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Former prime minister's memoir nominated for prize dedicated to clumsy
erotic scenes in fiction.
Tony Blair has received a double insult from the Literary Review, with the
nomination of his bestselling autobiography, A Journey, for its bad sex award.
The slight is not only to his skill at bedroom prose, but also to his claims to
historical accuracy, since the award is dedicated to clumsy clinches in
fiction.
The magazine's deputy editor Tom Fleming today confirmed the genre-busting
nomination for the prize, which celebrates "poorly written, redundant or crude
passages of a sexual nature". According to Fleming it is the first time a work
of non-fiction has been up for the award. "It's absolutely unprecedented," he
said. "He's groundbreaking in every way."
The former prime minister is nominated for a purple passage about the night
spent with his wife Cherie following the news of the Labour leader John Smith's
sudden death. "That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me
what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I
needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I
was an animal following my instinct," Blair wrote.
Although the judging process is at an early stage, Fleming suggested that
Blair would be a strong contender in a "good year" for the award, with Ian
McEwan's Solar and Martin Amis's The Pregnant Widow already under consideration
for the shortlist.
The shortlist for the Bad sex award is due to be announced next month, with
the prize no author wants to win due to be awarded on 29 November.
Blair's nomination is not the first time that his autobiography has been
classified as fiction, as bookshops have reported customers with anti-war
sympathies repeatedly reshelving the book into the crime section, following a
Facebook-led campaign. Now it seems, A Journey may be moving into erotic
fiction.
英国前首相布莱尔的回忆录日前获得“拙劣性爱奖”提名，而这一“殊荣”原本只颁给小说作品。
《文学批评》杂志提名布莱尔的畅销回忆录《旅程》角逐“拙劣性爱奖”无异于对他的双重侮辱。这不仅讽刺了其性爱描写的拙劣笔法，还嘲笑了他自夸的“历史真实性”，因为该奖是颁发给性爱描写文笔拙劣的小说作品的。
该杂志副主编汤姆•弗莱明于今日确认了对布莱尔的这项“突破体裁”的奖项提名，该奖项旨在颁发给“在描写性爱时文笔糟糕、冗长、粗俗的作品”。弗莱明表示，这是非小说类作品首次获得该奖提名。他说：“这真史无前例，他在很多方面开创了历史先河。”
令前首相布莱尔入围的是一段词藻华丽的文字，描写了他和妻子切丽在工党领袖约翰•史密斯突然去世后度过的一个夜晚。布莱尔写道：“当晚，她拥我入怀，轻轻抚慰我，告诉我理应知道的事情，给我力量。那是1994年5月12日的晚上，我自私地渴求切丽给我的爱，我挥霍着这份爱，化为自己的力量。我如一头野兽般听从本能的召唤。”
尽管评审工作还处于初期，但弗莱明表示在今年这样一个该奖项的“好年头”，布莱尔是位强有力的竞争者。伊恩•麦克尤恩的《日光》、以及马丁•艾米斯的《怀孕的寡妇》也已入围候选名单。
“拙劣性爱奖”的入围名单将于下月公布，11月29日将正式揭晓，但各路作家唯恐避之不及。
布莱尔的回忆录被归入小说类已经不是第一次了。书店方面早已报道称，在Fackbook发起的一项活动后，有反战情结的顾客屡次把这本书放进犯罪书籍类别。而如今，《旅程》或将被读者归入色情小说类别。
Vocabulary:
genre: a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form,
content, technique, or the like(体裁，类型)
purple passage: a passage full of ornate and flowery language(词藻华丽的段落) |
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发表于 2016-7-10 17:40:54