在过去一年里，我花了很多时间来阅读温德尔·贝瑞的作品。温德尔·贝瑞，一位来自肯塔基的作家和农民，他的作品给了我许多触动。有的人因为他的环境思想赞美他，把他当作为保护地球而反激进工业主义及轻率发展观的先锋。有的人则藐视他的地区主义和地方思想，或者把他视为视野狭隘、不合潮流的人（可能是针对他去年接受《纽约时报》书评专栏的采访时回答的一个问题而言。当时，他被问到，他想见到那位活着或死去的作家。他说，“我很感恩，我已经见到了一些活着的或死去了的作家。我不是一个贪心的人。）有的人把他的小说中的威廉港农耕社区作为他们自己生活的模范；有的人把它视为注定完结的旧时代生活方式的最后一抓。对我个人而言，贝瑞的作品深深地感动了我。他描绘的和谐生活图景吸引了我，他尝试在这个时代论证这种生活的可能性。在我看到的贝瑞所有的讨论中，有一个特点会常常被忽略，即他的写作中所带有的嬉闹和欢乐。这个星期，当我在读他的诗集《赋予》时，我尤其感觉到了这点。他在诗歌与散文的创作中获得了欢愉。很明显，他喜欢这个世界，即使他时有写到破碎与忧伤。这首小诗《为何》是一个很好的例子：
为何所有的尴尬
伴着欢乐？
有时我欢乐
如一条困倦的狗
因为同样一些原因
因为其他。
——约耳·品克尼
I’ve spent much time this past year in the work of Wendell Berry, the writer and farmer from Kentucky, and have noticed that he creates a variety of impressions. Some champion him for his environmentalism, seeing him as a leader in protecting Earth from rampant industrialism and thoughtless development. Others are dismissive of his regionalism and singularly local focus, or regard him as curmudgeonly and frustratingly contrarian (maybe pointing to his cheekyBy the Bookinterview in theNew York Timeslast year, in which he responded to a question about what author he’d like to meet, living or dead: “I am grateful to have known several authors living and dead, and am not greedy.”) Some see the Port William farming community of his fiction as a model of sorts for their own lives; others see it as a last grasp to a way of life that is done for, a relic of past times. Personally, I have been very moved by Berry’s writings. He paints a picture of a unified life that appeals to me, arguments for its feasibility today notwithstanding. In all the discussions of Berry I’ve encountered, one element of his writing that frequently gets overlooked is its playfulness and joy, of which I was reminded this past week reading through his collection of poemsGiven. He takes pleasure in his poetry and prose; it is clear that he delights in the world, even in the brokenness and sorrow of which he frequently writes. The little poem “Why” is a good sample:
Why all the embarrassment
about being happy?
Sometimes I’m as happy
as a sleeping dog,
and for the same reasons,
and for others.
—Joel Pinckney
