美国国家公共电台 NPR Former Journalist Sabaa Tahir Writes Dystopian Fantasies Inspired By The News

Former Journalist Sabaa Tahir Writes Dystopian Fantasies Inspired By The News 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:58repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

If you've wandered into the young adult section of a bookstore or a movie theater recently, you might have wondered, just how many dystopian fantasies does the world really need? "The Hunger Games" apparently² fueled an appetite for stories about young people who kill each other in made-up militarized societies.

A new book out this week continues this literary trend. It's called "A Torch Against The Night." NPR's Neda Ulaby has the story of how Sabaa Tahir went from editing news at The Washington Post to writing fiction for young adults.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE³: It started at her desk when she was handed a haunting news story about women in India whose husbands, sons and brothers had been disappeared by state police.

SABAA TAHIR: And it's not always clear what the charges are. And a lot of these women never find out what's happened to their family member. They're just gone.

ULABY: Sabaa Tahir could not shake the story out of her head.

TAHIR: I edited that story that night. And I remember walking through the Post garage and thinking about it. I was thinking about my own brothers. I'm very close to them - and the idea that I could live in a place where they could just be taken.

ULABY: So it was cathartic⁴ to go home and start writing a fictional⁵ story about a girl with black hair and golden eyes whose brother is similarly disappeared. Tahir connected to this news story partly because it was filed in Kashmir, near Pakistan, where her family's originally from.

TAHIR: You know, where through, maybe, any twist of fate I could have potentially grown up there.

ULABY: The story became Sabaa Tahir's first novel. "An Ember In The Ashes" was an immediate⁶ best-seller. Paramount⁷ Pictures bought the movie rights before it was even published. Critics compared it to "The Hunger Games" mixed with "Game Of Thrones."

MARIE RUTKOSKI: I think that "An Ember In The Ashes" is really its own thing.

ULABY: That's Marie Rutkoski. She's an English professor who also writes young-adult fiction. And she reviewed Sabaa Tahir's first book. Unlike in "The Hunger Games," she says, Tahir writes from multiple points of view, showing empathy even with a merciless headmistress of an elite⁸ military school.

RUTKOSKI: It felt so strange to be able to see from her perspective because she is so horrible.

RUTKOSKI: And Rutkoski also appreciated the rich, dense⁹ layers of a fantasy world that borrows from ancient Sparta, Bedouin culture and the loneliness of the author's own California childhood.

TAHIR: I grew up in this really isolated¹⁰ town in the Mojave Desert. My parents had a motel.

ULABY: With 18 rooms and a pool, they didn't always fill.

TAHIR: It was built out of big cinder¹¹ blocks, painted over white.

ULABY: Even though the motel was located near a bustling¹² military base, it was not the financial success her parents had hoped for.

TAHIR: Flipping¹³ the no vacancy¹⁴ sign was always a really huge deal because it happens so rarely.

ULABY: Tahir says hers was not an easy childhood. She spent lots of time getting lost in her brother's comic books.

TAHIR: I didn't fit in because I looked different from everybody else. And my family didn't fit in. You know, I heard people call them names or tell them to go back. And that was from a very young age.

ULABY: But Tahir says feeling different helped form her as a writer. She stopped working for The Washington Post seven years ago partly to focus on fiction. Growing up in a motel, she says, meant exposure to a parade of characters passing through.

TAHIR: You know, crazy people, weird¹⁵ people, interesting people - there was this one guy who kept birds. And I remember that he wanted to pay us with a bird. And when he left, he gave us a parakeet.

ULABY: For the fantastical characters in her books, Tahir also drew on elements of folktales she heard growing up, like the supernatural beings called Jinn, spirits common to Muslim mythology¹⁶ in South Asia and the Middle East.

TAHIR: And, you know, my mom told me stories about Jinn. She said that they lived in trees. And they have really bright eyes. That's something that made it into the book. That they have freewill - they can be good, or they can be evil.

ULABY: Reading fantasy and dystopian novels now, Tahir says, is not an escape for readers. Maybe it's a way to understand real parts of the world that many of us, through a twist of fate, are lucky enough not to live in. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 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。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 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。

4 cathartic   

adj.宣泄情绪的；n.泻剂

参考例句：

• His laughter was cathartic,an animal yelp that brought tears to his eyes.他哈哈大笑以宣泄情绪，声音如野兽般尖厉，眼泪都笑出来了。
• The drug had a cathartic effect.这药有导泻的作用。

5 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。

6 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。

7 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

8 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。

9 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

10 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

11 cinder   

n.余烬，矿渣

参考例句：

• The new technology for the preparation of superfine ferric oxide from pyrite cinder is studied.研究了用硫铁矿烧渣为原料，制取超细氧化铁红的新工艺。
• The cinder contains useful iron,down from producing sulphuric acid by contact process.接触法制硫酸的矿渣中含有铁矿。

12 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

13 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

14 vacancy   

n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺

参考例句：

• Her going on maternity leave will create a temporary vacancy.她休产假时将会有一个临时空缺。
• The vacancy of her expression made me doubt if she was listening.她茫然的神情让我怀疑她是否在听。

15 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。

16 mythology   

n.神话，神话学，神话集

参考例句：

• In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中，宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
• He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。