Diamonds and Perhaps the Shabby Gift of Disillusion...色戒及傾城之戀(1)

競選期的辛勞比平日更甚，難得星期六可暫時休息，今天飽睡到早上近十點，中午去為立法會補選助選(可惜因為選舉條例關係，不能細表)；下午我終於有時間做自己最喜歡的事：看書。(閱讀是我最大的嗜好，詳見：http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/kevin-wch/article?mid=635)

早幾日草草寫了李安的"色戒"的影評(見：http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/kevin-wch/article?mid=938)，頗得好評，當日連到我這個blog人數也多了三倍 。

在民主黨區議會誓師後，我去旺角二樓書店買回一本F. Scott Fitzgerald的短篇小說集(見：http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/kevin-wch/article?mid=854)，因為剛好見到這本小說的第一篇作品的名字是THE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE RITZ ，想起了"色戒"裡的那隻鑽戒。

其實兩者除了同指鑽石外，兩者完全沒有關係。但它另我想起張愛玲的另一篇小說：傾城之戀。

Fitzgerald這篇小說頗有奇幻味道，說的是一個美國巨富之家，因為祖先發現了巨大如山的鑽石(真的是廣告裡講的那像：是鑽石山，書目THE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE RITZ 的Ritz是一間酒店。)，這家人為了不讓人知道，刻意與世隔絕，甚至欺騙百年前的黑人奴隸，說南部軍隊反勝，故美國仍是奴隸制國家(夠奇幻吧!這又讓我想起一套名為Underground的電影，很精采，也有類似內容：地下室裡的人被騙幾十年，在下面制造軍火，以為二戰還沒有結束。這個以後再談，不贅。)

下面是勉強能與"色戒"拉上一點關係的片段，也是小說的結尾：

After supper they folded up the table-cloth and spread their blankets for the night.

"What a dream it was," Kismine sighed, gazing up at the stars. "How strange it seems to be here with one dress and a penniless fiance!

"Under the stars," she repeated. "I never noticed the stars before. I always thought of them as great big diamonds that belonged to some one. Now they frighten me. They make me feel that it was all a dream, all my youth."

"It was a dream," said John quietly. "Everybody's youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness."

"How pleasant then to be insane!"

"So I'm told," said John gloomily. "I don't know any longer. At any rate, let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me. That's a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try. There are only diamonds in the whole world, diamonds and perhaps the shabby gift of disillusion. Well, I have that last and I will make the usual nothing of it." He shivered. "Turn up your coat collar, little girl, the night's full of chill and you'll get pneumonia. His was a great sin who first invented consciousness. Let us lose it for a few hours."

So wrapping himself in his blanket he fell off to sleep.

小說網上版可見：http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/diamond/diamond.html

喜歡看張愛玲作品的朋友，應該會發現這樣的場景和對話有一點點熟悉吧：傾城之戀裡范柳原和白流蘇因大戰而成就他們的愛情，兩人在炮火中互相依偎時的場景。

網文過長，下半部份，見：http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/our_wch/article?mid=1118&new=1