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  3. Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-re

Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-re

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问题    Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.
   It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies. We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War n, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared. In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about. These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press. "So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism," Newman wrote, "that I am tempted to define ’journalism’ as ’a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are’."
   Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England’s foremost classical-music critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller. He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored. Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.
   Is there any chance that Cardus’s criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.
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答案 过去25年间，在英文报纸发生的所有变化中，影响最为深远的也许就是其文艺报道范围的缩小及其严肃性的减弱，这样的变化势不可挡。 如今，40岁以下的普通读者很难、甚至无法想象，曾经有一个时期，在大城市发行的大多数报纸上都能发现高质量的文艺评论。然而，在大量20世纪出版的、具有最重要意义的评论文集中，报刊评论占了很大部分。如今读到这类文集的人不禁会对如下事实感到大为惊讶，那就是，这些学术性的东西之前竟然被认为适合在面对大众发行的日报上刊登。 从20世纪初到“二战”前这段时间在英国发表的那些报纸评论话题广泛，这与现在就更不相同了。当时，新闻用纸非常便宜，辞藻华丽的文艺评论被认为是对刊登这种内容的出版物的一种装饰。在那些遥远的日子里，人们理所当然地认为，主流报纸的评论家们会把他们所报道的事件详细充分地记录下来。这些评论家们所从事的是一项严肃的事业，人们相信，即使是像乔治-萧伯纳和欧内斯特-纽曼那样文风轻松活泼的评论家也完全清楚自己在做什么。这些人把新闻业视为一种有价值的职业，并且为他们的文章能够在报纸上发表感到自豪。“很少有作者具有足够的聪明与文才能在新闻行业中坚持到底，”纽曼写道，“以至于我不禁想把‘新闻业’定义为‘无人问津的作家对当红作家的蔑称’。” 不幸的是，这些评论家几乎被人们遗忘了。从1917年开始直到1975年逝世前不久都在为《曼彻斯特卫报》写文章的内维尔-卡达斯，如今仅仅作为一个撰写板球比赛文章的作家为人们所知。然而，在他的一生中，他也是英国最重要的古典音乐评论家之一，同时也是一位被广为赞誉的文体学家，其1947年的《自传》就非常畅销。卡达斯于1967年被授予爵士称号，成为第一位获此殊荣的音乐评论家。然而，如今他的作品只有一本还在销售，而他关于音乐的大量评论文章除了专业人士以外已不为人知。 卡达斯的评论还可能重新流行吗?希望似乎很渺茫。早在他去世以前，新闻业的品味就已经改变了，而且后现代的读者们也不需要他所擅长的那种辞藻华丽的维多利亚．爱德华时代的散文了。此外，在音乐评论领域由非专业人士撰写评论的传统也早已式微了。
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