[转帖] [Book] [2011.10.08] The first cut is the deepest 一刀见血

showcraft

http://www.ecocn.org/thread-58937-1-1.html
Joseph Heller and his fiction
约瑟夫•海勒和他的小说

The first cut is the deepest
一刀见血
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10m copies and never out of print
《第二十二条军规》已发行1000万册，且一版再版

Oct 8th 2011 | from the print edition

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Just One Catch: A Biography of Joseph Heller. By Tracy Daugherty. St. Martin’s Press; 548 pages; $35 and £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
《只有一条军规：约瑟夫•海勒传》；作者：特雷西•多尔蒂；圣马丁出版社；页数：548页；售价：35美元；25欧元

LATE in life, Joseph Heller was occasionally asked why he had never written anything else as good as “Catch-22”. “Who has?” he’d reply with a self-satisfied grin. Heller was haunted by the long shadow cast by his absurdist first novel, which has sold over 10m copies since it was published in 1961. But he was also proud, glad to have elbowed his way into the literary canon despite being raised in Coney Island by a poor widow who knew more Yiddish than English. The book earned him notoriety, confidence, a dictionary entry and lots of money. Yet Heller kept writing till he died in 1999, aged 76, each time believing the scribbles on his legal pad could contain the next Great American novel. “Nothing fails like success,” exclaims King David in Heller’s 1984 book, “God Knows”.

海勒晚年时偶然被问及为何没有创作出比《第二十二条军规》更优秀的作品，“难道有人创作出了比它更好的作品？”他反问道，嘴角露出得意的笑容。自1961年他的第一步荒诞体小说《第二十二条军规》问世以来，至今已卖出1000万本，他也藉此享有盛誉。在此之前，他得到的唯一赞许之声来自科尼岛上的一位贫困寡妇，尽管她懂的英语还不如第绪语多。一路跌跌撞撞，最终踏入文学圣坛，他由衷地为自己感到自豪。那本小说让他的名字载入字典，也给他带来了声望、自信，荣誉还有财富。1999年，76岁的海勒辞世，他一生笔耕不辍，从未停止过写作。他坚信，那些便签纸上龙飞凤舞的文字，将会是下一步风靡全美的大作。“没什么比成功后再失败更惨痛的了”金•大卫评论海勒1984年的作品《天晓得》时说。


The 50th anniversary of “Catch-22” has prompted a flood of fresh ink, including a special edition of the wartime farce, an affecting new memoir from Erica Heller, his battle-weary daughter, and the first full biography of the man, “Just One Catch”, by Tracy Daugherty. This is not just a cynical way to cash in on a trusted brand; it is worth remembering that “Catch-22” is indeed one humdinger of a book.

在《第二十二条军规》发行五十周年到来之际，一批于此相关的著作也新鲜出炉，例如战时笑剧特别版的发行；海勒厌战的女儿-----艾瑞克•海勒纪念册的问世；还有特雷西•多尔蒂所著的、关于海勒本人的首部全传记《只有一条军规》的出版。这些书目的发行，并不是向卖座的品牌砸金，不是见机牟利，《第二十二条军规》确实是一部非同寻常的作品，值得纪念。


With its mix of vaudeville slapstick and Kafka-like anxiety, the novel is unlike anything that came before. Heller took war as his subject, but he didn’t write about backslapping brothers in arms. Rather, he wrote about an American soldier named Yossarian who knew his government was sending him to his death, but who wasn’t ready to die. It was a hauntingly prescient look at the senselessness of war, released just as the country was learning how senseless it could be. And he made it funny, too.

这部小说融合了荒诞的闹剧形式和卡夫卡式的焦虑，可谓“前无古人”。海勒虽喜战争题材，但不写军队里情同手足的兄弟。他所写的是一位名叫约瑟连的美国大兵，得知政府派他去送死，但未做好赴死的准备。对于战争无意性的书写流露于字里行间，这种认识具有一定的前瞻性，所以本书一经出版，就引起了全国人民的共鸣。此外，海勒还不忘用有趣的形式把它表现出来。


Heller is a worthy subject, complicated and appealing. He was a difficult father, an unfaithful husband and a selfish friend. But he was charismatic and magnetic, with a wry sense of humour and sexy confidence. His ticket out of Brooklyn was first the draft—he served as a bombardier in Corsica—and then the GI Bill. He followed one degree with another, and spent a year at Oxford as a Fulbright scholar. All the while he wrote stories—derivative short ones—until he realised he needed to stop writing and read a lot more. He “wanted to be new”, in the way that Nabokov, Céline, Faulkner and Waugh were new; “not necessarily different, but new. Original.”

海勒其人值得研究，他即复杂又魅力无限。作为父亲，他难以相处，作为丈夫，他不忠于妻子，作为朋友，他太过自私，但这无法阻挡他吸引大众的目光：嘲讽式的幽默又性感自信。他离开布鲁克林后第一站是在科西嘉岛上当炮兵军士，接着就退伍了；此后又修了两个学位，在牛津做了一年富布莱特法案基金学者。他一直坚持写作，还模仿他人的短篇创作，直到他意识到：该停下笔来，多读点东西了。他“想另辟蹊径”，就像纳博科夫、赛琳、福克纳还有沃一样与众不同。“不需要晦涩难懂、标新立异，但要新颖、要是原创。”


The thrill of this biography is in the years and months leading up to Heller’s breakout book, originally called “Catch-18” (but changed when Leon Uris released his “Mila 18” the same year). It took Heller nine years to stitch together some kind of story, but his book only saw the light of day with help from some brave characters: Candida Donadio, his agent, who was 24 when she saved his manuscript from the slush pile; and Robert Gottlieb, Heller’s wunderkind editor who spent years whipping the book into shape.

这部传记中最有趣的部分，是对海勒的首部大作问世后的年月的描写。那本书原名是《第十八条军规》，但由于同年里昂•尤里斯出版了《米勒•十八》，于是更名为《第二十二条军规》。海勒用了九年时间才把故事拼凑完整，然而这本书得以见天日，还多亏了几位勇者相助：肯迪达•多纳迪奥，海勒的代理商，当年若不是24岁的她出手，手稿恐怕早就被丢进了稀泥管道；罗伯特•葛特利布，海勒的神童编辑，用时多年，才将此书打磨成型。


Mr Daugherty’s biography is a eulogy for a time in book publishing when editors rolled up their sleeves and everyone aimed to create literature. But like Heller’s own career, “Just One Catch” starts to lose steam after his second novel, “Something Happened”, which Mr Gottlieb counted as his favourite. Heller enjoyed being a public figure, making speeches and going to parties. He liked being paid well, especially the record $2m advance for his third book, “Good as Gold”, which came out in 1979.

在编辑们个个摩拳擦掌，都想创作文学的年代里，多尔蒂先生的这部传记曾一度成为图书出版业的颂文。虽然他的第二部小说《烦恼无穷》是戈特利布先生的最爱，但正如多尔蒂在《只有一条军规》中所写，海勒的创作如同他的事业一样---自此以后就走上了下坡路。海勒很乐意做一名公众人物，发表演讲、参加派对。他喜欢丰厚的报酬，1979年他的第三部小说《好似金玉》破纪录的卖了两千多万美元。


Mr Daugherty tries to sustain interest in Heller’s subsequent books, but finds it hard going. He also never quite paints a picture of the man; instead he creates Heller’s shape by filling in everything around him. A novelist and the author of an acclaimed biography of Donald Barthelme, Mr Daugherty is an evocative writer and an acute literary critic. But he relies heavily on Heller’s own memoir and the published observations of others. This book is rich with quotes, but few seem to have come from original interviews.

多尔蒂试着读完海勒的其他作品，但却始终没能坚持下去。他也没有为他绘制肖像，只是把留白部分涂满，显示出他的轮廓。多尔蒂先生不但是一位小说家，还是一位能调动读者情绪的写手、敏锐的文学评论家，他创作的唐纳德•巴塞尔姆的传记颇受好评。但对于这部传记，他多取材于海勒的自传和他人回忆录，所以书中的引用颇多，原访甚少。


By the end of Heller’s life, the reviews were scathing. “There comes a time when an author just can’t write anymore,” gouged one critic about “Closing Time”, a controversial sequel to “Catch-22”. “‘God Knows’ is junk,” complained Leon Wieseltier in the New Republic. No one could forgive Heller for still writing books when his best work was clearly behind him. But for Heller, writing was his life. He couldn’t imagine how anyone survived who didn’t have a novel to write.

在海勒晚年，关于他的评论文章都很苛刻。《最后的时光》是《第二十二条军规》的续本，但饱受争议，某批评家甚至挖苦：“作家也有黔驴技穷、再也写不出东西的时候”。里昂•维斯提耶在《新共和》上评论：“《天晓得》就是垃圾”。海勒后来的作品均不如第一部成功，不免让人失望。但对于他来说，人生就是写作，他也无法想象出写不了小说，还怎么活下去。


from the print edition | Books and arts


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疑惑：
第一段中的 notoriety 着实感到迷惑，为何很突兀地、并且放在首位说 这本小说让他 声名狼藉 ？怀疑是不是作者笔误，还是有别的意思或者故事。

a dictionary entry  猜一下，是他和著作都被大众熟知了？

His ticket out of Brooklyn was first the draft 这一句实在是找不到北了...请高人指点。

Mr Daugherty’s biography is a eulogy for a time in book publishing when editors rolled up their sleeves and everyone aimed to create literature 这个是说编辑们想哪样？毫无头绪。

“Just One Catch” starts to lose steam after his second novel, “Something Happened”, which Mr Gottlieb counted as his favourite. 这句子的主语是 Just One Catch，但后面说的却是海勒的第二部著作，没搞明白句式。



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