Taking Notes: Oh, to Be a Blurber!" (1980) by Michael Bishop

Blurb，也就是我們在書背或書扉上經常見到，標榜出自名家或專業手筆，短短一段甚或寥寥數句的介紹，看起來雖然不起眼（事實上我承認自己從來不會因為這些字句影響買書的判斷），卻往往成為網路書店或是出版商打書賣書的宣傳行銷手法之一。國內的科奇幻書市也有不少著作採用這種方法；例如某一個在台灣知名度最高的科幻系列故事，新譯本推出之際，出版社就大費周章地邀集數十位名家與專業人士來一人一篇（或段，看知名度和影響力的多寡），至於內容就......反正只是 blurb 咩！

閒話休提。Michael Bishop 在本文中分析了撰寫 blurb 的要件，並介紹各種類型 blurb 的寫法和意義，實在非常受用。有志往 blurber 努力的人必讀！裡頭還 kuso 了不少經典名家名作，可惜和重點無關，我就不摘錄了。

本文原載於：Thrust 14 (Spring 1980)
閱讀版本：Michael Bishop, "Oh, to Be a Blurber!" in Bishop, A Reverie for Mister Ray: Reflections on Life, Death, and Speculative Fiction (Hornsea, England: PS Publishing, 2005), pp. 129-139.

劃重點：（所有粗體字都是重點中的重點，我自己標的）

p. 133

...... The Blurber must possess a reputation for producing (or, at least, consuming) the very sort of merchandise in need of expert testimonial.

A Blurber must be Somebody, if only a lower-case somebody. ......

p. 134

...... If I wanted to blurb, I must first forge a career as an sf writer, even if that entailed more work than I bargained for. Eventually, several years hence, my reward would be a life of lazy reading punctuated by Apollonian or Dionysian bouts of blurbing, my degree of self-control or -abandon to be determined, of course, by the work then undergoing emblurbment.

第一招：
p. 136

From Roger Zelazny, for instance, I once received a generous recommendation and a brief analysis of his method, which I have since dubbed the Berrocal Approach after the metal combinatorial puzzles designed by Spain's Miguel Berrocal. "What I have done," Zelazny wrote, "is to compose a general statement of some of my feelings about your work, from which your editor might select whatever he deems most appropriate. I've written it so that it might be easily broken apart, or used in its entirety." Indeed, an acute examination of Zelazny's blurb discloses that although it possesses an apparently seamless unity, most of the sentences comprising it have an extractable integrity all their own.

第二招：
p. 136

The Nimble Dodge is either an outright avoidance tactic or a subtle blurbing technique employed by Old Pros who have pretty much retired from the recommendation business, and one I have not yet had occasion to employ. It permits the Blurber either 1) to decline an invitation to blurb or 2) to express his fondness for a work without seeming to go back on a public vow to cease blurbing altogether.

舉例：Ray Bradbury 拿出滿滿的行程表婉拒 Bishop 的請求；Arthur C. Clarke 婉拒 George Zebrowski 的說詞：

"George's book is so good it doesn't need any recommendation from me," ...... (p. 137)

第三招：
p. 137

A corollary of the Nimble Dodge is the Discreet Hedge. This technique permits the Blurber to accentuate the positive without implying that the work in question is a flawless jewel or a potential sui generis heirloom of our literary estate. Tip-offs to the Discreet Hedge are the presence of such qualifiers as "possibly" and "perhaps," and the proclivity of the Blurber to enumerate the specific occupational skills or endearing human attributes of the author rather than the undiluted joys of the book in hand. ......

第四招：
p. 137

Sometimes a Blurber, upon the earnest petition of a writer whose forthcoming work the Blurber has no time or desire to read, lets fly with a Naked Ad Lib. This is a publicity quote conceived in near vacuum and dedicated to the proposition that humoring the petitioner is the most expeditious way of getting rid of him. Short-story collections are gratifyingly amenable to the Naked Ad Lib because their diverse contents, along with the marshaling of a host of hard-to-dispute adjectives: "Sensitive, sardonic stories of interstellar subjectivity and stupendous strangeness." Append the name Mary Shelley or H.G. Wells, say--in order not to impugn the living--and you've got yourself a selling point. ......

第五招：
p. 137

Least, if not yet last, is the Backhanded Bromide. This kind of quote gets on a book jacket or inside front cover because the publisher either doesn't recognize ignorant enthusiasm in a reviewer or doesn't believe that prospective buyers will be put off

p. 138
by a versicle displaying that ignorance. These quotes usually come from clueless journalists rather than conscientious Blurbers. ......

雜類：
p. 138

Other varieties of blurb exist, of course. The best are always a form of poetry, albeit in the service of capitalism, even if the Blurber's motive is solely to advance the cause of meritorious work. (......) Finally, a blurb demands the precision of a haiku, the conviction of a vow, the eloquence and even the enigmatic resonance of a koan, and the pizzazz of a cola spot. In blurbing, conceits are copacetic; similes, sublime. Indeed, my own contributions to this mini-genre tend toward the elaborately figurative, probably because even since I read John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," seventeen years ago, I have been a sucker for extended metaphors--even bad ones.

最後來看看他怎麼自我分析一則 blurb，對象是 Philip K. Dick 的短篇集，蒐羅 1953 到 1974 年間較不為人知的雜誌刊載作品（PS. 這一本就是 The Golden Man，即《關鍵下一秒》）：
p. 138

...... My blurb employs an obvious Discreet Hedge while taking a doubtful shy at the Berrocal

p. 139

Approach. It is by no means a Naked Ad Lib, although I do confess to composing it barefoot:

A Collection of Philip K. Dick's stories is like a box of ticking
hand grenades, pins pulled and detonation imminent. The
Golden Man, a dangerous array of previously uncollected
Dickian explosives, is a bang-up addition to his canon. These
stories sting, prick, quicken, and wound. Sometimes the
emotional and philosophical shrapnel they throw out illumi-
nates; sometimes it blinds--but its impact is undeniable, and
nearly always shattering. I'm glad that editor Mark Hurst
and Berkeley Books have seen fit to rescue these stories from
the company magazines. The Golden Man is high-grade
ammo for thought. Listen to its contents tick ....