旅程终点

-嗨 鲍勃 什么事 -嗨 听着
-Hey. Bob, what’s up? -Hi. Listen.
根据一则未经证实的消息 戴维·华勒斯过世了
According to an unconfirmed report, David Wallace is dead.
什么 不 不 不
What? No. No, no, no.
一定是有学生闹恶作剧之类的
No, It must be some sort of a college prank or something.
要说有谁能确认这消息的真假的话…我觉得就是你了
Well, I thought if anybody knew whether it was true or not, it’d be you.
现在让我们来纪念作家大卫·福斯特·华♥莱♥士♥…
Now a remembrance of writer David Foster Wallace.
他的遗体于周五晚间被发现 有明显的自杀迹象
He was found dead, an apparent suicide, on Friday night.
华♥莱♥士♥的小说《无尽的玩笑》 令他名声鹊起
Wallace’s novel, Infinite Jest, brought him fame…
并赢得了广泛的读者群
and a wide audience.
接下来由作家戴维·利普斯基向他致敬
Writer David Lipsky has this appreciation.
阅读大卫·福斯特·华♥莱♥士♥的作品
“To read David Foster Wallace was
犹如有人将你的眼皮强行撑开
to feel your eyelids pulled open.”
有些作家擅长描绘离家在外的体验
Some writers specialize in the ‘away from home’ experience.
他们或是远行游猎
They have safaried,
或是遍尝意大利 或是作为报道者亲历战场
eaten across Italy, covered a war.
而华♥莱♥士♥则突破了那些 令人昏昏欲睡的水族馆
Wallace offered his alive self,
千篇一律的电视节目 百货商店 政♥治♥活动
cutting through our sleepy aquarium,
向读者奉上了他鲜活的自我
our standard TV, stores, political campaigns.
能够做到这点的作家
Writers who can do this…
譬如塞林格 譬如菲茨杰拉德 —
Like Salinger and Fitzgerald…
都与读者建立起了牢不可破的纽带
Forge an unbreakable bond with readers.
人们寄望从这些书本中得到的 并不是故事 信息
You didn’t slip into the books looking for a story, information,
而是一段特别的体验 —
but for a particular experience…
透过书页所传达的
The sensation, for a certain number of pages,
那种身为大卫·福斯特·华♥莱♥士♥的震撼
“of being David Foster Wallace.”
甚至可以说 就我的成长而言
If anything, there was a conscious attempt…
他们是有意识地 不给我任何刻意的指导方向
to not give overt direction,
尽管显然 你最终变成的只能是你自己
although, of course, you end up becoming yourself.
他们希望你成为一个作家吗
Did they want you to be a writer or no?
不 我小时候主要…
No. I was gonna be… The big thing, when I was little…
-我是个很正经的运动员 -真的吗
I was… I was, like, a really serious jock. Really?
嗯 在市级比赛里打橄榄球
Yeah. I played citywide football as a kid.
就小孩子的体格来讲 我那会儿相当强壮
I was really big, really strong as a kid.
之后的四五年里 我又朝着职业网球运动员的方向发展
And then for four or five years, I was gonna be, like, a pro tennis player.
那才是我的梦想
That was my great dream.
我阅读只是因为好玩
Reading was just this kind of fun,
只是一个古怪的副业
sort of weird thing that I did on the side.
十二年前
我那时不懂SoHo区
“I didn’t understand SoHo…”
那些仓库 陈旧的楼房♥ 鹅卵石铺就的街道
The warehouses, the old buildings, the cobbled streets.
那里不像上东区 那里很脏
It wasn’t the Upper East Side, and it was dirty.
我感觉自己困陷在了那里 无法脱身
I felt marooned.
母亲把我们从美满的生活里 一把拉了出来
Our mother had taken us off the track of the nice life we’d been on.
钉在这条阴森的 混迹着她那些艺术界朋友的死巷子里
She’d moored us in a creepy cul-de-sac with her art-world friends.
我同学们家里 没有一个是搞艺术的
None of the kids in my school had parents in the art world.
我感到格格不入
It made me feel different,
好像我有什么不可告人的秘密似的
“like there was something I had to cover up.”
戴维 嗨 你的朗读会搞得如何
-很不错 -抱歉我错过了
It was great. Sorry I missed it.
没事儿
Don’t worry about it.
听说你搞定《滚石》的工作了
Hey. I heard you got that Rolling Stone job.
-不好说 我还在试用期 -祝你好运
We’ll see. I’m sort of on probation. Good luck.
你看到基恩发在《纽约》杂♥志♥上的书评没
Did you see Kirn’s review in New York magazine?
那家伙被他捧成神了
The guy’s been fuckin’ canonized.
哪个家伙
Sorry. Who’s this?
大卫·福斯特·华♥莱♥士♥
David Foster Wallace.
“明年的各项图书奖都已名花有主了” 太夸张了吧
“Next year’s book awards have been decided.” Can you believe this?
“那些奖章奖状现在就可以封存起来了” 老天
“The plaques and citations can now be put into escrow.” It’s unbelievable.
“神童大卫·福斯特·华♥莱♥士♥的作品《无尽的玩笑》
“With Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace,
浓稠 尖刻 且长达千”
a plutonium-dense, satirical quiz-kid opus that runs to almost a thousand”…
什么
What?
“长达千页 并且这还没算脚注
“a thousand pages, not including footnotes,”
奖项的竞争已经失去了悬念
the competition has been obliterated.
这就好比是神话中的大力士加入NFL
It’s as though Paul Bunyan had joined the NFL…
或是维特根斯坦来参加了智力竞赛一样
or Wittgenstein had gone onto Jeopardy!.
这本小说就是有如此巨大的颠覆性 如此炫目的出色”
“The novel is that colossally disruptive and that spectacularly good.”
没搞错吧 头一段上来就吹得天花乱坠
That’s the fucking opening paragraph.
也许这书真有那么好呢
What if it actually is that good?
你得读了才会知道
You might just have to read it.
靠
Shit.
-文章不错 -多谢
Good piece. Thanks a lot.
内容翔实 我这里没问题了
Solid piece. I’m fine with it.
不过你得过法务那关 行不
But you gotta clear it with Legal, okay?
过去十年里我们采访过几个作家
How many times have we interviewed a writer in the last 10 years?
猜猜看
Take a guess.
额…几个
Uh, how many?
零 我查过了
Zero. I checked.
也许那是因为《滚石》就不采访作家
Maybe because Rolling Stone doesn’t interview writers.
因为没有出过这个级别的好么
There hasn’t been a writer like this. Okay?
一代人里的独一个 可以说 好比海明威 品钦
Once in a generation maybe. Hemingway, Pynchon.
-让我来采这个故事 -什么故事
Let me have this story. What story?
他的新书巡回宣传已经接近尾声了
He’s finishing up a book tour,
我想去找他 跟他一起
and I want to go with him.
这算什么故事
That’s not a story.
他在一个没名气的州立大学教书 伊利诺州某个地方
He teaches at some small state university somewhere in Illinois.
求你了 鲍勃 让我去吧
Please, Bob. Send me there.
这才是我该写的东西 而不是什么男孩乐队500字简介
This is the sort of stuff I should be doing, not 500 words on boy bands.
跟詹恩说说看吧
Talk to Jann.
你最好真的有东西可写
There better be a story there.
-一定会有 -最好有
There will be. There better.
《艺术集市》
-戴维 嗨 我是戴维·利普斯基 -你在哪儿
David, hi. It’s David Lipsky. Where are you?
我之前好像拐错弯儿了
I think I may have made a wrong turn somewhere.
我看下哈 我在29号♥县高速上
Let’s see. I am on County Highway 29…
Circus录像店对面
just across from the Circus Video.
你是怎么拿到这个号♥码的
How’d you get this number?
你的公♥关♥在邮件里给我的 只是以防万一
Your publicist sent it in her e-mail, just in case.
帮我个忙 扔掉这个号♥码吧
You’d do me a favor by losing it.
打住 冷静 冷静 打住
Stay. Be calm. Be calm. Stay.
-嘿 你找到这里了 -是啊
Hey. You made it. Yeah.
我是戴夫 戴夫·华♥莱♥士♥
Dave. Dave Wallace.
戴维·利普斯基 嗨 很荣幸见到你
David Lipsky. Hi. It’s a pleasure.
彼此彼此
Likewise.
抱歉 额…之前电♥话♥打扰了
Um, I’m sorry about the, uh… the phone call.
没事儿
No, you’re fine.
-九♥成♥是开玩笑的 -好吧 好的
It was 95% joke. Right, right. Yeah.
先跟你说声不好意思 狗狗们估计口水会淌你一身
Sorry in advance about the dogs. They’ll be slobbering all over you.
哦 我不介意的 我喜欢狗
I don’t mind at all. I love dogs.
是吗 你还没见过这些家伙呢
Oh, yeah? You haven’t met these guys yet.
没关系 我喜欢它们
No, I love ’em.
我们…额 老天 我们进屋吧 外面很冷
Let’s, uh… Oh, Jesus. Let’s get inside. It’s cold.
-孩子们 进屋去 -多谢
Boys. Get in there. Thanks a lot.
赶紧 赶紧 小家伙
Ooh. Come on. Come on, buddy.
等等 我也很高兴见到你 好狗狗
Wait. I’m very glad to meet you too. Good dog.
-它叫什么 -那是吉夫斯
Who’s that? Oh, that’s Jeeves.
-嗨 -吉夫斯老爷
Hi. Yeah, that’s the Jeeve-meister.
他以前长得太丑 我只能收了他 没别人想要他
I got him ’cause he was so ugly. Nobody else wanted him.
结果现在他帅得迷倒众生
Now he’s, like, a cover girl dog.
然后这是雄蜂 临时凑活住在我这里
And that’s Drone. That’s my provisional dog.
怎么讲 为什么是临时
Why? Why provisional?
某一天我跟吉夫斯在外面跑步时 它就这么冒出来了
He just showed up one day while Jeeves and I were out jogging.
后来的事可想而知
The rest is history.
我是不是应该给你 弄杯茶或者什么的
I feel like I should offer you tea or something.
-嗯 谢谢 那就不客气了 -是吧 好的
Yeah. Yeah, thanks. That’d be great. Yeah? Okay.
景色不错
Nice view.
多谢 尽管不是我的功劳
Thank you. I can’t take credit for it.
哈
Huh.
那么…你从没在黄页上 登记过你的号♥码吗
So, um, have you always been unlisted?
不 最近才撤下的 因为事态有些无法控制了
I had to do that recently. It was getting kind of crazy.
粉丝的关系是吧
Oh. Because of… Because of fans.
我不知道粉丝这个词是否确切
I don’t know if “fan” is exactly the right word.
关键在于 我忘了提醒我爸妈