臺大外語教學暨資源中心英語學習報第 335 期 發行日期 2018-02-01

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Ursula K. Le Guin, Best-selling Science Fiction Author, Dies

暢銷科幻小說家娥蘇拉.勒瑰恩逝世

PORTLAND, OREGON - Ursula K. Le Guin, the award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who explored feminist themes and was best known for her Earthsea books, has died at 88.
  
  獲獎無數的科幻小說(science fiction)、奇幻文學(fantasy)作家娥蘇拉.勒瑰恩Ursula K. Le Guin)於 1 月 22 日辭世,享壽 88 歲。她書寫女性主義題材,並以奇幻小說《地海》(Earthsea)系列最廣為人知。

    

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外語教學暨資源中心自 106 學年度起推出高階英語字彙達人認證,鼓勵臺大教職員工生使用「E-freeway 線上外語自學教室」之課程資源,以線上自學方式有效達成學習目標。完成課程並通過考試者將由本中心核發自學證書。

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外語教學暨資源中心推出「自學圈粉絲團」,快來加入粉絲團,成為自學圈的一員吧!外教中心會不定期地在粉絲團專頁 po 文,提供您各種有益於英語自學的資訊,包括自學軟體、自學影片、自學網站、專業英語、職場英語、主題式英語等等,各式各樣的自學資源,應有盡有!記得鎖定自學圈粉絲團,讓您可以隨時隨地得知英語自學的相關資訊,跟上英語自學的潮流哦~~~

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如果您有英語學習問題,那就趕快看過來!外語教學暨資源中心邀請周樹華教授在中心的英語學習電子報開設專欄:〔英語學習 Q&A〕,只要您有任何相關英語學習的問題,歡迎來此表單填寫,我們會再整理大家的問題,在中心英語學習電子報出刊為大家解答疑問,並為您提供有效的英語學習資源供參考喔!專欄上面不會顯示出您的姓名個資等資訊,請大家放心詢問喔!

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Ursula K. Le Guin, Best-selling Science Fiction Author, Dies
VOA News
January 23, 2018 10:35 PM  (source

Ursula K. Le Guin, Best-selling Science Fiction Author, Dies

暢銷科幻小說家娥蘇拉.勒瑰恩逝世

January 23, 2018 10:35 PM Associated Press

PORTLAND, OREGON —

Ursula K. Le Guin, the award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who explored feminist themes and was best known for her Earthsea books, has died at 88.

Le Guin died suddenly and peacefully Monday at her home in Portland, Oregon, after several weeks of health concerns, her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin said Tuesday.

"She left an extraordinary legacy as an artist and as an advocate of peace and critical thinking and fairness, and she was a great mother and wife as well," he said.

"Godspeed into the galaxy," Stephen King tweeted, saying Le Guin was a literary icon, not just a science fiction writer.

Le Guin won an honorary National Book Award in 2014 and warned in her acceptance speech against letting profit define what is considered good literature.

Despite being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 — a rare achievement for a science fiction-fantasy writer — she often criticized the "commercial machinery of bestsellerdom and prizedom."

"I really don't want to watch American literature get sold down the river," Le Guin said in the speech. "We who live by writing and publishing want — and should demand — our fair share of the proceeds. But the name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.''

Le Guin's first novel was "Roncannon's World" in 1966 but she gained fame three years later with "The Left Hand of Darkness," which won the Hugo and Nebula awards — top science fiction prizes — and conjures a radical change in gender roles well before the rise of the transgender community.

The book imagines a future society in which people are equally male and female and also dramatizes the perils of tyranny, violence and conformity.

Her best-known works, the Earthsea books, have sold in the millions worldwide and have been translated into 16 languages. She also produced volumes of short stories, poetry, essays and literature for young adults.

Le Guin's work also won the Newbery Medal, the top honor for American children's literature. Last year, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

"I know that I am always called 'the sci-fi writer.' Everybody wants to stick me into that one box, while I really live in several boxes," she told reviewer Mark Wilson of Scifi.com.

Neil Gaiman, a fellow Newbery, Hugo and Nebula recipient, mourned her death on Twitter and called Le Guin "the deepest and smartest of the writers."

"Her words are always with us. Some of them are written on my soul," he wrote.

A longtime feminist, Le Guin earned degrees from Radcliffe and Columbia. Her 1983 "Left-Handed Commencement Address" at Mills College was ranked one of the top 100 speeches of the 20th century in a 1999 survey by researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Texas A&M University.

"Why should a free woman with a college education either fight Machoman or serve him?" she told the graduates. "Why should she live her life on his terms? . . . I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated."

Born in Berkeley, California, on Oct. 21, 1929, Le Guin described a well-off childhood even during the Depression, with summers in the countryside. Her success followed an early setback: At age 11, she had her first offering rejected by Amazing Stories, the pioneering science fiction magazine.

"During the Second World War, my brothers all went into service and the summers in the Valley became lonely ones, just me and my parents in the old house,'' she told sfsite.com, another science fiction website.

"There was no TV then; we turned on the radio once a day to get the war news. Those summers of solitude and silence, a teenager wandering the hills on my own, no company, 'nothing to do,' were very important to me. I think I started making my soul then," she said.

She married Charles Le Guin in Paris in 1953. They moved to Portland and had three children.

Her themes ranged from children's literature to explorations of Taoism, feminism, anarchy, psychology and sociology to tales of a society where reading and writing are punishable by death and of a scientist who battles aliens to save the world.

Critic Harold Bloom placed her in the pantheon of fantasy writers along with JRR Tolkien.

"Sometimes I think I am just trying to superstitiously avert evil by talking about it," she told sfsite.com. "Throughout my whole adult life, I have watched us blighting our world irrevocably . . . ignoring every warning and neglecting every benevolent alternative in [the] pursuit of 'growth.'"

獲獎無數的科幻小說(science fiction)奇幻文學(fantasy)作家娥蘇拉.勒瑰恩Ursula K. Le Guin)於 1 月 22 日辭世,享壽 88 歲。她書寫女性主義題材,並以奇幻小說《地海》(Earthsea)系列最廣為人知。

勒瑰恩的兒子西奧(Theo Downes-Le Guin)週二(編按:2018 年 1 月 23 日)表示,母親近幾週健康狀況不佳,週一(編按:2018 年 1 月 22 日)於美國奧勒岡州(Oregon)波特蘭巿(Portland)的家中平靜離世。

勒瑰恩的兒子表示:「身為藝術家與和平、批判思考和公平的提倡者(advocate),她留給我們非凡的遺產(legacy)。同時,她也是位偉大的母親與妻子。」

「前往銀河系的路上,一路好走(godspeed)。」史蒂芬.金(Stephen King)在推特(Twitter)上向勒瑰恩致意,並表示勒瑰恩不只是位科幻小說家,更是文學泰斗(literary icon)

2014 年,勒瑰恩獲頒美國國家圖書獎(the National Book Awards)的傑出貢獻獎。發表得獎感言(acceptance speech)時,她慎重提醒,別讓利潤決定什麼才是好的文學。

儘管 1997 年她的小說也入圍普立茲獎(the Pulitzer Prize)的決選名單,這對科幻小說、奇幻文學作家來說是罕見的成就,勒瑰恩常批評(criticize)「暢銷書與文學獎的商業機制」。

「我不想看到美國文學遭到背叛(get sold down the river),」勒瑰恩發表得獎感言時說道,「我們這些以寫作與出版維生(live by)的人想要、也應該要求(demand)合理的收入(proceeds)。但我們豐厚的獎賞,不是利潤(profit),而是自由(freedom)。」

勒瑰恩於 1966 年出版第一本小說《羅卡儂的世界》(Roncannon's World),不過要到 3 年後才因《黑暗的左手》The Left Hand of Darkness)成名。《黑暗的左手》榮獲雨果獎(the Hugo Awards)及星雲獎(the Nebula Awards),這兩個獎項皆為科幻小說的最高榮譽。此外,早在跨性別(trandgender)族群的題材興起之前,《黑暗的左手》就已顛覆了過往的性別角色設定。

這本小說建構出一個未來社會,這個社會上的人們既是男人也是女人;書中也戲劇化地呈現專制(tyranny)、暴力及從眾(conformity)的危險。

勒瑰恩最有名的作品為《地海》系列,全球暢銷上百萬本,翻譯成 16 種語言。她也寫了很多短篇故事、詩、散文、文學評論及青少年文學。

她的作品也曾獲得美國兒童文學最高榮譽紐伯瑞獎(the Newbery Medal)的肯定。去年勒瑰恩也獲選為美國藝術暨文學學會(the American Academy of Arts and Letters的成員(be inducted into . . .)

「我知道大家都叫我『科幻小說(sci-fi)作家』。大家總想把我歸到那一個類別,但我其實同時屬於好幾個類別。」勒瑰恩這麼告訴 Scifi.com 網站的評論家(reviewer)馬克.威爾森(Mark Wilson)。

同樣囊括紐伯瑞獎、雨果獎及星雲獎的作家尼爾.蓋曼Neil Gaiman)也在推特上悼念(mourn)勒瑰恩的逝世,稱她為「最深刻、最聰慧的作家」。

「她的文字會永遠伴著我們。有些更寫入了我的靈魂中。」蓋曼在推特上寫道。

勒瑰恩長期以來支持女性主義。她分別於麻州(Massachusetts)拉德克利夫學院(Radcliffe College)與紐約州(New York)哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)取得學士、碩士學位。1983 年她在加州(California)密爾斯學院(Mills College)的畢業演說(Commencement Address)A Left-Handed Commencement Address)名列 20 世紀百大精彩演講之一。這份演講排名是 1999 年威斯康辛大學(the University of Wisconsin)及德州農工大學(Texas A&M University)研究員調查的結果。

(編按:勒瑰恩畢業演說的標題為 "A Left-Handed Commencement Address",呼應她的作品《黑暗的左手》,The Left Hand of Darkness。她鼓勵這所女子學院的畢業不以男性制定的規範活著,而是找到屬於女性的生活方式。她也鼓勵畢業生擁抱生命中的黑暗,因為黑暗是我們的根源,黑暗能使人們長出靈魂。)

「為什麼一個自由的女人、受過大學教育的女人,要不就得反抗大男人(Machoman),要不就得臣服於他?」她對畢業生這麼說,「為什麼女人要照男人設定的規則(on his terms)過活? . . . . . . 我希望妳們不需要主宰別人,也不需要被主宰地活著。」

勒瑰恩 1929 年 10 月 21 日出生於加州柏克萊(Berkeley,California)。根據她自己的描述,就算在美國經濟大蕭條時期(the Great Depression),她的童年都過得富足、衣食無虞(well-off),每年都在鄉間度過悠悠夏日。在勒瑰恩的成功到來之前,她很早就遇到挫折(setback):11 歲時,她首次投稿《驚奇故事》(Amazing Stories)就遭到拒絕。《驚奇故事》是當時一本具開創性的(pioneering)科幻小說雜誌。

第二次世界大戰the Second World War)期間,哥哥們都從軍了(go into service),納帕山谷(Napa Valley,編按:位於加州)的夏天變得孤獨、寂寞,只剩下我和父母待在老房子裡。」勒瑰恩接受另一個科幻小說網站 sfsite.com 訪問時說道。

「當時還沒有電視,每天我們聽一次廣播,收聽戰爭的消息。那幾個夏天的獨處(solitude)和寂靜、一個青少年獨自在山丘間閒晃(wander)、沒有同伴、『無事可做』,這些對我來說意義重大。我認為從那時候開始,我開始長出自己的靈魂。」勒瑰恩表示。

1953 年,她和查爾斯.勒瑰恩(Charles Le Guin)結婚,搬到波特蘭生活並養育 3 名子女。

勒瑰恩作品的主題豐富多元,不僅涵蓋兒童文學,也探索道教思想(Taoism)女性主義(feminism)無政府(anarchy)主義、心理學和社會學。她也寫了很多故事,像是描繪了一個只要閱讀、書寫,人就會遭判死刑(be punishable by death)的社會;或是描寫科學家為了拯救世界,而和外星生物奮戰(battle)的故事。

美國知名文學評論家哈洛.卜倫(Harold Bloom)認為勒瑰恩和托爾金(JRR Tolkien,編按:《魔戒》〔The Lord of the Rings〕的作者)都是奇幻文學領域中非常重要的人物(in the pantheon of . . .)

「有時候我覺得,自己只是試著透過不斷訴說的方式,想迷信地防止邪惡的事情發生(avert),」勒瑰恩告訴 sfsite.com,「長大成人後,我不斷目睹了我們破壞(blight)這個世界,造成無法彌補(irrevocably)的傷害 . . . . . . 無視(ignore)各種警訊、忽略(neglect)其他各種良善有用(benevolent)的作為,只為了追求『成長』(編按:原文為 "in the pursuit of 'growth' and immediate profit",也在批判人們對利益的追求)。」

Language Notes

fantasy [`fæntəsɪ] (n) 奇幻文學;幻想

advocate [`ædvəkɪt] (n) 提倡者、擁護者

* 本字也作動詞,意為「提倡」、「支持」

godspeed [`gɑd͵spid] (n, exclamation) 對旅人的祝福語,一路順風

finalist [`faɪnḷɪst] (n) 參加決賽的人

sell sb down the river (v phr) 出賣、背叛(某人)

proceeds [`prosidz] (n) 收益、收入

transgender [͵trænz`dʒɛndɚ] (n) 跨性別者

induct [ɪn`dʌkt] (v) 使成為正式會員

* 注意本字常為被動形式:"be inducted to/into . . ."「獲選為 . . . . . . 的成員」

mourn [morn] (v) 哀悼、向 . . . . . . 致哀

commencement address (n phr) 畢業典禮上對畢業生發表的演講

macho man (machoman) (n) 硬漢、有大男人氣概的男子,在勒瑰恩的演講中特指為父權體制的化身

* macho [`mɑtʃo] (a) 雄赳赳的,有男子氣概的

well-off [`wɛl`ɔf] (a) 富裕的

punishable [`pʌnɪʃəbḷ] (a) 該罰的、應給予處罰的

* be punishable by death 遭判死刑

avert [ə`vɝt] (v) 防止、避免

* avert one's eyes/thoughts from something 避開目光、轉移想法

blight [blaɪt] (v) 破壞、摧殘;使(植物)枯萎

irrevocably [ɪ`rɛvəkəblɪ] (adv) 不可逆轉、無法挽回

* 本字由反義字字首 "ir-" 加上形容詞 revocable「可廢止的,可取消的」而來;revocable 有兩種念法:[rɪ`vokəbḷ] 或 [`rɛvəkəbḷ]

* revoke [rɪ`vok] (v) 撤回,撤銷;廢除

Check your vocabulary!

Fill in the blanks with a word or phrase from the list above. Make necessary changes. After you finish, highlight the blanks to reveal the hidden answers.

1. "Farewell and godspeed," the general said, ending his speech, and then it was time to go.

2. Part of the discontentment among voters comes from the sentiment that those in government sold them down the river when the economy collapsed.

3. For his work, Lemaitre was inducted as a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.

4. His career was seriously blighted by misjudgments such as this.

5. My life changed irrevocably in an instant.

6. The stakes are high, and the rewards of successfully averting the coming catastrophe are even greater.

7. As well as mourning someone's death, one ought to be able to celebrate their life.

8. Proceeds from the event will go to aid the work of the charity.

編譯:汪冠岐

   

 

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