（讀書筆記）戰地玫瑰：帶著硝煙味的芳香

（楊老師讀書筆記）戰地玫瑰：帶著硝煙味的芳香

想象一下讓一名娛樂記者去報道非洲戰亂，會是什麼奇葩效果？

英國記者珍巴斯曼用娛記的八卦筆調報道蘇丹，查德和烏干達戰爭的殘酷與政治的虛偽，讓你笑著笑著眼淚就流下來了。

她的這本書文風獨樹一幟，帶著一種laugh-until-you-cry的幽默。光是書名，就已經與眾不同：

《A journey to the dark heart of nameless unspeakable evil 》 

（探究不可名狀之惡的陰暗心理之旅） 

她想以記者身份在世界知名非政府間組織里謀份差事，卻發現：

"Doctors Without Borders were not currently recruiting celebrity journalists. I was hurt. 

「無國界醫生」目前不招聘娛樂記者。我很受傷。"

Apparently pediatric surgery ranks higher than a magazine called the wrong 'Un.

顯然，兒科手術的地位比一份叫《壞蛋》的雜誌要高。

I was useless. I could die tomorrow and no one would suffer, apart from the underwear department and my mum. 

我一無是處。我可以明天就死掉而沒人會因此而受傷，除了內衣部和我媽以外。"

當她無意間發現一名男人味十足的國際危機解決專家John Prendergast時，決定馬上要去採訪他：

For purely journalistic reasons, I spent about forty-eight hours straight googling him, cursing John Prendergast Wedding Photographer of Liverpool for clogging my search results. 

純粹出於新聞報道的原因，我大概連續花了四十八小時一邊在谷歌搜索他的資料，一邊咒罵利物浦一名也叫John Prendergast的婚紗攝影師，因為他老妨礙我的搜尋結果。

I wondered how wrong it would be to sit on his knee during Interview.

我在想，採訪期間坐到他大腿上究竟有多不妥。

讀到這裡，你會對她嗤之以鼻：淺薄！

錯！

在她娛樂記者筆調的字裡行間，卻有對人類戰爭暴行的深刻反思：

"From what I'd read about the chaos in the Horn of Africa, Bashir was a throwback, a less faggy Hitler. To me, Sudan had echoes of 1938, when Hitler swept through the ghettoes, sending the Gestapo to smash windows and set fire to Jewish shops. It was Kristallnacht again, the night of broken glass, and once again, no one was doing anything. I've always wondered why nobody stopped Hitler after Kristallnacht, because plenty of smart  people lived in Europe in the thirties. 

從我讀到的關於非洲之角的騷亂資料看，巴希爾（蘇丹獨裁者）是一種返祖現象，是另一名沒那麼娘娘腔的希特勒。對我來說，蘇丹是1938年的回聲。當時希特勒派出蓋世太保掃蕩貧民窟，砸爛猶太人商店的玻璃窗並縱火燒店。現在又是「水晶之夜」，即碎玻璃之夜，而現在還是沒人出來干涉它。我一直納悶，「水晶之夜」后，怎麼沒人出來攔住希特勒，因為三十年代的歐洲，住有許多聰明人的呀！"

能夠用輕鬆筆調報道沉重題材，嬉笑怒罵之間一針見血擊中要害，這才是高段位的新聞記者。

珍巴斯曼發明的這種叫agony comedy （痛苦的喜劇）文體，俏皮老辣，亦莊亦諧，透著一股「戰地玫瑰」獨特的味道：帶著硝煙味的芳香。