英語(yǔ)寫(xiě)作略談（5）：什么是好開(kāi)頭

徐海銘 上海外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)

陳嬋娟 上海外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)賢達(dá)經(jīng)濟(jì)人文學(xué)院

莊甘林 上海外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)賢達(dá)經(jīng)濟(jì)人文學(xué)院

如果文章的開(kāi)頭能引人注目，或是新穎別致，那么，它不僅在觀感上立刻抓住了讀者的眼球，激發(fā)起他們的閱讀欲望，在認(rèn)知上也能讓讀者獲得為之一振的感覺(jué)，置讀者于非讀不可、非要把文章開(kāi)頭設(shè)置的懸念探究清楚的心智狀態(tài)。于是，在文章開(kāi)頭的吸引或激發(fā)之下，讀者便開(kāi)始了一次增進(jìn)對(duì)世相人情的認(rèn)識(shí)和理解、學(xué)習(xí)如何應(yīng)對(duì)復(fù)雜世界的閱讀旅程。人們常說(shuō)，一篇文章如果有了好的開(kāi)頭就成功了一半。當(dāng)代著名作家畢飛宇在創(chuàng)作長(zhǎng)篇小說(shuō)《平原》（2005）時(shí)，曾對(duì)筆者說(shuō)，就是為了這篇小說(shuō)的開(kāi)頭，他整整忙活了三個(gè)多月，寫(xiě)了，不滿(mǎn)，重寫(xiě)，又不滿(mǎn)，又重寫(xiě)，還是不滿(mǎn)，再重寫(xiě)——反反復(fù)復(fù)，曲曲折折，真比繡花還難。最后，在反復(fù)摸索中，他找到了自己滿(mǎn)意的故事開(kāi)頭，也就是找到了自己期待的敘事的自然切口。一旦有了合適自然的切口，作者便文思泉涌，敘事得以順暢完成。難怪托馬斯·福斯特（Thomas C.Forster）在《如何像教授一樣讀小說(shuō)》（How to Read Novels Like a Professor）一書(shū)中說(shuō)：“And it wants to tell us what it thinks is important, so much so that I cannot wait to get started.Perhaps more importantly,it wants us to get involved.When it’s over, we may feel wooed, adored, appreciated, but it will have been an affair to remember.The opening of a novel is an invitation to come inside and play.”（Forster, 2008: 21—22）〔“它（指小說(shuō)開(kāi)頭）想要告訴我們什么是它認(rèn)為重要的東西，它如此急著要告訴我們，以至于我也等不及要開(kāi)始閱讀?；蛟S更重要的是，它要我們卷入其中。開(kāi)頭結(jié)束時(shí)，我們或許有被追求過(guò)、被愛(ài)慕過(guò)、被欣賞過(guò)的感覺(jué)，不過(guò)這將會(huì)成為刻骨銘心的事。小說(shuō)的開(kāi)頭就是邀請(qǐng)我們進(jìn)入故事，去體驗(yàn)其中的樂(lè)趣?！薄晨梢?jiàn)，精妙的、富有魅力的開(kāi)頭對(duì)于作家的順暢敘事和能否吸引讀者具有舉足輕重的意義。

經(jīng)典（classical works）或值得品讀的作品都非常注重開(kāi)頭的設(shè)計(jì)。其實(shí)，不論是小說(shuō)、議論文、散文、隨筆，還是報(bào)紙上事實(shí)性的或非虛構(gòu)的專(zhuān)題報(bào)道也都是如此。我們來(lái)看幾個(gè)具體例子，考察例子中開(kāi)頭的特點(diǎn)及其背后的意圖。

Nations, like individuals, tell stories in order to understand what they are, where they come from, and what they want to be.National narratives, like personal ones,are prone to sentimentality, grievance, pride, shame, self-blindness.There is never just one—they compete and constantly change.The most durable narratives are not the ones that stand up best to fact-checking.They’re the ones that address our deepest needs and desires.Americans know by now that democracy depends on a baseline of shared reality—when facts become fungible, we’re lost.But just as no one can live a happy and productive life in nonstop selfcriticism, nations require more than facts—they need stories that convey a moral identity.The long gaze in the mirror has to end in self-respect or it will swallow us up.

…

The 1970s ended postwar, bipartisan, middle-class America, and with it the two relatively stable narratives of getting ahead and the fair shake.In their place, four rival narratives have emerged, four accounts of America’s moral identity.They have roots in history, but they are shaped by new ways of thinking and living.They reflect schisms on both sides of the divide that has made us two countries,extending and deepening the lines of fracture.Over the past four decades, the four narratives have taken turns exercising influence.They overlap, morph into one another, attract and repel one another.None can be understood apart from the others, because all four emerge from the same whole.

這是美國(guó)年逾百年的期刊《大西洋月刊》（The Atlantic）刊登的一篇政治文章的導(dǎo)論部分。美國(guó)資深政治社會(huì)學(xué)者喬治·帕克（George Packer）（2021）采用宏大的敘事方式，回溯性地概括并分析了自二十世紀(jì)七十年代以降直到特朗普時(shí)代美國(guó)社會(huì)所經(jīng)歷的主要裂變、裂變規(guī)律以及形塑裂變的核心要素。導(dǎo)論的具體寫(xiě)法是這樣的：個(gè)體通過(guò)講故事來(lái)表達(dá)自己對(duì)社會(huì)的理解和認(rèn)知，更重要的是，通過(guò)敘事認(rèn)識(shí)自己，構(gòu)建自己的各種身份（認(rèn)同），表達(dá)自己想要成為什么樣的人。個(gè)人如此，民族、國(guó)家亦是如此。顯然，作者通過(guò)比擬的方法界定敘事的內(nèi)容。這是具體可感、可以觸摸的日常描述，一般讀者都能理解這個(gè)定義。之后，作者從個(gè)人敘事過(guò)渡到抽象的國(guó)家宏大敘事。之所以顯得抽象，是因?yàn)樽髡咭獜膰?guó)家整體視角（holistic perspective）和全景化視點(diǎn)（panoramic view）審視整個(gè)美國(guó)的發(fā)展：“如同個(gè)人敘事一樣，國(guó)家敘事也容易受感傷、怨恨、自豪、羞愧、自我盲目的影響，而且，國(guó)家敘事從來(lái)都不止一個(gè)版本。它們互相競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，不斷變化?！笨梢?jiàn)，要把握國(guó)家敘事并不容易。作者進(jìn)而指出國(guó)家敘事的一個(gè)特征：“最持久的敘事不是因?yàn)槠渥钅芙?jīng)得起事實(shí)檢驗(yàn)，而是因?yàn)樗貞?yīng)了我們內(nèi)心最深切的需要和愿望?！边@是理解國(guó)家敘事的關(guān)鍵。然后，作者整體勾勒了國(guó)家敘事變化的一般情況：

二十世紀(jì)七十年代終結(jié)了戰(zhàn)后的、兩黨的、中產(chǎn)階級(jí)的美國(guó)，隨之也終結(jié)了兩個(gè)相對(duì)穩(wěn)定的關(guān)于邁步向前和公平競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的敘事。取而代之的是四個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性的敘事，也就是四個(gè)關(guān)于美國(guó)道德身份的講述出現(xiàn)了。雖然這些敘事根植于歷史，但卻被新的思維方式和生活方式所塑造，反映出雙方（民主黨和共和黨）的分歧，這些分歧已經(jīng)使得美國(guó)變成了兩個(gè)國(guó)家，延長(zhǎng)并加深了裂痕。過(guò)去四十年來(lái)，這四個(gè)敘事輪流產(chǎn)生影響。它們互相重疊、互相轉(zhuǎn)變、互相吸引、互相排斥。脫離了其他三個(gè)敘事，任何一個(gè)敘事都無(wú)從理解，因?yàn)樗鼈儊?lái)自相同的整體。

顯而易見(jiàn)，這樣的開(kāi)頭充滿(mǎn)了高度抽象的表述，它是對(duì)美國(guó)近四十年歷史的高度濃縮和提煉。既然是濃縮提煉，當(dāng)然會(huì)令一般讀者產(chǎn)生距離感。沒(méi)有在美國(guó)生活或工作經(jīng)歷的讀者，或者不是長(zhǎng)期關(guān)注美國(guó)社會(huì)變化的專(zhuān)業(yè)讀者，通常需要很大的想象力才能理解文本的思想內(nèi)容。盡管如此，文章開(kāi)頭從具體熟悉的東西入手，再過(guò)渡到美國(guó)社會(huì)，提綱挈領(lǐng)地梳理出幾大敘事以及構(gòu)成敘事的核心內(nèi)容，使讀者有了關(guān)于文本主要內(nèi)容的清晰眉目：四個(gè)關(guān)于美國(guó)的敘事版本，它們彼此關(guān)聯(lián)、互相依賴(lài)，不懂其一，便無(wú)從理解其余；要理解美國(guó)社會(huì)，每一個(gè)敘事都不可偏廢。四個(gè)敘事共同構(gòu)成關(guān)于美國(guó)近四十年變遷的有機(jī)整體。

我們現(xiàn)在換個(gè)文體，來(lái)看一看法國(guó)作家維克多·雨果（Victor Hugo）的小說(shuō)《巴黎圣母院》（The Hunchback of Notre-Dame）的開(kāi)頭。

Preface

A few years ago, while visiting or, rather, rummaging about Notre-Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure nook of one of the towers, the following word,engraved by hand upon the wall: —

AΝáΓΚΗ.

These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic calligraphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as though with the purpose of revealing that it had been a hand of the Middle Ages which had inscribed them there, and especially the fatal and melancholy meaning contained in them, struck the author deeply.

He questioned himself; he sought to divine who could have been that soul in torment which had not been willing to quit this world without leaving this stigma of crime or unhappiness upon the brow of the ancient church.

Afterward, the wall was whitewashed or scraped down,I know not which, and the inscription disappeared.For it is thus that people have been in the habit of proceeding with the marvelous churches of the Middle Ages for the last two hundred years.Mutilations come to them from every quarter,from within as well as from without.The priest whitewashes them, the archdeacon scrapes them down; then the populace arrives and demolishes them.

Thus, with the exception of the fragile memory which the author of this book here consecrates to it, there remains today nothing whatever of the mysterious word engraved with the gloomy tower of Notre-Dame—nothing of the destiny which it so sadly summed up.The man who wrote that word upon the wall disappeared from the midst of the generations of man many centuries ago; the word, in its turn,has been effaced from the wall of the church; the church will, perhaps, itself soon disappear from the face of the earth.

It is upon this word that this book is founded.

March, 1831 （Hugo, 2010: 1）

雨果創(chuàng)作這篇序言來(lái)充當(dāng)小說(shuō)的開(kāi)頭。讀完這篇序言，讀者的思緒立刻被序言中的關(guān)鍵詞“命運(yùn)”拽入巴黎的歷史情境中，并在心中思忖：留下了恥辱印記“命運(yùn)”、飽受折磨、不甘心離開(kāi)人世的靈魂（soul in torment）會(huì)是誰(shuí)呢？人間代際更替，歷史朝代變換，寫(xiě)下“命運(yùn)”一詞的那只血肉之手早已化作塵土，消失得了無(wú)痕跡，而巴黎圣母院這個(gè)堅(jiān)固的物理實(shí)體卻依然矗立。這里曾經(jīng)發(fā)生過(guò)什么故事？故事的人物曾經(jīng)歷過(guò)怎樣的滄桑，才非要寫(xiě)下“命運(yùn)”？也就是說(shuō)，小說(shuō)一開(kāi)頭就打下的“命運(yùn)”這個(gè)楔子，誘惑或迫使讀者跟著作者的思路去追尋故事發(fā)生的軌跡。換言之，作家的抱負(fù)就是要記載這里的歷史，刻錄這個(gè)冤屈靈魂不斷掙扎的命運(yùn)。冤屈命運(yùn)的書(shū)寫(xiě)者究竟是誰(shuí)？這座教堂的主教是誰(shuí)？他與這個(gè)冤屈靈魂有何關(guān)系？騷亂迭起的巴黎在教堂這里上演過(guò)何種驚心動(dòng)魄的故事？可以想象，這應(yīng)該是一部氣勢(shì)磅礴的史詩(shī)級(jí)別小說(shuō)。

與雨果這篇背景氣勢(shì)宏闊、人物命運(yùn)悲慘的序言開(kāi)頭不同，英國(guó)十九世紀(jì)女小說(shuō)家簡(jiǎn)·奧斯?。↗ane Austen）的小說(shuō)《傲慢與偏見(jiàn)》（Pride and Prejudice）開(kāi)頭是這樣寫(xiě)的：“It is a truth universally acknowledged,that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”（Austen，2008：1）這句話(huà)采用了it作形式主語(yǔ)結(jié)構(gòu)，把需要強(qiáng)調(diào)的、由that引導(dǎo)的從句（真正主語(yǔ)）置于句末，凸顯了一位有錢(qián)的單身漢需要娶個(gè)太太，點(diǎn)明了小說(shuō)是關(guān)于男女愛(ài)情糾葛的戲劇性家常故事。作者使用了一本正經(jīng)的大詞truth（真理，真相）以及universally（普遍地、放之四海而皆準(zhǔn)地）、acknowledged（承認(rèn)、認(rèn)同、同意）這樣的表述，給整個(gè)小說(shuō)的基調(diào)綴上了一絲詼諧和幽默的色彩，彰顯了小說(shuō)的風(fēng)格：輕松，幽默，自然。同時(shí)，這個(gè)開(kāi)頭簡(jiǎn)明扼要，直抵小說(shuō)核心內(nèi)容。究竟誰(shuí)傲慢？為何傲慢？誰(shuí)持有偏見(jiàn)？為何產(chǎn)生偏見(jiàn)？偏見(jiàn)和傲慢能否消除？如何消除？這一系列疑問(wèn)的答案都會(huì)隨著愛(ài)情故事的展開(kāi)漸次向讀者敞開(kāi)。

再如美國(guó)著名黑人作家、諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)獲得者托妮·莫里森（Toni Morrison）的代表作《寵兒》（Beloved），小說(shuō)一開(kāi)始就懸念重重、先聲奪人，激發(fā)讀者順著小說(shuō)的開(kāi)頭探究到底，揭開(kāi)作者懸置的謎題。

I24 was spiteful.Full of a baby’s venom.The women in the house knew it and so did the children.For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims.The grandmother,Baby Suggs was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old—as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny hand prints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard).Neither boy waited to see more; another kettleful of chickpeas smoking in a heap on the floor; soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the doorsill.Nor did they wait for one of the relief periods:the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed.No.Each one fled at once—the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time.Within two months, in the dead of winter,leaving their grandmother, Baby Suggs; Sethe, their mother;and their little sister, Denver, all by themselves in the gray and white house on Bluestone Road.It didn’t have a number then, because Cincinnati did not stretch that far.In fact, Ohio had been calling itself a state only seventy years when first one brother and then the next stuffed quilt packing into his hat, snatched up his shoes, and crept away from the lively spite the house felt for them.（Morrison，2004：3）

首先是I24里滿(mǎn)是惡意，充滿(mǎn)了嬰兒的怨恨。這屋里的女人們知道這一點(diǎn)，孩子們也知道。需要讀者注意的是，作者為了營(yíng)造閱讀的驚奇效果，打破一般的寫(xiě)作規(guī)則，不對(duì)I24這個(gè)地點(diǎn)做具體描述，而是故意讓讀者從字里行間去尋找關(guān)于I24這個(gè)編號(hào)是什么的答案。細(xì)心的讀者能夠從后面的回指短語(yǔ)in the house推測(cè)出這是房子的門(mén)牌號(hào)碼。作者還引出了women、children、Sethe、Sethe的女兒Denver、奶奶Baby Suggs以及兩個(gè)兒子Howard和Buglar。

這兩個(gè)兒子13歲時(shí)離家出走，照鏡子把鏡子打碎了時(shí)（那是給伯格拉的信號(hào)）；蛋糕上出現(xiàn)兩只小小手印時(shí)（那是給霍華德的信號(hào)）。他們誰(shuí)也不想等待多看點(diǎn)什么。滿(mǎn)滿(mǎn)一壺的鷹嘴豆在地板上的一堆東西里冒煙。蘇打薄脆餅干被捻成粉末，靠近門(mén)檻撒成一條線(xiàn)。他們誰(shuí)也不想等待其中的某個(gè)輕松時(shí)刻：甚至在無(wú)事驚擾的幾周，幾個(gè)月。不等了。他們每個(gè)人都立刻逃離——在這屋子做了他們無(wú)法忍受或再次目睹的侮辱的那一刻。兩個(gè)月內(nèi)，在隆冬時(shí)刻，他們離開(kāi)了奶奶Baby Suggs、母親Sethe、小妹妹Denver，把她們丟在藍(lán)石路上的那棟灰白屋子里。那時(shí)候，這屋子還沒(méi)門(mén)牌號(hào)碼，因?yàn)樾列聊翘崾羞€沒(méi)延伸到那么遠(yuǎn)。事實(shí)上，俄亥俄自稱(chēng)是個(gè)州，不過(guò)也才70年。那時(shí)候，先是一個(gè)兄弟，接著是另一個(gè)兄弟，把被卷兒塞進(jìn)帽子里，提著鞋，悄然離開(kāi)了讓他們感到濃濃惡意的屋子。

可以推斷，這樣的開(kāi)頭暗示著整部小說(shuō)的敘事都是圍繞這房子里的人物展開(kāi)。作家的語(yǔ)言風(fēng)格和敘事格調(diào)在開(kāi)頭已經(jīng)露出端倪。

現(xiàn)在總結(jié)一下全文。本文列舉了政論和不同風(fēng)格的小說(shuō)的開(kāi)頭樣例，旨在說(shuō)明不論是寫(xiě)政論還是寫(xiě)創(chuàng)意小說(shuō)，我們都要在開(kāi)頭下足功夫：如何開(kāi)頭？是制造懸念，還是從熟悉的話(huà)題開(kāi)始，逐漸過(guò)渡到所要言說(shuō)的議題？這些都得悉心推敲。有了新穎別致的開(kāi)頭之后，我們?cè)偃パ堇[精彩的故事或展開(kāi)對(duì)議題的深刻論述。