美国国家公共电台 NPR--Banned Books: Author Susan Kuklin on telling stories that inform understanding

Banned Books: Author Susan Kuklin on telling stories that inform understanding

Transcript¹

Writer and photographer Susan Kuklin is the author of the award-winning nonfiction book, Beyond Magenta²: Transgender Teens Speak Out. The book is banned from school library shelves in 11 school districts in the U.S.

The book compiles Kuklin's photos of — and interviews with — transgender and nonbinary teens and young adults. The stories these teens tell are raw and heartfelt. They describe their experiences transitioning and reflect on their identities.

Kuklin's work often focuses on human rights issues; she has written about topics ranging from immigration to the AIDS epidemic³. Beyond Magenta, published in 2014, has been on the American Library Association's (ALA) list of most books most often challenged a number of times since 2015, cited for "for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit⁴."

The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.

On how everyone is human

When I was talking to various people about whether or not I should be doing the book and what are some of the issues that needed to be addressed. I was uncomfortable, when I didn't know what the sex of the person was. It just felt strange to me and I thought, why should it feel strange to me? Would I be speaking differently to a man than to a woman? It just didn't sit right. And I thought, are we hard wired to believe this? And so I went on a quest to find out if indeed we were hard wired. And I found that we're not. Because very quickly, once I got to know people, it became totally irrelevant⁵... people are people. And that's the point of all my books that people are people and they do some crazy things, some negative things, some positive things, and that's who we are.

On Beyond Magenta being challenged

It's kind of awful, frankly⁶. When I think about it. I think... here are these kids whose main reason was to... control their own narrative⁷. And they're really good kids. They're nice kids. And my whole for doing this point was to start a conversation to bring humanity to the page, to show some empathy, to just be able to broaden ourselves. And instead the book is being vilified⁸. Vilified because of who these people are.

On what it means to have a book banned vs. challenged

Well, banned and challenged are two different points. When you're challenged, a person, a parent, whoever goes to the school and fills out a form saying this book should not be in your library. That's the challenge. Banned is the actual removal of the book.

On what some people are objecting to in her book

Oddly, people are mostly complaining about things that have little to do with being transgender. So what they do is they'll pick a paragraph from the story, whether it's bad language — because kids curse — or whether it's a story of someone's life. They take it out of context, and then they turn — they complain about that, that the whole book should be banned and everything that's in it because of a paragraph here or a word there.

...people took [one] chapter and that story and turned it around into something very negative and very ugly. Whereas I saw it as an example of how someone can survive. I saw that chapter as someone who started — who was born into a terrible environment with lots of violence and very little education and managed to become a hero and live a successful life and go to college. To pretend that people like this do not exist is ridiculous because we know they do exist, and so their voices being heard could be very helpful.

On the importance of telling stories that inform understanding

Those kids are so important to me. They're just beautiful people. I think the one story that I appreciated a lot was a young trans woman who went to an all boys Catholic school in the Bronx. By her senior year she decided⁹ she was going to live her true life...she started a transition right there in school. She bucked¹⁰ an awful lot of bullying¹¹ and teasing and stood her ground — and today is a beautiful artist and creative person and living a wonderful life. Also in that chapter, which was very important to me, was her mother, who was very much opposed to her becoming female — her transitioning. Her evolution from being frightened, scared, uninformed to an absolutely adoring parent is a beautiful story. The mother asked to be in the book. She said she wanted her point to be taken so that parents would know what they were feeling... getting concerned because of parental¹² love. You love your child. You hear your child. You love your child.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 magenta   

n..紫红色（的染料）；adj.紫红色的

参考例句：

• In the one photo in which she appeared, Hillary Clinton wore a magenta gown.在其中一张照片中，希拉里身着一件紫红色礼服。
• For the same reason air information is printed in magenta.出于同样的原因，航空资料采用品红色印刷。

3 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

4 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

5 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

6 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

7 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

8 vilified   

v.中伤，诽谤( vilify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was vilified in newspapers. 他在报纸上受到了诽谤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She was vilified by the press for her controversial views. 因她持有异议，新闻界对她横加挞伐。 来自互联网

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 bucked   

adj.快v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的过去式和过去分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• When he tried to ride the horse, it bucked wildly. 当他试图骑上这匹马时，它突然狂暴地跃了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The plane bucked a strong head wind. 飞机顶着强烈的逆风飞行。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。