美国国家公共电台 NPR Carrie Fisher, The Novelist

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST: 

Just a day after Carrie Fisher died unexpectedly, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, passed away. There have been many remembrances of both Hollywood stars. But today, we're going to focus on a different side of Carrie Fisher, not on the actress, comedian¹ or producer, which she's best remembered as. Instead, we'll talk about Carrie Fisher the novelist. WEEKEND EDITION books editor Barrie Hardymon is with us. Hey, Barrie.

BARRIE HARDYMON, BYLINE²: Hi.

CHANG: So the movie "Postcards From The Edge," that was actually based on her first novel?

HARDYMON: Yes, yes, it's a roman a clef. It's - has scenes from her life. And it's this real skewering³ of Hollywood elites⁴. There's this wonderful moment where she's so clearly aware, at that time, of gender⁵ roles in Hollywood, where one character describes herself as too old to be in the Brat⁶ Pack and too young for her own exercise tape, which is this very '80s way of saying it, right?

CHANG: (Laughter).

HARDYMON: But anyway, it's very very funny. It's the skewering of Hollywood and rehab culture. But it doesn't focus as much on the relationship with her mother. The main character Suzanne Vale also does have this famous mother. But it isn't until the time that Carrie Fisher, who wrote the screenplay for the movie, adapts it - and beautifully so - into the movie that she really focuses on the central relationship of the film, which is between Suzanne Vale and her mother.

And what's wonderful about that central relationship is that the end of the movie ends up being the sort of truce⁷ with her mother as opposed to being defined by a relationship with a man. And in the novel, it's not that way. So there's this kind of growing from the novel to the screenplay of the movie. But you still have this wonderful, brittle⁸, funny, mordent main character who also appears in her other novels.

CHANG: How are those other novels different - the ones that she wrote after that?

HARDYMON: So the one that I adore is actually her second novel. It's called "Surrender The Pink." And it's about this woman named Dinah Kaufman who is a soap opera writer. And she tends to blur⁹ the borders between her life and the soap opera that she's also a writer on. She has this marriage to an award-winning playwright¹⁰ whose name is Rudy Gendler, who may have some - you know, we know that Carrie Fisher was married to Paul Simon. You know, she'd - this idea of being in a relationship with a famous man. But what's great is, unlike the ending of the novel "Postcards On The Edge," Dinah after sort of making this sad and hilarious¹¹, I mean, truly mistake-ridden attempt to conform to Rudy's expectations of her, she gets him out of her life. She actually literally¹², in the soap opera, writes Rudy out of her life. It's this...

CHANG: (Laughter).

HARDYMON: ...Real - so for me, you know, I picked up this book when I was 19 years old at a - at an airport bookstore. I saw this woman who was so much like me, but funnier and more, you know, maybe more interesting and had this...

CHANG: (Laughter).

HARDYMON: ...Wonderful life with these incredible friends around her. And I saw that it was OK to make these terrible mistakes, that you could still be highly successful and highly competent. And that at the end of the day, you didn't need the man. You only needed the relationships with your friends.

CHANG: Were all of Carrie Fisher's novels somewhat autobiographical?

HARDYMON: Yeah, I mean, there is - they all have some element of things that are from her life. And what's great about that and which meant so much to me and still does is that these highly intelligent, very funny women who are taking care of themselves, you know, that's what she grew up with because Debbie Reynolds, you know, herself was this amazing woman who worked so hard, kept this career going her whole life.

CHANG: Yeah.

HARDYMON: I mean, you can YouTube her up to the, like, the last 10 years, like...

CHANG: Yeah, that's right.

HARDYMON: ...Just killing¹³ it onstage, had horrible relationships, these awful marriages, lost all her money, got it back again and raised this amazing daughter. So, you know, I think it's kind of wonderful. You have to imagine - right? - that if there's, like, an afterlife that Fisher and Reynolds are still, you know, upstaging each other there. And Reynolds is, like, performing cabaret and Fisher is writing the zinger that comes right after.

CHANG: I love that thought. Barrie Hardymon is WEEKEND EDITION's books editor. Thank you, Barrie.

HARDYMON: Thank you, Ailsa.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE")

MERYL STREEP: (As Suzanne Vale, singing) Pull back them dark and dusty drapes. Let in some light. Tell the bell boy come and...

1 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

2 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。

3 skewering   

v.（用串肉扦或类似物）串起，刺穿( skewer的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• But Mr Stone is more interested in skewering rapacious financiers than rash homeowners. 但是斯通先生更感兴趣的是去讥讽贪婪的金融家，而不是冲动的物业购买者。 来自互联网

4 elites   

精华( elite的名词复数 )； 精锐； 上层集团； （统称）掌权人物

参考例句：

• The elites are by their nature a factor contributing to underdevelopment. 这些上层人物天生是助长欠发达的因素。
• Elites always detest gifted and nimble outsiders. 社会名流对天赋聪明、多才多艺的局外人一向嫌恶。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 brat   

n.孩子；顽童

参考例句：

• He's a spoilt brat.他是一个被宠坏了的调皮孩子。
• The brat sicked his dog on the passer-by.那个顽童纵狗去咬过路人。

7 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

8 brittle   

adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的

参考例句：

• The pond was covered in a brittle layer of ice.池塘覆盖了一层易碎的冰。
• She gave a brittle laugh.她冷淡地笑了笑。

9 blur   

n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚

参考例句：

• The houses appeared as a blur in the mist.房子在薄雾中隐隐约约看不清。
• If you move your eyes and your head,the picture will blur.如果你的眼睛或头动了，图像就会变得模糊不清。

10 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

11 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

12 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

13 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。