不能想, 不能寫, 只好讀

The Benefactor, by Susan Sontag:

But if there is any chance of writing something that is true, it will only be because we have banished the thought of another person.

When we write the truth, we should address ourselves. When in writing we are didactic and admonitory, we must consider that we instruct and admonish only ourselves, for our own failings alone. The reader is a happy accident.

___________

The Benefactor 是蘇珊.桑塔格(Susan Sontag)的第一部實驗小說, 不及她後來的小說受歡迎。 其實她的議論文比小說寫得好, 但她筆下的小說人物的說話行為也偶有啟發性。

桑塔格沒出自傳, 但生平頗有趣。絕頂聰明的她, 念中學時跳了三級, 十五歲畢業。十七歲時下嫁交往十天的社會學教授。 讀過哈佛, 讀過牛津。 光是其寫作涉獵範疇之廣, 足以令人敬佩。 從小說到電影到攝影到戰爭到疾病和道德觀, 只要是她關心的事情, 她都既敢言又能寫。

有兩本她的書, 坐在我Amazon的Wish List上已久, 不知何時能讀。