Friday, July 1, 2011

You have to leave home to find home



拉尔夫·艾里森(Ralph Waldo Ellison),于1913年3月1日生于俄克拉何马城,在1994年4月16日去世。是著名的美国黑人学者、作家。他主要以长篇小说《看不见的人》知名,该书于1953年获国家图书奖。被认为是20世纪最好的100本小说之一。

他的父亲是个小商人,在他三岁的时候就死于一场事故。很多年后,艾里森才发现他爸爸生前一直期望儿子长大后成为一个诗人。

艾里森很有音乐天才,他最早学的是音乐。我以前很喜欢Jazz,偶尔读到了一篇他写的有关爵士乐的文章,被他的诗意忧伤,充满乡愁,梦幻的优美文笔所打动,才去找他其它的书来读。

可是,在他生前,尽管80岁是一个不短的寿数,他只正式出版了这一本小说。他说读爱略特的《荒原》是他的觉醒之时(a major awakening moment)。后来,他参加了海军,有一次生病请假,在养病期间,他开始在一个仓库里写这本书。

这是上个世纪30年代,一个纽约的黑人寻找自我的故事。

Invisible Man is narrated in the first person by the protagonist, an unnamed African American man who considers himself socially invisible. His character may have been inspired by Ellison's own life. The narrator may be conscious of his audience, writing as a way to make himself visible to mainstream culture; the book is structured as if it were the narrator's autobiography although it begins in the middle of his life.

The story is told from the narrator's present, looking back into his past. Thus, the narrator has hindsight in how his story is told, as he is already aware of the outcome.


You have to leave home to find home是这本书里的一句名言。

David Remnick在他的新书《The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama》里,用这句话做其中一章的标题,总结了Obama奇特的生平。算是《看不见的人》的续集吧,这是一本一个Invisible Man如何变成了一个Visible Man的经历。因为金,这个Invisible Man终于来到了Promised Land。

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