'The Candy House' cautions: Be careful of things that at first appear inviting

'The Candy House' cautions: Be careful of things that at first appear inviting¹

Transcript²

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Jennifer Egan about her latest novel, The Candy House.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

If it were possible to relive your memories and the memories of others, would you? It's a moral dilemma³ that the characters face in Jennifer Egan's latest book, "The Candy House."

JENNIFER EGAN: In the world that I've created, never trust a candy house is an expression that people use.

FADEL: Meaning be careful of things that at first appear inviting.

EGAN: And later, the phrase comes up again in a more positive light, which is a kind of aging rocker who's hoping that his, you know, remixing of old songs by this band that was really popular in the '90s will be a kind of candy house to bring in a whole generation of younger listeners.

FADEL: "The Candy House" follows some of the same characters from Jennifer Egan's 2010 novel "A Visit From The Goon Squad⁴." Their lives overlap⁵. But she told me their backstories stand alone.

EGAN: When I was in one person's story, I didn't worry terribly about how they were connected to everyone else in that same way that our own sensibility - we are living our own lives and not necessarily thinking about the latticework of connection around us.

FADEL: Right.

EGAN: But I do think social media has made a lot of people more aware than they were before of the connections among us. This general sense of things being connected is something we live with more and more. And it really has kind of a technological⁶ origin.

FADEL: Right. And that's a huge theme in the book. Let's get into one of these - the characters that the novel opens with, Bix Bouton, now a successful tech entrepreneur who can barely go anywhere without being recognized. Tell us about him.

EGAN: Well, he appears very briefly⁷ in "A Visit From The Goon Squad," where he predicts the impact of social media.

FADEL: Right.

EGAN: And he talks about how everyone will be connected. So I knew when I wrote that - I had a feeling that he would go on to invent social media. And I wanted to revisit him after he had done that and achieved that sort of first-name tech-icon status. But the situation that I found myself exploring is Bix at 41, unable to come up with a new idea. I mean, he feels like his - everything he's done is nothing if he can't come up with something new. So he ends up disguising himself and going to a discussion group...

FADEL: Right.

EGAN: ...Hoping that somehow the conversation will spur an insight that will get him past this mental block. And it actually ends up working. So the machine that he ends up inventing allows people to externalize the entirety of their consciousnesses onto a cube for all kinds of practical reasons. They can use it if they have a brain injury. They can reinfuse healthy memory to solve that problem. They also have the option to upload all or part of their consciousnesses into a collective.

FADEL: Right. When I was reading this idea of like - you're putting your memories, your most personal thoughts into a box. And then you have the option to share them with the world. And people were doing it. And you're just asking yourself, why would you put your most personal thoughts out into the world like this with no control over them?

EGAN: Well, the urge to be known and be seen is so profound that I actually think people might do that along with a strong wish for authenticity⁸ that I think a lot of us feel in a highly mediated⁹ world. You know, there's this wish for something that feels raw, that feels real. And the media world tries to satisfy that wish, often with greater and greater feats¹⁰ of artificiality. The other thing is access - another really strong driver.

FADEL: Right.

EGAN: We have to give to get. That's how DNA¹¹ information works. So I think those same forces that we see at work in our media world now are what I'm positing¹² would move people to do this rather radical¹³ thing.

FADEL: Right. I mean, it did feel like looking slightly in the future world of the world we're living in right now. I mean, you mentioned DNA. I'm thinking of all these ancestry¹⁴ companies, where people are swabbing their cheeks, sending their information to a private company. But the curiosity of who you're connected to in the world overrode¹⁵ the concern about privacy for so many people, right?

EGAN: Absolutely. And I think that, as humans, and I feel this myself so much, we want the immediate¹⁶ gratification. And often that really overrides¹⁷ more long-term thoughts about consequences, especially when, in terms of, you know, privacy and data, what we were getting in the early days of social media was access. And that was really exciting...

FADEL: Yeah.

EGAN: ...Connection. We crave¹⁸ that. And who was even thinking about something like the attention economy? - that - the idea that we were paying with something other than money was just not something that I think a lot of people thought of early on. I certainly didn't.

FADEL: Yeah. I mean, I think for most people it was just a way to be like, oh, let me connect with an old middle school buddy¹⁹, a high school buddy. And then it became something very different, which makes me think of Facebook, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg. I mean, Bix Bouton, to me, felt like a Mark Zuckerberg character. He invented this huge social media platform, first seen as freedom by creating access to information to everyone at their fingertips. But that type of freedom gave way to controversy²⁰ - right? - about privacy issues and manipulations and surveillance.

EGAN: Exactly. And a movement arises in the course of the book called the Eluders.

FADEL: Right.

EGAN: And these are people who not only don't want to participate by sharing their consciousness or uploading it or anything, but people who don't want to inhabit the identities that they have in the internet. In other words, because of everyone else's memories and thoughts that have been uploaded, everyone ends up being represented, exactly as you say with Ancestry and those other DNA services. It doesn't matter if we've uploaded ours. There's - enough around us has been uploaded that we are represented.

FADEL: Throughout the book, the characters deal with a lot of struggles people deal with - trying to find their place in the world, make their mark in the world, falling to drug addictions²¹, their stars rising and falling. And there's a lot around regret and redemption.

EGAN: I really believe that humans can change so enormously and can do so much. And I feel like the pandemic has really shown us that, although I wrote a lot of this before that. You know, we're such adaptable²², strong and ingenious creatures when we're put to the test and can work together. And so I feel like when people say, oh, people don't change; they just...

FADEL: Right.

EGAN: ...Become more what they are when they're older - maybe that's true sometimes. I don't think that it has to be that way. And also, you know, during the pandemic, especially when I finished this book, I felt so much dread²³ and worry that maybe it was just also what I needed in that moment, to remind myself that humans are powerful creatures, and we can do an awful lot when we put our minds to it.

FADEL: Award-winning author Jennifer Egan speaking to us about her latest novel, "The Candy House" - thank you so much for your time.

EGAN: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROEM'S "DEEP LIKE AIRLINE FAILURE")

1 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

2 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。

3 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

4 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

5 overlap   

v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠

参考例句：

• The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
• Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。

6 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 authenticity   

n.真实性

参考例句：

• There has been some debate over the authenticity of his will. 对于他的遗嘱的真实性一直有争论。
• The museum is seeking an expert opinion on the authenticity of the painting. 博物馆在请专家鉴定那幅画的真伪。

9 mediated   

调停，调解，斡旋( mediate的过去式和过去分词 )； 居间促成； 影响…的发生； 使…可能发生

参考例句：

• He mediated in the quarrel between the two boys. 他调解两个孩子之间的争吵。
• The government mediated between the workers and the employers. 政府在工人与雇主间搞调和。

10 feats   

功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He used to astound his friends with feats of physical endurance. 过去，他表现出来的惊人耐力常让朋友们大吃一惊。
• His heroic feats made him a legend in his own time. 他的英雄业绩使他成了他那个时代的传奇人物。

11 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

12 positing   

v.假定，设想，假设( posit的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Involves a contrast-a positing of walks that are opposites. 给我们看见强烈的对照﹕两种完全相反的生活样式。 来自互联网
• Global Positing System (GPS) technology has been widely used in many field. 全球定位系统(GPS)技术已经在许多领域得到广泛的应用。 来自互联网

13 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

14 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

15 overrode   

越控( override的过去式 )； （以权力）否决； 优先于； 比…更重要

参考例句：

• The chairman overrode the committee's objections and signed the agreement. 主席不顾委员会的反对，径行签署了协议。
• The Congress overrode the President's objection and passed the law. 国会不顾总统的反对，通过了那项法令。

16 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

17 overrides   

越控( override的第三人称单数 )； （以权力）否决； 优先于； 比…更重要

参考例句：

• The new rule overrides all the previous ones. 新规则使以前的所有规则失效。
• The application configuration file setting overrides the machine configuration file setting. 应用程序配置文件设置重写计算机配置文件设置。

18 crave   

vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求

参考例句：

• Many young children crave attention.许多小孩子渴望得到关心。
• You may be craving for some fresh air.你可能很想呼吸呼吸新鲜空气。

19 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

20 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

21 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。

22 adaptable   

adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的

参考例句：

• He is an adaptable man and will soon learn the new work.他是个适应性很强的人，很快就将学会这种工作。
• The soil is adaptable to the growth of peanuts.这土壤适宜于花生的生长。

23 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。