MASQUE OF AFRICA, THE(ISBN=9780307270733) 下载 pdf 百度网盘 epub 免费 2025 电子版 mobi 在线

Like all of V. S. Naipaul’s “travel” books, The Masque of

Africa encompasses a much larger narrative and purpose: to

judge the effects of belief (in indigenous animisms, the foreign

religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders and

mythical history) upon the progress of civilization.

From V. S. Naipaul: “For my travel books I travel on a theme. And

the theme of The Masque of Africa is African belief. I begin

in Uganda, at the center of the continent, do Ghana and Nigeria,

the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and end at the bottom of the continent,

in South Africa. My theme is belief, not political or economical

life; and yet at the bottom of the continent the political

realities are so overwhelming that they have to be taken into

account.

“Perhaps an unspoken aspect of my inquiry was the possibility of

the subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world. The

theme held until I got to the South, when the clash of the two ways

of thinking and believing became far too one-sided. The skyscrapers

of Johannesburg didn’t rest on sand. The older world of magic felt

fragile, but at the same time had an enduring quality. You felt

that it would survive any calamity.

“I had expected that over the great size of Africa the practices of

magic would significantly vary. But they didn’t. The diviners

everywhere wanted to ‘throw the bones’ to read the future, and the

idea of ‘energy’ remained a constant, to be tapped into by the

ritual sacrifice of body parts. In South Africa body parts, mainly

of animals, but also of men and women, made a mixture of ‘battle

medicine.’ To witness this, to be given some idea of its power, was

to be taken far back to the beginning of things.

“To reach that beginning was the purpose of my book.”

The Masque of Africa is a masterly achievement by one of the

world’s keenest observers and one of its greatest writers.

1. The Tomb at Kasubi

2. Sacred Places

3. Men Possessed

4. The Forest King

5. Children of the Old Forest

6. Private Monuments, Private

Wastelands

V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He went to England

on a scholarship in 1950. After four years at University College,

Oxford, he began to write, and since then has followed no other

profession. He has published thirty books of fiction and

nonfiction, including A House for Mr. Biswas, A Bend in the

River, A Turn in the South and a collection of letters,

Between Father and Son. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in

Literature in 2001.

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都会变成一片片不毛之地。

这位王子说，我想错了，其实基督教和伊斯兰教之所以能够吸引非洲人，原因很简单：都讲来世，为人提供死后永生的寄托。而非洲本土的宗教虚无缥缈，只讲些灵魂世界和祖先的故事。

山顶上的宗教建筑彼此争雄，各不相让，看得出，外来宗教几成瘟疫。它们无法治愈任何疾病，也提供不了任何终极答案。相反，它们使得人们心胸狭隘、歇斯底里、误动干戈。

名字是她父亲替她取的，她却对“苏珊”这个称呼既爱又恨。

“我觉得这名字是殖民压迫的一部分，让我不自在。当外国人或外族入侵时，他们将影响强加给你，把你的一切抢走，真是野蛮透顶。虽然我认为西方现代文明大体上是个好东西，可它的确剥夺了我们的文化和文明。而且，即便是潜移默化的渗透，它也的确使我们对自己的根基产生了怀疑。比方说，你被传教士洗脑后拒绝接受别的偶像。他们把自己的那套信仰、教条和主义塞给你，硬说那就是最好的。不存在什么双向的交流沟通，他们根本就不屑于试着理解我们的思想、传统和文化。我现在认识到，我们的民族过去也创造了文明。它很独特，它属于我们自己。我自学卢干达语来写作。”——那是在她用英语作诗之后——“我觉得，学校不教我们的母语是对我们尊严的羞辱。”

这次交谈后，我没有再问过她（苏姗）非洲的历史、口述传统和神话故事。显然，非洲人并没有什么特别的办法来应付和消除一段痛苦的历史和当下的无奈。较恰当的比喻是，这就像对付一场慢性病。某天它突然发作，于是你梦想着某个早晨醒过来能平安无事。渐渐地，你麻木沉沦了，放弃了马上痊愈、恢复健康的念头。可以说，你跟那毛病相安无事了。可时光依旧在流逝。你就这样得过且过。它成了无所谓，它成了一种生活。

古日耳曼民族认为，将神灵囿禁于寺庙或任何建筑物的墙内都是对神灵的不敬。人们最好是在户外，在美丽的小树林里，在林中的空地或是河流边祭拜它们，这些地方也会因神灵之故而充满灵气。巴干达人对神社的观念也有某种相似之处。

编辑推荐

praise for V. S. Naipaul’s THE MASQUE OF AFRICA

“This latest journey to the continent is part of a larger whole,

the developing narrative of a single consciousness…. The Masque

of Africa marks a startling evolution of that consciousness….

Still writing with the same spare, acerbic lyricism…Naipaul is

willing to express a new attitude, one of self-doubt. This

acknowledgement of human frailty—starting with his own—broadens his

observational powers immeasurably…. [providing] a new capacity for

wonderment [and a] new willingness to explore the authenticity of

indigenous African belief…. The tone of this, his most recent foray

into the search for life’s meaning, is respectful and sometimes

even hesitant…. [W]e move from one voice to the next without really

noticing that the speaker has changed. There’s not a lot of

unnecessary scene-setting: what’s important is what’s being said….

Naipaul has always revealed a curious admixture of extrovert and

introvert on the page…. Now…more adept at switching between these

two ways of being with less violence…he has found a greater ability

to poke fun at himself…. [With this] new kind of humor—one that,

being softer, is even sharper [Naipaul] transcends the shadowy

wryness to which his readers have long been accustomed…. [His is a]

brilliant and elastic mind.”

         Eliza

Griswold, The New York Times Book Review

“A master still at his craft….Naipaul’s writing [is] simple,

concise, engaging…. Like Flaubert and Hemingway, Naipaul uses less

to say more, and here he has few equals…. [T]he obscurity of his

inquiry makes it fresh…. Naipaul’s latest African journey is

eyewitness reporting at its best…. [T]he writing [has] a texture,

honestly and ground truth that makes high-minded criticism ring

somewhat hollow.”

         Alex Perry,

Time Magazine

“[Naipaul] is attentive to and gives voice to people, all sorts of

people…. In The Masque of Africa, Naipaul uses himself as a

character only as a way for us to see others through his conflicts,

moods, ears, eyes, and biases. And in between his scenes of sharply

observed interactions, we are always surrounded by the people of

the continent talking.”

         Binyavanga

Wainaina, Boston Globe

“Naipaul gets it. He is dry, often irked, sometimes enraged….But he

is also patient (not a trait often associated with him), engaged,

funny, self-reflective and thoughtful….in writing shorn of

excess…he has a wicked way with syntax….The Masque of Africa

is a book for outsiders, for those who may never visit Africa or

may know it only superficially. But it is also a book in which

Africans themselves may find something to learn. Naipaul is a

difficult, imperfect narrator who does not care to be liked, but he

is an honest one and doesn’t dissemble. Somehow, by the end of it

all, and despite his best efforts, I have grown to like him.”

         Aminatta

Forna, The Observer (London)

“[O]ne of Naipaul’s most stirring books….[he] combines the

objectivity of a disaster photographer and an understanding of

history.”

         Yasmin

Alibhai-Brown, The Independent (London)

“[Naipaul] provide[s] a narrative order for people to make sense of

what has happened to them….His honesty about his failures to

connect with people makes us better able to appreciate his

breakthroughs. Part of the pleasure of reading him is watching his

frustration cool into comprehension….With extraordinary

sensitivity, Naipaul registers the beauty of these traditions but

also captures their cruelty.”

         Thomas

Meaney, Bookforum

“This beautiful and humane book is less Olympian than some of

Naipaul’s earlier travel narratives, though the idea that underpins

it is so basic that it achieves a kind of majesty. Cruelty to

animals and to nature will destroy men too. ‘The ground around the

abattoir goes on and on. When sights like this meet the eyes…there

can be no idea of humanity, no idea of grandeur.’”

         Harper’s

Magazine

“[A] elegiac spiritual return to a landscape he once inhabited in

1966…. Ever fair-minded, soberly reflective, and conciliatory,

Naipaul offers his sage observations in the hope that by learning

more, we accept greater.”

         Publisher’s

Weekly (starred review)

“Naipaul narrates the journey with finely wrought detail,

transporting the reader to the landscapes and city scenes he

describes. Naipaul is witty, and his writing can be quite charming

and delicate. He is also disarmingly frank in his assessments, a

quality often not found in discussions of belief…. A sharply

written and engrossing exploration of the effects of religious and

spiritual belief on societies. Effective both as a vivid piece of

travel writing and for its glimpses of belief in Africa.”

         Library

Journal

“Engaging.”

         Kirkus

书籍介绍

Like all of V. S. Naipaul's "travel" books, The Masque of Africa encompasses a much larger narrative and purpose: to judge the effects of belief (in indigenous animisms, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders and mythical history) upon the progress of civilization.

from V.S.Naipaul:

For my travel books I travel on a theme. And the theme of The Masque of Africa is African belief. I begin in Uganda, at the center of the continent, do Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, and end at the bottom of the continent, in South Africa. My theme is belief, not political or economical life; and yet at the bottom of the continent the political realities are so overwhelming that they have to be taken into account.

Perhaps an unspoken aspect of my inquiry was the possibility of the subversion of old Africa by the ways of the outside world. The theme held until I got to the South, when the clash of the two ways of thinking and believing became far too one-sided. The skyscrapers of Johannesburg didn't rest on sand. The older world of magic felt fragile, but at the same time had an enduring quality. You felt that they would survive any calamity.

I had expected that over the great size of Africa the practices of magic would significantly vary. But they didn't. The diviners everywhere wanted to "throw the bones," to read the future and the idea of "energy" remained a constant, to be tapped into by the ritual sacrifice of body parts. In South Africa body parts, mainly of animals, but also of men and women, made a mixture of "battle medicine." To witness this, to be given some idea of its power, was to be taken far back to the beginning of things.

To reach that beginning was the purpose of my book.