Shadow Dance

出版者:Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition

作者:Angela Carter

页数:192

出版时间:2004

价格:£6.99

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9781860490415

具体描述

'The scar drew her whole face sideways and even in profile, with the hideous thing turned away, her face was horribly lop- sided, skin, features and all, dragged away from the bone. She was a beautiful girl, a white and golden girl, like moonlight on daisies, a month ago.' And yet the men still hover around her, more out of curiosity than lust, and none more so than the wildly seductive, dangerous funny man, Honeybuzzard; lithe as a stick of liquorice, he is the demonic puppet master at the swirling centre of the tale. 'In a modern day horror story gleaming with perfect 1960's detail, she performs a double act, conjuring up just the right amount of unease and perversion beneath the idiosyncratic business of relatively ordinary lives' THE TIMES

作者简介

Born Angela Olive Stalker in Eastbourne, in 1940, Carter was evacuated as a child to live in Yorkshire with her maternal grandmother. As a teenager, she battled anorexia. She at first worked as a journalist on the Croydon Advertiser, following in the footsteps of her father who was also a journalist. Carter attended the University of Bristol where she studied English literature.

Carter’s writings show the influence of her mother. This influence can be seen in her novel Wise Children, which is notable for its many Shakespearean references. Carter was also interested in reappropriating writings by male authors, such as the Marquis de Sade (see The Sadeian Woman) and Charles Baudelaire (see her short story 'Black Venus'), amongst other literary forefathers. But she was also fascinated by the matriarchal, oral, storytelling tradition, rewriting several fairy tales for her short story collection The Bloody Chamber, including "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard," and two reworkings of "Beauty and the Beast."

She married twice, the first time in 1960 to a man named Paul Carter. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and travel to Japan, living in Tokyo for two years, where, she claims, she "learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised" (Nothing Sacred (1982)). She wrote about her experiences there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).

She then explored the United States, Asia and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of East Anglia. In 1977, Carter married again, to her second husband, Mark Pearce.

As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She also wrote for radio, adapting a number of her short stories for the medium, and two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves (1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in the adaptation of both films, her screenplays for which are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radioplay scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures), and other works. These neglected works, as well as her her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).

Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.

Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 after developing cancer. Below is an extract from her obituary published in The Observer:

"She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and revelled in the diverse."

读后感

安吉拉-卡特的癫狂与迷幻 关于《影舞》与《新夏娃的激情》 赵松 在二十世纪的西方作家里，像安吉拉-卡特这样的，能把小说变成一种迷幻狂欢式魅惑文体的天才，实不多见。无论是小说观念与技艺，还是精神气质，她都像个沉湎魔法的女巫。只是千万不要像那些职业批评家那样，愚蠢地...  

安吉拉·卡特之前已经有好几本短篇小说集，看起来要比这一本好读，从处女作的角度审视这本书的话，会觉得她对内容的把控，故事节奏的掌握是渐入佳境的。但即使是这部处女作，也已经奠定了卡特诡谲的风格，吊诡的氛围弥漫全书，情节故事反而有些跟不上了。 相比爱情，《影舞》...  

本文摘自我的个人公众号[流浪的该隐]。会经常写一些关于文学、音乐或宗教方面的内容，欢迎关注～以下是正文： 有人说安吉拉·卡特（Angela Carter）是20世纪的爱伦坡，这话一点儿也不假，她的小说主人公里毕竟也有睡在棺材里的。也有人把卡特的东西归之为童话，但这童话一定是...  

不对现实世界的存在进行丝毫质疑或抱怨，纯粹意识、感受的实在糜烂荒诞描绘让我十分沉浸陶醉。不加以任何人为令其合理化或理想化的修饰反让我感受到生活的真实，真实得荒诞，真实得矛盾，真实得无法自拔，这便是当你投入了生活，生活给你最damn的回馈。 在追求样样视觉化的今...

安吉拉·卡特之前已经有好几本短篇小说集，看起来要比这一本好读，从处女作的角度审视这本书的话，会觉得她对内容的把控，故事节奏的掌握是渐入佳境的。但即使是这部处女作，也已经奠定了卡特诡谲的风格，吊诡的氛围弥漫全书，情节故事反而有些跟不上了。 相比爱情，《影舞》...  

用户评价

这本书的结构设计非常大胆，它采用了多重视角的叙事框架，但奇怪的是，这种多重声音的叠加并没有造成混乱，反而像一个精密的机械钟表，每个齿轮都在恰当的时机咬合。我喜欢看作者如何在不同角色的记忆碎片中切换，每一次切换都像按下了一个快进或回放键，让你从一个完全不同的侧面重新审视已经发生的事情。书中关于“记忆的不可靠性”这一主题的探讨，达到了一个极高的哲学层面，它让你开始质疑自己所阅读的一切，甚至是你自己记忆中的真实性。有些章节的场景转换是如此突兀，从一个熙熙攘攘的集市瞬间跳跃到寂静的雪地，这种强烈的对比带来的冲击力是令人难忘的。尽管情节线索众多，像藤蔓一样交织缠绕，但作者最终给出的收束却异常的干净利落，没有留下多余的线头，这种掌控力，简直是教科书级别的范本。它不是那种让你读完就忘的书，它会像一个挥之不去的旋律，在你脑海中不断重复和变奏。

这本书最让我印象深刻的是它对“界限”的模糊化处理——无论是生与死的界限，光明与黑暗的界限，还是现实与幻觉的界限。作者似乎故意将叙事置于一个永恒的“黄昏”状态，让你分不清眼前发生的是真实经历还是某种深层的梦魇。这种模糊性使得故事的解读空间变得无比开阔，不同读者可能会得出截然不同的结论，而所有结论似乎都有其合理性。我尤其欣赏作者在处理配角时所展现出的细腻笔触，他们不仅仅是主角的陪衬，每个人都有自己完整而破碎的侧面故事，即使只出现几页，也留下了深刻的烙印。在技术层面上，这本书的句法结构变化多端，时而是简洁有力的短句，时而是绵延不绝、层层递进的长句，这种句式上的节奏变化，完美契合了故事主题的起伏不定。读完后，我感觉自己刚刚完成了一场漫长而艰辛的朝圣之旅，虽然疲惫，但心灵深处似乎被某种清澈的东西洗涤过。

这本书的叙事节奏简直就像一场精心编排的芭蕾，每一个转折都精准得让人屏息。作者对环境的描摹功力令人叹为观止，那种带着潮湿气息的青石板路，雨后泥土翻滚的浓郁芬芳，仿佛能透过纸页直钻进读者的鼻腔。人物的内心挣扎刻画得入木三分，尤其是主角在道德困境中摇摆不定时的那种撕扯感，我几乎能感受到他手心的汗珠。情节的铺陈是渐进式的，像剥洋葱一样，你以为已经触及核心，却发现更深层次的秘密和谎言还在后面等着你。书中穿插的历史背景知识处理得非常自然，不是生硬的百科全书式灌输，而是与角色的命运紧密交织在一起，增强了故事的厚重感。尽管有些地方的对话显得过于晦涩，需要反复咀嚼，但这反而增加了一种古典文学的韵味。总的来说，这是一部需要你全身心投入才能完全领会的作品，它挑战了你对传统叙事模式的期待，并最终给予丰厚的回报。那种阅读完后，合上书本，世界观仿佛被轻轻拨动了一下，留下一串悠长回响的感觉，非常奇妙。

读完这本书，我有一种强烈的冲动想要立刻找一个安静的角落，重新梳理我刚刚经历的一切。这本书的“情绪密度”非常高，简单的一个动作，比如主人公轻轻摩擦一个旧物件的边缘，都能被赋予沉重的历史意义。它不像那种跌宕起伏、高潮迭起的类型小说，它的张力是内在的、压抑的，像一个即将爆裂的压力锅，让你时刻感受到那种无形的紧绷感。作者对“失落”这一主题的捕捉尤其精准，不是那种戏剧化的嚎啕大哭，而是那种深入骨髓的、带着灰尘味道的、安静的哀伤。我发现自己不时地会停下来，不是因为没看懂，而是因为需要时间去消化作者描绘的某种特定心境。书中对某种特定文化符号的运用也极其到位，这些符号的出现并非装饰，而是作为情节推进的关键钥匙，只有理解了它们背后的文化含义，才能真正进入故事的核心对话。这是一部需要耐心陪伴的作品，但它给予读者的情感深度绝对值得这份投入。

我不得不说，这本书的语言风格是其最引人注目，也可能最具争议性的部分。它大量使用了非常规的比喻和象征手法，初读时可能会让人有些手足无措，感觉像是在迷雾中摸索。然而，一旦你适应了作者独特的“词语的舞蹈”，那些晦涩的句子会突然像被强光照亮，迸发出惊人的画面感。作者似乎对色彩和光影有着近乎偏执的迷恋，书中对“午夜蓝”的运用，已经超越了单纯的颜色描述，而成了一种情绪的代名词。人物之间的对话很少是直截了当的，更多的是试探、暗示和未尽之言，这使得每一次交流都充满了张力，你必须学会阅读“空白”之处。我尤其欣赏作者在处理时间流逝上的手法，它不是线性的推进，而是像破碎的镜面，不同时空片段以一种近乎意识流的方式在你眼前闪回重组。对于追求简单快餐式阅读体验的读者来说，这本书或许会显得过于沉重和要求高，但对于喜爱在文字迷宫中探索的探险家来说，无疑是一场盛宴。