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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
A new novel, "The Field Guide To The North American Teenager," taps into all the raw anxiety of adolescence1. Author Ben Philippe is able to take readers right to the heart of the matter.
BEN PHILIPPE: When you're a teenager, that's the age where you feel everything to the absolute highest, right? So you're not just like, oh, yeah, my relationship is kind of hitting a weird2 spot. It's like the world is crumbling3, and screw your casserole, Mom. And nothing makes sense, and I'm just going to sob4 in a stairwell. And that's...
CORNISH: That was so accurate. I applaud you. Thank you for that.
PHILIPPE: (Laughter).
CORNISH: His protagonist5 is Norris Kaplan. He is a hockey-loving black French Canadian who's a snarky, skeptical6 fish out of water plopped into an Austin, Texas, high school. Though he was raised in Canada, the author's life is reflected in many of Norris' experiences.
PHILIPPE: On the one hand, Norris has a very, very thick outer shell. He's very much trying to attack first because he just assumes that moving to Texas, coming into the middle of the year, that people are going to attack him. He's black, he's French and he's Canadian. He has an accent that's probably similar to mine. So he has his guard up. And he's one of those people that lashes7 first so when you react badly, they can say, ha, ha, I knew it all along.
And, also, it's not a trope, but I remember reading so many white books where the protagonist is just mean and acerbic8 and sort of, like, off-putting.
CORNISH: Yeah.
PHILIPPE: And for some reason, everyone just flocks to them. And in the real world, that's not really how it goes. In the real world...
CORNISH: Right. In the real world, no one has to make a connection with you.
PHILIPPE: Exactly. If you push people away, most of the time, they just leave. And I wanted to start Norris at his brattiest and sort of have him come to that lesson, hopefully.
CORNISH: Now, the title, "The Field Guide To The North American Teenager," comes from this notebook that Norris keeps. And you start each chapter heading with a little kind of description of the creatures that we're going to encounter in that chapter. So here's one from Chapter 3.
(Reading) Jocks and cheerleaders. Identifying characteristics - muscular, rarely spotted9 without a water bottle, athleisure wear. Habitat - the jock table, football stadium or other athletic10 field, keg parties. Preening11 habits - extensive. Mating habits - frequency of copulation typically over-exaggerated.
It made me think of all of the books and movies I've seen with this archetype and with all of these. And did you have favorites growing up? Like, how did you - what was in the back of your mind when you were making your own jocks and cheerleaders and loners?
PHILIPPE: Oh, absolutely. Those headers come from, you know, years of soaking up America through the prism of teenage movies, through seeing, you know, "10 Things I Hate About You," Bring It On" - all those wide tropes of a high school being this almost "Hunger Games" of different districts.
CORNISH: (Laughter) Yeah.
PHILIPPE: And I was a grown adult when I was writing this. I knew that they weren't true, but I love the idea of the American high school. I'm French. I come from a French-speaking household. I was also an only child. And I had a TV in my room, so I basically kind of learned English watching the WB, which is...
CORNISH: Wow.
PHILIPPE: Yeah. That might explain a lot. This office feels like therapy.
CORNISH: (Laughter) It might. It might. I mean, maybe because especially the way the teenagers talk, you've got some very kind of smart, savvy12 teenagers in this book - not quite "Dawson's Creek13" level, you know, where they just sound like adults, but they are all putting on the performance of being cynical14 adults, which it does feel pretty accurate.
PHILIPPE: Yeah. And I wanted to make it through an interview without bringing up the "Gilmore Girls," but I can't.
CORNISH: It's OK. It's all right. I'm here for you.
PHILIPPE: Thank you. Thank you for the support. I love that show. And I think that cadence15 of always having a quippy reference is how I approach Norris, even though his is coded and trying to keep the world at bay. It's a very defensive16 maneuver17 for him, even though he's not quite aware of it yet. It is how I engaged with social situations for quite a while.
CORNISH: Norris is also grappling with his parents' divorce. And as he's trying to navigate18 his move, as he's trying to navigate school, there is this undercurrent of emotion there - right? - this thing that is just kind of - I don't know how you would characterize it. How did you want this to affect his story?
PHILIPPE: Norris Kaplan is deeply depressed19 when he moves to Austin. It doesn't look like what you might expect from depression. But he's very hurt because his parents got divorced. He wanted to live with his dad to stay in Canada. But the dad basically refused because he had a wife and a new child. And Norris feels like he's been sort of, like, cast off, even though he loves his mom.
I think he's a child of immigrants that's dealing20 with the ripples21 of a divorce in an immigrant household, which was my case, too.
CORNISH: You said an immigrant household. Why do you think that's significant?
PHILIPPE: I'll speak for myself, not the full scope of all immigrants everywhere.
CORNISH: Right.
PHILIPPE: My parents moved from Haiti to Canada. And as an only child, a lot of the reason why they moved, a lot of their hopes and expectations were based on me - sort of, like, to give me a better life, give me a better school, a better future. And I felt, I think a little bit, that when they got divorced, that was a failure on my part - that, like, the son or the child having a better life wasn't enough to keep them together.
So it's not an active or conscious thing on Norris' part, but I do think that is a spine22 that the character and I share.
CORNISH: Ben Philippe, I feel emotional now, listening to that. Have your parents read this book?
PHILIPPE: My mother primarily speaks French, so we do this thing where she's learning English. She really wants to read the book. We read the same English book, and then she'll discuss it with me over the phone sort of just to understand what she just read. So she's getting really good.
And she started my book. You know, she saw the dedication23. She was moved. And about halfway24 through, she was like, are the adults going to come back in? And it's like, no, no, it's mostly the kid.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIPPE: And then she was like, oh, well, you know, Michelle Obama wrote a book. And I love you, but could we maybe switch to that one for a few chapters?
CORNISH: You know, I'm not mad at her.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIPPE: No one's mad at her. As soon as they see Michelle Obama, they're like, well, yeah. Yes, I would do that, too. But I'm - she's not Michelle Obama's mother. Like, she could have, like, stuck it for, like, a few more chapters.
CORNISH: (Laughter) Do you think we're still in a moment where, like, we need books that kind of justify25 the normalness of being a black kid?
PHILIPPE: I've thought about this a lot, and I think we do.
I think when it comes to black male characters, there's often the - I call it the Barack and Trayvon dichotomy, whereas either you're given someone who's perfect, who's almost bigger than life, who's going to end up becoming president, essentially26, or you're given the tragedy, right? You're given all the potential that is going to get snuffed out from the world.
And people say that, you know, Norris doesn't really have a thing. He's not this amazing talent or political activist27. And that's exactly what I was aiming for.
CORNISH: Ben Philippe - his new book is "The Field Guide To The North American Teenager." Thank you so much for speaking with us.
PHILIPPE: Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WANT YOU TO WANT ME")
LETTERS TO CLEO: (Singing) I want you to want me. I need you to need me.
收听单词发音 |
1
adolescence
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| n.青春期，青少年 | |
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2
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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3
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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4
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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5
protagonist
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| n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公 | |
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skeptical
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| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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acerbic
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| adj.酸的，刻薄的 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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11
preening
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| v.（鸟）用嘴整理（羽毛）( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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12
savvy
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| v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的 | |
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13
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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14
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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15
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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21
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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22
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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23
dedication
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| n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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25
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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26
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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27
activist
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| n.活动分子，积极分子 | |
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