梅勒说不要看他年老，他仍每天写作数小时。他婉叹今日的流行小说风行气氛中严肃文学小说的消沉。他说在他的大学时代（1939-1940年），他从托尔斯泰、陀斯妥耶夫斯基开始，阅读了十九世纪英国文学家如狄更斯、萨克雷，法国文学家左拉、巴尔扎克、普鲁斯特，爱尔兰的乔依斯。今日的青年小说家有多少经受了这些经典作家的薰陶？他相信当代小说家很多是有才能的，但太受名利操纵。他自己正在写一部小说，着手已有好几年了，不知何时能有结果。他拒绝说出小说内容。
        谈到惟利是图的今日出版界的情况，梅勒举运动员与作家为例作比较：头等球员能够获得天文数字的收入，因为他们确有头等本事；作家情况相反，头等文学作家的收入比不上平庸的流行作家，因为后者着重曲折情节的作品迎合出版商的需求。在今日的独立书局都被着重营利的企业集团并吞的情势下，严肃作家更难竞争。
        梅勒的作品是多样性的。他的小说包括了非虚构性的《刽子手之歌》（The Executioner's Song），富含想象力的埃及传奇《古代的傍晚》（Ancient Evenings）、有关CIA的《夏洛特的亡灵》（Harlot's Ghost）。除了新闻性论文以外，他的杂文主题也涉及了玛丽莲·梦露、李·哈维·奥斯瓦（总统刺客）。因此，这本讨论创作艺术的新书内容也是多样性的。他在序言中说，此书原意是在帮助青年小说作家改进写作技巧，并把他们引入严肃创作的奥妙、困难、神秘的境界。他解释了第一人称与第三人称之间讲故事的不同；他也讨论了新作家自创风格所遇到的问题。他挑剔了自己作品的缺点，但当他评价其他作家如托尔斯泰、马克·吐温、索尔·贝娄、杜鲁门·卡波蒂、约瑟夫·海勒、品特·冯尼格、威廉·波罗斯等的作品时，特别令人神往。他写小说不偏重情节，但他同时希望来日会有人写出一本有托尔斯泰气概（犹如《战争与和平》）的形容美国的小说，把社会与个人、公共与私人各种因素融洽在一起。他说自己因“太懒惰、太自我专注”，已无力写这类巨作。他的自大狂似没有因年纪而消失。（他批评黑人女作家托尼·莫里森少有才能，是否因她获得诺贝尔奖而生妒意？）

“Writing is spooky,” according to Norman Mailer. “There is no routine of an office to keep you going, only the blank page each morning, and you never know where your words are coming from, those divine words.” In The Spooky Art, Mailer discusses with signature candor the rewards and trials of the writing life, and recommends the tools to navigate it. Addressing the reader in a conversational tone, he draws on the best of more than fifty years of his own criticism, advice, and detailed observations about the writer’s craft.
 
Praise for The Spooky Art
 
“The Spooky Art shows Mailer’s brave willingness to take on demanding forms and daunting issues. . . . He has been a thoughtful and stylish witness to the best and worst of the American century.”—The Boston Globe
 
“At his best—as artists should be judged—Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure. There is enough of his best in this book for it to be welcomed with gratitude.”—The Washington Post
 
“[The Spooky Art] should nourish and inform—as well as entertain—almost any serious reader of the novel.”—Baltimore Sun

“The richest book ever written about the writer’s subconscious.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Striking . . . entrancingly frank.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
Praise for Norman Mailer
 
“[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.”—The New York Times
 
“A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.”—The New Yorker
 
“A devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”—Life
 
“Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.”—The New York Review of Books
 
“The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.”—Chicago Tribune
 
“Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.”—The Cincinnati Post

                     反战老将与文坛常青树——诺曼·梅勒八十生辰推出《鬼祟的艺术》

                               2003-9-5 13:23:22 来源：译文 作者：文：董鼎山