亲历美国流行文化

    比塞尔是按照写作时间安排《魔幻时刻》所选文章先后次序的。这种编排方式能够清晰地体现出他作为一位作家的成长轨迹，但打破了编录作品集的常识性规则，即把最精彩的文章放在最前面。这本书的开篇之作是全书中最无聊的，甚至对于迪金森、梅尔维尔和惠特曼的粉丝来说亦是如此；临近结束的那几篇文章要好得多。

    比塞尔在作者自序中称，“这些作品都与魔幻有关，”因为“要创造任何事物，无论是一个短篇故事，一篇杂志人物报道，还是一部电影或者一部情景喜剧，都必须相信（即使只是暂时的）自己有能力施展魔法。”这是一种很有吸引力的思想，但充其量只能算是一种非常模棱两可的论点。人类一直都在创造事物，但根本就不认为这是魔法，甚至算不上什么成就。

    就主题而言，他选择的作品缺乏关联性。当然，就宏观意义而言，它们都与流行文化有关：在这本书包含的15篇文章中，9篇是讲写作的，4篇是讲电影的，1篇关于电视，1篇关于游戏。但深度探究的话，你就会发现这些文章的诉求点很集中。

    这本作品集最有力度的文章《电影色拉》（Cinema Crudité）是关于电影《房间》的评论，这部被一致认为非常糟糕的电影依然在全美各地院线的深夜档放映，并且依然受到成群结队的信徒们追捧。这部电影相当一部分“粉丝”似乎喜欢嘲讽影片的编剧、导演和主演汤米•韦素先生。比塞尔以非常恭敬，极其幽默的方式描述了这种讽刺意味：“为什么这么多的人会追捧这部电影？看到一位性格导演的神话残酷破灭，眼睁睁看着一位艺术原本是为了触摸星星、但最终只到手一块便池蛋糕，是不是会带给人一种满足感呢？”

    令人钦佩的是，在采访韦素本人时，比塞尔没有使用不公正的语言来刁难他，但他同时也非常忠实地记录了自己在会面时的真实感受。当时，韦素称他的目标是让90%的美国人去看《房间》，比塞尔对我们说：“听到这里，我差点当着他的面笑出声来。”

    Bissell arranges Magic Hours chronologically by when he wrote them. This demonstrates his clear growth as a writer, but breaks the commonsense rule of beginning a collection with the best it has to offer. The opening piece is the book's most boring, even for fans of Dickinson, Melville and Whitman; the essays toward the end are far stronger.

    In that Author's Note, Bissell argues that "these essays are about magic" because, "to create anything -- whether a short story or a magazine profile or a film or a sitcom -- is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic." It's an appealing thought, but a tenuous argument at best. People create things all the time without believing they constitute magic, or any achievement at all.

    Thematically, the work he has selected lacks any connective tissue. Sure, in a big-picture sense they all cover pop culture mainstays: Of the book's 15 essays, nine are about writing, four are about film, one is on television, and one on video games. But drill down and they are narrow in focus.

    The strongest essay in the collection, "Cinema Crudité," is about The Room, by all accounts a very bad movie that nonetheless still shows at late-night screenings all over the country and brings devotees out in droves. A significant portion of the movie's "fans" seem to enjoy ridiculing Wiseau, who wrote, directed, and stars in the film. Bissell handles this irony respectfully and humorously: "Why are so many people responding to this… Is it the satisfaction of seeing the auteur myth cruelly exploded, of watching an artist reach for the stars and wind up with his hand around a urinal cake?"

    When he meets Wiseau in person, Bissell admirably avoids taking unfair jabs at him, though he's also honest with us about what he felt during the meeting. When Wiseau says his goal is for 90% of Americans to see The Room, Bissell tells us, "At this I all but laughed in his face."