哪位美國(guó)作家最應(yīng)該立傳

Each week in Bookends, two writers take onquestions about the world of books. This week,Thomas Mallon and Ayana Mathis on authors whoselife stories should be told.

每周的書擋專欄(Bookends)都會(huì)有兩位作家談?wù)撚嘘P(guān)書籍的話題。這周托馬斯·馬隆(Thomas Mallon)和阿雅娜·馬蒂斯(Ayana Mathis)討論哪位作家值得立傳。

By Thomas Mallon

托馬斯·馬隆：

Any biography requires raw material, and archivally,Tom Wolfe seems to be a man in full.

任何傳記都需要素材，而從素材的角度講，湯姆·沃爾夫(Tom Wolfe)簡(jiǎn)直是無(wú)所不有。

 

 

Back in September The New York Times carried news about a coming biography of JonathanFranzen. The item surprised some readers because of the writer’s relative youth and mostlyquiet personal life. A public rebuke from Oprah is not nothing, but that alone won’t make for abiography “crowded with incident,” as Lady Bracknell would put it.

去年9月，《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》曾報(bào)道喬納森·弗蘭岑(Jonathan Franzen)的傳記即將面世。這本書讓一些讀者吃驚不已，因?yàn)檫@位作家相對(duì)年輕，個(gè)人生活大體上也平淡無(wú)奇。盡管歐普拉對(duì)本書的批評(píng)非同小可，但僅此也不足以讓這本傳記如同王爾德《誠(chéng)實(shí)的重要性》劇中人物布拉克奈爾夫人所說(shuō)的那樣，“爭(zhēng)議不斷。”

A more likely living candidate for the full life-and-works treatment might be Tom Wolfe, stillyoung in his subjects and style, but at 84 getting up there in years. True, one could say, aswith Franzen, that this writer has put most of his exclamation points onto the page, not off it.A biographer of Wolfe will be reporting on an unscarifying boyhood; a late but long marriage;apparently amiable children; a domestic tranquillity that has supported immersive researchand long intervals between hefty volumes. Even so, several aspects of the author’s long careermake him ripe for scrutiny beyond the modest critical studies he’s prompted up to now.

另外一位尚健在，而且其生平和作品或許值得大書特書的作家是湯姆·沃爾夫。他的寫作主題和風(fēng)格仍舊矯健，但84歲的他已經(jīng)不年輕了。也許我們可以說(shuō)，他如同弗蘭岑一樣，人生最可圈可點(diǎn)之處在于他的作品，而不是個(gè)人生活。沃爾夫的傳記作家會(huì)寫到如下這些：不顯山不露水的少年時(shí)代;晚婚但白頭偕老;與子女們關(guān)系融洽;家庭和諧，令他能夠全身心投入于研究寫作，并且花長(zhǎng)時(shí)間醞釀鴻篇巨制。盡管如此，他漫長(zhǎng)寫作生涯的某些方面仍夠提供了豐富的素材，能夠讓傳記作家突破目前關(guān)于沃爾夫的平淡的批評(píng)研究，進(jìn)行更深層次的探討。

Wolfe has been both in sync with his times — a key figure in the New Journalism that becamethe dominant mode of chronicling them — as well as a figure apart: His conservativeinclinations alone distinguish him from most American writers of his generation. Well intomidcareer he shifted away from nonfiction, glossing his first novel, “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (1987), with a thumping manifesto titled “Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast” (1989). That essayplanted Wolfe’s flag on the social and realist turf he believed the novel had long since foolishlyabandoned. He had made enemies before — an essay called “Tiny Mummies!,” back in 1965,appalled stalwarts at The New Yorker — and his bumptious, commercially successful movetoward fiction renewed his foes’ animus and increased their ranks. I remember John Updikeflashing me a relieved smile the night Wolfe’s second novel lost the National Book Award in1998; two years later Wolfe numbered Updike one of the “Three Stooges” who had failed toappreciate him. It’s hard to have a biography without misbehavior; it’s almost impossible tohave one without feuds.

一方面，沃爾夫與他所處的時(shí)代步調(diào)一致——他是“新新聞主義”的核心人物之一，后者也成為他記錄自己的時(shí)代的首要風(fēng)格;另一方面，他又特立獨(dú)行。單是他的保守傾向就令他與同時(shí)代的多數(shù)美國(guó)作家格格不入。在寫作生涯中后期，他從非虛構(gòu)作品轉(zhuǎn)向虛構(gòu)，繼首部小說(shuō)《虛榮的篝火》(The Bonfire of the Vanities, 1987)之后，又在《潛隨10億只腳的動(dòng)物》(Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast ,1989)一文中發(fā)出擲地有聲的宣言。這篇隨筆讓沃爾夫躋身于社會(huì)和現(xiàn)實(shí)主義陣營(yíng)，他則在此文中批評(píng)美國(guó)小說(shuō)界早已愚蠢地背棄了現(xiàn)實(shí)主義傳統(tǒng)。沃爾夫此前已經(jīng)樹(shù)敵不少——他早在1965年發(fā)表的一篇題為《袖珍木乃伊!》(Tiny Mummies!)的文章已經(jīng)令《紐約客》雜志的大腕作家們震怒不已。而他大張旗鼓進(jìn)軍小說(shuō)，并且在商業(yè)上頗為成功，再次激起這種敵視情緒，并且讓更多的人加入了批評(píng)他的陣營(yíng)。我還記得在1998年，當(dāng)沃爾夫的第二部小說(shuō)在角逐“國(guó)家圖書獎(jiǎng)”功虧一簣之際，約翰·厄普代克(John Updike)向我展露了如釋重負(fù)的微笑;兩年之后，沃爾夫則還以顏色，稱厄普代克為有眼無(wú)珠、未能欣賞他的作品的“三個(gè)傻瓜”之一。如果沒(méi)有出格言行，很難寫出一本傳記;而如果沒(méi)有宿怨，就干脆不可能有傳記。

The editor of this life story will be hoping people want to buy it. Fortunately, Wolfe has the kindof public branding and recognition (the white suits haven’t hurt) that one associates morewith the oft-televised writers born in the mid-1920s, less than a decade before he was — Vidal,Capote, Mailer, Baldwin, Buckley; excellent biographical subjects all. Wolfe has fans: I can recalla Washington arts function some years ago at which a Supreme Court justice waited to greetthe novelist almost as if he were a costumed superhero who’d arrived on the floor of ComicCon. Few writers have cemented phrases into the national lingo, but Wolfe has done that withseveral: “radical chic,” “pushing the envelope,” “social X-rays,” “masters of the universe.”

這部傳記的編輯會(huì)希望讀者對(duì)它趨之若鶩。幸運(yùn)的是，沃爾夫與那些經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)在電視上、生于1920年代中期的著名作家——包括戈?duì)?middot;維達(dá)(Gore Vidal)、杜魯門·卡波蒂(Truman Capote)、諾曼·梅勒(Norman Mailer)、詹姆斯·鮑德溫(James Baldwin)和威廉·F·巴克利(William F Buckley)等人，他們都是絕佳的傳主——具有類似的公眾品牌和知名度(他標(biāo)志性的白色西裝也增色不少)。沃爾夫有大批擁躉：我記得多年前在華盛頓一個(gè)文藝界聚會(huì)上，一位最高法院法官等待迎接他，就好像動(dòng)漫粉絲們?cè)趪?guó)際動(dòng)漫展上迎接身穿制服的超級(jí)英雄一樣。沒(méi)有幾位作家能像他一樣把文學(xué)語(yǔ)言引入全民的日常會(huì)話，比如radical chic(“與激進(jìn)派人物交往的時(shí)尚”)、pushing the envelope(“挑戰(zhàn)極限”)、social X-rays(“社交X光”)、masters of theuniverse(“時(shí)空的主宰”)等等。

Any biography requires raw material, and archivally Wolfe seems to be a man in full. The NewYork Public Library has lately paid more than $2 million for a collection of the writer’s paperssaid to contain, along with notebooks and manuscripts, over 10,000 letters. The senders andrecipients prove Wolfe a busy, connected creature, a figure in the sort of social tapestry heconsiders to be the novel’s real business.

任何傳記都需要素材，而從素材的角度講，湯姆·沃爾夫簡(jiǎn)直是無(wú)所不有。最近，紐約公共圖書館以200多萬(wàn)美元購(gòu)入了一批他的文件，據(jù)稱包括筆記本、手稿和一萬(wàn)多封信件。信件的收發(fā)人顯示沃爾夫的社交生活異常活躍豐富，就是他自己的小說(shuō)熱衷于描寫的那種社交人物。

I greet the announcement of new fiction by lower-key, ultimately greater artists — let’s sayWilliam Trevor or Alice Munro — with a different, if no less keen, sort of pleasure. But I feel nourgent desire for a biography of either one of them. They’ve earned their privacy through akind of exquisite circumscription, the deep, career-long exploration of individual psychologiesin remote precincts. Wolfe, by contrast, has looked for life above the fold and at high decibellevels — on the frantic trading floor, in clamorous courthouses, amid the roar of rockets andracecars. It makes sense for his own life to wind up as a chronicle with an index.

每當(dāng)那些低調(diào)但又不失偉大的作家——例如威廉·特里弗(William Trevor)和愛(ài)麗絲·門羅(Alice Munro)有新著問(wèn)世，我都會(huì)頗為欣慰，但這是一種不同的愉悅感：如果有人為上述兩位作家立傳，我可沒(méi)什么興趣讀。他們?cè)缫淹ㄟ^(guò)微妙的自我定位，通過(guò)多年來(lái)在陌生領(lǐng)域的對(duì)個(gè)人心理的深刻探索，贏得了他們的隱私權(quán)。而沃爾夫則不同，他熱衷于描寫名利場(chǎng)，在那些萬(wàn)眾矚目的喧囂場(chǎng)景中探究人生——混亂忙碌的股票交易大廳、人聲鼎沸的法庭，噪音震耳欲聾的火箭發(fā)射場(chǎng)和賽車場(chǎng)等等。所以，他自己的人生成為一部精心編撰的歷史，也不足為奇。

Thomas Mallon’s eight novels include “Henry and Clara,” “Bandbox,” “Fellow Travelers” and“Watergate,” a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has also published nonfiction aboutplagiarism (“Stolen Words”), diaries (“A Book of One’s Own”), letters (“Yours Ever”) and theKennedy assassination (“Mrs. Paine’s Garage”), as well as two books of essays. His workappears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and other publications. A recipient of theVursell prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for distinguished prose style, he iscurrently professor of English at George Washington University.

托瑪斯·馬隆的八部小說(shuō)包括《亨利與克拉拉》(Henry and Clara)《同途旅人》(Fellow Travelers)和《水門》(Watergate)，后者入圍國(guó)際筆會(huì)/?？思{獎(jiǎng)最終候選名單。他的非虛構(gòu)作品還包括關(guān)于抄襲的文章《被盜的文字》(Stolen Words)，日記《自己的一本書》(A Book of One’s Own)和關(guān)于刺殺肯尼迪事件的文章《佩恩夫人的車庫(kù)》(Mrs. Paine’s Garage)，另外還有兩本散文合集。他的作品曾發(fā)表在《紐約客》、《大西洋月刊》等期刊上。他曾獲得美國(guó)藝術(shù)暨文學(xué)學(xué)會(huì)表彰優(yōu)秀散文風(fēng)格的Vursell獎(jiǎng)。他目前在喬治·華盛頓大學(xué)擔(dān)任英文教授。

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By Ayana Mathis

阿雅娜·馬蒂斯：

Albert Murray was a man of great accomplishments and not nearly the renown he ought tohave had.

阿爾伯特·穆瑞(Albert Murray)的卓越成就和他的名氣不成正比。

You may not have heard of Albert Murray. You might not own any of his 12 books or have satin on any of his lectures at Columbia or Emory University. You may have entirely missed the lifeand work of an inimitable novelist, cultural critic, and jazz and blues scholar — I certainly did.

你可能沒(méi)有聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)阿爾伯特·穆瑞;他的12本著作，你可能一本也沒(méi)有買過(guò);他在哥倫比亞和埃默里大學(xué)的講座，你可能一次也沒(méi)去聽(tīng)。你可能完全錯(cuò)過(guò)了一位獨(dú)特的小說(shuō)家、文化評(píng)論家、爵士樂(lè)和藍(lán)調(diào)研究者的生活和作品——就跟我一樣。

Albert Murray died at 97 on Aug. 18, 2013. He was a man of great accomplishments and notnearly the renown he ought to have had. Which isn’t to say he was obscure; the people whoknew Murray loved him. They loved him so much that his memorial service was held at Jazz atLincoln Center, which he helped found alongside Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch. JudithJamison, the former artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was there,along with Crouch and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Not to mention the publishing luminaries SonnyMehta and Erroll McDonald. And, in the jazz-funeral style Murray deserved, Marsalis ended thememorial by marching his band out of the auditorium playing “Didn’t He Ramble.”

阿爾伯特·穆瑞于2013年8月去世，享年97歲。他成就卓越，卻并沒(méi)有與之匹配的名聲。這倒并不是說(shuō)他默默無(wú)名——認(rèn)識(shí)他的人都非常喜歡他。出于對(duì)他的喜愛(ài)，親朋好友們?cè)诹挚现行牡木羰繌d為他舉辦了追悼會(huì)。而這一演出場(chǎng)所是穆瑞和溫頓·馬沙利斯(Wynton Marsalis，小號(hào)演奏家，林肯中心爵士樂(lè)團(tuán)藝術(shù)總監(jiān)——譯注)還有斯坦利·克勞奇(Stanley Crouch，詩(shī)人、爵士樂(lè)評(píng)家)一起促成創(chuàng)建的。出席追悼會(huì)的有“阿爾文·艾麗美國(guó)現(xiàn)代舞團(tuán)”的前藝術(shù)總監(jiān)朱迪斯·杰米森(Judith Jamison)、克勞奇和小亨利·路易斯·蓋茨(HenryLouis Gates Jr.，哈佛大學(xué)教授，美國(guó)黑人問(wèn)題研究專家—譯注)，當(dāng)然還有索尼·梅塔(Sonny Mehta)和艾洛爾·麥克唐納德(Erroll McDonald)這樣的出版界名流。 追悼會(huì)由馬沙利斯帶領(lǐng)他的樂(lè)隊(duì)演奏著《他到處游逛》(Didn’t He Ramble)走出演奏大廳而收?qǐng)觥Ｄ氯鸬囊簧耆涞蒙线@個(gè)爵士味十足的追悼會(huì)。

Here is a crash course in Murray: He was the author of a memoir, four novels, several booksabout the blues that are at once scholarly and down-homey, and a few volumes of culturalcriticism. Ah, yes, and a collection of poetry that includes a poem about William Faulkner I’ddare anyone to top. Ralph Ellison was a dear friend of his. The painter Romare Bearden was afriend, too. Murray and Bearden entered into an artistic collaboration that yielded Bearden’sseries “The Block,” inspired by the view from Murray’s balcony in Harlem. Murray hung out withJames Baldwin in Paris in the 1950s. He was the co-writer of Count Basie’s autobiography.The National Book Critics Circle gave him a lifetime achievement award in 1997. Duke Ellingtoncalled him “the unsquarest man I know.” During his college days, he spent a night at MaRainey’s house; in his memoir, “South to a Very Old Place,” he describes sleeping in her “red-velvet-draped, tenderloin-gothic, incense-sultry sickroom.”

穆瑞的生平簡(jiǎn)介如下：他寫了一部回憶錄，四部小說(shuō)，幾部關(guān)于藍(lán)調(diào)音樂(lè)的既富于學(xué)術(shù)價(jià)值而又平易近人的著作，還有幾本文化評(píng)論的作品。對(duì)了，他還出版過(guò)一本詩(shī)集，里面有一首關(guān)于威廉·福克納(WilliamFaulkner)的詩(shī)，我敢打賭沒(méi)有任何人能夠超越。拉爾夫·埃里森(Ralph Ellison, 美國(guó)當(dāng)代黑人作家)和畫家羅米爾·比爾登(Romare Bearden)都是他的好朋友。 穆瑞在哈萊姆住處的陽(yáng)臺(tái)景觀是比爾登《街區(qū)》系列的靈感來(lái)源——這可以說(shuō)是兩位好友之間的一次藝術(shù)合作。穆瑞在50年代的巴黎還和詹姆斯·鮑德溫過(guò)從甚密。他是“貝西伯爵”(William James "Count" Basie 爵士音樂(lè)家——譯注)自傳的合著者。美國(guó)國(guó)家書評(píng)圈在1997年授予他終身成就獎(jiǎng)。艾靈頓公爵說(shuō)他是“我所認(rèn)識(shí)的人中最特立獨(dú)行的”。上大學(xué)的時(shí)候，穆瑞在芮妮大媽(Ma Rainey, 美國(guó)藍(lán)調(diào)歌手，被譽(yù)為“藍(lán)調(diào)之母”——譯注)的家中度過(guò)一晚。在他的回憶錄《向南重游舊地》(South to a Very Old Place)中，他描述了睡在她“紅絲絨窗簾遮擋，彌漫著厚重香薰的病房，這哥特風(fēng)格房間有著牛里脊般的質(zhì)感”。

Murray didn’t publish his first book until he was in his 50s, and then he spent the rest of his lifemaking up for lost time. That first book, “The Omni-Americans,” argued for a wider conceptionof American identity that acknowledged the centrality and profundity of black culture. Murraymaintained that America is so mingled as to be “a mulatto culture” (a startling reappropriationof the term). His ideas struck some as too integrationist and earned Murray more than a fewenemies. But as Henry Louis Gates Jr. points out in “King of Cats,” his 1996 New Yorker profileof Murray, “in Murray’s hands, integration wasn’t an act of accommodation but an act ofintrojection.”

穆瑞直到50多歲才出版了他的第一本書。這之后他著作不斷，像是在彌補(bǔ)之前的沉寂。在這第一本書《綜合美國(guó)人》(The Omni-Americans)中，穆瑞提出，美國(guó)身份的概念應(yīng)該更加寬泛，這一概念應(yīng)該正視黑人文化的中心地位和深度。穆瑞堅(jiān)稱美國(guó)種族混雜，是一個(gè)“黑白混血文化”(穆瑞令人吃驚地重新使用了“黑白混血文化”這一說(shuō)法)。他的觀點(diǎn)在一些人看來(lái)過(guò)于強(qiáng)調(diào)融合，從而為他招致了不少敵人。而小亨利·路易·蓋茨在1996年為《紐約客》撰寫的題為《貓王》的穆瑞人物特寫中指出，“在穆瑞筆下，融合并不是適應(yīng)外界，而是一種不自覺(jué)地把外面的東西拿來(lái)為我所用的過(guò)程。”

Visionary though he was, Murray wasn’t right about everything — and certainly his polemicsagainst the likes of Richard Wright and James Baldwin rightfully stuck in more than a few craws— but his work reveals a nuanced and agile thinker, and his prose is transcendent. When itcomes to the blues, Murray’s expertise is undeniable. With characteristic brio, his seminal“Stomping the Blues” explores that music as the African-American idiom through which thespirit, mood and variety of black experience finds expression.

盡管頗有遠(yuǎn)見(jiàn)，穆瑞并不總是正確的。他與理查德·懷特(Richard Wright)、詹姆斯·鮑德溫(James Baldwin)和其他一些人的論戰(zhàn)觸怒了不少人，而對(duì)此他并不能為自己開(kāi)脫。但是他的作品細(xì)致入微，思維敏捷。他的文字也極為精妙。在談?wù)撍{(lán)調(diào)音樂(lè)時(shí)，誰(shuí)都不能否認(rèn)穆瑞的專業(yè)知識(shí)。在他影響深遠(yuǎn)的《頓足藍(lán)調(diào)》(Stompingthe Blues)中，穆瑞以特有的生動(dòng)筆觸探討了藍(lán)調(diào)音樂(lè)和“頓足”這一美國(guó)黑人俚語(yǔ)之間的關(guān)系，而兩者都充分表達(dá)了黑人生活的神髓和多樣性。

I’ve saved my favorite for last: Murray’s first novel, “Train Whistle Guitar,” an autobiographicalcoming-of-age story set in his native Alabama. His style was heavily influenced by the languageof the South and by the jazz and blues he loved. His sentences dive and soar, they vibratewith word play and hum with lyricism.

我把我最喜愛(ài)的留到了最后。穆瑞的第一本小說(shuō)《火車，口哨，吉他》(Train Whistle Guitar)是一步自傳性質(zhì)的成長(zhǎng)小說(shuō)。故事發(fā)生在他的家鄉(xiāng)阿拉巴馬州。他的文風(fēng)很大程度上受到了美國(guó)南方語(yǔ)言和他所喜愛(ài)的爵士樂(lè)和藍(lán)調(diào)的影響。他的句子跌宕起伏，充滿了文字游戲，讀起來(lái)就像歌詞那樣韻律有致。

Murray had a phrase he used often in his work: “the also and the also.” He used this asshorthand for the relatedness of things, and the complexities — and challenges — in thatrelatedness. He used it to evoke the multivalence of cultural memory, of blues and jazz musicand of American identity itself. Murray seems more relevant now than ever. If this isn’t amoment in which we could all benefit from an encounter with a little “also and also,” I don’tknow what is.

在他的作品中，穆瑞常用“諸如此類”這一短語(yǔ)來(lái)概括事物之間的關(guān)聯(lián)性，以及關(guān)聯(lián)性之中的復(fù)雜和質(zhì)疑。他用這一短語(yǔ)來(lái)描述文化記憶，藍(lán)調(diào)和爵士樂(lè)以及美國(guó)身份本身的多種意義。這樣看來(lái)，穆瑞的思想在現(xiàn)在意義尤其相關(guān)。在這個(gè)時(shí)節(jié)點(diǎn)，我們所有人都能從穆瑞的“諸如此類”之中獲利。

Ayana Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the 2014-15 NewYork Public Library’s Cullman Center Fellowship. “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie,” her first novel,was a New York Times Bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, one of NPR’sBest Books of 2013 and was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as the second selection for Oprah’sBook Club 2.0. Ayana taught Creative Writing at The Writer’s Foundry MFA Program at St.Joseph’s College, Brooklyn. She is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at theIowa Writers’ Workshop.

阿雅娜·馬蒂斯畢業(yè)于艾奧瓦大學(xué)作家坊，獲得過(guò)2014-2015年紐約公共圖書館Cullman中心獎(jiǎng)金。她的第一部小說(shuō)《海蒂的12個(gè)部落》(The Twelve Tribes of Hattie)曾登上《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》暢銷書榜單，獲得《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》年度優(yōu)秀圖書獎(jiǎng)，美國(guó)公共廣播電臺(tái)2013最佳圖書獎(jiǎng)，并登上歐普拉·溫弗雷(Oprah Winfrey)的“歐普拉圖書俱樂(lè)部2.0”圖書榜單。她在布魯克林圣約瑟夫?qū)W院作家培訓(xùn)MFA班教授創(chuàng)意寫作，并擔(dān)任艾奧瓦大學(xué)作家坊的英文與創(chuàng)意寫作副教授。