影片。最近,真的很分心,需要做的事都不會注意專心,沒辦法故事寫得好,編輯或寫完,都蘭做的。但,寫這些文章可以,讓我放鬆,開心,有一點點成功感。奇怪文學選集第十二個故事是《坑裡面的人》作家是Abraham Merritt。
我們敘述故事前,我要先介紹A. Merritt,這位作家,因為他真的很特別,又奇怪可愛的幽默。他之間是一個編輯者公司的老公,然後再辦公室做奇奇怪怪的好笑的東西,譬如說,試吃別人桌子上的食物或藥,或有時候他放在櫃子裡面的樂器,玩樂器給大家聽。而,他不敢消防員工。

我和Zac討論這個故事的時候,發現最恐怖的部分,是人跟你分享他們的恐怖感,還有看到他們做過恐怖經歷對他們的影響。我們想問,「恐怖經歷會對我們有多大的影響?會重新定義你的自己身分感嗎?」還要問,「人那麼在意他們自己恐怖經歷,會影響他們生活習慣,心裡,或身體嗎?」
《坑裡面的人》
故事的情節開始有兩個一起去露營的朋友。他們剛紮營完成,剛完生營火,然後一隻超奇怪又危險又衝動的無法識別的動物跑到進入他們的營:
“It walked on all fours, but it did not walk like a bear. All at once it flashed upon me – it was like a baby crawling upstairs. The forepaws lifted themselves in grotesquely infantile fashion." (Abraham Merritt, "The People of the Pit.")
他是說這隻動物一開始看起來一隻小熊,但它的動作是比較跟人類北鼻一樣。那隻動物靠近敘述者,讓他覺得很緊張,會不會被攻擊。但靠很近的時候,會看得出來:
“The wrists were covered with torn rags of a heavy shirt. The hands themselves were stumps! The fingers had been bent into the palms and the flesh had been worn to the bone. They looked like the feet of a little black elephant! My eyes traveled down the body. Around the waist was a heavy band of yellow metal. From it fell a ring and a dozen links of shining white chain!” (Abraham Merritt, "The People of the Pit.")

其實他是人!一位穿破好多洞的衣服,沒有手,腰帶著鏈。敘述者說那位的手看起來大象的手,沒有手指,隻看起來黑色的樹樁,而他的手的動作看起來他一直在很認真的爬樓梯。那個男生突然昏倒,看起來他快死掉。敘述者說:
“Look, he’s fast asleep – yet even in his sleep his arms try to climb and his feet draw themselves up one after the other! And his knees – how in God’s name was he ever able to move on them?”
那位沒有手快死掉的人再醒起來的時候,他開始敘述他自己的故事。
坑裡面的故事
“Things that the Devil made before the Flood and that somehow have escaped God’s vengeance. You weren’t in any danger from them – unless you had followed their call. They can’t get any further than the blue haze. I was their prisoner.”
他是說,聖經裡面水災的故事《諾亞方舟》之前,惡魔做的很多壞事,譬如書創造魔鬼,怪獸罪惡的底下地方等等,但你不需要怕如果你不聽那些惡的東西的話。但我們的沒有手手的朋友是他們的囚犯。
他之前也是一個冒險者,爬山者,找「五指山」但這不是台灣的五指山,這是虛構的真的看起來一隻快擠死東西的手的山。他找這個山因為傳說說山裡面有超多「純金」在裡面。他終於找到山的時候,發現山裡面有個樓梯,而「好方便」他覺得,只需要下樓梯,但發現樓梯要很久很久下來,他一直在下來的時候,遇到很多蠻奇怪的事情。他說:
“Before me was – sheer space! Imagine the Grand Canyon five times as wide and with the bottom dropped out. That is what I was looking into. It was like peeping over the edge of a cleft world down into the infinity where the planets roll! On the far side stood the five peaks. They looked like a gigantic warning hand stretched up to the sky. The lip of the abyss curved away on each side of me.”

他是說那個山裡面的大洞比大峽谷還大。其實山東裡面看起來有他自己的天空。那,那山的五個手指還看起來要警告他不要進入,但他被裡面的東西吸引,被一個神秘的感覺吸引,有可能是純金還吸引,所以他繼續。
他下樓梯的時候看到很多巨人的雕像,牆壁上面寫的神秘的語言。他下樓梯很久很久。那兩位露營的朋友問他,山洞沒有地板嗎?他回答:「有,因為我找到了。」
“I crossed the span. I went down through the top of that – building. Blue darkness shrouded me for a moment and I felt the steps twist into a spiral. I wound down and then – I was standing high up in – I can’t tell you in what, I’ll have to call it a room. We have no images for what is in the pit. A hundred feet below me was the floor. The walls sloped down and out from where I stood in a series of widening crescents.”
空間裡面有很多光光的東西,有可能是生物,怪獸,或靈魂。他們都做一樣的動作,都看起來在上下活動,看著他們讓那個男生很被催眠。

裡面的光光的怪獸還是有他們自己的文明。
“Yet certainly the lights were living things. They had consciousness, volition, thought – what else I did not know. They were nearly two feet across – the largest. Their center was a bright nucleus – red, blue, green. This nucleus faded off, gradually, into a misty glow that did not end abruptly. ”
他們抓那個男生,用鏈條把他綁起來,開始苦苦哀求他們讓他離開,但他們只繼續上下晃動。
“At the last I felt myself only an atom of consciousness in a sea of cadenced whispering; an atom that rose and fell with the bowing globes. I tell you that even my heart pulsed in unison with them!”
那些怪獸還給他東西吃,但是最噁心噁心的東西,是灰色的,還醜的,而放在地板上的碗,所以他需要跟狗狗一樣用他舌頭的舔舔的吃。
有一天晚上他開始把那些鏈條破壞,逃跑。他上樓梯再看到光光的怪獸,然後再被催眠快到不會繼續,太被上下晃動光光怪獸吸引,有一點沈迷的感覺。他需要記得他自己,繼續上樓梯。但離開的時候,樓梯更長,他很多天跑步到不能跑步,只會爬行繼續。他終於逃脫,然後直接遇到我們敘述者和他朋友,開始敘述他的經歷。故事結束後,他昏倒,很深得睡覺。睡覺的時候,做他還在爬行得爬行的夢,露營人還看到他的手臂和腿爬行爬行,一直在爬行。他睡的時候,露營朋友討論他的狀況,故事是真的嗎?我們要繼續找他剛說的他離開的山嗎?真的值得嗎?他們兩個終於睡覺。
起床的時候,發現那個剛逃脫的人死掉。
各位,你們的想法是什麼呢?敘述者和他朋友決定不要繼續找山,而好好繼續生活就可以了。但,如果他們追這個夢呢?會找到純金嗎?因為他們現在知道山洞裡面會有什麼挑戰,會解決哪些問題,真的找得到嗎?各位,你覺得他們不去的話,做得對還是不對?放棄這樣的夢想是好的或是不好的?



























