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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
Imagine a world where lying is against the law. That's the reality writer Ben Winters has created in his new novel "Golden State." It reads like a detective story, and it's set in the future. But, as NPR's Lynn Neary tells us, it was born straight out of the current political moment.
LYNN NEARY, BYLINE1: Ben Winters knows exactly when he started writing "Golden State."
BEN WINTERS: The day after President Trump's inauguration2. And you'll remember the infamous3 incident of the inauguration crowd size debate.
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SEAN SPICER: This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.
NEARY: That definitive4 statement by then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer sparked this heated exchange between White House counselor5 Kellyanne Conway and NBC's Chuck Todd.
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KELLYANNE CONWAY: You're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving - Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that. But the point remains6 that there's...
CHUCK TODD: Wait a minute. Alternative facts? Alternative facts? Four of the 5 facts he uttered...
CONWAY: Hey, Chuck, why - hey, Chuck...
TODD: The one thing he got right was Zeke Miller7. Four of the 5 facts he uttered were just not true. Look. Alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods.
NEARY: All that talk about facts versus8 alternative facts, real news versus fake news got Winters thinking about what life might be like if facts were indisputable and there was no question about the truth.
WINTERS: For me, this book was about, OK, let's say we can solve this problem. Let's say there really is a way where we could build a world where everybody knows the truth. What are the problems with that? Where does that take us?
NEARY: Where it takes us in Winters' novel is a place called the Golden State, which bears a strong resemblance to California. The world as we know it has been destroyed. And though we never find out exactly how, it appears it had something to do with a pandemic of lies. In the Golden State, lies are against the law, and the main enforcers of the truth are known as Speculators.
WINTERS: In a world where it is against the law to lie, it is against the law, then, to hypothesize, to imagine versions of what might have happened. But when you are trying to solve, for example, a suspicious death, sometimes, it is necessary to hypothesize, so we can try to follow the leads and try to crack this case. So to do that, there are individuals within the Golden State, a special sort of law enforcement officer who has license9 to speculate.
NEARY: Some Speculators seem to have an almost mystical ability to detect untruth, but that does not preclude10 the need for good, old-fashioned, gumshoe detective work. And that requires a good, old-fashioned detective. Laszlo Ratesic fits the bill. He's a big guy with an unruly, red beard, a loner still mourning the end of his marriage. And he's always yearning11 for enough time to stop for a meal or a snack at his favorite haunts.
UNIDENTIFIED READER: (Reading) Somebody's telling lies in here, and it's making it hard to eat.
NEARY: Ratesic is a self-conscious man, embarrassed by his size and rumpled12 appearance and acutely aware of the effect his official status has on others.
UNIDENTIFIED READER: (Reading) People see us, people like Renner, I mean, and even people like Elena Tester, people who want to know better and get weird13, wary14. They talk slow or fast, fidget from side to side or stand statue-still, arms crossed, protecting the midsection as if from a blow, afraid of lying but also afraid of being thought to be lying, afraid of the rules we enforce and the punishments we are empowered to dole15 out.
NEARY: In the Golden State, people greet each other with indisputable facts, like 2 plus 2 is 4 or the Earth is in orbit around the sun. An elaborate system of tracking and archiving the minute details of everyone's lives has been set up. Laszlo Ratesic is dedicated16 to upholding this order. But when he starts working a possible murder case with a new, young partner, he uncovers some uncomfortable truths about the power structure that underpins17 his world.
WINTERS: There's a constant collective effort in the Golden State to reinforce the truth in small ways and large. It is a place that is not only dedicated to the preservation18 of reality. It is worshipful of the truth, which is why, when Laszlo starts to realize that there is, perhaps, something else going on underneath19 all of this - why it is such a dangerous thing for him to discover.
NEARY: With its classic detective figure and its futuristic world, "Golden State" is a cross between a mystery novel and dystopian fiction. But Ben Winters doesn't really care how you define it.
WINTERS: If you want to think about it as a mystery, awesome20. Like, dig it. It's a cool mystery I hope twists and turns in a satisfying solution. If you want to think about it as dystopian, and it's about the sort of world that I built and the ways that world is a kind of funhouse version of our world, fantastic. I love that, too. And I'm very proud of the world-building in the book. But at the end of the day, I just hope it's good.
NEARY: In creating the Golden State, Winters says he wanted to build a world just different enough that readers would have to look at our own reality in a new way. Lynn Neary, NPR News. Washington.
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1 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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2 inauguration | |
n.开幕、就职典礼 | |
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3 infamous | |
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
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4 definitive | |
adj.确切的,权威性的;最后的,决定性的 | |
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5 counselor | |
n.顾问,法律顾问 | |
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6 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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7 miller | |
n.磨坊主 | |
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8 versus | |
prep.以…为对手,对;与…相比之下 | |
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9 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
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10 preclude | |
vt.阻止,排除,防止;妨碍 | |
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11 yearning | |
a.渴望的;向往的;怀念的 | |
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12 rumpled | |
v.弄皱,使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13 weird | |
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的 | |
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14 wary | |
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的 | |
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15 dole | |
n.救济,(失业)救济金;vt.(out)发放,发给 | |
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16 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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17 underpins | |
n.基础材料( underpin的名词复数 );基础结构;(学说、理论等的)基础;(人的)腿v.用砖石结构等从下面支撑(墙等)( underpin的第三人称单数 );加固(墙等)的基础;为(论据、主张等)打下基础;加强 | |
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18 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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19 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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20 awesome | |
adj.令人惊叹的,难得吓人的,很好的 | |
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