查看完整版本: （转贴）斯蒂芬·金2006年为《我是传奇》撰写的全新序言

（转贴）斯蒂芬·金2006年为《我是传奇》撰写的全新序言

This is an edited version of Stephen King’s new introduction to Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend ^$F-|Ep qyd
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　　TO SAY THAT Richard Matheson invented the horror story would be as ridiculous as it would be to say that Elvis Presley invented rock’n’roll — what, the purist would scream, about Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Stick McGhee, the Robins and a dozen others? The same is true in the horror genre, which is the equivalent of rock’n’roll — a quick hit to the head that bobs your nerves and makes hurt so good. $Oo)A+o"w-WtYO
　　Before Matheson came dozens, going back to the author of the Grendel story, to Mary Shelley, Horace Walpole, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft . . . But, like rock’n’roll, or any other genre that skates across the nerve endings, horror must constantly regenerate and renew or die. @,ZkaTu0fz4|L
　　
j{z1V kva'R 　　In the early 1950s, when the Weird Tales magazine was dying its slow death and Robert Bloch, horror’s greatest writer at the time, had turned to psychological tales (and Fritz Leiber had fallen oddly silent) and the genre was languishing in the horse latitudes, Richard Matheson came like a bolt of pure ozone lightning. 　
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　　He single-handedly regenerated a stagnant genre, rejecting the conventions of the pulps that were already dying, incorporating sexual impulses and images into his work as Theodore Sturgeon had already begun to do in his science fiction, and writing a series of gut-bucket short stories. What do I remember about them? I remember what they taught me; the same thing that rock’s most recent regenerator, Bruce Springsteen, articulates in one of his songs, no retreat, baby, no surrender.[b] I remember that Matheson would never give ground. When you thought it had to be over, that your nerves couldn’t stand any more, that was when Matheson turned on the afterburners. He wouldn’t quit. He was relentless. The baroque intonations of Lovecraft, the perfervid prose of the pulps, the sexual innuendoes, were all absent. You were faced with so much pure drive that only rereadings showed Matheson’s wit, cleverness, and control. [/b]　　 0~7m~3AB'rc
让我印象深刻的是，马特森从不在他的作品中屈服。当你以为故事该要讲完，当你的神经紧绷到快要断掉，这时候，马特森会像涡轮发动机的助燃器一样，狠狠地推你一把。他永不放弃。他冷酷无情。情爱的巴洛克调调、下流杂志的热辣文句和性暗示，通通付之厥如。你所面对的，是一种如此纯净的创作驱动力，也只有在一遍遍的重读过程中，才能领略到马特森的机智、聪明和控制力。,c+P+HcKN/\|,I|

4pe'b7TS7V$y 　　[b]When people talk about genre, I guess they mention my name first, but without Richard Matheson I wouldn’t be around. He is as much my father as Bessie Smith was Elvis Presley’s mother. He came when he was needed, and these stories hold all their original hypnotic appeal. [/b]V2Y{_t
一般人们谈论恐怖小说，首先会提到我的名字；但是，如果没有理查德·马特森，就根本不会有我这号人。他是我的父亲，这就像贝茜·史密斯是猫王的母亲。　　 )`:~1M0\xh(i
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　　[b]Be warned: You are in the hands of a writer who asks no quarter and gives none. He will wring you dry. . . and when you close this volume he will leave you with the greatest gift a writer can give: he will leave you wanting more. [/b]Qj7l1a;C.e|,n9i9w
提醒注意：你现在正落在这样一个作家的手里，他不会屈膝求饶，也不会给你任何逃命的机会。他会像拧湿毛巾一样把你拧干······并且，当你读完之后，他会给你一个作家所能给予的最好礼物：想要读到更多。　　
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m8Z(NW { 　　Stephen King