玛格丽特·阿特伍德回答你的问题

欢迎来到由我杜阿·利帕主持的Service 95读书会。

Welcome to the Service ninety five Book Club with me, Dua Lipa.

说实话，阅读一直是我生命各个阶段的锚点，这个读书会正是我分享这份喜悦的方式。

Honestly, reading has been an anchor through every phase of my life, and this book club is a way of sharing that joy.

每个月，我都会推荐一本我钟爱的书，并与作者坐下来，进行一场坦诚开放的对话，探讨书中的主题、人物以及他们创造的世界。

Every month, I'll spotlight a book I've loved and sit down with the author for an open and honest conversation about the themes, the characters, and the world they've created.

由于我已经有幸与许多杰出的作家交谈过，我将打开档案库，每月重新推出一本珍品。

And because I've had the pleasure of speaking with so many brilliant writers already, I'll be opening the archive and bringing back one gem each month.

所以，倒一杯饮品，拿起你的书，让我们开始吧。

So pour a glass, grab your book, and let's get into it.

因为几乎不可能只选一本玛格丽特·阿特伍德的书，我们为Service 95的读者准备了一份特别惊喜。

Because it's almost impossible to pick just one Margaret Atwood book, we have a special treat in store for Service ninety five readers.

玛格丽特将回答关于她整个作品集的问题。

Margaret is answering your questions across her whole catalog.

如果这让你意犹未尽，不妨阅读她的新回忆录《生命之书》，书中详尽披露了这位传奇人物辉煌的职业生涯与非传统的人生。

If this leaves you wanting more, check out her new memoir, Book of Lives, which spills the tea on the magnificent career and unconventional life of this living legend.

相信我，你一定会大饱眼福。

Believe me, you're in for a treat.

这是凯蒂的一个问题。

Here's a question from Katie.

什么先出现？

What comes first?

人物、场景，还是情节？

Character, place, or premise?

嗯，可能都不是，因为我通常从一句话或一个画面开始。

Well, quite possibly none of them because I usually begin with a a sentence or an image.

在《使女的故事》中，我最初是从哈佛墙上悬挂的尸体这一场景开始的。

And in this case of the handmaid's tale, I began with the bodies hanging on on Harvard's wall.

这个场景在小说中往后推了很多，但那正是我最初的起点。

That scene moved quite quite a lot further back in the novel, but that's where I started originally.

然后我找到了一个声音。

And then I went to a voice.

所以，图像和声音通常是创作的起点。

So so image and voice is usually how things start.

下一个问题是来自塞达的。

The next question is from Seda.

你的散文常常模糊了诗意与叙事之间的界限。

Your prose often blurs the line between the poetic and the narrative.

你在创作小说时，对节奏和音韵有多自觉？

How conscious are you of rhythm and sound when you write fiction?

答案是：非常自觉。

And the answer is very conscious.

但当然，散文的节奏和音韵与诗歌的节奏和音韵大不相同。

But, of course, the rhythm and sound of prose are quite different from the rhythm and sound of poetry.

而当我们谈到对话时，那又是另一回事了。

And when we get to dialogue, that's a different thing again.

当我教授创意写作时，曾给学生布置过一个练习。

Back when I was teaching creative writing, gave my students an exercise.

这个练习是去巴士站，找个地方坐下，听周围人交谈，并把他们说的每一句话都记下来。

And the exercise was to go into the bus station and sit down in a place where you could overhear a conversation between people going on and just write down everything that they said.

现在你这么做可能会因为侵犯隐私而被逮捕。

You'd probably be arrested now for invasion of privacy.

但当你把所有内容写下来后，就会意识到，如果把这些直接放进书里，会非常无聊，因为对话中充满了重复、‘嗯’、‘啊’以及与主题无关的闲话和跑题。

But when you write it all down, you realize that if you put that in a book, would be very boring because there are a lot of repetitions and ums and ahs and things that aren't pertinent and wandering around in a conversation.

参与对话的两个人能理解这些内容。

The two people involved in it understand it.

但读者读到时会想：他们为什么一直在说这些？

But a reader reading it would think, why are they going on about this?

他们为什么老是说‘嗯’和‘啊’？

And why are they saying and ah so much?

所以当你写对话时，会留意语言的节奏和声音。

So when you're writing dialogue, you're conscious of sound.

对话必须听起来像真人说话，但通常都是经过删减和润色的版本。

It has to sound like people talking, but it's usually an edited version.

下一个问题是罗宾提出的。

Next question is from Robin.

你在写作过程中，会不会改变作品的方向？

Do you ever change your mind about the direction of the work as you're going alone?

这个问题的答案总是会的。

The answer to that is always.

因为我觉得有两种类型的作家。

Because I think there's two kinds of writers.

一种是事先把一切都规划好的类型。

They're the kinds the kind that has it all plotted out ahead of time.

有些人甚至会用图表把所有人物和情节要点贴满墙壁。

And some of them have even gone so far as to cover their walls with charts, with all of the characters and plot points, etcetera, on the chart.

而我这一类人则是边写边即兴发挥。

And then there's my kind who improvise as we go along.

如果你在写一部谋杀悬疑小说，你必须知道结局是什么。

If you're writing a a murder mystery, you have to know what the end is.

因为如果你不知道凶手是谁，就无法巧妙地布置那些我们期待的误导线索和假线索。

Because if you don't know who'd done it, you can't strew about all of the red herrings and false clues that we expect of you.

但我无法那样写作。

But I I can't write that way.

那太像填色书了，而我从来就不喜欢填色书。

It's it's too much like coloring books, which I never liked.

所以我一边写一边发现新东西，我喜欢快速写出一个像滑雪下坡一样流畅的初稿，然后再进行修改。

So I discover things as I go along, and I like to get a downhill skiing pretty quick draft, and then I I will revise.

我会反复修改很多次。

I will revise a lot.

而在修改过程中，我常常会改变结局。

And often during the revision, I will change the ending.

下一个问题是来自考特尼的。

Next question is Courtney from Courtney.

预测未来的感觉是什么样的？

How does it feel to predict the future?

其实我不是女巫，也没人能真正预测未来。

Well, I'm not actually a witch, and nobody can really predict the future.

所以当我们描写未来时，我们是在探讨各种可能性，并做出有根据的推测。

So when we're writing about the future, we're we're writing about possibilities and we're making educated guesses.

因此你可以说，如果一切不变，接下来这件事一定会发生。

So you can say, if nothing changes, this following thing is bound to happen.

但我们并不知道一切真的不会改变。

But we don't know that nothing will change.

所以未来存在于无限多种可能性之中。

So the future exists in an infinite number of possibilities.

当你写一本关于未来的书时，你是在发展其中一种可能性，而不是做出预测。

And when you're writing a book about the future, you're developing one of those possibilities, but you're not making a prediction.

好的。

Okay.

这是一个来自Anya的问题。

This is a question from Anya.

《猫眼》是一个非常个人化的故事。

Cat's Eye is a very personal story.

写这部小说时，你是如何应对那些艰难情绪的？

How did you handle any challenging emotions while writing the novel?

我是在二十世纪六十年代初开始写《猫眼》的，但后来放弃了。

Well, I started writing Cat's Eye in the early nineteen sixties, and then I abandoned it.

放弃的原因并不是因为那些艰难的情绪，而是因为我无法找到合适的结构。

Not so much because of the challenging emotions, but because I couldn't I couldn't figure out the the structure.

小说之所以被放弃，通常都是因为结构出了问题。

And that's usually why novels don't work when you abandon them.

并不是因为艰难的情绪。

It's not the challenging emotions.

而是结构的问题。

It's the structure.

所以对于艰难情绪，我认为我们这一代人，出生于四十年代和五十年代，从来都不承认自己有过任何艰难的情绪。

So challenging emotions, I think my generation, being from the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties, I don't think we ever admitted to having any challenging emotions.

这是瓦莱丽的问题。

This is a question from Valerie.

你认为塞雷娜·乔伊和传统妻子运动之间有什么相似之处吗？

Do you see any similarities between Serena Joy and the tradwives movement?

塞雷娜·乔伊曾经有自己的电视节目，并且在其中非常成功。

Well, Serena Joy is a person who has had her own television show and has been quite successful at it.

然而，由于她自己也参与推动的这场运动取得成功，她发现自己被归入了‘女性’这一类别，并且正如她一直所说，她被‘困在了家里’。

And, however, because of the success of the movement, which she herself has helped to form, she finds herself included in in the category women, and she finds herself, quote, in the home as she has always said women should be.

我必须说，从历史上看，那些以劝说其他女性应该待在家里为职业的人，一直让我感到有些费解。

And I have to say that historically, women who made a career out of telling other women they had to be in the home have always been a bit of a mystery to me.

你指的是谁？

Who do you mean?

显然不是你。

Apparently not you.

所以是的。

So yeah.

所以她并不开心。

So she's not pleased.

而如果你是一个传统妻子，你是开心的。

And if you're a trad wife, you are pleased.

你在说，嘿。

You're saying, hey.

你知道，我发现外面工作和照顾家庭实在难以兼顾。

You know, I found found it too difficult to do do an outside job and also do my family.

所以我选择家庭，而且我对这个选择很满意。

So I'm choosing the family, and and and I'm pleased with that.

现在我要告诉你如何在你的花园里自然地种植洋葱。

And now I'm gonna tell you how to plant onions in your garden that you will naturally have.

所以，是的，我属于我这个年代的人，我知道如何做所有这些传统妻子该做的事。

So, yes, I I know being of the generation that I'm I'm of, I know how to do all of those trad wife things.

别感到惊讶。

Don't be shocked.

我会疏通马桶。

I know how to unplug a toilet.

只是说一下。

Just saying.

所以我懂，但我认为塞雷娜·乔伊属于不同类别，因为她的传统主妇角色是被强加的，而不是她主动选择的。

So so I I get it, But I think Serena Joy is in a different category because her tradwifery has been imposed upon her not chosen.

谢谢收听。

Thanks for listening.

除了我的每月荐书，我还会分享一些来自档案的对话，这些是我过去几年与世界顶尖作家的最爱访谈。

Along with my new monthly reads, I'll also be sharing a conversation from the archive, some of my favorite chats with the world's best writers over the past couple of years.

相信我，你绝对不想错过这些。

Trust me, you won't wanna miss them.

请务必关注Service 95读书俱乐部播客，以免错过任何一期。

Make sure you're following the Service ninety five Book Club podcast so you never miss an episode.

如果你喜欢这一期，为什么不给我们留个评价呢？

And if you love this one, why not leave us a review?

非常感谢收听，下次再见。

Thanks so much for listening, and see you next time.