美国国家公共电台 NPR Fitzgerald Didn't Satisfy This Author, So She Wrote Her Own 'Gatsby'-Inspired Novel

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is one of the most beloved American novels. It's set in the roaring 20s about the messiness of chasing the American dream. For the author Stephanie Powell Watts¹, something about the novel never quite left her satisfied.

STEPHANIE POWELL WATTS: You've probably had these books that you feel like are not loving you back enough, you know, that you love them and - but you just want them to say something about a particular thing. And so the only way they can do that is if you kind of make them say it (laughter). And so "Gatsby" was one of those for me. I've always loved it. I loved it when I was a kid and read it for the first time. And like so many kids, I loved it because of the glamour² and the romance and all those kinds of things. But subsequent readings, I felt like I'm seeing other things. I'm seeing all of these black characters - never thought about them before. I'm seeing the women and the tiny, tiny roles that they have in the book, and I want them to speak. I want to hear what they have to say.

SHAPIRO: Stephanie Powell Watts tries to explore some of those questions in her debut³ novel. It's called "No One Is Coming To Save Us." It's not exactly a retelling of "Gatsby." Instead, Watts tries to re-imagine some of the same themes through the eyes of black characters in a declining furniture town in present day North Carolina. Her stand-in for Gatsby is named JJ. The character returns home wealthy after 17 years away, and he says you don't get over being poor.

WATTS: This is actually something that my father says, poor people never get over it (laughter), so he's quoting from my father.

SHAPIRO: Does he say it from experience?

WATTS: He says it from experience, and I don't think that you do. I don't think that you - I mean, I'm many years from the time when I was worried that my car might not make it somewhere or something like that. But I still remember the sting of that. I still remember there were tears in the (laugher) back of my throat from that, you know. And I think it's very, very difficult to get over it, and I think that that's what Jay Gatsby has experienced. And I think that's what a lot of my characters experience, too.

SHAPIRO: Your central characters are, for the most part, women, and that's a big change from "The Great Gatsby," despite the other parallels. What do you think we gain by viewing this world through their eyes?

WATTS: When you read "Gatsby," or maybe even shortly afterwards, didn't you want to know about Daisy?

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

WATTS: I mean, she's so flighty, and she seems so ridiculous. There has to be something in there that's making her make this tremendous move in her life. Those kinds of questions made me think about, well, what about these women here? I want to talk about the ones that are like my mother and like my grandmothers who are striving and trying to figure out the world with not a whole lot of resources in all kinds of ways but who want better for themselves and for their children. And so I'm really drawn⁴ to those characters that don't get their say.

SHAPIRO: Could you read a section of the book from - this is almost at the very end, and this is kind of about the role of generations.

WATTS: Yes. Let's see. (Reading) Children need old people, even trifling⁵, rundown old people like Don Ross (ph). We all enter the story too late, and old people can tell us what they know about the past, at least some of it, at least the important stuff. Thank God the old tell it slant⁶ so the jagged edges don't kill the babies. That's what family does, sanitize the filthy⁸, or at least dust it off, give it to us in bite-sized morsels⁹.

SHAPIRO: That description is so beautiful and also bleak¹⁰ and also accurate, I think.

WATTS: (Laughter).

SHAPIRO: And so can you chart over the course of your life when you started getting the bite-sized morsels with the rough edges sanded off and when you started seeing the jaggedness in the filth⁷?

WATTS: Well, there's - there are a number of stories that I feel like were told in particular ways. My grandfather used to tell a story about being beaten up as he was walking home. And two white men stopped him on the road and called him the N-word and said that they would get out of their truck and beat him up. And I remember thinking he's telling the story to the family, and the story is so horrible, but he's laughing about it. He's telling, you know, he said, no, I don't think you'll get out of that truck and, you know, his hands are on his hips¹¹. And he says they do get out of the truck, and they beat him up.

And for a long time, I could not see that story as a triumphant¹² story because I could just see him there on the ground having been beaten. But he changed the story, and he became heroic in the story. And his telling of it and him - and just the fact of his telling of it made it a triumph. And he's laughing at them. They're the boobs in the story. They're the ones who couldn't figure things out. For a long time, I did not get and I couldn't find any humor or any triumph in it, but I have now. He did. He did win. He did get the best of that story, and it's a hard story, but it was - but it's one I'm really glad I have.

SHAPIRO: It seems that - well, at least one would hope that as the generations pass, the stories become less hard and the edges become less jagged. Have you found that to be true?

WATTS: I hope so. I think that the stories are different. I mean, I don't have a story like that in my own experience, but like many people, I do have difficult stories and stories that are hurtful and that speak to a past of poverty or pain but not so directly, I guess, racist¹³, but I do have difficult stories, too.

SHAPIRO: And as you share those difficult stories, do you find yourself sanding the jagged edges down and doling¹⁴ them out in little morsel-sized pieces to dampen the intensity¹⁵ of them?

WATTS: Oh, yes (laughter). Oh, yes. I was - I was telling a story to my son, and we were coloring together and this was about crayons. And I told him that when I was a kid, I so wanted this box of crayons, the 64 crayons. They were so beautiful, such exotic, wonderful names, and I really wanted them, but I didn't get them. We could not - we couldn't afford them. Later on in the day, when I thought he'd forgotten all about it, he brings me 64 of his own crayons and he says, Mama, I have 64 crayons for you (laughter). You know, I was blown away by it, and it was so touching¹⁶ to me, but also that he wanted to make that story right for me. He wanted to make that good for me, and he could do it. It was in his power to do it, and he did.

And so now when I think about that story that might have been the story about poverty or it might have been the story about deprivation¹⁷, it's now a story about my lovely sweet son. And that story is right beside the other story. But I'm nervous about it. You know, I don't want to tell him so much that it wounds him or that he feels responsible for my pain. So it's a real balance that I'm kind of doing all the time.

SHAPIRO: Stephanie Powell Watts, it's been so great talking to you. Thank you.

WATTS: Oh, thank you. This has been a thrill.

SHAPIRO: Stephanie Powell Watts is the author of the new novel "No One Is Coming To Save Us."

(SOUNDBITE OF SWING JAZZ PARADE'S "CHARLESTON")

1 watts   

（电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• My lamp uses 60 watts; my toaster uses 600 watts. 我的灯用60瓦，我的烤面包器用600瓦。
• My lamp uses 40 watts. 我的灯40瓦。

2 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

3 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。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 trifling   

adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的

参考例句：

• They quarreled over a trifling matter.他们为这种微不足道的事情争吵。
• So far Europe has no doubt, gained a real conveniency,though surely a very trifling one.直到现在为止,欧洲无疑地已经获得了实在的便利，不过那确是一种微不足道的便利。

6 slant   

v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向

参考例句：

• The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
• The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。

7 filth   

n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥

参考例句：

• I don't know how you can read such filth.我不明白你怎么会去读这种淫秽下流的东西。
• The dialogue was all filth and innuendo.这段对话全是下流的言辞和影射。

8 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

9 morsels   

n.一口( morsel的名词复数 )；（尤指食物）小块，碎屑

参考例句：

• They are the most delicate morsels. 这些确是最好吃的部分。 来自辞典例句
• Foxes will scratch up grass to find tasty bug and beetle morsels. 狐狸会挖草地，寻找美味的虫子和甲壳虫。 来自互联网

10 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

11 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 triumphant   

adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的

参考例句：

• The army made a triumphant entry into the enemy's capital.部队胜利地进入了敌方首都。
• There was a positively triumphant note in her voice.她的声音里带有一种极为得意的语气。

13 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

14 doling   

救济物( dole的现在分词 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• "What are you doling?'she once demanded over the intercom. 有一次他母亲通过对讲机问他：“你在干什么？ 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• Many scrollbars are quite parsimonious in doling out information to users. 很多滚动条都很吝啬，给用户传递的信息太少。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

15 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。

16 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

17 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。