美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Queen Of The Sea,' The Story Rides On Goatback

In 'Queen Of The Sea,' The Story Rides On Goatback

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Cartoonist Dylan Meconis has set her new book, "Queen Of The Sea," in a convent on a tiny island somewhere off the coast of a country that could be Tudor England but isn't, not quite. The story plays out in a mysterious, possibly magical alternate world just a few degrees off what you might have learned in history class. But it's packed with intricate, well-researched details. NPR books editor Petra Mayer caught up with Meconis in San Diego at this year's Comic-Con between panels and signing sessions.

DYLAN MECONIS: You're the winner in my mind.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE¹: So the first thing you should know about "Queen Of The Sea" is that goats are very important...

MECONIS: It's about a young girl named Margaret. She's 11 years old, and she is growing up on an isolated² island convent and secrets are revealed, unknown identities are uncovered, unlikely friendships are forged. There are a lot of goats.

MAYER: ...Because while the book is only loosely based on actual history, Meconis says she really wanted to get the concrete details of everyday life right. And the nuns⁴ in Margaret's convent keep goats.

MECONIS: So I had to look up what breeds of goat would have been native to England and to Scotland and to the Scottish islands so that I did not put in, like, a Nubian goat that only arrived in the 18th century. It was really fun looking around all these nerdy, like, historical goat breed websites (laughter).

MAYER: Meconis says she's drawn⁵ to history because historical details make great building blocks for a fictional⁶ world.

MECONIS: It's very solid, and it feels very real because it was. But it's also so hidden from view if you study the metahistory like we all do in high school and college.

MAYER: In school, we learned names and dates, 1066 and all that, but not, say, what kind of goat a 16th-century nun³ would raise or what its coat would feel like under your hand.

MECONIS: For me, it's really delightful⁷ to find those details rather than just totally inventing them on my own.

MAYER: Some of the details in "Queen Of The Sea" are a mix of real life and invention. For example, nuns and monks⁸ of that era kept silent most of the time. So how did they do something as mundane⁹ as ask for the salt at dinner?

MECONIS: Some monks developed this really elaborate sign language for the dinner table so they could say things like pass the salt or this fish is terrible. And we still have records of what some of those gestures were. So I took a bunch of those and had the nuns in this story use them. And I have my - my little main character Margaret is very familiar with them, and she gets to teach some new people the sign language. And some of them I invented on my own. But others are totally real.

MAYER: At one meal, Margaret teaches a new friend to put her fingers to her face and wiggle her nose like a mouse to ask for cheese.

MECONIS: I think I made that one up. The stuff for, like, salt and vinegar and fish, those are all genuine

MAYER: Meconis says she unearths¹⁰ a lot of those details online in high-resolution scans of original documents.

MECONIS: And being able to, like, zoom¹¹ in on, you know, a single letter of Queen Elizabeth's youthful handwriting is really - it's a wild thing, and that's not something that even 15 years ago would really have been as possible to this extent.

MAYER: The best stories, she says, are inspired by something real.

MECONIS: And for me, there's so much joy in that treasure hunt of historical research and using it as a platform or as a setting for, you know, more intimate human stories is just really - it hits a perfect chord for me.

MAYER: And if those little historical details, the table signs and the right kind of goat fur, inspire readers to go off on their own voyages of discovery, so much the better.

MECONIS: If I trick somebody into getting a history degree with this book (laughter), I'll be so happy.

MAYER: Petra Mayer, NPR News, San Diego.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 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。

3 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

4 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 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。

7 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

8 monks   

n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The monks lived a very ascetic life. 僧侣过着很清苦的生活。
• He had been trained rigorously by the monks. 他接受过修道士的严格训练。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

10 unearths   

发掘或挖出某物( unearth的第三人称单数 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露

参考例句：

11 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。