南飛烏鵲 Tainan, Taiwan

殖民母國的語言優勢與其文化霸權密不可分。殖民者透過教育，強調殖民者語言優於在地母語，亦即殖民者文化優於在地文化。前者是權力的核心，代表進步開明，後者是權力的邊陲，代表蒙昧不文。被殖民者想擺脫殖民宰制，除了政治與經濟的獨立，還需掃除殖民教育遺毒，取得文化的尊嚴。

就文學來說，被殖民者必須認清，殖民者的文學並非不可更易的典範，其傳達的並非不可更易的普世價值。Achebe 在這本集子裡，挑戰 Heart of Darkness 的典範地位，深刻剖析其中種種偏見。康拉德小說中的非洲，與文明優雅的歐洲洽成對比（ “the antithesis of Europe, and therefore of civilization”，p3）。然而非洲果真是蠻荒的黑暗大陸嗎? Achebe 引述英國藝術史家Millet，以其人之矛攻其人之盾，證明所謂 “黑暗之心”，實蘊含極高的藝術成就，這些成就近一步刺激歐洲的藝術家，掀起藝術浪潮： “The event Frank Millet is referring to marked the beginning of cubism and the infusion of new life into the European art” (16).

人生於世，需求自主（autonomy），這似乎是不證自明的觀念，但Achebe提醒我們，在這觀念背後，尚有歐西文學扮演重要的推手： “Western literature played a central role in promoting the ideal of individual autonomy . . . it promoted the view of society and of culture as a prisonhouse” (52-53). 不同的文化，對個人與群體孰輕孰重，取捨各異。在Achebe自己的Igbo 文化中，個人固然獨一無二，然個人之外，尚有社群，不容其妄自尊大： “Even when, like Ezeulu, he is leader and priest, he is still in a very real sense subordinate to his community ” (57).

小說主角能超脫時空 (unstuck in time)，時在當下，忽焉往昔，小說情節於是不按時序(chronological)，支離散亂，待讀者拼貼詮解。主角後為異星人誘拐，巧的是，這些外星生物也能穿梭時空。對他們來說，過去現在未來既渾為一體，所謂生死，也就不足縈懷： “When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that same person is just fine is plenty of other moments. Now when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is ‘So it goes’ ” (27). 馮內果寫的當然不是科幻小說，而“So it goes” 不過是聊以自解的說詞（朋友不妨算算小說裡出現了幾次“So it goes”）。

馮氏在小說中也透露出對基督救世的懷疑。小說主角喜讀科幻說部，曾讀及時光旅行與基督生死之謎： "The time-traveler in the book went back to Bible times to find out one thing in particular: Whether or not Jesus had really died on the cross . . . he leaned close to Jesus . . . and he listened. There wasn't a sound inside the emaciated chest cavity " (203). 人子死矣， "So it goes" (203).

二次世界大戰，奪走無數人命，也摧毀了人心。所謂民主，所謂公理正義，在戰時，全然敵不過「非我族類」的恐懼。移居加拿大的日本人，歷經一代又一代，早已將他鄉當作故鄉，然而在當地白人的眼裡，他們依舊是外人。既是外人，原本該受保障的種種人權，值此戰亂，也就理所當然的被公權力剝奪了。小說寫道：our short harsh history . . . the ugly facts of the treatment given to Japanese Canadians. “Seizure and government sale of fishing boats. Suspension of fishing licenses. Relocation camps. Liquidation of property” (40).

《富蘭克林自傳》大學時讀過一些。印象最深的是，富蘭克林修身謹嚴，以13項美德自許，要求自己飲食有度、避免言不及義，不一而足。美國文學課堂上， Kingsbury老師要我們注意，富氏為文，提及己過，常用 “Erratum”這字（複數形 “Errata”）。“Erratum”，原指手民之誤，引申為過失，有別於 “sin”，蓋犯了過失，猶可改正。富氏自言，冷落未婚妻Miss Read，致令他嫁，“[this] was another of the great Errata of my Life ” (92). Deborah Read 第一任婚姻並不美滿，丈夫棄家離去後，她與富蘭克林重拾舊情，《自傳》裡頭寫道：I [took] her to Wife Sept. 1. 1730 . . . Thus I corrected that great Erratum as well as I could (129).

Arundhati Roy 以《微物之神》揚名文壇。這本The Cost of Living ，收錄兩篇時事評論，雖非說部，卻與 Roy 的成名作相互呼應。兩本作品，一以貫之的思維是批評 “國家神話、種族中心主義這樽「大神」” （ 《後殖民文學：從邊緣到中心》，頁341）。或者，以Roy 自己的話：We have to fight specific wars in specific ways. Who knows, perhaps that’s what the twenty-first century has in store for us. The dismantling of the big. Big bombs, big dams, big ideologies . . . big mistakes. Perhaps it will be the century of the small. Perhaps right now, this very minute, there is a small god up in heaven readying herself for us (12).