美国国家公共电台 NPR There's No Rest For Anyone In 'The Dreamers'

 

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

In a quiet college town, the fictional¹ town of Santa Lora in Southern California, one by one, students fall victim to a bizarre contagious² disease. They fall into a deep sleep and don't wake up. In fact, some will never wake up. And the disease spreads throughout the town quickly and indiscriminately. That's the dystopian premise³ of the new novel called "The Dreamers" by Karen Thompson Walker, who joins me from KPBS in San Diego. Karen, welcome to the program.

KAREN THOMPSON WALKER: Thank you so much for having me.

BLOCK: What got you thinking about this in the first place, this idea of a sleeping sickness?

WALKER: You know, I mean, I've always been interested in sleep. I think I'm interested in the parts of human experience where the ordinary overlaps⁴ with the extraordinary. And so I feel like sleep is one of those things that is just so profoundly familiar, obviously, to all of us. You know, we spend six or eight hours unconscious every day.

BLOCK: If we're lucky, yeah (laughter).

WALKER: Yeah, right. But we don't really know what goes on in our brains while we're asleep and in our minds. And so it was sort of exciting fictional territory to imagine this strange sickness that causes - where the only symptom is this kind of seemingly endless sleep and these strange dreams.

BLOCK: Let's talk a bit about the dream life because part of what distinguishes this sickness is that the brains of these victims of the disease are shown to be really, really busy - more activity than had ever been recorded in humans. And in some cases, as we learn later on, they're actually dreaming the future - dreaming about things that will happen. You allude⁵ to this notion that that state of being able to exist in parallel dimensions - present, past, future - is something that's been talked about in physics and in philosophy, in classics.

WALKER: Yeah. It was fascinating to explore, you know, for this book the kind of strangeness of sleep and dreaming and the mystery of human consciousness but then also to bring in this time element and this possibility of, what if the strangeness of these dreams are that it's granting some access to a kind of different way of experiencing time? And yeah, there is an idea in physics that past, present and future - that those are human constructs. And I'm interested in that idea of how humans perceive reality is not necessarily accurate to the way the universe actually functions.

BLOCK: I'm thinking, Karen, that as you've been immersed in this world, this fictional world of sleeping and dreaming, that you're probably a whole lot more aware of your own dream life and what those dreams mean.

WALKER: Yeah. I think that's true. You know, I didn't actually come into this with a plan to be writing about dreams, but it did make me more interested in my dreams. And, you know, I have two young daughters. And I'm fascinated by my 4-year-old's dreams as she reports them. And I remember her when she was maybe about 2, she didn't even know what to call them. But she called me in and she was, you know, terrified and said, like, Mama, when I close my eyes, I see something scary. And I feel like there was just something so primal⁶ about that description of a dream, even though she didn't even know really what that meant.

BLOCK: Yeah. What did you tell her?

WALKER: I mean, I tried to explain the concept of dreams.

BLOCK: It's hard to do, yeah.

WALKER: Yes. Because, you know, in a way, I'm telling her it's not real, but it is a part of real human experience. So even though the facts of the dream, you know, if you have a dream that you lose a loved one, that's not real. But in a way, in a strange way, your mind and sort of your body has experienced the emotions of what that would be like.

BLOCK: One of the components⁷ of the novel is that as the disease is spreading, there's also a different kind of contagion⁸ going on at the same time, and that is the spread of conspiracy⁹ theories about just what's happening in Santa Lora, that maybe this is a plot by Big Pharma to set a germ loose in this community. Or maybe these are crisis actors faking the whole thing. How conscious were you of trying to tie this fictional world into some of the things that we'd see in real life around real-life disasters?

WALKER: Yeah. I mean, it just seemed like an element of realism that if a new sickness like this appeared in an American city, inevitably¹⁰, just as we've seen with all kinds of other disasters, there would be some faction¹¹ of people who wouldn't believe it. And they would be looking for the conspiracy theory angle.

BLOCK: Yeah. There must be some explanation that's even more sinister¹² than the disease itself.

WALKER: Right. In a way, a conspiracy theory is comforting because it's more comforting to think that it's all an evil plot by one person or a group of people because then, in theory, there's something less chaotic¹³ about it. Even though it's scary, it's - the real kind of unsettling thing is just the chaos¹⁴ of human life.

BLOCK: Karen, I'm thinking back to the last time that you and I talked. It was about your your first novel, "The Age Of Miracles," also set in California and also about a calamity¹⁵ but a different kind. In that novel, the rotation¹⁶ of the Earth has slowed, so days are lasting¹⁷ as long as weeks. And horrible things happen - the oceans shift, and communities wash away. There is something about you and the apocalypse in California, I think, that is a running theme through your fiction. What's going on there?

WALKER: You know, in some ways, I can't articulate exactly why my imagination is so fired by these disaster situations. I mean, I think growing up in California, I think it does - and both books are set in California too - you know, there is something about the kind of familiarity with the feeling of a looming¹⁸ disaster is a part of a California childhood, which it was of mine. So I think that's part of it. And then I think also just writing about a disaster like this, it's also just a way of looking at my sort of main interest in real subject is ordinary people. So in a way, this sleeping sickness is a way of highlighting and exploring all the just facets¹⁹ of human nature and what would happen to them in such an extraordinary and uncertain situation.

BLOCK: That's Karen Thompson Walker. Her novel is "The Dreamers." Karen, thanks so much for talking with us.

WALKER: Oh, thank you so much for having me.

1 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

2 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

3 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

4 overlaps   

v.部分重叠( overlap的第三人称单数 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠

参考例句：

• The style in these two books largely overlaps. 这两本书的文体有许多处是一致的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The new office overlaps the functions of the one already in existence. 新机构的职能与那个现存机构的职能部分重叠。 来自辞典例句

5 allude   

v.提及，暗指

参考例句：

• Many passages in Scripture allude to this concept.圣经中有许多经文间接地提到这样的概念。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles.她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

6 primal   

adj.原始的；最重要的

参考例句：

• Jealousy is a primal emotion.嫉妒是最原始的情感。
• Money was a primal necessity to them.对于他们，钱是主要的需要。

7 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

8 contagion   

n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延

参考例句：

• A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
• The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。

9 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

10 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

11 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

12 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

13 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

14 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

15 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

16 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。

17 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

18 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

19 facets   

n.（宝石或首饰的）小平面( facet的名词复数 )；（事物的）面；方面

参考例句：

• The question had many facets. 这个问题是多方面的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A fully cut brilliant diamond has 68 facets. 经过充分切刻的光彩夺目的钻石有68个小平面。 来自《简明英汉词典》