美国国家公共电台 NPR John Le Carré Fears For The Future In 'Agent Running In The Field'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

After more than 50 years writing some of the world's most acclaimed¹ espionage² novels - some of the world's most acclaimed novels - John Le Carre has accomplished³ something truly extraordinary - he's made badminton seem fascinating.

Nat, an almost 50-year veteran agent runner, has returned home to London for one last posting and to reclaim⁴ his championship despite the advance of years at his badminton club in Battersea. It's there a young man named Ed introduces himself and asks for a game. Before the story plays out, Nat and Ed, who know one another just on the badminton court and over a couple of pints⁵ thereafter, will find their secrets intertwined as only a John le Carre story can.

His new novel - "Agent Running In The Field." John le Carre, which, of course, is the pen name for David Cornwell, joins us from London. David, thanks so much for being with us.

JOHN LE CARRE: It's a great pleasure.

SIMON: Let's get badminton out of the way first. Do you like it?

LE CARRE: Yes, I love it. I played it when I was young. And for the purposes of my novel, it does have something rather beautiful about it. It's a very subtle game. It's rather quiet by comparison with squash. And it becomes suddenly extremely fast. But quite eccentric people play it. And I wanted that eccentricity⁶, too.

SIMON: Your novel has suddenly become urgently timely, hasn't it?

LE CARRE: Yes, I have to say that's - in a way, it's a fluke. But of course, I've been thinking about the issues that it discusses over the last couple of years and have been rather haunted by them. So I'm glad that it comes out coincidentally at the absolute crisis of the Brexit story.

SIMON: You have a specific concern about Britain leaving Europe, too, we should say.

LE CARRE: Yeah. My great concern at the moment is that the 27 nations of Europe will lose their nerve as we come up to the deadline for Brexit. And the consequence of that, to my mind, I'm afraid, is that there will form a U.S.-U.K. nexus⁷ that will cause irreparable damage to the world and strengthen thugs and tyrants⁸ and myth-makers and people who are currently being a blight⁹ upon humanity.

SIMON: This would be under the current administrations.

LE CARRE: Something weird¹⁰ has emerged that I was never fully¹¹ conscious of. Remember that I taught at Eton 100 years ago as a young schoolmaster. At that time, Britain launched one of the most idiotic¹² campaigns ever. It invaded Suez. And the cabinet in those days consisted, I think, of 12 former members of the school.

There is this extraordinary elite¹³ that we have to deal with in our country of wealthy, landed people who nurse really very silly and completely out of date nostalgia¹⁴ about the war, about empire. And it's quite extraordinary that they give the voice to so much of the misleading propaganda that is being pumped out at the moment. Take back our power. So we take it back. Who do we give it to? Trump¹⁵?

These are things that are so much about class and the intimate structure of Britain. If there's a deep state in Britain, the unconscious one is this grouping of British - not British - English nationalists of an old school who've kept their grip on the thinking of the Conservative Party here.

SIMON: I remember when the Berlin Wall came down and then the USSR collapsed¹⁶, a lot of people asked what is John le Carre going to write about now (laughter).

LE CARRE: Well, it is wonderful that people think history stops. It never does. You know, there was actually a moment then when the wall came down when that absent great leader of the world could have come forward and done amazing things. There was no Marshall Plan. There was no great visionary who gave the situation a possibility. We could have got together on a quite different basis, instead of which the exploitation of former Soviet¹⁷ Russia by the West was pretty shocking. And if you will, the post-imperial time, the time when the two great empires ceased to be at loggerheads, that was, for me, absolutely fascinating. So it took me to countries where the grip of the Cold War upon them had suddenly been removed, and there was a sense of a directionless future. There was no voice, and a free-for-all broke out.

SIMON: Is it daunting¹⁸ to write a story about international intrigue¹⁹ when the headlines compete with it every day?

LE CARRE: Well, I think my technique is to personalize everything. If I'm angry, then I invest that in characters. And I give them a motivation that expresses that anger. It's a little bit like the horrible Stalin dictum. Twenty million people wiped out is a statistic²⁰, but a couple of people lying dead in a ditch is a national tragedy. If you take an earlier novel of mine like "The Constant Gardener," everybody knew, broadly speaking, that Big Pharma was doing dreadful things - upping the prices absurdly, using human beings in clinical tests without obtaining their proper consent and so on and so on. But that was a general point. Actually to take it down to one woman who cares, then you begin to have a story, and you begin to make a point.

SIMON: Something else occurred to me reading your novel. There is, of course, a scene which you kind of expect of the British security people watching an operation unfold on video and audio. And it occurred to me anyone and everyone can do that now. We are living in a kind of surveillance state with smart speakers and personal digital assistants and telephones that can listen to us and watch us. I wonder if you have any concern about that.

LE CARRE: I'm hugely concerned about it. And how we control that, how we contain it, I truly don't know. One thing is sure - the power is probably invested in Silicon²¹ Valley, not in any government. It's a nongovernmental issue, if you like. And we have to get a grip on that. But it takes a far more sophisticated brain than mind to work out how you do it.

SIMON: I'd still like to read a John le Carre novel about that.

LE CARRE: (Laughter) You know how old I am?

SIMON: I looked it up. And I will tell you, suddenly I log in, and I'm getting invited to buy your books and see your films and otherwise replenish²² the Cornwall family.

LE CARRE: That's great. Scott, Start staving now.

SIMON: John le Carré - David Cornwell - his novel, "Agent Running In The Field." Thank you so much for being with us.

LE CARRE: Thank you very much. It was lovely to talk to you, Scott.

1 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

2 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

3 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

4 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

5 pints   

n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒

参考例句：

• I drew off three pints of beer from the barrel. 我从酒桶里抽出三品脱啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two pints today, please. 今天请来两品脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 eccentricity   

n.古怪，反常，怪癖

参考例句：

• I can't understand the eccentricity of Henry's behavior.我不理解亨利的古怪举止。
• His eccentricity had become legendary long before he died.在他去世之前他的古怪脾气就早已闻名遐尔了。

7 nexus   

n.联系；关系

参考例句：

• Shared ambition is the vital nexus between them.共同的志向是把他们联结在一起的重要纽带。
• Either way,the nexus between the consumer and consumer prices is important.无论那个方面，消费者与消费价格之间的关系是至关重要的。

8 tyrants   

专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物

参考例句：

• The country was ruled by a succession of tyrants. 这个国家接连遭受暴君的统治。
• The people suffered under foreign tyrants. 人民在异族暴君的统治下受苦受难。

9 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

10 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 idiotic   

adj.白痴的

参考例句：

• It is idiotic to go shopping with no money.去买东西而不带钱是很蠢的。
• The child's idiotic deeds caused his family much trouble.那小孩愚蠢的行为给家庭带来许多麻烦。

13 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

14 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

15 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

16 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

17 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

18 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

19 intrigue   

vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋

参考例句：

• Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
• The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。

20 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。

21 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

22 replenish   

vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满

参考例句：

• I always replenish my food supply before it is depleted.我总是在我的食物吃完之前加以补充。
• We have to import an extra 4 million tons of wheat to replenish our reserves.我们不得不额外进口四百万吨小麦以补充我们的储备。