開學前發現《為愛朗讀》DVD 出來了，電影看了一半，趕緊到博客來買書，9/8 訂書，9/10 就寄到。

我自己是超級囉嗦的人，當然喜歡看各種囉嗦的寫法。The Reader 作者/譯者的筆觸簡潔，寫事不拖泥帶水；描述畫面雖然篇幅很長，但是條理分明，像電影鏡頭，不知不覺就看完；倒是沉思的部份為了說服讀者加入辯證，Bernhard Schlink 會一直加例子說明，非常典型的「西方思維模式」，不耐煩用腦的讀者恐怕會覺得「冗長」。

例如：Bernhard Schlink 要說小男主角的哥哥和他從小結下的「冤仇」，情緒筆觸輕淡---

"I'm going back to school tomorrow."

"So pay attention in Geography.  There's north and there's south, and the sun rises..."

My mother interrupted my brother.  "The doctor said another three weeks."

"If he can get all the way across the cemetery to Nussloch and back, he can also go to school.  It's not his strength he's lacking, it's his brains."  As small boys, my brother and I beat up on each other constantly, and later we fought with words.  He was three years older than me, and better at both.  At a certain point I stopped fighting back and let his attacks dissipate into thin air.  Since then he had confined himself to grousing at me. (p.29)

至於小說的主要討論，有關納粹時代的集體罪行與個人良知之間的辨證關係，作者見縫插針，細細討論。

男主角長大後參與法學老師的調查研究，第一案例就是納粹集中營的女獄卒罪行大審。他在法庭眼見 Hannah 為了掩飾自己文盲的事實而胡亂認罪，一開始重見 Hannah 他情緒疏離，等到他看到 Hannah 放棄辯解，他的腦裡都是正--反--合的思辯過程。

I tried to talk about the problem with friends.  Imagine someone is racing intentionally towards his own destruction and you can save him--do you go ahead and save him?  Imagine there's an operation, and the patient is a drug user and the drugs are incompatible with the anesthetic, but the patient is ashamed of being an addict and does not want to tell the anesthesiologist--do you talk to the anesthesiologist?  Imagine a trial and a defendant who will be convicted if he doesn't admit to being left-handed--do you tell the judge what's going on?  Imagine he's gay, and could not have committed the crime because he's gay, but is ashamed of being gay.  It isnt' a quesiton of whether the defendant should be ashamed of being left-handed or gay--just imagine that he is. (p. 138)

作者將說明文偷渡到小說裡去。這就是為什麼我這麼喜歡德國作品的原因了！

(我覺得羅導可以把這個寫作技巧學下來，在無聊的記述文或是說明文裡頭偷渡 creative writing. Vice versa!)