美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Dear Los Angeles' Collects Nearly 5 Centuries Of Opinions About The City

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In many ways, the business of Los Angeles is storytelling. And this hub of the American entertainment industry has a unique story of its own, which is told in a new book called "Dear Los Angeles: The City In Diaries And Letters." Editor David Kipen found centuries' worth of writings about the place and created a tome that is, in his words, a collective self-portrait of Los Angeles when it thought nobody was looking. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg looked at the city and the book and recorded some excerpts¹.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE²: An actor - OK, my son, Josh Stamberg - reads something a great American novelist wrote to his agent.

JOSH STAMBERG: (Reading) This is a strange and curious place - William Faulkner, 1942.

S STAMBERG: In 1888, visitor Harriet Harper had a more positive view. Actor Myndy Crist reads her words.

MYNDY CRIST: (Reading) There is something in the crisp, rarefied air of this pretty city that acts like a stimulant³ upon the human system.

S STAMBERG: LA as heaven, LA as hell, LA as the place visitors have to write home about. As early as 1542, Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo put this in his ship's log.

DAVID KIPEN: (Reading) Came to the mainland in a large bay, named it Baya de los Fumos - that's the Bay of Smokes - on account of the many dark billows seen there.

S STAMBERG: Probably from cooking fires. Editor David Kipen is reading the earliest entry in his book.

KIPEN: (Reading) It is an excellent harbor, and the country is good with many plains and groves⁴ of trees.

S STAMBERG: The most recent entry, written last year, is by Julia Campbell, one of Kipen's students.

KIPEN: (Reading) This country definitely isn't perfect, but there are a lot of great people here that I trust to keep the country growing.

She's a UCLA undergraduate and in a way the landscape is as new to her as it was to Cabrillo.

S STAMBERG: We ask Kipen to meet us in LA's Koreatown at a strip mall, as much a symbol of the city as freeways and the Hollywood sign.

KIPEN: The strip mall is an incubator of mom-and-pop capitalism⁵, but it's also a kind of entry point for immigrant lives.

S STAMBERG: So many came from somewhere else and found it heaven.

J STAMBERG: (Reading) Here in Pasadena, it is like paradise, always sunshine and clean air, gardens with palms and pepper trees and friendly people who smile at one, ask for autographs - Albert Einstein, 1931.

KIPEN: Einstein was very happy here. He spent a long semester at Caltech, but, sadly, he wound up at Princeton at the Institute for Advanced Study. And I would like to think in the dead of winter, he would sometimes ask himself, why did I ever leave Caltech?

S STAMBERG: William Faulkner, on the other hand, found LA hell.

J STAMBERG: (Reading) I don't like this damn place any better than I ever did. That's one comfort. At least I can't be any sicker tomorrow for Mississippi than I was yesterday.

KIPEN: He was desperately⁶ homesick. He wanted to be back with his horses in Oxford⁷, Miss.

S STAMBERG: Faulkner came to Hollywood to write for the movies; so did F. Scott Fitzgerald. He was desperate for money to put his daughter through school. In 1939, Fitzgerald sent a pleading telegram to his agent.

J STAMBERG: (Reading) Please answer about tuition money. Stop. You have no idea how much a hundred dollars means now.

S STAMBERG: Movies drew in writers, but there is not much about movies in "Dear Los Angeles." There is one major star. She wrote to Germany's consul⁸ in LA.

CRIST: (Reading) Marilyn Monroe, 1962 - thank you for your champagne⁹. It arrived, I drank it, and I was gayer.

S STAMBERG: Moviewise, there's also an all-too-frequent complaint from studio head Jack¹⁰ Warner in 1937.

J STAMBERG: (Reading) It is not asking too much for a writer to be at his desk sometime between 9 a.m. and 9:45. Even the elite¹¹ in any other business come to work earlier than that. Therefore, I must insist that more regular hours be kept in the future by those of you who have been coming in late and leaving early.

S STAMBERG: Ew. Editor Kipen says he didn't want the movies to dominate his book, so he included writings by an opera singer, a general's father and a president's wife.

CRIST: (Reading) Eleanor Roosevelt, 1946 - in flying into Los Angeles, we had snow-capped mountains on either side of us and soft, white, billowy clouds underneath¹². It was really a beautiful sight. But the most impressive time to fly into Los Angeles is at night when all the lights are on and the city lies below you like a multicolored heap of jewels.

KIPEN: You don't necessarily think of Eleanor Roosevelt as being susceptible¹³ to such emotional, visceral glories, but she's rhapsodizing about the place.

S STAMBERG: As if she were falling in love with it, as so many did and do. They're still coming every day and often writing home about it. Lots of what's been written so far is collected in David Kipen's book, "Dear Los Angeles: The City In Diaries And Letters."

INSKEEP: Susan Stamberg on NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF JERRY GOLDSMITH'S "LOVE THEME FROM CHINATOWN")

1 excerpts   

n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段

参考例句：

• Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句

2 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。

3 stimulant   

n.刺激物，兴奋剂

参考例句：

• It is used in medicine for its stimulant quality.由于它有兴奋剂的特性而被应用于医学。
• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。

4 groves   

树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields. 朝阳宁静地照耀着已经发黄的树丛和还是一片绿色的田地。
• The trees grew more and more in groves and dotted with old yews. 那里的树木越来越多地长成了一簇簇的小丛林，还点缀着几棵老紫杉树。

5 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

6 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

7 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

8 consul   

n.领事；执政官

参考例句：

• A consul's duty is to help his own nationals.领事的职责是帮助自己的同胞。
• He'll hold the post of consul general for the United States at Shanghai.他将就任美国驻上海总领事(的职务)。

9 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

10 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

11 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

12 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

13 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。