????作品合集就像袋裝的軟糖。如果糖果制造商是一個(gè)高品質(zhì)的品牌，比如說吉利貝利（Jelly Belly），即使你不喜歡的味道也還是相當(dāng)不錯(cuò)的。《魔幻時(shí)刻》（Magic Hours）就屬于這類。這本本月出版的記者湯姆?比塞爾作品集，涉及了從羅伯特?D?卡普蘭的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)報(bào)道到沃納?赫爾佐格的紀(jì)錄片在內(nèi)眾多頗費(fèi)腦力的主題。

????比塞爾現(xiàn)在定期為ESPN的Grantland撰寫游戲評(píng)論，他的文筆非常迷人，經(jīng)常（但并非總是）把那些似乎不可能吸引主流讀者的主題寫得妙趣橫生。比塞爾的寫作對(duì)象大都晦澀難懂，但把任何主題都寫得生動(dòng)有趣不正是記者的職責(zé)嗎？需要事先警告一下的是，這本書大多數(shù)文章的真正主角其實(shí)是比塞爾自己。

????比如，比塞爾撰文，描寫杰夫?丹尼爾2001年在密歇根州埃斯卡諾巴市拍攝一部獨(dú)立電影的過程時(shí)，文章就變成了他個(gè)人對(duì)家鄉(xiāng)的回憶，因?yàn)楸热麪柧褪窃谶@個(gè)城市長(zhǎng)大的。再如，在撰寫一篇關(guān)于一個(gè)有趣但書呆子氣十足、名為地下文學(xué)聯(lián)盟（Underground Literary Alliance）的教派時(shí)，他提到了約翰?肯尼迪?圖勒深受歡迎的小說《笨蛋同盟》（A Confederacy of Dunces）。這本書的確與主題相關(guān)，但他還是按捺不住，寫下了自己的評(píng)論（“出版史上最被高估的小說之一”）。又比如，為荒原小說家吉姆?哈里森（他碰巧是比塞爾父親的一位朋友）撰寫的一篇人物報(bào)道，文章既是在談?wù)摴锷彩窃谡務(wù)摫热麪栕约骸?/p>

????所有這一切都非常精致——這也是比塞爾為何將這些報(bào)道稱之為“作品”的原因。如今，這個(gè)詞預(yù)示著文章可以通過作者評(píng)論、插入語(yǔ)和尖刻的旁白偏離嚴(yán)格的客觀性原則。當(dāng)然，如果你尋找的是一篇對(duì)湯米?韋素的邪典電影《房間》（The Room）一本正經(jīng)的敘述，你應(yīng)該去維基百科查詢，而不要選擇閱讀比塞爾動(dòng)人但極具個(gè)性化的詮釋。

????雜志新聞已經(jīng)朝這個(gè)方向邁進(jìn)了數(shù)十載，特別是古怪的流行文化這些深受比塞爾青睞的主題。甚至如《GQ》和《時(shí)尚先生》（Esquire）這類外表光鮮的主流雜志在進(jìn)行名人報(bào)道時(shí)也自由運(yùn)用第一人稱，除了援引報(bào)道對(duì)象的語(yǔ)言之外，作者本人的反應(yīng)和內(nèi)心獨(dú)白幾乎占據(jù)了同等篇幅。

????在作者自序中，比塞爾寫道，在那篇關(guān)于杰夫?丹尼爾的文章發(fā)表之后，一位編輯安排他去加拿大報(bào)道美國(guó)宇航局（NASA），比塞爾的回應(yīng)是：“你知道我其實(shí)并不是記者吧？”然而，書中的這些文章依然屬于新聞范疇。比塞爾不僅從事件或個(gè)人訪談現(xiàn)場(chǎng)發(fā)表報(bào)道，而且還充當(dāng)讀者的向?qū)В粩嗟靥嵝盐覀兯拇嬖凇＜s翰?耶利米?沙利文、瑪麗?羅奇和大衛(wèi)?福斯特?華萊士等人（這是比斯?fàn)柟_崇拜的作家）的非虛構(gòu)類作品也都帶有這樣的特征。

????毫不奇怪的是，這本書包含了兩篇不那么放縱的文章，讀者在文章中基本上看不到比塞爾的影子，這兩篇文章的首發(fā)雜志都是《紐約客》（The New Yorker）。其中一篇是關(guān)于以《好漢兩個(gè)半》（Two and a Half Men）成名的情景喜劇之王查克?洛爾，另一篇是關(guān)于視頻游戲配音演員詹尼弗?哈爾。其他文章最初發(fā)表在諸如《追隨者》（The Believer）這類媒體上，這本雜志隸屬的麥克斯威尼出版社（McSweeney's）碰巧也是這本書的出版商。

????Essay collections are like bags of jellybeans. If the candy-maker is a high-quality brand like, say, Jelly Belly, then even the flavors you don't love will be pretty good. Such is the case with Magic Hours, a collection of essays out this month from journalist Tom Bissell that covers brainy topics ranging from the war reporting of Robert D. Kaplan to the documentary films of Werner Herzog.

????Bissell, who now writes regularly about video games for ESPN's Grantland, is engaging enough -- usually, but not always -- to make interesting even those essays whose topics seem unlikely to absorb the mainstream reading public. Most of Bissell's subjects are abstruse, but it's a journalist's job to make any topic interesting, right? Just be forewarned that the real subject in most of the essays collected here is Bissell himself.

????When he writes about the filming of a 2001 Jeff Daniels indie movie in Escanaba, Mich., the essay becomes a personal reflection on his hometown, because Bissell grew up in Escanaba. Writing about an intriguing, nerdy sect called the Underground Literary Alliance, he mentions John Kennedy Toole's beloved novel A Confederacy of Dunces, which is indeed relevant, but he can't resist including his own review ("one of the most overrated novels ever published"). A profile of the wilderness novelist Jim Harrison, who happens to be a friend of Bissell's father, is as much about Bissell as about Harrison.

????All of this is perfectly fine -- it's why Bissell calls these works of reportage "essays." Nowadays, the word signals a license to depart from strict objectivity via authorial comments, interjections and snarky asides. Of course, if you were looking for a straight-faced account of Tommy Wiseau's cult movie The Room, you would head to Wikipedia rather than reading Bissell's engaging but highly personalized interpretation.

????Magazine journalism has been headed this way for decades, especially journalism on the quirky, pop culture subjects that Bissell favors. Even mainstream celebrity profiles in glossy magazines like GQ and Esquire freely use the first-person voice, and feature the reactions and inner monologue of the author as much as quotes from the subject.

????In an Author's Note, Bissell notes that after his Jeff Daniels essay appeared, an editor assigned him to go report on NASA in Canada, to which Bissell responded: "You're aware that I'm not actually a journalist?" Nonetheless, these essays are works of journalism. Bissell is reporting from events or in-person interviews, but also acting as a guide to the reader, reminding us constantly of his presence. (See, also, the nonfiction of John Jeremiah Sullivan, Mary Roach, or David Foster Wallace, a writer whom Bissell openly worships.)

????It is no surprise, then, that the two least indulgent essays, from which Bissell is mostly absent, both appeared first in The New Yorker. (One is on sitcom-king Chuck Lorre of Two and a Half Men fame, the other on video-game voiceover actor Jennifer Hale). Other pieces were originally published in outlets like The Believer, which, as an imprint of McSweeney's, happens to be the publisher of this book.