《一本好書》上演“一出好戲”

I’ve had a digital version of UK writer W. Somerset Maugham’s 1919 novel, The Moon and Sixpence, on my Kindle for quite some time now. I bought it because it’s a classic. But I still haven’t got around to actually reading it. For some reason, the word “classic” is daunting to me.

英國作家威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆寫于1919年的《月亮和六便士》英文版小說在我的電子書里已經(jīng)有一段時(shí)間了。因?yàn)檫@是本名著，所以我買下了它。但我還沒真正開始讀這本書。出于某種原因，“名著”一詞讓我心生膽怯。

But I changed my mind after I watched The Wonderful Read, a Chinese variety show that came out on Tencent Video on Oct 8.

但在看完中國綜藝節(jié)目《一本好書》之后，我改變了主意，這檔節(jié)目已于10月8日在騰訊視頻上線。

The show introduces The Moon and Sixpence in its very first episode. Instead of reading extracts from the book and talking about its literary value – as many other literature-themed shows do – it brings the book to life by turning it into a play. We watch as Charles Strickland, the book’s central character, leaves his wife, his children and his boring job as a stockbroker to pursue his dream of becoming a painter in Paris.

節(jié)目在第一集中便介紹了《月亮和六便士》。不同于其他文學(xué)主題節(jié)目那樣閱讀書本節(jié)選，討論其文學(xué)價(jià)值，該節(jié)目將書中情節(jié)編成一出戲劇，令這本書變得生動(dòng)有趣。我們看著書中的主人公查爾斯·思特里克蘭德拋妻棄子，辭去了股票經(jīng)紀(jì)人的乏味工作，在巴黎追求自己的夢(mèng)想 —— 成為一名畫家。

But that’s not all. The show’s host and studio guests talk in depth about Strickland’s choices in between scenes from the play. He chooses to chase after his dream – “the moon” – even if it means taking risks and being called crazy and selfish. He simply can’t bear another minute of living his boring old life – to live for “sixpence” – as many of us do in real life.

但節(jié)目也不止于此，主持人和客座嘉賓在節(jié)目中深度地討論了思特里克蘭德在一幕幕戲劇中的選擇。他選擇追求自己的夢(mèng)想 —— “月亮” —— 哪怕這意味著冒險(xiǎn)，甚至被人稱為自私的瘋子。他就是再也無法忍受多一分鐘的乏味舊生活 —— 為“六便士”而活 —— 正如現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中我們?cè)S多人那樣。

At that moment, I knew I was certainly going to read The Moon and Sixpence.

那時(shí)，我知道自己一定會(huì)去讀《月亮和六便士》。

“We are trying to provide a fitting room for the readers,” Guan Zhengwen, director of The Wonderful Read, told Beijing Youth Daily. “They can see whether a certain book is suitable for them or not.”

“我們這個(gè)節(jié)目，就是大眾閱讀的試衣間，”《一本好書》的導(dǎo)演關(guān)正文在接受《北京青年報(bào)》采訪時(shí)表示。“讀者們可以看看這本書到底適不適合自己。”

And the choices in that “fitting room” are all classics – from novels like Love in the Time of Cholera by Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to non-fiction like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari, as well as sci-fi masterpiece The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.

而“試衣間”內(nèi)的所有選擇都是名著 —— 從哥倫比亞作家加夫列爾·加西亞·馬爾克斯所著的小說《霍亂時(shí)期的愛情》到以色列作家尤瓦爾·赫拉利所著的《人類簡史》等紀(jì)實(shí)類作品，以及劉慈欣的科幻代表作《三體》。

The show helps to ease readers into these classics, so that they feel more comfortable with starting their reading journey. You can feel less daunted and more ready to pick up a book and read it yourself. I know I will.

這檔節(jié)目幫助讀者減少讀名著的壓力，讓他們更為舒適地開始一段閱讀旅程。你不會(huì)感到那么害怕了，會(huì)更有準(zhǔn)備地拿起一本書閱讀。我知道我會(huì)的。