如何“挖掘”被掩埋的巨人

◇ 文|田 東

如何“挖掘”被掩埋的巨人

◇ 文|田 東

這個國慶小長假，得知今年諾貝爾文學獎頒給了日裔英國作家石黑一雄。頒獎詞這樣描述他的作品：石黑一雄的小說富有激情的力量，在我們與世界連為一體的幻覺下，他展現了一道深淵。這個1982年走上文壇的男人，迄今為止發表了七部長篇小說，算不上高產。其中最近的一部、2015年3月推出的《被掩埋的巨人》引發了熱議。有國外媒體稱它“顛覆了西方奇幻文學既定模式”。中國讀者對石黑一雄的文學地位和成就向來是認同的，不過，不同于對《遠山淡影》《浮世畫家》《別讓我走》等作品的評價，《被掩埋的巨人》招致了各種風評。

我很好奇，它到底是個好故事還是“失敗之作”。有意思的是，讀完后發現，這部小說帶來的閱讀樂趣和書名一樣，被作者布下的重重迷霧所深深掩埋，在他展現的那道“深淵”里。

On October 5th, 2017, news came that Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese-British writer, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was described by the Swedish Academy as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world". Having started his literary career in 1982, he has published seven novels so far, and the latest one, The Buried Giant in March 2015, which was referred to as having overturned the existing pattern of Western fantasy literature, has triggered heated discussions. Despite their affections for the author and his previous works, Chinese readers have made controversial comments on The Buried Giant.

With its success doubted by some, I have read the book, only to understand the pleasure of reading it is only buried by the mist the author created in the “abyss” he uncovered.

掩埋者的精彩與失敗

Achievements and Setbacks of the Author

表面上，我所看到的評價不怎么寬容：有的認為石黑一雄力圖拓展寫作類型和推進寫作技巧的野心使得小說敘事稍顯堆砌，一定程度上損失了閱讀的魅力，成了“觀念”的容器；有的指出，《被掩埋的巨人》或許是作者最不給力的作品，不精彩，讀不下去，甚至是“石黑一雄的失敗之作”。

在熬了兩個夜讀完小說、參考了十幾篇石黑一雄的訪談和作品評論后，一個結論越來越清晰——《被掩埋的巨人》并不失敗，當然也談不上不精彩，只是被掩埋起來了，需要挖掘。

“巨人”掩埋者石黑一雄，1954年出生于日本，五六歲時隨父母移民英國，是當代最受矚目的英國小說家之一，與魯西迪、奈保爾一起并稱為“英國文壇移民三雄”。他最早以其含蓄、婉約的筆觸和跨越種族和文化的國際主義的小說著稱，從上世紀80年代開始在英國文壇走紅以來，他一直受到國際重要文學獎項的青睞——

1989年，他憑小說《長日留痕》拿下當年的布克獎；1995年，獲得英國皇家協會的文學騎士勛章（OBE）和法國藝術文學的騎士勛章；2005年，小說《別讓我走》被《泰晤士報》列入1923年以來百部最偉大英語小說；2008年，他被《泰晤士報》列為“1945年以來英國最偉大的50位作家”之一。

在成為一名職業作家之前，石黑一雄曾試圖從事音樂事業，還一度在美國西海岸游歷（你也可以理解為漂泊），就在寫出成名作《遠山淡影》前后，他還在英國一家電視臺從事編劇工作?；蛟S這些經歷使得他的小說時空跨度十分多元化，從戰后的日本到上世紀三十年代的上海，從日暮西山的倫敦到未來的虛構城市?，F在，“掩埋巨人”的時空，則是公元六世紀的英格蘭……

I have seen bad reviews of the book: some claim Ishiguro to have made the work a container of “concepts” by piling up materials due to his ambition to enrich the styles and skills of his writing; others contend it is not attractive enough for them to continue, criticizing it as a failure of Ishiguro.

After reading, I referred to interviews and reviews of Kazuo Ishiguro himself, and that is how I got the conclusion mentioned above: The Buried Giant is anything but a failure, though its charm is buried and needs digging up.

Kazuo Ishiguro, who buried the “giant”, was born in Japan in 1954 and moved with his family to England around fi ve. Recognized as one of the three most prominent immigrant writers, together with Rushdie and Naipaul, he is one of the most celebrated contemporary novelists in England. Noted for his books with internationalism crossing ethnics and cultures and his implicit and graceful style, he has won many signi fi cant international literary awards since 1980s.

In 1989, he won the Booker Prize for his novel The Remains of the Day; the year of 1995 saw him become Officer of the Order of the British Empire and gain Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; in 2005, The Times named Never Let Me Go one of the 100 greatest English language novels since 1923; The Times ranked Kazuo Ishiguro among their list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945" in 2008.

Ishiguro was once engaged in music before his literary career, and he traveled (or roved) along US West Coast. Besides, he once worked as a screenwriter in England as well. Life experience enriched the settings of his writing, ranging from post-war Japan to Shanghai in 1930s, or from falling London to fi ctional future cities. Now, “the burying of the giant” took place in Britain in the 6th century...

掩埋的方式到底有多少

Ways to Bury

公元六世紀的英格蘭，不列顛人與撒克遜入侵者的戰爭似乎走到了終點，兩個族群相安無事地生活了數十年。與此同時，一片奇怪的“遺忘之霧”縈繞著英格蘭的山谷，吞噬著村民們的記憶，生活好似一場毫無意義的白日夢。一對年邁的不列顛夫婦想要趕在記憶完全喪失前找到兒子，踏上了艱辛的旅程。他們渴望迷霧散去，重拾相伴一生的恩愛回憶。但迷霧掩蓋的卻是一個黑暗血腥的過去。記憶與寬恕，復仇與和平，人物的命運不可避免地交織在了一處……

事實上，小說的故事性也被“掩埋”了，這源于作者對語言模糊性特質的熟練處理，和他“偷師”自馬塞爾?普魯斯特的“運動的方法”，即事件與場景的順序并不遵循時間的需要，亦不跟隨某個線性線索展開，而是依靠切線式的聯想或記憶中的奇想，推動小說從一個部分過渡到另一個部分。

據說，作者從開始動筆到最終出版，一共改了11稿，每一次改動，都讓“掩埋”巨人的方式有所變動。

首先，借助“運動的方法”，敘述角度就多次被變換：第一部前三章以?？怂鳛閿⑹鋈?，從第四章敘述人變成了小男孩埃德溫，而后又打亂敘述角度，第三部出現了綠衣騎士高文的第一人稱，還出現了全能的“上帝視角”；最后一章，作者直接跳出來做了敘述人。

這種轉換也構成“迷霧”的一部分，多元敘事空間既豐富了作品的閱讀美感，也不可避免地提高了理解的門檻。

不僅如此，書中多次出現了電影里的閃回場景，更模糊了時空的邊界，讓人霧里看花。比如，綠衣騎士高文的回憶，撒克遜男孩埃德溫對母親的追憶，還有被綁住雙手的小女孩突然出現，以及埃克索和比特麗絲夫婦那些并不清晰的過去等等。“掩埋”巨人的方式還有不少：歷史記憶的重組與穿梭，英國古典文學的多重互文（如綠衣騎士高文），對現實世界的多重隱喻，以及多聲部的復調敘事等。多條線索相互交織牽扯，共同制造出一片迷霧。

At that time, the war between Britons and Saxon invaders seemed to end, with the two living alongside peacefully for tens of years. Meanwhile, “a mist of memory loss” haunted the British valley, eroding the villagers’ memories. Consequently, they were living as if in day dream. An elderly couple started a tough journey to fi nd their son before they completely lost their memories. They expected the mist to fade away and regain their loving memories, but the mist covered a dark, bloody past. The characters’ fates were interwined with memories, forgiveness, revenge and peace...

In fact, the storytelling feature of the novel was also buried, because the author was proficient in handling the phenomenon of the vagueness in language and adopted Marcel Proust’s “methods of locomotion”, which refers to relying on the association or fantasticism to connect each part of the novel rather than arranging cases and scenes in chronological order or according to linear cues.

It is said that the author has polished his novel for eleven times before it was published and the ways to bury the giant were changed every time.

First, the narrative point has been changed more than once on the basis of the “methods of locomotion”. For example, the narrator was changed from Exo to Edwin in the fi rst book. And in the third book, the view of fi rst person and God’s perspective appeared and the author even became the narrator at last.

This transformation is one part of the “mist”, not only enriching the aesthetic feelings of reading, but also increasing the understanding difficulty.

Moreover, fl ashback scenes appeared more than once and the space-time boundary was blurred, making people enjoy flowers in mist. For instance, the memory of Green Knight Gawain, Edwin’s memory about his mother, the appearance of the girl whose hands were tied and the vague past of Exo and Bertice. There are many ways to “bury” the giant: the recombination of historical memory, the multiple intertextuality of the classics of British literature, the multiple metaphor of the real world, and the multiple narratives of multi-voice.The interwined clues have created the mist.

被掩埋的究竟是什么

What Has Been Buried

奇怪的是，本書中文版沒有導讀前言或后記，開門見山便是將讀者帶入迷幻之境的文字。加上“迷霧重重”，故事性虛弱，作者究竟要“掩埋”什么，眾說紛紜。有人說，小說的主旨是關于記憶與遺忘的，有說是關于發現與隱瞞的，有說戰爭與和平的，也有說關乎堅持與信仰的。

“我做了一件15年來我一直想做而未做的事，也就是寫一部圍繞那個問題的小說——何時應當回憶，何時不如遺忘——并將之擴展到一個更大的層面上:一個社會，一個民族，一個共同體?！笔谝恍墼诮邮芎辗翌D郵報專訪時，將《被掩埋的巨人》稱為“一部近乎寓言的作品”。

“我并沒有處心積慮地力求史實精確，也不想尋求任何清晰的道德觀……我感興趣的是，共同的記憶在一段婚姻尤其是一段長久的婚姻中所扮演的角色。”

如果說這些解讀提供了“挖掘”巨人的路徑，那么，作家楊奎則提出了“挖掘”時的心態，那就是抱著一種文學是無用的觀念去讀。比如，今天時光很好，用一個下午的時間讀讀石黑一雄吧，在那個時間里魂游天外，小說的魅力或許就能顯現出來。

楊奎的話和小說開篇第一句有著異曲同工之妙。

“要找到后來令英格蘭聞名的那種曲折小道和靜謐草場，你可能要花很長時間。”

原來，作者早已暗示了讀者“挖掘”巨人的方法。

It’s strange that there is no foreword or postscript in the Chinese version. Readers come into the mist from the beginning of the novel.This novel is mysterious and its storytelling feature is so weak that there is no accurate answer to the question-- what is the author wants to bury? People hold different views about the novel’s theme: some think the theme is memory and forgetting, some believing it is discovery and concealing, some bringing war and peace to the fore while others hold it is about persistence and belief.

“I have done a thing that I have been yearning for fifteen years-- writing a novel whose theme is when to recall or forget and the theme is expanded to a larger scale: a society, a nation and a community.”Kazuo Ishiguro said and he regarded The Buried Giant as “a work that is almost a parable” in the Huffington Post’s interview.

“I didn’t pursue the accuracy of the history or the depiction of morality...Instead, the role of the common memory in a couple’s marriage, especially in a long-time marriage, is what I’m interested in.”

If the interpretation provides ways to “dig up” the giant, then the author Yang Kui has put forward the mentality when “digging up” the giant-- literature is no use. For instance, it’s great to spend a afternoon to read Kazuo Ishiguro’s books and enjoy the charm of novels.

Yang Kui’s words have the same effect as the fi rst sentence of the novel.

“You may need a lot of time to fi nd the winding path and quiet pasture which England is renowned for.

As a matter of fact, the author has implied ways to “dig up” the giant.

How to “Dig up” the Buried Giant

Article | Tian Dong