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| 2010/07/30 16:59:34瀏覽1907｜回應0｜推薦4 | |
倒不是懶惰使然, 而是因為不斷有新書出現, 往往在一本書未看完之前, 又忍不住喜新厭舊, 家中書籍不斷氾濫, 基於對知識的喜愛與熱衷, 讀的書自然以非小說(non-fiction)居多, 記憶中第一本完全看完的小說 居然是Dan Brown 的 “The Lost Symbol” , 內心感到非常充實, 也開始思考學習語言的過程中, 閱讀小說究竟有多大的裨益。 我的想法是, 小說中有不少情境式對話, 應該是學習口語英語(colloquial English) 的好來源, 當然, 小說中也有不少描述文字, 這部份恐怕較不易抓住意思, 記得剛開始閱讀 Dan Brown 的“The Lost Symbol” 的確覺得不輕鬆, 其後越來越能抓住內容, 可能與過去我讀的文章偏重知識性較多有關, 小說的文字自然較不易抓住重點, 而時空場景的轉換更是小說家常用的高明手法, 必需牢牢地跟上才行。 Dan Brown 這本小說 “The Lost Symbol” 從頭到尾均以頗懸疑的方式 引領讀者熱切的向前衝, 期待, 猜測, 百轉千廻, 途中出現瑰麗人類文化的深邃圖像, 道出古籍中讓人驚歎的諸多巧合, 尾聲卻以回歸圓融的方式劃上休止符。 在進入小說世界之前, 作者先引用一句亙古的教誨 “活在這世上卻不明暸世界的意義, 就像在大圖書館裡遊蕩卻不碰書。 ”(They live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.” 而序幕(prologue)拉開時, 作者寫的是“The secret is how to die. Since the beginning of time , the secret had always been how to die.” 接著我們看“ Outside the window the sun had set, but Langdon could still make out the slender silhouette of the world ‘s largest obelisk, rising on the horizon like the spire of an ancient gnomon. The 555-foot marbled-faced obelisk marked this nation’s heart. All around the spire, the meticulous geometry of streets and monuments radiated outward. ” 這段文字其實也是伏筆, 巨大obelisk(方尖碑)的剪影, 矗立於地平線上 像古代日晷(ancient gnomon)的 指針, 寫街道如精緻幾何狀向外輻射分布, 前面描寫巴黎街道則採 “ Far beneath them, the streets of Paris stretched out in all directions.” 簡練的文筆表露無餘： “The cold January air felt liberating.” (元月的冷空氣讓人精神為之一振）; “ A heavy mist hovered on the surface.” (河面上飄著濃霧）; “The blackness engulfing Katherine Solomon felt absolute.” (吞沒Katherine Solomon 的黑暗是如此的深邃)。 不把死亡當成無奈的終點, 卻先為它蒙上一層神祕的面紗, 當神化(Apotheosis) 這觀念在21章出現之際, 作者已把讀者的希冀帶往關於生死的思緒, 尤其作者又提到科幻小說大師 Arthur C. Clarke 的話 ”任何夠先進的科技都跟魔法差不多。 ” (Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” 112章更利用1989年的科幻電影”無底洞” （The Abyss)中使用過的真實科技 TLV(Total Liquid Ventilation), 即”全液態呼吸術, 營造一段男主角溺死的驚險場景, 不愧是驚悚大師。 只是以為將走入科幻情節的讀者, 最後仍硬生生的被拉回現實世界中。 畢竟這不是Indiana Jones 的冒險故事。 有些英文用得挺俐落的, 像 “Katherine almost choked on the tea.” (差點被茶嗆到) ; “ A Mason with family money, interested in philanthropy and ancient mythology.” (家裡有錢又對慈善與古代神話有興趣）; “ We’re understaffed.” (我們人手不足）; “ deafening silence” (出奇的沈默) ; “ It was a long time ago, but I’ll never forget that he demanded a pyramid.” 這句子值得仔細注意, 句中的金字塔是台小尺寸, 大理石所造, 頂石(capstone)則是黃金所打造, 指當事人永遠不會忘記該件事。 白眼則為 roll the eyes。 有一句 “ His jaw clenched as his memory began replaying the scene from that cold morning, years ago in Cambridge.” (p.101) 他用 replaying 這個字, 至少是影音科技時代後的選擇, 比擬記憶可以像科技產品般廻帶重聽, 但這個字早也進入字典的例句中, 如 Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary “ That night I replayed the conversation in my mind.” (= I thought carefully about what had been said about the conversation.) 該字典以括號加註, 當然是認為有此必要, 無怪乎該字典編輯在前言(preface)中提到 “the real heart of the dictionary is its examples.” 而那些例句, 有些是取自英美文學名家的作品 (A few of them are quotations taken from well-known works of American and British literature), 但是大部分是自造的句子(make-up examples), 即使如此, 所造句子仍仔細推敲其真實與準確性, 絕不閉門造車(based on evidence of real English, that have been carefully written to show words being used in appropriate contexts which accurately reflect their uses in actual speech and writing.) 再加上該字典使用簡單字來詮釋各關鍵字 (The definitions of this dictionary are written in simple language.), 使用起來當然非常順手。 對於研究符號學如此深入的丹布朗而言, 單單33這個數字, 就能讓讀者嘆為觀止, “ It was no coincidence that Christians were taught that Jesus was crucified at age thirty-three, despite no real historical evidence to that effect. Nor was it coincidence that Joseph was said to have been thirty-three when he married the Virgin Mary, or that Jesus accomplished thirty-three miracles, or that God’s name was mentioned thirty-three times in Genesis, or that , in Islam, all the dwellers of heaven were permanently thirty-three years old.” 這些難道都是巧合？ 然而連華盛頓紀念碑頂石的重量也插上一腳 實在也太匪宜所思了 (the capstone of the Washington Monument weighed precisely thirty-three hundred pounds!) 133章打出諾大的巨浪, 不管女主角Katherine的解釋是如何驚世駭俗, 總比不上 “ Our physical bodies have evolved over the ages, but it was our minds that were created in the image of God. We’ve been reading the Bible too literally. We learn that God created us in his image, but it’s not our physical bodies that resemble God, it’s our minds.” 無論如何, “ 掩蓋的事, 沒有不露出來的; 隱藏的事, 沒有不被人知道的。 “ (Nothing hidden that will not be made known, nothing is secret that will not come to light.) |
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