美国国家公共电台 NPR Teddy Wayne's 'Loner' Paints A Chilling Study Of The Effects Of 'Toxic Masculinity'

Teddy Wayne's 'Loner' Paints A Chilling Study Of The Effects Of 'Toxic² Masculinity' 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0005:27repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser³ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

David Federman is a Jersey⁴ guy who becomes a Harvard man - bright young man from Garret Hobart High School, named for New Jersey's only vice⁵ president who becomes a Harvard freshman⁶. There he meets Veronica Morgan Wells, who's from just across the river in Manhattan but a world away from David's. He becomes infatuated with her and uses others to try to get close to her. And without giving away the story, it turns out that Veronica has her own reasons for letting David think he is.

"Loner" is the name of Teddy Wayne's novel. And Teddy Wayne is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and other publications, and author of the acclaimed⁷ novel "The Love Song Of Johnny Valentine." He joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

TEDDY WAYNE: Thanks for having me.

SIMON: This is a deeply upsetting story. What put it in your mind?

WAYNE: Every few weeks it seems there's another atrocity⁸ in the news perpetrated by invariably a man, often a young man, whether on a mass or individual scale. And very often when the news researches this individual's life, they call him a loner. And this is a word that once had positive, almost romantic connotations in America. You can think of cowboys, The Lone¹ Ranger⁹, other rugged¹⁰ individualists.

It's turned into something that's associated with young men who live at home with their parents, who blow up a high school cafeteria or commit sexual assault or do something else horrible. I was compelled to write from the perspective of one of these young men and try to understand what's going on in their head and what cultural forces influence them to act this way.

SIMON: There is nothing remotely charming in David's infatuation with Veronica. He begins to stalk her. He steals items from her. How do you inhabit and write about that mentality¹¹?

WAYNE: You don't want to make the character so off-putting in the beginning as to lose the reader. So I think to look at what makes - what's relatable? What's universal about David? He feels like an outsider. Most of us at some point have felt that way, especially when you're in a new place like college. He's vulnerable. He's sensitive. He's insecure. These are universal human traits that are easier to access not just for the reader, but for me as the writer. And then you can start sort of dipping into the darker, more twisted, perverse¹² aspects of his personality.

But I was careful not to go too monstrous¹³ at the start both for, you know, not wanting to put the reader off his scent¹⁴, but that's not a very compelling character to me. Someone who's villainous from the beginning is more of a cartoon. David, I hope, is a human who has these monstrous qualities as well that are under the surface.

SIMON: As a reader, you find yourself asking, does Veronica want only a little to do - and after a while not even that - with David because she's Park Avenue and he's New Jersey, or because David is a creep?

WAYNE: You know, we don't get Veronica's side of the story. There is a counter-narrative here, something Veronica's doing that is revealed later on in the book. But clearly she recognizes that David is overreaching at a certain point. Then again, she is only associating with those of her kind. She's from the 1 percent. She's from the Upper East Side. She - all her friends are from similarly gilded¹⁵ circles.

SIMON: Yeah. I mean, David's family might be 1 percent, too. His mother's a lawyer, for example.

WAYNE: Yeah, his - both his parents are lawyers. And normally in this kind of book, it would be a working-class kid who goes to Harvard and is exposed to this glamorous¹⁶ world. But here it's a very upper-middle-class boy from the suburbs, very cushy background, who still greedily wants more than what he already has.

SIMON: You must have finished this novel last year.

WAYNE: I did, yes.

SIMON: But it's hard to read it and not think of the recent case of Brock Turner, the former Stanford student who got out of jail just a few days ago after serving just three months for felony sexual assault. What would you tell readers who try and make comparisons?

WAYNE: Well, the Brock Turners of the world are a different type of character from David. They're the alpha males. David's a decided¹⁷ beta male. But both are products of what's called frequently toxic masculinity, which is the ways that the patriarchy can be damaging to men, not just women. And that it trains them to be dominant¹⁸, to be aggressors, to be violent, to not betray any vulnerability or sensitivity.

So both are flip¹⁹ sides of the same coin of toxic masculinity. David is additionally angry that he does not have the rewards that Brock Turner has. He's pushed to the side, whereas Brock Turner is a hailed athlete.

SIMON: Mr. Wayne, does David stay with you? I mean, I've been having nightmares, and the character didn't begin in my mind.

WAYNE: Yeah. At this point, I'm - I don't mean to make - to sound glib²⁰. I'm more concerned - I got married this summer and I'm more concerned at this point with people in my wife's family reading it who I've tried to dissuade²¹ from reading it. As for me, he's there certainly but, you know, it is fiction. It's made up. This is nothing compared to - people have to deal with the real-life Brock Turners out there.

SIMON: Teddy Wayne, his novel, "Loner." Thanks so much for being with us.

WAYNE: Thank you, Scott.

1 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

2 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

3 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。

4 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

7 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

8 atrocity   

n.残暴，暴行

参考例句：

• These people are guilty of acts of great atrocity.这些人犯有令人发指的暴行。
• I am shocked by the atrocity of this man's crimes.这个人行凶手段残忍狠毒使我震惊。

9 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

10 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

11 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

12 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

13 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

14 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

15 gilded   

a.镀金的，富有的

参考例句：

• The golden light gilded the sea. 金色的阳光使大海如金子般闪闪发光。
• "Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!" "朋友们，这只不过是些镀金的铅饼！ 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡

16 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

17 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。

18 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

19 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

20 glib   

adj.圆滑的，油嘴滑舌的

参考例句：

• His glib talk sounds as sweet as a song.他说的比唱的还好听。
• The fellow has a very glib tongue.这家伙嘴油得很。

21 dissuade   

v.劝阻，阻止

参考例句：

• You'd better dissuade him from doing that.你最好劝阻他别那样干。
• I tried to dissuade her from investing her money in stocks and shares.我曾设法劝她不要投资于股票交易。