· 麥克默特里認為，任何關於「真實」西部的想法都如同那些幻像一樣虛構，而對它的追求也同樣是異想天開。 「要寫實地描繪牛仔，就如同煉金術的逆向英語：那意味著點石成金，」他寫道。換句話說，那意味著把牛仔變成他原本不是、也從未是的東西，從而徹底失去對牛仔的掌控。相反，麥克默特里用另一個寓言——流浪漢小說——取代了另一個寓言：神話的浪漫主義。透過他筆下形形色色的騙子、神槍手強盜和鐵腕遊騎兵，他將西部揭示為一個荒誕的、充滿神話色彩的虛構之地。他偉大而持久的貢獻在於教導美國人如何看待自己的國家，如何解讀其歷史——將其視為傳說、現實和廣告。
因此，麥克默特里的虛構故事遠不止於紙面，也就不足為奇了。 「我有一種強烈的虛構衝動，」他曾坦言，「而且我也不是一個好的記者。我就是無法堅持事實。迫於無奈，我只能虛構。」事實證明，這位畢生致力於重述德州傳奇故事的作家，也無法抑制自己講述故事的衝動。這正是麥克默特里的多年好友、記者大衛·斯特雷特菲爾德撰寫的新傳記《西部之星：拉里·麥克默特里的生平與傳奇》的緣起。 「我想挖掘出（麥克默特里人生中）那些被隱藏甚至被輕視的往事，」斯特雷特菲爾德在開篇寫道，「並透過他的自我虛構，看到真相。」 如果將麥克默特里視為他筆下那些離經叛道的人物之一，人們就會發現，他——如同所有美國故事講述者一樣——與美國歷史有著一種曖昧的關係。也就是說，我們美國人都會不自覺地編造一些神話，而麥克默特里深諳此道，他明白這對我們稱為「西部」的地方是多麼重要。閱讀更多格斯·奧康納的文章：https://www.thenation.com/....../larry-mcmurtry-biography/
McMurtry saw that any idea of the “real” West was as fabulated as the illusions were, and that the pursuit of it was equally harebrained. “To do the cowboy realistically would have amounted to a sort of alchemical reverse English: it would have meant turning gold into lead,” he wrote. In other words, it would have meant turning the cowboy into something he was not and never was and losing hold of him entirely. Instead, McMurtry approached his subjects by exchanging one kind of fable—the high romance of myth—for another: the picaresque. Through his rogue’s gallery of hucksters, deadeye bandits, and hardheaded Rangers, he unveiled the West as a place of absurd, mythical invention. His great and lasting contribution was to teach Americans how to see their country and to read its history—as legend, reality, and advertising.
Unsurprisingly, then, McMurtry’s inventions went beyond the page. “I have this compulsion to fictionalize,” he once confessed. “And I don’t make a good journalist, either. I just can’t stick to the facts. By necessity, I invent.” It turns out that the writer who devoted his career to reweaving Texas’s yarns could not help but tell yarns about himself. This is the motivation for a new biography, Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry, written by McMurtry’s longtime friend the journalist David Streitfeld. “I wanted to rescue things [in McMurtry’s life] that were hidden or even scorned,” Streitfeld writes early on, “and to see beyond his self-inventions.” By treating McMurtry like one of his rogues, one finds that he—like all American yarn-tellers—occupies an ambiguous relationship to his country’s history. Which is to say that we, Americans, all indulge in some kind of mythmaking, and it was McMurtry who understood how integral that was to the place we call “the West.” Read more from Gus O’Connor: https://www.thenation.com/....../larry-mcmurtry-biography/
沒有留言:
張貼留言