看不少女作家都是感性写作者，她们能迅速拥有读者，与读者心灵感应， 但这条路不能维持她们走得很远。 最近我对这点深有体会。
但是智性写作者又太不接近读者，比如自立推荐的《没有个性的人》作者穆其尔， 还有埃科的三本书，现在根本读不进去， 沮丧得很，而且他们站的位置太高， 读者总要采用一种仰视的姿态去读，难免有隔阂感，过不久就会头痛。
我仍然是个感性的人，感性的写作者，最近对卡尔维诺与索尔·贝娄非常感兴趣。 卡尔维诺在哈佛讲学的四篇文章与我对文学的理解相通，他的讲稿帮我补了所欠的功课。
他写的命运交叉的城堡也好看，因为我粗通塔罗牌，所以读得津津有味。
贝娄的语言幽默，董乐山翻译得很好。
感性写作需要智性来推进。
- posted on 01/15/2004
以前我读了很多小说，都是男作家的。那时不喜欢女作家的作品，因为太细腻了，太琐碎了，没有宏观的澎湃的新意。后来有一年偶然读了几个女作家，发现自己原来也是女人！那些感性的文字十分贴心。(对不起中文已经好几年没有读写了，表达不清。)总之我我觉得感性的写作也一定要有比较深沉的思考(即是玛雅说的智性)在背后支撑着，才能被历久。不然就只是“女性文学”而非“文学”了。
我刚读完一本小说 Songs of Solomon ，是黑人女作家 Toni Morrison 的代表作。越读到后面越觉得她真有那种男作家的呼风唤雨的气魄！
我的文字是太过细腻的那种，不知能不能让大家指正一下？很想有些进步。不过最近的都是英文的， 因为我觉得英文读者可能会更多？但用英文总是不能随心所欲。而且我发现写中文时，可以自己编很多词出来，写英文似乎就不行(不单是我不行)。我对中英文写作的分别很有想法，找空跟大家探讨一下吧。 - 澶ソ浜嗭紝鎴戜篃鏈夎繃杩欐牱鐨勬�濊�冿紙涓�/鑻辨枃鍐欎綔鐨勫洶澧冿級posted on 01/15/2004
- Re: 鏅烘�т笌鎰熸�у啓浣�posted on 01/16/2004
很喜欢 Saul Below, "更多的人死于心碎“， 千真万确啊。 - posted on 01/17/2004
I like to write (but nowadays I am much lazier than before). My goal of writing is to share with people what I feel and what I think. For a while, my closet friends are non-Chinese, so I started to write in English. But the problem is, when I write in English, my style is very different from my Chinese writing. In English I like to use simple sentence structures. Also I have discovered, English is easier to use to describe a sequence of events, an action, something that exists or happens in time. Chinese is better to use to describe a scene, a feeling, something that exists in space. It probably has something to do with the fact Chinese is written in two dimensional characters, and English is written in one dimensional sequences of letters.
When I write in Chinese, only Chinese people can read it. When I write in English, more people can read it, and I want to eventually reach a wider audience. As an English writer, one will have to compete with so many other writers to get read, especially on the web (for instant readers).
Also my English is of course not smooth and I always feel I have no full control of it. Always feel like walking with someone else's shoes. My Chinese is not good after many years of ignorance but it is always easy to get used to my own old shoes.
Then one day I realized that it's not the words that make a writer, it's the thoughts behind the words. Also sometimes when I read translated work, I still can feel the greatness of the writer. But now I try not to read translated works. I want to learn more foreign languages and hopely one day will be able to read the originals.
Nabokov wrote "Lolita" in English and I was inspired by him. But then again, it was more a story with a sequence of events than anything else.... good for writing in English.
Chinese is a language for poets. Chinese language can be so vague and so ambiguous. English (and other western languages) is so precise and very good for reasoning and therefore science. Although many times when I read great English writers I am moved by the colors of their words, I never understand how they achieve "colors" using a language that I consider "colorless". I know it is just because I can't master English yet. But will I ever master it? I have been reading exclusively English literatures in the past few years and writing in English, but when I read Shakeaspeare I realize I may never be able to appreciate this colorful language in full extent...
So, this is my confusion. I have been thinking about this for a long time, but this last week I started to read/write/speak Chinese, and I find even writing this short post in English is becoming difficult, as suddenly I have only words in Chinese in my mind.... Last year I was planning to dedicate 2004 for Chinese study so I won't forget it. I guess I need not worry so much.
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