美国国家公共电台 NPR Denis Johnson, Author Who Wrote 'Jesus' Son,' Dies At 67

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The literary world is mourning the death of a man who has been called one of the greatest writers of his generation. Denis Johnson won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He died of cancer on Wednesday at the age of 67. NPR's Lynn Neary has this remembrance.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE¹: Johnson, says Farrar, Straus and Giroux publisher Jonathan Galassi, is a writer's writer. Galassi worked with Johnson on some of his best-known books - his story collection "Jesus' Son," his Vietnam War novel "Tree Of Smoke" which won the National Book Award and his novella "Train Dreams" which was a finalist for the Pulitzer. Johnson may have gotten the most attention for his prose, Galassi says, but he wrote with the empathy of a poet.

JONATHAN GALASSI: He started out as a poet, and then he started writing novels. And I remember him once saying, well, I can dream these novels up in a day, but it takes me months to write them.

NEARY: Galassi says Johnson was perhaps the most original writer of his generation. His work is infused with a hallucinatory quality, born out of his experiences in the 1960s and '70s.

GALASSI: In his early phase of life, those hallucinations were enhanced by controlled substances which were part of the magic and the horror of his imagination.

NEARY: Johnson recovered from drug addiction² in the late 1970s. But in 1991, he told WHYY's Fresh Air that he held onto some of the insights he had gained during his time on drugs.

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DENIS JOHNSON: The world is very poetic³ as I experienced it. You know, you can just open a door, and there'll be a world of fire and chaos⁴ on the other side. And you can shut that door and open another, and you know, all is sweetness and light. And I think that's something I experienced by messing up my head a lot, and it's something that stayed with me. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad perception to have.

NEARY: Johnson was able to balance violence with transcendence in his work. His writing was not biographical, says publisher Jonathan Galassi, but he drew deeply from his own experiences.

GALASSI: He has experienced the intensity⁵, the depth, the despair, the direct hit of life in similar ways. And I think he's very, very touched by it, destroyed by it. There's something very religious about Denis' work, I think.

NEARY: Galassi says he's been touched by the large number of people who have contacted him since news of Denis Johnson's death has spread, a tribute, he says, to how important Johnson was to so many. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOS CAMPESINOS SONG, "YOU! ME! DANCING!")

1 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。

2 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

3 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

4 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

5 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。