Part 1
1. aura
2. clicke into place
3. damn-fool
4. decent
5. demean
6. documented
7. feminis
8. pop
9. prurient
10. studio
Part 2
Summary
关于推敲字眼,以及对标点符号的考究,作者详细地探讨了零碎而实用的细节。以下我从词性、句法、表达上筛选了自己认为最重要的三点:
- Use active verbs. Strong verbs are weakened by redundant adverbs. Nouns that express a concept are commonly used in bad writing instead of verbs that tell what somebody did. Make your adjectives do work that needs to be done.
- "But" announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
- Don't overstate. Let the humor sneak up so we hardly hear it coming.
讨论了字词的甄选,就延续到句子段落的构造和编排:
- Make sure that the sentence is under control from beginning to end so that the reader knows where he is at every step of the winding trail. Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual—it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. Each paragraph has its own integrity of content and structure.
整书的内容慢慢过度到第三部分Part III Forms。这部分文章从非虚构文学的文体界定入手,涉及非虚构文体的历史变迁及其与新闻文体的联系和传承,之后谈及与之紧密相关的“采访”的重要性和技巧,最后落脚在表达真实自我这个要素上,“我手写我心”,也是写作的坚守和追求:
- Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself. A writer is always working. Stay alert to the currents around you. Obviously the novelist can take us into places where no other writer can go: into the deep emotions and the interior life. As soon as a writer steps in, everyone else's experience becomes secondhand.
- Keep two standards in mind: brevity and fair play. Never let anything go out into the world that you don't understand. Writing is a public trust. The nonfiction writer's rare privilege is to have the whole wonderful world of real people to write about. On the question of who you're writing for, don't be eager to please. If you write for yourself, you'll reach the people you want to write for. Write about yourself, by all means, with confidence and with pleasure.
Part 3
随着阅读量的增大,逐渐深入到本书的核心。这个体验其实是很奇妙的,一方面自己不再像初读的时候那么迫切地需要找到共鸣,不论是从别人的阅读收获还是作者的观点表达;另一方面我又在浏览加回顾的模式中,获得一种上下文通篇理解的整体感,眼前的篇章段落和曾经阅读的记忆慢慢有所勾连和拓展,仿佛得到某种肯定——来自原文阅读本身的一种肯定,仿佛有了伙伴,有了后盾。
在写Daily Note和Weekly Note过程中其实也伴随着惶恐,有时候不愿意自己的写作太像一份“作业”。字里行间曲折的意思,也许没有尽然表达清楚,却真真是自己在英语学习中的个人体验。一个很大的进步是我拿起原版英文书的时候不会头昏脑胀了,能够很快找到一个具体的切入点,也能够保持热情深入进去。
是压力给了你自信。
关于作品中提到的对一个人、一个地方的描述,其实再怎么客观真实,都难以跳脱自己这个滤波器。眼睛是接受光信号的CCD,脑子是处理信息的CPU,记忆、情感、人性,这些元素,则是心脏收缩扩张砰砰跳动全身血液的、深入骨髓的本能吧。比如在对家乡城市的评价,会有天然的优越感,而这种体验在我这里,不是表现成自夸,而是表现为一种面对他人夸赞时候的尴尬和拒绝,一种天然的警觉。而当写作提及自己深爱的人,用词就变成举手投足的默契,变成不动声色的温情——
这个傻子有很深的近视。他特别的喜欢自己柔软的金属镜框,有时工作太累了会忘记摘眼镜就沉沉睡去。而他现在就这么看着自己,凑近,凑近,没戴眼镜。
开车从机场到单位的路上,有深重的雾气,红牛饮料只给出冰冷的刺激。错过了路口开始堵车,危险和迟到的警钟推着轮胎一点点向前碾压。城市在扩张,工业在郊区的角落蓬勃地奏起交响,蒸蒸日上的不是傻子,是傻子的单位——是傻子的单位越来越离不开傻子了。
飞机在后面追着太阳跑到另一个海。离别成了再相见的借口——也是我越来越离不开这个傻子了。
以上。