没读过名着？随便翻翻，假装读过了 Mar 12, 2007《纽时周报全文精译》 Haven't Read It Skim a Few Pages and Fake It 田思怡译 坊间出版的书也许真的太多了，幸好不是全都得读。实际上，一种自然淘 汰机制把非读不可的书限定在经典名着和畅销书，这些书已成为有教养的知识 交流和社交谈话的一部分。 PARIS －It may well be that too many books are published, but by good fortune, not all must be read. In practice, a form of natural selection limits essential reading to those classics and best sellers that become part of civilized intellectual and social discourse. 当然，许多人也没有从头到尾读完这些书，而且不好意思承认，他们一直 担心被人视破自己是个没有文化修养的人。 Of course, many people don’t get through these books, either, and too embarrassed to admit it, they worry constantly about being exposed as philistines. 如今，52岁的巴黎大学文学教授皮耶．巴亚尔拿一本聊天课堂上的求生手册 来解救他们。而且显然需求殷切。「如何谈论你没读过的书？」已成为巴黎的畅 销书，而且欧洲各地争相签下翻译权。 Now Pierre Bayard, 52, a Paris University literature professor, has come to their rescue with a survivor’s guide to life in the chattering classes. And it is evidently much in need. “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?” has become a best seller here, with translation rights snapped up across Europe. 巴亚尔说：「我很惊讶，因为过去我没想过不读书的人竟有这麽大的罪恶感。 有了这本书，他们可以不需要接受心理辅导就去除罪恶感，而且也便宜得多。」 “I am surprised because I hadn’t imagined how guilty nonreaders feel,” Mr. Bayard said. “With this book, they can shake off their guilt without psychoanalysis, so it’s much cheaper.” 巴亚尔让读者相信并没有非读书不可的义务，并坦承他曾把自己从未读过， 或只是浏览过的书拿到课堂上教学生。他还记得曾和旁人热烈讨论一本书，而 这本书对方也没读过。 Mr. Bayard reassures them that there is no obligation to read, and confesses to lecturing students on books that he has either not read or has merely skimmed. And he recalls passionate exchanges with people who also have not read the book under discussion. 他还举出另一些作家为例，蒙田就记不住自己读过的东西；还有诗人瓦雷 里，即使书他连翻都没翻过，却总找得到办法去赞美其作者。巴亚尔发现葛林、 洛吉和其他作家小说中的人物，兴致勃勃地质疑读书的必要。他也拒绝被普鲁 斯特或乔埃斯吓倒。 He further cites writers like Montaigne, who could not remember what he read, and Paul Valery, who found ways of praising authors whose books he had never opened. Mr. Bayard finds characters in novels by Graham Greene, David Lodge and others who cheerfully question the need to read at all. And he refuses to be intimidated by Proust or Joyce. 巴亚尔先指出不读书的大有人在，接着提出如何掩饰对一本书无知的诀窍。 Having demonstrated that nonreaders are in good company, Mr. Bayard then offers tips on how to cover up ignorance of a book. 会晤一本书的作者可以很有技巧。巴亚尔说，不需要表现对这本书有多了 解，因为作者对自己的作品已有定见。他说，答案在於「称赞这本书，却不谈 细节」。 Meeting a book’s author can be tricky. Here, Mr. Bayard said there was no need to display knowledge of the book, since the author already has his own ideas about it. Rather, he said, the answer is “to speak well of it without entering into details.” 他指出，学生擅长对他们没看过的书发表意见。书的封面、书评、有关作 者的八卦，甚至正在进行的谈话都能提供素材，帮他们装成很懂的样子。 Students, he noted, are skilled at opining about books they have not read. The book’s cover, reviews, gossip about the author and even the current conversation can all provide food for sounding informed. 而巴亚尔最大胆的建议是，不读书的人应谈他们自己，只拿书作幌子，而 不多谈书的内容。他说，这麽一来，他们被迫发挥自己的想像力，形同在创作 自己的书。 But Mr. Bayard’s most daring suggestion is that nonreaders should talk about themselves, using the pretext of the book without dwelling on its contents. In this way, he said, they are forced to tap their imagination and, in effect, invent their own book. 他写道：「学会巧妙地谈论自己不知道的事，比穷尽浩瀚的书海更有价值。」 “To be able to talk with finesse about something one does not know is worth more than the universe of books,” he writes. 巴亚尔说，他要协助人们藉由挑战文学在法国的展现方式，来克服对文化 的畏惧。「学生被告知要读这本书，再填一个表格，详述他们读过的东西。这 是直线教法，有助於圣化读物。现在人们来找我，描述他们在学校所受的文化 创伤。『你必须读完普鲁斯特的所有着作』，他们的心理受到创伤。」 Mr. Bayard said he wanted to help people conquer their fear of culture by challenging the way that literature is presented in France. “Students are told to read the book, then to fill out a form detailing everything they have read. It’s a linear approach that serves to enshrine books. People now come up to me to describe the cultural wounds they suffered at school. ‘You have to read all of Proust.’ They were traumatized.” 他说：「他们把文化看成一面高墙，是令人害怕的『知识』怪物。但是我 们这些读起书来废寝忘食的知识分子，知道读一本书的方法很多，你可以略读， 可以从头读，却不把它读完，也可以只看目录。你学习和一本书共处。」 “They see culture as a huge wall, as a terrifying specter of ‘knowledge,’ “ he said. “But we intellectuals, who are avid readers, know there are many ways of reading a book. You can skim it, you can start and not finish it, you can look at the index. You learn to live with a book.” By ALAN RIDING 【2007-03-13/联合报/C7版/教育】 -- 大弦嘈嘈如急雨，小弦切切如私语。 嘈嘈切切错杂弹，大珠小珠落玉盘。 间关莺语花底滑，幽咽泉流水下滩。 水泉冷涩弦凝绝，凝绝不通声渐歇。 别有幽愁暗恨生，此时无声胜有声。 银瓶乍破水浆迸，铁骑突出刀枪鸣。 曲终收拨当心画，四弦一声如裂帛。 东船西舫悄无言，唯见江心秋月白。 --

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