????同樣，在關于吉姆?哈里森的文章中，他也坦陳了自己的采訪過程。這篇置于本書結尾部分的文章去年夏天剛剛在《外面》雜志（Outside）發表。比塞爾欣然提到了他第一次與哈里森在晚間飲酒之后酩酊大醉那一幕。他還寫道，他最初太害怕了，不敢跟著哈里森在其住所中搜尋一個蛇洞。比塞爾回憶道，大衛?福斯特?華萊士曾發現哈里森寫的一篇文章，并且在寫給比塞爾的一封信中表達了他對這部作品的嘉許之意。他隨后奉承道：“對于一位剛剛起步的年輕作家來說，這種經歷難以形容。我的兩位文學偶像之間的交流，竟然是通過我來進行的。”沒錯，這個結論多少有點沾沾自喜的味道，但我們亦不難看出他的自豪和坦誠。

????實際上，比塞爾最出彩的文章往往寫于他與寫作對象面對面交流之后，而不是在一個真空中憑想象闡述的時候。那篇關于埃斯卡諾巴市的文章（比塞爾曾身臨電影拍攝現場），對赫爾佐格的分析（比塞爾在這位備受尊崇的導演的家中對其進行了采訪），以及韋素和哈里森的人物報道都屬于這種情況。

????有幾篇文章或許應該略去。一篇是對海明威著作《太陽照樣升起》（The Sun Also Rises）毫無必要地辯護。另一篇是對大衛?福斯特?華萊士2005年在凱尼恩學院（Kenyon College）那篇演講過于簡短的報道，華萊士的出版商已經把這篇演講包裝成一部適宜擺放在咖啡茶幾上的書籍《這是水》（This Is Water）。比塞爾對作家羅伯特?D?卡普蘭非常低俗的批評是另一篇讓人不明就里的文章。

????讓所有人都猜不透的是，比塞爾為什么沒有把2010年發表于《衛報》（Guardian）的那篇杰出報道收入作品集。他在這篇文章中把玩家對《俠盜車手》（Grand Theft Auto）這款游戲的癡迷程度與吸食可卡因相提并論。或許他不想在書中包含兩篇關于視頻游戲的文章，或許他感到自己應該堅持僅僅收錄首次發表在雜志上的文章這一做法。

????但這樣做無關緊要。《魔幻時刻》一書包含了許多值得細細品讀的作品，幾乎沒有可跳過不讀的文章。影迷應該會喜歡作者對文學現象的深度探尋，反之亦然：一位或許覺得電影分析（特別是對一位顛覆性的德國導演或一部越戰紀錄片的分析文章）無聊透頂的文學迷依然會感受到比塞爾文筆的魔力。此外，比塞爾也為媒體業的發燒友深入一線探究了好萊塢和其他媒體形態的生產過程，從電影《埃斯卡諾巴的月光》（Escanaba in da Moonlight）的戶外取景，到情景喜劇《邁克和莫莉》（Mike & Molly）的室內布局，再到視頻游戲《質量效應3》（Mass Effect 3）的錄制棚，不一而足。

????閱讀比塞爾的作品可以讓人了解眾多知識與文化的細微之處。或許超出人們的期待的是，同時還可以深入了解作者湯姆?比塞爾本人。????

??? 譯者：任文科

????He similarly strips his own process bare in the piece on Jim Harrison, which was published just last summer in Outside and closes out the book. Bissell readily mentions the hangover he suffered after the first night of drinking with Harrison. He adds that he was too scared, initially, to join Harrison in checking out a snake den on his property. Bissell recounts how David Foster Wallace once discovered an essay by Harrison, and mentioned liking the piece in a letter to Bissell. He then fawns: "For a young writer just starting out, this was indescribable. Two of my literary heroes were talking to each other, as it were, through me." Yes, the conclusion smacks slightly, perhaps, of the self-congratulatory, but it's hard not to appreciate his pride and candor.

????In fact Bissell shines most when he meets his subjects face-to-face, rather than expounding in a vacuum. That's true of the Escanaba essay (Bissell hung around during shooting), the Herzog analysis (Bissell interviewed the venerated filmmaker at his home), and the Wiseau and Harrison profiles.

????A few essays could have been omitted. One is a gratuitous defense of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Another is an all-too-brief account of David Foster Wallace's 2005 speech at Kenyon College, which Wallace's publisher packaged as a coffee-table book called This Is Water. Bissell's rather nasty critique of author Robert D. Kaplan is another head-scratcher.

????It's anyone's guess as to why Bissell did not include his outstanding 2010 Guardian piece about becoming addicted to Grand Theft Auto and cocaine. Perhaps he didn't want two essays on video games in there, or felt he should stick to stories that first appeared in magazines.

????No matter. Magic Hours has a lot to love and very little to skip. Film buffs should enjoy the deep dives into literary phenomena, and vice-versa: A lit nerd who might be bored stiff by film analysis (especially analysis of a subversive German director or of a Vietnam War documentary) will still be drawn in. For media business aficionados, Bissell delivers front-row insight into the production process in Hollywood and beyond, from the outdoor set of the movie Escanaba in da Moonlight, to the indoor set of the sitcom Mike & Molly and the recording booth of the video game Mass Effect 3.

????Reading Bissell's essays will educate you on a vast range of intellectual and cultural minutiae. You will also learn a lot, perhaps more than you bargained for, about the essayist Tom Bissell.