内容简介
《冷血》(英文:In Cold Blood)是美国作家楚门·卡波特于1966出版的小说,详述1959年一起位于堪萨斯州霍尔库姆,优渥农人赫伯特·克拉特一家遭灭门的残暴凶杀案。卡波特获悉此事后,与好友作家哈波·李决定一同前往当地进行调查。他们访问了当地居民与该案的调查人员,摘记了上千页的纪录。凶手狄克与贝利在犯案后不久被逮捕,卡波特随后耗尽六年心血著成此书。《冷血》被公认是非虚构小说鼻祖及新新闻主义先驱,同时也成了卡波特的经典代表作之一。
Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human.
The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.
作者简介
杜鲁门?卡波特是美国文学史上著名的南方文学作家,出生于路易西安那州,成长于阿拉巴马州,与另一名同样来自南方的作家田纳西?威廉姆斯(Tennessee Williams)齐名。卡波特九岁搬至纽约市,从小在文学方面就崭露头角。他记忆力极佳,年纪很小就能写出超龄的文章。不但常在校刊发表作品,也揽获了不少作文比赛的首奖。十七岁从高中辍学,随后进入《纽约客》(New Yorker)打工,最终也成了《纽约客》的专栏作家。他最著名的作品之一为发表于1958年的《蒂凡尼早餐》(Breakfast at Tiffany's),这部小说于1961年被好莱坞改编成电影。
然而真正奠定卡波特文坛地位的作品则是发表于1966年的《冷血杀手》(In Cold Blood)一书。 卡波特是否真为非虚构小说的开山鼻祖,文坛争论许久,但可以肯定的是《冷血杀手》的写作手法与卡波特本身的文学才气影响了许多知名的后辈作家。如我们熟悉的村上春树就屡次推崇卡波特影响自己至深,《地下铁事件》一书里采用的报导文学手法很容易让人联想到《冷血杀手》。 1965年《冷血杀手》在纽约客上连载,1966年正式出版,从此盘踞了畅销排行首位长达一整年,售出了数百万册。隔年改编为同名电影,卡波特名利双收。
卡波特是一名同性恋者,热爱参加各式”上流社会”的聚会。他言辞风趣辛辣、妙语如珠,在纽约的名流派对圈是相当活跃的人物。然而他也有着重度酒瘾与药瘾,写出《冷血杀手》后几乎再没有像样的作品问世。也许糟糕的身体状况钳制了他的写作才华,晚年的荒淫纵欲与不知节制,使卡波特与许多曾才华洋溢到不可一世的艺术家一样,人生舞台结束得并不精彩。 1984年八月一晚卡波特因用药过度猝死于一名女性友人家里,享年五十九岁。
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the south, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. By the age of fourteen he had already started writing short stories, some of which were published. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. Following his spell with the New Yorker, Capote spent two years on a Louisiana farm where he wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He lived, at one time or another, in Greece, Italy, Africa and the West Indies, and travelled in Russia and the Orient. He is the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy on its publication, Music for Chameleons (1980) and Answered Prayers (1986), all of which are published by Penguin. Truman Capote died in August 1984.
精彩书评
**"There's got to be something wrong with somebody who'd do a thing like that." This is Perry Edward Smith, talking about himself. "Deal me out, baby... I'm a normal." This is Richard Eugene Hickock, talking about himself. They're as sick a pair as Leopold and Loeb and together they killed a mother, a father, a pretty seventeen year old and her brother, none of whom they'd seen before, in cold blood. A couple of days before they had bought a 100 foot rope to garrote them - enough for ten people if necessary. This small pogrom took place in Holcomb, Kansas, a lonesome town on a flat, limitless landscape: a depot, a store, a cafe, two filling stations, 270 inhabitants. The natives refer to it as "out there." It occurred in 1959 and Capote has spent five years, almost all of the time which has since elapsed, in following up this crime which made no sense, had no motive, left few clues - Just a footprint and a remembered conversation. Capote's alternating dossier Shifts from the victims, the Clutter family, to the boy who had loved Nancy Clutter, and her best friend, to the neighbors, and to the recently paroled perpetrators: Perry, with a stunted child's legs and a changeling's face, and Dick, who had one squinting eye but a "smile that works." They had been cellmates at the Kansas State Penitentiary where another prisoner had told them about the Clutters - he'd hired out once on Mr. Clutter's farm and thought that Mr. Clutter was perhaps rich. And this is the lead which finally broke the case after Perry and Dick had drifted down to Mexico, back to the midwest, been seen in Kansas City, and were finally picked up in Las Vegas. The last, even more terrible chapters, deal with their confessions, the law man who wanted to see them hanged, back to back, the trial begun in 1960, the post-ponements of the execution, and finally the walk to "The Corner" and Perry's soft-spoken words - "It would be meaningless to apologize for what I did. Even inappropriate. But I do. I apologize."... It's a magnificent Job - this American tragedy - with the incomparable Capote touches throughout. There may never have been a perfect crime, but if there ever has been a perfect reconstruction of one, surely this must be it. (Kirkus Reviews)
前言/序言
幽暗低语:失落的记忆与未竟的旅程 作者: 维克多·科尔宾 译者: 陈静 出版社: 蓝星文化 装帧: 精装 --- 内容简介 在时间的迷宫深处,总有些故事如同被遗忘的星辰,在最深的夜空中闪烁着微弱却执着的光芒。《幽暗低语》并非一部关于轰动性事件的记录,而是一场对人性幽微角落的细致入微的探索。它讲述的是奥古斯特·芬奇的故事,一个在二十世纪中叶的欧洲知识分子圈中,以其深刻的哲学思辨和近乎神秘的隐居生活而闻名的学者。 本书的主体,是一组芬奇先生在生命最后十年中,从他位于阿尔卑斯山脚下一座古老修道院内的私人图书馆中被发掘出来的手稿和私人信件的汇编。这些资料,经过严谨的年代考证和手迹比对,揭示了一个与外界想象截然不同的芬奇:他并非仅仅是位高冷的形而上学思想家,更是一个被无法解开的“空白”所困扰的灵魂。 第一部分:裂缝中的哲学 芬奇的早期著作广为人知,探讨的是“意义的重塑”与“存在的拓扑结构”。然而,在这些被世人奉为圭臬的理论背后,隐藏着一个他从未公之于众的哲学困境——“无名之失”。 手稿记载了他对“记忆的碎片化”的痴迷。他认为,人类感知到的现实,并非一个连续的整体,而是由无数个带着裂痕的瞬间构成的集合。他尤其关注那些“本应存在却不复记忆”的片段,那些如同鬼影般掠过意识边缘的画面。书中收录了他与两位同行——一位是柏林的语言学家埃尔莎·施密特,另一位是罗马的神秘学研究者多米尼克修士——之间长达数年的通信。这些信件揭示了他们如何试图用符号学、量子力学理论乃至炼金术的古老文本,去描摹和捕捉这些“失落的维度”。 其中最引人入胜的部分,是他对“时间悖论”的个人诠释。芬奇坚信,某些关键的人生转折点,其发生的“事实”被其本人无意识地“抹除”了,并非遗忘,而是一种存在性的防御机制。他试图通过冥想和一种他称之为“内观拓扑学”的方法,强行重构这些被遮蔽的真相。这些记录充满了令人不安的细节,例如他多次描述自己能闻到“雨后泥土中混合着樟脑丸的气味”,而他居住的修道院附近从未有樟脑树。 第二部分:米兰的倒影 故事的转折点,发生在芬奇对“米兰周期”的追寻上。在多封私人信件中,他反复提到一个在1950年代初的米兰经历的“非事件”。他声称,在米兰逗留的六周内,他曾参与过一个未被记录的艺术沙龙,并与一位身份成谜的“制图师”有过深入的交流。 制图师的角色在芬奇的文字中变得愈发重要。他描述这位制图师绘制的不是地理地图,而是“情感的疆域”和“未选择的路径”。芬奇的手稿中附有一系列极其精细的素描——这些素描描绘了复杂的几何图形和难以辨认的符号,据推测,它们是芬奇试图记录与制图师对话时涌现的零碎概念。 然而,所有关于米兰的记录都戛然而止。芬奇在随后的日记中写道:“米兰的地图被风吹散了,或者更糟,它从未被绘制出来。”这种突然的空白,促使本书的编者,历史学家伊莎贝尔·雷诺德,进行了深入的背景调查。雷诺德发现,在1950年代初米兰的社交圈中,确实存在一个活跃的、但极其隐秘的知识分子团体,然而,关于“制图师”的任何确切记录均无从查证。这本书不仅呈现了芬奇的挣扎,也展现了雷诺德如何如同考古学家一般,试图从时代烟尘中拼凑出这些幽灵般的线索。 第三部分:静默的遗产 本书的最后一部分,聚焦于芬奇晚年对“声音的雕塑”的尝试。他开始认为,视觉和文字都是对“真实体验”的背叛,而真正的理解存在于特定频率的振动之中。他利用修道院内的旧式录音设备,尝试记录“环境的低语”。 收录的几段录音片段,虽然质量粗糙,但其内容令人毛骨悚然。它们并非音乐,也非清晰的人声,而是一种持续的、低沉的背景噪音,其中夹杂着难以捉摸的、类似钟摆摆动或远方海浪的声音。芬奇在旁注中写道:“这是世界在没有我们参与时发出的呼吸声。” 《幽暗低语》最终留给读者的,不是一个清晰的答案,而是一份关于如何面对自身认知的局限性的深刻邀请。它探讨了知识分子面对巨大未知时的脆弱性,以及对完美记忆的徒劳追寻。这是一部献给所有相信生活轨迹并非一成不变、相信在每一个被忽略的瞬间中都可能隐藏着宇宙秘密的读者的作品。它沉静、内敛,却在每一次阅读时,都会在你内心深处投下一道挥之不去的、关于“你未曾经历之事”的阴影。 --- (字数统计:约 1520 字)