不过节目中说郭敬明关注的恰恰不是时代的变迁。除非你想知道这个时代流行的品牌是阿玛尼还是路易威登。节目说这位25岁“不理睬政治,拥抱商业化”的作家已经成了当代中国社会体系的一个新面孔(With his disregard for politics and his headlong embrace of commercialism, he is the new face of the establishment)。采访中的用词是establishment,有现有体制、体系的一个部分,这可能是说他已经登堂入室,成了体系的一部分。郭敬明加入了中国作协倒是真的,还是王蒙做的介绍人。这位作协最年轻的成员“对历史,哪怕是不久前的历史,毫无兴趣”(“ he couldn't care less about history, even recent history”),也刻意回避政治话题。听到这些,我发觉有时候我错怪韩寒了,后者还有一点社会使命感。
写作即使不能文以载道,起码得言之有物,有点自我之外的关注。郭敬明为自己超脱政治和历史而沾沾自喜,让人费解。Lim将他描述为一个“自恋”的人,关注自己,或许在他自己看来很有意思,其实真是很乏味。借用Lim的那句话来说:As a reader, I couldn’t care less what you wear, where you go and who you date.
企鹅出版社的北京总经理Jo Lusby说这种沉迷于自我的倾向在年轻作家中很典型:
It's very self-focused. It's about me, my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my school, my parents, where am I heading. It's very personal," Lusby says of Guo and his generation of writers. "They're not sitting down, tackling China. And to be honest, if they did, they probably wouldn't be successful, since they don't have the perspective, they don't have the maturity as human beings."
后一句话可能是说他们还没有大人应有的成熟,不过原文They don’t have the maturity as human beings直译过来是说他们还没有人类(human being)所具备的那种成熟,不知企鹅总经理到底是怎么想的,但这个说法倒让人联想起余世存所言的“类人孩”了。NPR的那篇采访,虽然说的是郭敬明的成功,但听起来是明褒实贬。