Virginia Woolf Essay Offers Advice on How to Read a Book

弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫的一篇文章给出了如何读书的建议

2021-02-28 03:50 Lingua Greca

本文共515个字,阅读需6分钟

阅读模式 切换至中文

In addition to writing celebrated novels like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf was also a prolific writer of essays on everything from her own life to her feelings about other writers. Among these many musings is an essay called “How Should One Read a Book?” Woolf begins by explaining why it’s titled “How Should One Read a Book?” and not “How One Should Read a Book.” In short, there’s no single answer to the question. “The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions,” she says [PDF]. That said, she does have some ideas. For one, Woolf thinks you should try to set aside your expectations for a book before you open it, and don’t let knee-jerk judgments interrupt your reading experience. Instead, you should “try to become” the author. “If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first,” she writes, “you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read.” To help you accomplish this, Woolf suggests writing something yourself: “to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words.” After you’ve struggled to capture a simple scene or event in words, you can “turn from your blurred and littered pages to the opening pages of some great novelist,” Woolf writes. “Now you will be better able to appreciate their mastery.” As Maria Popova explains on her blog Brain Pickings, Woolf isn’t against judging what you’ve read—she acknowledges that forming opinions about a book is a vital part of the process. But she recommends taking a break after you finish the last page to let the ideas solidify in your subconscious mind before reflecting on them. “Walk, talk, pull the dead petals from a rose, or fall asleep,” Woolf writes. After that, the book as a whole will make more sense, and you’ll be able to compare it to others. Woolf also reveals conflicted feelings about letting all readers openly judge what they’ve read, rather than leaving such work to expert critics. But she admits that it’s impossible for readers to curb their reactions. “There is always a demon in us who whispers, ‘I hate, I love,’ and we cannot silence him,” she explains. What we can do is read so much and so widely that our critical “demon” develops good taste. In the end, Woolf neutralizes everything she’s expressed thus far by introducing the possibility that the chief purpose of reading a book is just to enjoy it. “Are there not some pursuits that we practice because they are good in themselves, and some pleasures that are final? And is not this among them?” she asks. To anyone familiar with Woolf and her work, it’s probably not surprising that she’d offer such inconclusive advice on reading. After all, she herself never thought much of rigid rules—in writing or anything else. [h/t Brain Pickings]
除了写《达洛卫夫人》和《到灯塔去》等著名小说外,弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫也是一位多产的散文作家,从她自己的生活到她对其他作家的感受,无所不包。在这众多的沉思中,有一篇散文叫《一个人应该怎样读书》。 伍尔夫首先解释了为什么这篇散文的题目是《一个人应该怎样读书?》而不是《一个人怎样读一本书?》简而言之,这里并没有一个针对这个问题的标准的答案。伍尔夫说,一个人能够给出关于阅读的唯一的建议就是不要去按照建议做事,仅仅跟随你的直觉,并且运用你的理智最终得出属于你自己的结论。 这么说的话,弗尔夫的确表达了一些想法。首先,弗尔夫认为,你应该尝试着在打开一本书前,将期待抛掷脑后,并且不要让那些下意识的评论干扰你的阅读体验。相反,你应该尝试着变成作者。她说,如果你在最初阅读时就犹豫不决,或是有所保留抑或是大肆评论,你就不会从你所读的书中得到充分的可能的价值。 为了帮助读者实现这一目标,伍尔夫的建议是你可以自己写一些东西;即自己来体会文字中的种种危险与困惑。在你努力用文字捕捉到简单的一个场景或是事件之后,你可以从模糊杂乱的书页中找到那些伟大的作品中的场景,那么现在你将能够更好地理解他们的伟大。 正如玛丽亚·波波娃在她的博客brain pickings所说的一样,伍尔夫并不是反对你对自己读过的书做出评价——她也认可这个观点——形成对一本书的观点是整个过程中至关重要的一部分。但是,伍尔夫建议道,在你读完这本书后,你停留或是休息一下,让你的观点在潜意识里面固化,然后你再进行反思。你可以散步,讨论,摘掉玫瑰上枯萎的花瓣。在那之后,这本书作为一个整体将会表现得更加明白,然后你就可以将这本书和其他的书进行比较。 对于让读者公开地对他们读过的作品进行评价,伍尔夫也表现出一种矛盾的情感,但是她并不会把作品留给专家,来进行评价。但是她也承认,对于读者来说,克制他们的反应也是不可能的事情。她解释道,在我们的身体里,总有一个嘀喃的恶魔,轻声说着:我讨厌,我喜欢,我们也不能让其沉默。我们能做的就是读更多的书,涉猎更广泛的书,如此,我们的批判恶魔才能够培养优雅的品味。 最后,伍尔夫对她表达的任何一个观点都保持中立,也因此进一步引出了一种可能性,即读书最终的目的就是享受它。这里没有我们一直践行的追求吗?因为我们在他们身上看到美好,快乐会中止吗?这些不在这些书中吗? 对于任何熟悉伍尔夫和她的作品的人来说,她会在阅读方面提供如此毫无结论性的建议也许并不奇怪。毕竟,她自己从来不把刻板的规则看得太重--无论是在书面上还是其他什么方面。 “H/T脑采撷”

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

阅读原文