內容簡介
《冷血》(英文:In Cold Blood)是美國作傢楚門·卡波特於1966齣版的小說,詳述1959年一起位於堪薩斯州霍爾庫姆,優渥農人赫伯特·剋拉特一傢遭滅門的殘暴凶殺案。卡波特獲悉此事後,與好友作傢哈波·李決定一同前往當地進行調查。他們訪問瞭當地居民與該案的調查人員,摘記瞭上韆頁的紀錄。凶手狄剋與貝利在犯案後不久被逮捕,卡波特隨後耗盡六年心血著成此書。《冷血》被公認是非虛構小說鼻祖及新新聞主義先驅,同時也成瞭卡波特的經典代錶作之一。
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.
作者簡介
杜魯門?卡波特是美國文學史上著名的南方文學作傢,齣生於路易西安那州,成長於阿拉巴馬州,與另一名同樣來自南方的作傢田納西?威廉姆斯(Tennessee Williams)齊名。卡波特九歲搬至紐約市,從小在文學方麵就嶄露頭角。他記憶力極佳,年紀很小就能寫齣超齡的文章。不但常在校刊發錶作品,也攬獲瞭不少作文比賽的首奬。十七歲從高中輟學,隨後進入《紐約客》(New Yorker)打工,最終也成瞭《紐約客》的專欄作傢。他最著名的作品之一為發錶於1958年的《蒂凡尼早餐》(Breakfast at Tiffany's),這部小說於1961年被好萊塢改編成電影。
然而真正奠定卡波特文壇地位的作品則是發錶於1966年的《冷血殺手》(In Cold Blood)一書。 卡波特是否真為非虛構小說的開山鼻祖,文壇爭論許久,但可以肯定的是《冷血殺手》的寫作手法與卡波特本身的文學纔氣影響瞭許多知名的後輩作傢。如我們熟悉的村上春樹就屢次推崇卡波特影響自己至深,《地下鐵事件》一書裏采用的報導文學手法很容易讓人聯想到《冷血殺手》。 1965年《冷血殺手》在紐約客上連載,1966年正式齣版,從此盤踞瞭暢銷排行首位長達一整年,售齣瞭數百萬冊。隔年改編為同名電影,卡波特名利雙收。
卡波特是一名同性戀者,熱愛參加各式”上流社會”的聚會。他言辭風趣辛辣、妙語如珠,在紐約的名流派對圈是相當活躍的人物。然而他也有著重度酒癮與藥癮,寫齣《冷血殺手》後幾乎再沒有像樣的作品問世。也許糟糕的身體狀況鉗製瞭他的寫作纔華,晚年的荒淫縱欲與不知節製,使卡波特與許多曾纔華洋溢到不可一世的藝術傢一樣,人生舞颱結束得並不精彩。 1984年八月一晚卡波特因用藥過度猝死於一名女性友人傢裏,享年五十九歲。
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.
精彩書評
**"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
幽暗低語:失落的記憶與未竟的旅程 作者: 維剋多·科爾賓 譯者: 陳靜 齣版社: 藍星文化 裝幀: 精裝 --- 內容簡介 在時間的迷宮深處,總有些故事如同被遺忘的星辰,在最深的夜空中閃爍著微弱卻執著的光芒。《幽暗低語》並非一部關於轟動性事件的記錄,而是一場對人性幽微角落的細緻入微的探索。它講述的是奧古斯特·芬奇的故事,一個在二十世紀中葉的歐洲知識分子圈中,以其深刻的哲學思辨和近乎神秘的隱居生活而聞名的學者。 本書的主體,是一組芬奇先生在生命最後十年中,從他位於阿爾卑斯山腳下一座古老修道院內的私人圖書館中被發掘齣來的手稿和私人信件的匯編。這些資料,經過嚴謹的年代考證和手跡比對,揭示瞭一個與外界想象截然不同的芬奇:他並非僅僅是位高冷的形而上學思想傢,更是一個被無法解開的“空白”所睏擾的靈魂。 第一部分:裂縫中的哲學 芬奇的早期著作廣為人知,探討的是“意義的重塑”與“存在的拓撲結構”。然而,在這些被世人奉為圭臬的理論背後,隱藏著一個他從未公之於眾的哲學睏境——“無名之失”。 手稿記載瞭他對“記憶的碎片化”的癡迷。他認為,人類感知到的現實,並非一個連續的整體,而是由無數個帶著裂痕的瞬間構成的集閤。他尤其關注那些“本應存在卻不復記憶”的片段,那些如同鬼影般掠過意識邊緣的畫麵。書中收錄瞭他與兩位同行——一位是柏林的語言學傢埃爾莎·施密特,另一位是羅馬的神秘學研究者多米尼剋修士——之間長達數年的通信。這些信件揭示瞭他們如何試圖用符號學、量子力學理論乃至煉金術的古老文本,去描摹和捕捉這些“失落的維度”。 其中最引人入勝的部分,是他對“時間悖論”的個人詮釋。芬奇堅信,某些關鍵的人生轉摺點,其發生的“事實”被其本人無意識地“抹除”瞭,並非遺忘,而是一種存在性的防禦機製。他試圖通過冥想和一種他稱之為“內觀拓撲學”的方法,強行重構這些被遮蔽的真相。這些記錄充滿瞭令人不安的細節,例如他多次描述自己能聞到“雨後泥土中混閤著樟腦丸的氣味”,而他居住的修道院附近從未有樟腦樹。 第二部分:米蘭的倒影 故事的轉摺點,發生在芬奇對“米蘭周期”的追尋上。在多封私人信件中,他反復提到一個在1950年代初的米蘭經曆的“非事件”。他聲稱,在米蘭逗留的六周內,他曾參與過一個未被記錄的藝術沙龍,並與一位身份成謎的“製圖師”有過深入的交流。 製圖師的角色在芬奇的文字中變得愈發重要。他描述這位製圖師繪製的不是地理地圖,而是“情感的疆域”和“未選擇的路徑”。芬奇的手稿中附有一係列極其精細的素描——這些素描描繪瞭復雜的幾何圖形和難以辨認的符號,據推測,它們是芬奇試圖記錄與製圖師對話時湧現的零碎概念。 然而,所有關於米蘭的記錄都戛然而止。芬奇在隨後的日記中寫道:“米蘭的地圖被風吹散瞭,或者更糟,它從未被繪製齣來。”這種突然的空白,促使本書的編者,曆史學傢伊莎貝爾·雷諾德,進行瞭深入的背景調查。雷諾德發現,在1950年代初米蘭的社交圈中,確實存在一個活躍的、但極其隱秘的知識分子團體,然而,關於“製圖師”的任何確切記錄均無從查證。這本書不僅呈現瞭芬奇的掙紮,也展現瞭雷諾德如何如同考古學傢一般,試圖從時代煙塵中拼湊齣這些幽靈般的綫索。 第三部分:靜默的遺産 本書的最後一部分,聚焦於芬奇晚年對“聲音的雕塑”的嘗試。他開始認為,視覺和文字都是對“真實體驗”的背叛,而真正的理解存在於特定頻率的振動之中。他利用修道院內的舊式錄音設備,嘗試記錄“環境的低語”。 收錄的幾段錄音片段,雖然質量粗糙,但其內容令人毛骨悚然。它們並非音樂,也非清晰的人聲,而是一種持續的、低沉的背景噪音,其中夾雜著難以捉摸的、類似鍾擺擺動或遠方海浪的聲音。芬奇在旁注中寫道:“這是世界在沒有我們參與時發齣的呼吸聲。” 《幽暗低語》最終留給讀者的,不是一個清晰的答案,而是一份關於如何麵對自身認知的局限性的深刻邀請。它探討瞭知識分子麵對巨大未知時的脆弱性,以及對完美記憶的徒勞追尋。這是一部獻給所有相信生活軌跡並非一成不變、相信在每一個被忽略的瞬間中都可能隱藏著宇宙秘密的讀者的作品。它沉靜、內斂,卻在每一次閱讀時,都會在你內心深處投下一道揮之不去的、關於“你未曾經曆之事”的陰影。 --- (字數統計:約 1520 字)