美国国家公共电台 NPR Editor Terry McDonnell Doctors Stories In 'Accidental Life'

Editor Terry McDonnell Doctors Stories In 'Accidental Life' 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0007:16repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: 

Terry McDonell has spent a lifetime thinking about writing and writers. He's an editor who came up in the heady days of magazines in the '70s and '80s at Rolling Stone, Esquire, Outside. He enticed² literary greats, many of them novelists, to write long-form pieces for his publications. He picked writers who lived as colourfully as they wrote and had an appetite for adventure far beyond their writing desks.

TERRY MCDONELL: Tom McGuane, the great novelist from Montana, called it having a long reach, which in his case meant being nominated for a National Book Award for fiction the same year that he won the team roping at the rodeo in Gardiner, Mont. This was, like, as important somehow, this writing life, as some of the things they put on paper.

MONTAGNE: Terry McDonell is now out with a memoir³ about his editing life. His work included assigning stories, getting a writer paid - just imagine Hunter Thompson's expense reports - and of course shaping the writing.

MCDONELL: There's two analogies, you know, the - you're treating the story in the way that a doctor might treat the patient. You say so what's wrong with this? And you ask the writer are you - are you saying what you really mean? What do you really want to say? You have to get under the hood⁴ is what I mean.

MONTAGNE: But that's easier probably said than done.

MCDONELL: (Laughter) Well, the better the writer the more collegial it is, and it seems to go quite easily. I have never really had a problem with writers resisting what I wanted except occasionally when I would have made a big mistake. Jim Harrison, famous mostly I guess for "Legends Of The Fall" but for many, many books, told me once you've lynched my baby.

MONTAGNE: What does that qualify as?

MCDONELL: (Laughter) I don't know. I was hoping it was, you know, patter that would, you know, made our conversations more interesting. But he was angry because it had in fact - someone had inserted a semi-colon, and like the wonderful Kurt Vonnegut, he was absolutely opposed to semi-colons anywhere.

MONTAGNE: Yeah. That's what I would think. You, in fact, quote the legendary⁵ New Yorker editor Harold Ross is defining editing as quarrelling with writers.

MCDONELL: (Laughter).

MONTAGNE: But I just would think it's hard to enter in their fictional⁶ world and mess with it very much.

MCDONELL: I think that quarrelling with writers was a little bit flip⁷, but I think that what distinguishes the best writers is voice. If they have a voice that is their voice, it could be as wildly - pardon the cliche⁹ - gonzo as what Hunter Thompson would write about politics, all the way to the wonderful George Plimpton writing about, like, playing for the Detroit Lions in "Paper Lion." They were completely different voices, but they were immersive, and they paid very close attention to detail so that you saw exactly what they were writing about. It wasn't - you didn't - you never saw the word amazing or unbelievable. You saw specifics.

MONTAGNE: You have a story in here of golfing with Hunter Thompson and George Plimpton, which seems a really crazy group.

MCDONELL: Well, it was a - it was a crazy, crazy moment. Hunter had sent a photograph of himself sinking a very long putt at the golf club in Aspen. And he had written on it come out here and bring George. Bring money. I will beat you both like mules¹⁰.

MONTAGNE: To you - he wrote that to you.

MCDONELL: This was to me on - written - scrawled¹¹ across that photograph, and George had wanted to do the first writer-at-work interview with a journalist ever - that great series in the Paris Review. And I was starting a little magazine and I wanted Hunter to write something for me that was going to be kind of special. So we had this agenda, but as soon as we got there, Hunter said, well, first golf. And Hunter had - on his cart he had Jose Cuervo. He had Jack¹² Daniels. He had Dewar's for George. He had two six packs of beer. He had his 12-gauge shotgun. He had limes. He had grapefruits.

Anyway, right before we started to warm up, he said here take these, and he produced strange little blotters, put one on his tongue and licked it. Then I did the same, and he said - anyway this was acid, lysergic acid, LSD. And George didn't do that. And he was going to do this interview with Hunter. In the end, what the bet was that we would all get three balls at a short par⁸ 3 that was over a body of water that was filled with geese. So I couldn't - I know I was no good at all. George was wonderful and put all three of his balls on and won. And Hunter was on and won too, and if he got a birdie, he would tie George.

Hunter went back to the ball, struck it firmly and followed the ball toward the cup, but it was about maybe four inches off and he missed it. He shrieked¹³, threw the club in the air, raced back to his bag, got the shotgun and fired it over the geese, who all lifted off at the same time. And it occurred to me at that moment that perhaps it was good to have a story about playing acid golf with Hunter and George. It would be good for my career somehow.

MONTAGNE: (Laughter) (Unintelligible).

MCDONELL: I leave that to you all.

MONTAGNE: I - there is one of a lovely - actually, you are quoting somebody, but it's a lovely thought and it has to do with needing an editor. You quote Renata Adler in her novel "Speedboat" describing a tendency of some writers.

MCDONELL: Well, it was - she was talking about the meticulousness¹⁴ of raccoons, I think, who would take something like a cube of sugar to the creek¹⁵ and clean it so thoroughly¹⁶ that there was nothing left in the end and that that was a lesson - there was a lesson in that for writers.

MONTAGNE: Well, what was sweet was in the book you write an editor could help that (laughter).

MCDONELL: Well, yeah. I said, yeah, I could help with that.

MONTAGNE: Well, there's just - it's truly just a moment in the book, but one time you sent the novelist Francisco Goldman to a Red Sox game.

MCDONELL: Well, Frank's relationship with his father was built around their love of the Red Sox and sadness that the Red Sox never quite made it. And then his father passed away right before the Red Sox got into the playoffs with the Yankees. It was the year that they were going to win. And I knew this about Frank, and I I asked if he might want to write about that. And he said that he wanted the assignment so bad that he'd write it in exchange for a ticket. And then he wrote most Red Sox fans are the offspring of Red Sox fans and every one of them has a father whose story is longer and more painful than his own. And then I say, you know, no amount of reporting will give you that. So the idea was you find what's in the heart, really, of the writer and ask for it.

MONTAGNE: Well, thank you very much for joining us.

MCDONELL: Oh, it's a pleasure.

MONTAGNE: Terry McDonell is author of the memoir "The Accidental Life: An Editor's Notes On Writing And Writers."

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 enticed   

诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He enticed his former employer into another dice game. 他挑逗他原来的老板再赌一次掷骰子。
• Consumers are courted, enticed, and implored by sellers of goods and services. 消费者受到商品和劳务出售者奉承，劝诱和央求。

3 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

4 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

5 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。

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 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

8 par   

n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的

参考例句：

• Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years.近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
• I don't think his ability is on a par with yours.我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。

9 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

10 mules   

骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者

参考例句：

• The cart was pulled by two mules. 两匹骡子拉这辆大车。
• She wore tight trousers and high-heeled mules. 她穿紧身裤和拖鞋式高跟鞋。

11 scrawled   

乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I tried to read his directions, scrawled on a piece of paper. 我尽量弄明白他草草写在一片纸上的指示。
• Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it -- I got more." 汤姆在他的写字板上写了几个字：“请你收下吧，我多得是哩。”

12 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

13 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

14 meticulousness   

谨小慎微

参考例句：

• ICD 10 is characterized by its newness, comprehensiveness and meticulousness. ICD?10 的主要特点是新、全、细。 来自互联网
• The distinct grill cooking, typifies the health-consciousness, meticulousness and artistry of classic French food. 铁板烧以其独特的烹饪手法，更能体现出法式料理崇尚科学健康搭配，追求精雕细琢、术美感的风格。 来自互联网

15 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

16 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。