ZT: The Road to the Pulitzer

想看看以色列媒体对VT以色列教授的报道，结果看到了这个。这么复杂沉重黑色的小说，我一般不会去读。

看到了一篇关于L教授的报道。大部分篇幅都在谈VT有多少阿拉伯人，多少犹太人，L教授的死多么为犹太人争光争气云云，从此他们可以扬眉吐气等等。教授的儿子光荣自豪得不得了。双重的悲哀。

The road to the Pulitzer


McCarthy does not give the father and son names, but they are vividly drawn. Flashbacks are not necessary, for they live in a present where the past has become a mere wink of light. All is for survival. The man will sacrifice anything for his son, whom he plies with hot cocoa, a stray Coca-Cola, the last of their food. He carries a pistol for the day when he must put his child out of this misery.

Born into suffering, the boy has learned to patrol his father's martyr-like instincts. He forces him to share in the occasional finds, be it Coke or mushrooms. The boy also badgers him when they leave dying survivors behind. "We have no way to help him," the man tells his son, when they abandon a survivor. "You know that don't you?" In response the boy stages a silent protest. Later, there are dogs and children the boy wants to save, too.

This tension between generosity and survival forms the moral crux of The Road. The boy and his father encounter men who are hungry and desperate; some much worse off, who come crashing after them in search of flesh to eat. After one close call, which forces the father to use one of the precious rounds in his pistol, he tells his son, "My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you." And he does. The boy is uneasy. "Are we still the good guys?" he asks.