美国国家公共电台 NPR George R.R. Martin Really Does Know You Want Him To Write Faster

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

George R.R. Martin has sold more than 90 million books around the world. He's written all kinds but, of course, is best known for his epical¹ fantasy series "A Song Of Ice And Fire," which was adapted into HBO's "Game Of Thrones." His fans are impatient and even demanding for him to finish the next installment². The most recent, "A Dance With Dragons," appeared more than eight years ago. Because he doesn't like to be asked when the next volume will appear, George R.R. Martin doesn't do a lot of interviews. But I got to speak with him last week onstage when he received the Chicago Public Library Foundation's Carl Sandburg Literary Award.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GEORGE RR MARTIN: Hello, Scott.

SIMON: Hello.

MARTIN: Glad to be here.

SIMON: Glad to be with you, Mr. Martin. I want to ask you about your time in Chicago. Is that where you learned about warring dynasties and an icy apocalypse?

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Well, the icy apocalypse, actually, I think, had its root in my freshman³ year at Northwestern up in Evanston.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Yeah. I got there in the fall of '66. And I guess this was early in '67, and they had this incredible snowstorm. And the snow was so thick I got lost on this campus that I'd walk every day. You couldn't see the buildings. You couldn't see 5 feet in front of you. The snow was just coming down so heavily. And by the time the snowstorm stopped - I was on the first floor - the windows were completely covered. Then it froze. And it didn't melt for days, weeks...

SIMON: Months.

MARTIN: It might've been months.

SIMON: Yeah.

MARTIN: I don't remember. And...

SIMON: May.

MARTIN: You know, we would go out of the dormitory, and we would be in a trench⁴ with walls above our head of snow and ice. It was like a transformed world. And I think that got its fingers into my memory somehow and may have had some influence when I started writing about the wall in Westeros and the men of the Night's Watch.

SIMON: Good.

(APPLAUSE)

SIMON: The characters that began in "A Song Of Ice And Fire" - people have counted. Nine became 31 by "A Dance With Dragons."

MARTIN: Whoops⁵.

(LAUGHTER)

SIMON: Is that count wrong?

MARTIN: I don't know. I haven't counted them.

SIMON: Well, then how do you keep track of them?

MARTIN: With increasing difficulty.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: I often say that there are two types of writers, architects and gardeners. We had an architect here who was one of the authors who came up. I'm sure that he plans all of his buildings well in advance before he starts building them. He draws a blueprint⁶, and he knows what they're going to be made of and how many stories they're going to be, where the bathrooms will be and how they'll be heated and what the roof will be made of - everything before they even dig the foundation. That's the way the architect writers work. They plan their novels out in advance - what's going to be everywhere, every turn, every twist, everything. They have these very detailed⁷ outlines.

And then there are the gardeners who dig a hole, and they plant a seed. And they water it, in the case of writers, with their blood and their tears and their sweat. And they hope that something comes up. And they have a general idea. They know whether they planted an acorn⁸ or a tomato plant. But there's lots of surprises. Sometimes, it doesn't come up at all, or it comes up and dies. And sometimes, it gets very wild.

And that's me. I'm much more a gardener than an architect. In that way, I'm like J.R.R. Tolkien and others. So it's not the most efficient method of writing. Frequently, the characters are mischievous⁹ sons of bitches. And they...

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: They lead me down some garden path, and I suddenly realize I'm at a dead end. But it's worked for me all my life, so I'm probably going to keep continuing doing it that way.

SIMON: You were a conscientious¹⁰ objector during the war in Vietnam...

MARTIN: I was.

SIMON: ...Spent two years working here at the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation.

MARTIN: As a VISTA¹¹ volunteer.

SIMON: How does so much violence come into your books?

MARTIN: Like Tolkien, like many of the great fantasy stories, at heart, "A Song Of Ice And Fire" is a war story. And I think if you're going to write about war, whether you're writing about a fictional¹² war for the Iron Throne of Westeros or a struggle against Sauron to preserve the free peoples of Middle-earth or you're writing about World War II or you're writing about the American Civil War, you're writing about everything, you're not honest if you don't include sex and violence.

I grew up in a time in the '50s of fundamentally dishonest presentations of violence on television. You know, I thought, like, gunfights in the Old West - people drew, and then one guy fell down and was dead. You know, I had no idea of the actual impact a bullet can do when it enters someone's skull¹³ or someone's chest. If you're going to write about violence and killing¹⁴, then I think you should present it honestly with all the gore¹⁵ and people screaming for their mother as they die with their entrails sprawling¹⁶ out in the mud. Don't pretty it up.

And the same thing is true of the sexual violence, which was one thing that my books have been sometimes criticized for. I've read a lot of history. That was my minor¹⁷ in college. Journalism¹⁸ was my major. As far as I know, every war in human history has included rape¹⁹. Just because you include dragons doesn't mean the whole thing should be removed from our human experience that we know about.

SIMON: Is it difficult to have 90 million people waiting for your next word?

MARTIN: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Especially because a certain portion of them are really impatient and snarky about it. You know, you can get one person who posts 150 messages in three days, all of which is, where is "Winds Of Winter"? If any of you go home and post on your Twitter account, hey, I was just at the Chicago Public Library Sandburg Award Dinner and George R.R. Martin was there, you know, by the third message, someone will say, well, what the hell is he doing there? Where's "Winds Of Winter"?

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: So, you know, at this point, it is what it is. And, you know, I should probably leave right now and go back writing "Winds Of Winter."

(LAUGHTER)

SIMON: Well, I mean, but the fact is, I mean, if you never wrote another word, you'd still be one of the most successful authors in history.

MARTIN: In certain - by certain parameters²⁰, yes.

SIMON: Yeah.

MARTIN: But it's very important me to finish "A Song Of Ice And Fire." I want to finish it. I still have two more books to do. And I want to finish it strong so people look at it and say, you know, this entire thing is an important work, not a half-finished or broken work. I know it's - some of the more cynical²¹ people out there don't believe that, but it is true.

SIMON: Thank you very much for being here tonight. And...

(APPLAUSE)

SIMON: On behalf of 90 million people, get the hell back to work.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: All right. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I got - I hear you.

SIMON: George R.R. Martin...

MARTIN: Thank you.

SIMON: ...Winner of the Sandburg Award this year.

MARTIN: Thank you. Thank you so much.

(APPLAUSE)

1 epical   

adj.叙事诗的，英勇的

参考例句：

2 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

3 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

4 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

5 whoops   

int.呼喊声

参考例句：

• Whoops! Careful, you almost spilt coffee everywhere. 哎哟！小心点，你差点把咖啡洒得到处都是。
• We were awakened by the whoops of the sick baby. 生病婴儿的喘息声把我们弄醒了。

6 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

7 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

8 acorn   

n.橡实，橡子

参考例句：

• The oak is implicit in the acorn.橡树孕育于橡子之中。
• The tree grew from a small acorn.橡树从一粒小橡子生长而来。

9 mischievous   

adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的

参考例句：

• He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
• A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。

10 conscientious   

adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的

参考例句：

• He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责，也很懂行。
• He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。

11 vista   

n.远景，深景，展望，回想

参考例句：

• From my bedroom window I looked out on a crowded vista of hills and rooftops.我从卧室窗口望去，远处尽是连绵的山峦和屋顶。
• These uprisings come from desperation and a vista of a future without hope.发生这些暴动是因为人们被逼上了绝路，未来看不到一点儿希望。

12 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

13 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

14 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

15 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。

16 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

17 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

18 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

19 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

20 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。

21 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。