美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Hemingway Didn't Say That' (And Neither Did Twain Or Kafka)

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

There are so many famous sayings, so many quotes from famous people and so many that are just plain wrong, like this one.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

SIEGEL: That is not a Chinese proverb.

MCEVERS: It does not belong to Maya Angelou, even though it did appear on a U.S. postage stamp with her.

SIEGEL: And it is not the coinage of former Notre Dame¹ football coach Lou Holtz.

MCEVERS: Though you probably could have guessed that.

SIEGEL: No. A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song belongs to Joan Walsh Anglund.

MCEVERS: Author of children's books, and one of the many people who don't get the credit they deserve for their perfectly² crystallized thoughts.

SIEGEL: There's so many of these quotations⁴ that have been transformed and evolved and been reassigned from one person to another.

GARSON O'TOOLE: Garson O'Toole - that's his pen name - has dedicated⁵ himself to writing these literary wrongs on his website, Quote Investigator⁶. He's also written a new book called "Hemingway Didn't Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations."

MCEVERS: And here's another one that you or someone you know might have unwittingly messed up.

O'TOOLE: Don't bend. Don't water it down. Don't try to make it logical. Don't edit your own soul according to the fashion.

MCEVERS: It's Kafka-esque. Well, a lot of people think it is writing advice from Franz Kafka but it's really about Kafka.

SIEGEL: It's from another writer, Anne Rice, who included it in a foreword to a 1995 collection of Kafka's work.

MCEVERS: And how does this get mixed up? It's like a game of telephone.

SIEGEL: Rice writes about Kafka.

MCEVERS: Someone mistakenly repeats her writing as Kafka's.

SIEGEL: For years, this mistake bounces around on social media.

MCEVERS: And then Anne Rice herself, not recognizing her own work, posts the quote on her own Facebook page and attributes it to Kafka.

O'TOOLE: And so that was enormously confusing to me because I thought if anyone would be able to recognize that quotation³, it would be the person who created it.

SIEGEL: Not so, it turns out. Such is the potency⁷ of today's fake quote.

MCEVERS: Garson O'Toole sent Rice a message, and she corrected the mistake in a follow-up post.

SIEGEL: Now, O'Toole says there are a couple of patterns in the way false quotations mutate. There are people who have reputations for saying smart or funny things, so it's easy to assign other quotes to them.

MCEVERS: Like Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Yogi Berra or Mark Twain.

O'TOOLE: There might be a joke, and somebody would say it's Twain-like. And then the next person will say no, actually it's from Twain.

SIEGEL: And then there are quotations that are fake from the get-go.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "POWDER")

JEFF GOLDBLUM: (As Donald Ripley) It's become appalling⁸ clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.

SEAN PATRICK FLANERY: (As Jeremy Reed) Albert Einstein.

MCEVERS: I heard it in a movie, it must be a thing. Hollywood wouldn't have misled us.

SIEGEL: Ah, but they would. That Einstein quote is an invention of screenwriter Victor Salva from the 1995 movie "Powder."

MCEVERS: He had Jeff Goldblum's character say that, Einstein never did. But once it's out there posted underneath⁹ a picture of Einstein, good luck taking it back.

SIEGEL: But Garson O'Toole is trying. He enjoys poring through the histories of these famous expressions. And...

O'TOOLE: I'm also very glad when I get to give credit to the person who actually said it instead of some later, better-known person.

SIEGEL: So before you quote, remember this wisdom that's not from Mark Twain.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

SIEGEL: A lie can get halfway¹⁰ around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

MCEVERS: And then consult the site Quote Investigator or Garson O'Toole's new book, "Hemingway Didn't Say That."

(SOUNDBITE OF PHIFE DAWG SONG, "THOUGHT U WUZ NICE - INSTRUMENTAL")

1 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

4 quotations   

n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价

参考例句：

• The insurance company requires three quotations for repairs to the car. 保险公司要修理这辆汽车的三家修理厂的报价单。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These quotations cannot readily be traced to their sources. 这些引语很难查出出自何处。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

6 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

7 potency   

n. 效力，潜能

参考例句：

• Alcohol increases the drug's potency.酒精能增加这种毒品的效力。
• Sunscreen can lose its potency if left over winter in the bathroom cabinet.如果把防晒霜在盥洗室的壁橱里放一个冬天，就有可能失效。

8 appalling   

adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions.恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• Nothing can extenuate such appalling behaviour.这种骇人听闻的行径罪无可恕。

9 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

10 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。