其他

On God : An Uncommon Conversation
出版社： Random House, Inc. (International Division)
書林書號：
20086404
作者：
Mailer, Norman
定價：
945
會員價：
$803
ISBN：
9781400067329
出版年份：
2007
裝訂：
精裝
總頁數：
0
  • 本書介紹
  • 作者
論上帝：一場不尋常的對話

美國作家諾曼‧梅勒(Norman Mailer)與文學家J·邁克爾·列儂(J. Michael Lennon)關於信仰的對話集

A towering figure in American literature, Norman Mailer has in recent years reached a new level of accessibility and power. His last novel, The Castle in the Forest, revealed fascinating ideas about faith and the nature of good and evil. Now Mailer offers his concept of the nature of God. His conversations with his friend and literary executor, Michael Lennon, show this writer at his most direct, provocative, and challenging. “I think,” writes Mailer, “that piety is oppressive. It takes all the air out of thought.”

In moving, amusing, probing, and uncommon dialogues conducted over three years but whose topics he has considered for decades, Mailer establishes his own system of belief, one that rejects both organized religion and atheism. He presents instead a view of our world as one created by an artistic God who often succeeds but can also fail in the face of determined opposition by contrary powers in the universe, with whom war is waged for the souls of humans. In turn, we have been given freedom–indeed responsibility–to choose our own paths. Mailer trusts that our individual behavior–always a complex mix of good and evil–will be rewarded or punished with a reincarnation that fits the sum of our lives. 

Mailer weighs the possibilities of “intelligent design” at the same time avowing that sensual pleasures were bestowed on us by God; he finds fault with the Ten Commandments–because adultery, he avers, may be a lesser evil than others suffered in a bad marriage–and he holds that technology was the Devil’s most brilliant creation. 

In short, Mailer is original and unpredictable in this inspiring verbal journey, a unique vision of the world in which “God needs us as much as we need God.”

From The Naked and the Dead to The Executioner’s Song and beyond, Mailer’s major works have engaged such themes as war, politics, culture, and sex. Now, in this small yet important book, Mailer, in a modest, well-spoken style, gives us fresh ways to think about the largest subject of them all.
20世紀最後一個轟轟烈烈的明星作家─Norman Mailer

諾曼·梅勒無論作為一個男人，還是一位作家，都是美名與罵名參半，卻很少有模稜兩可的中間立場。他的身份有很多種不同的組合：他是個世界級的酒徒、愛鬧事、好結仇、常將自己神話化，還反對女權主義；同時，他也是反戰倡導者、市長候選人、《村聲》（The Village Voice，創辦於1955年、紐約格林威治村的文化藝術類周刊，持左翼立場，在知識分子中影響極大——譯註）的創辦人之一；他還擔了「刺妻」的惡名，結過六次婚，育有九個子女；除此以外，他也是一名拳擊手、演員、電影人、詩人和劇作家；作為新聞工作者和小說家，其對敘事手法的創新與推動影響遠大，他兩度榮獲普利策獎，是20世紀後半葉最有意思、談資不斷，也最令人生厭的公眾人物之一。

自1969年以來發表的關於Norman Mailer的傳記、類傳記和回憶錄不下15部，作者包括崇拜者、文學史專家、幾任妻子和一名情婦。而更值得注目的，則是J·邁克爾·列儂(J. Michael Lennon)撰寫的洋洋洒洒900頁的全面人物傳記《諾曼·梅勒的雙重生活》(Norman Mailer: A Double Life)。這項浩大的工程與梅勒變幻莫測的一生和寫作題材相得益彰，時間跨越從他二十幾歲到最後幾十載直至去世那一年。列儂筆法流暢，研究鑿實。在這部巨著中，每個段落不無包含着你前所未聞又相知恨晚的寶貴信息。列儂此書可謂盡言盡慎。雖然身為梅勒的遺稿保管人，對於其人其作的鋒利稜角與多變質地，他卻未曾打磨，而原貌呈將出來。

列儂寫道：「對於梅勒而言，每個人心中都住着兩個獨立的主體（而不是一個二元的主體）是不爭的事實。用他自己的話說，『每個人自我的統一本身就是一場婚姻。』住在他內心的這兩個自我，被一遍遍描述為『聖徒』和『瘋子』的自我，是由那個『過於友好、焦慮、孩子氣的猶太裔知識分子』聯繫起來的，他『時而放蕩魅人，時而拘謹促狹，在二者之間傻裡傻氣地和解妥協。』」

作者簡介資料來源：紐約時報中文網：https://cn.nytimes.com/people/20131211/t11mailer/zh-hant/dual/
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