so well trained to be skeptical of narrative seduction,

已经训练有素对记叙文有抵抗力
that now nothing can faze you, nothing can seduce you.

已没什么可以扰乱你们吸引你们
Maybe that's it.

也许是因为这个原因
Give yourself that credit.

自我表扬一下吧
John Barth is a teacher, through and through.

约翰·巴斯是个地地道道的老师
He actually taught at my alma mater, Johns Hopkins, for over thirty years,

曾在我的母校约翰霍普金斯大学任教三十余年
in the writing program.

教授写作
And I once got from him a handout that he would give to

他曾给我一份他在小说课上发放的讲义
his fiction classes, and it had on it all the traditional

其中囊括了所有传统短片小说的
tricks and structures of the short story form.

写作技巧和结构
It was three or four pages single-spaced typed,

一共三四页并且是单倍行距
things like, "if there are five pistols hanging

比方像"如果墙上挂着五把枪