经济学人103:最粗鲁的裁汰 The cruellest cut

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　　文艺；书评；电视上的艺术；最粗鲁的裁汰；

　　The South Bank Show: Final Cut. By Melvyn Bragg.

　　《南岸秀：最终裁汰》Melvyn Bragg著。

　　The “South Bank Show” has for years been almost the only serious regular culture programme on ITV, Britain's main commercial broadcaster, the intellectual conscience of an increasingly tacky network. Now, after profiling artists of all persuasions¹ for 32 years, it has been axed, and the pretence² of intellectual respectability abandoned. In his new book Lord Bragg, the show's presenter³, looks back at 25 of his subjects, weaving excerpts⁴ from their interviews into fuller artistic⁵ portraits.

　　“南岸秀”作为英国主要的商业广播机构ITV的一档固定节目，多年来一直秉承严肃的文化主题风格。在这么一个日渐俗套的电视网络中，它还留有知识分子的良知。32年来它描绘了持有各种信念的艺术家，现在，ITV将该节目连同它那受人尊敬的知识分子外衣，一并抛弃了。“南岸秀”的主持人Bragg阁下在他的新书中，回顾了他所做的其中25期节目，并力图从那些访谈摘录中编织出更加完整的艺术人像。

　　The “South Bank Show” has been a long-running answer, indeed rebuke⁶, to the hoary⁷ old question about the relative merits of John Keats and Bob Dylan. Its ethos has been that quality should be recognised in popular as well as elite⁸ culture, an approach that led to it being criticised as at once worthy⁹ and trivial. This collection, like the programme's run, opens with Paul McCartney: “I led with McCartney”, Lord Bragg writes, “because I wanted to show I was serious.” Several of his interlocutors—such as David Puttnam and David Hockney—are of his generation, and like him came from the British provinces to London in the 1960s and 1970s to explore and exploit “a new classless culture, sexy and delighted with itself”.

　　“南岸秀”一直在回答（事实是在非难）约翰济慈和鲍勃迪伦孰优孰劣这个老调的问题。它的一贯主张就是节目品质既要为精英文化所接受，又应该被普罗大众所认知，这也使得人们批评它是“良莠并存”。这本汇编集和节目一样都是从保罗麦卡特尼开始的，“我之所以把麦卡特尼当做头条”Bragg阁下说道，“是因为我想向大家表明我严肃的态度。”他的一些访谈对象——如大卫普特南和大卫霍克尼——与他是同时代人，和他一样在1960和1970年代从英国其他省份来到伦敦，来探索开拓一种“新的性感的自我愉悦的无阶级文化”。

　　Probably the most affecting profiles, however, are of more exotic figures: Luciano Pavarotti (“He gives a good name to ‘simple' and ‘spoiled'”), Rudolph Nureyev (“one of the most dramatic and unlikely personal journeys in art in the 20th century”), and a twin depiction¹⁰ of Barry Humphries and Dame¹¹ Edna that brilliantly draws out the co-dependency of comedian¹² and character. The book's many biographical curiosities—such as the fact that Sir Harold Pinter once worked as a chucker-out at the Astoria ballroom—make it an entertaining volume to dip into. But it also offers some cumulative¹³ lessons.

　　最动人的艺术肖像，也许是那些更具异国情调的人：卢西亚诺 帕瓦罗蒂（他给“简单”和“过分”作出了优秀的定义），鲁道夫 纽瑞耶夫（20世纪艺术领域最具有戏剧性和最不可思议的个人历程之一），还有对巴里 汉弗莱斯和埃德娜女爵士几乎相同的描述，精辟地诠释了喜剧演员和戏剧角色之间的互相依存。本书收录了很多令人好奇的人物轶事——例如哈罗德品特先生曾经在阿斯托利亚舞厅当保镖的一段经历——令览阅时意趣盎然。不过它当然也提供了一些经验教训，令人开卷有益。

　　One is about Lord Bragg. In Britain he is the target of much backbiting¹⁴, often motivated by ill-disguised envy for his success and his sheer industry (he is a prolific¹⁵ writer and radio presenter, among other commitments). Here he comes across as a lucid¹⁶, supple¹⁷ and valuable analyst¹⁸ of many artistic genres¹⁹ and their varying different potential; he is good on the relative merits of television and film, for example, and on the alchemy of acting²⁰. He is a fine reader of faces, and a useful tutor in the craft of interviews: when to press, when to sit back, when to needle and when to leave be.

　　其中一些就是关于 Bragg阁下的，在英国他是众多谗言攻击的目标，那些诋毁他的人经常毫不掩饰地表现出对他的成功和他所从事的纯粹行业的嫉妒（除了其他工作，他还是一个多产作家和电台主持人）。在这里他看上去似乎是一个思路清晰柔顺的分析者，对不同艺术流派及其变化发展有着颇具价值的看法；他了解电视和电影的相对优势，例如，两者表演方法的各自魔力。他善于察言观色，是访谈技巧方面的大师：有张有驰，亦紧亦松，收放自如。

　　Together his essays offer some intriguing²¹ generalisations about the making and methods of artists. The backgrounds of the people Lord Bragg examines are often humble²² but disciplined; typically they are exposed to art, or encouraged into it, by some fortuitous incident or acquaintance.

　　总体来看，书中文章对艺术家的成功之道和创作方法做出了有趣的概括。Bragg阁下的受访者并非都是身世显赫，但是家教严明；他们因为偶然的机遇与艺术结缘，或是在熟人的鼓励下跨入艺术的殿堂，这样的情况很有代表性。

　　He looks for turning points in lives and careers (Tracey Emin being abused by her ex-lovers during a dance competition; Pavarotti's mother siding with her son when his father wanted him to find another job). Writing of David Lean, he summarises the pattern as “a very early passion which quickly became an adolescent obsession²³ which became an adult, single-minded struggle to have it realised.”

　　他寻找着艺术家生活和职业的转折点（特雷西 艾明在舞蹈比赛中受到前恋人的辱骂；当帕瓦罗蒂的父亲要他换一份工作时，他的妈妈站在了儿子这一边）。写到大卫里恩时，他这样总结大卫里恩的成功轨迹：“从早期的喜爱很快过渡到青少年时期的狂热，最后转变为成年后一心一意奋力地去实现。”

　　The subjects are mostly less exercised by meaning than by form. And, for many—Eric Clapton, Francis Bacon, Ingmar Bergman, Pinter and others—there is ultimately a sense of mystery and spontaneity; of art coming from elsewhere.

　　“南岸秀”的节目对形式的雕琢大都重于对意义的挖掘。而且很多的艺术家——埃里克 克莱普顿、弗兰西斯 培根、英格玛 伯格曼、品特和其他的一些艺术家——存在着一种终极的神秘感和与生俱来的艺术感觉，他们的艺术天赋好像并非来自这个俗世。

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