文/卡迪什·莫里斯 譯/杜磊 審訂/肖維青

American novelist and short story writer John Edgar Wideman, the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction twice, is known for his experimental literary style exploring the African American experience.Eighty years old now, his personal history is full of trauma and tragedy and in this new collection, published 40 years after his first book of stories, there are tales about being Black, being dead and dying, some imagined and some based on his own experiences.

2Most are preoccupied with the concept of time, whether it’s the life sentence his brother is serving in prison for being an accomplice in a robbery turned murder, the 12 days in which his 15-yearold son was a fugitive after killing another teenager, or the hour and a half that he and his brother spend wandering New York’s Penn station looking for each other.Largely these melancholic stories examine the criminal justice system and how it manipulates and suffocates time:“Prisons trips away time.Leaves your body bare, bones shivering...Time shrivels to routine, repetition.Time inverted.Longer a sentence, less time matters.”

美國長篇小說家、短篇小說家約翰·埃德加·懷德曼是首位兩度摘得筆會(huì)/?？思{小說獎(jiǎng)的作家，他以探索非裔美國人生活經(jīng)歷的實(shí)驗(yàn)性文學(xué)風(fēng)格而著稱。現(xiàn)年80歲的他，人生曾經(jīng)充滿了創(chuàng)傷和悲劇。在他的第一部故事集推出40年后，這部新小說集出版，其中有關(guān)于黑人身份、死亡與垂死的故事，這些故事有的是想象出來的，有的則是根據(jù)其自身經(jīng)歷創(chuàng)作出來的。

2書中絕大多數(shù)故事都專注于時(shí)間的概念，無論是他的弟弟因做了搶劫殺人犯的幫兇而在監(jiān)獄中服無期徒刑，還是他15歲的兒子在殺死另一個(gè)少年后亡命天涯的那12天，或者是他和他的兄弟在紐約賓夕法尼亞車站四處尋找對方的那一個(gè)半小時(shí)，都是如此。在很大程度上，這些悲情故事審視了刑事司法系統(tǒng)，也考察了這一系統(tǒng)是如何操縱并扼殺時(shí)間的：“坐牢令時(shí)間停滯，讓你仿佛渾身赤裸無遮，骨頭瑟瑟發(fā)抖……時(shí)間退化為日復(fù)一日的常規(guī)。時(shí)間被顛倒了，刑期越長，時(shí)間就越無足輕重?！?/p>

3One tale, “Atlanta Murders”, featuring two chickens crossing the road, refers to the murders committed between July 1979 and May 1981 in which at least 28 children were killed.Once on the other side of the road, one chicken ponders the semantics of the term “humanely raised”, which it has seen on packs of chicken breasts.“If you know in advance that you are preparing captive, living creatures to be slaughtered and eaten, how in the world can you raise them humanely?” the chicken asks.“Or does humanely simply mean nothing? Except whatever human beings want the word to mean.”

4The other chicken never trusted the chicken eaters’ language; always knew it was a chicken.“Funny you put it that way, sir,” says the narrator.“I always knew I was Black.”

3其中一個(gè)故事“亞特蘭大謀殺案”以兩只過馬路的小雞為主角，影射的是1979年7月至1981年5月間一樁涉及至少28名兒童被害的謀殺案。剛走到路的另一邊，一只小雞就對“人道飼養(yǎng)”一詞的含義思考開了，它曾在一包包雞胸脯肉包裝上看到過這個(gè)字眼。“如果你事先清楚你正在為圈養(yǎng)的活物被宰殺和吃掉做準(zhǔn)備，你怎么可能人道地飼養(yǎng)它們？”這只雞仔問道，“或者說，人道這個(gè)詞壓根兒就沒有任何意義？除非人類希望這個(gè)詞是什么意思，它就是什么意思?！?/p>

4另一只雞仔則從不信任吃雞人講的話；它一直都明白它自己就是一只雞?！跋壬?，你這么說可真有意思。”敘述者說道，“我一直明白我就是個(gè)黑人?！?/p>

5懷德曼并沒有試圖通過敘述故事為囚于牢獄的親人或舊識(shí)開脫罪責(zé)。事實(shí)上，由于沒有那樣做，他最終暴露出了更多關(guān)于他們罪行的細(xì)節(jié)。從探視室里排隊(duì)等候用微波爐的灰暗場景到一名警察將你的身軀壓在城市馬路上時(shí)熒光閃亮的那一幕，這些故事中不同類的痛苦交織出一幅苦難的畫卷。

5Wideman doesn’t try to exonerate the incarcerated people he loves or once knew by telling their stories.In fact, in not doing so, he ends up exposing more details about their crimes.These tales create a tapestry of suffering, weaving together different kinds of pain, from the greyness of waiting in line for the microwave in the visiting room to the fluorescent brightness of a cop pressing your body into a city street.the incarcerated people he loves or once knew by telling their stories.In fact, in not doing so, he ends up exposing more details about their crimes.These tales create a tapestry of suffering, weaving together different kinds of pain, from the greyness of waiting in line for the microwave in the visiting room to the fluorescent brightness of a cop pressing your body into a city street.

6The author’s experimental use of syntax works to shift reality, altering each tale’s narrative momentum.The sentences in “Art of Story” are so sharp they scratch the skin, whereas in “Arizona”—a letter addressed to American soul singer Freddie Jackson, wherein the narrator praises his song “You Are My Lady”, which was playing in the car while he drove his son to his sentencing—Wideman’s conversational prose, curious and vulnerable(“When I hear you sing I remember you were there beside me and here I am now beside you”), feels as though it is searching for a nipple.

6作者對句法的實(shí)驗(yàn)性運(yùn)用起到了轉(zhuǎn)移現(xiàn)實(shí)的作用，也改變了每個(gè)故事的敘述動(dòng)力。“故事的藝術(shù)”中，句子鋒利到了會(huì)刮傷皮膚的程度，而在“亞利桑那”——一封寫給美國靈魂歌手弗雷迪·杰克遜的信中，敘述者稱贊了他的歌“你是我的女人”，當(dāng)懷德曼開車送兒子去受審時(shí)，車?yán)锊シ诺恼沁@首歌。懷德曼的對話式散文，顯得奇特又脆弱（“當(dāng)我聽到你唱歌，我記得你曾在我的身邊，而現(xiàn)在我在你的身邊”），讀來令人覺得像是在尋找安慰的。

7Even in moments of bewilderment,when new questions are painted upon old ones, when Wideman’s stream of consciousness style momentarily mystifies, you are never truly gone, just suspended above a familiar scene, forced to interact with a detail you missed or ignored.This is truly inimitable storytelling.No one writes an American horror story like John Edgar Wideman.■

7即使在一些困惑時(shí)刻，比如舊題未決、新問又起時(shí)，抑或懷德曼的意識(shí)流風(fēng)格瞬間變得難以理解時(shí)，讀者也從未真正地離場，只是懸在一個(gè)熟悉的情景之上，被迫與自己錯(cuò)過或忽視的細(xì)節(jié)交流。這確實(shí)是不可模仿的故事敘述。沒有人像約翰·埃德加·懷德曼那樣來寫一個(gè)美國的恐怖故事。 □