本期範文賞析(SPOTLIGHT)，由本中心教師簡士捷老師撰寫，分析美國著名作家海明威(Ernest Hemingway)的小說《老人與海》(The Old Man and the Sea)中的寫作手法，節錄其中的片段文字，引領讀者玩味淺白文字底下的修辭手法與情感營造。本期教師專訪(STAR OF THE MONTH)的主角為熊宜君老師，將與讀者分享電玩娛樂，是如何昇華成一種同時兼顧性情陶冶與語言學習的知性活動。最後，電子報邀請讀者一同來慶祝臺大寫作教學中心成立十週年，在讀者園地(PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS)條列相關活動與演講清單，期盼各位讀者能共襄盛舉！

The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what--these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.

~ William H. Gass

 

海明威廣泛被認為是現代美國文學中最重要的作家之一。海明威的小說《老人與海》，某些程度上與學術英文寫作手法有著異曲同工之妙，透過短而簡潔的語言，幾乎沒有形容詞，廣泛使用重複寫作技巧，他的風格也避免了情緒化，採取輕描淡寫的寫作方式。海明威風格的特點取決於字彙選擇和句子結構的簡單性、重複性、平行性和一致性，廣泛使用內部獨白和故意壓抑情緒，文體效果創造了其諷刺主題，以自身掙扎與大自然的對抗，他的簡潔與嚴謹的寫作手法對20世紀作家們產生了重大影響。

《老人與海》主要依據海明威切身的觀察，展現了諷刺意味的風格，運用深刻的道德挑戰，描述他自己投射在老人身上的風格。從表面上看，《老人與海》的故事情節很簡單，講述一位名叫聖地亞哥的古巴漁民的故事，以及他為期三天與大馬林魚的奮戰，但在他返回海岸的路上，因鯊魚的追擊失去了他所捕獲的大魚，透過他與魚的戰鬥讓讀者來了解其奮鬥與生命的意義和無常。例如：

Then he began to pity the great fish that he had hooked. He is wonderful and strange and who knows how old he is, he thought. Never have I had such a strong fish nor one who acted so strangely. Perhaps he is too wise to jump. He could ruin me by jumping or by a wild rush. But perhaps he has been hooked many times before and he knows that this is how he should make his fight. He cannot know that it is only one man against him, nor that it is an old man. But what a great fish he is and what will he bring in the market if the flesh is good. He took the bait like a male and he pulls like a male and his fight has no panic in it. I wonder if he has any plans or if he is just as desperate as I am?

上述這段文字說明了海明威的典型句子結構，除了句子中的平行句型之外，尤其在重複這些字詞如hooked、fight和fish。此外，透過使用頭韻(alliteration)，加強了平行結構的句型。他將魚描述為男性，為了表示對魚的同情，海明威在聖地牙哥和魚的捕獲之間形成了一個對比，人與魚是鎖定在一場拼命的生存之中；然而，激烈爭鬥的絕望與暴力被輕描淡寫。另外，強調戲劇性的男性特質對於瞭解海明威無情的風格也很重要，缺乏情感的描述有助於舒緩內心獨白中的戲劇性緊張。他最重要的主題是榮譽：人的生活將會是什麼，人將死於什麼，在世界中存在什麼是暴力的基本條件，也因此海明威對於人與大自然直接衝突的世界甚感興趣，當思考人與非人之間關係的差異問題時，聖地牙哥的倫理衝突得到進一步發展。例如，海明威寫道：

It is silly not to hope, he thought. Besides I believe it is a sin. Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it. I have no understanding of it and I am not sure that I believe in it. Perhaps it was a sin to kill the fish. I suppose it was even though I did it to keep me alive and feed many people. But then everything is a sin. Do not think about sin. It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it. Let them think about it. You were born to be a fisherman as the fish was born to be a fish. San Pedro was a fisherman as was the father of the great DiMaggio.

包括簡單的句子結構和反覆的詰問，是聖地牙哥陳述一個重要卻無法回答的道德問題：一個人如何重視和尊重大自然又同時需要殺死魚？海明威再次使用內部獨白來做諷刺論述；讀者不得不思考罪過，並質疑有關人類對野獸優越感的假設。聖地亞哥解決他關於殺死他的魚的道德的想法乃宿命論，並且與海明威欣賞大自然的力量相連。另一方面，透過使用平行結構，他提出了一種活在聖地亞哥世界中定義漁夫該有的生活的模式，換句話說，聖地亞哥、聖彼得和喬迪馬吉奧的父親都是漁民，而這種等值概念創造了其自身定義的世界秩序，可以被理解為一種穩定的表現。海明威描述的聖地亞哥對失去大馬林魚的反應也是他的典型風格：

He knew he was beaten now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer. He settled the sack around his shoulders and put the skiff on her course. He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind. He was past everything now and he sailed the skiff to make his home port as well and as intelligently as he could. In the night sharks hit the carcass as someone might pick up crumbs from the table. The old man paid no attention to them and did not pay any attention to anything except steering. He only noticed how lightly and how well the skiff sailed now there was no great weight beside her.

最後，上述文字也充分體現了海明威不以情感作為修辭的手段。在《老人與海》，戰役輸了，掙扎結束了，雖然聖地牙哥已存活下來，但他也已忍受了折騰，海明威堅信這一點承受巨大的痛苦給生活帶來不同的意義，聖地牙哥已完全疲憊不堪，而使用頭韻的聲音強化給了讀者對漁民慘重之損失的深刻感受。《老人與海》的風格是由一個英雄的想法塑造而成的，只專注捕捉他的魚，而不注意其他任何東西。他雖被擊敗，但最終也找到了尊嚴的殘餘失敗與其誠實對抗。在為期三天的遭遇中，巨大的存在衝突被縮小了，而他身處周遭環境比他所能控制的力量更強大，在他的忍受過程中，聖地牙哥的經歷成為一個經典：認清失敗的不可逆性，透過妥協與接受而獲得平靜。

熊宜君老師於臺大開設英文寫作基礎、學術英文口頭發表、實用英文寫作等課程，以嚴謹且有條理的課程規劃能力見長，課程廣受好評。私底下，熊宜君老師其實有著不為人知的娛樂管道：電玩。聽來或許有點令人驚訝，但電玩其實可以算是熊宜君老師的一位成長夥伴，光是玩過所有《古墓奇兵》系列遊戲的成就，便夠令人印象深刻。熊宜君老師把遊玩電玩比喻為觀覽一部電影，但多了一份參與其中的自主權，能夠從操控角色所做的不同決定，走向不同的故事發展；她尤其鍾情劇情與推理走向的遊戲風格，從賞析遊戲腳本的心情出發，享受角色對白的文字傳達與思緒流動。對熊宜君老師而言，這過程也不失為一種語言學習的管道，盡興地暢玩，從遊戲中體驗抽絲剝繭的成就感，儼然也可以是一席知性饗宴。

訪談後，熊宜君老師感性地說道，為這股有點與眾不同的電玩熱忱下一個最佳的註腳：「遊戲中我嘗試做各種不同的決定，每一個決定都可能會通往不同結局，從中我得以看到許多不同的人生故事。」最後，附上熊宜君老師私房推薦的遊戲，喜歡劇情與推理走向的遊戲風格的讀者，不妨試試：