美国国家公共电台 NPR Real Photos Inspire A Fictional Life In 'Feast Your Eyes'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The new novel "Feast Your Eyes" tells the story of a young woman determined¹ to be a photographer in 1950s New York, Lillian Preston. And the format² of the book tells you that she succeeded.

MYLA GOLDBERG: This book takes the form of the catalog notes to Lillian Preston's posthumous³ retrospective museum exhibition.

SHAPIRO: That's author Myla Goldberg. She assembled "Feast Your Eyes" as a series of letters, diary entries and, most importantly, descriptions of photographs taken by this legendary⁴ fictional⁵ artist over the course of her life. There are 118 photos numbered and titled, but the images themselves never appear in the book. I assumed they all came from Myla Goldberg's imagination, so I was shocked when the author corrected me.

GOLDBERG: It's funny 'cause actually a lot of them do exist.

SHAPIRO: Wait; what?

GOLDBERG: (Laughter) The wonderful thing about describing a photograph is you don't need the rights to it because you're not putting the actual picture in the book.

SHAPIRO: Wow.

GOLDBERG: And so I actually lived with street photographers for five, six years. And I had five or six books of street photography on my desk at any given time. So some of these photos, they are just - I just took them. The work of Vivian Maier is in here. The work of Garry Winograd is in here. The work of Diane Arbus is in here.

SHAPIRO: You just blew my mind.

GOLDBERG: (Laughter) So some of them - some of - and so I was looking through these books constantly for inspiration. Occasionally there'd be a photograph that just, like, this photograph is perfect. I want to use it. And so the description you're getting in the book is the description of an actual street photograph. Other times, I would see a photograph and the one corner of it would be what I wanted my photograph to be.

So in my mind, I would enlarge it, and that would become my photograph. And that's what gets described in the book. Other times, I would see a setting. And I would sub out one person for another kind of person or put my own people in the setting, and that became a photograph. And other times, yes, I did just make it up. So it's a combination of all those things.

SHAPIRO: Just so readers have some idea of how this looks in the book, will you read photograph No. 78? It's called "Couple On Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, 1964."

GOLDBERG: (Reading) At first, this one seems pretty straightforward⁶. He's got his right arm across her shoulders, his hand like one of those arcade⁷ claws gripping a prize. He's put together, but her coat is unbuttoned. And her hair is mussed, like he might have just had her up against the brick wall they're standing⁸ in front of. With his tie, pleated slacks and pomaded hair, he could be on his way to an office. That belted dress could put her on the service side of a department store counter, except that their faces tell you they can't be more than 14 years old. And there you have it - two middle-aged⁹ children stuck in your head like a sad song.

SHAPIRO: Do you remember where that photograph came from?

GOLDBERG: I do. That one is a Diane Arbus one.

SHAPIRO: What was it about that photograph that you were like, this one has to be in my book?

GOLDBERG: Their faces. I mean, the way I just - you know, they are middle-aged children. When you look at them, everything about their attitude is older. Everything about what they've seen of life that is reflected in their eyes is older, yet they're these smaller people. And it's just heartbreaking but true at the same time.

SHAPIRO: At times reading this book, I almost felt like I was taking an art appreciation¹⁰ class that would teach me how to look at photographs, even though I wasn't really looking at the photographs. It's like, this is what you see when you look at a still image, and these are the kinds of stories you can elicit¹¹ from them.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's magic. I - it really is magic what a photo can do.

SHAPIRO: Tell me about the photograph that is at the center of this story.

GOLDBERG: That would be a photograph called "Mommy Is Sick." And what ends up happening is Lillian ends up taking kind of twin or dual¹² nude¹³ and partially¹⁴ clothed portraits of herself and her daughter. It comes at a time when she needs to be taking care of her daughter, and her daughter doesn't want to go outside all the time to take street photography. So they're in the house a lot together.

And this particular photograph, she is suffering the after-effects of an illegal abortion¹⁵. And it's a picture that she had taken with a timed camera of her in bed while her daughter is trying to help her as best she can. And in the picture, she's just - she's offering her a glass of milk. And that one is an entirely¹⁶ made-up photo - that one. The kind of the most essential central photos of this novel are the ones that I just made up out of whole cloth.

SHAPIRO: That photo is where the book begins. Is it where the idea for the book began for you?

GOLDBERG: The book began with this idea of, how do you both - you know, how do you be both an artist and a parent? And so one of - I looked at - I was reading a lot of biographies of artists. You know, Dorothea Lange, super-famous WPA photographer, put her child - her children into foster care. She basically paid someone to take care of her children so she could go around taking photographs. And that was one choice she made.

And then on the other end, you have Sally Mann, who incorporated her children into her work so she didn't have to make that separation. And so I was reading about all of these choices. And so I guess the photographs started from that idea, also started from the idea that I knew I wanted to write about abortion. You know, we're talking, you know, the '50s. That's pre-Roe v. Wade¹⁷. And I'm a child of the post-Roe v. Wade era.

I read a book called "The Choices We Made," that the first half of it was personal essays by famous successful women who named - they gave their names - they were not anonymous¹⁸ - talking about their illegal abortions¹⁹. And basically, if you were an ambitious woman of that era, you had an abortion. And so reading about that, I knew that this was a huge part of this story. And so this central photograph, I guess, arose from all those different strands²⁰ kind of coming together.

SHAPIRO: Yeah the male characters in the story are like here and gone, relegated²¹ to the sidelines.

GOLDBERG: (Laughter).

SHAPIRO: They pass through on a breeze. Did you always know that you sort of wanted to keep the masculinity to a minimum?

GOLDBERG: No, that was not a conscious decision on my part. I just - as I was writing this, it just very much was a story about a woman's experience. And it's a woman who is fairly isolated²² to begin with and doesn't - you know, that men are not a big part of her life. But - I wasn't - this isn't a book about, you, know men, they're not important. No. It's just that this is focusing on the experience of being a woman at a time where women didn't necessarily get a whole lot of support.

SHAPIRO: There's a letter from Lillian Preston early in the book where she says, I don't want to make photographs, I want to make windows. Does that describe your feelings about writing?

GOLDBERG: Definitely. I think all art, any piece of art is a window into something else. And that's why it is central to the human experience. It's how we understand each other. It's how we get outside of ourselves. And it's how we grow empathy in this world, which is what our world needs more than ever. And so, yeah, those windows are essential.

SHAPIRO: Myla Goldberg, thank you so much for talking with us.

GOLDBERG: Thank you for talking with me, Ari. This was really fun.

SHAPIRO: Her new book is called "Feast Your Eyes."

1 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

2 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

3 posthumous   

adj.遗腹的；父亡后出生的；死后的，身后的

参考例句：

• He received a posthumous award for bravery.他表现勇敢，死后受到了嘉奖。
• The legendary actor received a posthumous achievement award.这位传奇男星在过世后获得终身成就奖的肯定。

4 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

5 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。

6 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

7 arcade   

n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道

参考例句：

• At this time of the morning,the arcade was almost empty.在早晨的这个时候，拱廊街上几乎空无一人。
• In our shopping arcade,you can find different kinds of souvenir.在我们的拱廊市场，你可以发现许多的纪念品。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

10 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

11 elicit   

v.引出,抽出,引起

参考例句：

• It was designed to elicit the best thinking within the government. 机构的设置是为了在政府内部集思广益。
• Don't try to elicit business secrets from me. I won't tell you anything. 你休想从我这里套问出我们的商业机密, 我什么都不会告诉你的。

12 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

13 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

14 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

15 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

16 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

17 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

18 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

19 abortions   

n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育

参考例句：

• The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人：不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
• Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论：染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网

20 strands   

n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Twist a length of rope from strands of hemp. 用几股麻搓成了一段绳子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She laced strands into a braid. 她把几股线编织成一根穗带。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 relegated   

v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类

参考例句：

• She was then relegated to the role of assistant. 随后她被降级做助手了。
• I think that should be relegated to the garbage can of history. 我认为应该把它扔进历史的垃圾箱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

22 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。