Chewing Gum

Description

「學生們！把這個記下來！咀嚼從不會停止！」
“Students! Write this down in your notebooks! Chewing is infinite!”

年輕的穆赫塔爾凍結在了時間中，凝望著他摯愛的法特瑪消失在利比亞的黎波里的街道上，走入賣身的命運中。圍繞這對年輕的戀人，布希納夫編織了一張引人入勝的意象網絡：一座垃圾遍地的公園，一尊魅惑的意大利雕塑，以及一條飄動的紅色圍巾。通過將這些意象糅雜進社會、歷史與「存在」，作者描繪了這樣一幅黑暗畫作：一個危機中的國家，和一個孤獨地站在多種相互衝突的意識形態中間的個體，這些意識形態都試圖通過解釋來奪取他的存在。

《口香糖》以諷刺加半紀實的風格，展開了一場有關「一個社會如何在壓制性的獨裁政權下生存」的存在主義探索。在「咀嚼」規律地、無情地持續下，個人、時間與土地逐漸化為廢墟。作為親歷卡紮菲殘酷暴政的作家，無人能在布希納夫的首部作品中逃脫他的批判目光。作者以時而極其幽默，時而極盡悲傷的語言，刻畫了自認為壟斷了真理，實則無一例外地辜負了個體的利比亞學者、政客和商人。

Young Mukhtar is frozen in time, gazing at his beloved Fatma as she disappears into the streets of Tripoli, Libya, destined to a life of prostitution. Around these young lovers, Bushnaf weaves a compelling network of images: a litter-strewn park, a bewitching Italian statue, and a fluttering red scarf. Through these images, imbued with social, historical and existential import, Bushnaf paints a dark portrait of a country in crisis and an individual, alone at the centre of conflicting ideologies, all attempting to explain his existence away.

With its satirical and semi-journalistic style, Chewing Gum is an existential quest to understand how a society exists beneath a repressive dictatorship. The rhythmic act of chewing relentlessly continues as individuals, time and land turn to waste. In this debut novel, no one escapes the critical gaze of a writer who witnessed first-hand the brutality of Gaddafi’s regime. At times downright funny and at times poignantly sad, Chewing Gum depicts the academics, politicians and businessmen of Libya who all claim a monopoly on the truth of the country but who all, inevitably, fail the individual.

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曼蘇爾・布希納夫是一位劇作家、小說家、散文家，1954年出生於利比亞，1970年代因政治活動與其批判性著作入獄十年。他以多部獲奖的諷刺性劇作而聞名，目前居住和工作於的黎波里。

Mansour BUSHNAF is a playwright, novelist and essayist born in Libya 1954. He was imprisoned for ten years in the early 1970’s because of his political activism and critical writings and is renowned for his award-winning satirical plays. He lives and works in Tripoli.