《搏击俱乐部》是我最喜欢的电影。里面的荒诞、暴力、疯狂让我着迷。才知道原来它是根据 1966 年的同名小说改编,作者是 Chuck Palahniuk。
小说 Fight Club 的文字松散、跳脱,和电影一样四处弥漫着一股真实的「丧」:
- I just don't want to die without a few scars.
- Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer. Maybe self-destruction is the answer.
- Nothing was solved when the fight was over, but nothing mattered.
- Most guys are at fight club because of somehting they're too scared to fight. After a few fights, you're afraid a lot less.
有没有那么一刻或者那样一段时期,你开始问我是谁?生的意义是什么?我在为什么努力?我到底在害怕什么、想要什么?
当 self-improvement 耗尽力气,我们可能更需要一场 self-destruction。抛开所有的定义,撕开那个「我以为的我」,重新建构一切,如新生儿一般重新来到这个世界。
"It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything."
说完了阅读感受,聊聊书中的英语。阅读时我注意到了一些有意思的用词,也记录在这里分享给你。
比如一些我们「能读懂但可能想不到还可以这样用」的小词:
- Raise the tesosterone level too much, your body ups the estrogen to seek a balance.
- The man with the only woman plants his elbow on her shoudlers...
- The big moosie treed right across the room when it was hug time.
- Every takeoff and landing, when the plane banked too much to one side, I prayed for a crash.
- I dog here heels on the way to the kictchen.(dog 此处表示「紧紧尾随」)
- Normal times, I'd be sporting an erection.(sport 作为动词经常表示「穿戴」「露出(表情)」,此处 sport an erection 相当于 get a hard-on)
- If the pattern holds, I'll see Marla Singer at Above and Beyond...
- It used to be enough taht when I came home angry and knowing that my life wasn't toeing my five-year plan.(toe 的这种用法应该是来自习语 toe the line)
还有一些说法,读到时我忍不住想「下次我也可以这样用」。比如:
- I cabbed home on my last ten bucks.(「我用仅有的 10 块钱打车回家」)
- ...this woman smokes her cigarette under the burden of a stranger...(under the burden of...是不是有点「在他人异样眼光之下」的意思?)
- Three weeks without sleep, and everything becomes an out-of-body experience.(以后想说「灵魂出窍」就可以用到 out-of-body)
- He had two grown kids who wouldn't return his calls.(这句话很简单,让我想到想表达「关系不好」「不孝顺」时就可以用更具体的行为表示)
- Each suitcase has a handle on top. Pick one up, and you'll dislocate a shoulder. They weight that much.(想说一个东西特别重就可以这样夸张地描述)
小说的叙事风格、节奏与电影很像,许多台词完全来自书中。阅读时配上小妖精乐队的 Where is My Mind 更佳。
如果你和我一样喜欢 Fight Club,不妨读读它的英文原著,顺便像我这样学点英语。类似的作品我之前还读过《教父》《肖恩克的救赎》。看过电影再读书,英文读起来更轻松。电影和文字结合,快乐加倍,不知不觉就学了不少英语呢