时间:2019-01-16 作者:英语课 分类:2018年NPR美国国家公共电台1月


英语课

 


MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:


One of the towering figures in science fiction has died, although she never really liked being called a sci-fi writer. Ursula K. Le Guin was best known for the "Earthsea" fantasy books and for her influential 2 gender 3-bending space saga 4 "The Left Hand Of Darkness." Le Guin won just about every major award you can win, and her mix of sorcerers and spaceships, literary fireworks and feminist 5 sensibility influenced generations of writers who followed her. NPR books editor Petra Mayer is here to talk about Le Guin's legacy 6. Welcome.


PETRA MAYER, BYLINE 7: Hi.


KELLY: I got to start with asking you, what was her problem? Why didn't she like being called a sci-fi writer?


MAYER: There's a great quote actually that she gave the Paris Review a few years ago. I will let her speak here because she's the writer. She said, (reading) where I can get prickly and combative 8 is if I'm just called a sci-fi writer. I'm not. I'm a novelist and poet. Don't shove me into your damn pigeon hole where I don't fit because I'm all over. My tentacles 9 are coming out of the pigeon in all directions.


KELLY: I like her.


MAYER: Tentacles - yeah.


KELLY: Yeah.


MAYER: She didn't pull any punches. She always kind of went her own way. You know, there were very few women writing sci-fi and fantasy in the '60s when she first began to publish. And it was definitely not as respected a genre 10 as it is today. But she was so influential. Just as an example, when she began to publish the "Earthsea" books in the late-'60s, there were a lot of characters that weren't white, and that was a pretty big deal if the only other thing you were seeing was Lieutenant 11 Uhura on "Star Trek 12."


KELLY: Well, so who influenced her to start writing?


MAYER: That's actually an interesting thing to think about because her parents were both anthropologists. And if you've read "The Left Hand Of Darkness," which is - it's set on this planet where gender is fluid and ambiguous and everyone is just called he. It's almost as much of an anthropological 13 study of diplomacy 14 in this culture as it is a sci-fi story. She was a voracious 15 reader. She was known to study Taoism. The ideas of balance from Taoism come through very strongly in her work, particularly in the "Earthsea" novels. There's this one bit where an aspiring 16 mage who's at a magic school that is so not Hogwarts - he has to learn to do by not doing.


One of the things that you hear about genre fiction in general is that it's a lens through which authors can examine our lives and our society. And I always think about Le Guin when I hear that. She wrote this story called "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," which is about a beautiful, happy, prosperous city where everything good there - you know, the parades, the parties, the clothes - depends on the life of this one poor child who's kept in misery 17 and squalor. And most of the people in Omelas accept that, and some of them just walk away.


And I feel like it's almost a rite 1 of passage for a young fantasy fan. It was for me to read that story and to react violently to it and to argue about whether you would or wouldn't walk away and then to start mapping that conversation onto the world that you see around you and how you react to that world.


KELLY: You're adding lots to my reading list now for Le Guin books and stories to catch up on. But I want to ask on a personal note. Le Guin was in the headlines a few years ago. She made this fiery 18 speech at the National Book Awards. And Petra, you were there.


MAYER: I was. I was. And it was something to see. It was right around the time that Amazon was in a dispute with a bunch of publishers about pricing. And she was talking about corporate 19 fatwas and commodity profiteers. You could kind of see the people in the audience squirming actually. Here's a little bit of that speech. She said hard times were coming and that we were going to need what she called writers who can remember freedom.


(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)


URSULA K LE GUIN: Poets, visionaries, the realists of a larger reality - right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art.


MAYER: And really that was Ursula K. Le Guin for me. Everything she did was art.


KELLY: That is NPR books editor Petra Mayer talking there about Ursula K. Le Guin, who died yesterday at her home in Portland. She was 88. Thanks, Petra.


MAYER: Thank you.



n.典礼,惯例,习俗
  • This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
  • Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。
adj.有影响的,有权势的
  • He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
  • He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性
  • French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语,所有的名词都有性。
  • Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。
n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事,英雄传奇
  • The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
  • The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。
adj.主张男女平等的,女权主义的
  • She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
  • From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起,男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西
  • They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
  • He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。
n.署名;v.署名
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
adj.好战的;好斗的
  • Mr. Obama has recently adopted a more combative tone.奥巴马总统近来采取了一种更有战斗性的语调。
  • She believes that women are at least as combative as are.她相信女性至少和男性一样好斗。
n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 );触角;触须;触毛
  • Tentacles of fear closed around her body. 恐惧的阴影笼罩着她。
  • Many molluscs have tentacles. 很多软体动物有触角。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.(文学、艺术等的)类型,体裁,风格
  • My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
  • Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看, 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员
  • He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
  • He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官,递上了一张简短的便条进去。
vi.作长途艰辛的旅行;n.长途艰苦的旅行
  • We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
  • It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。
adj.人类学的
  • These facts of responsibility are an anthropological datums- varied and multiform. 这些道德事实是一种人类学资料——性质不同,形式各异。 来自哲学部分
  • It is the most difficult of all anthropological data on which to "draw" the old Negro. 在所有的人类学资料中,最困难的事莫过于“刻划”古代的黑人。 来自辞典例句
n.外交;外交手腕,交际手腕
  • The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
  • This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。
adj.狼吞虎咽的,贪婪的
  • She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
  • Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。
adj.有志气的;有抱负的;高耸的v.渴望;追求
  • Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
  • He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦
  • Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
  • He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的
  • She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
  • His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。
adj.共同的,全体的;公司的,企业的
  • This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
  • His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
学英语单词
Abya
acanthonerva unicolor
agricultural technician
antisnitching
antistreptohemolysin
Anyama
apophyllous
bargianing power
beoblast
bible-centered
body mass indices
bus dispatching
c-loop
Cahuinari, R.
calvia quadrivittata
candi
Catamarca, Prov.de
chairmat
Chiaravalle Centrale
chinese citizens
cone type loud-speaker
conjecturer
ctfd
d.l
dark forest soil
dark-complexioned
differential-plunger pump
disembowel
dna-proteins
dollar reactivity unit
dummy payload
effective anisotropy
Euonymus ellipticus
evidence rebutting an assertion
extra vires
factory journal
fedden
fifth part
flat bank revetment
foil broaching frequency
frequency shift type telemeter
friendship stores
fullautomatic color densitometer
Galium fukuyamae
genus alsophilas
glauco-
handle latch spring
height of profile peak
IFSEM
insertionic periodontal membrane
iodoxols
Jaculus
joints of hand
Kapalι
Kayahope
lead pump
library fine
liell
ligamentum coronarium hepatis
maximum vertical speed
Moskuvaara
multiperiod labor demand
Newtonian telescopes
nrss
o?litic limestone
Oberonia menghaiensis
on the rolls
outpressing
oxygenated
patulum
photo-geology
pinweeds
plant disease
play doctor
Premium Savings Bonds
premodular
prolongeth
pvcs
Pym
radial fossa
radio freqnency generator
rate gene(goldschmidt 1917)
Reginald Denny
reimposed
ring with equal pressure
salt pan scale
sampling systematic
Searlsite
semisubmersible drilling unit
sharpstone conglomerate
shotgun shack
sounder Morse instrument
steel metallurgy
strip water
subsidiary journal
system reliability prediction
thin shear web
track way
turbidity indicator
uprighting tool
wind-blown moss
wooden fence post