自己不是局外人，他们是非常执着的功利主义者，一个执着的人，描写冷漠，一个非常有所谓的人，表现无所谓，这就是存在主义的虚伪。

从法国小说传统来看，梅里美、马拉美一路下来的贵族个人主义，到了加缪他们，已被平民的个人主义替代，这不能说是进步，也不能说是退步——说明世界在变。这，就是异化。

6月27日

存在主义文学的特征概括为三方面：明显的哲理性，它起初并非为文学而文学，它是哲学，不是文学流派，哲学会过去，文学可以长在。我记得我二十三岁时，一个基督教同学与我常常彻夜长谈，我说：其实没有宗教，只有哲学，四十多年过去了，我又想说——其实没有哲学，只有艺术。你去听贝多芬、勃拉姆斯，随时听到哲学，鲜活的哲学。书上的哲学，是罐头食品。

二，存在主义把人物放在特定境遇中，让环境支配人的行动，人再选择行动，造成本质。三，富有真实感，这是存在主义的好处——传统戏剧中，往往人物的好坏比现实中甚。

新小说，垮掉的一代

7月2日

克洛德·西蒙喜欢画画，所以书中求油画般的色彩效果，用回忆、感知、想象、幻觉等等，放在同时性、多面性的描绘之中，也可以说是文字的绘画。他有时太过分追求绘画效果，但我还是喜欢他，因为他诚恳。你们以为西蒙这种方法好不好？我以为绘画、文学两码事。文学一路看下去，是时间的过程。音乐因为有和声，占了大便宜，文学只能是一条线进行，即便字字珠玑，还是一条线，不像音乐可以同时进行。绘画，是个平面，壁画再长，时间感还是有限。

总的评价：新小说派，第一特征是反巴尔扎克，认为传统小说靠虚构故事，安排情节，设计曲折，有计划安排人物的命运，都是愚弄读者。新小说注重写物件、环境，具有迷宫式的结构，和绘画效果。自古以来，小说的中心是人，新小说派认为小说应该重视物，认为所谓现代人是处在物的包围中，人、世界，是看不透的，只能看到物的表面。

7月8日

垮掉的一代，我喜欢一个，就是杰克·凯鲁亚克。他的天性很有趣，十八岁入哥大，好动，不久离开纽约，开始流浪，比高尔基还强健。这种流浪，机会，在中国完全不行，他生在美国，占了便宜。这种作家只有美国会出产。我刚飞临美国，旧金山，看下去——这个国家好年轻！后来在曼哈顿俯瞰大楼群，那么阳刚。像小伙子，粗鲁，无知，但是阳刚。凯鲁亚克是我所喜爱的一个作家，他不做家禽，要做野鸟、野兽，他写成十八本小说，有种。晚年回到现实主义，有心肠，有头脑。

“阿克梅派”只讲阿赫玛托娃，“普希金是俄国文学的太阳，阿赫玛托娃是俄国文学的月亮。”她的诗非常柔情，真诚。她也聪明，转向古典，研究普希金，译中国的屈原，李商隐的《无题》诗。四十年代卫国战争，她却写了许多爱国诗，战后有了正面名望，她又退回来，远离当时的重大主题，写自己的生活。我尊重阿赫玛托娃，强者尊重强者，她与苏维埃对立，又写爱国诗，是完全本色——这就是我说的公平。一个温柔细腻的女人，战胜了粗暴残酷的势力。

THE MODEL AMERICAN, by Lauren Collins

自 Trump 参加大选并呼声越来越高以来，他家中的老老小小竞相成为了媒体追逐和报道的对象。《纽约时报》曾在不久前长篇介绍了他的二女儿也是得力助手 Ivanka。这一期《纽约客》则把笔墨花在了他的现任妻子 Melania 身上（注：她并不是 Ivanka 的母亲）。常读媒体报章就会不难发现，记者们对 Trump 形象的刻画通常都言辞犀利，毫不留情，而且以负面消息居多。在生活中其实并不高调张扬的 Melania 也逃不过这个定式和套路。首先就是身份和背景问题：“Donald Trump, it is worth noting, is married to an immigrant. Should he be elected, Melania will become the first foreign-born First Lady since Louisa Adams, though Louisa Adams doesn’t really count, as her father was an American, and from a politically connected family that hopped back and forth between England and its newly liberated colonies.” 然后就是和其他领导人妻子的比较：“If First Ladies have traditionally been public-service announcements, then she is a slickly produced advertorial — we marvelled at Michelle’s arms, because it seemed that they could be ours, if only we were willing to work as hard as she did, but you don’t hear anymore (other than her husband) talking about Melania’s legs.”

这篇文章并不长，也许也是因为可以大书特书的素材并不多。开头作者颇具意味地描述了2002年七月 Trump 是如何在卢布尔雅那（斯洛文尼亚首都，Melania 来自斯洛文尼亚）机场及其三十分钟车程开外的一家餐厅与 Melania 一家用餐，那是他第一次也是唯一一次前往斯洛文尼亚，晚上八点抵达，不到凌晨便又回到了机场。仅有的细节是这样的：“Over virgin cocktails (Trump had a Coke Zero), onion escalope with pan-fried potatoes, and forest blueberries, Melania interpreted. Trump declined coffee. ‘Is this place for sale?’ he asked his future father-in-law on the way out, according to the journalists Bojan Pozar and Igor Omerza.”

这两位叫 Bojan 和 Igor 的记者也是 “Melania Trump: The Inside Story” 一书的作者，前者是斯洛文尼亚有名的八卦专栏作家，他们走访了可以收集到信息的每一个角落汇成了此书，其中一个段落提到了 Melania 的姑姑：“‘Melania’s aunt, Olga Ulcnik, born on 30 October 1943 in Judendorf-Strassengel, was an absolute phenom in school,’ they write. ‘She averaged excellent grades from 1950 to 1954, even finishing the last year with straight As except for one B in geometry.’” 简单地掰手指算一下便知道，1950年到1954年，Melania Trump的这位姑姑是在上小学的年纪。

文章避免不了把 Melania 和 Trump 本人进行比较（也是以此来进一步剖析 Trump 其人）。“Yet Melania appears to have internalized many aspects of Donald’s culture: his ahistoricism; his unblinking gall; his false dichotomies between murderous scofflaws and deserving citizens, women who ask for nothing and nagging wives … … She never breaks ranks, not even with a teasing criticism … … Not only does she never joke about her husband; she is entirely self-serious … … She doesn’t attempt to bond by deprecating herself. She makes no apologies for her twenty-five-carat diamond, her formal life style, her multiple houses.”

然而，由于材料有限，文章读罢我们对这位谜一样的 Melania 仍没有更多深入的了解，谈不上多好也谈不上多坏。接近结尾的地方作者不经意的一句话也许说得是对的，“We must thus conclude that she wants to be perceived as aloof.”

DANGEROUS FICTIONS, by Dexter Filkins

Mohammed Hanif 曾是BBC伦敦负责报道乌尔都语和巴基斯坦时政的负责人，现在他回到了自己的母国，担任记者和并从事小说创作。巴基斯坦不是一个太平的地方，他在后来的一篇文章中回忆起在卡拉奇的生活，“People were being kidnapped for a few thousand rupees,. Everybody’s cousin had been robbed at gunpoint. Carjacking was rampant. Even an obscure journalist like me had a gangster or two stalking him.” 但是，已经手持英国护照的 Hanif 却从没把自己当成一个外国人，他说，“Some writers become foreigners, even when they are living here. I don’t think I am a foreigner. Even the people who don’t like me, I’m one of them … … I didn’t just fly in from England.”

Hanif 的第一部小说 “A Case of Exploding Mangoes” 围绕巴斯斯坦前总统齐亚·哈克的坠机身亡展开，他在伦敦工作时就对这个题目十分感兴趣，但是经过调查发现，可供参考的历史资料少之又少。最后，Hanif 决定把自己写成是刺杀齐亚·哈克的背后主谋，小说的主人公化身为一名空军飞行员——这无疑是与 Hanif 曾经参军有直接关系。小说里充满了卡通化的戏谑，Hanif 自己也说，“[the] fiction [is] ‘the opposite of journalism’.” 在长达数十年的军政府统治高压下，能够如此大胆地写出对军队首领的批判和讽刺本身就是一件很了不起的事。这本书最终由印度的兰登书屋出版，并最终运送了数千本到巴基斯坦，反响强烈。意外的是，当权者并没有过多打压或设置障碍，Hanif 自己打趣道：“I think I was helped by the fact that no one in the military reads novels.”

这本书没有受到太大阻力的另外一个原因便是，他是用英语书写的。巴基斯坦半数人都是文盲，剩余的部分也大多只读乌尔都语，只有少数的媒体和社会精英把英语作为日常用语。“This situation presents both limits and opportunities. Writers in English have far more latitude to criticize authorities, both secular and religious, without retribution. Clerics tend not to read English, or to care much about the opinions of upper-class intellectuals; politicians are largely concerned with the vastly greater numbers of people who read primarily Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, or Balochi.”

即便如此，在巴基斯坦从事时政报道和写作仍是一项非常危险的工作，“In 2010, Umar Cheema, who had written about dissent within the military, was picked up by men in police uniforms who were widely presumed to be I.S.I agents … … In 2014, Hamid Mir, the country’s best-known television journalist, who has criticized the Army and the I.S.I. in his pieces, was shot six times by unknown gunmen as he drove to work.” Hanif 本人也不例外，他经常接到曾经在空军 的老战友的通风报信，提醒不要总是把自己置身在话题和危险之中。他的妻子也说，“In Pakistan, you don’t have to be outspoken to be killed. The people we might be afraid of are people we don’t even know.”

战乱的时局通常对伟大的文学家来说是一个恩赐，在哪里都不例外。但是，Hanif 却希望用自己文学灵感的枯竭来换取这个国家长久的太平：“… … he insists that he would be happier if the country somehow became calm. ‘I never want to leave,’ he said. ‘If Pakistan were normal and boring, I would love that. I’d shut my mouth for a while, if that was the price.’”

故城

(p.32) 朱雀城汉朝就有的，那时候人主意怪。

(p.14) 有块碑，刻着赞美的字，泡茶好，不起衣，隔夜不馊。

(p.254) 四个人这顿饭吃得很宁馨，水缸那边的泉声，太阳透过屋檐底下，透过树丛的一道道光影，偶尔过的雀儿叫，都不讨人厌。

(p.140) 南门城门洞口，经油糖柴烟气熏陶，斑驳陆离，凝聚着盎然的古意，很感动刚来的天主堂意大利洋人。

(p.420) 街上挂满彩旗，常听到东南西北城墙上洋鼓洋号的奏鸣，城里城外马匹来回穿插，河上运马草的船，挑马草进城门洞的人，弄得到处闻得到新鲜马草的香味。

(p.23) 这时候一切都那么单纯，蒸腾的花香，哄咙的蜜蜂，周围城内城外的鸡叫，预知黎明的逐渐出现。

(p.166) 这块领地真有点像是由于历史的疏忽遗忘被打落在今天的世界里的，那么一小粒，那么厉辣，那么雄强，那么狠毒，那么讲究文化，那么五脏俱全，又那么妙趣横生。

吃食

(p.19) 刚摘下的花椒，油锅里氽过，齿缝里一扣，“啵”的一声纷纷流出小滴小滴喷香的花椒油来。

(p.714) 滚烫的羊肉，辣椒加烧酒；蓝天，暖秋加河籁，由不得人不生感慨之心，于是有人发奋要做荆轲，有人要做爱迪生，有人要做兴登堡。

(p.725) 这宝物吃进嘴巴，很难用味觉范围的字眼来形容它，它太狎昵，太暧昧，好像做了一件见不得人的美事，身上留下的那种微温，那种微香，实在说不出口。《东京梦华录》里头记载到一些食物和汤茶，也让人产生如此异想。

志趣

(p.941) 你听我讲，不管你以后长大成人是穷是富，当不当名人专家，多懂点稀奇古怪知识还是占便宜的，起码是个快活人；不会一哄而起只准读一本书，个个变成蠢人。

(p.151) “你找这个字做什么？”“一首诗上要用它。”“字都读不明，怎么用？”“你看你！之所以要查嘛！一首诗里头有一两个‘险’字，味道足些！”

(p.278) 幸好朱雀城的年轻人不论穷富，都有几分斯文修养，懂得老少交情中相互得益的美好存在。

(p.432) 黄昏后，吃过晚饭的男人懒坐在自己卧房靠椅里，一盏落地灯温暖地顺着肩膀照在左手捏着的《管锥篇》之卷八，讲着猫和狗的地方：“……吾人尝有俗谚云：‘猫认家不认人，狗认人不认家。’一文家嘲主翁好客，戚友贲来，譬如猫之习其屋而非好其人……”正好猫躺在身侧，狗卧在脚跟，想到猫狗的习性确是这么一回事，觉得古人也都和自己的想法一样，免小有得意。

(p.523) “我刚才听到你们在三楼吵吵闹闹讲些哪样？”谈山水，谈酒，谈生死。“都是大题小做！乌合之众，焉有生死可论？”

(p.39) “也弱！”爷爷插了话，“少了点中土气派，比如我们乡里的粗碗，他们喜欢得很，学着做出来精致有余，洒脱不足。”

(p.891) 我爷爷讲他年轻的时候到山东淄川蒲松龄老家去参观，参观完了走出左手边一个弄子口，弄子口高头檐上刻了四个字：“少焉月出”。弄子口朝东，远处是山，月亮会从那一头出来，很是感动人。他就想，这四个字一定是蒲松龄自己题的。

音乐

(p.71) 凡俗太多，心不静，箫和七弦琴一样，旁边多一个人，味道都是不一样的。

(p.481) 我三年级的班任是萧先生，他讲过两堂课的《月光》，拿古诗映照，一边是德国旋律，一边是汉时明月……他说流传的贝多芬月光曲故事把人感动得不真实，月光曲不应拿故事去感动人，有时候艺术并没有感动人的义务；只是技巧，技巧本身。

(p.483) 为了音乐，幼麟有时幽默自己的孤立；为了自己，有时又怀疑这舍割不掉的音乐道路，没见过西洋音乐概论，没参观过一次音乐演奏会，好久好久以后才明白修芒就是舒曼，修盆就是肖邦，贝蒂火粉就是贝多芬。这个时代学音乐，先生教什么知道什么，没有选择的余地，有如乡村路边的小饭铺不时兴点菜一样。

年代

(p.57) 愿意来的，其实心里也怕，听到“照个相大家作纪念”就毛骨悚然。

(p.160) 过年，眼花缭乱，两耳嘈杂，肚子胀得咕噜作响，被大人架来抢去，拿莫名其妙的压岁钱，红包。

(p.66) 省里头刘先生不喝酒，微微地笑着吃菜，讲的几句株洲官话，让人听得半懂半不懂。

(p.613) 爷爷在喝茶，他没有讲这里的茶叶不好，家里的好，一口一口喝，今夜间他会一直喝到底，喝到没有茶叶散戏才罢休。

(p.938) 序子好几天像个不会做诗的屈原，一个人到处逛来逛去。

(p.10) 回忆的甜蜜与深重痛苦都是无可弥补的。

(p.96) 生活停止不动，曾经有过悲哀，有过寂寞，有过牵挂……都过去了。屋子深而大，地下是石板，周围是高墙，房屋塞满柜，台，桌，椅和箱子笼屉，厚厚的木地板……隔绝了她从来不懂的外界的消息和文化。

(p.814) 人长到老来，脑壳里头都会浮现一幕又一幕带彩色的童年往事。有的见不得人，有的喜欢招一些人来共同切磋，做哪样老家伙都喜欢追忆呢？宋人诗云：“无觅处，只有少年心。”

第一讲 先秦诸子及中国文化的超越突破

2月17日

金观涛先生上来用三句话概括中国文化历史的核心：一，以道德为终极关怀；二，道德内容以儒学为基础，儒家思想以家庭伦理为中心；三，儒家道德是两千年来中国政治、社会制度的正当性基础。

从第三句话说起，谈到合法性，其实在中国历史研究中应换为“合道性”，不同于西方，中国文化背景下评判制度和社会行为的好坏对错，主要看它是否符合儒家道德准则。道德和法律的根本差别在于背后的根据，善和正义。何为善？善是好的普遍化。孔子讲“己所不欲，勿施于人”，犹太教和基督教中“你希望别人怎样对待你，你就应该怎样对待别人”，都讲出了道德普遍化的本质。

接着是第二句话，儒家伦理强调血缘亲疏和等级差序，“父为子隐，子为父隐，直在其中矣”，可见儒家的本质是以家庭伦理为中心的。中国先民的早期社会崇拜祖先，注重世代繁衍，西周时期开始出现等级制的典章礼仪，到孔子时，奠定了一套伦常等级秩序和制度，并把周礼提升到道德之源的高度。“天不生仲尼，万古如长夜”，是如此。

2月20日

终极关怀也就是 ultimate concern，指对人生意义之终极价值的理解和追求，不同文明中是不一样的。中华文明以追求道德完善为终极关怀（孔子说“士志于道”），而其他文明在道德之上还有一个更重要、更根本的追求：基督教里是对神的皈依，古希腊文明中是爱智和求知，印度婆罗门教是追求解脱等等。

3月6日

金认为，文化上的超越突破，是指人从社会关系中走出，寻求不依赖于社会组织的终极人生价值。孔子通过回到周礼的方式实现了中国文化以道德为终极关怀的超越突破，并阐明了道德的普遍性和可欲性。

《论语》中出现最多的词汇是“人”“知”“仁”和“君子”，这些也构成了孔子讲道德的核心观念。和苏格拉底相似，孔子的“知”是二阶思维的知（知道自己是否知道或不知道的知）。但在古希腊，柏拉图和苏格拉底的知是求知，认识自然界的知识；而孔子的知主要是知礼、知善恶的知。

先秦儒家文化的形成还经历了孟子和荀子这两个阶段。孟子把有没有道德感视为人与禽兽本质上的差异，这种人禽之辨，是一种极端化表述，也成为了两千年来道德卫道士的依据。同时，孟子发扬了孔子的义利之辨，提出性善论，发展出一整套仁政学说，并提倡修身，进一步完善了道德的可欲性和规范性。

荀子则主张性恶论，强调道德规范的根源不在人心，而是外在。“凡礼义者，是生于圣人之伪。”“伪”就是人为的意思，“人之性恶，其善者伪也”，人本性是恶的，善是人自觉克服恶本性的人为结果。荀子奠定了教化天下的理论基础。

对比儒道两家的思想结构，会看到道家主张全面否定儒家的价值：第一，“道可道，非常道。”道家认为任何确定的规范都是没有意义的；第二，老子说上善若水，要做到善，应该如水那样任其自然，而不必刻意探求什么是普遍的“好”；第三，道家以“无为”来否定向善的意志。道家的“情意我”是对儒家的“德性我”之否定，但因其不能作为建立大而复杂的整全社会的理论基础，从而未能成为中国政治文化的正面价值。

3月7日

需要强调的是，虽然儒道两家的主张相左，但它们的超越视野仍是个人在现世的精神追求。有儒家，就一定有道家，两者共生，也是中国人博大的思想和智慧之源。此外，道家作为否定儒家的存在，对儒家理论的提升、对融合外来文明，有不可取代的重要功能。

儒道两家共同塑造着汉以后中国思想文化的发展，相比之下，先秦的法家、墨家、名家和杨朱，均没有提出超越个体生命、不死的和非功利的生命意义，汉以后它们或是消亡，或是被儒道两大家吸纳为隐性成分保留下来。

回到文化上的超越突破，不同文化面对生死的“大哉问”有不同的回应方式。首先，在追求终极价值的取向上有两种选择：此世和彼世；其次，个人靠什么力量去追求这个终极价值也只有两种选择：靠个人自己和靠外在的非社会力量。两两相乘，构成了超越突破的四种基本类型。

第一种，依靠外部的神秘力量，追求不在此世的目标，以希伯来宗教为代表。在这种超越视野中有三种救赎宗教：犹太教、基督教和伊斯兰教。基督教实现了救赎的普世化，而伊斯兰教主张“两世吉庆”，完成了救赎宗教的入世转向。

另外，强调依靠个人修炼以企及最高价值的是印度宗教；“进入此世”和“依靠外部力量”的组合则构成了古希腊的超越突破精神；而个人依靠自己的力量，完成此世的价值追求构成了中国文化的基本精神。知识追求和道德追求的不同在于，善的体悟靠个人内心就够了，知识的追求则有外部客观标准。

轴心文明独自演化时也会发生碰撞，导致融合，如古希腊罗马文明在公元五世纪后转向希伯来超越视野，形成天主教文明的社会；中国文明与印度文明在汉代以后的融合也是重要的例子。

第二讲 中国文化大传统的形成

3月8日

自汉代始，以家庭伦理为核心的儒家道德哲学成为大一统国家的政治哲学和社会伦理，主要是通过两条线索实现的：一是家国同构的社会结构形成，一是汉武帝立五经博士，钦定儒学为官方意识形态。

家的兴起在战国时代，社会基本单位转变成个体家庭后，集权中央政府才有可能实现。“编户齐民”奠定了秦汉以下两千五百年政治和社会的基础，汉代儒家作为官方哲学，赋予各种家的正当性，其中，“孝”成为汉代政治儒学的核心观念。正是通过孝提出家、国同构观念，把“国”看作“家”的放大，皇权被视为父权的放大。在人类历史上，把国视为家的放大是一个大发明，从来没有第二个文明是像中国这样的。

汉代确立儒学作为官学，同时还确立了以儒家道德标准来选拔各级政府官员的原则和办法。世界各大文明中，中国最早实行文官制，而其基础不是理性而是道德。汉以后，选拔道德精英治国是中国文官政治的大传统，一直延续到今天。

3月9日

汉代五经确立后的两千年间，儒家经典的阐释和传统社会的调适同步演化。五经中《礼》《春秋》和《易》是政治意识形态的核心。《礼记》中，对后世影响最大的是《大学》《中庸》和《学记》三篇。《学记》讲进学修身的道理，强调人只有学习道德规范才能知天道，奠定了道德教化的基础。《大学》提炼出儒家的三纲领（“大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善”）、八条目（从个人修炼到修身齐家再到治国）。《中庸》把维系家国同构的伦理及修身与天道性命联系起来（“天命之谓性，率性之谓道，修道之谓教”）。

在汉代，《春秋》是五经之首，因为唯有它是孔子所著。孟子说“孔子成《春秋》而乱臣贼子惧”，孔子编《春秋》记述历史来维护道德政治的正当性。汉儒认为《春秋》是孔子为汉立法，并用“微言大义”的方法创造性地解释经典，为新兴的大一统帝国国家形态提供正当性论证。战国时期的三种《春秋》读本中，《左传》忠于记事；《谷梁传》侧重讲礼义、教化和宗法家族关系；而《公羊传》特色是突出政治。汉儒解春秋，主要是靠《公羊传》。

董仲舒在《天人三策》中用天人相应的讲法把公羊学的政治性发挥得淋漓尽致，提出完整的治国大纲。对后世影响深远。劳思光先生称汉代这种以天人相应为特征的思想，也称“宇宙论儒学”：把宇宙秩序与道德秩序直接对应，风调雨顺表明皇帝仁政实行得好，出现灾异时就因为皇帝的政策偏离了仁政。这种观念在汉代是限制君权、惩治贪官污吏的有效工具。

《周易》有点诡异，先秦的哲学家很少讲它，因为《易》主要讲的是吉凶的变化及变化规则，与以道德为终极关怀的中国文化超越视野存在冲突。儒学在汉代成为官学后，以天人相应来解释各种变化并预测吉凶的《周易》与公羊春秋相配合，共同成为宇宙论儒学的核心。《易》中有言：“汤武革命，顺乎天而应乎人”，短短一句话给出了易姓革命的正当性论证，这是中国传统社会自我更新机制的根据。

汉代天人相应的宇宙论儒学，也给出了中国文化最早的审美标准，它是现世的、道德的，广阔而深沉。汉代的人心胸非常博大，做任何事情时心目中是有天的，天和人，小宇宙和大宇宙同构。我们今天看汉代艺术品，汉砖、雕塑，非常了不起，以后的中国人再也做不出来了。

3月10日

汉以后，儒家经典维系家国同构运作的功能不曾改变，黄仁宇先生把中国传统社会结构比喻成潜水艇夹肉面包，面包皮一个在上代表国，，一个在下代表家，而中间的那一层，是具有统一儒家精神的读书人阶层（绅士阶层）。这个中间层可大可小，它把政府的各种管理功能延伸至社会，县以下的绅士和大族把一个个家族、家庭整合起来，跟官方合作实现了基层的自治。

在经济形态层面上，中国传统社会是独特的市场经济，契约和商品经济极为发达，另外，正由于儒家伦理和家国同构，这种建立在等级制家庭伦常之上的私有产权对个人财产根本没有保障，并不是像西方那种在法律保护下的个人私产。

跟欧洲中世纪的庄园经济相比，中国传统社会的单位耕地面积容纳的人口要多得多。经济史家赵冈分析认为，天主教强调成年男人对家庭负责（不能养家就不能成家）的习俗有效控制了农业人口增长，而儒家伦理中，虽然每一个家庭是经济独立的，但家族有义务照顾那些无以为生的家庭，并通过义仓、租田等办法养活剩余人口。这些剩余人口通常是半工半农，他们并不靠手工产品来养活自己，而是贴补家用，因而可以低廉到不计成本；半农则是加强精耕细作。这就是经济学家常讲的中国经济的内卷化。它一方面遏制了专门化分工的工业制造业，另一方面，庞大的剩余人口从事家庭手工业，使得中国手工业产品在世界市场上有极强的竞争力。

3月11日

中国传统社会基本结构的不变性和王朝的周期姓更替是共生现象，也是区别于其他三种轴心文明的宏观特征。在经济结构子系统中，地主经济保持了地主成分和自耕农之间的平衡，随着经济的不断发展，王朝后期土地兼并越来越严重，自耕农成分逐步减少，流民四起，社会处在大动乱的前夜。

第三讲 魏晋玄学与常识理性的形成

3月14日

在中国思想史上，魏晋玄学具有极为独特和重要的地位。魏晋玄学的结构蕴涵着中国文化接受外来文化的机制，更重要的是，魏晋玄学塑造了中国文化独特的常识理性。常识理性成熟后消化了佛教，并在此基础上产生了宋明理学，此后还影响到了中国和日本等社会的现代转型。

与其他几种轴心文明类型相比较，没有一个其他文明如中国文明那样，把社会制度视为道德内容的实现，也没有把宇宙秩序看做具有道德属性的。然而，把宇宙秩序等同于道德秩序带来的最大问题，便是如果在某一时期，一天到晚发生天灾，会对社会发生什么影响呢？两汉持续四百余年，宇宙论儒学维系着家国同构体的运作大致可行，但是，东汉末期情况发生根本变化。任何一朝的天灾，都没有造成像东汉末年那样大的思想冲击。

公元107-219年的一百二十年中，特大天灾便达一百五十次，皇帝无论做什么，天灾都要一再显示亡国之征。当天灾多到一定程度，意识形态所规定的德治就变为不可欲的了，对宇宙论儒学的普遍怀疑结果是出现思想大转向，士人由积极介入现实政治转向玄学思考。

东汉解体、儒学王朝修复机制失灵时，又正值半牧半农民族大举南迁，残酷、剧烈的大动乱持续了很长时间。大量草原民族进入中原地区，匈奴、乌桓、鲜卑、拓跋等民族的社会结构并不是儒家伦理规定的家，也对宇宙论儒学提出严峻挑战。

3月15日

随着大一统帝国的解体，官僚机构以及家的组织形态发生变化。三国时曹丕提出了改造察举制的“九品官人法”，由中央任命的中正官分赴各地，按家世、才干、道德选官。这种选官制度加强了门阀世袭化，削弱了中央权威，其后果就是“上品无寒门，下品无士族。”

东汉末期，思想文化开始出现两种互相对立的倾向。一方面，士人崇尚道家的无为价值，追逐名士风度，有力地冲击着代表儒家伦理三纲核心价值的名教。另一方面，儒家伦理仍然是社会政治制度的正当性来源，为了维系家、特别是大家族的正当性，社会生活中愈来愈重视礼教和血统。在这两种倾向的作用下，儒学出现家学化。魏晋南北朝时期《孝经》上升成为显学，在重视血缘和门第的社会风气下，编纂家训、家规蔚然成风。在社会生活中，士族与寒族界线分明，互不通婚。

与此同步的是玄风大振。三国魏晋的名士如嵇康、阮籍，极度重视精神自由，以放浪形骸、鄙视礼教、行为特异为风度，以鄙视君臣关系、任性旷达而闻名于世；同时，他们又是孝子。唐长孺先生提出的“玄礼双修”，说的就是魏晋人士同时具有的这两个看似分裂的精神层面。这两者并行不悖。

“道德价值逆反”：在中国以道德为终极关怀的文化里，当原有道德目标做不到的时候，人们就会以原有道德规范的反面或否定来作为新道德。魏晋玄学的产生，正是两汉宇宙论儒学不可欲导致价值逆反的结果。在这股思潮大转向中，道家价值全面取代儒家伦理的内容，成为士人新的道德追求。

魏晋玄学是先秦老庄思想的翻版吗？并不是这样。他们的根本差别在于：老庄的无为是对儒家道德的否定，魏晋玄学是对儒学价值的逆反，就是把道家每一项基于否定儒家的主张，都变为向善的意志所指向的新道德。

魏晋人士以反规范为新道德的追求，士人以越名教、任自然作为道德和修身。《世说新语》中记载了很多士人反儒家名教规范的奇怪行为，他们以不遵守礼教的放浪形骸行为，来表明自己是最有精神追求的。中国历史上，没有哪一个时期的士大夫有如他们这样纵容自己的本能欲望，他们生活的最高原则就是真诚而不做作，表现了那个时代追求顺从自己本性的自然精神。

在汉末至魏晋的残酷大动乱中，人口大量死亡、夭折，士人开始追求道家的养生、得道、长生不老和成仙之术。汉代易学很发达，东汉末年虽然发生了对宇宙论儒学的价值逆反，但《易经》的思想方法以及有机自然观并没有中断。道教兴起后，各种民间方术迷信的小传统也随之大盛。

道教及民间神仙方术非常重实用与效果，但是，以老子的无为作为新道德追求的玄学则不同，并不讲求时效。那么士人如何通过修身来实现这种精神需求呢？中国文化除了重时效的道教外，并没有特别的思想资源。这种情况下，人们很容易用无的观念去亲和大乘佛教，东汉末、三国魏晋玄谈之风大盛时，名士与名僧交往频密，玄学与佛学积极互动，引领思想潮流，士人由玄学去理解佛学义理。

3月18日

常识理性：魏晋南北朝以后，中国人进行意识形态论证和思考自然万物现象时，是以可理解的常识和人之常情为根据，并不需要进一步追问常识背后的深层原因。常识理性构建了中国文化的理性结构，它构成了中西思维模式的重大差别。常识理性是一种理性的自觉，即在思考任何问题时，意识到有一个高于具体事物的后设层面，它必定是常识和人之常情合理可以理解的。

玄学的发展大致可以分为两个阶段，第一阶段以老子和周易为重心，以无和无为作为新道德，由此建立了道德的形而上学基础，第二个阶段以庄子为重心，与无分道扬镳、以自然为道德，把自然价值注入这一后设层面，成为玄冥之境和物各自造、万物自然生成的共同根据。常识理性才得以形成。

注庄子的代表人物有两个，向秀和郭象。向秀没有完整的文集传世，但从他与嵇康就养生问题的争论来看，他已经以“自然”和“自然之理”为根据来谈人性了。向秀谈的“自然”，既肯定万物自生，人的任自然也很合理，从而肯定了在现世中追求荣华富贵与享乐是正当的，任自然和崇名教就可以调和在一起，当然会受到那些既要清高逍遥，又要肯定现存秩序的高官名士的欢迎。因此，自向秀注庄子后，士人以追求自然来修身，兴起游山玩水之风。

郭象用“自然”封住了贵无和贵有两派关于万物生成的争论。他以“自然”为核心观念，建构出既包括世间万物万事的实然层面，又有追求形而上的境界层面的统一的玄学体系。在现实层面，万物的创生是物各自造，不需要追究其生成的原因，在形而上层面，它是没有任何规定性的玄冥境界，代表顺应于天的宇宙秩序的至理。玄学发展到郭象，可以与佛教划出界限，中国文化独特的常识理性精神才得以形成。

中国的艺术精神与常识理性是共生物，它们是同步形成的。到魏晋时期，自然成为修身目标，是士人追求的至高道德情怀。在艺术史上，对作为艺术表现的书法的狂热追求，绘画中的传神论和山水画画论，这些重要现象都发生在魏晋南北朝时期。

宗炳的《画山水序》是山水画画论的开天辟地之作，这篇文章的主旨是讲士人为什么要画山水画。魏晋六朝人士的“画山水”来源于“观画中山水”，它是“游山水”的修身行为的延续。自东汉末出现对宇宙论儒学的逆反，“游”这一在先秦道家中表达不受约束的情意我的重要价值及观念，开始受到士大夫的接纳和吹捧。

几乎与宗炳论证画山水正当性的同时，出现了“传神论”，并从此支配了中国人物画的传统，魏晋时人们已普遍接受了形神可以分离的观念，又受到佛教的影响，顾恺之的审美和绘画理念是主张神主形次，他说，“玄赏则不待喻”，即画家在追求表现神似的过程中，自己也可以体悟玄冥境界之神妙。

此外，魏晋南北朝时期，书法艺术也发展到一个高峰，在汉代由于没有形成道德意识形态背后的个体之精神层面追求，字主要是为了实用，直到魏晋，开拓出个体精神解放，书法艺术、书法审美才大量风行起来。

第四讲 佛学和中国式佛教

3月24日

今天的中国思想文化是消化佛教的结果，中国式佛教是用中国文化独特的道德哲学思维模式对佛教哲学的吸收、消化而演绎出来的另一套思想文化系统和宗教，两者既相关联又不尽相同。

佛学跟其他三种超越突破不一样的地方在于，它强调依靠自身的力量离开此世、寻找解脱。在佛教最重要的原始经典《阿含经》中，佛陀用十二因缘解释了世界以及自我的产生和人生痛苦的根源。在佛学中，讲万事万物的存在和发生都是因缘的结果。佛陀讲：“无明缘行，行缘识，识缘名色，名色缘六处，六处缘处，处缘受，受缘爱，爱缘取，取缘有，有缘生，生缘老病死。”

“行”指某种心理倾向或心灵意识的状态，有了这种意识的意向性，就会产生心识。佛学认为，认知主体与认知对象两者是同时呈现的。主体意向性指向对象，对象呈现后就有各种各样的性质（“名色”），“识”和“名色”结合，接着产生了“六人”，即人的六种感官以及它们感知的对象，它们有可能使主体限于花花世界。佛学中所谓的世界，是指由自我的意向性创造出来的那个世界。

“触”是主、客体的接触，到了这一步，主体的感官、外境以及意识三者聚合在一起时，就会产生对这些对象的具体感受（“受”）。对外界有感受，喜、怒、哀、乐就源源不断地出来了。而对喜欢的东西，就会想方设法占有它，之后便是“有”和“生”，佛陀接着说，这种“生”不能长久，必定要死的，这就是十二因缘的最后一环“老死”。

大乘佛学用“三法印”来讲修行原理：“诸行无常”，世间一切事物的存在都处于生生灭灭的变化中，“诸法无我”，世间一切事物和自我都是由主体（意向性）建构出来的，并没有实有的存在。明白这两条，无常即是苦，无我得解脱，就会去追求第三法印，“涅槃寂静”，指进入一种永远脱离人生烦恼、痛苦、得到解脱的寂静状态。

佛教继承了婆罗门教的修行方法：戒、定、慧。怎么做到戒呢？首先要区分我与我有，你要尽可能不去占有，就不会产生丧失我有以后的痛苦。定就是尽可能使你的意识不指向任何对象，这颇不容易，佛教的打坐、瑜伽、禅定都是要去定。接着还有第三条叫做慧，要明白在“我有”之前，包括你的身体的个别自我，是怎么由无常的因缘而产生的，是对完整生命的觉悟。在戒、定、慧三学中，慧使解脱的主因，所谓依戒生定，依定发慧，由戒超恶趣，由定而离欲界，由慧而超越三界。

大乘佛教追求大家都解脱的普度众生，为了普度众生，修行者就须要具有舍身和慈悲两种精神。小乘注重个体的解脱，最后修成罗汉，大乘则重视菩萨行。大乘有三种面向：以空论为核心的中观，突出强调十二因缘中“识”的关键作用的唯识论，和主张人人都可以成佛的真常之教。

佛陀以后最伟大的哲学家龙树对空的论述叫“空论”，他提出“诸经一相”，十二因缘诸环节中的共同性“一相”就是空。空论证明的是世界和个别自我都是不真实的，最后的真实是不可言说的。用空论观点看问题，也叫“中论”“中观”，“中”就是破除并离开一切事物的两种极端的偏见。

唯识论论述包括人和万物在内的现象界都是由“识”建构出来的，要理解唯识论，就要了解“八识”特别是第八识“阿赖耶识”的功能。“阿赖耶识”也称“种子识”，是储藏未来、生长万有的种子库，主宰着个别自我命运和生死轮回。在有轮回的多世修行的成佛过程中，仅讲“六人”、“六识”是不够的，还要推到含藏决定你未来的阶段。

印度大乘佛教后期还有密宗和一个真常流派，这两派都相信人人皆可成佛，两派中对汉地影响最大的是真常流派。由于道德具有可欲性，因此中国人在接受佛教时，很容易从道德的可欲性来想象佛教的修行，佛教的中国化，就是中国以道德完善为终极关怀的文化对印度佛教的再造，其主要特征是把向善的意志指向解脱。

佛教进入中国大致经历了格义、学习和重构三个阶段，最后是中国式佛教即心性论佛学的成熟和盛行。第一阶段是格义，士人一开始就是用中国文化的意义世界来理解佛教的。早期般若经的中译，常用道家和魏晋玄学的“无”和“自然”去格义佛教般若学，很容易为士人接受，但是也会造成对佛学的极大误解。道家和玄学的“无”，是与“有”相对的、客观的“无”，但是，佛学的“空”不是客观的“有”或“无”的问题，而是讲万物及自我皆无自性，它们统统是十二因缘建构起来的虚幻假象。

佛学的下一步发展是对格义佛学产生的各种歧见和流派来个大清理，正当南方东晋的六家七宗为般若学的义理争论得互不服气时，北方的后秦迎来精通般若学的大师鸠摩罗什法师入住长安，开启了长达三百余年的佛经大翻译运动，主要是翻译般若中观学的经论。此后，佛经的大翻译又转向大乘佛教的唯识论，其中最有名的译经家就是玄奘。他倡导的唯识论虽然当时影响也很大，但长远看并不成功。佛教大翻译运动的命运说明，中国人关注佛教的重点和印度不同，忠于原典的学习没有持续下去，士人最关注的焦点是用中国文化重构佛教。中国人总是从道德哲学上理解宗教，佛教要在中国广泛传播，首先就要承认人人都有儒家所说的道德心那样的佛性，主张人人皆可成佛。

第三阶段是用心性论重构印度佛教，发挥中国心性论佛教“一心”观念最有代表性、影响最大的是《大乘起信论》。《大乘起信论》将“一心”说成是真如，提出了一个非常中国式的重要观点，“一心开二门”。一心是指每个人都有“真如心”，二门是说每个人的一心都有两个门，一个是真如之门，一个是生灭之门。一心开二门的结构跟道德的结构一模一样。《大乘起信论》的出现是中国式佛教形成的标志，影响深远而巨大。

3月25日

隋唐时期佛教大盛，形成了中国佛教的八大宗派，其中最具本土特色的是天台、华严、净土、禅宗四大宗派。前三派虽然所奉行的佛教经典和修行方法有所不同，但都强化了从普遍主体来讲人人皆有佛性，个人的修行要和普遍主体合一；三派都用一心来讲佛性，使佛教的普遍主体越来越接近儒学的道德主体。

中国式佛教到禅宗才真正成熟，禅宗使心性论佛学纯粹化了，并与印度佛学区别开来。禅宗的基本教义有三点：“不依经伦”“定慧不二”“见性成佛”。禅宗认为定慧是一个东西，并且，悟是突变，不需要慢慢积累，除了顿悟，佛和众生就没有差别。

中国式佛学跟印度佛学的基本结构差别在于三点：中国心性论佛学追求的解脱更具道德性，个别主体和普遍主体分界不清，强调圆融备具，最后，在常识理性的支配下出现入世转向。

此外，禅宗的顿悟蕴含着使佛教追求来世解脱的世俗化倾向，顿悟也可以成为儒生的修身法门，使他们在现世的道德修身实践中追求天人之际的境界。“野狐禅”的故事中，“大修之人不落因果”到“大修之人不昧因果”，说的是通过修行不管你是否跳得出轮回，该死还得死，修炼是为了不迷惑因果。常识理性视死为常识，人总有一死，但是你仍可以在此世追求解脱之道。

第五讲 宋明理学与第一次文化融合

3月28日

经魏晋南北朝大分裂后，隋唐重建大一统帝国，儒学是官方意识形态。但是，由于儒学尚没有完成对佛、道的消化及融合，带来两个突出问题：儒学自身理论上的缺陷使得统一王权缺乏天道观的支持；作为社会组织力量的儒生阶层，大多是以佛教作为个人的修身工夫。中唐以后的古文运动，表面上是改变六朝以来的浮夸文风，实则是开始正视上述两大问题。

李翱写出《复性书》，力图找到使儒家本于人性的道德观与天道性命合一的途径，但仅限于儒学资源尚不能给出自圆其说的论述，不得不大量借用佛学的概念和逻辑。如何消化融合佛学，是唐儒尚未解决的问题。到了宋代，儒学发展的这两个理论难题终于被克服。

周敦颐被尊为理学的宗师，在《太极图说》中建构出儒学的自然宇宙观，“自无极而为太极”，“无极之真，二五之精，妙合而凝”。把玄道讲万物生成本于无的观念，转变为儒家的太极之动产生阴阳五行与元气妙合凝聚的万物生成及变化观，是一个常识理性框架下的宇宙自然生成论，解决了儒家道德伦理形而上本原的难题。

《通书》则解决了儒学的另一个重大命题，圣人可学。在汉代因为圣人不可学，士子最多可以修炼成为帝王服务的君子，论证了圣人可学，境界上也就高了许多。周在《通书》中以《中庸》讲“诚”为根据，规定了儒家君子的修身就是去欲，恢复人性之初的诚，达到无欲的圣人之境。周说：“圣，诚而已矣。”使儒家士子安身立命的修身养德和修齐治平的人间关怀，可以达至超越个人生命限制的天人合一的境界，克服了士人修身上的儒佛两面的困扰。

周敦颐以喜爱莲花闻名，儒生由治国平天下抱负，要在烦琐事务和功名利禄的干扰中洁身自好，除了廉洁正直外，最重要的是应有高于现实生活的修身目标。汉唐以前，这样的追求是不可想象的。

张载在常识理性的宇宙论中突出了气的观念，以打通形而上的本体与自然万物的关联。他进一步论证了气之动产生的万物，既是物质的，又是情感的。这样，就可以用气把形而上的宇宙天道与代表人的情感、道德实践活动联系在一起了。张载的气论式宇宙论比周敦颐以太极为中心的常识宇宙论更动态、更道德化。

二程兄弟对儒学的核心价值与理的关系以及修身方法做出了进一步的论证和阐发。程颢的道德哲学以“仁”为出发点，他不同意张载摆脱物欲、人心与万物相隔的看法，认为只要心合于理了，人就能“廓然而大公，内外两忘”。何为“内外两忘”？以自己的无内外之分的本性为出发点，就可以做到应外界之事物而不为物所累。

程颐则提出“性即理”这一核心观念，指出天、性、心是从三种角度看的同一之理。“一人之心即天地之心，一物之理即万物之理”，对于人来说，理就是具有道德感的人心，小我之心即是作为普遍主体的天地之心。这种理论规定了程朱理学的修身模式是“穷理尽性”，不同于周敦颐的修身“主静”，程颐强调修身要持身恭敬，通过体悟现世的人心和万物之理，达到天人合一的天理境界，这样就一下子和佛学主静修炼追求解脱区别开来了。

“理”是朱熹的道德哲学体系和修身方法的核心观念。在朱熹的理论中的理是先于万物而存在的秩序，理在气先，气将实现理，万物根据各自的理而自然生成。这是一个比“太极图说”更精致的、更符合常识的宇宙观。此外，朱熹给出了与其理论相配合的修身方法。根据先有理后有气的二元结构，与此对应的修身也分为两部分，第一部分是排除欲望，去冥想气未动时的天理世界，第二部分是格物致知，必须读书博学，触类旁通，即穷理尽性，去理解秉气所生的每一具体之物中的统一天理。汉唐儒生的修身主要是道德实践，而朱熹的修身则强调了精神境界的追求和对知识的重视，将其视为道德实践的前提，这是史无前例的。

4月3日

理学成熟以后的重要性主要表现在两方面：第一，程朱理学被定为官方意识形态后，元、明、清再也没有发生大分裂，也没有再出现汉代那样的迷信泛滥。儒生克服了儒佛两面人的困境，强化了儒生阶层的社会功能。第二，它开启了中国思想史上道德意识形态的内部争论，在常识理性所建立的道德意识形态可以有不同的模式，不同模式使得宋明理学内部分成不同的派系，不同派系之间互相争论，开启了道德意识形态不同的发展方向，同时也增强了中国文化受冲击时的应变能力。

与朱熹同时代的陆九渊提倡心即理，他认为，作为道德规范的理压根儿不是外在的，天赋予人心的不可泯灭的道德感就是理。陆指责朱熹的格物致知、穷理尽性修身方法过于“支离破碎”，而他的修身直指本心，“明心见性”。

到明代中后期，王阳明以良知作为不容置疑的出发点，他把常识理性中与天理相通的人之常情之善称为“良知”，陆九渊讲心即理，但修身方法不明确，王称“致良知”才是修身正道，批评程朱的性即理及穷理尽性的修身统统是道德哲学的歧途。

阳明认为，程朱那种主敬的“于事事物上求至善”的由外向内的格物修身工夫，完全搞错了方向，修身应该直截了当地转向内心良知，由内向外推，“知至善，惟在吾心，则求之有定向”。由此，阳明推出了心学的知行合一论，知并不在行之前，知行合一。

以常识理性为根据建构的儒学派系，可以有以常识或人之常情中的善两种正当性标准，又有由外向内和由内向外两种推导方式，两两组合，理论上共有四种可能性。除去程朱理学和陆王心学，还有理学第三系：它以人之常情道德之善为道德根据，但其道德推演方式是由外向内的，即从宇宙天地普遍的道德主体落实到个别人的道德心。

牟宗三先生通过对程颢、程颐的语录研究，发现程颢比程颐更喜欢从圆融境界和悟性出发，而弟弟则重理的知识性和秩序性。牟指出，程颢思想理念形态是“以心着性”，使心体与外在体互相激发，浑然一体，它既不同于程朱理学中的天理是“只存有不活动者”的静态的心外之理，也与阳明心学专讲道德主体的良知的一心朗见、一心伸展不同，是理学中的第三系。

程朱理学在中、日、韩三国的发展情况具有很大差异，这些差异影响到三国的近现代转型。在中国和朝鲜思想文化中，程朱理学是官方意识形态，两国都不存在两种不同的超越视野；而日本社会在程朱理学传入前，佛教和本土神道教已塑造出日本特有的超越视野，朱子学传入日本后，日本的思想文化结构中便形成具有两种超越视野的结构。因此，当十九世纪中叶面临西方现代文明冲击时，日本社会的现代转型比中国和朝鲜快速、顺利得多。

第六讲 清代思想与中国近代传统

清兵入关对中国士人思想的冲击是史无前例的。蒙元和满清对中国本土地区的征服和统治，都是以程朱理学为正当性根据，但是，汉族士人对两个新政权的整体态度却判然有别，从思想史来看，不能不说与程朱理学的普及和僵化有关。程朱理学到明代中期已陷入僵化，士子纷纷转向阳明心学，道德优越感的绝对化，使儒生在维护王朝正朔强调华夷之辨上更为执着，更为注重名节。明清之际，有不少儒生把明亡的罪责算到宋明理学头上，反思矛头直指理学自身的问题，引发思潮的巨变。

明中后期，政治秩序不断溃乱，民间士人已经认识到程朱理学的僵化和心学的空疏，令士人缺乏事功能力，难以承担治国平天下之责，他们开始反思理学及其修身方式的问题。明末清初儒生对理学的反思矛头主要指向理学的空谈心性，这个“空”，是指宋明理学中的道德形而上层面。他们认为，华夏之所以亡天下，是因为理学被佛学侵害而变了质，失去了儒学天行健、务实的特质。明中叶以后，气论哲学开始兴起，这是明清之际反思、粉碎理学形而上境界层面的理论武器。

顾炎武行万里路、读万卷书的调查研究，不仅仅是为了总结国家兴亡的知识，对他个人来说，还是反空谈的修身方式。与顾炎武的重视调查研究不同，另一种是颜元的实践主义，他年轻时也曾沉迷于理学义理，三十五岁时他认识到“思不如学，而学必以习”，在反复实践的习中完成学。总之，在明清之际出现了一批特立独行、标新立异的儒生，他们大胆实践自己认为正确的修己立人、救世报国的修身方式，一扫宋明以来虚浮讲谈的名士之风，塑造出平实典型的清儒楷模。

程朱理学对道德天理的体悟有两种途径，一个是用常识格物穷理，另一个是学习儒家经典的圣人之言；一旦打掉作为境界层面的天理世界，程朱式的体悟天理就分别落实到格物穷理和明经两方面了。先看明经，取代冥想的是用常识理性严格审视经典的真伪，由此开启了清代学界主流的考据潮流。再看格物穷理，打掉天理的境界层面后，常识理性支配下的格物穷理落到实处，士大夫对西方各种科技知识表现出极大兴趣。值得注意的是，格致的目标是理解儒学的天道，并不是像古希腊文明那种求真的求知。

明清之际对理学的批判，对理气关系上来了个颠倒，气变为第一性的，理不再是一种先验的规定万物特质及秩序的理念形态，它只是气在运行中显现出来的规律和条理，理在气中，理随气变，气不同理亦不同。

王船山通过注张载的《正蒙》来阐发自己的气论哲学，他认为，“气者，理之依也”，根本不存在游于气之外的理。用这种理随气变的必然性来看历史，正是我们今天所熟悉的进步观。船山讲的理在事中，与历史唯物主义有相通之处。

刘宗周以气论为根据，以“意”和“慎独”为核心概念，重构了心学体系和修身方法，他以具有为善去恶的“意”作为心的道德主体，取代了阳明的良知，并给出一套不同于阳明“致良知”的修身工夫，这就是“慎独”。“意也者，至善归宿之地，其为物不贰，故曰‘独’”。刘宗周的慎独修身方法，就是排除心动之后在脑袋里一闪而过的妄，在中国道德哲学中，还没有过像刘宗周那样用否定不道德（过）来定义善的。

黄宗羲论证了君臣之间跟父子间的气不一样，否定了忠孝同构，提出了一套不同于儒家传统政治伦理的设想。一理分万殊，万殊整合为一理，周流一气的公共之理分为万殊，散到千百家中的个人，所有人的欲望合成为一个公共之理，个人感知的是非都指向这个公共之理。在《明夷待访录》中黄以职责分工来谈君臣关系，并提出了一套监督公权利的制度设计，反对皇帝家天下，以绅士公议来限制君权，这些都是空前的、有建设性的理论创新。

戴震气论的要点是强调分理，否定普遍之理，天道只是个名而已。和船山一样，戴认为只有佛老思想才强调存在一个寂然不动的普遍天理，这是他们共同反对的，所谓的普遍之理，只是一个个具体之理的抽象名词而已。而每个人内心都认同的理，就是义；怕就怕把伦理规则当做一种固定不变的意见去宰制百姓。他说，道的本义是行，气化流行，生生不息就是道；天理与人情相通，从个人的情感可以得到天理。我们称戴震哲学为常识具体主义，在中国儒学史和中国思想的现代转型中，这一思维模式极为重要。

二十世纪新文化运动中，胡适“礼的自由化”与戴震哲学的常识具体主义一脉相承，一方面，揭示了理学以理杀人的逻辑，另一方面，为儒家伦理的现代转型开辟了道路。戴震哲学成为二十世纪中国式自由主义的本土资源，在中国思想史上可以看到这样一种现象：只要深感普遍之理的压迫，就会倾向常识具体主义，并不需要师承。

 

THE LIST, by Sarah Stillman

这篇纪实把我们的视角拉到一个也许略有耳闻但却不会刻意关注的角落，青少年犯罪/罪犯。美国大部分州的司法系统中都有一个数据库，上面登记了因侵犯未成年而留下案底的罪犯信息，这个公开的数据库里，不仅有成年人，还有很多未成年人。通常，这个记录会伴随他们长达二十年之久，远远长于他们服刑（或者“劳教”）的期限，也因此对他们的未来之路产生了不可逆转的影响。本文以一种类纪录片式的手法，穿插在三个主要人物（Leah DuBuc，Patty Wetterling，Anthony Metts）中间，为我们生动而深刻地刻画了他们的切身经历和感受，抛出了对该数据库系统（The List）的疑问，是一篇冷静而极富人文关怀的纪录范本。

Leah DuBuc 只是众多被登记在 Public Sex Offender Registry Web 中的一个，她和很多人一样，因为在未成年时所犯下的“错误”，就被贴上了这样一个标签，“CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONDUCT”。作者走访了许多这样的案例：“In Charlie Roberts’s living room, not far from Paris, Texas, I learned how, at the age of ten, Roberts had pulled down the pants of a male classmate at her public elementary school. She was prosecuted for ‘indecency with a child’, and added to the state’s online offender database for the next ten years.” 不仅如此，Charlie 每晚六点后不得离开家门，不能随意离开自己的 county，或者亲近任何“minority children”。作者也采访了这个案件的受害人，“he was shocked to learn of Roberts’s fate. He described the playground offense as an act of ‘public humiliation, instead of a sexual act’ — a harmful prank, but hardly a sex crime.” 类似这样的事例不胜枚举，在弗吉尼亚，一名十七岁的高中生因向他的女朋友发 sexual video 而受到指控（“manufacturing and distributing child pornography”）。在北卡罗来纳，“a sixteen-year old girl faced multiple felony charges for ‘sexting’ a picture of herself to her boyfriend.” 随之而来的就是定罪和被迫离开自己的家，到“少管所”呆上好几年，出来之后面临着种种难题：“Homelessness; getting fired from jobs; taking jobs below minimum wage, with predatory employers; not being able to provide for your kids; losing your kids; relationship problems; deep inner problems connecting with people; deep depression and hopelessness; this fear of your own name; the terror of being Googled.”

Leah DuBuc 在她十二岁的时候被送到了位于伊利诺伊州 Manteno的一家 residential juvenile-sex-offender treatment facility，叫作 Indian Oak Academy。“She was the youngest child in her program … Many of the girls there were sixteen or seventeen, with histories of trauma that surfaces as rage. The older girls … verbally and physically abused one another, and occasionally her.” 作者介绍说，“The program borrowed heavily from addition theory. ‘Your identity is you’re a sex offender’ … They’d never be cured, but they could learn to refrain from harming people in the future.” 也许对另一类人来说，在少管所里接受“再造”是逃离“turbulent home life” 再好不过的方式，但在 Elizabeth Letourneau 教授（约翰霍普金斯大学 Moore Center of the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse 中心主任）眼中，“this idea that a ten-year-old kid who does something sexually inappropriate needs residential treatment is completely insane.” 伊丽莎白教授指出，“most youths who are charged with a sex offense don’t reoffend sexually. The motives behind their crimes, too, are different from those of most adults who sexually offend.” 而且让人更加担忧的是，这些“少年再教育机构”的资质和管理良莠不齐，作者说，“in some parts of the country, I found a cottage industry of court-authorized but poorly regulated therapy providers subjecting kids and teens to widely debunked technologies. Juveniles undergoing treatment of sex offenses have been exposed to severe verbal abuse, beatings, and even sexual predation at residential facilities. Not a few people have been placed in dubious but costly treatment programs for actions that many believe should never have been placed in the first place.”

这类青少年案件中还有一类叫作“Romeo and Juliet case”，即和未成年间的 consensual relationship，Anthony Metts 在二十一岁的时候因此而被判了十年的察看（probation）。“For the next decade, he’d be barred from alcohol and the Internet; from entering the vicinity of schools, parks, bus stops, malls, and movie theaters; from living within a thousand feet of a ‘child-safety zone’. A mugshot of his curly-haired, round-cheeked face would appear for life on the Texas sex-offender registry, beside the phrase ‘Sexual Assault of Child’. And he would have to start sex-offender treatment.” 这个“治疗计划”的内容是常人难以想象的：“He was told to write up a detailed sexual history, and then to discuss it with a room full of adults, some of whom had repeatedly committed child assaults. On his first day of class, he recalls, he entered a group circle beside a dentist who had violated several patients while they were under anesthesia. To graduate, he would have to narrate his ‘assaults’ in detail: “How many buttons on her shirt did you unbutton?’” 不仅如此， 一种叫作PPG的技术还被用在他身上，“According to documents provided by the state of Texas, the PPG … is a ‘sophisticated computerized instrument capable of measuring slight changes in the circumference of the penis’.” 这种技术在上个世纪五十年代由捷克的一个 sexologist 发明，起初被用来检测那些假冒成同性恋从而可以不用参军的人们。美国的许多州都明令禁止使用PPG。Anthony 需要定期参加这个“检查”，每一次花费两百美元。

Anthony 经历了几次被炒鱿鱼之后，在德州米德兰市的油田找了一份工作，2006年他与当地一位警长的女儿相爱，很快他们就结婚并且生下一个女儿，一切似乎都向好的发现发展。但是，“it also introduced him to a troubling new aspect of his life on the registry. Metts, then twenty-four, learned that he wouldn’t be allowed to see his daughter. His status banned him from living with her, and thus with his wife.” 这只是厄运的开始，他后来被强制在脚踝上栓一个 bracelet，“administered by a private monitoring company that charged several hundred dollars a month. The device would notify the authorities of any infractions  — stepping too close to a mall, park, bar, or church, or leaving the county without permission.” 经历了一段徘徊和挣扎之后，在经济和精神的双重压力下，他决定与妻子离婚。十年“察看”期的最后一年，在一个五月的阳光午后和朋友的家庭聚会里，由于忘了给 bracelet 及时充电被 probation officer 发现，Anthony 被再次送上法庭，“The prosecutor pushed for two years in prison, arguing that the long list of Metts’s technical infraction was ‘not just a fluke … not just ‘Oops, I messed up.” Metts’s attorney urged alternatives that would be less costly for taxpayers. None of Metts’s violations, he noted, had any connection to the original charge of sexual assaults of a child. A typical mistake was failing to charge his ankle bracelet’s battery. The judge took some time to think it over. The next morning, she sentenced Metts to ten years in prison.”

让我们把视线再拉回到 Leah DuBuc 身上，从 Indian Oaks 出来后，她考取了当地一所大学，开始了新的生活。然而与此同时，她被密歇根执法机构告知自己须在一个 online registry 上注册，每年登记自己的详细信息，而且在满十八岁后，这些信息将在网上公开。她自己后来写道，“This is where my life became a living hell all over again.” 在学校里， 尽管是一名经常拿到奖学金的好学生，她还是遭受到了这样或那样的不公对待，有一天上课回到宿舍，她在门上发现一张字条，上面写着“We know you’re a sex offender. GET OUT OF OUR ROOM.” 第一个学期的寒假，她的男朋友邀请她去他另一个镇子上的家作客，她答应了，但是按照规定 Leah 需要在那个镇上的警局登记。在 Brighton Police Post，当她在前台告诉 trooper 说她是一名 registered sexual offender 时，得到的回应是，“We don’t serve your kind here. You better leave before I take you out back and shoot you myself.”

这一切并没有击垮 Leah，意识到自己无法回避 public registry 之后，她决定开始研究她，以自己的努力设法对这个系统做出一点改变。她开始在网上写自己的故事，写信给当地的立法人员为她和很多与她有相似经历的人请愿。这些并没有收到太多实质的成效，2008年硕士毕业后，她的 sexual offender 身份使得找到一份像样工作的可能性依旧是微乎其微。最终，她决定离开美国。

作者在去年七月亲自去了一趟德州米德兰市，想要找到那位在 Anthony Metts 案件中的“受害女孩”，当然，她现在早已经长大成人了。“Having no luck with doorbells, I left notes, and two days later I got a call from one of them. ‘I never wanted Anthony to be prosecuted,’ she told me. ‘It was a consensual relationship — the kind when you’re young and you’re stupid. My mom knew about it. We’d go on dates, drive around, hang out.’ She was shocked to learn of Metts’s fate: his nine-plus years of probation, his current decade of incarceration. ‘I told [law enforcement] that I didn’t feel like he should have to be prosecuted,’ she said.”

作者在过去的两年里也定期和 Metts 本人保持通话联系，这一次她也专门前去探望他。几经辗转，Metts 已经被安置在德州东部非常偏远的一所监狱。说起他们见面的过程，作者写道，“‘I thought, by the time we finally met, we’d be on the rooftop at the Hilton,’ he said, laughing halfheartedly. For most of the next four hours, he spoke of how he planned to get through the coming decade. ‘In my mind, I don’t live here,’ he told me. He spends his days reading business and life-style magazines and making plans to return to his daughter, who is now eight. ‘I look forward to being the dad she deserves, the dad I feel I am,’ he said. ‘I miss reading her stories. Getting doughnuts with her, helping her with her homework, brushing her hair. Everything. Everything.’”

后来 Leah DuBuc 去了日本，那里和几乎任何除了美国的其他国家一样，没有网上数据库。Leah 在那里教英文，并不久遇见了一个叫做 Kimo 的菲律宾男人。他们不久后在印度班加罗尔完婚，又返回日本，在那里他们的儿子降生。直到有一天，“she received a flurry of Facebook messages from Sharon Denniston, her juvenile advocate in Michigan. Denniston had been pushing the legislative reforms that DuBuc had helped promote. ‘Be sure you are sitting down,’ she wrote. ‘Juveniles that were less than 14 at the time of their offense will be straight out removed from the registry: no hearing, no court visit, no paperwork to fill out!’” 作者并没有描写 Leah 当时的具体反应，她只说，“DuBuc decided to take her family home.”

Interview with Leong Po-chih

Yang’s compositions were filled with windows and doorways, and he used long shots. His was a different film language from Hong Kong’s preference for quick cuts and close-ups, which reflected the city’s claustrophobia and emotional intensity.

He gave equal weight to all his characters. There was tremendous detail in every frame. You almost have to be an engineer to work that out. Everything has to be in the right place. He also paid a lot of attention to soundtrack … He may have been the first in Taiwan to push the boundaries in sounds.

There is a bit of Edward in the little boy Yang Yang in Yi Yi. His curiosity about everything meant that he sometimes saw the world through a child’s eye. There are also aspects of him in the paternal role of NJ. The last scene in Yi Yi where the boy reads his diary to his deceased grandma – that is Edward speaking.

Interview with Du Tuu-chih

Once Yang and I traveled up to Yang Ming Shan in the middle of the night to record some sounds. It took us a long time, just to complete one thing. Many directors would just go home right after filming wrapped up for the day.

Yang was also an aficionado in classical music. Word has it that Yang’s father used to make him stay home just to listen to classical music. Listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, he could tell which string quartet was playing it. Yang even re-scored Four Seasons for the soundtrack of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Boys from Fengkuei (1983).

Once, we were in Australia for sound mixing. I had flown in from Taipei and Yang from Europe. We sat at Sydney harbor reflecting on the circumstances that had gotten us there, how the two of us had each traveled halfway across the world to a foreign country to work on our passion together and how it was films that had given us a chance to be there.

Interview with Chen Po-wen

Yang often told me that he was happiest when overseeing editing because it was so much easier to achieve a desired effect or fix a problem on the editing table than to control a team or the variables on a shoot. Every time after a painful film shoot, he would look forward to the editing process tremendously, because that was where he could enjoy himself.

Especially with the use of music, Yang was especially sensitive and he had a great musical background. For example in the scene of the concert at Sun Yat Sen Hall in A Brighter Summer Day, there was an undercurrent of dramatic events happening during Cat’s performance with the band. If you do not have a certain sensitivity to music, it would be very difficult to bring out the essence of the scene. To the audience watching the scene, everything appears very natural and smooth, but during the editing process, you have to perfectly match musical cues and dialogue, and you can’t achieve that without a precise and intuitive sense of rhythm.

All his films were expressions of himself. Society, politics, friendship, feelings, they were all filtered through his subjective consciousness, and were expressions of what he felt in his heart … The unique way in which he approached the subject matter for his films was something rarely attempted by other Taiwanese directors. Before Yang, no other Taiwanese directors got international recognition for exploring urban themes this way. Yang changed after he had a child. Previously he had very cynical worldview and a harsh opinion of society … But after he had child, he changed, and in Yi Yi he presented a more compassionate viewpoint of humanity.

Yang did not deliberately use long shots, but there were examples of long shots in his films. However his use of long shots were different from other directors. There were a lot of movement in his long shots and they were not static. Whether it was the camera movement itself or the movement of the characters within the scene, his long shots were seldom quiet and contemplative.

Interview with Angelika Wang

He really enjoyed communicating with young people and to nurture them. He never treated us like kids but as equals, listening to our views with real interest. He talked to us about all sorts of ideas and topics. But he distanced himself from the public and from a lot of people in the trade. He was very close to his mother, so he was extremely understanding and sensitive to female mentality and sensibility. Ming, the female protagonist in Brighter in some ways mirrors Yang – she has a soft, tender side, but also has the spunk of love and hate passionately.

In 2005, Yang and Hou were both invited to Cannes Film Festival – the former as the head of the jury for short film competition and the latter for Three Times which was in competition for the Palme d’Or. When they met they hugged each other after having drifted apart for a long time. It was a moving moment to behold, and it was also the last time I saw Yang.

Interview with Wei De-sheng

He didn’t like to talk to his cast or crew about small, dry technical details. He only expounded on ideas and values about the nation, culture, literature, politics. Yet, why do the same actors who earned awards for appearing in his works often fail to achieve the same results in other people’s productions? It was owing to the ambiance Yang cultivated to lend the roles exceptional credibility … he strained to build perfects sets that would allow the cast to come immersed the film’s fictional world.

Interview with Chen Yi-wen

An amusing case was a car scene in Yi Yi. The protagonist NJ was supposed to be driving his family home from a banquet. It was a short scene, with no dialogue. The scene was reshot four times. At the first reshoot, Wu noticed that the actress playing his wife had been changed. Next time, he peered over his shoulder and found the girl playing his daughter was someone else.

Yang allowed me to see what it means to be a serious filmmaker. I learned that there is a time for seriousness whatever filmmaking conditions you face.

Interview with Chiang Hsiu-chiung

If you studied Yang’s characters, you see him in each of them. Even in the role of Yang Yang, you can see traces of Yang’s personality, as if he was talking through the boy. The only exception was with Wu Nien-jen. He trusted him so much he let him revise his own lines. Wu understood Yang so well he could express his intentions even better than in Yang’s own words, especially when the dialogue required Taiwanese dialect, with which Wu really eloquent.

Of course, we belong to different eras, but I’d spent so much time and effort probing his mind and trying to see with his eyes that I internalized some of this thoughts … I often relive the moments of Yang’s career and picture what he went through and tell myself whatever difficulty or setback I face is nothing. He is someone who devoted himself almost entirely to his films. What inspired me most about both Yang and Hou was their unshakable determination to get things perfect. Yang would re-shoot from scratch even after crank-out. I deeply admire the scope and dimension of Yang’s cinema.

The Martyrdom of an Idealist: Death in the Films of Edward Yang, by Ryan Cheng

From the advent of A Confucian Confusion, there is a palpable change in Yang’s films. “Everything we can see with our eyes, there must still be another brand new perspective awaiting our discovery … … There are signs everywhere hinting at us, that we can live more blissfully with hope anew! To conquer hypocrisy is not about dying in the literal sense, but to live on with real honesty.” Spoken by the Secluded Poet (Hung Hung), these large chunks of soliloquy are presented without a single edit, with no concern at all for the audience’s ability to digest them. Through a seemingly unexpected, fragmented and nonsensical euphoric expression, Yang had proclaimed the new and sudden realization of his personal beliefs. No matter how complex, contradictory and absurd, he would have enough strength to go on till the end. And this is what the three-hour long Yi Yi painstakingly tells us.

The Blood of Youth, by Wen Tien-hsiang

Yang’s high regard for youth as a paragon of innocence and idealism was one of the ways in which he would inspect and question a time and a society. It is Yang’s courage to dabble in such “confucian confusion” that made him a director of paramount moral speculation in the history of Taiwanese cinema.

THE GOLDEN GENERATION, by Jiayang Fan

从文章作者的名字就看得出来，这是一篇讲述亚裔的文章。果不其然，文章的切入点是温哥华的一场真人秀节目：Ultra Rich Asian Girls of Vancouver. 作者以一个旁观者兼朋友的口吻对参加这场秀的几个女孩进行了记录。这个题材，很像《纽约客》杂志早在1940年代 Rebecca Ross 对美国的一个选美比赛的纪实。

作者是这样像读者介绍“富二代”这个词的，“The children of wealthy Chinese are know as fuerdai, which means ‘rich second generation.’ In a culture where poverty and thrift were long the norm, their extravagances have become notorious.” 她进一步分析道，“Contempt for the nouveau riche is hardly limited in China, but the Chinese version is distinctive. Thanks to the legacy of Communism, almost all wealth is new wealth. there are no old aristorcracies to emulate, no templates for how to spend.”

很多文章里描述的事情和现象对我们国人来说已经不是什么新鲜事，像把子女送到海外，在加拿大挥金买房等的背后原因，也都花笔墨点到了。“Yan has coined the term ‘hedge city’ for places like Vancouver; they are a hedge against volatility at home.” 同时她也说，“This is the first time that China’s rich have sought to emigrate in significant numbers. For thousand of years, the ruling class was proudly isolationist.”

在过去的六年里，温哥华single-family 的房价涨了75%，但是居民的人均收入却丝毫未动，这也引起了些当地人的不满情绪。“The city has become a hotel … I think any country should be against that because you’re not buying the best people. They don’t invest in their country. There’s no belonging. But it’s a worldwide trend. It’s happening in England. It’s happening in France, It’s happening in Australia. Everywhere.”

文章里也提到了“富二代”们自己努力奋斗的一面，并不是人人都坐在父辈的财产上，“My daddy doesn’t want me to kill the company he has worked so hard to build. He told me, ‘If you don’t have the ability to take over, it’s better for you to collect a monthly income and give the reins to someone else.’” 和上一代比起来，这群年轻人拥有了许多同时也失去了不少，一位参赛选手告诉作者，“I lack my parents’ Chinese business know-how. Westerners are about being straightforward and direct. But, when you negotiate a deal in China, it’s all about what’s unsaid, simultaneously hiding and hinting at what you really want. In China, I’m treated like a naive child, and sometimes I feel like an alien.”

THE DIGITAL DIRT, by Nicholas Schmidle

Harvey Levin 是一个名叫TMZ的网站的老板和创始人，这个网站可来头不小，它自2005年创建以来，一直致力于报道名人的花边信息，想必好莱坞半数以上的明星们都对他们敬畏三分。Levin 被问到他的团队是如何获取那么多第一手资料的，他说，“It’s so funny to me that people ask that question. We’re a new corporation. I mean, that’s what you’r supposed to do.” 是的，TMZ 有庞大的信息源网络，包括给专门给明星打官司的律师，电视台的工作人员，法院的工作人员，航空公司的工作人员，还包括成人电影的经销商……“A former TMZ cameraman showed me expense reports that he had submitted in 2010, reflecting payments of forty or fifty dollars to various sources: to the counter girl at Beverly Hills salon, for information on Goldie Hawn; to a valet, for Pete Sampras; to a shopkeeper, for Dwight Howard; and to a writer, for Hayden Christensen. ‘Everybody rats everybody else out … That’s the beauty of TMZ.’”

Levin 是这样定义自己的这份工作的，“[my] mission, he once said, was ‘not to make celebrities look bad but to make them real.’ To Levin, the O.J.Simpson case offered a glaring example of how differently the law was applied to celebrities and to ordinary citizens” 很多时候明星在被执法时受到“特殊关照”，他们的公关团队也经常借各种机会捏造事实来美化名人的形象，Levin 对这一切都很不认同。一位前AOL高管就这样评价Levin，“Harvey believed that every celebrities was fake, and that it was his job to expose that.”

TMZ 的新闻报道讲究的是时效性，用他们自己的话说就是“prioritized speed over polish”。Steve 曾经是Linsay Lohan 公关团队中的一员，他说，“When my phone rings and it’s TMZ, I pretty much stop what I’m doing and pick it up. Not because I’m bowing to the gods at TMZ but because, when something from TMZ runs, it spreads so quickly that, if there is any inaccurate information, within five or ten minutes it’s been picked up by hundred other outlets.”

作者走访了不少曾经和Levin共事过的人，从他们的讲述中可以看出Levin的工作方式会让你十分难熬，甚至难堪。“Harvey has no problems publicly shaming you … He used to say, to all of us, ‘My fucking dogs are smarter than you!’” 其他人还说，“Dozens of current and former employees characterized the TMZ offices as an uncomfortable workplace. ‘Sex was discussed casually, as a commodity,’ another former producer said. He described employees regularly gathering around computer monitors to watch footage of celebrities having sex.” 很多在这里留下评论的人都不愿意署名，因为害怕惹怒了Levin。

文章讲到了TMZ与Justin Bieber之间的一段故事。他们曾经收到过一段视频，里面的Justin在演唱时把girl改成了nigger，Levin后来在一段访谈里提到说，他当时面临着一个很困难的决定。“You have no idea how many stories cross our desks that we don’t do.” 就像他说的，很多时候他自己也不知道确切的底线在哪里，2010年他在母校芝加哥大学法学院的一段演讲里提到，“I don’t live by hard-and-fast rules in this job. I can’t give you a rigid principle on where the line of privacy is. [I] struggled with this dilemma all the time.”

后来Levin选择没有公开这段视频，究竟是出于情感还是利益我们自然不能完全知晓。尽管没有公开，但Levin并没有完全删除这段视频，“A former writer for TMZ told me that, for Levin, there was more to gain by sitting on the clip, and earning Bieber’s good will, than by running it and ruining his career.”

COVER STORY, by Elif Batuman

本文和前几期的记述实录口吻不一样，是作者以第一人称写的亲身经历，因此也是近几期读到的个人认为最好的一篇关于中东社会生态现状的文章。主人公来自土耳其，她一上来就提到了“开国之父”凯末尔·阿塔图尔克，并强调了他对上一代土耳其的人的深远影响：“I felt grateful to Ataturk that my parents were so well educated, that they weren’t held back by superstition or religion, that they were true scientists, who taught me how to read when I was three and never doubted that I could become a writer.” 

作为一个在美国长大的土耳其“新一代”，作者对凯末尔的情感自然不会那么深厚。本世纪伊始，正义与发展党和埃尔多安上台之后，伊斯兰主义者逐渐开始在民意和舆论上占据上风：“Suddenly, it was the secularists who seemed stodgy: racist, authoritarian, elitist, and slavishly pro-Western.”。在某种程度上，作者是认同他们的部分主张的。研究土耳其的专家珍妮·怀特就认为，“In the A.K.P.-sympathetic world view, the Ottomans, who Kemalists had blamed for selling Turkey to the British, enjoyed a vogue as models of enlightened Muslim multiculturalism.” 作者自己也说，“To me, as to most Americans, it seemed a tiny bit weird that nearly every public building in Turkey had a picture of Ataturk on the wall … Furthermore, when I thought about my own family, something about White’s critique of Kemalism felt familiar … Kemalism, not unlike Zionism, drew much of its energy from the fact that there could easily have been no Turkish state.” 

转折发生在2010年，这一年作者搬回到伊斯坦布尔，在一所大学里任教（并开始为《纽约客》撰稿）。她开始亲身体验到这个国家里两大族群的对立，这“white Turks” 和 “black Turks” 之间的对立之深刻和尖锐是作者始料未及的。比方说他的父母其实分别来自这两个族群，但在她成长的经历中并没有发现有任何问题，“my father had written the essay in praise of Ataturk in his high-school yearbook, his sisters were pro-choice, none of the women in his family wore head scarves except to do housework, and I had never heard any of them express the remotest hint of nostalgia for the Ottoman past.” 然而今天，在伊斯坦布尔，作者开始告诫自己任何行为和言语都要小心，小心被人们贴上 “Islamophobe” 标签。 

从这里，本文的主角——头巾（Cover）开始进入我们的视野了。作者从她乘出租车的经历开始讲起，说到很多穆斯林司机都乐意花时间跟她讲明戴头巾其实是一件多么好的事情。“I usually didn’t reply, especially if the driver seemed at all excitable, because when those drivers started to argue they would stop watching the road …” 不过终于有一次她还是开口了，“I think all women should be respected. It shouldn’t depend on their hair.” 

接下来的对话是这样的，想必也是作者之前从未预想到的：

“The driver replied that I was absolutely right, that of course women should be respected, and that the head scarf was the best way for women to remind men of this necessity for respect. Men, after all, were worse than women: they could sometimes forget themselves, and then unfortunate things could happen, ‘even’ — he said in a hushed voice, adding that he didn’t like to mention such things in front of me — ‘even rape.’

I relied, in my simplistic Turkish, that to me this sounded like a threat: either cover your head or rape can happen. The driver protested in ornate phrases that nobody was threatening anyone, that to speak of threats in this situation was unfitting, that he could tell from my smiling face that I was a good and trusting person, but that the world was an imperfect place, that some men were less like humans than like animals and that it was best to send clear signals about what one was or wasn’t looking for.” 

这还是大城市伊斯坦布尔，后来作者来到安纳托利亚的一个古城Urfa，那里人们的观念自然更加保守：“I seemed to be the only unaccompanied woman at my hotel. When I told the clerk I was staying for six days, he almost had a heart attack. ‘Six days?’ he repeated. ‘All by yourself?’ … All the time I was in Urfa, whenever I saw any member of the hotel staff in the halls or the lobby, I always received the same greeting: ‘Oh, you’re still there?’” 不止是在酒店里，打车，吃饭，基本的衣食住行，独身在Urfa的作者处处遭遇着不便和别人奇怪的眼神。

作者经常去一个当地的古堡躲避酷暑，由于女性需要戴头巾方可进入，她不得不买了一条。“One day, when I had been visiting Abraham’s cave, I forgot to take the scarf off. Walking back through the park, I almost immediately felt that something was different. I passed two beautiful young women in scarves, walking arm-in-arm and laughing about something. When I looked at them, they looked right back into my face and met my eyes, still smiling, as if we were all in the presence of a great joke. I realized that no young women had my my eyes or smiled at me in Urfa till then.”

自那之后作者便开始暗暗比较戴头巾与不戴之间的微妙差别，人们对待她的态度果然好转了不止一点。渐渐地，她开始觉得，自己戴上头巾，或许更多地是表示自己对这里人们的友善和尊重吧。她还把头巾跟高跟鞋作比：“High heels were painful, and, for me at least, expensive, because they made walking more difficult and I ended up talking more taxis. Yet there were many times when I wore heels to work-related events in New York, specifically because I felt it made people treat me with more consideration. Why, then, would I refuse to wear a head scarf, which brought a similar benefit of social acceptance, without the disadvantage of impending my ability to stand or walk?” 这微妙的心态变化，后来甚至发展到在离开酒店时，作者一想到是否要摘掉头巾就心头涌上一种难以言清的背叛之感。她感到自己如果执意去做，反倒对那些把她当做亲姐妹的人们是一种伤害。她也开始扪心自问，“now a glimmer appeared before me of a totally different way of being than any I had imagined, a life with clear rules and duties you followed, in exchange for which you were respected and honored and safe … You didn’t have to worry about your social value was irrevocably tied to your sexual value. You had less freedom, true. But what was so great about freedom? What was so great about being journalist and going around being a pain in everyone’s ass …”

后来让作者彻底想通了的是在读了法国作家米歇尔·维勒贝克极具争议的畅销小说《Submission》之后，小说里构建了一个在未来由伊斯兰统治的乌托邦式的世界，“He portrays Islam not as a depersonalized creeping menace, or as an ideological last resort to which those disenfranchised by the West may be ‘vulnerable’, but as a system of beliefs that is enormously appealing to many people, many of whom have other options.” 作者说，“It’s fascinating to see how Houellebecq rises to the challenge of making female domestic enslavement seem palatable in the novel, not just to the Islamo-curious Francois but also, to some extent, to the women of France.” 比方说，小说前半部分提到了主人公的两位前任女友，她们那时已经四十岁了，事业成功却依旧独身，“these scenes suggest, not implausibly, gthat the penalties of aging, and the psychic toll of dating and singleness, are even harder for women than for men … they aren’t really balanced out by the joys of a career in.” 后来小说里也写道主人公的一位前同事，她刚从学校隐退回归家庭，“To see her bustling around the kitchen in an apron bearing the humorous phrase … it was hard to believe that just days ago she’d been leading doctoral seminar on the altogether unusual circumstances surrounding Balzac’s corrections to the proofs of Beatrix.” 书中的这个 Islamic regime，但凡有些姿色的女性，似乎都生活在童年中。“Obviously they had no autonomy, but as they say in English, fuck autonomy.”

这一切让作者感到一种难以说清的不适，她自那以后便再也没有披上头巾。

THE BOUVIER AFFAIR, by Sam Knight

这篇文章是对前不久曾轰动一时的艺术品交易界里的“巨额诈骗案”的全程纪实。故事的两个主角分别是法国商人/中间人布维耶，和他服务的“老板”，俄罗斯大亨雷波洛列夫。文章不短，但却十分精彩，引人入胜，读来一点不输悬疑小说。一上来作者便花了大幅笔墨介绍了这个神秘，精明，而又十分能干的法国人布维耶，让人误以为这不过又是一篇揭露贵圈内幕的小文。然而翻到第三页，我们才发现故事其实有另一个主角：“Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch, first met Bouvier in August, 2002, during a visit to the Geneva Freeport to pick up a painting by Marc Chagall.” 之后的故事还是看原文才能够体味全貌了。

SEEDS OF PEACE, by David Remnick

“中东聚焦”这周的主人公是巴勒斯坦（某运动组织）的领袖 Ayman Odeh，他是新一代的运动人士的代表，“He is now a middle-aged politician in a suit, legislator preaching the coexistence of Arab and Jew in a time of dashed hopes, almost daily acts of terror, and regional chaos.” 这篇文章让人印象深刻的是对于运动洪流之中个人境遇的描摹，战乱和纷争放在历史的微观视角中，总归不过是身边的和切肤的事情。Ayman 的小舅子（妻子的弟弟） Asel Asleh 在2000年的一场游行中被以色列警官击毙，这场变故也彻底改变了 Ayman 妻子（Nardin）对政治和革命的态度。“after my brother was killed, politics felt so hopeless. It was no longer just a matter of homeland or refugee; it was personal. What the hell can you do anymore?” 她接着说，“Asel’s death ruined our lives. My parents never got over it, and neither did I. In a way, I lost my parents.” 

作者和 Ayman 一家（他们有三个可爱的孩子）在海法的一家餐厅里谈论了上述这些，文章借 Ayman 的热血和坚持与 Nardin 的顾虑和犹疑，刻画了一个（相信是非常典型的）巴以地区的家庭。Nardin 继续说，“When you deal with politics, you are always hopeful about results, I suppose. But when your brother is killed like that it breaks you. I have no energy for politics, not the way Ayman does. I’m not encouraged — maybe that’s the right word.”

让我们再回到主人公 Ayman，她妻子说他是一个典型的乐观主义者，（现任领袖）阿巴斯说他是“the wisest man of his generation”，他自己则说，“I am not some intellectual hoping to be understood a century from now. I am a political leader. I have to stand in front of my community. If I am a metre too far out in front of people, I’ll lose them.” 在青年时期，Ayman 的“激进”思想就受到了“当局”的密切关注，他曾经三番五次遭受到恐吓和秘密审讯，那是一段非常折磨人的经历（他的父母听闻后也十分崩溃）。“I was called three more times by the Shin Bet. They never hit me. But they succeeded in two things. I isolated myself from friends — I became much more introverted. And I had the sense the Shin Bet was watching me no matter where I went. When I went to the bus station and I saw some guy in sunglasses, I just assumed he was Shin Bet.” 

对于巴勒斯坦的过去，现在，尤其是未来，作者没有议论过多，他在与阿巴斯会面的时候问他，在接下来的一年，你能在与奥巴马和内塔尼亚胡之间的谈判中取得进展吗？“Abbas smiled wearily, ‘I don’t know, but they tell me that for at least the next year its’ hopeless.’”

THE MET AND THE NOW, by Calvin Tomkins

在纽约的“博物馆圈”里，惠特尼搬迁无疑是过去一年里的大事。而在2016年，大事件自然是Met的当代艺术新馆的开张，大家也都知道，新开的地方就是惠特尼的旧址。也因为这个原因，大都会的 Department of Modern and Contemporary Art 的新部门主任，Sheena Wagstaff 成了这大半年来的明星人物。她是伦敦泰特现代美术馆 （Tate Modern）的头儿，在Met新部门扩张之际被馆长 Thomas Campbell 招致麾下。如果没有记错的话，去年年末某一期的《纽约客》就对她进行了介绍。这篇文章则更多的从Campbell 和 Met 的角度，讲了讲为什么“沉重的”大都会要迈出这一步。

Campbell 和他的前任，Philippe de Montebello 不一样，对现当代艺术有着更高的热情，Philippe 曾在言语中毫不吝啬对当前“艺术潮流”的不解（不满，甚至不屑）：“Something like ninety-nine per cent of all collectors — the rich, those who are interested and will support museums in the future — are collectors of contemporary art.” 而坎贝尔则更加积极地看待这个问题，他认为如今现当代艺术对于博物馆来讲已经到了不可或缺的地步。从办公室的装潢风格就可以窥见这两人在这一点上的不同，de Montebello  的木质家具和路易十四风格的书桌被白色的墙面和安迪·沃霍尔的画像取代。针对前任馆长所说的收藏家对当代艺术品的追捧，他自己也承认，“Of course, one of the major developments has been the capitalization of contemporary art, with huge amounts of money flowing into a market that more and more people view as an opportunity for investment and speculation. I could see that we might be going through a lot of rubbish out there, but, at the same time, I felt there was a sort of neo-Renaissance that the Met should be part of.”

其实在历史的各个节点上，“Met should be part of” 的时刻有许多。“Cluelessness about modernism goes back a long way at the Met.” 近一百年前，当印象派画作已经席卷大半个世界的时候，大都会直到1934年还未曾藏有哪怕一幅来自高更、修拉、罗素、马蒂斯、毕加索、莫迪利亚尼等大师的作品。有时这是经费的问题，大都会有多达十七个部门，所以在购置新馆藏时，摊到每个部门上的预算就十分有限。在上世纪五十年代，大都会里的抽象表现主义作品仍都屈指可数，跟随着那个年代蓬勃发展起来的倒是摄影部门，原因自然还是钱：“Because prices for even vintage photographs remained relatively low, curators could afford to buy them without going through the Trustee Acquisitions Committee.”  

还有的时候则是人为因素了，并不是每一位领导都拥有“正确的”品味。1977年，上任馆长 de Montebello 履新之际，聘请了抽象表现主义领域的专家 Thomas Hess，但不幸的是 Thomas 仅十八个月后就病逝，接替他的 William Lieberman 显然是个退而求其次的人选，“Lieberman, who was unwilling to go after anything that he thought MOMA coveted, acquired a surprising number of figurative paintings by contemporary artists whose names do not resonate today, and whose works reside in the basement.”

回到当下。作者在去年十一月和新晋就职的 Sheena 会了一次面，进一步聆听了她对 Met 现当代艺术部门的未来构想。今年三月即将拉开帷幕的展览叫做 “Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible”，囊括了从文艺复兴时期到当代五百多年间的作品。这里面既有提香，El Greco，鲁本斯，伦勃朗，委拉斯开兹，也有马内，梵高，塞尚，毕加索，波洛克，Jasper Johns，Cady Noland，Robert Gober 等人，Sheena说，“What the Met can do, and others can’t do, is bring history and life today into a new conversation … the concept of an art that was intentionally non-finito emerged during the Renaissance, to describe paintings whose technique did not conform to traditional notions of composition and “finish”. When it gets to the twentieth century, there a whole lot of other issues attached to the idea of unfinished. Does it matter that something is unfinished? Is process more important than choosing a goal?”

初来乍到的 Sheena 自然少不了听到对她质疑的声音，有人就说大都会的这个新馆至多不过是“泰特第五大道”，有人也说，从本质上讲，想要把住现当代艺术的“脉”就不是件易事。洛杉矶县艺术馆的馆长 Michael Govan 就评论道，“The language of contemporary art is always changing. Our frame of reference changes. Things are diversifying. Being an encyclopedia of anything is more and more untenable.” 说白了就还是那句老话，“you can be a museum or you can be modern, but you can’t be both.” 末尾处作者是这样作结的：

“The fact that nobody seems to know what art is anymore makes a curator’s job all the more difficult. Does anyone still subscribe to Alfred Barr’s definition of what he and his colleagues at MOMA were doing as ‘the conscientious, continuous, resolute distinction of quality from mediocrity’? Many curators would say that they do, but, as any Chelsea gallery-goer can attest, a vast amount of mediocre art is being shown these days, and some of it commands absurdly high prices at auction. The unfashionable, elitist notion of quality doesn’t really go away, and our need for museum to sift, select, and make illuminating judgments about recent art has never been more acute. The Met is taking a risk in its efforts to view modern and contemporary art through the lens of its historical collections, and vice versa, but no other museum could do it, or do it as well. At the very least, the effort should remind us that all art was contemporary once, and that, if it’s good enough, it stays that way.”

DEAD CERTAINTY, by Kathryn Schulz

准确地说这是一篇电视剧评论。所谈论的剧集便是最近在 Netflix 上非常火的真实犯罪实录《制造杀人犯》，该剧的播出在美国引发民众和舆论的一片哗然，上万人表达了对剧中人物 Steven Avery 无罪释放的请愿。作者对这一现象说出了自己的思考，文章的副标题是 “How ‘Making a Murderer’ goes wrong”。她的主要观点如下：

首先就是剧集的制作团队所持的鲜明立场（即 Steven 是无辜的），Penny Beerntsen 是 Steven 第一起案件的受害者（十八年后通过DNA证据证明其实那是误判），她拒绝了导演 Richardi 和 Demos 对她参与录制的邀请，并对作者解释道，“It was very clear from the outset that they believed Steve was innocent. I didn’t feel they were journalists seeking the truth. I felt like they had a foregone conclusion and were looking for a forum in which to express it.” 作者进一步指出，“the documentary consistently leads its viewers to the conclusion that Avery was framed by the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, and it  contains striking elisions that bolster that theory. The filmmakers minimize or leave out many aspects of Avery’s less than savory past, including multiple alleged incidents of physical and sexual violence.” “Although ‘Making a Murderer’ is structured chronologically, it fails to provide a clear time line of events, and it never answer such basic questions as when, where, and how Halbach died.”

作者在讨论中承认，导演制作剧集时的“the end justifies the means”这一思维，和警署人员在办案时滥用证据，主观臆断事实并无二致。发生在 Steven 身上的悲剧，无疑是整个司法系统失能的具体体现。作者说，“While Avery’s story is dramatic, every component of it is sadly common. Seventy-two per cent of wrongful convictions involve a mistaken eyewitness. Twenty-seven per cent involve false confessions. Nearly half involve scientific fraud or junk science. More than a third involve suppression of evidence by police.” 

这对于整个系统的反思，也是在作者看来这部剧集另一个不足之处：“it is far more concerned with vindicating wronged individuals than with fixing the system that wronged them.” “Ultimately, ‘Making a Murderer’ dos not challenge our yearning for certainty or do the difficult work of helping to foster humility. Instead, it swaps one absolute for another — and, in doing so, comes to resemble the system it seeks to correct.” 

第三点，在作者看来也是最重要的一点，指向了这类剧集的“道德性”和“同情心”：“they turned people’s private tragedies into public entertainment.” 另一部同类剧集《Serial》的受害主人公 Hae Min Lee 2014年在 Reddit 上写道，“To you listeners, its another murder mystery, crime drama, another episode of CSI. You weren’t there to see your mom crying every night … and going to court almost every day for a year seeing your mom weeping, crying, and fainting.” Steven 所涉及的前后两起案件的受害人（或家属），Penny Beerntsen 和 Halbach 一家都拒绝了参与录制，但是，“no one in such a situation has any real way to opt out. ‘Making a Murderer’ takes Halbach’s death as its subject, and footage of her family appears in almost every episode. Beerntsen, for her part, was dismayed to discover that the filmmakers had obtained a photograph of her battered face from the 1985 attack and used it without her knowledge. ‘I don’t mind looking at it, but my children should not have to relieve that.’” 作者指出这无疑也是“结果决定手段”的思维在主导制片者（甚至观众）的行为：“both creators and viewers tacitly dismiss the pain caused by such shows as collateral damage, unfortunate but unavoidable. Here, too, the end is taken to justify the means; someone else’s anguish comes to seem like a trifling price to pay for the greater cause a documentary claims to serve.”

 

刘邦的早年故事：“天命”与“民心”的制造

• 《诗·商颂·玄鸟》：天命玄鸟，降而生商。王充《论衡·奇怪篇》：儒者称圣人之生，不因人气，更禀精于天。圣人有母无父，感天而生，大约是汉代人的通识。
• 五方五色帝：青龙居于东方，赤龙居于南方，白龙居于西方，黑龙居于北方；皇帝居中央。“赤帝子斩白帝子”，其实还是“亡秦必楚”。其时，陈胜吴广、项氏叔侄、刘邦秦嘉之徒，皆以亡秦复楚为号召。

“北方有佳人”：传闻、想象与重构

• 李延年所造之新声，乃改造胡乐而成，并非所谓“淫靡之音”。蔡文姬诗云：“胡笳动兮边马鸣，孤雁归兮声嘤嘤。乐人兴兮弹琴筝，音相和兮悲且清。心吐思兮胸愤盈，欲舒气兮恐彼惊，含哀咽兮涕沾颈。”盖胡笳之音，悲凉旷远，引人涕落。
• 《李夫人传》所讲述的几个故事，很可能来自宫廷中的诸种传言。“北国有佳人”的诗，“少翁招魂”的故事，“姗姗其来迟”的歌，以及后人命名为“李夫人赋”的赋，很可能本来就与李夫人没有关系。它主要是班固对李夫人的一种认识和定位，反映的主要是班固对李夫人的想象和评判。

记忆、回忆、追忆以及谎言

• “即时性记忆”：很多诗歌，至少在最初，所表达的很可能是一种即时性的情感。我们今天面对的诸多历史文献中，相当部分的书信、诗作等文学作品，部分文书，都可能是“即时性记忆”留下来的文字。
• 事后的“回忆”：我们今天读到的历史文献中有关事件过程的大多数记载，都不是“即时性记忆”。有许多事情，我们对它们有多少回忆，取决于我们有多少机会对别人叙述他们；有些事情，我们叙述它们的次数越多，就越是不怎么记得起自己对这些事情本身的体验。
• 追忆：对回忆的强化性改写，是对故事的重构。在中国历史上，关于祖先起源的追述，都是建立在“追忆”基础之上的。追忆基本不可依赖，然而，它的魅力也就在这里。追忆使过去常青，让历史“活在”当下（如宇文所安所讨论的《江南逢李龟年》）。

“天人三策”：武帝的问题和董仲舒的回答

• “夏上忠”，就是“尊命”，秉承上意而行之，尊卑有序，便于统治；其弊，在其民“蠢而愚，乔而野，朴而不文。”“殷上敬”，即“尊神”，秉承神意而行之，使人皆知有忌惮；其弊，在鬼神泛滥，人失责任之心。“周上文”，就是“尊礼”，便于将人伦与政治、社会秩序“同构”；其弊，在于人但守其本位，渐失坦诚之心，遂致人情浇薄，信义缺失，而政治细碎，为政苛责。拯救“文弊”之法，“莫若以忠”。
• 在武帝之世，董仲舒及其学问，可能并未得到重视。“及仲舒对策，推明孔氏，抑黜百家。”这种说法，很可能是西汉后期、东汉前中期儒学逐步发展之后，后世群儒溯本求源，“追溯”到董仲舒那里才产生的。

轮台诏：帝王的忏悔

• 从这个诏书中可以见出武帝发自内心的痛悔之情，以及基本出自个人动因的、对自己错误的认识和纠正，而不仅仅是一种政治表演；也正是在这个意义上，我感受到武帝的人格力量是超乎寻常的。
• 这篇遗诏，透露出来武帝个人对生的留恋。“人固当死，慎无敢佞”，每个人都要死的，就不用花言巧语地想留在这个世界上了。话虽这么说，可是通篇遗诏里流露出来的却都是对生的留恋，对死的恐惧。“薤上露，何易晞。露晞明朝更复落，人死一去何时归。”在死亡面前，帝王与庶民罪隶同归于平等。

王莽的天子梦

• 越裳氏献雉，王莽得为安汉公；黄支国贡犀牛、越嶲江黄龙游，王莽遂得比“周公”；明堂成，加九锡；丹石出，“假皇帝”。符命是新朝立国之“合法性”根据，“帝王受命，必有德祥之符瑞”。然而，依靠符命构建的新朝“合法性”，也很容易走向其反面，成为证明其“非法性”的根据。

皇帝与天子

• 我们惊异地发现秦始皇没有“天命”的授予。他的出生和少年时代都没有任何可以表现出天命所归的异迹。在著名的琅琊台刻石中，甚至还直接指斥古之五帝三王，假借鬼神，欺骗民众：“古之五帝三王，知教不同，法度不明，假威鬼神，以欺远方，实不称名。故不久长。”
• 汉高祖刘邦自己，今本《史记》与《汉书》记载中的受上天眷顾大约不可信。其自述取天下之艰难困苦，一点见不到上天的特殊眷顾。但在另一方面，刘邦以一介布衣而有天下，又特别需要“天命”以建构其政权的“合法性”。“吾以布衣，持三尺剑取天下，此非天命乎？”明了此点，我们就可以理解王莽何以会如此亟亟于给自己制造符命了。

“三尺法”与“人主意指”

• 张汤除善于“深章党羽”、“穷治根本”之外，更为突出的是他善于舞文弄墨，罗织构陷，致人于罪。
• 做一个成功的酷吏，首要的一条，就是要善于揣摩人主之意。武帝作出尊儒的样子，张汤就聘请专治《尚书》《春秋》的博士弟子到廷尉府来，专门引用五经中的古义，作为评判疑狱的根据。帝王之意就是酷吏心目中最高的法。

奉法循理与宽仁待民

• 《史记》中司马迁描述了五个循吏的典型，没有一个“当代”（汉代）的典型。而他在《酷吏列传》里所写的酷吏，可全部是汉朝“当代”的。
• 汉初高祖惠帝时奉行黄老之术，无为而治，上下官员务在清静，为政宽厚，好官还是会有不少，但都不称之为“循吏”；到了文、景时代，朝廷重视移风易俗，推行教化，官员持身严谨正直，廉正公平，又不至于严厉，而老百姓受其影响，纷纷向慕礼教，改变自己的生活方式，社会风气因之而大变，才得以被成为“循吏”；武帝以法制治天下，不以文教为尚，故“循吏”稀少；到了宣帝时代，“以霸王道治天下”，厉行法治的同时也兼用教化，教化是达 最受重视的是能吏。

“汉家自有制度，本以霸王道杂之”

• 张敝对黄霸的批评主要有，“耕者让耕，男女异路，道不拾遗”多比较空洞，无益于真正改变社会风气，反而鼓励百姓“并行伪貌，有名亡实”，淳正朴实之风变成浇薄浮夸之风。
• 酷吏是法家中的“刻者”，他们把自己性格中阴暗、忮刻的那部分，运用到司法行政之中；循吏也不全是儒家，观黄霸施政，以儒教为表，法术为实，而且很大程度上可能是虚伪巧饰，浮夸作秀。

从“风尘三侠”和“柳毅传书”说起

• “义”字的繁体，“義”，从羊从我，本义或可释为“像我”、“与我相仿佛”，故引申为宜，相宜，即二人互相欣赏，相处相恰。将“义”付诸实践，就是“侠”。侠义道中的“义”，盖仅取其投缘的意思，并没有正义、仁爱，是小义，而不是公义，也不是天下大义，其所谓“举大事”，也在个人之得志与功业，绝不在救民于水火。
• （柳毅答洞庭君）“碧云悠悠兮，泾水东流。伤美人兮，雨泣花愁。尺书远达兮，以解君忧。哀冤果雪兮，还处其休。荷君和雅兮感甘羞，山家寂寞兮难久留。欲将辞去兮悲绸缪。”
• 在“柳毅传书”的故事里也多次提到了“义”，这里的“义”，是“应当”的意思，指“当为之事”，也是从“宜”延伸出来的。柳毅的仁与义，是可以普遍适用的，是公义，也是“大义”。

救人于厄，振人不赡

• （《史记·游侠列传》）“韩子曰：“儒以文乱法，而侠以武犯禁。”二者皆讥，而学士多称于世云。至如以术取宰相卿大夫，辅翼其世主，功名俱著于《春秋》，固无可言者。及若季次、原宪，……，死而已四百余年，而弟子志之不倦。今游侠，其行虽不轨于正义，然其言必信，其行必果，已诺必诚，……”太史公对游侠倾向于同情、肯定乃至向往，班固则明显倾向于指责、否定乃至痛恨。前者更多的时候是站在社会立场上，而班固的国家立场则非常清楚坚定。
• 太史公将侠客分为卿相豪贤之侠、布衣之侠、闾巷之侠与匹夫之侠等类型。所谓公卿豪贤之侠，是那些有权有势而心中能持天下公义的公卿贵族；布衣之侠，自己不做官，主要以救人危难、排解纠纷、主持公义著称，是比较纯粹的侠客；闾巷乡曲之侠，武断乡曲，设财役贫，交接官府，虽偶或扶危济难，并非真有仁爱之心，实际上是算不上侠义道的。
• 早期的游侠属于游士的一种，择木而栖、择主而事。换言之，游侠的黄金时代，是在战国时期，“臣各为其主用”。

以仁安人，以义正我

• 在董仲舒看来，学习、研究《春秋》的关键，是要抓住人、我二字，而其背后之精髓，则在“仁”与“义”，仁就是爱人，义就是正我。

SISTERS IN LAW, by Katherine Zoepf

凯瑟琳把焦距对往沙特这一妇女权益的荒漠之地，讲述了几位正在为女性权益奔走的律师，以及她在这个国家所看见和听到的种种，并由此引发的思考。她的描述中穿插了很多在我们（“进步的”）外人看来会很有意思的现象：沙特对 Gender Mixing 限制很严，男性在公开场合不会提及自己女性亲属的名字，餐厅里有专门的 “family section”，供女性食客就餐，但是这种限制只发生在沙特人与沙特人之间。如果其中一方是外国人，那么就完全没有问题：“A Saudi woman may ride in an Uber car driven by a man from Pakistan, and a Saudi man may have his breakfast served by a housemaid from the Philippines.”

在强奸案件中，女性受害一方（的家人）选择缄默是再常见不过的事。“Parents, fearing ruined marriage prospects, chose silence, which meant that men who had raped girls as young as eight went unpunished, and might act again.” 有一个事件是一个女学生被她的哥哥侵犯，校长打电话给母亲，“And the mother said, ‘Yes, well, better that he do it to her than that he do it to a stranger.'”

2004年始，沙特开始允许向女生开设法律专业课程。“West wondered if a fresh contingent of female attorneys would champion women’s rights. But, of the dozens of females lawyers and law graduates I spoke with on a visit to Saudi Arabia in early November, only two would admit to any interest in expanding rights for Saudi women.” 在很多具体的法律实践上对女性权利的解放进展也十分缓慢，“a Saudi woman’s testimony in court is, with few exceptions, valued at half that of a man.” 还有一种称之为 guardianship 的体系，要求成年妇女在出国或者就医前得到“监护人”的许可，“In fact, the male relative with responsibility over a Saudi woman may be her own adolescent son.”

诚然，我们确实能看到越来越多学法律的女学生，但是学法律并不意味着将来从事相关的工作：“Many of them seemed to be studying law in the same spirit of intellectual curiosity that might lead an American college student to major in classics.”

在谈及问题根源和解决方案时，与凯瑟琳交流的这几位律师都提到，“individual Saudis and local traditions, not Saudi laws, were the sources of her struggles.” 因此，要想进步，教育，观念传播，意识觉醒才是根本。

THE MOGUL OF THE MIDDLE, by Tad Friend

Adam Fogelson，四十八岁，是好莱坞新晋制片公司 STX 娱乐的主席，这是一篇关于他的小传，从制片人的角度对电影业进行了番解码。这位不折不扣的“成功人士”，曾经平步青云时被 Universal 炒掉，文中充满了他对这个行业辛辣而犀利的见解。题图底下的文字就说，“If you ask, ‘Can we make something great once or twice a year that violates a rational business model?’ the answer is no!” 又说，“seventy-five per cent of a movie’s success is due to its marketing and marketability.” 又说，“When I mentioned a number of superb films that failed at the box office, and asked whether better marketing could have saved them, [I] wouldn’t have made them in the first place.”

STX 走的是和六大制片公司不同的模式，不同于只着眼于“大片”，STX 更青睐于中等规模成本的制作（2000万到8000万美元这个区间），他的策略是，“pick the right films, spend less to make them, spend just as much to market them, and win back audiences who’d forsworn the moviegoing habit.” 但是这类生意并不好做，传统的说法就是，“you get killed in the middle”，在这个行业里，有时就是花的更多更容易赚得来钱。现在，“STX’s original model was under stress.” “To get projects under way, Fogelson had to keep squeezing the definition of a movie star.”

文章中间浅谈了一下好莱坞的发展史（插一句，有人说 “Despite its current volatility, this is the most stable business in the history of United States”），从一年每一个制片厂发两百多部电影（而从不担心没有人去电影院看）的上世纪二三十年代，到如今所有制片公司才发行一共不到两百部电影（却每一部电影都要小心翼翼地去做市场营销），作者说，“Movie theatres are no longer where we go for stories about who we are. That’s become television’s job. We go to the movies now for the same reasons that Romans went to the Colosseum: to laugh, to scream, and to cheer. 有一位制片头头告诉作者，“Movies may not have gotten better over the years, but they’ve gotten more satisfying.” 他举了《克莱默夫妇》和《哈利波特》或《指环王》系列的例子，前者的确是部好电影，但是难以在全球都有受众，后两者虽然相对来说不那么“优秀”，但却“满意度”更高。

说到好莱坞再拿手不过的“系列电影”及其背后的 “franchise” 概念，一位导演说，“every single first meeting I have on a movie, in the past two years, is not about the movie itself but about the franchise it would be starting.” 弗格森自己也说，“Sequels have become a duty – a form of storytelling that, thanks to great television, audiences have grown accustomed to.”

THE CUSTODIANS, by Ben Lerner

艺术版块里这一期关注的是惠特尼美术馆作品（文物）保存部门（conservation department）的负责人 Carol Mancusi-Ungaro 在这个领域的经历及其看法。Carol 师从前耶鲁大学美术馆的 chief conservator, Andrew Petryn，而 Andrew 本人在上世纪八十年代也是很具争议的，现任馆长对他前任在位那段时期的描述就是 “a time of aggressive over-cleaning”。他们所做的事情，概括来说就是对“受损”画作的修复，但是这种修复行为并未得到所有人的认同。早在1848年，“反修复运动”的发起人 John Rushkin 就指出，“buildings and objects must be left to decline, even die — that the ‘great glory of a building … is in its Age.'” 同时期另一位发过建筑理论家则反对这种说法，他认为修复工作 “reestablish [the building] in a finished state, which may in fact never have actually existed at any given time.”

问题并没有那么简单。造成画作“受损”失去原样的原因其实是多方面的。首先是颜料本身，二战后的美国画家早已不像中世纪的画师那样深谙颜料的奥秘，用的多是 “cheap, mass-produced materials that weren’t intended to endure — at least, not across centuries.” 很多时候，画家自己也不介意（甚至乐于接受）自己的画作随时间而腐蚀，毕加索和布拉克就是其中的例子，“they would rather let their canvases deteriorate than have them varnished, which they felt would ruin the subtle texturing of the surfaces.” 还有的时候，你甚至很难说清这是否是画家自己的主观意愿：Rothko 的一位助手曾透露他在创作时，每天一早都要准备最“新鲜”的颜料，并在搅拌的过程里加入整个鸡蛋，但研究发现，正是这加进去的鸡蛋，使得他在1967年完成，1971年展出的一幅画作问世不久便开始变色和结出奇怪的晶体。到现在也没人能解释这究竟是画家有意而为，还是无心插柳，阴错阳差。

还是 Rothko，文章提到，很多评论家将其晚期作品描述成 “monochromatic dead ends, evidence of his despair.” 但 Carol 却并不认同，“[She] felt that the subtle contrasts between the plum-colored borders, which are painted with pigments dissolved in rabbit-skin glue, and the black expanses represented a more complex range of aesthetic and emotional concerns. ‘These paintings aren’t about darkness. They are about light — about reflectance.'” 作者也说，conservation 并不简简单单是清理和“去污”，更多时候它实际上是对作品的解读。

文章还通过在惠特尼展出的 Kline 的雕塑（3D打印机制作出来的）以及 Many Oldenburg 的 “Ice Bag Scale C” （顾名思义，以冰袋为原材料）等进一步讨论了艺术作品的原创性，可复制性和复制过程（从博物馆展出的角度）。这两件作品都指向了同一个命题：“what is the status of the ‘orginal’ when the artists hand wasn’t directly involved in the fabrication of the work?” 惠特尼的 Dana Miller 说，“Plenty of works in our collection involve a split between a file and an output … we have no ‘correct’ physical work to match new iterations against.” 作者进一步指出，“What is the medium? … I increasingly felt that Kline’s medium, rather than digital files or 3-D prints, is museum conservation itself … At a time when so many artists outsource fabrication … [and] In an era when many critics speak of the rise of curation as art, … conservation is deeply curatorial, as conservators choose which aspects of a work are presented and how.”

通篇的抽象和理论大道理之后，这篇文章的结尾非常精彩，读来很像看到《The Best of Youth》或《一一》末尾处时候的感觉。故直接摘抄最后三段：

“Recently, I’ve been walking around listening to Nina Simone’s version of “Who Knows Where the Time Goes.” The recording sounds particularly beautiful, because my headphones are staticky, a false patina that interacts well with the lyrics and the grain of Simone’s voice. (“I do not count the time / for who knows where the time goes?”) Everywhere I look, I see development that’s hard to differentiate from destruction: the proliferation of Chase Bank branches; the speakeasy storefronts bearing the commodified image of the Brooklyn that preceded the Brooklyn they’re replacing, as if gentrification were restoration. I have little right to lament, Ruskin-like, the passing of “the old New York”—I’m part of the gentrification it’s fashionable for gentrifiers to lament, and one New York is always passing into another anyway. Meanwhile, ISIS continues to make its horrifying video art; I watched that video of men in Mosul destroying statues with sledgehammers while my Q train idled on the Manhattan Bridge. Oxford and Harvard archeologists are distributing thousands of 3-D cameras in Middle Eastern conflict zones, hoping to capture images that will allow them to replicate crucial artifacts once they are destroyed. In Kline’s work, I discover (or at least I project) vulnerability as well as technophilia: rather than producing works that can be shattered or lost, he is sending blueprints into the future.

I wander through the Met, which will soon take over the Whitney’s old location on the Upper East Side. I walk among the ancient sculptures that we leave fragmented and paintless even though we could try to restore the vivid polychromy they originally possessed. We refuse to undertake such restoration, however, because it would devastate the image of antiquity we’ve inherited from the Renaissance. I find that inconsistency somehow touching; I don’t want these statues to look like the loudly painted figures of the miniature-golf courses of my youth, even if they did.

In my favorite nineteenth- and twentieth-century European-painting galleries, I see van Goghs (many of his paintings ruined, say some conservators, by wax lining) and Braques (many destroyed, supposedly, by varnish), and I wonder what to make of the fact that several of the defining aesthetic experiences of my life took place in front of canvases that were merely a “false description of the thing destroyed.” At the moment, I find it enlivening rather than depressing. Spending time among the replicators has helped me become aware of what it’s easy to acknowledge intellectually but more difficult to feel: that a piece of art is mortal; that it is the work of many hands, only some of which are coeval with the artist; that time is the medium of media; that one person’s damage is another’s patina; that the present’s notion of its past and future are changeable fictions; that a museum is at sea.”

沈从文的后半生 | 张新颖

广西师范大学出版社   2014年6月

p.20

一月三十日梁思成写信告诉张兆和：“这里的气氛与城里完全两样，生活极为安定愉快。一群老朋友仍然照样的打发日子，老邓、应铨等就天天看字画，而且人人都是乐观的，怀着希望的照样工作。二哥到此，至少可以减少大部分精神上的压迫。”

p.28

在现实生活中，“我的家表面上还是如过去一样，完全一样，兆和健康而正直，孩子们极知自重自爱，我依然守在书桌边”。

p.50

八月八日这一天，沈从文在家里，天下了雨，他细致地看了院子里的向日葵、天冬草、茑萝、薄荷叶、无花果。天空如汝窑淡青，他一个一个房间走去，看着各样家具。“从这些大小家具还可重现一些消失于过去时间里的笑语，有色有色的生命。也还能重现一些天真稚气的梦，这种种，在一个普通生命中，都是不可少的，能够增加一个人生存的意义，肯定一个人的存在，也能够帮助一个人承受迎面而来的种种不幸的。可是这时节这一些东东西西，对于我竟如同毫不相干。”

p.57

一天工作结束，已是暮色苍茫。“关门时，照例还有些人想多停留停留，到把这些人送走后，独自站在午门城头上，看看暮色四合的北京城风景，百万户人家房屋栉比，房屋下种种存在，种种发展与变化，听到远处无线电播送器的杂乱歌声，和近在眼前太庙松柏林中一声勾里格嵥的黄鹂，明白我生命实完全的单独。就此也学习一大课历史，一个平凡的人在不平凡时代中的历史。很有意义。因为明白生命的隔绝，理解之无可望，那么就用这个学习理解‘自己之不可理解’，也正是一种理解。”

P.90

一直到一九七九年，我才有机会当面问沈先生。我说沈先生，我认识你的时候，简直是一个谜，你这个人完全跟你小说脱节。文字写得很美，那是文如其人，可以这么说；那些故事那么野，那么浪漫，跟别人的那么不同，又吸引人又叫人觉得新鲜，这是怎么回事？我原来以为你是一个荒唐人，就像那编荒唐故事的那种荒唐人一样，说亲身经历哪！

沈先生告诉我，他说做人要规矩，写小说要调皮，不调皮怎么能写成小说呢？说得把我心里一个从一九五三年到一九七九年这么长过程的谜解开了。

p.102

沈从文心情不错，甚至说得上是兴致勃勃，对济南的印象相当好。前后不足六天的时间，给妻子张兆和写了九封信，约一万五千字，细细地描述所闻所见所感。

到达当天，他就感受到，“济南给从北京来人印象极深的是清净。街道又干净，又清净。人极少，公共汽车从不满座，在街中心散步似的慢慢走着，十分从容。”他还特别观察了济南的“住家”：“济南住家才真像住家，和苏州差不多，静得很。如这么作事，大致一天可敌两天。有些人家门里边花木青青的，干净得无一点尘土，墙边都长了霉苔，可以从这里知道许多人生活一定相当静寂，不大受社会变化的风暴摇撼，但是一个能思索的人，极显然这种环境是有助于思索的。它是能帮助人消化一切有益的精神营养，而使一个人生命更有光辉的。”

p.104

这天晚上，他去看了场电影，印度的《流浪者》，回来约二里长的路上，碰巧又遇上医学院的学生。这些学生谈文学，谈小说技巧，“我好像是这些人的父亲一样听下去，觉得很有意思，也是一种享受。我想起三十多年前在城头上，穿了件新棉军服看年青女人情形，我那时多爱那些女人！这些人这时也许都做祖母了，我却记得她们十五六岁时影子，十分清楚。”而眼前的这些女生，他真想看看她们怎么恋爱，怎么斗气，怎么又和好。有一位“长得极美丽，说广东话，我猜想她一定是学牙医，很愿意将来在什么牙医院再见面时告她，什么什么一天她们瞎谈文学，我却一个人在瞎想。”这天晚上，他想到文学，想到过去弄文学的日子，“睡眠就被赶走了。”

在济南的最后一天，早晨起来，沈从文给妻子写信：“早上钢琴声音极好，壮丽而缠绵，平时还少听过。声音从窗口边送来，因此不免依旧带我回到一种非现实的情境中去。……琴声越来越急促，我慢慢的和一九三三年冬天坐了小船到辰河中游一样，感染到一种不可言说的气氛，或一种别的什么东西。生命似乎在澄清。”

p.107

往事可追；经历了那么多风雨变故之后，亲情虽然无从改变人生的坎坷波折，却足为动荡人生的珍贵安慰。“三姑爷来了”的喊声笑声里，沈从文想到久违的单纯的快乐。他住的地方曾是太平天国王府一小侧院，清静，无人声，有鸟鸣，有花香，他大清早拿起笔给妻子描绘庭院图，“可惜院子中一派清芬我画不出，齐白石来也画不出！”

p.124

在这样的氛围中，凡事谨慎就成了自然的反应，即便海边的清静让沈从文明线地感觉到体力和脑力的恢复，他又能写什么，又能怎么写呢？内心里，他恐怕不得不承认张兆和的批评有道理，他试写的作品其实是失败的。他跟大哥信里说：“可惜的还是写短篇的能力，一失去，想找回来，不容易……人难成而易毁……”

p.143

住院期间收到汪曾祺一封信。汪曾祺一九五八年被划为“右派”，下放到河北张家口农业科学研究所劳动改造，信正是从他劳动的张家口沙岭子寄来的。沈从文特别喜爱这个西南联大时期的学生，如今看着他身处逆境，心情可想而知，他写了一封异常鼓励的信，语重心长。以前，他曾经用过骂的方法：一九四六年汪曾祺到上海，找不到职业，情绪很坏，甚至想自杀，沈从文从北平写信把他大骂一顿，说他这样哭哭啼啼的，真是没出息。“你手中有一枝笔，怕什么！”此信不存，却在汪曾祺记忆里难以磨灭；他还记得老师同时让三姐张兆和从苏州写了一封长信来安慰。现在，“右派”分子下放劳动，可比当年一时找不到工作要严酷得多，沈从文的回信因此也大为费心。他先打了底稿，用钢笔写在练习本撕下的纸上，十二页，六七千字；从医院回家后，又用毛笔在竹纸上重写一次寄出。

p.147

“收到你五六封信，觉得有很多话要说，可一时又说不清楚。关于创作的一些经验和甘苦，你读的我觉得很对，也正是这次文艺工作会议开了二十天所要解决的问题。可是对于文艺批评家的态度，以及作为一个社会主义国家的作家对创作所采取的态度，你的一些看法我不敢苟同。我觉得你的看法不够全面，带着过多的个人情绪，这些个人情绪妨碍你看到许多值得人欢欣鼓舞的东西，惹不起你不能自已的要想表现我们社会生活的激情。你说你不是写不出，而是不愿写，被批评家吓怕了。但是文艺创作不能没有文艺批评，文艺应当容许批评，也容许反批评。百花齐放百家争鸣方针正是鼓励大家多发议论，用各种不同样式风格表现生活，文化艺术才能发展繁荣。说是人家要批评，我就不写，这是非常消极的态度。当初为寻求个人出路，你大量留着鼻血还日夜写作，如今党那样关心创作，给作家各方面的帮助鼓励，安排创作条件，你能写而不写，老是为王瑶这样的所谓批评家而嘀咕不完，我觉得你是对自己没有正确的估计。至少在创作上已信心不大，因此举足彷徨无所适从。写呢？不写？究竟为什么感到困难？不能说没有困难，创作这种复杂的活动，主观方面，客观方面原因都有，重要在于能排除困难，从创作实践中一步步来提高，不写，空发议论是留不下好作品来的。”信的最后，张兆和抄了土耳其诗人希克梅特的诗《一个死去了的广岛小姑娘》，并说，“我们应当有这样的诗人和作家（包括你在内）。写出这样作品，是人类的骄傲。你说呢？”

p.148

生命“惟转化为文字，为形象，为音符，为节奏，可望将生命某一种形式，某一种状态，凝固下来，形成生命另外一种存在和延续，通过长长的时间，通过遥遥的空间，让另一时另一地生存的人，彼此生命流注，无有阻隔。文学艺术的可贵在此。文学艺术的形成，本身也可说即充满了一种生命延长扩大的愿望。至少人类数千年来，这种挣扎方式已经成为一种习惯，得到认可”。伟大文学艺术的产生存在，“反映什么的发展，变化，矛盾，以及无可奈何的毁灭（对这种成熟良好生命毁灭的不屈、感慨或分析）。文学艺术本身也因之不断的在发展，变化，矛盾和毁灭。但是也必然有人的想象以内或想象以外的新生，也即是艺术家生命愿望最基本的希望，或下意识的追求。而且这个影响，并不是特殊的，也是常态的。……有如下事实可以证明生命流转如水的可爱处，即在百丈高楼一切现代化的某一间小小房子里，还有人读荷马或庄子，得到极大的快乐，极多的启发，甚至于不易设想的影响。

p.158

倘若写生活回忆录，沈从文设想的是用信札体或者《猎人日记》、《湘行散记》的手法，这样写起来应该会顺手——后来，我们当然知道这也是一个没有实施的计划。可是当时，这个念头让他不断回想过去生命的种种，这也是一种“温旧”；从“温旧”中总结自己的生命特征：“一面是‘成熟’，一面却也永远近于‘幼稚天真’。……放在任何情况下，支配自己生命的，不是一般社会习惯，却是一点‘理想’，理想也可以当成庸俗的迂腐的不切实际的打算看待，但究竟还是理想！”

p.207

海外却有传言，把沈从文也列于死者名单。六月九日，台湾《中央日报》刊出署名“井心”的文章，说沈从文被迫害致死。梁实秋见到这个消息，写《忆沈从文》一文悼念，但当时并未发表；一九七四年台北志文出版社出版梁实秋的《看云集》，才收了这篇文章，文末加了一九七三年在西雅图补写的一个说明：“此文写过，又不敢相信报纸的消息，故未发表。读聂华苓女士《沈从文评传》，果然好像从文尚在人间。人的生死可以随便传来传去，真是人间何世！”

p.267

沈从文一生中大概没有写过同样严厉的信。多年之后，一九七七年，他在给汪曾祺的一封信中旧事重提：“我们馆中有位‘大画家’……画法家商鞅的形象，竟带一把亮亮的刀，别在腰带间上殿议事。善意告他‘不成，秦代不会有这种刀，更不会用这种装扮上朝议政事。’这位大画家真是‘恼羞成怒’，竟指着我额部说：‘你过了时，早没有发言权了，这事我负责！’大致因为是‘文化革命’时，曾胡说我‘家中是什么裴多斐俱乐部’，有客人来，即由我女孩相陪跳舞，奏黄色唱片。害得我所有工具书和工作资料全部毁去。心中过意不去，索性来个‘一不做，二不休’，扮一回现代有典型性的‘中山狼’传奇，还以为早已踏着我的肩背上了天，料不到我一生看过了多少蠢人作的自以为聪敏的蠢事，那会把这种小人的玩意儿留在记忆中难受……”

p.308

二月七日下午，旧金山东风书店特意安排了一个沈从文与读者的见面会，时值书店举办“白先勇作品周”，白先勇得知沈从文来到了旧金山，特意从美国南部赶来，于是一老一少两个作家，联袂出现。白先勇致辞说：沈先生是他最崇敬的一位中国作家，他从小就熟悉沈先生作品中的许多栩栩如生人物。……人生短暂，艺术长存，沈先生的小说从卅年代直到现在，仍然放射着耀眼的光辉。这期间，中国经历了多大的变动，但是，艺术可以战胜一切。

p.322

短短的回乡之行，给沈从文晚年以极大安慰。他深幸自己还能重温没怎么变样的一切；同时他也清楚，变化一直在发生，且会永远变化下去，有些东西会消失，但他过去的文字保存下了一些美好：“最可惜是一条沅水主流，已无过去险滩恶浪，由桃源上达辰溪，行船多如苏州运河，用小汽轮拖一列列货船行驶，过去早晚动人风物景色，已全失去。再过一二年后，在桃源上边几十里‘武强溪’大水坝一完成，即将有四县被水淹没。四个县城是美的，最美的沅陵，就只会保留在我的文字记载中。”

p.329

朋友汪曾祺曾说过，求《边城》电影上得到成功，纯粹用现实主义方法恐不易见功，或许应照伊文恩拍《雾》的手法，镜头必须采用一种新格调，不必侧重在故事的现实性。应分当作抒情诗的安排，把一条沅水几十个大大小小码头的情景作背景，在不同气候下热闹和寂寞交替加以反映。一切作为女主角半现实半空想的印象式的重现。因为本人年龄是在半成熟的心境情绪中，对当前和未来的憧憬中进展的。而且作品的时间性极重要，是在辛亥后袁世凯称帝前，大小军阀还未形成，地方比较安定的总环境下进行的。所以不会有什么（绝不宜加入什么）军民矛盾打闹噱头发生。即涉及所谓土娼和商人关系，也是比较古典的。商人也即平民，长年在驿路上奔走，只是手边多有几个活用钱，此外和船夫通相不多。决不会是什么的吃得胖胖的都市大老板形象。掌码头的船总，在当地得人信仰敬重，身份职务一切居于调解地位，绝不是什么把头或特权阶级，这一点也值得注意。

p.334

一九八五年三月二十八日，巴金在出席政协会议前，由女儿李小林陪着来看望他，“房间还是很小，四壁图书，两三幅大幅近照，我们坐在当中，两把椅子靠得很近，使我想起一九六五年那个晚上，可是压在我们背上的包袱已经给摔掉了，代替它的是老和病。他行动不便，我比他毫不了多少。我们不容易交谈，只好请兆和作翻译，谈了些彼此的近况。”“我大约坐了不到一个小时吧，告别时我高高兴兴，没有想到这是我们最后的一面，我以后就不曾再去北京。”

p.336

在心理上，似乎也逐渐显出变化，一个表现是，他越来越容易流泪了。沈从文本来就是感情纤细敏锐的人，流泪是感情表达的一种自然方式；同时他也是个隐忍的人，他会用其他的方式来压抑、分散或者表达感情。但是随着年岁增大，流泪渐渐变得多了起来——从另一方面看，流泪所表达的东西也多了起来。

p.346

沈从文走了，她有了空闲。空下来，整理沈从文的遗稿；还有，就是重新建起一个小花园。小羊宜宾胡同的花园在狭窄的阳台上“复兴”了。她精心侍弄花花草草，给它们起名字，用的是沈从文书里那些可爱的女孩子的名字。她最心疼一盆虎耳草，来自湘西种在一个椭圆形的小小钧窑盆里；这是沈从文喜欢的草，也是《边城》里翠翠梦里采摘的草。

在我还在上大学的时候，北岛和李陀合著了一本书叫《七十年代》，当时掀起了一股“年代热”，不少像我一样的小青年很是新鲜和喜欢。后来，市面上也出现了关于其他年代的书，八十年代，九十年代，应接不暇。其实日后想来，编纂此类书并不难，在浩如烟海的短文长文里，按年份整理成一个十年的文集，实在是每个人都能做得到的事情。真正难得的，是时代本身。

在上个月，我有机会重新读了一遍《黄金时代》。距离上一次看已经有六七年，王二和陈清扬的面容却依旧清新，让人感觉不到这是多年后的故人重逢，反倒有一种穿越时空的奇妙。书中的他们活在他们的黄金时代。我无意探讨六七年对一个小青年意味着什么，读罢只是有些感慨，也许有些东西真的变不老。

手边的这本《纽约客》文集（The 40s: The Story of a Decade），精选的是杂志在四十年代的文章，按主题断章，战争，战后，风物，人物，文学，艺术，小说诗歌，等等等等。二战的爆发，改写了千千万万美国人的命运，也永久扭转了《纽约客》的“人生观”“世界观”。曼哈顿琳琳朗朗的街巷转角，纽约人自顾自潇洒不闻两耳窗外事的自在，不再是这本杂志一成不变的主题。有人说它变得更加严肃，更加关怀，但更重要的是树立了自己的风格与趣味。

这部文集厚达七百页，前半部分可谓十分惊艳（当然好书一般都虎头蛇尾）。在读的过程中我不止一次感叹，别说一本杂志，一座城池，整个世界也很难再等来一个四十年代。约翰·赫西扬名天下的《广岛》，利布林在巴黎成为空城前的生活记录，贝尔曼笔下“大轰炸（Blitz）”后的伦敦，都是难以被复制的题材。四十年代依旧作家的年代，大众传媒远未如今日繁荣，在人们还在饶有兴致地探讨着电影是不是艺术的时候，作家和文字仍然勾勒着人们的生平意趣和对世界的憧憬。

如果把这本书比作皇冠，赫西的《广岛》无疑是这顶皇冠上的明珠（数学-数论的比方仍深深刻在我脑海里），不过我也一样流连这颗明珠旁边熠熠夺目的宝石。诚然，《广岛》在立意和深度上很难被超越，文笔和感情基调也是大师水准，“好到没朋友”。但是，我感情上更钟爱利布林的《巴黎后记》（Paris Postscript），约瑟夫·米切尔的《家边的老房子》（The Old House at Home），或莉莉安·罗斯的《请进，莱西》（Come in, Lassie）这样的作品，在我看来它们是“也好也能交到朋友”的代表。

《巴黎后记》与《家边的老房子》分别是一二两章的首篇。第一章的主题是战争，驻法的利布林写的是被德军占领前的巴黎。暴风雨将至的巴黎城，人们的情感起伏，感性和理性的交织，都在利布林漫不经心的笔下，一幕一幕地展现在我们眼前。一对儿子在前线的老夫妇，作者下榻酒店里的侍应，花店里抱怨玫瑰比顾客还要多的老板娘，发布会上依然淡定实则第二天就启程离开的部长，与作者一起， 是整座城市和这段历史的见证人。我笃信，利布林在收笔的时候也已经离开了巴黎， 不然他的举重若轻，带着点淡淡忧伤浪漫却毫不深沉的笔触，在一个中国人看来， 实在是很难解释。

《家边的老房子》是一篇不折不扣的风物志，发表在四十年代初期，如果你是按绝对顺序翻阅本书的话，读到这篇你怕是会有种牛奶终于开始倒进咖啡的怡人感受。约瑟夫·米切尔是给纽约写情书的高手，我们看到的这一篇介绍的是圣马克广场（St. Mark’s Place）边上的麦克索利酒吧——纽约最古老的爱尔兰酒吧。文章的篇幅跨越了酒吧三代四位老板，一大段一大段的细致描写，让人不禁要怀疑，这究竟是作者亲眼所见，还是道听途说甚至凭空想象。当然搞清这一切实在不必要，某种意义上，读者沉浸于书本，作家迷恋于描摹过去，也许找的就是如乌托邦一样的幻影与逃离。这种寻找在四十年代我想更加珍贵吧。

《请进，莱西》是“纳什维尔派作家”（其实是我自己命名的流派，说的是擅长人物群像）的代表人物莉莉安·罗斯的作品，她写的是笼罩在“麦卡锡主义”阴云下的好莱坞片场。各路神圣在罗斯搭好的舞台上，喋喋不休，没完没了。如果让我想象，我会说罗斯一定是位身高还不到一米六并且言辞犀利的小女子，她就夹在人群之中，表情不多，却不声不吭地把我们的一言一行给记录并发表出来。一开始听她说话，你也许还会有些烦，可听着听着，其中的深意你就渐渐读懂了。

（无正文）

---

RUGGED TIMES, by Lillian Ross

莉莉安·罗斯这篇简短的与《裸者与死者》的作者诺曼·梅勒的访谈对话，作者提到了小说大获成功后自己的感受，自己早期写小说的经历，和在他看来人们对他作品的某种误解；《裸者与死者》是以二战为背景，是美国战后第一本以此为题材的长篇小说作品，曾高踞畅销排行榜数月之久。它也是当时年仅二十五岁的诺曼·梅勒的第一部发表作品。

• “Whenever I make an appearance,” he said, “I have thirty little girls crowding around asking for my autograph. I think it’s much better when people who read your book don’t know anything about you, even what you look like. I have refused to let Life photograph me. Getting you mug in the papers is one of the shameful ways of making a living, but there aren’t many ways of making a living that aren’t shameful … … “
• Mailer has an uneasy feeling that Dostoevski and Tolstoy, between them, have written everything worth writing, but he nevertheless means to go on turning out novels. He thinks The Naked and the Dead must be a failure, because of the number of misintepretations of it that he has read. “… … The book finds man corrupted, confused to the point of helplessness, but it also finds that there are limits beyond which he cannot be pushed, and it finds that even in his corruption and sickness there are yearnings for a better world.”

GOSSIP WRITER, by St. Clair McKelway

沃尔特·温切尔是《镜报》一名“八卦作家”，圣克莱尔·麦凯尔维的这篇人物小传为我们生动记述了这名性格特别的奇人。

• Winchell has written more words on the subject of friendship than any other modern gossip writer, but the people he calls his friends do not number more than seven or eight and most of these are new rather than old.
• Winchell believes, with some justification, that practically everybody reads his column every day … … A friend of Winchell’s once admitted he had not seen the column on a certain Tuesday. Winchell wanted to know with sincere concern if the friend had been ill. Another time another friend returned to New York after a trip abroad. “Jeez, Walter,” he said, “I sure did miss the column. I didn’t see it for two whole weeks.” “That’s all right,” said Winchell. “You can go over to the Mirror office tomorrow and look at the files.”

GOETHE IN HOLLYWOOD, by Janet Flanner

珍妮特·弗兰那笔下六十岁的诺贝尔文学奖得主，移民到美国来（其实是政治避难）的德国作家托马斯·曼，她简要回顾了老人的家族生平，深邃的人格，两次战争中的政治和“非政治”立场，以及到美国后的生活，没有明显的立场倾向，而是满怀着对长者的深深敬意；托马斯·曼的首部长篇小说《布登波洛克一家》在他年仅二十六岁时发表，轰动一时，讲述了一个德国家族百年兴衰史，很多人难以想象这是一个初出茅庐的小年青所作。

• It is not joke to say that the greatest study of Mann is Mann. One of his children has said it is difficult not to see his writings as “a complex of family allusions.” Unconsciously, the Mann children speak of their father as if he were an edition.
• These young Manns, already politically prescient, begged their parents not to come home because they weather was bad. Mann naively replied that the weather was bad in Switzerland, too. Erika then alluded to some terrible house-cleaning ahead. It was probably Frau Mann who realized that the weather the young Manns had described was political and that the house-cleaning might be a purging of anti-Nazis. Mann and his wife never set foot in Germany again.
• Since it was not a language he learned to read with ease when he was young, as he did French, which interests him less, Mann is today driven to revert, for his regular afternoon reading after his nap, to his favorites, the German classics. He reread Goethe’s Faust five times hand running to get himself into what he considered the correct modern equivalent of the eighteenth-century mood in which to start writing his three novels about Joseph of the Old Testaments days.
• This position, which in three years has become legendary, he acquired partly because his proud racial character has served as a magnet to a company of compatriot refugees who, sick of being ashamed of their nationality, take comfort from the pride of this German author whom they may never have seen, from this German author whose books they may never have read.

FROM WITHIN TO WITHOUT, by Geoffrey T. Hellman

杰弗里·赫尔曼写建筑师勒·柯布西耶，笔风与先前沃尔特·温切尔和艾灵顿公爵的文章很像，充满了打趣和活泼跳跃的语言。艾灵顿公爵的那篇最积极向上，看不到什么负面评价，温切尔的则是对他的“恶”已经无可奈何，而这里，赫尔曼笔下的柯布西耶，虽然讥弄嘲讽的口吻更多，但角色也因此更加丰满，读到最后你也许会开始喜欢上这位可爱的老人。而这种感情，也正和柯布西耶在离开纽约的时候对这座城市的感情一样，又恨又爱。

• He dismissed this idea when he discovered that the bandits had removed not only his money, the loss of which he was philosophical about, but also his notes and sketches, about which he was not. For a while, he toyed with the notion that his attackers might have been partisans of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, an institution whose architectural devotion to eclecticism he had derided in many articles and books, … …
• Le Corbusier rarely relaxes. His face, mobile and animated when he is speaking, is tense even in repose. He loves to talk to people he feels are responsive. His voice is low, gentle, insistent, and musical; his characteristic expression is one of the intelligent observation. He thinks about architecture, or form and color in general, most of the time. Even when he is sitting on a beach, he manages to keep busy. He examines the architectural structure of pebbles, shells, and bits of wood. They often turn up in his paintings, though sometimes in rather abstract form. His interest in food is similarly professional; he especially admires the structure of melons, in which he sees no traces of a regrettable eclecticism. He also approves of bee cells, since bees, like himself, distinguish between the wall as an insulating factor and the wall as a supporting factor.
• “This is a funny country,” he told an American friend one night recently. “Your hospitality is Draconian, and your convictions are too tied up with finance. Money is ferocious here. Your brutality turns sensitive people into Surrealists. But the country has an extra cipher in population and money — it is alive, and everything is possible in it. All life is poisoned by the disorderliness of your cities; people look like cockroaches from your skyscrapers, and, oh, the loneliness of your large crowds, the anonymity of your cafeterias! No terrasses de cafe here, where three or four friends can talk over an aperitif — not that I ever have time for this in Paris. I was astonished by the fact that Americans never climb stairs. They will lose their legs. I’m the only man here who climbs stairs two at a time. Your escalators are undignified. New York is a turntable where you meet everyone in the world. I often ride the Third Avenue ‘L’ at two in the morning, looking at all the Negresses and Chinese dead of fatigue. I like the light here. Paris is grey — it used to be white — and Zurich is greenish, but New York is a red city — the color of blood and life. Everything in it arouses both enthusiasm and disgust; it reflects God and the Devil. Its potentiality is terrific. Your sky at night is formidable. It’s terrible to soil it with General Motors and Lucky Strike publicity. The beauty of the sky should belong to the people. I like your restaurants, and the great freshness in young people here. And how can one be bored in a city in which the young women were crowns of flowers and in which the houses are red?”

THE GREAT FOREIGNER, by Niccolo Tucci

尼克·图琪的这篇可是大名鼎鼎的爱因斯坦。与前几篇不同的是，这并不是真正意义上的人物小传，而是一次对爱因斯坦家庭访问的记录。作者对爱因斯坦的了解也集中在这次拜访之中，而他和爱因斯坦本人潜在的地位“不平等”也因此传递到了我们读者眼里。当然，这并不妨碍我们进一步了解这位物理天才——尽管是从一种“类八卦”的窥探角度出发的。正如苏珊·奥尔良在导读里说的，四十年代的名人还相对活在公众视线之外，而阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦就更是如此，正因此这篇短文也格外珍贵和精彩。

• Then we spoke about dreams. Bice told us two symbolic dreams she had had years ago; I told the dream that the grandfather of a friend of mine had had the day before he died; Einstein told an absurd dream of his. He seemed the only one to find the conversation interesting, which it was not.
• “In the past,” said Einstein, “when man travelled by horse, he was never alone, never away from the measure of man, because” — he laughed — “well, the horse, you might say, is a human being; it belongs to man. And you could never take a horse apart, see how it works, then put it together again, while you can do this with automobiles, trains, airplanes, bicycles. Modern man is besieged by mechanics … … You can’t elect them, you can’t control them from below; their work is not of the type that may be improved by public criticism.”
• ” … … The lack of tolerance is also connected with this, but much more with the fact that American communities were religious in their origin, and religion is by its very nature intolerant. This will also help you understand another seemingly strange contradiction. For example, you will find a far greater amount of tolerance in England than over here, where to be ‘different’ is almost a disgrace, for everyone, starting with schoolboys and up to the inhabitants of small towns. But you will find far more democracy over here than in England. That, also, is a fact.”

arty: 附庸风雅; necktie: 领带; grease: 油脂; layman: 外行; opulent:富裕的; allusion: 暗示; mon vieux: 朋友; aperitif: 开胃酒

（无正文）

---

GREEK DIARY: COMMUNISTS, SOCIALISTS, AND ROYALISTS

埃德蒙·威尔逊在希腊内战期间造访希腊，讲述了他与几位（不同政治立场的）希腊民众相处的经历，语调平实，冷静。

• He [Svolos] lived in the same world as I did, where there were difficulties, doubts, confused issues, conflicts between expediency and principle. He reminded me a little of Silone, in Rome, … … Such people are anxious and intent; they are never unnaturally cheerful.
• Nor do I mean to sneer at this. How many similar people in the United States, deprived of social standing and financial independence — which is what the Greek bourgeoisie seem menaced with as no group in America is — could be sure of being able to uphold or defend the things they have been taught to admire?

THE BIRCH LEAVES FALLING, by Rebecca West

事后得知，汉娜·阿伦特才是《纽约客》在纽伦堡审判期间的“特邀”前线记者，她的详实记述后来汇总成了一本书。而丽贝卡·韦斯特只参与了最后的两天。她以一种独特的视角切入到这场“世纪审判”中来，从旅途的不便，到沿路房屋树木的“情绪”，再到结束时大家互致告别离去的情景。她的观感相当个人化，却也难说不是众多亲历者的共同感受。在这篇文章里，丽贝卡的情绪实际上是相当浓厚和沉重的。

• It was the last two days of the Nuremburg trial that I went abroad to see. Those men who had wanted to kill me and my kind and who had nearly had their wish were to be told whether I and my kind were to kill them and why. Quite an occasion.
• Now, as the plane rose into the leaden sky, we looked down on a land that was recording, after this worst of summers, a disaster that restored one’s self-respect because it was not made by statesman or soldiers or any men at all but by nature. In the fields, sheaves that should have stood in harvest time like stocky golden girls and then been gathered were crouched and drab, like old scrubwomen, and would never know the honor of a barn. Half-finished ricks heeled over on their narrow bases. The pastures looked quite lustreless.
• Easy in my mind, I spent the afternoon walking incredulously about the city. I had always been a social failure in Berlin. Except in a few Jewish homes, I had been considered light-minded and flimsily dressed.
• The trees of Tiergarten have nearly all been destroyed. Some were burned in the raids; some were hit by Russian artillery during the battle for the city; most of the rest were cut down by the freezing population last winter. Now the great park is nothing but a vast potato patch, with here and there a row of other vegetables, and from this rise the statues, in an inappropriate prominence that is marble what embarrassed nakedness is to humanity.
• The women for whom this mansion was built lived inside their corsets as inside towers; their coiffures were almost as architectural; all their contours had to be preserved by an iron poise. The would have refused to believe that these ink-stained gypsies had, in fact, invaded their halls because they had been on the side of order against disorder, stability against incoherence.
• It seemed that when one has never seen a man, one does not find anything offensive about the idea of photographing him while he is being sentenced to death, but that if one has seen him often, the idea becomes unattractive … … I remember I did not care at all the first time I heard William Joyce sentenced to death, but that the second time I was stirred and astonished, and that the third time I knew awe … … It is is an intensification of the feeling we have in the fall, when the leaves drop. The leaves are nothing to us, but the melancholy, the apprehension grows.
• It was dispersed suddenly by the news of Goring’s suicide. A dozen emotions surprised me by their strength. The enormous clown, the sexual quiddity with the smile that was perhaps too wooden for mockery and perhaps not, had kicked the tray out of the hands of the servant who was carrying it; the glasses had flown into the air and splintered, the wine of humiliation we had intended him to drink had spilled on the floor.

THE BEAUTIFUL SPOILS: MONUMENTS MEN, by Janet Flanner

珍妮特·弗兰那对盟军一支特殊的保护艺术品的小分队的全程追踪和报道。

• The M.F.A.&A. men who followed the Allies into Aachen and the Rhineland became simply obituary writers, since dead art lay in every direction: “Cologne, circa 80 percent of monuments and churches destroyed, including St. Maria im Capitol, famous Romanesque landmark …” “Kleve, Stitskirche, mid 14th century, air bombed Oct. ’44, again Feb. ’45, an eliminating operation. Church shattered.”
• There the Dutch had stored their most valuable museum pictures, with Nazi approval. The fact that the art had been hidden by our Allies decreased the excitement of the discovery for our men, though they took sightseeing tours underground to stare at some Rembrandts — once it had been explained who and how important Rembrandts was. For the next fortnight, every Dutch daub found in a farmhouse attic was called a Rembrandt, and the nearest Monument officer was sent for, posthaste, to authenticate it.
• For nine months before the Merkers find, Monuments men had been disparagingly known in the Army as “those guys with their goddam art.” The Merkers gold and Patton’s personality had made art itself important. An art cache was thereafter known as an “art target,” and all Patton’s rivals itched to strike one too. Clearly, art finds meant publicity to any outfit’s Public Relations officer. Capturing towns was valorous and still the aim of the war, but capturing art was a glamorous new idea.

COME IN, LASSIE!, by Lilian Ross

莉莉安·罗斯另一篇精彩的全景式素描——麦卡锡主义“红色恐慌“下的好莱坞片场。已经数不清她造访了多少个酒会，片场，饭局，引用了多少个人名和对话。就像路易斯·米南德之前说的，她只是让那些人接着说，而她只是记录下他们说的话就足够了。

• At some parties, the bracketed guests break up into subgroups, each eying the others with rather friendly suspicion and discussing who was or was not a guest at the White House when Roosevelt was President — one of the few criteria people in the film industry have set up for judging whether a person is or is not a Communist — and how to avoid becoming a Communist.
• Evidently, Communism is also responsible for this trouble. Power, returning from a trip abroad lately, announced that he had seen so much suffering in Europe that he had come back determined to spend his time fighting Communism. This, as interpreted by Louella Parsons, meant that he had given up Lana Turner for the cause.
• “We’ve got to resolve any conflicts between what we are and what the public has been led to believe we are,” one actor told me. “We can’t afford to have people think we’re a bunch of strong men or crusaders.”
• “A lot of people who work in pictures wouldn’t know Communism if they saw it,” she said to me. “You think that a Communist is a man with a bushy beard. He’s not. He’s an American, and he’s pretty, too.” The Congressional investigation of Hollywood, Mrs. Rogers thinks, will result in better pictures and the victory of the Republican Party in the next election … … Mrs. Rogers is also writing screen plays. I wanted to know if she was following the “Do”s and “Don’t”s of the “Screen Guide for Americans.” “You just bet I am,” she said. “My friend Ayn Rand wrote it, and sticking to it is easy as pie. I’ve just finished a shooting script about a man who learns how to live after he is dead.”
• “For years I’ve been writing scripts about a Boy Scout-type cowboy with a girl. Their fortune and happiness are threatened by a banker holding a mortgage over their heads, or by a big landowner, or by a crooked sheriff. Now they tell me that bankers are out. Anyone holding a mortgage is out. Crooked public officials are out. All I’ve got left is a cattle rustler. What the hell am I going to do with a cattle rustler?”
• At preview, in Hartford, Connecticut, of Arch of Triumph, attended by its director, Lewis Milestone, and by Charles Einfield, president of Enterprise Productions, which brought it out, the manager of the theatre asked Einfield whether it was necessary to use the word “refugees” so often in the picture. “All the way back to New York,” says Milestone, “Charlie kept muttering, ‘Maybe we mention the word “refugees” too many time?’ ‘But the picture is about refugees,’ I told him. ‘What can we do now? Make a new picture?'”

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON, by Richard Rovere

理查德·罗维尔再次以他幽默的笔触写”华盛顿来信“这一专栏。更有趣的是讲述和一群高中生一同参观联邦调查局的后一篇。

• “And now, folks, if there are any particular questions at all, please don’t heztate.” This was the line with which he ended every one of his set speeches along the way. Since he had said nothing this time to provoke questions, none were asked.
• Just as I thought it a remarkable fact that J. Edgar Hoover manages to get his important work done in an office across the hall from a public gathering place that is refilled every half hour, or less, I was deeply impressed by the knowledge that the government’s case is represented in the courts by men who do their legal research in a library in which traffic is as heavy as it is in the lobby of a large hotel.

sneer: 冷笑; sheave: 滑车轮; stocky: 敦实; crouched: 蹲在; drab: 单调; rick: 堆成垛; lustreless: 没有光泽; incredulously: 难以置信; flimsy: 单薄; stank: 发臭; stupendous: 巨大的; corset: 紧身胸衣; coiffure: 发型; birch: 桦木; recherche: 研究; billeted: 驻扎; pinup: 钉住; boiseries: 木制品; casket: 棺材; looted: 洗劫一空

---

PART FOUR: CHARACTER STUDIES

NOTE BY SUSAN ORLEAN

苏珊·奥尔良的这篇导读算是目前为止最“振奋人心”的一篇，读罢已经按捺不住往下翻每一篇文章的冲动。本章的主题是人物小传（profile），苏珊说在当年作者的自由度还很大，他们的选材，选题，写法都是出自于自己的兴趣，而非利益与其他因素左右，这种写作空间在如今已经很难看到了；苏珊担任《纽约客》撰稿人已经二十余年，她的形象还被改编到奥斯卡获奖电影《改编剧本》里，风靡一时。

• These writers didn’t invent the Profile, but sometimes it feels as if they had. Each had a distinct voice, but their writing had in common a tone of familiarity and authority — qualities that became the mark of a New Yorker Profile.
• As a reader, you notice only the writer’s decisions — what to include, what to examine closely, what to describe. You never feel that the story has been stage-managed by the subject or by a publicist or, for that matter, by an editor with an agenda. Readers sense that the story is authentic, and that it grew out of a genuine interest on the part of the writer, rather than out of a press release. Having grown up in the age of celebrity journalism, I was used to reading articles that were very obviously directed by some interested party. The first time I read these pioneering New Yorker pieces, I remember being amazed; I couldn’t believe you could really find stories like this, in which the writer, and not the subject, set the pace.
• Ross is very much present in the story, but as the passionate observer, eager to hear and see everything that can enrich the story and help make sense of not only Franklin but also the world around him.

（无正文）

---

LETTER FROM A CAMPAIGN TRAIN, by Richard Rovere

理查德·罗维尔作为竞选列车的一名观察者，以马克·吐温式的笔触描绘了自己的所见所闻，并从文章一开始就对杜威和杜鲁门的竞选旅行，行事风格，和演讲效果等等进行了一番比较，诙谐生动，又有点漫不经心，应该很是《纽约客》本来的风格。结尾处他笔调轻轻一扬，抒写了几段还算切题的反思; 其实仔细想来以上读到的这三篇短文，里面的景象确实都很美国，而尤属这一篇最像电影《纳什维尔》里的那个美国。

• The dope on Mr. High, as I got it from Hagerty, is that he is travelling with Dewey not as an author but as a former clergyman. His function, I was told, is to advise Dewey on the religious implications of political issues and on the political implications of religious issues.
• The favorite beverage in the club cars on the Truman train, when I was on it, was the Kentucky bourbon highball, before, during, and after meals. I don’t recall seeing a single cocktail served. Highballs are often seen on the Dewey train, but Martinis and Manhattans are more in vogue. The principal diversion on the Truman train was poker, generally seven-card stud. At least two games were always in progress. If any poker is played on the Dewey train, it is played behind closed compartment doors. There are, however, several spirited bridge games going on all the time.
• Office-seeking is a great leveller. Most men who engage in it are sooner or later forced to abandon themselves to the ancient practices of audience-flattering, enemy-vilifying, name-remembering, moon-promising, and the like.
• … … the fact is that reason is outraged not only by the speeches of the candidates but by the very idea of this travelling up and down the country to make them. I have been unable to find, on the Dewey train, the Truman train, or anywhere else, a single impartial and responsible observer of national affairs who is willing to defend the thesis that this tearing around will affect the electoral vote in even one state.

SYMBOL OF ALL WE POSSESS, by Lillian Ross

莉莉安·罗斯的这篇“美国小姐”选美比赛实录也是《纳什维尔》般的人物群像大杂烩，她没有在刻意用力地表达什么，而是把所有想说的都埋在场景和人物对话中；我个人更喜欢昨天的两篇，更有纵深。

• The contest was called the Miss America Pageant. The fifty-two competitors went into it seeking, beyond the prizes, great decisions. Exactly what was decided, they are still trying to find out.
• Frank told Miss Nalepa that a photograph of her taken from the rear had come out fine. “Wanda has a perfect back,” he said to me. “I’m getting this picture printed in the National Chiropractic Journal. I’m a chiropractor.”
• Miss New York State, preceded by Hap Brander’s string band a float proclaiming the merits of Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy, got a big hand from the audience. Most of the other contestants merely sat and smilied, but she stood and waved and and laughed and shouted and seemed to be having the time of her life.
• It worked. Miss Michigan decided to stay in Atlantic City. Everybody appeared to enjoy the party, and everybody made a determined effort to be Miss Congeniality.
• Miss New York State said that most of the girls had trouble getting their breakfast down but that she had had orange juice, bacon and eggs, toast, marmalade, and tea. “I wasn’t going to sit there and let all that good food go,” she said. She didn’t know whether she had made a favorable impression on the judges. “I told Conrad Thibault I had never heard of him,” she said. “He didn’t seem to like that.”

onlook: 旁观; leveller: 均染剂; chiropractor: 按摩师; chaperone: 伴侣; elocution: 演讲术; congenial: 投机

---

PART THREE: POST WAR

路易斯·米南德（哈佛大学教授）对主讲战后的第三章的介绍。他重点提到了《纽约客》在二战期间新招募的专栏作家们，如埃德蒙·威尔逊，莉莉安·罗斯，理查德·罗维尔等。他们既是杂志转型的亲历者，也是这一转变的创造者。

• In common with New Yorker artists like Helen Hokinson and Peter Arno, Ross was brilliant at taking the air out of stuffed shirts, a spieces of which Hollywood has its share. Her method was just to let self-important people talk. All she usually had to do was write down what they said.
• A magazine that was identified by its name and its tone with America’s most cosmopolitan city, a place that, more than any other withe the possible exception of Hollywood, had flourished thanks to the influx of European artists and thinkers in the 1930 and ’40s, was nicely positioned to reflect back to its readers their new sense of themselves as citizens of the world.

hypochondriacal: 疑; parochial: 教区; insouciance: 漫不经心; giddy: 头晕

（无正文）

---

HIROSHIMA, by John Hersey

早在翻开本书之时就已名声在外的约翰·赫西的名篇《广岛》，读完由衷地折服，这实在是新闻写作的极致了。不过，像广岛核爆这样的事件，在泱泱历史中，又会能有几次；由于电脑上仍是纽约时间，一个小时的时差让我读到中间的时候甚至产生了时钟在倒转的幻觉；笔锋收尾的最后三页，完美到我甚至想要全部将它们摘抄在这里（当然最终只节了三段），我想到了柴静《看见》中讲双城的那篇，我想到了《一一》的结尾，当然全文阅读的过程中我脑海里也总是会浮现出《广岛之恋》里的黑白影像，以及阿伦·雷奈的另一部反战杰作《夜与雾》。

• A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors. They still wonder why they lived when so many others died. Each of them counts many small items of chance or volition — a step taken in time, a decision to go indoors, catching one streetcar instead of the next — that spared him. And now each knows that in the act of survival he lived a dozen lives  and saw more death than he ever thought he would see. At the time, none of them knew anything.
• At fifty, he was healthy, convivial, and calm, and he was pleased to pass the evenings drinking whiskey with friends, always sensibly and for the sake of conversation. Before the war, he had affected brands imported from Scotland and America; now he was perfectly satisfied with the best Japanese brand, Suntory.
• He had slept uneasily all night and had wakened an hour earlier than usual, and, feeling sluggish and slightly feverish, had debated whether to go to the hospital at all; his sense of duty finally forced him to go, and he had started out on an earlier train than he took most mornings.
• While fetching the cloth, she noticed her sewing machine; she went back in for it and dragged it out. Obviously, she could not carry it with her, so she unthinkingly plunged her symbol of livelihood into the receptacle which for weeks had been her symbol of safety — the cement tank of water in front of her house, of the type every household had been ordered to construct against a possible fire raid.
• Tugged here and there in his stockinged feet, bewildered by the numbers, staggered by so much raw flesh, Dr. Sasaki lost all sense of profession and stopped working as a skillful surgeon and s sympathetic man; he became an automaton, mechanically wiping, daubing, winding, wiping, daubing, winding.
• When he picked himself up, he saw Mr. Fukai running away. Father Kleinsorge shouted to a dozen soldiers, who were standing by the bridge, to stop him … … So Father Kleinsorge just requested the soldiers to take care of Mr. Fukai. They said they would, but the little, broken man got away from them, and the last the priests could see of him, he was running back toward the fire.
• The team fought the fire for more than two hours, and gradually defeated the flames. As Mr. Tanimoto’s men worked, the frightened people in the park pressed closer and closer to the river, and finally the mob began to force some of the unfortunates who were on the very bank into the water. Among those driven into the water and drowned were Mrs. Matsumoto, of the Methodist School, and her daughter.
• Mr. Tanimoto had seen during the day, he surmised that the barracks had been badly damaged by whatever it was that had hit Hiroshima. He knew he hadn’t a chance of finding Mrs. Kamai’s husband, even if he searched, but he wanted to humor her. “I’ll try,” he said.
• Mr. Tanimoto found about twenty men and women on the sandpit. He drove the boat onto the bank and urged them to get aboard. They did not move and he realized that they were too weak to lift themselves. He reached down and took a woman by the hands, but her skin slipped off in huge, glove-like pieces. He was so sickened by this that he had to sit down for a moment. Then he got out into the water, and though a small man, lifted several of the men and women, who were naked, into his boat.
• Dr. Sasaki had not looked outside the hospital all day; the scene inside was so terrible and so compelling that it had not occurred to him to ask any questions about what had happened beyond the windows and doors … … Early in the day, he thought for the first time of his mother at their country home in Mukaihara, thirty miles from town. He usually went home every night. He was afraid she would think he was dead.
• “That may be right from a medical standpoint — ” Mr. Tanimoto began, but then he looked out across the field, where the many dead lay close and intimate with those who were still living, and he turned away without finishing his sentence, angry now with himself. He didn’t know what to do; he had promised some of the dying people in the park that he would bring them medical aid. They might die feeling cheated.
• A little before noon, he saw a Japanese woman handing something out. Soon she came to him and said in a kindly voice, “These are tea leaves. Chew them, young man, and you won’t feel thirsty.” The woman’s gentleness mad Father Kleinsorge suddenly want to cry. For weeks, he had been feeling oppressed by the hatred of foreigners that the Japanese seemed increasingly to show, and he had been uneasy even with his Japanese friends.
• Once, he tried to suggest that perhaps it was time to cremate the baby, but Mrs. Kamai only held it tighter. He began to keep away from her, but whenever he looked at her, she was staring at him and her eyes asked the same question. He tried to escape her glance by keeping his back turned to her as much as possible.
• He put riddles to them. He asked, “What is the cleverest animal in the world?”, and after the thirteen-year-old girl had guessed the ape, the elephant, the horse, he said,” No, it must be the hippopotamus,” because in Japanese that animal is kaba, the reverse of baka, stupid. He told Bible stories, beginning, in the order of things, with the Creation. He showed them a scrapbook of snapshots taken in Europe. Nevertheless, they cried most of the time for their mother.
• A doctor who did not know much about these strange manifestations — Father Kleinsorge was one of a handful of atomic patients who had reached Tokyo — came to see him, and to the patient’s face he was most encouraging. “You’ll be out of here in two weeks,” he said. But when the doctor got out in the corridor, he said to the Mother Superior, “He’ll die. All these bomb people die — you’ll see. They go along for a couple of weeks and then they die.”
• One day, the young man who had lent her his translation of de Maupassant at Hatsukaichi came to visit her; he told her that he was going to Kyushu but that when he came back, he would like to see her again. She didn’t care. Her leg had been so swollen and painful all along that the doctor had not even tried to set the fractures, and though an X-ray taken in November showed that the bones were mending, she could see under the sheet that her left leg was nearly three inches shorter than her right and that her left foot was turning inward. She thought often of the man to whom she had been engaged. Someone told her he was back from overseas. She wondered what he had heard about her injuries that made him stay away.
• Father Kleinsorge was finding it hard, as Dr. Fujii had suggested he would, to be cautious and to take his naps. He went out every day on foot to call on Japanese Catholics and prospective converts. As the months went by, he grew more and more tired. In June, he read an article in the Hiroshima Chugoku warning survivors against working too hard — but what could he do?
• A year after the bomb was dropped, Miss Sasaki was a cripple; Mrs. Nakamura was destitute; Father Kleinsorge was back in the hospital; Dr. Sasaki was not capable of the work he once could do; Dr. Fujii had lost the thirty-room hospital it took him many years to acquire, and had no prospects of rebuilding it; Mr. Tanimoto’s church had been ruined and he no longer had his exceptional vitality. The lives of these six people, who were among the luckiest in Hiroshima, would never be the same. Whet they thought of their experiences and of the use of the atomic bomb was, of course, not unanimous. One feeling they did seem to share, however, was a curious kind of elated community spirit, something like that of the Londoners after their blitz — a pride in the way they and their fellow-survivors had stood up to a dreadful ordeal.
• A surprising number of the people of Hiroshima remained more or less indifferent about the ethics of using the bomb. Possibly they were too terrified by it to want to think about it at all. Not many of them even bothered to find out much what it was like. Mrs. Nakamura’s conception of it — and awe of it — was typical. “The atom bomb,” she would say when asked about it, “is the size of a matchbox. The heat of it was six thousand times that of the sun. It exploded in the air. There is some radium in it. I don’t know just how it works, but when the radium is put together, it explodes.” As for the use of the bomb, she would say, “It was war and we had to expect it.” And then she would add, “Shikata ga nai,” a Japanese expression as common as, and corresponding to, the Russian word “nichevo“: “It can’t be helped. Oh, well. Too bad.” Dr. Fujii said approximately the same thing about the use of the bomb to Father Kleinsorge one evening, in German: “Da ist nicht zu machen. There’s nothing to be done about it.”
• It would be impossible to say what horrors were embedded in the minds of the children who lived through the day of the bombing in Hiroshima. On the surface their recollections, months after disaster, were of an exhilarating adventure. Toshio Nakamura, who was ten at the time of the bombing, was soon able to talk freely, even gaily, about the experience, and a few weeks before the anniversary he wrote the following matter-of-fact essay for his teacher at Nobori-cho Primary School: “The day before the bomb, I went for a swim. In the morning, I was eating peanuts. I saw a light. I was knocked to little sister’s sleeping place. When we were saved, I could only see as far as the tram. My mother and I started to pack our things. The neighbors were walking around burned and bleeding. Hataya-san told me to run away with her. I said I wanted to wait for my mother. We went to the park. A whirlwind came. At night a gas tank burned and I saw the reflection in the river. We stayed in the park one night. Next day I went to Taiko Bridge and met my girl friends Kikuki and Murakami. They were looking for their mothers. But Kukuki’s mother was wounded and Murakami’s mother, alas, was dead.”

volition: 意志; reconnaissance: 承认; rayon: 射线; dugout: 味道; prefecture: 府; allotment: 配股; convivial: 用户友好; frail: 脆弱; miasma: 瘴气; receptacle: 容器; lieu: 地方; scorch: 烧焦; destitute: 贫困; alas: 唉

---

PART TWO: AMERICAN SCENES

A NOTE BY JILL LEPORE

吉尔·雷波尔的一篇序语，她也是哈佛大学的历史系教授，文章没有什么特别出彩的地方。值得一提的是，2012年被爆出的著名主持人扎卡里亚剽窃事件，被抄的就是吉尔·雷波尔在《纽约客》上的文章。

• The war changed The New Yorker by making it more accountable to world affairs, but also by making it differently accountable to what was happening in the United States, including places like a singularity hideous courthouse in South Carolina.

NOTES AND COMMENT, by E.B.White

E.B.怀特略带有炫技效果地回答了 Writer’s War Board“什么是民主”这一问题。

• Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.

THE OLD HOUSE AT HOME, by Joseph Mitchell

约瑟夫·米切尔这篇关于麦克索利酒吧（纽约最古老的爱尔兰酒吧）风物志十分精彩，他擅于长篇大段地细致刻画，笔下的人物诙谐生动，栩栩如生；从主讲二战的第一章走出，来到圣马克地带的这家十分接地气的酒馆里，“美国风情”为主题的第二章扑鼻而来；这家酒吧一直很有名，出现在不少绘画中，也成为了很多电影的取景地。

• Sometimes, in the afternoon, if the weather was good, he would shuffle into the bar, a sallow, disenchanted old man, and sit in the Peter Cooper chair with his knotty hands limp in his lap. Four hours he would sit and stare at the painting of Old John. The customers were sure he was getting ready to die, but when he came in they would say, “You looking chipper today, Billy boy,” or something like that.
• Technically, Kelly is a truck-driver, but he always says business is slow in his line. Once, for a brief period, he took a job as night clerk in a funeral parlor in Brooklyn, quitting because a corpse spoke to him. “This dead guy told me to take my had off indoors,” Kelly says. In one way or another, death pops up repeatedly in Kelly’s talk. Each morning, Mullins, the bartender, asks him how he feels. If he doesn’t feel so good, he says, “I’m dead, but I just won’t lie still.”
• Kelly likes the Sloan painting but prefers a golden, corpulent nude which Old John hung in the back room many years ago, right beside Peter Cooper’s portrait. To a stranger, attracted to the saloon by a Sloan painting, Kelly will say, “Hey, Mac, if you want to see some real art, go look at the naked lady in the back room.” The nude is stretched out on a couch and is playing with a parrot; the painting is a copy, probably done by a Cooper Union student, of Gustave Courbet’s La Femme au Perroquet. Kelly always translates this for strangers. “It’s French,” he says learnedly. “It means ‘Duh Goil and duh Polly.'”
• The fare in McSorley’s is plain, cheap, and well cooked. Mike’s specialties are goulash, frankfurters and sauerkraut, and hamburgers blanketed with fried onions. He scribbles his menu in chalk on a slate which hangs in the barroom and consistently misspells four dishes out of five … … Mike refers to food as “she.” For example, if a customer complains that the goulash is not as good as it was last Wednesday, he says, “No matter how not as good she is, she’s good enough for you.”

OPERA IN GREENVILLE, by Rebecca West

如果说约瑟夫·米切尔让人有些欲罢不能的是他绵长到难以切割（做摘抄和读书笔记之用）的大段描写的话，丽贝卡·韦斯特则落笔更加精准，锐利，直接，她在本篇里的开头，寥寥几段就把南方小镇格林维尔生动地刻画了出来；然而读着读着你会发现这篇法庭纪实是非常沉重的，四十年代，南方，种族主义，南北对抗等冰冰冷的事实摆在你眼前；丽贝卡·韦斯特也是纽伦堡大审判封面文章的作者，该篇收录在本书第三章中。

• Greenville was as hot as the cities that lie on the Spanish plains, as Seville and Cordoba. But in those cities the people do not live a modern life, they do not work too grimly, and they sleep in the afternoons; here they keep the same commercial hours as in New York, and practice the hard efficiency that is the price this age asks for money.
• Behind the defendants and their families sat something under two hundred of such white citizens of Greenville as could find the time to attend the trial, which was held during working hours. Some were drawn from the men of the town who are too old or too sick to work, or who do not enjoy work and use Court House as a club, sitting on the steps, chewing and smoking and looking down on Main Street through the hot, dancing air, when the weather is right for that, and going inside when it is better there. They were joined by a certain number of men and women who did not like the idea of people being taken out of jail and murdered, and by others who liked the idea quite well.
• The jury entered. One juror was smiling; one was looking desperately ashamed; the others looked stolid and secretive, as they had done all through the trial. They handed slips on which they had recorded their verdicts to the clerk of the court, who handed them to the Judge. He read them through himself, and a flush spread over his face.
• There could not be no more pathetic scene than these taxi-drivers and their wives, the deprived children of difficult history, who were rejoicing at a salvation that was actually a deliverance to danger. They had been saved from the electric chair and from prison by men who had conducted their defense without taking a minute off to state or imply that even if a man is a murderer one must not murder him and that murder is foul.

clarinet: 单簧管; cleave: 劈开; motley: 杂色; surly: 阴沉; tenement: 房屋; memorabilia: 大事记; pewter: 锡; snicker: 暗笑; gamy: 荤腥气; epithet: 称号; learnedly: 博学; rickety: 摇摇晃晃; goulash: 炖牛肉; sauerkraut: 酸菜; barnacle: 藤壶; lynching: 私刑; mutilated: 肢解; stolid: 慢性子; deliverance: 救出

(The 40s: The Story of a Decade, by The New Yorker Magazine)

---

INTRODUCTION

现任《纽约客》总编辑大卫·瑞姆尼克撰文回忆了杂志的创办人哈罗德·罗斯，以及在罗斯领导下的1940年代《纽约客》的转型和蜕变。时代与人文在历史空间的交汇，娓娓动人。看本雅明的时候正值《布达佩斯大饭店》，看这本书的时候又正一直在听《货币战争》，里面的各种权谋和政治，反倒让我在读完这篇序言之后格外感到清新；这本书厚达近700页，一时不知道该如何下手；《纽约客》杂志的标志性字体叫 Irvin。

---

PART ONE: THE WAR

A NOTE BY GEORGE PACKER

乔治·派克从撰稿人利布林在巴黎蒙马特一家餐厅享受火鱼美餐起笔，生动地讲述了二战的暴发是如何改变了《纽约客》的口味和“去政治性”，以及杂志里的每一个人。他说，《纽约客》在战争年代里从不讲什么政治大道理，而是从记者身边的人和事出发，去记述他们看到和听到的。征兵不断，很多人写到一半便被调至前线，很多文章甚至分不清是记者还是士兵所写；1946年8月31日的那一期只有一篇文章：Hiroshima。

• The war opened The New Yorker to the wider world. Without changing beyond recognition, it became a more serious magazine; without sounding like Time or The New Republic, it became political. It rediscovered places it already knew, perhaps a little too well (London, Paris, Hell’s Kitchen), and it discovered places that it had never imagined (Tunisia, the Marianas Islands).
• Hersey’s method of re-creating the destruction of the city through the fate of six individuals produced a daring new form of journalism, modeled on fiction. It portrayed civilians in America’s hated enemy, Japan, for the first time as human beings.

NOTES AND COMMENT, by E.B.White

E.B.怀特在二战爆发的第二天（1939年9月2日）写下这篇简短的笔记，急促的笔调让人愈发呼吸加速，战争加速的只是人的恐惧，而不是热血沸腾。

• The world, on this Sunday morning, seems pleasingly unreal. We’ve been reading that short story of Tomlinson’s called “Illusion:1915,” which begins on a summer day in France when the bees were in the limes. But this is Illusion 1939, this radio sandwich on which we chew, two bars of music with an ominous voice in between. And the advertiser, still breaking through: “Have you acquired the safety habit?” Moscow is calling New York. Hello, New York. Let me whisper I love you. They are removing the pictures from the museums. There was a time when the mere nonexistence of war was enough. Not any more. The world is in the odd position of being intellectually opposed to war, spiritually committed to it … … Let me whisper I love you while we are dancing and the lights are low.

PARIS POSTSCRIPT, by A.J.Liebling

A.J.利布林以类似日记的方式，详实记述了1940年5月11日德军入侵荷兰比利时至6月10日法国政府撤离巴黎这一个月间自己在巴黎城的生活和所见所闻。说是生活，因为其中描绘的人和事再生活化不过，一对儿子在前线的老夫妻，酒店的侍应，饭馆经理，卖玫瑰花的店主，还有新闻发布会上的政府官员，全景呈现了巴黎还未被侵占时人们的生活和心理状态。这篇文章发表在八月份，利布林什么时候写下的这些倒并不清楚，真的是纪实还是追忆，我们不得而知。他笔触中的淡淡怅惘让人感触颇深。

• Confidence was a duty. The advertising department of the Magasins du Louvre discovered another duty for France. The store’s slogan was “Madame, it is your duty to be elegant!” “They shall not pass” was considered vieux jeu and hysterical. The optimistic do-nothingism of the Chamberlain and Daladier regimes was, for millions of people, the new patriotism.
• One staff officer later told me, “Weygand’s ideas are so old-fashioned that they have become modern again. He is just what we need.” Strategically, the two men cancelled each other, but politically they were a perfect team … … However, we were cheerful on the evening we heard about the appointments. The German advance was apparently slowing down, and all of us thought that Weygand might arrange a counterattack soon. A week earlier we had been expecting victories. Now we were cheered by a slightly slower tempo of disaster.
• Paris reminded me of that conversational commonplace you hear when someone has died: “Why, I saw him a couple of days ago and he looked perfectly well.” Paris looked perfectly well, but I wondered if it might not be better for a city in such danger to show some agitation. Perhaps Paris was dying.
• The rouget tasted too much as good rouget always had; the black-browed proprietor was too normally solicitous; even in the full bosom and strong legs of the waitress there was the assurance that this life in Paris would never end. Faith in France was now purely a mystique; a good dinner was our profane form of communion.
• The countryside, hot and rich and somnolent, and the family, sitting on the lawn after a chicken dinner, mad me think of Sundays on Long Island. It was as if no war had ever been. We sat around in lawn chairs, fighting against drowsiness, talking unintently, resisting the efforts of one woman to get up a game like charades … … We talked of the Skoda tanks, built according to French designs in Czecho-Slovakia, that were now ripping the French army apart.
• On the way I stopped at a florist shop and bought some fine pink roses. The woman in the shop said that shipments from the provinces were irregular, but that fortunately the crisis came at a season when the Paris suburbs were producing plenty of flowers. “We have more goods than purchasers,” she said, laughing.
• “You remember when John Lloyd stopped Provoust last night and invited him to the Wednesday luncheon?” he asked. Yes, I remembered. “Well,” he said, “Provoust was in a hurry because he was leaving for Tours in a few minutes.” I said maybe we had better leave too, and we did.

SURVIVAL, by John Hersey

约翰·赫西记述了PT-109艇长（也是后来的总统）肯尼迪和其他十名船员在被船被击沉之后七天七夜艰苦的逃生过程。

• It took over five hours to reach the island. Water lapped into Kennedy’s mouth through his clenched teeth, and he swallowed a lot. The salt water cut into McMahon’s awful burns, but he did not complain. Every few minutes, when Kennedy stopped to rest, taking the strap out of his mouth and holding it in his hand, McMahon would simply say, “How far do we have to go?” Kennedy would reply, “We’re doing good.” Then he would ask, “How do you feel, Mac?” McMahon always answered, “I’m O.K., Mr. Kennedy. How about you?”
• In the middle of the night it rained, and someone suggested moving into the underbrush and licking water off the leaves. Ross and McMahon kept contact at first by touching feet as they licked. Somehow they got separated, and being uncertain whether there were any Japs on the island, they became frightened. McMahon, trying to make his way back to the beach, bumped into someone and froze. It turned out to be Johnston, licking leaves on his own.
• The natives put Kennedy in the bottom of their canoe and covered him with sacking and palm fronds, in case Japanese planes should buzz them. The long trip was fun for the natives. They stopped once to try to grab a turtle, and laughed at the sport they were having. Thirty Japanese planes went over low toward Rendova, and the natives waved and shouted gaily. They rowed with a strange rhythm, pounding paddles on the gunwales between strokes. At last they reached a censored place.

THE SUSPENDED DRAWING ROOM, by S.N.Behrman

这是本章中第二篇来自伦敦的报导，因为我注意到了表示“伦敦大轰炸”的 Blitz一词。我 wiki了执行轰炸行动的德方空军首领也是纽伦堡大审中的重量级人物赫尔曼·戈林。从审判实录到最后的诀别与服药自尽，令人唏嘘; S.N.贝尔曼是美国一位剧作家兼《纽约客》撰稿人，他的伦敦之行很明显带有访问性质，那时已是1945年1月，战争结束的曙光就在眼前。此时，伦敦人民已在黑暗中，炮火轰炸中，防空洞的躲避中度过了五年，贝尔曼虽不是亲历者，但这一切他都看在眼里。战火对伦敦人的生活尤其是心理状态造成了难以逆转的影响；与专业记者相比，贝尔曼的落笔更加感性。

• The nonchalance about bombs is general throughout England. A lady who drives a lorry to blitzed areas told me that she is never in the least frightened, no matter what happens, while she is driving, nor does she flinch no matter what gruesome charges she has to carry. It is only when she is lying in bed that she is frightened, and then more at the sirens than at the explosions, because, she imagines, the former are anticipation, the latter faits accomplis.
• I never discussed an air raid with anyone in London except taxi drivers and chauffeurs. No one else will talk about them. Three or four lines in the papers will tell you that several bombs fell the day before in Southern England, but that is all.
• We finally left the deep shelter. My companion wanted me to see still another type of shelter. I begged off. I simply couldn’t stand one more. I was aware that the people in them had been standing them for over five years.

D DAY, IWO JIMA, by John Lardner

约翰·拉德纳是硫磺岛战役的随军记者，他还原了登陆过程和战役前半段的经过，在艰难行进的过程中，他提到最多的是密密麻麻的枪林弹雨，和不成比例的美军海军士兵倒下的尸体。

• It seems to take about twenty minutes under shellfire to adjust your nerves and evolve a working formula by which you can make progress and gauge, very roughly, the nearness of hits and the pattern of fire.
• Lee and I, by agreement, finally left our gear in a trench near the shore and worked our way up the beach in the wake of Wornham and his men. There were Marines on all sides of us doing the same thing. Each man had a different method of progress.
• Looking around, I had the leisure for the first time to think what a miserable piece of real estate Iwo Jima is. Later, when I had seen nearly all the island, I knew that there were no extenuating features. This place where thousands of men of two nations have been killed or wounded in less than three weeks’ time has no water, few birds, no butterflies, no discernible animal life — nothing but sand and clay, humpbacked hills, stunted trees, knife-edged kuna grass in which mites who carry scrub typhus live, and a steady, dusty wind.

portend: 预兆; vigil: 守夜; furlough: 放假; brood: 窝; proprietor: 老板; lash: 睫毛; petunia: 矮牵牛; artillery: 火炮; cartridge: 盒式磁带; bosom: 怀; squelch: 哗啦哗啦的; litany: 一连串; bombardment: 轰炸; tant pis: 好吧; gaily: 华丽地; battalion: 营; dame: 淑女; amphibious: 水陆两用; paroxysm: 发作; faits accomplis: 既成事实; tabernacle: 窝棚;

通常来说，一本非虚构类作品读到三分之二处，所需的养分就吸收的差不多了——至少我是这样。这个时候，读者的惰性会在与作者的立意的较量中渐渐开始占据上风，把剩余的三分之一读完，难免有种让结局圆满的强迫症在作祟。《The Daemon Knows》的最后一位是哈特·克莱恩，布鲁姆最钟爱的美国作家之一，全书第二长的个人篇幅也在于此。我有意把这一段落搁置下来，等到对前文有更深的理解之后再去读。回到前面提到的说法，如果把读书比作沿着一条大河顺流而下，那么这条河的下游阶段在冲开宽广的平原的同时，也逐渐分叉形成一条条支流，彼此间的联系不再那么紧密。我想，这也是因为我们读者的想法逐渐与作者的本意开始交织，互搏，思路也因而愈发自信，分散。

这应是有某种事物发展的普遍规律在主导着。且不提文学，绘画等各艺术门类的发展，从经典到现代，这只看不见的手从握拳到张开，也正像一株枝叶不断延伸的大树一样，从一枝独秀到郁郁葱葱。布鲁姆在书中，也不止一次提到了这时间和事物发展本身的无形力量。在比较两位诗人史蒂文斯和 T.S.艾略特的时候他说，When I was younger, this difference between Stevens and Eliot seemed temperamental and a question of taste. In old age, it becomes a question of remaining time, since I teach, read, and write now against the clock. 史蒂文斯和惠特曼一样，经常把死亡和不朽作为诗歌的主题，八十四岁的布鲁姆尤其喜欢他在生命最后二十年所写的作品，想必这背后也是时间和年华的力量。

史蒂文斯的诗歌是高深的，布鲁姆说自从1955年第一次讲授他以来，每一年都会在和学生的讨论中得到新的感受和收获。和弗罗斯特不一样，史蒂文斯的作品以长诗居多，而布鲁姆也认为，跟短诗相比，长诗在时光长河里的每一次洗涤都更会焕发出新的光泽。对《秋天的极光》，他这样说，I recite the poem frequently to myself, either silently or aloud, depending on whether I am alone. Possession by memory changes your relation to a poem, longer poem in particular. A sense comes of being inside The Auroras of Autumn, of internalizing its drama within the self.

史蒂文斯在他六十八岁的时候创作了《秋天的极光》，这首诗的开头出奇得冷静和克制，布鲁姆认为全诗中的紧张和由年老而带来的迫切感都被有意压制住了，因而凸显出一种张力，难怪每年读它的时候都会提炼出新的情绪和灵感，也像布鲁姆自己说的 Live with Stevens’s poetry long enough and you can get a sense of somehow dwelling inside particular poems. 全诗是以“这是……”来开头的：

This is where the serpent lives, the bodiless / His head is air. Beneath his tip at night / Eyes open and fix on us in every sky.

Or is this another wriggling out of the egg / Another image at the end of the cave / Another bodiless for the body’s slough?

This is where the serpent lives. This is his nest / These fields, these hills, these tinted distances / And the pines above and along and beside the sea.

与惠特曼不同的是，史蒂文斯的诗中很少出现“我”字，在需要 “I” 的地方他通常代以 “one“，但这也形成了史蒂文斯诗中独特的自我观念。他生前是一直在康州哈特福德的一家保险公司工作，写诗只是他下班后的“副业”和个人兴趣。也有人说他有一段完整但并不美好的婚姻，因此诗歌中的他更是以自己一个人的姿态出现。布鲁姆说，In a curious way, Stevens was what Goethe asserted himself to be: “the genius of happiness and astonishment.” … … No one else in American poetic tradition, Whitman and Dickinson included, expresses so well that solitary and inward glory few of us can share with others.

理解了这一点，也就可以进一步体会史蒂文斯诗歌与惠特曼之间的微妙关系。后者的生命观，生死观是宏大的，包容万物的，同样也是接近你和我的，而史蒂文斯则稍稍收起了这番太过张扬的宏大，以另一种其实并不逊于甚至某种程度上更优于惠特曼表现力的方式来歌唱自我，歌唱崇高，歌唱作者所谓的 Daemon。布鲁姆在这里援引了一首《致罗马的一位老哲学家》，它是史蒂文斯写给西班牙裔美国哲学家-诗人乔治·桑塔亚那的（哲学家一年后去世，诗人也三年后逝世），他说，it refines the American elegiac mode that Whitman invented in The Sleepers and the Sea-Drift dirges and then perfected in his Lilacs threnody for Abraham Lincoln. The Whitmanian accents haunt Stevens’s poem, though their daemonic enlargements are tempered by Stevens’s wariness of engulfment by a precursor who seems always in the American sunrise. 在这首诗的中段，你能够清楚地读到这种个人身上的光芒：

The bed, the books, the chair, the moving nuns / The candle as it evades the sight, these are / The sources of happiness in the shape of Rome / A shape within the ancient circles of shapes / And these beneath the shadow of a shape

In a confusion on bed and books, a portent / On the chair, a moving transparence on the nuns / A light on the candle tearing against the wick / To join a hovering excellence, to escape / From fire and be part only of that of which

Fire is the symbol: the celestial possible / Speak to your pillow as is it was yourself / Be orator but with an accurate tongue / And without eloquence, O, half-asleep / Of the pity that is the memorial of this room.

最后一句，在半梦半醒中，用毫不夸大而精确的语言，去诉说这个房间的记忆和遗憾。结合上前面的蜡烛意象，一位暮年老者戚戚悲凉然而又无比睿智高大的形象立即浮现在眼前了。八十四岁的布鲁姆在此刻读到七十二岁的史蒂文斯写给八十七岁的桑塔亚那的诗句，心里的波澜一定是溢于言表。

布鲁姆在书里还全文讲解了另一首著名的挽诗《石棺里的猫头鹰》，史蒂文斯在最后告诉世人，“这是现代死亡的神话”，“这是死亡自身的最高影像”，而“这”究竟是什么呢？诗人在结尾处写道：

It is a child that sings itself to sleep / The mind, among the creatures that it makes / The people, those by which it lives and dies.

死生亦大矣。我们尚不知老之将至，远未到真正参透生死的年龄。惠特曼诗中，死亡是母亲，是大海，而在这里，一位七十岁的老者将她比作孩童，我相信是要付出更多伤怀和勇气的。

翻开二十世纪的篇章，你会读着读着发现作者本人和书中的主角们开始有了不经意间的交集。一九四九年，十九岁的哈罗德·布鲁姆第一次来到纽黑文和耶鲁大学，在那里他第一次也是唯一一次见到了诗人华莱士·史蒂文斯。那是一次小规模的诗歌朗诵会，年已七旬的史蒂文斯读的是 An Ordinary Evening in New Haven 选段，之后的酒会上他们两人还有过一段短暂的交谈，准确地说是史蒂文斯在早已慌措失神的布鲁姆面前讲了足足二十分钟雪莱。

布鲁姆也见过弗罗斯特两次。那是在他三十岁的时候，而罗伯特·弗罗斯特已经八十六岁，风烛残年。老人的出现让当时正在授课的布鲁姆既敬畏又不安。弗罗斯特还做了一个简短的演讲，他提到四位他最景仰的美国人：华盛顿，杰斐逊，林肯，和爱默生。是的，三位总统和一位文学家。而布鲁姆在讲弗罗斯特的篇幅中，提及最多的也正是爱默生。

相信我们认识弗罗斯特也是在课堂上。如果对初中语文课本还有印象，我们应该还会记得弗罗斯特有一首诗叫《未选择的路》，与普希金的《假如生活欺骗了你》一同并列在一篇选学课文中。诗句中具体是什么实在记不起了，我也不觉得当时对它有什么特别的感觉，很平实，没有那般刻意保持着距离的深沉。而事实证明这也正是弗罗斯特在大部分人眼中的形象。

前文介绍过的惠特曼，艾米丽·狄金森，无疑都是璀璨的星辰，他们诗句中直抵人心的力量和感召力都会让人在第一次阅读的时候就眼前一亮。弗罗斯特则完完全全是另一类诗人。你在读他的时候，并没有感到如同惠特曼那样好像他在朝你的方向走来，也不会像狄金森似的隐约在不远处有个冷若冰霜的女子吸引着你的目光，弗罗斯特就静静地朝着你看着他的方向缓步离去，消失在“未选择的路”里。弗罗斯特自己也说，I owe more to Emerson than anyone else for troubled thoughts about freedom. Freedom is nothing but departure.

布鲁姆一上来介绍的是弗罗斯特在大萧条时期所作的《泥泞时节的两个流浪工》。开头的第二节是这样写的：

Good blocks of oak it was I split / As large around as the chopping block / And every piece I squarely hit / Fell splinterless as a cloven rock.

The blows that a life of self-control / Spares to strike for the common good / That day, giving a loose to my soul / I spent on the unimportant wood.

这就是弗罗斯特，很低调，也似懂非懂地在喃喃自语。“我那天只是劈着渺小的木柴，为了灵魂的解放”。布鲁姆自己也说不清楚，这劈木柴和“公共事业”和“灵魂的解放”到底有什么直接关系。在这首《泥泞时节的两个流浪工》里，弗罗斯特通过劈柴延伸到了兴趣和需求的不可兼得，也表达了自己想要将两者结合在一起的美好愿望。是的，只是美好愿望，而不是决然的欢呼和呐喊。

弗罗斯特的诗中会超出寻常比例地堆叠各种意象，在让人摸不着头脑的同时却又悄悄地把主题塞到其中几句中间，这种缺失了某种精巧的手法也恰恰去除了多余的粉饰，全诗因此而有种神秘而独特的魅力。布鲁姆引用了一段大卫·布罗姆维奇的评述：It may help at first to think of Frost’s poem as a kind of riddle. At some level he knew all along that he was occupied with another version of Wordsworth’s poem, but part of his “fooling” with the reader was to withhold his definitive clue until the middle of the poem, when many other pieces had fallen into place.

布鲁姆所指的弗罗斯特与爱默生的相像之处，在于他们的命运观。爱默生曾说，The originals are not original. 这里所指的是人类在争取自由的过程中对自身命运的态度。布鲁姆说，For both Emerson and Frost, the pre-Socratic formula held: Ethos is the daemon, character is fate, so everything that happens to you is what you always were and are … … There are no accidents; love your fate, because there is little alternative, if any. 弗罗斯特的诗句里的确能读到这种类似“宿命”的感受，而这与惠特曼和狄金森的诗歌是大为不同的。比如这首《鸟儿的歌唱再也不似从前》，它是一首十四行诗，这里只引用后十句：

Her tone of meaning but without the words / Admittedly an eloquence so soft / Could only have had an influence on birds / When call or laughter carried it aloft.

Be that as may be, she was in their song / Moreever her voice upon their voices crossed / Had now persisted in the woods so long / That probably it would never be lost.

Never again would birds’ song be the same / And to do that to birds was why she came.

一言以蔽之，在惠特曼和狄金森的诗句里你是看不到这么多 “may be” 和 “probably” 的。而这种语言上的歧义和矛盾的姿态，也正是弗罗斯特命运观的最好写照。Frost … … accepts again what happens as the working out of character into event, of choice fated and loved as such, without regrets. Frost’s largeness is not so much in the enigma of his reservations as in his full acceptance of contingencies so far within us as to hedge any drive toward freeing choice.

还有不得不提也是布鲁姆认为弗罗斯特身上最有意思的一点，即他诗中反复出现的“白色”意象。在我看来这指的是那神秘却又晃眼的事物的本来面目，也是布鲁姆反复说到的 the Lucretian way things are，而有些吊诡的是，这难以名状的“空白”或“白色”，其实也正是我们双眼和内心的化身。Frost knows, with Emerson, that the ruin or blank we see when we look upon nature is in our own eyes. 这种“空白”或“白色”，在很多其他文学作品中都能看到，梅尔维尔《白鲸》中伊什梅尔对“恐怖的白色”的思考，艾米丽·狄金森诗中借“空白”作比消逝的爱人，放弃，和死亡，史蒂文斯的名作《秋天的极光》，诗人走在黄昏时分的沙滩上，极光下眼前全部化成了“白色”。弗罗斯特在那首神秘的《只一次，便成真》里面，在我看来也十分轻盈并恰到好处地把这“白色”与事物的本质以及我们双眼中似真似幻的影像捏合在一起，别有一番深邃和趣味：

Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs / Always wrong to the light, so never seeing / Deeper down in the well than where the water / Gives me back in a shining surface picture

Me myself in the summer heaven godlike / Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs / Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb / I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture

Through the picture, a something white, uncertain / Something more of the depths – and then I lost it / Water came to rebuke the too clear water / One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple / Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom

Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness? / Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.

看来，“白色”既不完全是抽象的“真实”，也不是具体的“一片石英”，而是一种更为不可确知但我们又有机会亲眼所见（只一次）的“某物”。如果我们把这“某物”与弗罗斯特所诗化的命运的偶然性，以及他诗中大量实物意象背后巧藏的几分蕴意联想在一起，一定会不再那么困惑。就好比布鲁姆最喜欢的《指路》结尾处说的那样：

Here are your waters and your watering place / Drink and be whole again beyond any confusion.

如果我们能从布鲁姆对霍桑的评述里读出一种恰到好处的距离感的话，那么他在讲亨利·詹姆斯和马克·吐温时，则摆出了鲜明得多的立场。不夸张地说，这两位几乎是同一时期的小说家在布鲁姆眼里，一个是亲生的，一个至多是后娘养的——布鲁姆喜欢的是前者。他不止一次重复过，詹姆斯在早年对惠特曼有过毫无洞见的评价；他也不是不知道，詹姆斯笔下伊莎贝尔·阿切尔跟其他更伟大的美国文学作品（如《红字》《草叶集》《白鲸》《哈克贝利费恩历险记》等）相比还是有些距离。但这些，并不妨碍老人家对他的喜爱：My own love for the novels of Henry James … …  does not blind me to the still-greater literary power of Dickens, Balzac, Tolstoy.

而马克·吐温在他面前的形象则完全相反。布鲁姆承认他在文学上的成就，并认为凭借《哈克贝利费恩历险记》这部作品，马克·吐温即便仍然不及莎翁和托尔斯泰，但也足以比肩狄更斯和巴尔扎克这样的小说巨匠。然而，这等褒奖是再冷淡不过了，他自己也说 “agree in a limited way”。跳开布鲁姆的个人喜好，从本书的立意出发，如此的偏颇并不难理解，他解释道：Huck’s longed-for “freedom” is not natural. Freedom for both Mark Twain and his daemon Huck Finn is the freedom of the storyteller, partly alienated from society and from nature.

我也因此很庆幸作者把亨利·詹姆斯与马克·吐温放在前后脚（即便不在同一章）来介绍，明白了他对后者是如何的不满意，也就多少读懂了他喜欢前者的是什么。

直到现在，亨利·詹姆斯这个名字在我耳边还是个略带神秘感和现代色彩的符号，我也很想从国内的书架上抽出梁文道那本《我执》，看看他当时都说了些什么。我仍记得，书中与《一位女士的画像》并列的，还有海洋作家康拉德，托马斯·曼的《威尼斯之死》，帕慕克笔下的《伊斯坦布尔》，还有卡尔维诺《看不见的城市》等等。不难发现，如果你硬是要把把马克·吐温或是菲茨杰拉德置于他们中间，一定会感到哪里有点不和谐。其他美国作家呢，塞林格也许气质上贴近，但《麦田里的守望者》实在是太有名，所以依然不甚完美。这个角落，果然就是留给亨利·詹姆斯的。

我在读《我执》前后陆续猎取了《伊斯坦布尔》《看不见的城市》，但路过书店好几回，一直没有把《一位女士的画像》带回家，怕是篇幅太长的缘故。而布鲁姆早在他的少年时期就已经看过这本书，他说，对伊莎贝尔·阿切尔的爱慕和其他先前读到的女性角色很不同，“seemed outside the sphere of sexual desire”，在她身上和海丝特·白兰一样，同样能看到坚定和爱默生式的自立精神。把这两位女主角作比是不无道理的，甚至在情节上，伊莎贝尔最终出人意料地返回罗马，回到丈夫奥斯蒙德身边，与海丝特在女儿出嫁后又回到所有苦难的根源地波士顿如出一辙。布鲁姆对这样的安排也不是一开始就读懂了：For years I resented James’s sly genius for making Osmond the ultimate fate of the magnificent Isabel, but in old age I have come to accept the Shakespearean rightness of Isabel’s great error about life. 我承认我对布鲁姆后续的论述也是一知半解，当老人家不禁发问 why would James compose parables in which marvelous women must descend to mate? 我就更有点糊涂。但至少可以说，伊莎贝尔身上发生的无疑比海丝特更具悲剧性：Isabel’s story touches tragic dignity. 而这悲剧般的尊严，或许指的正是作者讲的，I cannot think of a woman in Shakespeare who does not marry down.

在写作手法上，亨利·詹姆斯也比他的前辈（霍桑）和同辈（马克·吐温）更具现代性。布鲁姆在讲马克·吐温时开篇就说道，之所以把他放到《The Daemon Knows》里面来，也是因为需要找一位能够在十九至二十世纪与其他“国民作家”——如雨果，托尔斯泰，狄更斯，普希金等——相媲及的美国文学人物，而这个人不会是惠特曼，梅尔维尔，亨利·詹姆斯，史蒂文斯，哈特·克莱恩甚至福克纳。对他们来说，易卜生，乔伊斯，普鲁斯特，卡夫卡等才是更好的参照。这里的界线再明显不过了。而我们所谓的现代性，在詹姆斯身上可以总结成一种称为 “ellipsis” 的写作手法：Ellipsis, the art of leaving things out, transmits from late Shakespeare to final James. 布鲁姆认为莎士比亚的悲喜剧《暴风雨》这一手法的最好典范，而在詹姆斯的另一部小说《鸽之翼》中体现得最为明显：The plotlessness of The Tempest, where almost nothing happens while everything is implied, is a model for the meaningful absences of Milly. 米莉是《鸽之翼》中的灵魂人物，然而在这部长达十卷的长篇中，她既没有在开头的两卷中出现，也没有在结尾处高调离场，但是，她的气息却始终环绕在其他书中人物和我们读者周围不曾离去。作者是这样形容米莉的，She surrounds like an aura no matter how firmly James delineates her conditions and circumstances. Orphaned, wealthy, doomed, marked for victimization, she nevertheless triumphs over what ought to have obliterated her acute consciousness … … We know Milly far less overtly than we do Kate Croy, and its intimations that kindle wonder radiate from the doomed American heiress, whereas Kate deepens perpetually without surprising us. 

米莉的原型是詹姆斯的表妹米妮·坦普尔，她英年早逝，对詹姆斯的性格和后来的文学创作有极大的影响：Certainly Minny Temple haunted James throughout his long life. His affectionate memory of her is an instance of his singular power of appreciation, in Walter Pater’s sense: to liberate even the deepest sorrow of his experience into the freedom of art. 当然，作者也指出，这里的 freedom of art 并不是小说中人物的自由，或者更准确地说，并不是小说人物在我们眼中所谓的自由。伊莎贝尔最终回到了奥斯蒙德身边，不是我们想要看到的；天真单纯的米莉在病痛中去世，也不是我们想要看到的。但实际上，（套一句俗话）这也许就是牺牲了自我成全了艺术吧。我又回想起布鲁姆对马克·吐温笔下哈克贝利费恩追求自由的评价，感觉现在比第一次读要多明白了一些。Wings at last is the Milly Theale Passion, another scripture of Emerson’s American Religion, akin to Song of Myself, Moby-Dick, Walden, The Scarlet Letter, the poems of Emily Dickinson. 布鲁姆经常用这样的列举来支撑他的观点，每当他在其中提到了艾米丽·狄金森，我总要下意识地停下来掂量一下其中的分量。

身为写小说的，詹姆斯的文笔也是极佳的，布鲁姆在书中摘选的段落，均珠圆玉润，引人入胜，故事的节奏和人物的刻画对影成双。在引用了一整段伊莎贝尔探望临终的表兄拉尔夫之后，布鲁姆这样说道，I have quoted all of this because it is the great set piece of the novel and a Jamesian triumph of pace, proportion, diction, and profound compassion. The perfect rightness of the mutual tact that is a mode of love is exquisitely rendered. 后来马克·吐温的章节中（可怜，又是马克·吐温！），一句看似侧面否定詹姆斯的评述里，我还是一眼就读出了老人家对其的喜爱：There is no American Shakespeare or Chaucer, though Whitman comes closest and Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, and Hart Crane approach Walt’s splendor. The scope of Henry James’s writing — fiction, travel, criticism, memoir — astonishes, and invariably his work is superb, yet Tolstoy, Dickens and Balzac have a Shakespearean immediacy that James lacks. 这真是——我知道你不是最好的，但我就是愿意把笔墨都花在你身上——般的真爱。

《The Daemon Knows》从第三章开始无疑进入了蜜月期，一方面你对布鲁姆的主要论调已大致了然于胸，另一方面，作者笔下的人物也开始明亮鲜活起来，不再是像前面四位（惠特曼，梅尔维尔，爱默生，狄金森）那样，感觉多少与自己的认知水平不处于同一个时代。霍桑，亨利·詹姆斯，马克·吐温，罗伯特·弗罗斯特，后两者是我们最耳熟能详的，然而布鲁姆花在他们身上的笔墨也是最少的。这个大部分时候都还很严肃认真的老头也坦承，把他们俩列入到本书之中，是费了一番很大决心。布鲁姆不喜欢有些“通俗”和“流行”的马克·吐温和弗罗斯特，但这种不喜欢又与他对 T.S.艾略特的厌恶不一样。在讲史蒂文斯和艾略特的第五章末尾，老人家毫不客气地总结道：We do not read only as aesthetes — though we should — but also as responsible men and women. By that standard, Eliot, despite his daemonic gift, is unacceptable once and for all time.

由此也不难理解了，为什么回过头来你会对写霍桑和亨利·詹姆斯的第三章爱不释手。虽然这两人都不是布鲁姆最推崇的美国作家（惠特曼和哈特·克莱恩），但在他们身上，我们既看不到类似对马克·吐温和弗罗斯特那样的不喜欢，也看不到对艾略特的厌恶——一种积极而又健康的情绪蔓延在字里行间。这或许也是写文学评论的最佳状态吧。而这种最佳状态，竟又与我们读者和作者间磨合至恰到好处的感觉悄然相遇，实在是不可多得的幸事。

另外值得一提的是，十二位布鲁姆笔下的恶魔，六位诗人，六位“非诗人”（实在不觉得爱默生能算是小说家），两两一组的编排中，本章是唯一一处由两位小说家组成（除史蒂文斯和艾略特一章外，另外四章均为一位诗人和一位“非诗人”）。在这里我并不想把自己的阅读经历一般化，但我相信，大多数人对小说的接触频率和程度是远大于诗歌的。我个人没有读过《红字》，在上了大学之后才从梁文道口中知道亨利·詹姆斯这个名字，但这并不影响我去理解和体会布鲁姆对这两人的评述。

言归正传，霍桑和亨利·詹姆斯，事实上这两人并不处于一个时代，也并不能归为同一类小说家。活到六十岁的霍桑在1864年逝世的时候，詹姆斯才年仅21岁。酷爱写文学评论并一直笔耕不辍的后者在他36岁时还发表了一本名为《霍桑》的集子，然而，里面的观点布鲁姆怕是一点也不敢苟同，他打趣道，His book Hawthorne (1879) reveals something about Henry James while displaying little insight into his prime American precursor. 

在布鲁姆看来，霍桑和詹姆斯最伟大同时也是最相似的一点在于他们笔下刻画的美国女性形象——《红字》中的海丝特·白兰和《一位女士的画像》中的伊莎贝尔·阿切尔。她们坚强，理想，性格饱满，具备作者所谓 “American High Romance” 的一切特质。而弥足珍贵的是，美国（男）作家作品中这样的女性形象其实并不多：Except for Hawthorne and James, American male novelists have not been able to represent American women with the force and vivacity that have marked the English tradition … … In our century, the women portrayed by Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald are generally less vivid than the men, with a few significant exceptions. 书中的海丝特·白兰生活在殖民地时期的新英格兰，一个恪守清教伦理还远未如今天一般开放的早期美国，宗法和社会对于女性追求个人身心自由和解放的压抑，与她身上的红字一起，成了套在白兰心中无法挣脱开的枷锁。然而令人略感意外的是，主人翁在这样的屈辱和重负中并没有走向幻灭，霍桑最终让她平静地“存活”了下来。白兰在抗争命运的过程中所体现和付诸实践的善恶观念，同样被牢牢地束缚在压制她和造成她如此命运的道德伦理框架之中。布鲁姆说，白兰并不是一个女版的（梅尔维尔《白鲸》中的）阿哈船长，她没有 dying in Promethean and Gnostic defiance of a tyrannical universe, darting a final harpoon into the sanctified flesh of a merely demiurgical creation. Instead, Hester submits, but only in part, and with sublime trust in the coming revelation of a woman yet to be.

这也恰恰是白兰的伟大以及霍桑的高明之处。至少在布鲁姆眼中，那些指责白兰本质上是自我欺骗和她不一致的道德观的人们都是愚蠢可笑的。他承认，She cannot hold together her incompatible impulses, yet she survives an outrageously dreadful societal and erotic context that ought to have driven her either to madness or to suicide. It is absurd for any reader not to learn from her, while speculating again as to the sources of her extraordinary strength of being. 《红字》讲的是一个悲剧故事，但并不是一部悲剧作品，浪漫主义的霍桑其实不在讲述一个与命运抗争但却最终落败并沦为命运玩偶的失败者，他笔下的白兰有自己的主见和信念，从侧面同样体现了爱默生所述的自立精神和美国信仰。There is more to Hester than the storyteller is willing to unfold. 从小说中，我们清楚地看到霍桑对整个美国新教社会在追求自主和尊严的过程中对女性性解放的水火不容的清醒和失望，但正如布鲁姆所说，白兰以自己的方式，比读者甚至比霍桑本人还要坚决地去拥护和捍卫一种更高的浪漫和信仰，不遗余力地 working out toward an impossible integration but toward a stance prophetic of something evermore to be, the possible sublimity of a changed relationship between men and women. 美国自立精神的撰述人爱默生，没有明目张胆地把自己的主张延伸到性别层面，而在布鲁姆看来，甚至连近代的女权运动者们，在思想上也没有上升到和海丝特·白兰一样的高度。他大胆地指出，It may even be that the current literary feminism is destined to become our new or newest Puritanism, imposing uniform ideals upon intellectual women, by again refusing any alliance between their sexuality and their potential antinomianism. 也难怪布鲁姆在一开篇就说，如果我们要为美国新教精神挑选一位“国民女神”，那她非海丝特·白兰莫属。She is larger than her book.

布鲁姆讲述《红字》的四五页篇幅里，罕见地没有引用哪怕一句原文，但却倾注了十足的情感，字字珠玑，毫不迟疑。我认为这也是这本《The Daemon Knows》在开篇惠特曼的几个段落后的又一个高潮。

（无正文）

---

19. On Painting, or Sign and Mark

• The first fundamental difference is to be seen in the fact that the sign is imprinted; the mark, by contrast, emerges. This indicates that the sphere of the mark is that of a medium. Whereas the absolute sign does not appear predominantly on living beings but rather is also impressed on inanimate buildings, trees, and so forth, the mark appears principally on living beings. The opposition between and absolute mark does not exist, for the mark is always absolute and in its appearing is similar to nothing else.
• It is especially striking that, turning up as it does on the living, the mark is so often linked to guilt or innocence; indeed, even where the mark appears on the lifeless, it is often a warning sign of guilt … … The sign, however, appears not infrequently as something that distinguishes a person, and this opposition between sign and mark likewise seems to belong to the metaphysical order.
• But on the other hand, the picture may be connected with something that it is not — that is to say, something that is not a mark — and indeed this connection is achieved by naming the picture. This relation to what the picture is named after, the relation to what transcends the mark, is created by the composition. This is the entry of a higher power into the medium of the mark — a power that, once there, remains in the state of neutrality, which is to say that it does not use any aspect of the graphic to explode the mark but finds its place within the mark without exploding it, because even though it is immeasurably higher than the mark, it is not hostile toward it but related to it.

confer: 授予

25. Some Remarks on Folk Art

• If we ask ourselves what “art” in the modern sense means to folk art on the one hand and to kitsch on the other, the answer would be: all folk art draws the human being into itself.
• As we stand in front of a painting by Titian or Monet, we never feel the urge to pull out our watch and set it by the position of the sun in the picture. But in the case of picture in children’s books, or in Utrillo’s paintings, which really do recuperate the primitive, we might easily get such an urge. This means that we find ourselves in a situation of the kind we are used to, and it is not so much that we compare the position of the sun with our watch as that we use the watch to compare this position of the sun with an earlier one.
• In reality, the world is full of masks; we do not suspect the extent to which even the most unpretentious pieces of furniture used to be masks, too. Wearing a mask, man looks out on the situation and builds up his figures within it. To hand over these masks to us, and to form the space and the figure of our fate within it — this is what folk art approaches us with. Only from this vintage point can we say clearly and fundamentally what distinguishes it from actual “art”, in the narrower sense. Art teach us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things.

26. Chinese Paintings at the Bibliotheque Nationale

• Here is a fact that is at once of utmost importance and somewhat strange in the eyes of Europeans: the link that has been revealed between the thought of a Valery, who says that Leonardo da Vinci “takes painting as his philosophy,” and the synthetic view of the universe which is characteristic of the painter-philosophers of China.
• An essential feature of the image is that it incorporates something eternal. This eternal quality expresses itself in the fixity and stability of the stroke, but it is also manifest, more subtly, thanks to the fact that the image embodies something that is fluid and ever-changing. It is from this blending of the fixed and the mutable that Chinese painting derives all its meaning.

---

IV. PHOTOGRAPHY

• First, and most generally, Benjamin links the emergence of a photograph’s image-world to the way in which photographs — like film and other photo-based media — make possible for us the experience of the “optical unconscious.” … … To put this another way, in the optical unconscious the world presents itself to the photographic apparatus in an aspect different from any it could ever present to the unaided human senses.
• But the optical unconscious clearly entails much more than the revelation of physical and temporal aspects of nature through the use of specific techniques … … They [commodities] are man-made objects that appear to have supernatural or magic powers and as such wield power over humans: commodities have a debilitating effect upon the human perceptual apparatus and intellect … … The photograph aids, in other words, in the process of the disenchantment of the world as it makes visible the effects of magic — unreason — upon human nature and human social interaction.
• The image produced by the camera have a “shock effect” that “paralyzes the associative mechanisms in the beholder.” Benjamin here derives a set of claims from what is most often ascribed to photography as its sole capacity: the ability to capture things “as they are” and in so doing to replicate the apparently fixed, immutable quality of the world in a fixed and immutable sensory apparatus in the beholder.

28. Little History of Photography

• Details of structure, cellular tissue, with which technology and medicine are normally concerned — all this is, in its origins, more closely related to the camera than is the emotionally evocative landscape or the soulful portrait. Yet at the same time, photography reveals in this material physiognomic aspects, image worlds, which dwell in the smallest things — meaningful yet covert enough to find a hiding place in waking dreams, but which, enlarged and available for formulation, make the difference between technology and magic visible as a thoroughly historical variable.
• The peeling away of the object’s shell, the destruction of the aura, is the signature of a perception whose sense for all that is the same in the world has grown to the point where even the singular, unique, is divested of its uniqueness — by means of its reproduction.
• As Brecht says: “The situation is complicated by the fact that less than ever does the mere ‘reproduction of reality’ say anything about reality. A photograph of the Krupp works or the AEG reveals next to nothing about these institutions. Actual reality has slipped into the functional. The reification of human relations — the factory, say — means that they are no longer explicit … … We must credit the Surrealists with having trained the pioneers of such photographic construction.

physiognomic: 地貌; covert: 隐蔽; reification: 物化; culprit:罪魁祸首; augur: 吉兆

29. Letters from Paris (2)

• The theory of painting has split off from painting itself to become a special field of art criticism. Underlying this division of labor is the collapse of the solidarity which once existed between painting and public affairs. Courbet was perhaps the last painter gave answers to problems touching on areas other painting.
• Courbet’s special position was that he was the last who could attempt to surpass photography. Later painters tried to evade it — first and foremost the Impressionists … … The proof was seen around the turn of the century, when photography, in turn, tried to emulate the Impressionists.

guild: 公会; argot: 隐语

30. Review of Freund’s Photographie en France au dix-neuvieme siecle

• “Photography’s claim to be an art was raised precisely by those who were turning photography into a business”. In other words, photography’s claim to be an art is contemporaneous with its emergence as a commodity. This is consistent with the influence which photography, as a technique of reproduction, had on art itself. It isolated art from the patron, delivering it up to the anonymous market and its demand.
• “The greater a writer is,” Plekhanov wrote in his polemic against Lanson, “the more strongly and clearly the character of his work depends on the character of his time, or in other words: the less the element which might be called the ‘personal’ can be found in his works.”

patron: 顾客; polemical: 争论的

---

V. FILM

• The shock-quality of the montage in certain types of filmic image-sequences is crucial for Benjamin because, on the one hand, in their refusal of facile continuity, they correspond to a collective, distracted model of reception that serves as an alternative to the individual absorption and contemplation characteristic of the bourgeoisie’s cult of art.
• … he [Benjamin] argues that concentration on the auratic work enables only the viewer’s absorption into the work, while distraction enables members of the massed audience to absorb the work into themselves. In a telling fragment from The Arcades Project, Benjamin characterizes this active appropriation of the work by the mass audience as a making present of something past: “The true method of making things present is to represent them in our space (not to represent ourselves in their space) … … We don’t displace our being into theirs; they step into our life.”

(The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, by Walter Benjamin)

---

I. THE PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION OF THE WORK OF ART

• ” [Riegl] Man is, however, not solely a being who takes in impressions through the senses — he is not only passive — but also a desiring — that is, active — being, who will interpret the world as it reveals itself to his desire (which changes according to race, place, and time).” Works of art — or rather details within the work of art — are thus the clearest source of a very particular kind of historical information. They encode not just the character of the artistic production of the age, but the character of parallel features of the society: its religion, philosophy, ethical structure, and institutions.

1. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility

• … … whereas the authentic work retains its full authority in the face of a reproduction made by hand, which it generally brands a forgery, this is not the case with technological reproduction … … First, technological reproduction is more independent of the original than is manual reproduction … … Second, technological reproduction can place the copy of the original in situations which the original itself cannot attain. Above all, it enables the original to meet the recipient halfway … … The cathedral leaves its site to be received in the studio of an art lover; the choral work performed in an auditorium or in the open air is enjoyed in a private room.
• … … for the first time in world history, technological reproducibility emancipates the work of art from its parasitic subservience to ritual. To an ever-increasing degree, the work reproduced becomes the reproduction of a work designed for reproducibility … … as soon as the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applied to artistic production, the whole social function of art is revolutionized. Instead of being founded on ritual, it is based on a different practice: politics.
• Art history might be seen as the working out of a tension between two polarities [artwork cult value and its exhibition value] within the artwork itself … … With the emancipation of specific artistic practices from the service of ritual, the opportunities for exhibiting their products increase.
• The state of their [Greek] technology compelled the Greeks to produce eternal values in their art … … Undoubtedly, our position lies at the opposite pole from that of the Greeks. Never before have artworks been technologically reproducible to such a degree and in such quantities as today … … The film is therefore the artwork most capable of improvement. And this capacity is linked to its radical renunciation of eternal value.
• … … the intervention in a performance by a body of experts is also characteristic … … of all test performances. The entire process of film production is determined, in fact, by such intervention … … The film actor performs not in front of an audience but in front of an apparatus … … To accomplish it is to preserve one’s humanity in the face of the apparatus. Interest in this performance is widespread. For the majority of city dwellers, throughout the workday in offices and factories, have to relinquish their humanity in the face of an apparatus. In the evening these same masses fill the cinemas, to witness the film actor taking revenge on their behalf not only by asserting his humanity against the apparatus, but by placing that apparatus in the service of his triumph.
• The magician maintains the natural distance between himself and the person treated; more precisely, he reduces it slightly by laying on his hands, but increases it greatly by his authority. The surgeon does exactly the reverse … … Magician is to surgeon as painter is to cinematographer. The painter maintains in his work a natural distance from reality, whereas the cinematographer penetrates deeply into its tissues.

prognostic: 预后; lithography: 石刻; elk: 麋鹿; countenance:面容; terra cotta: 兵马俑; hieroglyph: 象形文字; inkling: 暗示; clandestinely: 秘密

2. Theory of Distraction

• Just as the art of the Greeks was geared toward lasting, so the art of the present is geared toward becoming worn out. This may happen in two different ways: through consignment of the artwork to fashion or through the work’s refunctioning in politics.

---

III. PAINTING AND GRAPHICS

18. Painting and the Graphic Arts

• We might say that there are two sections through the substance of the world: the longitudinal section of painting and the transverse section of certain graphic works. The longitudinal section seems representational — it somehow contains things; the transverse section seems symbolic — it contains signs.

（无正文）

---

V. WALLACE STEVENS and T. S. ELIOT

• Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Margaret Fuller, and Dickinson do not take as daemon “the exquisite errors of time.” Their genius is to possess and be possessed not by a sense of their own design but by the quest for the face they had “before the world was made” (Yeats).
• In a curious way, Stevens was what Goethe asserted himself to be: “the genius of happiness and astonishment.” … … No one else in American poetic tradition, Whitman and Dickinson included, expresses so well that solitary and inward glory few of us can share with others.
• Emily Dickinson follows Shakespeare in thinking by and through metaphor, while Whitman and Stevens tend to evade even figurative cognition through an intransitive eros.
• Whitman is perplexed and perplexing on the idea of immortality; at his most impressive he conveys the insight that we will survive only in the loving memories of our families, comrades, readers. Stevens shared this mature vision, … …

countenance: 面容; riposte: 还击; sarcophagus: 石棺; jubilance: 欢呼; epiphany: 顿悟

塔拉普萨的星群

石棺里的猫头鹰

---

THE AURORAS OF AUTUMN

• I recite the poem frequently to myself, either silently or aloud, depending on whether I am alone. Possession by memory changes your relation to a poem, longer poems in particular. A sense comes of being inside The Auroras of Autumn, of internalizing its drama within self.
• The Whitmanian accents haunt Stevens’s poem, though their daemonic enlargements are tempered by Stevens’s wariness of engulfment by a precursor who seems always in the American sunrise.
• Swerving from Whitmaninan enlargement into a narrowing of perspective, the unbelieving Stevens sings for the skeptical Santayana … … This is the sublime Stevens I love best, who speaks for the solitude at the center of American being. If you deprecate this is solipsism, then recall Wittgenstein … … : What the solipsist says is wrong but what he means is right.
• Stevens, like D.H.Lawrence, never writes less than superbly when roused by the sun, in this also following Whitman. From start to end, his work is a solar litany.
• Live with Stevens’s poetry long enough and you can get a sense of somehow dwelling inside particular poems.

divulge: 泄露; travail: 劬劳; engulfment: 吞没; wariness: 谨慎; amber: 琥珀; depricate: 贬值; positivist: 实证; smitten: 重拳出击; litany: 一连串; rhapsody: 狂想曲

秋天的极光

致罗马的一位老哲学家

---

FOUR QUARTETS

• Fundamentally, what divides the two poets was spiritual: Eliot longed to believe in the incarnation, while Stevens sought some last remnant of personal nobility, of a possible wisdom.
• When I was younger, this difference between Stevens and Eliot seemed temperamental and a question of taste. In old age, it becomes a question or remaining time, since I teach, read, and write now against the clock.
• Neither Eliot nor Stevens, two remarkably intelligent minds, possessed cognitive originality, a rare quality in major poets: Dante, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and only a few others had it. Eliot turned to mystics and contemplates and to F.H.Bradley for cognitive guidance. Stevens tended to employ Nietzsche and William James, who were not congenial to Eliot.
• Notoriously, Stevens almost always avoids the Whitmanian capital letter “I” and replaces it by “one.”
• Many thousands of admirable students have taught me more than I could impart to them. One admonition I tend to give them is: Learn to say of a poet and a poem that she and it touch upon permanence, and we should recognize this. And yet the freedom of reading well permits saying: Despite this achieved splendor, what is most humane in me just does not allow more than a cold admiration. Stevens has helped me to live my life, while Eliot brings out the worst in me.

incarnation: 化身; remnant: 残余; apotheosis: 神化; idolatry: 偶像崇拜; congenial: 投机

东科克

小吉丁

---

VI. WILLIAM FAULKNER and HART CRANE

WILLIAM FAULKNER

• Most of the American writers studied in this book start with a recognition of the god or daemon within themselves and compose through moving outward: … … On the other side, Twain, Eliot, and Faulkner begin in the outside world and only gradually encounter inside themselves an affirmation of their outward vision.
• Like Balzac and Dickens, Faulkner peopled his own cosmos. All three need to be absorbed as seers of The Human Comedy but also as tacticians of individual dooms. More than with Hawthorne and Henry James, we do Faulkner violence when we isolate a single narrative and weigh it by itself.

misogynist: 厌恶; doom: 厄运; seer: 先见者

---

AS I LAY DYING: DARL

• I confess that Faulkner’s sympathetic yet dispassionate view of Addie hovers outside my ken, but I admire his stoic acceptance. The book astonishes by its veritable apocalypse of fire and flood, heroism and madness, drive beyond the pleasure principle, and its uncanny fusion of farce and pathos. Faulkner, here more than in his other books, bruises the limits of his language in a zest to say what cannot be said, and to see what cannot be seen.

veritable: 名副其实; farce: 闹剧; bruise: 挫伤; zest: 热情

---

SANCTUARY: POPEYE

• Faulkner himself did not see anyone in Sanctuary as evil: For him, even Popeye is “another lost human being.” All of the protagonists — Temple, Horace, Popeye, Goodwin, Ruby — end in a condition of total emotional indifference, a despair so total that to name it apathy or nihilism seems inadequate … … This is Faulkner’s art, that we do care.

---

LIGHT IN AUGUST: JOE CHRITSMAS

• Except for  As I Lay Dying, I take Light in August to be Faulkner’s finest aesthetic achievement … … The sagas of Joe Christmas, Hightower, and Lena are separate stories, and the links between them are minor. But narrative power sustains all three recitals, and each is aided by juxtaposition with the others. The existence of Joe Christmas is a continuous nightmare, while Hightower dwells in an unreal dream, and Lena moves on like the natural process she both exemplifies and enhances.
• Indeed Light in August is the book of Joe Christmas; and yet whenever I recall it, I think first of Lena. Her relevance to the book has been questioned but not by any deep reader of Faulkner. Her serene presence contributes to what can be termed Faulkner’s “ecstasy of the ordinary,” curious moments that are secular epiphanies.

mores: 习俗; epiphany: 顿悟

（无正文）

---

IV. MARK TWAIN and ROBERT FROST

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

• If our literature has produced a single work of universal appeal, popular, and elitist, it must be the story of Huck Finn. There are only a few dissenters … … I do not adhere to this school but agree in a limited way: Huck’s longed-for “freedom” is not natural. Freedom for both Mark Twain and his daemon Huck Finn is the freedom of the storyteller, partly alienated from society and from nature.
• With a Shakespearean detachment, Huck records much of what he sees and hears while saying little in response … … Defining Huck’s character is difficult, in part because he is not a quester striving to attain a goal. Cox sensibly emphasizes that Huck’s journey is “a flight from tyranny, not a flight toward freedom.”
• Twain’s one full-length masterwork is a comedy only because it concludes insouciantly. Of no genre, Twain’s book of the daemon has been creatively misread by Sherwood Anderson and Hemingway, Fitzgerald and J.D.Salinger. To different degrees, they interpreted it as a parable of their own inception and as nostalgia for a lost American dream.

insouciantly: 漫不经心

---

PUDD’NHEAD WILSON

• There is no American Shakespeare or Chaucer, though Whitman comes closest and Dickinson, Frost, Stevens, and Hart Crane approach Walt’s splendor. The scope of Henry James’s writing — fiction, travel, criticism, memoir — astonishes, and invariably his work is superb, yet Tolstoy, Dickens and Balzac have a Shakespearean immediacy that James lacks. Anna Karenina and Pierre, Uriah Heep and Fagin, Vautrin and Goriot, convey an illusion of actual existence so richly textured that even Isabel Archer seems insubstantial in their company. Mark Twain’s triumph in his one great book places him in the company of Dickens and Balzac, though not of Shakespeare and Tolstoy.

---

ROBERT FROST

• Frost principal legacies from Emerson were the double consciousness and the incessant struggle between freedom and fate. For both Emerson and Frost, the pre-Socratic formula held: Ethos is the daemon, character is fate, so everything that happens to you is what you always were and are … … Richard Poirier … … argued with me that my preference for Stevens and Whitman showed a refusal to take choice as being overdetermined.

queasy: 想吐

泥泞时节的两个流浪工

丝绸帐篷

---

A WITNESS TREE

• Uneasiness at elegy is another quality Frost shares with Emerson. Both distrusted mourning for reasons both temperamental and imaginative, related to their shared faith in the double consciousness and in their Ananke, or amor fati.
• Frost’s largeness is not so much in the enigma of his reservations as in his full acceptance of  contingencies so far within us as to hedge any drive toward freeing choice.

recalcitrance: 顽抗; contingency: 偶然性

它的极限

用心良苦的种子

鸟儿的歌唱再也不似从前

---

NORTH OF BOSTON

• The marriage of two people whose surnames are White and Frost engendered in one of the strongest of American poets both awareness and wariness of the trope of blank whiteness he encountered in Emerson, Melville, Dickinson, and his Key West crony Wallace Stevens.
• The daemon dwells in Frost’s desert places and composes the poem for him; Frost knows, with Emerson, that the ruin or blank we see when look upon nature is in our own eyes.

摘苹果之后

只一次，便成真

荒漠之地

---

DIRECTIVE

• Frost was a profoundly pagan poet, and Directive invites its elite readers to a communion with fatal Ananke, the god of contingencies and overdeterminations. This is a cold and clean communion, promising only a Lucretian clarity, a difficult acceptance of the way things are.

monosyllabic: 单音; parataxis: 意合; saturnine: 阴沉的; libation: 奠; pagan: 异教徒

指路

艾米莉·狄金森是本书十二位“恶魔”中唯一一位女性，她在生前几乎过着隐士一般的生活，死后人们通过她的千余篇诗稿才开始惊诧于这名女子的才华。如果你翻开《The Daemon Knows》的目录，想一扫作者是如何选章编排的，你会发现只有 Emily Dickinson 一人的名字下面没有任何其他子标题和章节名称，是布鲁姆想说的能说的不多所以不必划分章节，还是他想说的能说的太多了以至于难以概括成简单的几个词汇。

我估摸着还是前者的可能性更大一点。布鲁姆一上来自己就坦白了：The long experience of teaching Dickinson has been sublimely exhausting: She is the most rewardingly difficult of American poets. 据他的一位导师回忆，每一次布鲁姆讲完狄金森，都会头疼不已。然而作者自己也承认，尽管如此，他如今每一次讲完狄金森后心灵上的震动，和他六十年前第一次授她的课没什么两样。

天才的定义有许多，每个人也有每个人的喜好，但我们仍然可以大胆地拍着胸脯说，狄金森是美国文学史上一位不折不扣的异类。这种感觉不需要通过读太多她的诗来证明，短短四五篇下来，你的感受就会十分强烈了。她的诗句通常都很短，毫不拖泥带水，而且段落间经常会附着短破折号，好像乐谱上的延长音符一样，定眼一看又觉得纸面上的短句是不是会随着这一缕缕横线飞跃起来。尤其是在受过惠特曼诗篇的熏陶之后，狄金森无疑能给你带来一股别样的清爽，甚至有点瑟瑟发抖的凉气。

狄金森的诗句里带有一种鬼魅的诗意——如果我们依然称其是一种诗意的话（诗歌当然无须一定要有诗意）。布鲁姆在评论她的名篇《有那么一道斜光》时说到，全篇用的都是现在时态，可你感受到的却是彻头彻尾的过去。这种幻觉在莎士比亚中也会读到，他说，Shakespeare dramatizes presence, fullness of being now. Of all lyric poets in the language, Dickinson is closest to him. Pathos is the daemon, and personality creates itself through theatricality. 

狄金森和莎士比亚之间可以作比的远不止这些，在她的诗句中能读到和莎翁一样的对自我的拷问，然而需要留心的是，狄金森的诗歌却全不是关于她自己的——这与惠特曼的完全以自我为诗并高声歌唱自我大相径庭。而想必狄金森文字力量也正来自于此。她对自己的字句有着不由分说和确凿而有力的自信，她不会去考虑更别说去迎合读者的想法。我们也很难从她的生平经历去附会和推断出些什么，狄金森的个人生活极为神秘，从她的书信里，很难找到额外的线索，你甚至会以为和诗句中的那个“我”（如果她确曾出现在自己的诗里的话）是两个人。所有的这些，与莎士比亚又是何等的相似。

也难怪总是头疼的布鲁姆这样劝我们：The first principle of confronting and reading Dickinson is akin to what Whitman forces us to accept his poetry: self-conscious, self-affirmative aggressivity against Western literary tradition. Dickinson conceals her furious vitalism beneath a mask of elegant good manners and modesty, but that clearly belies her actual stance of energetic self-reliance. I would argue that she goes beyond Whitman in her aggressive assertion of her own poetic authority and accomplishment. 

说句玩笑话，都说惠特曼把他的手放在你手上的时候，你便成为了他的诗。如果狄金森也做出同样的举动（当然我想这几乎不可能），不好意思，你还是你，她还是她。布鲁姆也说，狄金森和惠特曼，这两位美国最伟大的诗人，都成功抵达了 “the place of the daemon”，但是，他们是从两个全然不同的大门走进去的。

八十四岁的布鲁姆在摘选和品读狄金森的时候一定是饱含深情的。文中多次提到了他已逝去的故友，字里行间充满了岁月和淡淡伤悲。我想，如果布鲁姆是要借这本《The Daemon Knows》来给自己的八十年岁画一个坐标的话，那么上述这种情怀被搁放在讲狄金森的这一章中无疑是再好不过了。她诗句中“你是你，我是我”的那般距离感，在这里倒成了最好的感情容器。布鲁姆说，As losses accumulate, I return often to Dickinson, not for consolation but plainly to propound the costs that confirm aesthetic contemplation. 而作为一位经常拿死亡和不朽作主题的诗者（另一位是惠特曼），布鲁姆把狄金森（而非惠特曼）当作是和他一样看清了什么才是死亡的那个知心人。Love is stronger than death in the Song of Songs; Dickinson is more wistful. She does not entertain anything like Henry James’s fascination with ghostly phenomena, and she shares Emerson’s rejection: “Other world! there is no other world. Here or nowhere is the whole fact.”

作者在一大段穿插了艾略特，叶芝和爱默生的议论中不经意间提到了一位叫 Robert Warren 的好友，他们是忘年之交，通过诗歌和书信相识，而祖孙三代依然保持着联系。布鲁姆说从他身上学到了时光的真正涵义。我个人觉得，这段不长却又深情满满的文字，是本书目前为止所有类似追忆中最精彩的一段。在结尾处布鲁姆是这么说的：

I learned from “Red” Warren as I have from only a few others — Gershom Scholem, M.H. Abrams, Fredrick Pottle — a distrust of my own daemon, or, rather, the necessity of standing apart from it without repudiating the energies upon which I relied. We learned face-to-face, kindled by immediacy. Reading Dickinson yields a similar gnosis.

读一本厚书就像在巨流河中航行，漫长的旅程，时而湍流激荡，险滩密布，时而宽广平坦，柳暗花明。随着布鲁姆的笔触在这十二位文学巨匠中游走，其感受与此别无二致。如果说第一章的惠特曼和梅尔维尔是这条河流的上游——两岸峻岩陡峭，山石林立，河面波涛翻涌，生生不息——的话，接下来的爱默生和艾米莉·狄金森无疑是将这激荡和生命力引向空旷的幽谷，天地之间，坦坦荡荡，不见古人和来者。说老实话，读这两人的第二章不是段愉悦的经历，一位文语晦涩，思辨深邃，一位清新高冷，厉如闪电，（都不是好惹的，也都不是好懂的）。我几乎是只用了一个下午就把这两人匆匆扫完，头也不回地去下一章拜访霍桑和亨利·詹姆斯了。梅奥万豪酒店的地下一层，人眼稀松，不见天日，冷气也比别处足了许多，我耐不住的莫不就是这阴抑与清冷。好在（能开始说人话的）霍桑和詹姆斯终于把我领出了这空山幽谷——正巧我也转移到地面，卡勒旅馆入口处的鹿城咖啡，人来人往——我读到布鲁姆用诗人史蒂文斯《秋天的极光》中一句 “The house will crumble and the books will burn” 品评霍桑短篇《威克菲尔德》和新英格兰区的古宅时，眼前顿然一片坦途，水波悠远平静，远方，似乎还有模糊的村庄牛羊。

先说爱默生，我更愿意称其为思想家而非作家，因为他传世的议论文实在是太多了。事实上，爱默生比前两位（惠特曼，梅尔维尔）都要年长，梅尔维尔常去爱默生在纽约的讲座（尽管文学上梅氏溯源于莎士比亚），惠特曼的文学传统也受到了后者很大的影响（布鲁姆称其比爱默生还要爱默生），而爱默生本人，就如他自己所说，an endless seeker, with no Past at my back，是一个不折不扣的哲学和思辨大师。一开始我还奇怪为什么布鲁姆要把这位前辈屈尊在第二章，既然如此重要，何不开篇就谈？老人家自然有他自己的考虑，但我读到此刻也不难理解了，要真把他列在开头，怕是这本书的读者会少许多。

简单来说，作者笔下的 American Religion，或者我们所谓美国精神，可以用爱默生的一篇名作的题目一言以蔽之：Self Reliance，自立。在本书中，这种自立不仅是文学渊源上的，也是思想上和哲学上的。在惠特曼和梅尔维尔出现之前，沿袭自荷马以来就建立的欧洲文学传统是每一位作家和诗人的必由之路，作者说，Shelley, as classical as Goethe, had the triple burden of anxiety of influence from Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth. A High Romantic English poet joins Homeric tradition not by choice but by contingencies of lasting and personal ambitions. 而自惠特曼，梅尔维尔，和爱默生始，美国文学与欧洲文学的这种关系开始打破和改变，Emersonian American self-reliance is daemonic, as are American self-influence and American self-overhearing. Does that depart from the Shakespearean paradigm of influence and overhearing? 答案是肯定的。而这种自立带有明显的“恶魔性”，不需要借助上帝和神职人员的指示，Neither strangers nor exiles, they celebrate what is most familiar and near at hand … … After Emerson, American makers themselves daemonize.

从哲学上的角度来看，这种自立也可以看作是爱默生将“欧式崇高”的 “vast and awesome” 内化为自我和内心的力量：The Longinian-Burkean-Kantian Sublime can be judged as an excursion into the psychological origins of aesthetic magnificence … … Emerson radically internalized the European Sublime by attaching it to “the God within” the American self.

在讨论《论自立》的一节中，布鲁姆的大段文字里还有一个主角——尼采，（用作者的话说）his rueful disciple, who loved Emerson while never quite grasping him（尼采都没完全搞懂的人就更提不起我的兴致了）. 作者论及意义/意思的来源，并说到爱默生和尼采一样，都是意义/意思的转述者而非创造者（如荷马，柏拉图，丹特，乔叟，莎士比亚，塞万提斯等），他们 “define limits and possibilities for transmitting meanings and then transmitting them into wisdoms.” 在作者看来，爱默生实用地认为根基从来就不存在，而常识才是一切天才的源头。从来就没有权威，而所谓的权威（authority）只不过是一种身份（authorship）罢了。惠特曼在《自我之歌》中的那句 “I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.” 也是这层含义的一个读本。

作者最后说道，Our experience of God, if you travel to the realms of American Religionists, as I did when younger, has little to do with European theology and instead renews ancient shamanisms, Gnostic heresies, and assorted Enthusiasms, Emersonian Orphism included. I have listened to Pentecostals, Independent Baptists, and wild churches of the unchurched, and I heard again and again that these women and men were uncreated and so could not perish. I was told that many in solitude had talked and walked with the resurrected Jesus. In their highest moments, these women and men were a vision. Face-to-face I experienced no skepticism but was overwhelmed by immediacy. I do not think these people would have recognized the names of Emerson and Whitman, but they seemed closer to those American prophets than I could ever be.

在布鲁姆眼中，所有后世的美国诗人身上都多少有爱默生的影子，小说家则不尽然。但是，如果不通过爱默生的视角，你也会很难理解霍桑，梅尔维尔和亨利·詹姆斯笔下的主人翁们的命运和他们所做出的选择。