帶我回家

When I was seven or eight years old， I began

to read the science-fiction magazines that were brought by guests into my grandparents’1)boarding house， in Waukegan， Illinois. Those were the years when 2)Hugo Gernsback was publishing Amazing Stories， with vivid， 3)appallingly 4)imaginative cover paintings that fed my hungry imagination. Soon after， the creative beast in me grew when 5)Buck Rogers appeared， in 1928， and I think I went a trifle mad that autumn. It’s the only way to describe the intensity with which I devoured the stories. You rarely have such fevers later in life that fill your entire day with emotion.

When I look back now， I realize what a 6)trial I must have been to my friends and relatives. It was one frenzy after one elation after one enthusiasm after one hysteria after another. I was always yelling and running somewhere， because I was afraid life was going to be over that very afternoon.

My next madness happened in 1931， when 7)Harold Foster’s first series of Sunday color panels based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “Tarzan” appeared， and I simultaneously discovered， next door at my uncle Bion’s house， the “8)John Carter of Mars”books. I know that “9)The Martian Chronicles”would never have happened if Burroughs hadn’t had an impact on my life at that time.

I memorized all of “John Carter” and “Tarzan，”and sat on my grandparents’ front lawn repeating the stories to anyone who would sit and listen. I would go out to that lawn on summer nights and reach up to the red light of Mars and say， “Take me home!” I yearned to fly away and land there in the strange dusts that 10)blew over dead-sea bottoms toward the ancient cities.

While I remained earthbound， I would timetravel， listening to the grownups， who on warm nights gathered outside on the lawns and porches to talk and 11)reminisce. At the end of the Fourth of July， after the uncles had their cigars and philosophical discussions， and the aunts， nephews， and cousins had their ice-cream cones or lemonade， and we’d exhausted all the fireworks， it was the special time， the sad time， the time of beauty. It was the time of the fire balloons.

七八歲時，我開始讀科幻雜志。那時我的祖父母在伊利諾斯州沃基根市經營一所寄宿公寓，那些雜志都是入住的客人帶來的。那些年正是雨果·根斯巴克出版《驚奇故事》的年代，雜志上那些虛構的、刻畫得栩栩如生又令人毛骨悚然的封面插圖填補了我貧瘠的想象力。之后不久，1928年， 當巴克·羅杰斯出現后，我心中創作的欲望愈發膨脹，我想那年秋天我簡直有點瘋掉了。唯有這么說才足以形容當時我啃下那些故事的激動心情。在爾后的人生中，你已很難再有這種能讓你一整天都激動不已的澎湃心情了。

如今，回顧往昔，我才意識到那時的自己對于親友來說一定是個討厭鬼。那時的我時而怒氣沖沖，時而興高采烈，時而熱情高漲，時而歇斯底里。那段日子，我時常在某處叫喊、奔跑，因為我害怕生命會在那個下午戛然而止。

我的再次瘋狂出現于1931年，當時哈羅德·福斯特以埃德加·賴斯·巴勒斯所著的“人猿泰山”為藍本，推出首輯周日連載的彩色連環畫；與之同時，我還在隔壁的比昂叔叔家發現了“火星上的約翰·卡特”系列圖書。我知道，如果那時沒有受過巴勒斯作品的熏陶，我不會寫出“火星紀事”。

我記下所有關于“約翰·卡特”和“泰山”的故事，并且坐在祖父母前院的草坪上，向每個愿意坐下來聽的人復述。夏夜里，我會跑到屋外那片草地上，向天邊那抹火星發出的紅光伸出雙臂，高喊：“帶我回家！”我渴望著飛離地球，降落到那片土地，那里奇異的塵土飛揚著，掠過死海海底，飄往那些古老的城邦?！?br>