2005.9 女性应该阅读的男性书籍

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Gender Bending
Men's books that women should read

By Terry Castle
SEPTEMBER 2005 ISSUE
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Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T. E. Lawrence (1926). I have yet to meet a female contemporary who has read this book—perhaps because Lawrence writes mainly about bone-jarring camel rides, blowing up Turkish trains on the Damascus-to-Medina line, and mooning over handsome Arab boys. Yet for insights into imperialism, the modern Middle East, and the kinky, coquettish personality of the twentieth century's strangest Englishman, this book is matchless. Men love other men in so many odd ways here; it's like getting into the Boys Only tree house. The intelligent female reader is freed into a pure and illuminating voyeurism.

The Face of Battle, by John Keegan (1976). Keegan's now classic description of what it was like to be an ordinary soldier on the Agincourt, Waterloo, or Somme battlefields is harrowing, humane, profound. Even the most pacifistic woman will be moved to new respect for the stunning bravery so many men have exhibited over the centuries in the face of horrific mass violence. The book is timely now in a new way, as American female soldiers are losing arms, legs, eyes—even their lives—in the world's latest horror show.


The Garden of Eden, by Ernest Hemingway (1986). Is there any great male writer more vilified (unfairly) by female critics? Why care in 2005 about a hairy-chested old fatty lording it over a swordfish? Because he's sleek and magnificent and ineluctably weird. This unfinished novel, published posthumously, features a painfully mixed-up hero, a knockout scene of fetishistic haircutting, and sentences so beautiful one could cry. How did he ever get a reputation for machismo? Ladies, prepare to fantasize with Papa. He wants you to humiliate him.

Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar (1951). Now, here's an oddity: a butch lady novelist who's also one of the great gay-male writers of the twentieth century. She didn't like women, and it shows—especially in this, her masterpiece about the Roman emperor Hadrian and his beloved catamite Antinous. Gals just don't figure, but the misogyny, kooky and magisterial, is all part of the fun. The Académie Française got off on Yourcenar's mandarin prose and made her the first immortelle.

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, Seventh Edition, by Richard Cook and Brian Morton (2004). Jazz criticism, like jazz itself, remains almost all-guy terrain. It's time for women to trespass. Cook and Morton are in some ways typical male jazz fans: polymathic, fanatical, obsessed with outtakes and reissues and obscure Japanese imports. (They also write exquisitely.) But I can't help admiring their exacting overall appreciation for female jazz musicians—from Lil Hardin Armstrong to the sublime Marilyn Crispell. No one is forgotten, yet no special fuss is made either. It's as life itself should be.



性别弯曲
女性应该阅读的男性书籍

作者：Terry Castle
2005年9月号

劳伦斯（T. E. Lawrence）的《智慧的七根柱子》（1926）。我还没有遇到一个读过这本书的当代女性--也许是因为劳伦斯主要写的是骑着骆驼痛彻心扉，在大马士革到麦地那的线路上炸毁土耳其火车，以及对英俊的阿拉伯男孩献殷勤。然而，就对帝国主义、现代中东以及这位20世纪最奇怪的英国人的古怪、娇媚的个性的洞察力而言，这本书是无与伦比的。在这里，男人以许多奇怪的方式爱着其他男人；这就像进入了 "男孩专用树屋"。聪明的女性读者被解放出来，进入一种纯粹的、有启发性的偷窥癖。

约翰-基根（John Keegan）的《战斗的面孔》（1976年）。基根对阿金库尔、滑铁卢或索姆河战场上的普通士兵的描述现已成为经典，令人痛心，充满人性，意义深远。即使是最和平主义的妇女也会被感动，对几个世纪以来这么多男人在面对可怕的大规模暴力时表现出的惊人勇气产生新的敬意。这本书现在以一种新的方式很及时，因为美国女兵在世界最新的恐怖表演中失去了胳膊、腿、眼睛，甚至生命。


海明威的《伊甸园》（The Garden of Eden）（1986年）。还有哪位伟大的男性作家被女性评论家更多地诋毁（不公平地）吗？在2005年，为什么要关心一个毛茸茸的老胖子对一条剑鱼的霸道？因为他圆润、壮丽，而且不可避免的怪异。这部未完成的小说是在死后出版的，其特点是一个痛苦的混合型英雄，一个令人震惊的恋物癖理发场景，以及美得让人想哭的句子。他是如何获得大男子主义的声誉的？女士们，准备和爸爸一起幻想吧。他希望你能羞辱他。

哈德良回忆录》，作者玛格丽特-尤切纳（Marguerite Yourcenar）（1951年）。现在，这里有一个奇怪的现象：一位女同性恋者的小说家，也是二十世纪伟大的男同性恋者作家之一。她不喜欢女人，这一点显而易见--特别是在这本书中，她关于罗马皇帝哈德良和他心爱的娈童安提努斯的杰作。女人们就是不喜欢，但这种厌女症，怪异而神奇，都是乐趣的一部分。法兰西学院对尤瑟纳的普通散文很感兴趣，并将她列为第一位不朽的人。

企鹅爵士乐CD指南，第七版，作者是理查德-库克和布莱恩-莫顿（2004）。爵士乐评论，就像爵士乐本身一样，仍然是几乎全是男人的地盘。现在是女性闯入的时候了。库克和莫顿在某些方面是典型的男性爵士乐迷：多才多艺、狂热、痴迷于外购唱片、重发唱片和晦涩的日本进口唱片。(但我不能不佩服他们对女性爵士乐手--从Lil Hardin Armstrong到崇高的Marilyn Crispell--的严格的整体欣赏。没有人被遗忘，但也没有特别大惊小怪。这就是生活本身应该有的样子。