Erica Jong website： www.ericajong.com
虻叔提到Erica的新书，我这里就侃一段我与她的结缘。大约八、九年前，我的台湾女友作家成寒毛羽翻译了Erica Jong的代表作《怕飞》。那时我还是一个怕飞的小女子。成寒写信来与我们讨论“ziplesss fuck”的中文翻译，根据Erica为zipless fuck 所下的定义，成寒觉得“意淫”最为恰当。根据《红楼梦》里警幻仙姑的定义：“ ‘意淫’二字，惟心会而不可口传，可神通而不可语达。汝今独得此二字，在闺阁中，固可为良友，然于世道中未免迂阔怪诡，百口嘲谤，万目睚眦。” 我们都觉得恰当。 所以有这样的等式：
ziplesss fuck＝意淫＝柏拉图精神恋爱＝mind game/sex＝……………
红楼里” 贾宝玉神游太虚境 警幻仙曲演红楼梦” 这一回是我最爱读的章节之一。
Erica Jong 在世界近代女性文学历史上是一个重要的人物。从70年代初，她带领一群先锋女人一路飞过来。 我也是受到了她的鼓励，逃离New Hampshire的大山和令人窒息的骨董，飞到纽约去见她。我还记得给她送了一张我的照片，为她写的诗歌，还有热烈激情的信。 她曾经发请贴让我去参加她和其他纽约女作家的一次讨论会。会后还见到她的第四任丈夫―――一个律师。她有好看的有皱纹的微笑，手上有特大号翡翠绿松玉的戒指，目光柔和，举止典雅。我们谈到了成寒的翻译和中国的女性，还有我当时的困惑。因为我也是个书虫，在很多地方，我们的一些经历和兴趣爱好竟然惊人地相似。 我当时问她为什么那样喜欢Henry Miller，因为我不喜欢浅薄的Miller. 她只是说他是一个诚实坦白的作家。我觉得这个理由非常不充分。忘记问她我喜欢的爱伦坡。遗憾。
虽然今天她不再能够让我激动，她的观点我也不完全赞同， 而且她的写作已经不能够应对当代新问题的挑战。同时她成名太早，再不能超越她的中产阶级的生活圈,否则她会写出更有趣的书。 但是她的书对我曾经起到了惊天动地的启蒙作用。 我记得当年是一口气通宵在一个星期内读完她的三本自传小说<fear of flying>, <How to Save Your Own Life> 和 <Parachutes & Kisses>. 她的纽约式的幽默和无所畏惧的坦白精神激励了我的写作。
Erica 近年来专注历史及犹太民俗研究，看过她写的绘有精美插图的有关女巫历史的书。
下面是她说过的有趣的话：
Internet dating is providing the 2003 version of the ziplesss fuck, unapologetically no-strings-attached, purely sexual experience. Women, in other words, get to act like men.
Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.
I write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated; it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am.
Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything its cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Beware of the man who denounces women writers; his penis in tiny and he cannot spell.
Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.
Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.
You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.
No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks. It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write.
My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first 10 minutes I want to go home and screw. After the first 20 minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.
I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged . . . I had poems which were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.
When I was a ten-year-old book worm and used to kiss the dust jacket pictures of authors as if they were icons, it used to amaze me that these remote people could provoke me to love.
- posted on 05/12/2003
It is absurd, however, necessary as it turned out to be, that sometimes I had to teach American gradutes students about mathematical induction. They seem to enjoy the following story which I sometime used to introduce the subject matter. Interestingly, I had read it when I was a much younger kid than the students in the class:
In ancient times, there were two primitive men who decided to compete to see who can count more. The compitition was on. The first man thought for a while, came out with a large number in his mind and shouted it out:"one".The second man worked very hard in his mind and eventually replied with the number "two". The first one again thought for a long time, and conceded by saying:"you win".
You can see from both the history of civilizations and the development of healthy children that people do not possess all the complex notions nor the vocabulary for those notions without going through a process of growth. However, for some people, for the lack of nutrition or whatever reasons, their development stopped premutually.
By no means, we should hold prejudice against these under developed people and their sub-culture which have serves them well. It is also unclear, as revealed by much of the established literature, whether a complex mind is a curse by the devil or a blessing from the heaven.
However, it is import to recognize the difference and not confuse about the two. While zipless fuck, and man's measurements are someting extremely meaningful to some or maybe many people, there are notions which are beyond this level but never touched in the works by people such as Erica Jone.
It is admirable to shout the number one and two loud and clear. Nevertheless, There are numbers greater than two, after all.
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