獲得 2016 年布克獎的作家保羅·比蒂 (Paul Beatty) 是一位怎樣的作家？
據英國布克文學獎官網消息，2016年的布克獎由美國作家保羅·比蒂憑藉小說《銷售一空》（The Sellout）贏得，這也讓保羅·比蒂成為第一位贏得布克獎的美國作家。
這位作家及其作品有怎樣的特色？這次獲獎的 The Sellout 是一部怎樣的作品？除此之外還有哪些作品值得閱讀？
這麼偏門的文學問題為啥要邀我？
不過關於這位作家，恰好和朋友聊過幾句。保羅比蒂，對亞洲讀者來說大概是個比「小眾」還小眾的作家，熱度不高，產量也不大。除了一兩首詩歌外，其他作品大概都找不到中譯本。
他善於諷刺，會講奇思妙想的冷笑話，幾乎全部著作都是針對於美國移民熔爐文化的混亂人文內核發聲，所你也沒可能在國內文學課程上看到這個名字。有個研究外國文學的朋友說，保羅比蒂的敘述有點黑人rap的風格……但該朋友很不能接受rap的風格，所以rap是啥他也根本不太清楚……咳咳咳亞馬遜上可以買到他的《The White Boy Shuffle》（白人男孩困惑）和《Tuff》（凝灰岩），前者講一個在白人社區長大的非裔美國人面對自己的種族身份，後者描繪一個混過黑幫販過毒的小混混以及他的非洲裔好基友。還有一本《睡鄉——一個美國DJ在柏林》，我也沒搞懂講了什麼
至於他的獲獎作品《脫銷》，講的則是一個非洲裔美國人，期望在自己家裡恢復奴隸制和種族隔離，瞅瞅，介是多麼辛辣尖銳的諷刺。注意~~保羅所有作品，主角都是非洲裔美國人~~英語水瓶所限，只看過一些文學評論，沒辦法感受他的rap風格，聽說小說里夾雜的俚語粗話還素很多滴，而且保羅似乎是個寫作範圍比較狹窄，風格單一的作者。那麼，比小眾還小眾的他，為啥能獲獎呢？
首先，他尖銳的文字炮火指向兩點：現代民主非洲裔美國/歐洲人種族。其次，他是個黑人作家。而在英語文學界獲獎，最重要的一點是什麼？
政治正確~下一屆獎盃說不定就歸描寫阿拉伯裔歐洲gay的阿拉伯裔作家了~╮(╯_╰)╭
有童鞋質疑我也沒完整讀過該作家一本書，怎麼有資格發聲評論~首先，朋友讀過，並且大致講了一下其中故事，但該朋友在作協內部工作，拒絕真名上知乎。其次，有種東西叫做「文學評論」，儘管不夠看懂一本書，但還是能大概看懂期刊上的文學評論。至於亞馬遜，簡介經常有錯，不愛上。第三，童鞋口氣不盡友善，唐缺替我拉黑了正好可以拿這篇專欄介紹一下保羅?比蒂（Paul Beatty），以下為本刊原文，轉載註明出處 。
繼諾貝爾文學獎之後，今年的布克文學獎也爆出小冷門，美國作家保羅?比蒂（Paul Beatty）憑藉《出賣》（The Sellout）奪得大獎，也是第一位奪得此獎項的美國人。不過，和以往獲獎者的畫風不同，比蒂格外「耿直」和毒舌，對自己的作品也不例外：「這是一本艱難的書，我知道很難閱讀，每個人都從不同的角度來進行解讀。」
保羅?比蒂身上有兩個重要的標籤，其一為「黑人」，另一個則是「好笑」。他的作品大多以黑人為主角，側重於美國社會種族主義問題的探討，但卻並不嚴肅，而是充斥了大量玩笑和吐槽，盡顯詼諧。以《出賣》為例，比蒂就在其中鋪設了各式各樣的「梗」，有的暗含悲劇意味，有的帶著歷史典故，有的則寓意著美好，甚至還布置了「連環套」，令人捧腹。
在諷刺和嘲諷黑人方面，比蒂也毫不手軟，他覺得黑人的確對黑人文化進行了很多探討，但都不夠徹底，「要麼不那麼愉快，要麼不那麼誠懇」，總是缺點什麼。而在比蒂的作品中，尤其是《出賣》中，可以看到各種「放肆」的自黑——比如將「黑人歷史月」描述為「對虛偽的驕傲和補缺營銷的一次猛攻」。
《出賣》中的其他「金句」還有：
1. Is it my fault that the only tangible benefit to come out of the civil rights movement is that black people aren』t as afraid of dogs as they used to be?
進行民權運動只是讓黑人不會再像以前那樣怕狗了，這是我的錯嗎？2. Being black isn』t method acting. Lee Strasberg could teach you how to be a tree, but he couldn』t teach you how to be a nigger
做一個黑人靠的可不是方法演技。戲劇大師斯特拉斯伯格可以教你怎麼扮演成一棵樹，但他沒法告訴你怎麼成為一個黑人。3. This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I』ve never stolen anything.
這可能很難令人相信，但作為一個黑人，我從沒有被偷過任何東西。4. Every black male secretly thinks he can do one of three things better than anyone else in the world: play basketball, rap, or tell jokes.
私下裡，每個黑人男性都會覺得自己在這3件事上做得比其他所有人都好：打籃球、說唱，以及講笑話。
脫離了文學世界，日常生活中的比蒂卻不是個話嘮，而是一個有點害羞的極簡主義者。不過，這並不意味著他的毒舌功力下降了。在接收採訪時，比蒂完全不會「口下留情」，
記者：8年前，奧巴馬當選黑人總統似乎是一個重要的轉變標誌。然而，近年來，警方與非裔美國人的衝突好像越來越多，也一直是人們關注的問題。你對這樣的「二分情況」是什麼看法？
比蒂：你說這種暴力衝突很多是否是因為近年來相關的新聞報道也很多？我們不能把媒體帶給我們的意識跟現實情況等同。奧巴馬是國家總統，不是警察局長。這個暴力衝突是否有真的增多或是減少，取決於你居住的地方。記者：你的寫作中，有多少是自己的真實故事？
比蒂：寫作的美好就在於你能變出新的東西，而不是重活一次。我為什麼要去複述已經過去的生活。
記者：有批評家認為你一直在重複這種涉及種族問題的故事，你怎麼看？
比蒂：我不得不嘗試寫一些話題，這很有可能會暴露一些和自己有關的、我不想讓別人知道的糟心事兒。這時候，幽默就是我的面具。它讓讀者不去注意我所寫的東西是和我相關的，是我所身處的爭議相關。然後，當這個面具用多了，就會出現你剛說的那種情況了。
學了心理學，卻成了寫小說的詩人
「我覺得任何東西，都會在某種程度上帶著喜劇色彩，起碼大多數東西是的。我的口頭禪就是『哦，那真好玩』，雖然很多時候身邊的人都不知道我的笑點是什麼。」比蒂的觀點也適用於他自身，他的個人經歷也帶著諸多反轉。比如他雖然成長在一個黑人家庭，他的母親卻是個「東方迷」，熱衷於各種日式、中式物件。所以他的童年接觸的最多的不是美國教育，而是各種日本電影。
在《出賣》之前，比蒂共有3部小說作品，以及兩部詩集，事實上，正是憑藉「新波多黎各詩人咖啡館賽詩會冠軍」的頭銜，比蒂才有了出道機會，正式進入寫作圈。只不過在詩集出版後，他就拋棄了令其成名的「詩人」身份。「我就只是在看書，那可能是我不想動筆寫詩的一小部分原因吧。」比蒂甚至一點也不懷念那一段時光，反而有點小得意，「那時候如果我出現在人們面前，他們都會說『哦你都不再四處閑逛，以及對我吼叫了。」
至於比蒂的主修專業則是心理學，他擁有波士頓大學心理學碩士學位。在進修博士學位時比蒂選擇了中途輟學，倒不是因為寫作，而是為了黑人問題。「到處都是『這是種族歧視』的聲音，」當他回憶起那段時光，他表示，「但我從來不知道那意味著什麼，人們到底是以什麼標準在評定種族歧視。」
原文鏈接:最新熱點：比起寫作，這位布克獎得主更愛吐槽轉載註明出處
英國《衛報》（The Guardian）書評 作者Charlotte Higgin 。
本人英語四級通過查一點辭彙，基本知道在講什麼。最後一句我很喜歡。這一篇主要講Paul Beatty的奪獎前後，以及他的一些文學觀念。Paul Beatty may be the first American to win the Man Booker prize, after a rule change three years ago that made authors of any nationality eligible for the ￡50,000 award, so long as they were writing in English and published in the UK. But he very nearly wasn』t published in Britain at all. Beatty calls his fourth novel 「a hard sell」 for UK publishers. His rumbustious, lyrically poetic novel was turned down, his agent confirms, by no fewer than 18 publishers. And then, finally, a small independent called Oneworld – founded by a husband-and-wife team in 1986 – took it up. The company is celebrating the unusual achievement of a second consecutive Man Booker win, because it also published Marlon James』s A History of Seven Killings.
「It』s weird for me,」 says Beatty, who is 54. The morning after the night before, the New York-based, Los Angeles-born writer is slightly dazed, somewhat short of sleep and good-naturedly overcoming his reluctance to talk about his work. 「I think it』s a good book. I was like, 『Why? What』s all that about?』 I would be uncomfortable guessing [why I couldn』t get a publishing deal]. I would hurt myself. It would be like, 『Really? Still?』 I guess they thought the book wouldn』t sell.」 He won』t be drawn, but the implication is that he suspects publishers may have found the material too harsh, too unconventional, too unfamiliar – and, conceivably, beneath all that, in some undefinable way too black. It is certainly a book in which one gasps frequently – amid deeply uncomfortable laughter and, at times, tears. Nothing is sacred in The Sellout, in which the book』s narrator (surname Me) decides to reinstate segregated schools and reluctantly takes on a slave in his home district of Dickens, Los Angeles. All things, no matter how piously regarded, up to and including the US civil rights movement, are there to be punctured by Beatty』s fierce and fizzing wit.「I get hurt when I meet editors who tell me about books they really liked but couldn』t publish. I don』t know what that means,」 he says. 「Sometimes I romanticise – I go back even to the Harlem renaissance, when people would say, 『This book isn』t going to sell but I believe in you.』 I think there』s still some of that in publishing. I hope there』s still some of that.」He quotes, admiringly, the New York novelist Colson Whitehead, who, asked in a TV interview what he was writing, answered: 「I am just trying to give myself space to fail.」 Beatty says: 「I was so envious when he said that. Damn, that was smart. He was giving himself the chance to change. To not meet what someone else wants him to do.」 Certainly Beatty is utterly uninterested in meeting the expectations of the publishing industry: you feel he is always nudging the boundaries of what it is possible (or permissible). The poetry of the sentences, too, bounces with a vigour born of rigorous self-scrutiny. He teaches creative writing at Columbia University, and in his work with his students he draws, he says, on his early experience studying psychology in Boston. One skill he picked up was how to 「listen to yourself listen. Not listen to yourself thinking, or listen to yourself speaking, but to listen to yourself listening. To think about what gets in and what doesn』t: what you missed, how you heard it.」 It』s a way, he says, of reading one』s own work critically. 「Beyond that, it helps me interpret the world.」 In class, he doesn』t like students to talk about other works. 「It doesn』t do anyone any favours to compare them to Gabriel García Márquez … I tell them, 『Try to be unique.』」Discomfort – for the reader, and, one suspects, for the writer – runs through The Sellout. The novel starts with the image of an uncomfortable chair in which the narrator is sitting as he awaits trial in the supreme court. Beatty, just now, as we speak, looks uncomfortable in his own chair. 「That』s where I start the whole time – I am rarely comfortable. It』s a little sad but true.」 He is inclined also to reject the comfort of generic labels. The book is described, often, as a satire – which can be a way of disguising, he says, 「how sad the book is, or the sense of futility in it」. He just about accepts it is a novel, though he laughs at the way, especially in the US, books often have the label A NOVEL written beneath the title. 「I learned early on that you can do anything on the page. It』s a novel, but there』s a bunch of other crap in there. There』s some poetry in it – some poems I stole from myself. And places where I take time out and carve out a little essay to get some stuff off my chest. I think of Italo Calvino』s Invisible Cities（卡爾維諾《看不見的城市》） – that book popped into my head while I was writing.」We discuss Lionel Shriver』s recent speech on cultural appropriation – not a phrase Beatty is comfortable using – in which she asserted the author』s right to take stories from everyone, everywhere. She argued that the current climate of offence easily taken, safe spaces sought and identities fiercely guarded was in danger of meaning that 「the kind of fiction we are 『allowed』 to write is in danger of becoming so hedged, so circumscribed, so tippy-toe, that we』d indeed be better off not writing the anodyne drivel to begin with」. Beatty』s response is: 「I agree – you can write what you want.」 But what concerned him about Shriver』s speech was that 「all the examples she cites are white writers appropriating other cultures. And it』s not just a top-down thing. It goes in other directions. That』s the thing that I find really hurtful about her perspective: the notion of who』s allowed to take what from whom.」
He recalls a reading he gave once, at which he was asked about 「the influence thing」. He talked of his love of Russian and Japanese literature. (His mother, a nurse, was a great fan of Asian culture.) The questioner said: 「『That』s weird for an African-American writer to be influenced by Japanese literature. I would think that you』re opposites.』 I just went, 『Er, next.』 Afterwards, I was not upset, but I was like, 『Man, how do you think of people being culturally opposite? What does that even mean?』」 He mentions a class he once took with beat poet Gregory Corso. A fellow student read her work, and Corso responded: 「Where』s your universality?」 he laughs bleakly at the so-called universality of white male experience. 「I remember realising that his purview was so myopic. He thought that whatever he said was applicable to everyone.」
Beatty admires artists like Kurt Vonnegut(庫爾特馮古內特) and Kenji Mizoguchi（溝口健二） and talks about the moment of being 「thunderstruck」 by something. Influence, he says, is not about wanting to be like someone, but that 「they charged something in you」. 「I like people who just don』t care: who kind of go pedal to the metal. My mom always teased me that I liked films where nothing is going on. Sword-fight movies without any sword fighting. When nothing is going on, something is always going on. I like awkward silence.」然後是《衛報》上寫《出賣》（The Sellout）的書評，也是基本知道什麼意思。作者：Reni Eddo-Lodge
If there is one thing we know about words you shouldn』t say, it』s that those words end up becoming very alluring. The Sellout is a fast-paced, verbose book, but one particular word crops up again and again. Paul Beatty』s version is the slave master spelling of nigger, not the 90s hip-hop 「nigga」. Although the 「er」 is a harsh and oppressive end to a harsh and oppressive word, his repetitive use comes off with a friendly familiarity. It』s far from menacing or mocking. You might even close the book feeling desensitised to one of the most contentious words in the English language.
Maybe that』s the point of this whirlwind of a satire. Everything about The Sellout』s plot is contradictory. The devices are real enough to be believable, yet surreal enough to raise your eyebrows. Our protagonist is never fully named, but we are told that his surname is Me. This is convenient, because the novel is written entirely in the first person. Me is a black man who owns a farm in a poor black urban neighbourhood. Farmland in the middle of a poor city is an odd setting, but it』s real enough: you』ll find Richland Farms in the heart of rap-famous Compton, Los Angeles. Me surfs for fun, and smokes weed in the supreme court, where he ends up facing retribution for breaking some of the country』s most hallowed laws about race.The plot is set in motion when Dickens, the city Me lives in, is surreptitiously wiped off the map, triggering an identity crisis in its residents. It just sort of disappears, and nobody is told why. Dickens』s slow merge with its surrounding cities hits local celebrity Hominy Jenkins particularly hard. A lovable, downtrodden Uncle Tom character, Hominy yearns for his halcyon days as the black butt of a thousand racist jokes in the 1950s kids』 TV show The Little Rascals. With Dickens gone, Hominy is nobody. Rascals fans can no longer seek him out for autographs. Devastated, he swears that he will be Me』s slave until Dickens is back on the map. Me thinks that the way to reinstate Dickens is to segregate the city』s schools. So, a slave-owning black man working hard to bring back racial segregation. Eyebrows raised yet?If Dickens, subsumed into its wider surroundings, represents blackness, then our protagonists』 unrelenting quest to re-establish its existence is about setting some clear boundaries. Following the recent public outing of Rachel Dolezal as a white American woman masquerading as black, there are understandable anxieties about blackness and authenticity. Thanks to artists such as Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, the African American experience has gone viral. With this level of global success, it』s no wonder everyone wants a slice. Of course, the downside of this widely celebrated pop culture moment is feeling the exclusivity of blackness slipping away. 「The black experience used to come with lots of bullshit,」 our protagonist muses, 「but at least there was some fucking privacy.」Beatty (pictured) throws in dozens of jokes: every stereotype, rivalry and anxiety about race in the US is laid bare. No one is above criticism. The comforting social blanket of whiteness is satirised mercilessly. Black intellectuals on the left and right are exposed as fakes grasping for social power.But there is a problem when in-jokes become jokes for everyone, which left me not knowing what to make of the book. Twenty years ago, Chris Rock』s 「black people versus niggers」 standup comedy routine was aimed squarely at the respectable black middle classes. Yet you couldn』t help but think that there were some racist people watching, too, chuckling along at what they felt were the failures of black people as a whole. With Beatty』s satire punching not just up, but all over the place, I』m not sure who the book is for.Perhaps I am too jaded, or too used to conversations about race, but I didn』t laugh out loud while reading The Sellout, as so many reviewers claim to have done. It did, however, tease out a fair few wry smiles. In his quest to reinstate his city, the protagonist joins a dating service for cities looking for their perfect partner, and settles on twinning Dickens with the lost city of White Male Privilege, 「a controversial municipality whose very existence is often denied by many (mostly privileged white males)」.If The Sellout does anything, it successfully points not only to the problem, but all the complexities and nuances of the problem, proving that it』s not as simple as (I hate myself for this) black and white. This book doesn』t shy away from anything.
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