Why should you read Flannery O’Connor? - Iseult Gillespie

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Helen Chang

A garrulous grandmother and a roaming bandit face off on a dirt road.

一位喋喋不休的祖母，和一位 流浪強盜在一起泥土路上對峙。

A Bible salesman lures a one-legged philosopher into a barn.

一位聖經銷售員引誘一位 單腳哲學家進入一個穀倉。

A traveling handyman teaches a deaf woman her first word on an old plantation.

在一個老農園上，一位旅行雜工 教導一位耳聾女子她的第一個字。

From her farm in rural Georgia,

在她位於喬治亞州鄉下的農場裡，

surrounded by a flock of pet birds,

被一群寵物鳥圍繞著，

Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts,

弗蘭納里奧康納刻劃的故事， 講的是被拋棄者、

intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best:

闖入者，以及無法融入者， 背景則是她最熟知的世界：

the American South.

美國南方。

She published two novels,

她出版了兩部小說，

but is perhaps best known for her short stories,

但最為人所知的應該是 她的短篇故事，

which explored small-town life with stinging language, offbeat humor,

這些故事探討小鎮人物， 用尖酸、非傳統的幽默，

and delightfully unsavory scenarios.

及令人討厭又愉快的情境來描寫。

In her spare time O’Connor drew cartoons,

在閒暇時間， 奧康納會畫連環漫畫，

and her writing is also brimming with caricature.

她的寫作中也充滿著漫畫手法。

In her stories, a mother has a face “as broad and innocent as a cabbage,”

在她的故事中，一位母親的臉孔

「和白菜一樣寬、一樣無辜」，

a man has as much drive as a “floor mop,”

一位男子開車的車程 和「拖把」一樣多，

and one woman’s body is shaped like “a funeral urn.”

一位女子的身體形狀 和「骨灰罈」一樣。

The names of her characters are equally sly.

她在設計角色名字時也同樣淘氣。

Take the story “The Life You Save May be Your Own,”

以《獲救的或許就是你自己》 這個故事為例，

where the one-handed drifter Tom Shiftlet wanders into the lives

故事中，單手的浪人 湯姆 · 許佛特雷特在閒晃時

of an old woman named Lucynell Crater

進入了老女人露西妮爾 · 克雷特 及她的聾啞女兒的生命當中。

and her deaf and mute daughter.

Though Mrs. Crater is self-assured,

雖然克雷特女士很有自信，

her isolated home is falling apart.

她那孤立的家正在四分五裂中。

At first, we may be suspicious of Shiftlet’s motives

一開始，我們可能會懷疑 許佛特雷特願意協助

when he offers to help around the house,

房子的雜務背後有什麼動機，

but O’Connor soon reveals the old woman to be

但奧康納很快就揭露出這位老女人

just as scheming as her unexpected guest–

其實和她的不速之客同樣狡詐——

and rattles the reader’s presumptions about who has the upper hand.

讓讀者感到不安， 無法推定到底誰佔上風。

For O’Connor, no subject was off limits.

對奧康納而言，選主題沒有禁忌。

Though she was a devout Catholic,

雖然她是虔誠的天主教徒，

she wasn’t afraid to explore the possibility

她並不害怕去探究各種可能性，

of pious thought and unpious behavior

如敬神的想法以及不敬神的行為 能在同一個人身上共存。

co-existing in the same person.

In her novel The Violent Bear it Away,

在她的小說《暴取天國》中，

the main character grapples with the choice to become a man of God –

主角努力地想要做出選擇， 成為神職人員，

but also sets fires and commits murder.

但卻也會殺人放火。

The book opens with the reluctant prophet in a particularly compromising position:

這本書的開場，是這位不情願的 預言者處在一個特別妥協的位置上：

“Francis Marion Tarwater’s uncle had been dead for only half a day

「法蘭西絲瑪莉安塔華特的叔叔 半天前才剛剛過世，

when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave.”

那時這個男孩喝得太醉， 無法挖好墳墓。」

This leaves a passerby to “drag the body from the breakfast table

這就造成一位路人得要把 「還趴在早餐桌上的屍體

where it was still sitting and bury it […]

拖下來埋掉……

with enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.”

用足夠的沙土覆蓋， 以確保狗不會把屍體挖出來。」

Though her own politics are still debated,

雖然奧康納自己的 政治立場還有爭議，

O’Connor’s fiction could also be attuned to the racism of the South.

她的小說可被視為是 非常理解南方的種族主義。

In “Everything that Rises Must Converge,”

在《上升的一切必將匯合》中，

she depicts a son raging at his mother’s bigotry.

她描述一個兒子 對於他母親的偏執感到憤怒。

But the story reveals that he has his own blind spots

但這個故事揭露出 他也有自己的盲點，

and suggests that simply recognizing evil

說明了若僅僅只是辨識出邪惡，

doesn’t exempt his character from scrutiny.

並不能讓他的角色免受檢視。

Even as O’Connor probes the most unsavory aspects of humanity,

即使當奧康納在探究 人性不好的面向時，

she leaves the door to redemption open a crack.

她也會讓通往救贖的門 留下一道縫隙，不會關閉。

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,”

在《好人難尋》中，

she redeems an insufferable grandmother for forgiving a hardened criminal,

她挽救了一位令人討厭的祖母， 讓她寬恕一位強硬的罪犯，

even as he closes in on her family.

即使他漸漸逼近她的家人。

Though we might balk at the price the woman pays for this redemption,

雖然我們對於這位女子為了 救贖付出的代價不見得能贊同，

we’re forced to confront the nuance in moments

我們仍然被迫去正視這些本來可能

we might otherwise consider purely violent or evil.

被我們視為純粹暴力 或邪惡的時刻，不見得是如此。

O’Connor’s mastery of the grotesque

奧康納精通怪異風格，

and her explorations of the insularity and superstition of the South

且會探究南方的偏狹以及迷信，

led her to be classified as a Southern Gothic writer.

這些特性讓她被歸類為 南方的哥德風作家。

But her work pushed beyond the purely ridiculous

但她的作品超越了這個類別常見的

and frightening characteristics associated with the genre

純粹荒誕以及嚇人角色，

to reveal the variety and nuance of human character.

揭示出人類性格的 多樣性和細微差別。

She knew some of this variety was uncomfortable,

她知道有些多樣性會讓人不舒服，

and that her stories could be an acquired taste –

且她的故事要慢慢才能被欣賞——

but she took pleasure in challenging her readers.

但她從挑戰她的讀者來得到樂趣。

O’Connor died of lupus at the age of 39,

奧康納在三十九歲時死於狼瘡，

after the disease had mostly confined her to her farm in Georgia for twelve years.

這之前的十二年，這疾病使她 無法離開她在喬治亞的農場。

During those years,

她大部分極富想像力的作品 都是在這些年間寫出來的。

she penned much of her most imaginative work.

Her ability to flit between revulsion and revelation

她有能力在強烈反感 和啟示之間快速轉換，

continues to draw readers to her endlessly surprising fictional worlds.

這點持續吸引讀者進入 她那驚喜不斷的虛構世界中。

As her character Tom Shiftlet notes,

如同她筆下的角色 湯姆 · 許佛特雷特提到的，

the body is “like a house:

身體就「像是一間房子： 它不會到哪裡去，

it don’t go anywhere,

but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile:

但，女士，心靈就像是一台汽車：

always on the move.”

總是在移動著。」