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| 2010/07/30 17:04:31瀏覽2798｜回應1｜推薦12 | |
進入閱讀英文小說的世界(2) 我讀完的第二本小說是Mark Alpert 的 “ Final Theory” 作者畢業於普林斯頓大學, 修習天體物理(astrophysics), 雖是典型的科技人, 但他的文筆也挺棒的, 像忍耐已到達極限, 他用 “ my patience is wearing thin.” 另外像 “I’m not as ignorant as I look. I may not have any advanced degrees, but I’m a fast learner.” 也是挺有用的口語。 儘管仍沾染本身專業的色彩, 如 “ He saw nothing but the lacy folds of the universe, curving around him like an infinitely soft blanket.” (他眼 中只見層層的宇宙, 彷彿無盡輕柔毯子環裹著他。) 他還是有那份對美的執著, 享受閒暇的心境, 如 “ To cap off the day, David had brought ice-cream cones from a pushcart at Seven-Second Street, and now father and son were strolling through the sultry June twilight toward David’s ex-wife’s apartment.” (父子倆頂著六月黃昏的悶熱) , 這與他曾在歌倫比亞大學取得藝術碩士(MFA)有關, 本書開始便以緊湊的動作描述, 頗扣人心弦, 挺像電影動作片, 作者不斷強調 “ It’s all about flexibility..” (應變) 及 “ No matter what game we’re playing, you have to be willing to adjust your strategy.” (調整策略), 所以書中重要人物在遇到驚訝(surprise), fury(憤怒)時, 也不易驚恐(panic), 主角David 是教科學史的教授, 卻因過去教他的物理教授臨死前 對他說的一串數字, 開始亡命的奔逃, “ This can’t be happening, He’d spent five minutes listening to the dying words of a physics professor and now he was running for life.” 這中間雖四處險境, 但他均能以機智化險為夷, 甚至利用警察的身份掩飾過關, 重點在於抓住機會, 掌握人性, “ At first he saw only oddness of this chance meeting, but after a few seconds he also saw the opportunity.” 即使 “half a dozen cops stood in front of the entrance” 而且 “ This one is a hard-ass.” (頑固不化) , 他利用皮夾掉了當藉口 “lost his wallet” 但該警員仍問 “ You don’t have any ID on you?”, 最後, “ On impulse, David stumbled closer to the officer and made a gagging noise, a wet guttural Uhhhhhhhh!” 終於, “ Fuck, get this guy out of here” “Come on, get him on the train! “ 就這樣驚險脫逃。 這的確是一部扣人心弦, 情節緊湊的好小說, 紐約時報稱之為“科學版的達文西密碼”可見一般。 記得 Steven King 在他那本” On Writing” 中, 小說及故事包含三部份: narration, description and dialogue. 其中 narration 指的是情節的演變, description 則是為讀者創造感官的實境 (creates sensory reality for the reader; 至於dialogue(對話) 則是靠說話的方式把人物活化 (brings characters to life through their speech), 我們看看作者筆下的國防部長: “ Uh, I’ll call you back,”, Lucille said into the phone.She hung up and dutifully rose to her feet. “ Mr. Secretary, I-----” “Sit down, Lucy. sit down.” He waved her back to her seat. “ No need for formalities. I just wanted to see for myself how the operation was going. The air force was kind enough to fly me to New York.” Great, Lucille thought. It would’ve been nice if someone had warned me. “ Well, we think we have a fix on the detainee. We have information that he’s in New Jersey now and we’re---” “What?” The secretary leaned forward and turned his head to the side, as if he were trying to compensate for a bit of deafness in one ear.. ” I thought you had a guy pinned down in Manhattan. What about all the checkpoints at the bridges and tunnels?” 接著是一段Lucy 的解釋之詞, The secretary frowned. The left corner of his mouth turned down like a fishhook. “ That’s inexcusable. If this were a real army, that officer would be shot. He’d be executed at dawn by the members of his own unit.” 這段對話已讓讀者感受到國防部長強悍的個性與作風, 接著他還拿出一份準備好的編造故事, 準備透露給媒體, 無怪乎Lucy 心想 Keeping the SecDef informed was one thing, but taking orders from him was another. What made this bozo think he could run a law enforcement operation ? 句中 bozo 指的是四肢發達卻頭腦簡單的人。 這的確是挺 精彩的對話。 只是有句話 “ It turned out be be invaluable to his research.” (原文 p.75 )。 順便題ㄧ下, 中譯本(張兵一譯, 奇幻基地出版)譯錯了, “invaluable” 是非常有價值的意思. 卻譯成“毫無價值”(102 頁) 原本以為與神祕理論有關連的ㄧ串數字, 原來是地圖上的經緯度 以及一個辦公室的分機號碼, 當然, 這是個轉折, 利用懸疑的 narration 也是他小說高明之處。 由於小說情境頗多, 各種說法自然應運而生, 像“把油門採到底“ 為 “ to floor the gas pedal” ; “ 打開水龍頭並開到最大“ 是 “turn on the water full force” ; “距離到聽力之外” 可用 “ out of earshot” 。 而像 “ I’m not as ignorant as I look. I may not have any advanced degrees, but I’m a fast learner.” 也是挺有用的說法。 讀到這兒, 回想自己過去讀英文的經歷, 覺得實在很不實際, 大部份教材都流於過於表面式的表達, 加上閱讀量又不夠, 乃至學了些不實用的英語, 尤其口語英語(colloquial English) 格外欠缺, 今潛心力讀英文小說, 感觸格外深。 比如這本小說寫ㄧ個很簡單的動作, “ I’m willing to compensate you for the inconvenience,” David reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of twenties. He peeled off ten of them.” 會難懂嗎？ 其實是, 為了補償對方的不便, David 從口袋掏出ㄧ疊二十元的美鈔, 從中數了十張。 另外像 “ She looked him in the eye.” (她看著他的眼睛), 這種簡單的用法反而讓東方人費解, 就像前面提過的 “我把油門採到底” (I floored the gas pedal.) , 這正是該學的好英語, 別以為單字簡單就沒事, 很多東方人對 “What’s in it for me?” (這對我有什麼好處？) 仍很困惑呢。 Alport 這本小說場景穿梭寫作手法 頗接近 Dan Brown 的 “The Lost Symbol”, 提出的“蟲洞”(wormhole) 理論, 其實早已出現在科幻小說中, 只是他也不碰觸科幻的核心, 仍像站在紮實的科學基礎之上, 留給讀者很大的想像空間, 這種作風也與 Dan Brown 頗為相似。 而能把立體空間的複雜觀念圖 擺在小說中讓讀者驚艷, 怕也是第一遭吧！ |
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