亲历美国流行文化

    同样，在关于吉姆•哈里森的文章中，他也坦陈了自己的采访过程。这篇置于本书结尾部分的文章去年夏天刚刚在《外面》杂志（Outside）发表。比塞尔欣然提到了他第一次与哈里森在晚间饮酒之后酩酊大醉那一幕。他还写道，他最初太害怕了，不敢跟着哈里森在其住所中搜寻一个蛇洞。比塞尔回忆道，大卫•福斯特•华莱士曾发现哈里森写的一篇文章，并且在写给比塞尔的一封信中表达了他对这部作品的嘉许之意。他随后奉承道：“对于一位刚刚起步的年轻作家来说，这种经历难以形容。我的两位文学偶像之间的交流，竟然是通过我来进行的。”没错，这个结论多少有点沾沾自喜的味道，但我们亦不难看出他的自豪和坦诚。

    实际上，比塞尔最出彩的文章往往写于他与写作对象面对面交流之后，而不是在一个真空中凭想象阐述的时候。那篇关于埃斯卡诺巴市的文章（比塞尔曾身临电影拍摄现场），对赫尔佐格的分析（比塞尔在这位备受尊崇的导演的家中对其进行了采访），以及韦素和哈里森的人物报道都属于这种情况。

    有几篇文章或许应该略去。一篇是对海明威著作《太阳照样升起》（The Sun Also Rises）毫无必要地辩护。另一篇是对大卫•福斯特•华莱士2005年在凯尼恩学院（Kenyon College）那篇演讲过于简短的报道，华莱士的出版商已经把这篇演讲包装成一部适宜摆放在咖啡茶几上的书籍《这是水》（This Is Water）。比塞尔对作家罗伯特•D•卡普兰非常低俗的批评是另一篇让人不明就里的文章。

    让所有人都猜不透的是，比塞尔为什么没有把2010年发表于《卫报》（Guardian）的那篇杰出报道收入作品集。他在这篇文章中把玩家对《侠盗车手》（Grand Theft Auto）这款游戏的痴迷程度与吸食可卡因相提并论。或许他不想在书中包含两篇关于视频游戏的文章，或许他感到自己应该坚持仅仅收录首次发表在杂志上的文章这一做法。

    但这样做无关紧要。《魔幻时刻》一书包含了许多值得细细品读的作品，几乎没有可跳过不读的文章。影迷应该会喜欢作者对文学现象的深度探寻，反之亦然：一位或许觉得电影分析（特别是对一位颠覆性的德国导演或一部越战纪录片的分析文章）无聊透顶的文学迷依然会感受到比塞尔文笔的魔力。此外，比塞尔也为媒体业的发烧友深入一线探究了好莱坞和其他媒体形态的生产过程，从电影《埃斯卡诺巴的月光》（Escanaba in da Moonlight）的户外取景，到情景喜剧《迈克和莫莉》（Mike & Molly）的室内布局，再到视频游戏《质量效应3》（Mass Effect 3）的录制棚，不一而足。

    阅读比塞尔的作品可以让人了解众多知识与文化的细微之处。或许超出人们的期待的是，同时还可以深入了解作者汤姆•比塞尔本人。    

    译者：任文科

    He similarly strips his own process bare in the piece on Jim Harrison, which was published just last summer in Outside and closes out the book. Bissell readily mentions the hangover he suffered after the first night of drinking with Harrison. He adds that he was too scared, initially, to join Harrison in checking out a snake den on his property. Bissell recounts how David Foster Wallace once discovered an essay by Harrison, and mentioned liking the piece in a letter to Bissell. He then fawns: "For a young writer just starting out, this was indescribable. Two of my literary heroes were talking to each other, as it were, through me." Yes, the conclusion smacks slightly, perhaps, of the self-congratulatory, but it's hard not to appreciate his pride and candor.

    In fact Bissell shines most when he meets his subjects face-to-face, rather than expounding in a vacuum. That's true of the Escanaba essay (Bissell hung around during shooting), the Herzog analysis (Bissell interviewed the venerated filmmaker at his home), and the Wiseau and Harrison profiles.

    A few essays could have been omitted. One is a gratuitous defense of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Another is an all-too-brief account of David Foster Wallace's 2005 speech at Kenyon College, which Wallace's publisher packaged as a coffee-table book called This Is Water. Bissell's rather nasty critique of author Robert D. Kaplan is another head-scratcher.

    It's anyone's guess as to why Bissell did not include his outstanding 2010 Guardian piece about becoming addicted to Grand Theft Auto and cocaine. Perhaps he didn't want two essays on video games in there, or felt he should stick to stories that first appeared in magazines.

    No matter. Magic Hours has a lot to love and very little to skip. Film buffs should enjoy the deep dives into literary phenomena, and vice-versa: A lit nerd who might be bored stiff by film analysis (especially analysis of a subversive German director or of a Vietnam War documentary) will still be drawn in. For media business aficionados, Bissell delivers front-row insight into the production process in Hollywood and beyond, from the outdoor set of the movie Escanaba in da Moonlight, to the indoor set of the sitcom Mike & Molly and the recording booth of the video game Mass Effect 3.

    Reading Bissell's essays will educate you on a vast range of intellectual and cultural minutiae. You will also learn a lot, perhaps more than you bargained for, about the essayist Tom Bissell.