《斯通纳》：本分人生的福报

約翰·爱德华·威廉斯（John Edward Williams， 1922～1994），美国作家、出版人、学者。他出生于得克萨斯州一个农民家庭，1942年参加二战，隶属于空军，并在军中完成第一部小说的草稿。退役后，他进入丹佛大学就读，1949年获得学士学位，1950年获得硕士学位。之后，他进入密苏里大学继续攻读博士学位。1954年，他获得了该校英语文学专业的博士学位。1955年起，他在丹佛大学任教，直到1985年退休。威廉斯一生共出版了两部诗集及四部小说，其中《奥古斯都》（Augustus）于1973年荣获美国国家图书奖。他的第三部小说《斯通纳》（Stoner）出版于1965年，当年共售出约2000册。2003年，《斯通纳》在英国再版，但截止到2012年，也只卖出4800多册。此后，几乎完全凭借良好的口碑，《斯通纳》在多个国家跻身畅销小说行列，在世界范围内经历了一次“复活”。

Excerpts1）

William Stoner entered the University of Missouri as a freshman in the year 1910， at the age of nineteen. Eight years later， during the height of World War I， he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree and accepted an instructorship at the same University， where he taught until his death in 1956. He did not rise above the rank of assistant professor， and few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses. When he died his colleagues made a memorial contribution of a medieval manuscript to the University library. This manuscript may still be found in the Rare Books Collection， bearing the inscription： “Presented to the Library of the University of Missouri， in memory of William Stoner， Department of English. By his colleagues.”

An occasional student who comes upon the name may wonder idly who William Stoner was， but he seldom pursues his curiosity beyond a casual question. Stoners colleagues， who held him in no particular esteem when he was alive， speak of him rarely now; to the older ones， his name is a reminder of the end that awaits them all， and to the younger ones it is merely a sound which evokes no sense of the past and no identity with which they can associate themselves or their careers.

He was born in 1891 on a small farm in central Missouri near the village of Booneville， some forty miles from Columbia， the home of the University. Though his parents were young at the time of his birth—his father twenty-five， his mother barely twenty—Stoner thought of them， even when he was a boy， as old. At thirty his father looked fifty; stooped2） by labor， he gazed without hope at the arid patch of land that sustained the family from one year to the next. His mother regarded her life patiently， as if it were a long moment that she had to endure. Her eyes were pale and blurred， and the tiny wrinkles around them were enhanced by thin graying hair worn straight over her head and caught in a bun at the back.

From the earliest time he could remember， William Stoner had his duties. At the age of six he milked the bony cows， slopped the pigs in the sty3） a few yards from the house， and gathered small eggs from a flock of spindly4） chickens. And even when he started attending the rural school eight miles from the farm， his day， from before dawn until after dark， was filled with work of one sort or another. At seventeen his shoulders were already beginning to stoop beneath the weight of his occupation.

It was a lonely household， of which he was an only child， and it was bound together by the necessity of its toil. In the evenings the three of them sat in the small kitchen lighted by a single kerosene5） lamp， staring into the yellow flame; often during the hour or so between supper and bed， the only sound that could be heard was the weary movement of a body in a straight chair and the soft creak of a timber6） giving a little beneath the age of the house.

The house was built in a crude square， and the unpainted timbers sagged around the porch and doors. It had with the years taken on the colors of the dry land—gray and brown， streaked with white. On one side of the house was a long parlor， sparsely7） furnished with straight chairs and a few hewn tables， and a kitchen， where the family spent most of its little time together. On the other side were two bedrooms， each furnished with an iron bedstead enameled white， a single straight chair， and a table， with a lamp and a wash basin on it. The floors were of unpainted plank， unevenly spaced and cracking with age， up through which dust steadily seeped and was swept back each day by Stoners mother.

At school he did his lessons as if they were chores only somewhat less exhausting than those around the farm. When he finished high school in the spring of 1910， he expected to take over more of the work in the fields; it seemed to him that his father grew slower and more weary with the passing months.

But one evening in late spring， after the two men had spent a full day hoeing corn， his father spoke to him in the kitchen， after the supper dishes had been cleared away.

“County agent come by last week.”

William looked up from the red-and-white-checked oilcloth spread smoothly over the round kitchen table. He did not speak.

“Says they have a new school at the University in Columbia. They call it a College of Agriculture. Says he thinks you ought to go. It takes four years.”

“Four years，” William said. “Does it cost money？”

“You could work your room and board，” his father said. “Your ma has a first cousin owns a place just outside Columbia. There would be books and things. I could send you two or three dollars a month.”

作家梁文道在一次访谈中提及“本分做人”的重要性，他说道：“所谓‘本分地做人，意思是说，尽管世界是这个样子，局面是这个样子，但是有什么是你力所能及能做到的，還是要做。”从这个意义上来说，《斯通纳》可以看成是一部关于“本分做人”的小说。主人公斯通纳的一生，对于他所身处的小环境和大世界而言，似乎无足轻重，而这个故事的引人入胜之处大概在于，终其一生，斯通纳发掘并培育了自己本分做人的能力，选择并坚守着自己所能做到的事，诠释了“本分人生”所特有的珍贵与崇高。

在小说开篇处，作者对斯通纳一生的“无足轻重”毫不讳言，用讣告般简洁总括的方式，道出了斯通纳一生的轨迹：1910年，19岁的斯通纳进入密苏里大学求学，并于八年后留校任教，而直到他1956年在大学里去世为止，他的职称始终没有升到助理教授以上的级别。从这个“剧透”般不设悬念的轨迹开始，整部小说依照时间顺序展开，呈现出斯通纳“本分做人”的一生。

對于出身贫苦农家的斯通纳而言，“本分做人”的起点是“对困苦、饥饿、忍耐和痛苦的知悉”。正如斯通纳在年老时回想起来的那样：“这是祖辈给予的传承，而他们过着卑贱、辛苦、坚忍的生活，他们共同的道德信仰就是把自己的脸交给一个严苛不公的世界，而那一张张脸毫无表情、铁硬又荒凉。”在这种世代相传的认知中，斯通纳的父母依照自己的“本分”，在经济拮据、家中劳力短缺的情况下，将斯通纳送入了大学。而当斯通纳做出了从农学院转到文学院的“任性”决定之后，得知这一消息的父亲答复说：“如果你觉得应该待在这里，读你的书，那你就应该这样做。”父母这种对于“本分人生”的朴素践行，对斯通纳的一生影响深远。自少年起，斯通纳就将勤力用功视为自然，“他在大学做功课完全就像在农场干农活——全心全意，兢兢业业，既谈不上愉快也没有多大的痛苦”。一生中，斯通纳都保持着自己年少时被繁重的农活塑造出的驼背身形。这种负重前行的姿态，使他日后在清苦寂寞的岁月中不自觉、不迷惘，在遭遇生活中的阻碍和不幸时不畏强、不消沉，在最终抵达生命终点时不悔恨、不惊慌。从这个角度而言，“本分做人”是有福报的，因为斯通纳式的本分之人虽然将苦难视为生活的天然底色，却也因此凭借坚忍的性格和对信念的坚守，抵御着生命中的虚空和无常。

对于选择了大学教师为业的斯通纳而言，“本分做人”的奥义是对生命活力的悉心守护。斯通纳人生中首次对于这种活力的体验发生在文学课上。当他的老师斯隆先生朗读了莎士比亚的第73首十四行诗后，他问道：“莎士比亚先生穿越三百年在跟你讲话，斯通纳先生，你听到了吗？”而此时的斯通纳“感受到血液在无形地穿过纤细的血管和动脉流淌着，从指尖到整个身体微弱又随意地颤动着”。在斯通纳的一生中，这是生命活力被唤醒的奇妙一刻，也是他从麻木忍受生命的重压转向主动探寻生命激情的转折点。这位农学院的学生因此转学到了文学院，寻找到了安身立命之所。他没有像其他同龄人一样参军入伍，而是听从了导师的建议，将战争视为摧毁生命活力、制造野蛮人的灾难事件。他结交朋友，展开恋爱，结婚生子，遇到红颜知己。当晚年回首过往的时候，他发现一生中所有美好的人和事都统一于生命活力这个主题上：在个人层面，这种活力表现为自我意识;在人与人之间，这种活力表现为友谊、激情和爱情;在职业层面，这种活力表现为对世界的好奇心带来的乐趣和专注;而在社会层面，这种活力是野蛮人所信奉的“丛林法则”的反面，是建立在同情和爱之上的对文明的信念。这样的“本分人生”似乎给斯通纳带来了不少麻烦——因为坚持要将弄虚作假者挡在大学的门外，斯通纳被意见不合的上司排挤和打压了二十余年。这样“本分人生”中无能为力的时刻也很多：斯通纳的婚姻很快变成一场灾难，他与冷漠的妻子形同路人;女儿幼时与他关系亲密，待女儿长大成人，父女关系却渐渐疏远;他与知己两情相悦，但迫于外界压力，他们的婚外恋情最终以分手收场。但这样“本分做人”是有福报的，因为斯通纳式的本分之人调用意志、才智和心灵的力量，不断创造和充实着生命的意义，抵御着生命中的无奈和绝望。

在一次访谈中，约翰·威廉斯谈起了他笔下的斯通纳：“许多读过小说的人认为斯通纳度过了悲伤且糟糕的一生。我却认为他的一生过得颇为不错。”初看之下，斯通纳的一生似乎确实给人“悲伤且糟糕”的印象。然而在与斯通纳境遇相似的作者看来，斯通纳“本分做人”的一生是幸运且被祝福的。斯通纳身处的小环境和大世界里充满了吞噬生命的力量，对生活期望不高的父母在隐忍中陷入麻木，对生活期望过于理想化的导师在失望中陷入绝望，反倒是继承了前两者“本分生活”遗产的斯通纳，凭借他们所馈赠的豁达和柔软，度过了看似平常、实则珍贵的鲜活一生。而斯通纳一生的故事，之所以在小说发表半个多世纪后依然被人们记起和传阅，大概是因为虽然各人的成长环境和天赋特长各异，但是如何在强力横行、暴乱不息的人世间活出自己的本分，依然是每一个认真生活的人所探求的对象。