美国国家公共电台 NPR Prolific Science Fiction And Fantasy Author Ursula K. Le Guin Dies At 88

 

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 influential² gender³-bending space saga⁴ "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 feminist⁵ sensibility influenced generations of writers who followed her. NPR books editor Petra Mayer is here to talk about Le Guin's legacy⁶. Welcome.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE⁷: 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 combative⁸ 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 tentacles⁹ 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 genre¹⁰ 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 Lieutenant¹¹ Uhura on "Star Trek¹²."

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 anthropological¹³ study of diplomacy¹⁴ in this culture as it is a sci-fi story. She was a voracious¹⁵ 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 aspiring¹⁶ 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 misery¹⁷ 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 rite¹ 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 fiery¹⁸ 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 corporate¹⁹ 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.

1 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• 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。

2 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• 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。

3 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• 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。

4 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• 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。

5 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• 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。

6 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• 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。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• 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。

8 combative   

adj.好战的；好斗的

参考例句：

• 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。

9 tentacles   

n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛

参考例句：

• 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》

10 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• 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。

11 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• 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。

12 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• 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。

13 anthropological   

adj.人类学的

参考例句：

• 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

14 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• 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。

15 voracious   

adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的

参考例句：

• 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。

16 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• 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

17 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• 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。

18 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• 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。

19 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• 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。