Another Country

出版者:Samuel French, Inc.

作者:Julian Mitchell

页数:95

出版时间:1982

价格:0

装帧:Pamphlet

isbn号码:9780573640407

具体描述

Another Country is loosely based on the life of the spy Guy Burgess, Guy Bennett in the play, and examines the effect his homosexuality and exposure to Marxism has on his life, and the hypocrisy and snobbery of the English public schools.

The setting is a 1930s Eton-esque public school, where Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd are friends because they are both outsiders in their own ways. Bennett is openly gay, while Judd is a Marxist.

One day a teacher walks in on Martineau and a boy from another house having sex. Martineau subsequently kills himself because of the shame of having been found in a homosexual embrace, and chaos erupts as teachers and the senior students try their hardest to keep the scandal away from parents and the rest of the outside world. However, the gay scandal gives the army-obsessed house captain Fowler, who dislikes both Bennett and Judd, a welcome reason to scheme against Bennett to keep him from becoming a "God" - a school name for the elite pupils of the school. Fowler is able to intercept a love letter from Bennett to James Harcourt. Bennett agrees to be punished so as not to compromise Harcourt. (On an earlier occasion he had simply blackmailed the other Gods for their own "experiences" with him.)

Meanwhile, Judd is reluctant to become a prefect, since he feels that he cannot endorse a "system of oppression" such as this, and has a memorable, bitter speech about how the boys oppressed by the system grow up to be the fathers who maintain it. He however eventually agrees to become a prefect in order to prevent the hateful Fowler from becoming Head of House. This never comes about, however, because Devenish agrees to stay at school and become a prefect if he is nominated to become a God instead of Bennett.

Devastated at the loss of his cherished dream of becoming a God, Bennett comes to realize that the British class system relies strongly on outward appearance and that to be openly gay is a severe hindrance to a career as a diplomat. The epilogue of the movie states that he emigrated to Russia later in his life, after having been a spy for the Soviet Union. Judd has died fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

作者简介

Julian Mitchell FRSL (born 1 May 1935 in Epping, Essex), full name Charles Julian Humphrey Mitchell, is an English playwright, screenwriter and occasional novelist. He is best known as screenwriter for TV, producing many original plays and series episodes, including at least ten for Inspector Morse. He has written nine produced plays, including Another Country, which won the SWET (now Oliviers) award for best play of the year (1981), and After Aida (1986), a play-with-music about composer Giuseppe Verdi. He has also written the screen play for five movies, starting by co-writing Arabesque (1966), and including the 1984 film adaptation of Another Country, Wilde and Vincent & Theo.

Mitchell was educated at Winchester College where he won the English Verse and Duncan Reading Prizes [1]. He then did his national service in submarines 1953-55, (Sub Lt RNVR). He then went to Oxford, where he received a BA with first class honours in 1958. This was followed by a period as a Harkness Fellow in the USA (1959-61). Since 1962 has been a freelance writer.

In the late 1960s, Mitchell co-wrote the teleplay Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) with Ray Davies of The Kinks. It was never produced, though it gave rise to the band's concept album. He recently recalled the aborted project: "Arthur had a most unhappy history. It was originally meant to be a ... sort of rock opera, and we got as far as casting (excellent director and actors) and finding locations and were about to go when the producer went to a production meeting without a proper budget, tried to flannel his way through it, was immediately sussed and the production pulled. I have never been able to forgive the man."

In 2007 he wrote for BBC4 the drama Consenting Adults about Sir John Wolfenden and his celebrated 1957 report.

用户评价

我得承认，这本书的氛围营造能力简直是神乎其技。它不是通过宏大的场景来震撼你，而是通过对细节的极度专注，营造出一种让人透不过气的、近乎幽闭恐惧的氛围。那种弥漫在空气中的、关于失落和疏离的情绪，从第一页就开始渗透，并且从未真正消散。作者非常擅长利用环境来映射人物的内心状态——无论是阴沉的街道、潮湿的房间，还是那些总是笼罩在某种不确定光线下的角落，都成为了角色心理状态的延伸。阅读过程中，我常常感觉自己不是在“看”故事，而是“栖居”在了那个世界里，呼吸着那里陈腐的空气，感受着那份挥之不去的压抑。这种沉浸感是如此强烈，以至于当我关上书本回到现实生活时，还需要一个适应期才能摆脱那种情绪的残留。它成功地将“地方感”和“情感状态”紧密地捆绑在一起，创造出一种令人难忘的、略带病态的美感。

这本书的社会批判力度，说实话，比我想象的要强硬得多。它并非那种温和的、拐弯抹角的讽喻，而是像一把锋利的手术刀，毫不留情地剖开了特定社会结构下的虚伪和压抑。我特别关注作者对权力关系和阶级固化描绘的章节，那些细节——比如不同社会阶层之间微妙的距离感、无声的排斥，以及在共同的屋檐下却遥不可及的内心世界——都被捕捉得入木三分。它迫使你直面那些我们通常选择忽略的、令人不安的现实问题。这种直面并不令人愉快，它带来的是一种深刻的、近乎生理上的不适感，但正是这种不适感，让我更加确信作者的诚实和勇气。读完后，我花了很长时间来消化其中人物的无奈和抗争，他们似乎被命运的巨轮碾压着，即便是最微小的反抗，也显得如此悲壮而徒劳。这本书让我对我们所处的时代和环境，产生了一种更具批判性的审视视角。它不是提供答案的，而是提出更尖锐的问题。

关于叙事结构，这本书采取了一种非常解构和非线性的方式，这绝对是它最引人争议，也是最迷人的特点之一。它没有遵循传统的起承转合，而是像碎片化的记忆闪回，或者是一张被打乱了顺序的照片集。你需要在阅读的过程中，自己动手将这些散落的线索拼凑起来，还原出故事的全貌。这种阅读体验像是在进行一次考古发掘，充满了发现的乐趣和偶尔的迷失感。有些读者可能会抱怨叙事太跳跃，但对我来说，这种碎片化的呈现方式恰恰模仿了人类记忆本身的运作机制——真实的生活往往不是平铺直叙的，而是由高光时刻和被遗忘的间隙交织而成的。作者似乎在挑战读者对“完整故事”的定义，鼓励我们接受不确定性，并从那些未被明确解释的部分中去寻找意义。最终拼凑出的画面可能并不完美，但那种参与创造意义的过程，是其他线性叙事作品无法给予的独特体验。

这本书简直是一场视觉和情感的盛宴。作者的笔触细腻得让人心惊，仿佛每一个场景都带着湿润的露水和泥土的芬芳，可以直接触摸到。故事的节奏把握得恰到好处，不是那种急躁的、恨不得立刻告诉你结局的叙事，而是像一位老练的织布匠，慢条斯理地将人世间的百态用最精美的丝线编织在一起。我特别欣赏它对人物内心世界的刻画，那种微妙的、难以言喻的挣扎和渴望，没有被直白地宣之于口，而是通过人物的微小动作、眼神的闪烁，以及那些未尽之言中，被精确地捕捉并呈现出来。初读时，你可能会觉得情节有些缓慢，但一旦沉浸其中，就会发现这种“慢”实际上是一种深度的酝酿，每一次呼吸、每一次对话都承载着厚重的历史和未知的命运。它不仅仅是在讲述一个故事，更像是在解剖人性深处那些最原始、最隐秘的冲动。读完合上书本的那一刻，我感觉自己像是刚从一场漫长而真实的梦境中醒来，周遭的一切都带着一丝不真实的恍惚感，而书中那些人物的命运，却清晰地烙印在了我的脑海里，久久无法散去。这本书值得反复品味，每次重读都会有新的感悟浮现。

坦率地说，我一开始接触这本书是被它独特的语言风格所吸引的。那简直是一场文字的狂欢，充满了意象的跳跃和修辞的华丽，读起来有一种古典诗歌般的韵律感，但内核却是极其现代和尖锐的。作者似乎并不满足于仅仅描述事件，他更热衷于构建一个由词语构筑的迷宫，读者需要在其中摸索前进。有些段落的句子结构极其复杂，充满了倒装和从句，需要放慢速度，甚至要反复朗读才能真正体会到其中蕴含的张力和音乐性。这无疑对读者的阅读能力提出了不小的挑战，但回报也是巨大的——它拓宽了我对语言表现力的认知边界。这本书并非那种读完就可以随手丢在一旁的消遣读物；它更像是需要被“翻译”和“解码”的艺术品。我花了相当多的时间去研究那些被反复使用的象征物，它们在不同的章节中似乎隐喻着截然不同的意义，这种多义性让每一次解读都成为一次全新的探索。对于追求文字深度和文学实验性的读者来说，这无疑是一份丰厚的礼物，但对于习惯于直白叙事的人来说，可能会感到一丝吃力。

到剧院还没看完中场休息终于扫完跟上了节奏

ear~ear

Earth on earth. A just earth.这一句差点让我哭出来

Earth on earth. A just earth.这一句差点让我哭出来

12.28-1.26，好难，囫囵过一遍，还要仔细看第二遍，好多背景知识要补