美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Freshwater,' A College Student Learns To Live With Separate Selves

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Akwaeke Emezi's debut¹ novel is a lyrical, nonlinear story of a woman named Ada born in Nigeria with, as she puts it, one foot on the other side. Several selves exist inside of Ada. They identify themselves as we. When Ada comes to America for college, a traumatic event causes that we to take over, and Ada struggles to control her own body. "Freshwater" is the title of the book. Akwaeke Emezi, who won the 2017 Commonwealth² Short Story Prize for Africa, joins us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

AKWAEKE EMEZI: Thank you so much for having me.

SIMON: I've read that you describe this novel as autobiographical. Help us understand how.

EMEZI: When I was writing the novel, I used my life as an archive. Basically, I wanted to see what it would be like to look at a life through the lens of a different reality - something that was centered more in Igbo spirituality than in Western concepts of mental health, for example. So I did lots of research into Igbo spirituality. I went back home to Nigeria before I wrote the book because I was very nervous about immersing myself in this reality. It was very foreign to me. And I was afraid that if I immersed myself in it, I would enter a reality that I wouldn't come out of.

SIMON: I can think of no better way to begin to appreciate what you're trying to do here than to ask you to immerse us in a particularly lyrical section of the book if you could.

EMEZI: Yes. (Reading) We came from somewhere. Everything does. When the transition is made from spirits to flesh, the gates are meant to be closed. It's a kindness. It would be cruel not to. Perhaps the gods forgot. They can be absent-minded like that - not maliciously³, at least not usually. But these are gods after all. And they don't care about what happens to flesh mostly because it is so slow and boring, unfamiliar⁴ and coarse. They don't pay much attention to it except when it is collected, organized and sold. By the time, she, our body, struggled out into the world, slick and louder than a village of storms, the gates were left open. We should have been anchored in her by then, asleep inside her membranes⁵ and synced with her mind. That would have been the safest way. But since the gates were open not closed against remembrance, we became confused. We were at once old and newborn. We were her and yet not. We were not conscious, but we were alive. In fact, the main problem was that we were distinct a we instead of being fully⁶ and just her.

SIMON: What can you tell us about the we that's inside of Ada?

EMEZI: So I chose to have the we be this part - especially this part that I just read, that transition from spirits into flesh. And I realize in retrospect⁷ that I was working on this theory that when a person is born is the moment in which their spirit integrates with their flesh. So in the case of Ada, there is a connection to the spirit world, per se, that isn't severed⁸ the way it should be.

SIMON: Now I have to ask this, with respect, because I think there are people who will hear this conversation and say look. I'm sorry. Somebody who creates separate identities in themselves - believes there are separate beings within themselves has a problem.

EMEZI: Yes, there are people who would say that.

SIMON: What do you think?

EMEZI: I think everyone's censored¹⁰ in their own reality. You know, I think part of the thing that's a problem really in the world today is this inability to acknowledge multiple realities and this insistence¹¹ that there has to be one dominant¹² reality and everything that falls outside that reality is false and untrue. And that is - that's how colonialism worked in great part - was that people came in and enforced their reality and said, well, if you believe in anything else, if you believe in your indigenous¹³ deities¹⁴, if you believe in these spiritual entities⁹, then you're ignorant, and you're backwards¹⁵. And it's only because you haven't been educated by the West. And, you know, there's this - everything that is outside the dominant reality becomes something that's pathological. And with my work, I'm not really interested in trying to convince anyone to shift their sensor¹⁶. I'm just refusing to shift mine.

SIMON: Some of the sections of your books that are hardest to read is when Ada harms herself.

EMEZI: Are they?

SIMON: Yeah.

EMEZI: I did not know that. I think for me it's - the thing that feels the most brutal¹⁷ for me is the act of existing in a body in the first place. And with this kind of displaced embodiment, I think - well, I know a side effect of that is a certain detachment from flesh. So the impact of things that are done to flesh, such as cutting, is dulled, I think.

SIMON: How do you feel now that you've done the novel?

EMEZI: I have a lot more clarity about things now when I think of having a multiple self and what that feels like. I describe it as a boiling cloud. Like, that's the image I have for it. It's like a cloud of selves that are shifting, and occasionally one or two will precipitate¹⁸ out. I just allow them to move however they want to move and morph. And, yeah, I've learned a lot about surrender since writing the book.

SIMON: I hope I don't say the wrong thing when I thank all of you for being with us.

EMEZI: Thank you. I appreciate that (laughter).

SIMON: Akwaeke Emezi - her new novel, "Freshwater."

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1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

3 maliciously   

adv.有敌意地

参考例句：

• He was charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. 他被控蓄意严重伤害他人身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His enemies maliciously conspired to ruin him. 他的敌人恶毒地密谋搞垮他。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

5 membranes   

n.（动物或植物体内的）薄膜( membrane的名词复数 )；隔膜；（可起防水、防风等作用的）膜状物

参考例句：

• The waste material is placed in cells with permeable membranes. 废液置于有渗透膜的槽中。 来自辞典例句
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a system of intracellular membranes. 肌浆网属于细胞内膜系统。 来自辞典例句

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 retrospect   

n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯

参考例句：

• One's school life seems happier in retrospect than in reality.学校生活回忆起来显得比实际上要快乐。
• In retrospect,it's easy to see why we were wrong.回顾过去就很容易明白我们的错处了。

8 severed   

v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂

参考例句：

• The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

10 censored   

受审查的，被删剪的

参考例句：

• The news reports had been heavily censored . 这些新闻报道已被大幅删剪。
• The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. 有军方撑腰的政府对新闻进行了严格审查。

11 insistence   

n.坚持；强调；坚决主张

参考例句：

• They were united in their insistence that she should go to college.他们一致坚持她应上大学。
• His insistence upon strict obedience is correct.他坚持绝对服从是对的。

12 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

13 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

14 deities   

n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明

参考例句：

• Zeus and Aphrodite were ancient Greek deities. 宙斯和阿佛洛狄是古希腊的神。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Taoist Wang hesitated occasionally about these transactions for fearof offending the deities. 道士也有过犹豫，怕这样会得罪了神。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文

15 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

16 sensor   

n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官）

参考例句：

• The temperature sensor is enclosed in a protective well.温度传感器密封在保护套管中。
• He plugged the sensor into a outlet.他把传感器插进电源插座。

17 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

18 precipitate   

adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物

参考例句：

• I don't think we should make precipitate decisions.我认为我们不应该贸然作出决定。
• The king was too precipitate in declaring war.国王在宣战一事上过于轻率。