Naipaul Speech and Style in His Own Words

Naipaul Speech and Style in His Own Words

1)Horace: Your style, that is a much-discussed 2)phenomenon.
Naipaul: Yes.
Horace: I even heard someone who had computed¹ the average number of letters in a word in your texts. That it should be four, I think.
Naipaul: Yes. I think.
Horace: If I remember right that may very well be correct. But, uh, I mean it’s obvious that to any reader the style strikes one...
Naipaul: Yes.
Horace: As transparent² and very clear...
Naipaul: Yes.
Horace: I think 3)Coetzee said recently in an article recently that it’s cool and clean like a knife.
Naipaul: Yes, yes.
Horace: Um, and how do you arrive at that style? Is it something that comes naturally or do you arrive at it by 4)elimination³, by crossing out words, removing unnecessary adjectives and so on?
Naipaul: Well, it, uh, it begins with what I said earlier about how I learned to write, when I tried to get every sentence to say something, and I think that’s become a habit. I no longer think I’m doing it but that is the habit of writing. So the writing moves very fast, and then, I do have to get everything I want to say, into, the sentences. I must be careful not in my speed to leave things out. Uh, I made a speech, a two-minute speech at the, the banquet, the award’s, the award’s banquet, I give you my word that was written three times. There were three drafts for it. One draft then typed out that corrected, then corrected yet again. First to get it all and then, one aspect was to get the spoken language, from that to get it, the, the quality of speech in it and, uh, the other thing was to, as it were to get, when I, I was talking about the watch, my watch strap⁴ was broken, and I wanted to make a little, a little story about this, for the, for the dinner. And I wondered about the symbolism, and I talked about various people of the past who looked for 5)portents and, uh, then I said, "Well, yes, it was because I was coming to the 6)ceremony. It was OK. That’s what it meant that time was going to stop and then, time was going to become new and so the watch, then, had become benign⁶ again." Now I had to and that came in about the third 7)version-the watch was benign again and it was telling me that my time was running out, and I had, I forgot to put in the first draft: it was telling me without threat...
Horace: Hmmm.
Naipaul: That my time was running out.
Horace: Yes.
Naipaul: You know that is, these are the little things I do...
Horace: Yes, I see.
Naipaul: I hope the, I’m sorry to give it in this little fine detail.
Horace: No, no.
Naipaul: But, this is...
Horace: It’s most useful I think for the listener.
Naipaul: This is a lot how the writing is done.

注释:
1) Horace 贺瑞斯·恩达尔，瑞典文学院的常任秘书
2) phenomenon [fi5nCminEn] n. 现象，事情
3) Coetzee 库切，南非著名作家，曾两度获得英国文坛最高奖--布克奖，2003年获诺贝尔文学奖
4) elimination [i7limi5neiFEn] n. 排除，消除
5) portent⁵ [5pC:tEnt]] n. 征兆
6) ceremony [5serimEni] n. 典礼， 仪式
7) version [5vE:FEn] n. 译文，译本

奈保尔自述演讲与写作风格的关系

贺瑞斯∶你的风格，已成了广为讨论的话题了。
奈保尔∶是。
贺瑞斯∶我甚至听说有人算过你的文章里平均每个单词的有多少个字母。应该是四个吧，我想。
奈保尔∶对，我想是。
贺瑞斯∶要是我没有记错，那可能正确得很。但是，我是说，很明显，这种风格对任何读者而言都是引人入胜的……
奈保尔∶是。
贺瑞斯∶清晰，简洁就像……
奈保尔∶是。
贺瑞斯∶我记得最近库切在一篇文章里提到它从容、利落如匕首。
奈保尔∶是的，是的。
贺瑞斯∶你是如何练就这种风格的？自然而然的还是经过排除，经过剔除字词，去掉多余的修饰等等？
奈保尔∶哦，那始于我早前说过的学写作的过程，那时我尽量找句子来表达自己的思想。我想写作的习惯就形成了。我不再觉得自己在从事某项工作，那只是写作的习惯。因此，写起来很快，然后，我就将我要说的连成句群。我得当心别因为速度而落下什么。我曾作过一次讲话，一次两分钟的讲话，在晚宴上，得奖后的庆功宴，说实话，那篇讲话写了三遍。有三份稿子。写了第一份，修改后打印出来，再修改。首先把什么都写出来，然后，一方面要转成口语，从中突现语音质量，另一样就是，正是将要突出的——我那时正在说我的手表，我手表的表带断了，我想据此为宴会做点文章。然后我想到了象征主义，我便谈起以前的各种人物，他们都渴望一些预兆，然后我就说∶“哦，对了，因为我要来参加典礼，那没什么。其意味就是时间即将结束，然后时间将要更新，最后手表又回复常态了。”此时，我要进入第三部分了——手表回复正常，它暗示着我的时间匆匆流走，而我，没有把这一句放到初稿里：它告诉着我，没有带着凶兆……
贺瑞斯∶嗯。
奈保尔∶我的时间匆匆流尽了。
贺瑞斯∶是的。
奈保尔∶你知道，那些就是我做的琐碎事。
贺瑞斯∶对，我知道。
奈保尔∶我希望……对不起，我说得那么零零碎碎的。
贺瑞斯∶不，不要这么说。
奈保尔∶不过，这是……
贺瑞斯∶我想这对听众是极为有用的。
奈保尔∶这很大程度上说明了我的作品是怎么写出来的。

1 computed   

adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He computed that the project would take seven years to complete. 他估计这项计划要花七年才能完成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。 来自辞典例句

2 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

3 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

4 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

5 portent   

n.预兆；恶兆；怪事

参考例句：

• I see it as a portent of things to come.我把它看作是将要到来的事物的前兆。
• As for her engagement with Adam,I would say the portents are gloomy.至于她和亚当的婚约，我看兆头不妙。

6 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。