2021-03-05 My Twentieth Century

2020年3月5日，读完My Twentieth Century Evening and Other Small Breakthroughs，作者Kazuo Ishiguro，ISBN 9780571346547。这本36页的小册子是作家石黑一雄在2017年诺贝尔文学奖颁奖典礼上的获奖感言，他回顾了在他的写作生涯中给他带来灵感或者影响的几个片段。在“作家生涯的重要转折点”这一小节，他的观点於我心有戚戚焉，兹录原文于此：

I’ve been emphasising here the small and the private, because essentially that’s what my work is about. One person writing in a quiet room, trying to connect with another person, reading in another quiet – or maybe not so quiet – room. Stories can entertain, sometimes teach or argue a point. But for me the essential thing is that they communicate feelings. That they appeal to what we share as human beings across our borders and divides. There are large, glamorous industries around stories; the book industry, the movie industry, the television industry, the theatre industry. But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it also feel this way to you? 

我读的版本是Faber & Faber于2017年出版的平装版，该获奖感言的电子版可以在诺贝尔基金会的官方网站下载。本书内容5分，本版本4.5分。