美国国家公共电台 NPR In Tom Wolfe's 'Kingdom,' Speech Is The One Weird Trick

In Tom Wolfe's 'Kingdom,' Speech Is The One Weird¹ Trick 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0005:06repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

One of America's most distinguished³ men of letters says he believes that speech, not evolution, has made human beings into the creative, imaginative, deliberate, destructive and complicated beings who invented the slingshot and the moonshot and wrote the words of the Bible, "Don Quixote," "Goodnight Moon," the backs of cereal boxes and "Fifty Shades Of Grey."

"The Kingdom Of Speech" is Tom Wolfe's first nonfiction book in 16 years, and Tom Wolfe, the author of many honored books, including "The Right Stuff" and "The Bonfire Of The Vanities" and recipient⁴ of the National Humanities Medal, joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

TOM WOLFE: Delighted to be here.

SIMON: Why do you call speech the attribute of attributes?

WOLFE: It's because it's - speech is so unrelated to most things about animals. We've all been taught that we evolved from animals. And here is something that is totally absent from animal life. There are no traces of any evolution of language through the sounds that apes make or dolphins, for that matter. It is something that is completely new, and the reason is it's an invention, invention by human beings who are the only creatures who are able to perform this trick. And the trick is you convert sounds into codes. One code may be T-R-E-E tree, or it could be typhoon. There's no telling. But it enables this creature, man, to remember, to remember things. You can establish - you could - it's so easy to remember the code as compared to remembering an entire event. As a result, human beings rule every other creature in the world.

SIMON: And you suggest that in the animal kingdom, if we're judging human beings by the attributes other animals do, we're not very impressive at all.

WOLFE: No, physically⁵, we're - really pretty pathetic. Offhand⁶, I cannot think of an animal which, if your size, let's say 150 pounds, that could not absolutely obliterate⁷ you in hand-to-hand or tooth-to-incisor combat. And our dominance in the world is all thanks to this trick of coming up with these codes that enable us to remember what happened yesterday or years ago. And it has a permanence that has a tremendous advantage (laughter). It has nothing to do with the theory of evolution.

SIMON: Yeah. But you say that speech bedeviled Darwin as a matter of fact.

WOLFE: It did. He could not figure out what it was. He assumed because of his theory that everything evolved from animals, and he didn't even include it in his theory language until he decided⁸ that it came from our imitation of the cries of birds. And I think it's misleading to say that human beings evolved from animals. I mean, actually nobody knows whether they did or not. And there are very few physical signs, except for the general resemblance between apes and humans. The big evolution, if you want to call it that, is that this one species, Homo sapiens, came up with this ingenious trick, which is language.

WOLFE: Are you concerned, Mr. Wolfe, or are you resolutely⁹ not concerned that people who don't believe in evolution for religious reasons, not scientific ones, are going to begin to cite your work as some kind of scientific proof?

WOLFE: I wouldn't think so because there's not a shred¹⁰ of whatever (ph) that depends at all on faith, on belief in a extraterrestrial power. In fact, I hate people going around saying they're atheist¹¹, but I'm an atheist (laughter).

SIMON: And in the end, what has speech enabled us to do as a species?

WOLFE: It's enabled us to think up strategies to head off what you think might be about to happen, and the strategies depend upon memory. And speech is a fantastic memory device. There's absolutely nothing like it, and I think it's time for people who are interested in evolution to say that the theory of evolution applies only - only to animals.

SIMON: Tom Wolfe - his book - "The Kingdom Of Speech." Thanks so much for being with us.

WOLFE: My pleasure, thank you very, very much for having me, Scott.

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

4 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

5 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

6 offhand   

adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的

参考例句：

• I can't answer your request offhand.我不能随便答复你的要求。
• I wouldn't want to say what I thought about it offhand.我不愿意随便说我关于这事的想法。

7 obliterate   

v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去

参考例句：

• Whole villages were obliterated by fire.整座整座的村庄都被大火所吞噬。
• There was time enough to obliterate memories of how things once were for him.时间足以抹去他对过去经历的记忆。

8 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。

9 resolutely   

adj.坚决地，果断地

参考例句：

• He resolutely adhered to what he had said at the meeting. 他坚持他在会上所说的话。
• He grumbles at his lot instead of resolutely facing his difficulties. 他不是果敢地去面对困难，而是抱怨自己运气不佳。

10 shred   

v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少

参考例句：

• There is not a shred of truth in what he says.他说的全是骗人的鬼话。
• The food processor can shred all kinds of vegetables.这架食品加工机可将各种蔬菜切丝切条。

11 atheist   

n.无神论者

参考例句：

• She was an atheist but now she says she's seen the light.她本来是个无神论者，可是现在她说自己的信仰改变了。
• He is admittedly an atheist.他被公认是位无神论者。