追忆恩师戴维华莱士.pdf

】W a I l a c e ，’ J1一 ● I e a C n e r： A Reminiscence 追 "Without the-commacolons‘and semi．co~s would rise up!to oppress u 恩师戴维·华莱士 1．David Foster Wallace：戴维·福斯特·华莱士 (1 962--2008)，美国后现代派作家，以其 讥诮的幽默和繁冗的文风独树一帜，代表作有 长篇小说《系统的笤帚》(The Broom of the System)和《无尽的玩笑》(Infinite Jest) 等，2008年因心情过度抑郁在家自缢身亡 华莱士生前曾在加州的波莫纳学院(Pomona Col lege)任教，本文是他的一个学生对他的追 忆之作 2．许多学生还视他为朋友——尽管做他的朋友就 意味着，要面对他与外面世界打交道的那一套 表面诡计多端、实则统一公平的社交规则 3．interface：分界面；membrane：隔膜；paparazzi： 单数形式为paparazzo，指追逐名人的摄影记 者，狗仔队 4．brush off：拒绝听；beside the point：离题。

5．self-effacement／,selfl’felsm~nt／：自我退避，不出 风头；comical：好笑的，滑稽的 6．bandannMbmn’daeno／：印花大头巾，印花大围 巾 By Jared Roscoe ：：熊芸声选注 M always called him“DFW when he wasn t around．1 And many students also considered him a friend---even if bein~ a friend meant dealing with his Byzantine yet internally consistent and fair network of rules for social contact with the world．2 I came to think that this interface was necessary for him as a teacher,that it acted as a sort of membrane to let students in and keep critics and literary paparazzi out． In any case，I'm thankful he made this effort with my classmates and me．What foilOWS here is exactly the sort of thing he hated．He couldn t stand being the center of attention．He d found that even praise could be harmful， and SOhe dbrushitoff asifitwasbesidethepoint,'or asif he wasn t worth it．Of course he was worth it． In class，his self-effacement and self-presentation were comical--of course，5 he was self-conscious of that too． He wore bandannas to every class I can remember~He 70l ELL／August 2010 http：#www．ell com．on I ASSO ED AR lGLES 对学生爱护备至，对学问一丝不苟，对狗仔队诡计多端，对生活随意自然……这就 是我的老师戴维．华莱士。

多年过去了，尽管斯人已逝，他的音容笑貌却依然不时 浮现在我眼前 apologized about his need to spit tobacco into a cup．If you re bothered bv it，he d say,we can talk about that．One classmate wrote a particularly touching and believable article,and Dave talked for a long time,to the laughter of our class,about how he sometimes feels guilt)，envying an undergrad S work．How could the authorofIrdim'telestenvy somethingoneofUShad created? He made it clear that our time together in class was about US,not him andhiswork．Thefirstdayofaworkshop Ihadwithhim,a student took a photo of Dave．He was visibly bothered by it,and later spoke privately with the student about it． He was always trying to impart the importance of communication,of its precision．The only way you can communicate at a high level，he taught,is to be conscious of everything you write---every comma,every pronoun,every word, and all their implications． He half-jokingly suggested we use linguistGarner SModernAmerican Usageasbathroom reading．I called him when 1 was having,in his words， an existentiaJ crisis about grammar ’at 10 P．m．on a Sunday night．He was like Virgil intheInfemo,0；youknewhe dbeenthere before and could guide you out of it．I'd never listened to anyone as intently-as I listened t0 him． I suppose you can never really guess what exists at the bottom of someone S personal life—_eVen less SO with someone whose mind was SO vibrant and fertile．12 7．workshop：专题讨论会，讲习班。

8．comma：逗号；implication：含义 暗指 9．an existential crisis about grammar： 关于语法的存在性危机存在性危 机(existential crisis)指伴随着重 要的人生问题而出现的内部冲突和 焦虑，如职业要求与个人信仰之间 的冲突此处指“我”对语法的相 关问题感到不确定，甚至焦虑 10．Virgif in the Inferno：地狱中的维 吉尔，是作为但丁的救护者和导 师出现的，他带领迷途的但丁穿 越地狱，走向光明该场景出自 但丁的《神曲> 11．intently：专心地 1 2．vibrant：活跃的；fertile：丰富的，有 创造力的 ELL／August 2010 I 71 I ASSO aC l http：／／www ell com．cn 1 3．Michiko Kakutani：角谷美智子(1 955一)，美 国知名文学评论家；inhale：吸入；muchness： 大量(养分) 14．dehumanizing：非人性的；trope：修辞，比喻； metaphysical nose：一只抽象的鼻子，承接上 文的inhale，将华莱士想象成一只大鼻子； a~une to：与……合拍，习惯于。

1 5．他洞悉生活中大量的奇事巧合及其多如牛毛的 解释 16．tangible：明确的；routine：日常工作，例行公 事 1 7．dense：(文字)密集的；1．5-spaced：1．5倍 行距的；footnote： 加脚注 1 8．ostensibly：表面上 1 9．commandment：戒律，戒条o 20．vainly：徒劳地 21．validation：确认，证明正确 Michiko Kakutani writes： The reader could not help but feel that Mr．Wallace had inhaled the muchness of contemporary America… ”It S a somewhat dehumanizing trope to make Dave into a giant metaphyrsical nose，but then again we all could see that he was so fascinated by and attuned to the world around him． He had a deep reserve of wonder about the quirks of life and their endless explanations． His attentiveness to his students in particular was beyond generous．I think he needed US，too．We gave him a tangible purpose and a routine： things that writing didn t always offer．His care always exceeded what was necessary by professorial standards．Even though we were undergraduates--some of US just wanted to take a course with the famous writer of Infinite]est hewouldwrite，in responsetoour work,dense 1．5一spaced and yes amply footnoted analyses that occasionally were as long as what we had submitted．17 To the ambitious student—writers， who held fast to everything he said and wrote…well， Dave took US seriously；this particular kindness is still 11nhe1ievab1e to me． After graduation,when I had been out of school for a while，I called to ask his advice，ostensibly 。

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