美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'A Legacy Of Spies,' John Le Carré Goes Back Out In 'The Cold'

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Smiley is back. George Smiley, that is, the spy at the center of some of John le Carre his most popular books. For the first time in 25 years, le Carre has written a novel featuring Smiley. It's called "A Legacy¹ Of Spies," and it's a kind of prequel to "A Spy Who Came In From The Cold," which is the book that made le Carre famous and changed spy novels forever. Here's NPR's Lynn Neary.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE²: George Smiley is the best known of John le Carre's characters. He's the main player in many of his books, most notably³ "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." But in his new novel, le Carre goes deeper into Smiley's past, examining the role he and his cohorts played in "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold," a story of betrayal and deception⁴ that ends badly at the Berlin Wall.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Mr. Leamas, go back, please - to your own side, Mr. Leamas.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

NEARY: In "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold," says journalist and spy novelist David Ignatius, le Carre opened up the world of spying, revealing tactics that were often morally questionable⁵. And Smiley was always a different kind of spy. He was not the dashing, womanizing James Bond kind of spy. Quite the contrary, says Ignatius, Smiley was...

DAVID IGNATIUS: A rumpled⁶, almost professorial student of German manuscripts. His wife was unfaithful to him. He lived in this little house on Bywater Street. He was always described as owlish.

NEARY: And there was something else that set Smiley apart from other fictional⁷ spies. Smiley had a conscience. Alex Berenson, author of the John Wells spy series, says Smiley was always clear about the price that had to be paid for victory in the world of espionage⁸.

ALEX BERENSON: He is very much, you know, the quiet man pulling levers. And yet at the same time, you have a feeling that he's not a wizard, that he's very much consumed by the moral problems of the world that he lives in.

NEARY: The world Smiley lives in is Britain's famed intelligence service, which le Carre dubbed⁹ The Circus, and the war they are engaged in is the Cold War, the struggle for dominance between East and West. In this scene from the BBC adaptation of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," Smiley tries unsuccessfully to persuade a high-level Russian official to defect.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY")

ALEC GUINNESS: (As George Smiley) I'm not offering you wealth or smart women or your choice of fast cars. I know you haven't any use for those things. And I'm not going to make any claims about the moral superiority of the West. I'm sure you can see through our values just as I can see through yours in the East.

NEARY: The Cold War was still in high gear when "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" was published, but the certainty of the 1950s was starting to give way to the upheaval¹⁰ of the '60s. Le Carre's Cold War, says David Ignatius, was never a simple case of East versus¹¹ West.

IGNATIUS: It wasn't black and white. It wasn't the good guys against the bad guys, as we'd felt in the '50s. It was more complicated than that. Yeah, and espionage, which is always about shades of gray, it's always about deceit and pretending to be something different from what really is, and here was John le Carre painting a world in grays very movingly.

VALERIE PLAME: He captures that perfectly¹².

NEARY: Valerie Plame, formerly¹³ with the CIA, now an author of spy novels. Plame says pop culture doesn't usually get espionage right, but le Carre gets close. He understands the loneliness of the job and the moral ambiguity¹⁴ that comes with it, especially when recruiting spies from the other side.

PLAME: I mean, you are asking someone to do something that you would never do yourself, which is betray your country and to pass highly classified information. There might be very good reasons for it, but nevertheless, you recognize these are other human beings, and even though sometimes they're not very pleasant, they - they're taking a huge risk in entering a relationship with you, a clandestine¹⁵ relationship.

NEARY: The terrain¹⁶ that le Carre often mines is the damage that is done when the clandestine relationship goes wrong. That's at the heart of his new book, "The Legacy Of Spies," and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold." In a scene from the film adaptation of that novel, the spy Alec Leamas realizes that he and the woman he has recruited have been used by his own side.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) What rules are you playing?

RICHARD BURTON: (As Alec Leamas) There's only one rule - expediency¹⁷. Mundt gives London what it needs so Fiedler dies and Mundt lives. It was a foul¹⁸, foul operation, but it paid off.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) Who for?

BURTON: (As Alec Leamas) What the hell do you think spies are? Model philosophers measuring everything you do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards¹⁹, like me.

NEARY: Le Carre takes us back to that scene in his new book. The story begins when Peter Guillam, one of Smiley's disciples²⁰ at The Circus, is brought out of retirement²¹ and threatened with a lawsuit²². He's being held responsible for the deaths of Leamas and his recruit at the Berlin Wall many years ago. David Ignatius.

IGNATIUS: It's a kind of core moment, I think, for any le Carre reader. So we go back to that moment and those characters, and we discover why were they at the Wall. What was the operation about? What were they running? What did they think they were doing?

NEARY: Weaving past and present together with flashbacks and secret documents, le Carre traces a series of events and mistakes that put both agents and their recruits in harm's way. Looking back on it all, Smiley concludes it was futile²³. Ignatius disagrees with Smiley, and he thinks le Carre does, too. For all the moral ambiguity, Ignatius believes that le Carre admires the spies he created and the part they played in the Cold War.

IGNATIUS: And you do feel, I think, in this book a sympathy for them. You may have questions about the war they were fighting. You may have questions about the tactics they used. But whatever you think about the Cold War, you decide with le Carre that you love the people who were the fighters.

NEARY: Spy novels of today are dealing²⁴ with a very different world. In his forthcoming novel, "The Quantum Spy," Ignatius writes about high-tech²⁵ espionage. Alex Berenson's spy is a convert to Islam and works for the CIA. His enemy is ISIS. But Berenson says le Carre's influence lingers.

BERENSON: It's easy to fall into the trap of, this is the other, these people are just a bunch of barbarous head-choppers. And, look, there is some truth in that. But they have a story, too. They tell themselves a story, too. And, you know, le Carre, he dealt in a world of gray. My world is more black and white, but there's plenty of gray in it, and I always try to remember that.

NEARY: And that, perhaps, is the legacy of a spy novelist. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

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 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

4 deception   

n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计

参考例句：

• He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
• He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。

5 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

6 rumpled   

v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She rumpled his hair playfully. 她顽皮地弄乱他的头发。
• The bed was rumpled and strewn with phonograph records. 那张床上凌乱不堪，散放着一些唱片。 来自辞典例句

7 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。

8 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

9 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

11 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

12 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。

13 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

14 ambiguity   

n.模棱两可；意义不明确

参考例句：

• The telegram was misunderstood because of its ambiguity.由于电文意义不明确而造成了误解。
• Her answer was above all ambiguity.她的回答毫不含糊。

15 clandestine   

adj.秘密的，暗中从事的

参考例句：

• She is the director of clandestine operations of the CIA.她是中央情报局秘密行动的负责人。
• The early Christians held clandestine meetings in caves.早期的基督徒在洞穴中秘密聚会。

16 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

17 expediency   

n.适宜；方便；合算；利己

参考例句：

• The government is torn between principle and expediency. 政府在原则与权宜之间难于抉择。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was difficult to strike the right balance between justice and expediency. 在公正与私利之间很难两全。 来自辞典例句

18 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

19 bastards   

私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙

参考例句：

• Those bastards don't care a damn about the welfare of the factory! 这批狗养的，不顾大局！ 来自子夜部分
• Let the first bastards to find out be the goddam Germans. 就让那些混账的德国佬去做最先发现的倒霉鬼吧。 来自演讲部分

20 disciples   

n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一

参考例句：

• Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. 犹大是耶稣十二门徒之一。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "The names of the first two disciples were --" “最初的两个门徒的名字是——” 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

21 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

22 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

23 futile   

adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的

参考例句：

• They were killed,to the last man,in a futile attack.因为进攻失败，他们全部被杀，无一幸免。
• Their efforts to revive him were futile.他们对他抢救无效。

24 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

25 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。