Chapter 18: Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists

1 總結(jié)

*As a reviewer your job is more to report than to make an aesthetic judgment.

評論和批評的最大不同在于：評論在于轉(zhuǎn)述事實，批評在于美學(xué)鑒賞。

評論：

1. Critics should like or better still love the thing they write about.

批評家應(yīng)該喜歡甚至是愛他們所批評的對象。（前面的write with gusto/zest）

2. Don't give away too much.

不要有太多劇透。寫到讀者能決定是否要去看就行。（控制好自己，don't overexplain)

3. Use specific detail.

評論文章不要泛泛而談，要用例子來支撐。（Joseph Losey的兩個電影評論，前者用了許多描述性的詞：civilized, restrained, vulgarity, bloodlessness, taste.讀完我們只對這部電影的基調(diào)有個大致的印象：保守。但是第二個評論用了portents, lampshades, meaning, table setting這樣的具體和抽象結(jié)合的詞，我們知道了這部電影的布景有什么，還知道它會從生活中最普通的東西上尋找深層次的意義，讀者就有了畫面感。）

“Put your readers in your theater seat. Help them to see what you saw.” 讓讀者有身臨其境之感。

4. Avoid the ecstatic adjectives.

不要用與文章不相稱的華麗(ecstatic, florid)的詞，這會使文章顯得不流暢，大喘氣(panting prose)似的。好的評論文章應(yīng)該是簡潔生動(lean and vivid)的。

批評：

1. Steep in the literature of the medium you hope to make your specialty.

要成為批評家，首先要充分了解批評對象及行業(yè)的前世今生。這有兩個層面：橫向 - 同領(lǐng)域的作品；縱向 - 該作家或藝術(shù)家的其他作品。有了充分的知識儲備，在點評新的戲劇作品才能看出來它們是先驅(qū)還是模仿。

2. Generate a provocative idea and leave the intellectual fun for your readers to savor it.

如果批評的對象是大眾很熟悉的作品，就不要做介紹了?？梢蕴岢鲆粋€引人思考的觀點，在接下來的文章中詳細說明你是如何得出這個結(jié)論的。讀者會享受這個自己思考和看別人是如何思考的過程。

3. The best criticism should be stylish, allusive and disturbing.

談到電視舉了越南戰(zhàn)爭的例子，其中用鑰匙孔來切入，說明公眾看到的不是全部的事實。由這個例子引出Zinsser的觀點：批評家應(yīng)該要傳播真相，或者讓人們重新審視所謂的真相 (disturbing)。

4. Avoid terminology.

舉Toscanini的例子說明不使用術(shù)語的文章也可以寫得精彩。

5. Make an immediate effort to orient your readers to the special world they are about to enter.

好的批評一開始就要表明自己的態(tài)度，提醒讀者她們眼前的文章要寫什么。

*不論是評論還是批評文章，歸根結(jié)底都要體現(xiàn)作者的態(tài)度和觀點（But what is common to all the forms is that they consist of personal opinion），不要害怕說出自己的想法（Take your stand with conviction）。

2 Thoughts

1. They will discern more symbolism in Ibsen than Ibsen thought of.

哈哈哈哈，這不就是高考語文閱讀嗎？高中的閱讀和大學(xué)的戲劇賞析簡直是想象力瘋狂滋長的時候……

2. It's far easier to bury Caesar than to praise him ...

把贊美說的不落俗套才考驗真功夫，自己有時候經(jīng)常就不會稱贊，還會說：一個“好”字就包含了一切。

3. 一直以來我都認為first-hand的資料是最寶貴的，因為評論家都有自己的立場和偏見。在自己的知識儲備不足，容易被他人觀點影響的時刻，我認為看很多這類文章不是很好。不過批評性的文章最重要的地方的確就在于批評家自己的觀點，尤其是有合理邏輯基礎(chǔ)和豐富知識儲備的評論家的觀點。等到有一定閱歷后去看，就會像Zinsser說的質(zhì)疑這個觀點，然后在讀的過程中觀察作者是怎樣得出這個觀點的，隔空和作者來一場智識的較量。

4. 大學(xué)老師有推薦木心先生的《文學(xué)回憶錄》，想問問各位書友有沒有看過的？本來打算是把里面的作品都看過了再看這本書，可是……哭

3 Words

1. Criticism is the stage on which journalists do their fanciest strutting.

strut原義是to walk with a lofty proud gait and an erect head; especially: to walk with pomposity or affected dignity，也就是“神氣活現(xiàn)、昂首闊步地走”，這里引申為在批評作品這個舞臺上神氣活現(xiàn)地表演自己的見識。

例句：I strutted around Chicago as if I were really somebody. 我在芝加哥昂首闊步地四處走，好像自己真是個人物似的。

Wimbledon is the opportunity for all the world's best tennis players to strut their stuff. 溫布頓網(wǎng)球公開賽是全世界頂尖網(wǎng)球選手大展身手的好機會。

2. The American vernacular is rich in epigrams (“She ran the gamut of emotions from A to B”) minted by people like Dorothy Parker and George S. Kaufman, who became famous partly by minting them, and the temptation to make a name at the expense of some talentless ham is too strong for all but the most saintly.

vernacular指的是日常語言，和文學(xué)語言及官方話相對。如果是指建筑音樂等文學(xué)形式，則是民間風(fēng)格的，特指存在于某一地區(qū)、時期的。

epigram指的是簡短的雋語，例如王爾德的I can resist everything but temptation.

3. So don’t be deluded that criticism is an easy route to glory.

delude通常指“自我欺騙”。

例句：Don't be deluded into thinking your house is burglarproof. 別誤以為你的房子是防盜的。

4. The reader deserves a movie buff who will bring along a reservoir of knowledge, passion and prejudice.

buff指的是對某種事物有熱情又懂很多的人，即行家，迷。

5. This is a picture about a whimsical Irish priest who enlists the help of three orphan boys dressed as leprechauns to haunt a village where a mean widow has hidden a crock of gold.

whimsical形容人或其行動、想法異想天開、古怪、心血來潮，現(xiàn)在叫“四次元”？

例句：He has a wonderful whimsical sense of humour.他有一種古怪又好笑的幽默感。

6. I couldn’t be flailed into seeing that movie—I’ve had my fill of “the little people” on stage and screen.

one's fill指一個人想要的或者能承受的極限，I've had my fill of 和 I've had enough of 是同樣的意思。

7. Florid adjectives smack of the panting prose with which Vogue likes to disclose its latest chichi discovery...

smack of表示“帶有……的意味”，表示令人不快之物的存在或影響。

例句：To me, the whole thing smacks of a cover-up. 在我看來，整件事有點掩飾真相的味道。

8. Many years ago, when I was writing editorials for the New York Herald Tribune, the editor of the page was a huge and choleric man from Texas named L. L. Engelking.

容易生氣的。近義詞：irascible, cranky, hot-tempered, quick-tempered

10 摘抄

1. Literary criticism that doesn’t stir a few combative juices is hardly worth writing, and there are few spectator sports as enjoyable as a good academic brawl.

2. The voice was, like the poet himself, nearly sacerdotal; it was impersonal, winding and winding across the country’s campuses like a spool of blank robotic woe.

（好的句子和用法太多了，明天起爭取都記下來）

說到Bette Davis，近期有部美劇宿敵（feud）是講她和另一女星Joan Crawford的恩怨。有撕逼，有電影行業(yè)的故事，推薦。