《哈里波特》对我们无益?

http://www.sina.com.cn 2008年03月18日 09:55   新浪教育

  By now you're asking: "What's he got against these books, they're just a bit of escapism, just a great fantasy?" First, let me make it clear, I'm not here to criticise or praise the quality of JK's prose or inventiveness. They may indeed be the best children's novels ever written. But I'm sure JK would be the first to agree that they are children's books, that they are successful precisely because they appeal so directly to the childish imagination, address the problems and questions of childhood, enact the hopes and dreams of childhood. Now this is a completely different set of questions from those that mesmerise us in adult life. A child is free to wonder about magic, to believe in the clear purity of the struggle between good and evil, to bask in simple, unquestioning friendships. As adults, we deal with the constantly muddled nature of good and evil, we carry a responsibility for the safety of others, we crave success and fear failure, we confront the reality instead of dreams.

  现在你们会问:“为什么他要反对这些书?它们只不过有点脱离现实,只不过是一个精彩的幻想故事而已。”首先我要申明,我不是要批评或褒扬罗琳的文字或独创性,也许罗琳的书的确是曾有过的最佳儿童小说。但我想她会第一个同意它们是儿童书籍,其成功之处正是在于它们直接诉诸儿童的想象,针对儿童时期的问题,展现了童年的梦想和希望。这些问题和成年人生活中的那些麻烦是完全不同的。孩子们可以任意想象有关魔法的事情,可以相信善恶斗争的绝对纯粹、尽情沐浴天真无邪、不折不扣的友情。作为成年人,我们要对付总是泾渭难分的善恶天性;我们要对他人安全承担责任;我们渴望成功、恐惧失败;我们面对的是现实而非梦想。

  And this is why different books are written for these two tribes. When I read a novel, I look to it to tell me some truths about human life--the truths that non-fiction cannot reach. These might be moral, sexual, political or psychological truths and I expect my life to be enlarged, (however slightly, by the experience of reading something fictional.) I cannot hope to come closer to any of these truths through a children's novel, where nice clean white lines are painted between the good guys and the evil ones, where magic exists, and where there are adults on hand to delineate rules. Adult fiction is about a world without rules.

  这就说明了为什么不同的书是分别写给儿童和成人看的。读小说的时候,我希望它能告诉我一些人类生活的真理——非小说类作品所不能触及的真理。这些真理可以是道德方面的、性方面的、有关政治的或是有关心理的,而且我希望我的生命能因这种阅读体验而丰富,哪怕是一点儿也好。我不能指望儿童小说能让我在这方面有任何收获。在儿童小说里面,有清楚整齐的白线画在好汉与坏蛋之间,有魔法、有在场制定规则的大人。而

成人小说中的世界是无规则的。

  I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: "Does everything we read somehow have to improve us? Does even a novel have to 'enlarge' us? Isn't there room for a bit of escapism?" Of course there is! But there is such a thing as escapism for adults. There are plenty of books that have little or nothing genuinely to say about the human condition, but at least they are constructed from the building bricks of adult experience--there are sexual tensions in the evil, there is a dubiety between the good guys and the bad, there is an understanding of complex human psychologies. Even the flimsiest of science fiction or the nastiest of horror stories or the most intricate of spy novels uses this as the mortar to bond together its narrative. There is no such psychological understanding in children's novels: it would be foolish for any children's writer to hope that a child reader would understand, let alone enjoy, such a level of plotting. To read a children's book is not escapism--it's evasion, it's retreat, it's surrender.

  我知道你们不以为然。你们在想:“难道我们阅读的一切都必须对我们有益吗?难道连一本小说也必须能‘丰富’我们吗?难道就不能有一点空间让我们逃避现实吗?”当然有!其实有一种东西是供成人逃避现实用的。有许多的书,其中没有或几乎没有任何地方真正谈到了人类的状况,但至少它们是由成人体验的砖块来构建的——其中存在有害的性焦虑,模糊的正邪界线和对人类复杂心理的认识。即便是最

天花乱坠的科幻小说、最荒唐无稽的恐怖小说和最错综复杂的间谍小说也都用这些元素作为粘合叙述的灰泥。在儿童小说里看不到这样的心理分析:只有没头脑的儿童作家才会认为儿童会理解——更别说喜欢——这种层次的故事情节。读儿童小说不是逃避——是逃跑,是退缩,是举手投降。

  So how do all these grown-ups manage to get through it? Of course, we have all read similar books out loud to our children and enjoyed the experience, possibly enjoyed the book itself--only because we were vicariously enjoying it through them. This is one of the few untouchable pleasures of parenting; to live and relive experiences through your children, whether book or film or music. This is no different from taking them to see the latest Disney--you'll laugh, you'll get into it, you may even have a good time. But would you actually book a ticket to go and see it on your own? Of course not; it might be seen as rather sad, if not downright suspect.

  这些成年人是怎样把它读完的呢?的确,我们都会把同类的书大声念给自己的孩子听并以此为乐,甚至是以书籍本身为乐——仅仅因为我们乐孩子们之乐。这是一种难以言喻的天伦之乐:通过孩子去体验和回味这些东西,无论是书籍、影片还是音乐都好。这跟带孩子去看最新的迪斯尼影片一样——你会笑、会投入地看、甚至会很开心。但你会真的买张票自己去看吗?当然不会。别人会觉得你很可悲,如果不是很可疑的话。

  So why do you read Harry Potter on your own? When the adult crossover first began, I remember a friend who works in the City covering his embarrassment by saying he had got so wrapped up in it while reading to his kids that he had to finish it alone in bed that night. At least, in those early days, he knew it was shaming to read a kids' book. Now we have the appalling spectacle of City brokers and merchant bankers block-booking seats in cinemas for their staff outings. God save us.

  那么,为什么你们自己要读《哈里·波特》呢?当这股成人时尚刚开始的时候,我记得一个在花旗银行工作的朋友说他在给孩子读这本书时被它迷得如痴如醉,以致当晚不得不自己在床上一口气把它读完。他说这些是想掩饰尴尬,至少在早期他还知道读孩子的书不是什么光彩事情。现在却出现了花旗银行经纪人和商业银行家们为员工活动成批预订影院座位的奇观,天啊!

  Is it just nostalgia? For those of us old enough to have been brought up in a largely literary age, where child escapism existed mainly on the page, Potter might be seen as a return to Narnia and Dolittle and Streatfield. It seems as though there has been nothing quite as good since--but that's only because you're supposed to grow out of children's books.

  只是怀旧吗?我们的年纪使我们得以成长在一个文学风行的年代,儿时幻想主要寄托在书本上。对我们来说,波特也许是拿尼亚(英国作家C. S. Lewis的小说《狮王、女巫与衣橱》里的动物王国)、杜立德(英国作家Hugh Lofting 的小说《杜立德医生故事》里的人物)和斯特雷特菲尔德(Noel Streatfeild,英国儿童作家)的复归。从那时起似乎就再也没有能和它们媲美的书了——不过这也可能只因为人们不让你再读儿童书籍了。

  For others, no doubt, brought up in the Star Wars age, it is yet another nostalgic return to England-land. There is no denying that Rowling has gone out of her way--maybe not cynically, maybe by genuine heartfelt choice--to place Potter-land in the traditional English milieu, all green fields and mossy stone quads, something more English than anyone under 80 has ever known.

  对其他人——当然,他们在《星球大战》时代长大——来说,这倒意味着另一种对“英格兰”土地的怀旧复归。不容否认,罗琳特意——也许不是出于讥讽、也许是发自内心的选择——把波特的世界放在了传统英国的环境中。这里处处绿野、石庭苔痕,这一切比所有80岁以下的英国人所熟知的英国更加“英国”。

  Sure, maybe Harry Potter does have all these side values; it's safe, it's England, it's like something we used to read. But get real, please, there is so much good fiction out there, written specifically for your adult age group, written with you in mind. Please, next time, choose that. Don't keep running away from life.

  当然,也许《哈里·波特》的确有种种好处:它安全、“英国”、就像我们过去经常看的什么东西。不过,请现实一点,有这么多好的小说,专门为你们这些大人写的、以你们为出发点的小说。下一次,请选择它们。别总是逃离生活。

本文选自《北外网院》的博客,点击查看博客原文

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