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During the 1960 presidential election, the writer Norman Mailer saw in John F. Kennedy the embodiment of the “hipster” values he believed could revitalize a stagnant America. Consequently, Mailer penned a lyrical 14,000-word paean to Kennedy entitled “Superman Comes to the Supermarket,” published in Esquire that same year.
在1960年的總統選舉中，作家諾曼·梅勒(Norman Mailer)認為約翰·F·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)是“時髦人士”價值觀的化身，他認為這種價值觀能重振停滯不前的美國。所以梅勒為肯尼迪寫了一篇長達1.4萬字的熱情頌歌，名叫《超人來到超級市場》(Superman Comes to the Supermarket)，當年發表在《紳士》(Esquire)雜志上。
This week, Taschen has reissued Mailer’s iconic essay — one of the early masterpieces of so-called “New Journalism” — in a beautifully illustrated new edition ($150).
本周，塔森出版社(Taschen)再次出版了梅勒的這篇標志性長文，它是所謂“新新聞主義”的早期杰作之一。新版本配有精美插圖（150美元）。
In the 1960s and ’70s, writers like Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, Gay Talese, Joan Didion and others began to imbue long-form reportage with certain elements previously reserved for fiction: plot, narrative thrust and, most importantly, depth of character. “Superman Comes to the Supermarket” is the first in a forthcoming series from Taschen that will celebrate, in words and images, that movement, with editions of classic pieces like Gay Talese’s “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” and Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”
20世紀六七十年代，梅勒、亨特·S·湯普森(Hunter S. Thompson)、蓋伊·塔利斯(Gay Talese)和瓊·迪迪昂(Joan Didion)等作家開始在長篇報道中注入某些之前僅在小說中出現的元素：情節、敘述性要點，以及最重要的人物深度。塔森出版社即將出版系列圖書，通過文字和圖片歌頌那場運動，《超人來到超級市場》是第一本，后續經典作品包括蓋伊·塔利斯的《弗蘭克·辛納屈感冒了》(Frank Sinatra Has a Cold)、詹姆斯·鮑德溫(James Baldwin)的《下次是火》(The Fire Next Time)以及湯姆·沃爾夫(Tom Wolfe)的《刺激的吸毒考驗》(The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test)。
Like many of these works, “Superman Comes to the Supermarket” is most remarkable for its artistry rather than for its argument. Kennedy, Mailer insisted, was nothing short of an existential hero for the age, a man who could resuscitate the “submerged river of untapped, ferocious, lonely and romantic desires” and, with it, the “dream life of the nation.” That sentiment proved to be romantic delusion, but the beauty of Mailer’s prose endures.
和大多數這類作品一樣，《超人來到超級市場》的卓越之處在其藝術性而非觀點。梅勒堅持認為，肯尼迪無異于真實的時代英雄，可以復活“激烈、孤獨和浪漫的欲望潛流”，從而實現“這個國家夢想的生活”。結果證明，這種情緒是一種浪漫的幻覺，不過梅勒文章的優美具有長久的魅力。
