想象一下让一名娱乐记者去报道非洲战乱,会是什么奇葩效果?
英国记者珍巴斯曼用娱记的八卦笔调报道苏丹,乍得和乌干达战争的残酷与政治的虚伪,让你笑着笑着眼泪就流下来了。
她的这本书文风独树一帜,带着一种laugh-until-you-cry的幽默。光是书名,就已经与众不同:
《A journey to the dark heart of nameless unspeakable evil 》
(探究不可名状之恶的阴暗心理之旅)
她想以记者身份在世界知名非政府间组织里谋份差事,却发现:
"Doctors Without Borders were not currently recruiting celebrity journalists. I was hurt.
“无国界医生”目前不招聘娱乐记者。我很受伤。"
Apparently pediatric surgery ranks higher than a magazine called the wrong 'Un.
显然,儿科手术的地位比一份叫《坏蛋》的杂志要高。
I was useless. I could die tomorrow and no one would suffer, apart from the underwear department and my mum.
我一无是处。我可以明天就死掉而没人会因此而受伤,除了内衣部和我妈以外。"
当她无意间发现一名男人味十足的国际危机解决专家John Prendergast时,决定马上要去采访他:
For purely journalistic reasons, I spent about forty-eight hours straight googling him, cursing John Prendergast Wedding Photographer of Liverpool for clogging my search results.
纯粹出于新闻报道的原因,我大概连续花了四十八小时一边在谷歌搜索他的资料,一边咒骂利物浦一名也叫John Prendergast的婚纱摄影师,因为他老妨碍我的搜寻结果。
I wondered how wrong it would be to sit on his knee during Interview.
我在想,采访期间坐到他大腿上究竟有多不妥。
读到这里,你会对她嗤之以鼻:浅薄!
错!
在她娱乐记者笔调的字里行间,却有对人类战争暴行的深刻反思:
"From what I'd read about the chaos in the Horn of Africa, Bashir was a throwback, a less faggy Hitler. To me, Sudan had echoes of 1938, when Hitler swept through the ghettoes, sending the Gestapo to smash windows and set fire to Jewish shops. It was Kristallnacht again, the night of broken glass, and once again, no one was doing anything. I've always wondered why nobody stopped Hitler after Kristallnacht, because plenty of smart people lived in Europe in the thirties.
从我读到的关于非洲之角的骚乱资料看,巴希尔(苏丹独裁者)是一种返祖现象,是另一名没那么娘娘腔的希特勒。对我来说,苏丹是1938年的回声。当时希特勒派出盖世太保扫荡贫民窟,砸烂犹太人商店的玻璃窗并纵火烧店。现在又是“水晶之夜”,即碎玻璃之夜,而现在还是没人出来干涉它。我一直纳闷,“水晶之夜”后,怎么没人出来拦住希特勒,因为三十年代的欧洲,住有许多聪明人的呀!"
能够用轻松笔调报道沉重题材,嬉笑怒骂之间一针见血击中要害,这才是高段位的新闻记者。
珍巴斯曼发明的这种叫agony comedy (痛苦的喜剧)文体,俏皮老辣,亦庄亦谐,透着一股“战地玫瑰”独特的味道:带着硝烟味的芳香。
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