美国国家公共电台 NPR A Modern Collaboration With Mark Twain In 'Prince Oleomargarine'

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Mark Twain has a new book out this week, a fairytale called "The Purloining¹ Of Prince Oleomargarine." Yeah, OK, we know Twain died in 1910. But notes he made about a bedtime story he once told his daughters were recently discovered. Those notes mention a boy and a magic flower that lets him talk to animals - and not a lot else. So Random² House asked the author-illustrator duo of Philip and Erin Stead to turn the notes into a book.

PHILIP STEAD: You know, I think there are two ways - at least two ways to approach this project. One was to try to predict the exact way that Mark Twain would've told this story in 1879.

ERIN STEAD: I think we were hesitant to do that particularly because you'd fail right away. We had to be able to feel like this was a collaboration³. Because the story was told orally, it would've changed, and ebbed⁴ and flowed, and I think that's how Phil approached how we would tell the story on our end.

MARY LOUISE KELLY: One of the decisions that y'all made that has proven a little bit controversial was you made the hero, who's a little boy named Johnny, black. And there's no textual evidence that Mark Twain intended for him to be black. So why did you make that choice?

P STEAD: Well, I think it would be a little bit ridiculous for there to be textual evidence. That said, we were treating Twain as if he were a living person and as if he were a person collaborating⁵ with us in the year 2017. And I think anybody who's studied Twain knows that he was certainly progressive, but he didn't necessarily begin progressive, and he evolved and changed over time. And I think if Twain could've lived through the 21st century, he would make his choices a lot differently than he may have earlier in his career.

MARY LOUISE KELLY: Erin, jump in here since you're the one who actually decided⁶ what Johnny was going to look like. How did you come at the decision?

E STEAD: To be honest with you, it was one decision within a myriad⁷ of other decisions. And he was the kid I saw. And I think we're talking about it right now particularly because we are living in a very politically charged time at the moment.

P STEAD: Yeah, three years ago, when we began the project, it wasn't a political decision. That said, it - I think it's very unfortunate that if we had chosen a white character as the main character, I'm not sure that we would be answering these questions. I don't think that white children and white people in general are asked to be symbols of anything. And for some reason, people of color are often asked to be symbols, and they're not necessarily allowed to just be characters within a story.

MARY LOUISE KELLY: The original audience for this bedtime story - as Mark Twain originally was reading it his head - would've been his daughters, as we said. And you, in a lovely gesture, dedicate this book to the Clemens girls along with your own daughter. What do you think they would've made of it?

P STEAD: I hope they would've liked it. There's a fantastic quote from Susy Clemens, who may have been Mark Twain's favorite daughter. And in one little passage of her biography that she wrote of her own father, she wrote that, I have wanted papa to write something that reveals something of his kind and sympathetic nature. And so those are the things that we tried to help Twain bring into this book to help please Susy and to help please his other daughters as well.

MARY LOUISE KELLY: And Erin, did you have them in your mind as you drew?

E STEAD: I did. I think if we had set this book out to please Mr. Twain that we would've failed, and I think we knew that from the get-go. And I think he'd be happy to be published today. And I think that he'd grumble⁸ that we collaborated⁹ with him because we're not qualified¹⁰, and we're not. But I think that we were qualified to make Susy happy, and so that's how we approached the book - was to try to make Susy happy.

MARY LOUISE KELLY: That's Erin Stead and Philip Stead speaking to us about how they collaborated with the late Mark Twain on "The Purloining Of Prince Oleomargarine." Thanks so much to you both.

ERIN STEAD AND PHILIP STEAD: Thanks for having us.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE GREENCARDS' "ALMOST HOME")

1 purloining   

v.偷窃( purloin的现在分词 )

参考例句：

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

3 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

4 ebbed   

（指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落

参考例句：

• But the pain had ebbed away and the trembling had stopped. 不过这次痛已减退，寒战也停止了。
• But gradually his interest in good causes ebbed away. 不过后来他对这类事业兴趣也逐渐淡薄了。

5 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

6 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。

7 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

8 grumble   

vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another grumble from you.我不愿再听到你的抱怨。
• He could do nothing but grumble over the situation.他除了埋怨局势之外别无他法。

9 collaborated   

合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• We have collaborated on many projects over the years. 这些年来我们合作搞了许多项目。
• We have collaborated closely with the university on this project. 我们与大学在这个专案上紧密合作。

10 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。