美国国家公共电台 NPR Imagine What It Was Like To Sit Down At Simone De Beauvoir's Desk

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now we're going to tell you about someone who had a remarkable¹ life. Simone de Beauvoir was a bisexual French atheist² who wanted to be a nun³ when she was little, a pioneer feminist⁴ and prolific⁵ author who moved in elite⁶ philosophical⁷ circles. Her longtime lover wrote the book on existentialism. When she died in 1986, she was famous across the globe. NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg tells us how Washington's National Museum of Women in the Arts is saluting⁸ her again.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE⁹: Intellectual, philosophical, literary, rebellious¹⁰ - Simone de Beauvoir spoke¹¹ like a machine gun.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR: (Speaking French).

STAMBERG: She wrote quickly, too - novels, essays, a play, four memoirs¹². At 15, a friend asked what she wanted to be.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DE BEAUVOIR: And I said I wanted to be a well-known writer when I am a woman, and that was true.

STAMBERG: It was what she wanted most in the world, she said.

SARAH OSBORNE BENDER: She writes like a scribe, it just comes out of her.

STAMBERG: Sarah Osborne Bender runs the library and research center at the Women in the Arts museum. She's showing two small piles of graph paper, the kind French students use to discipline their handwriting. On the pages, an early draft of de Beauvoir's best known book, "The Second Sex," her 1949 feminist treatise¹³ on what it means to be a woman.

OSBORNE BENDER: When she finally decided¹⁴ that she was going to write this, the ideas just poured from her.

STAMBERG: You can see it on these pages, words marched steadily¹⁵ across the paper, only two small cross-outs.

OSBORNE BENDER: She wrote longhand.

STAMBERG: And nice penmanship, or penwomanship (ph), whatever she would have said then.

This manuscript is the only original object in the exhibit. "From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir" is a cosy¹⁶ corner assemblage of objects that could have been in her Paris apartment - desk, lamp, bookcases.

OSBORNE BENDER: Her apartment was cluttered¹⁷. Her desk was covered. Her bookshelves were packed.

STAMBERG: Osborne Bender knows this from photographs, the philosopher in her element. Those black and white pictures are in the show, plus lots of other snapshots de Beauvoir tacked¹⁸ to her walls.

OSBORNE BENDER: Herself in travels, her loved ones, friends referred to as the family. Occasionally there's a movie star.

STAMBERG: It's a real intellectual's apartment, the digs of someone who spends time reading, writing and thinking. On an end table...

OSBORNE BENDER: Her travel tchotchkes. And these hands here are casts of Sartre's hands.

STAMBERG: De Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, the Nobel Prize-winning writer, philosopher and existentialist, had a lifelong virtual marriage of intellect, opinions, ambitions, intense conversation and Deux Magots coffee. It was an open relationship - no wedding license¹⁹, no children, various lovers on the side. Her deepest involvement, though, may have been with the notion of feminism, of being female in a man's world.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DE BEAUVOIR: Being a woman was not a problem for me.

STAMBERG: Sure, she was brilliant, confident, outspoken²⁰, but she interviewed dozens of women about their problems and analyzed²¹ them in "The Second Sex." Decades before Friedan, Steinem and Ms. magazine, de Beauvoir declared one is not born a woman, one becomes one. It's society that makes women second rate, acquiescent²², oppressed. In the late 1960s, when women in France and the U.S. became activists²³ for equality, de Beauvoir agreed with their goals.

OSBORNE BENDER: They needed to take their issues into their own hands. They couldn't wait for men to invite them into the fold. If they wanted change and that if they wanted their own place, they needed to make it.

STAMBERG: These days, women are in charge of nations and direct companies. They're organizing protests and raising daughters to be fearless. At the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Sarah Osborne Bender says in putting together her small exhibition, she saw 21st century women turning to de Beauvoir for inspiration.

OSBORNE BENDER: I was amazed at the presence she has in popular culture. If you search Simone de Beauvoir on Twitter or on Instagram, the daily volume of content - her quotes, pictures of her, people saying they're reading her for a university class. Every day there's content about her. She really holds a place. She's a very modern woman.

STAMBERG: In Washington, I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

1 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

2 atheist   

n.无神论者

参考例句：

• She was an atheist but now she says she's seen the light.她本来是个无神论者，可是现在她说自己的信仰改变了。
• He is admittedly an atheist.他被公认是位无神论者。

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 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

5 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

6 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。

7 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

8 saluting   

v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂

参考例句：

• 'Thank you kindly, sir,' replied Long John, again saluting. “万分感谢，先生。”高个子约翰说着又行了个礼。 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• He approached the young woman and, without saluting, began at once to converse with her. 他走近那年青女郎，马上就和她攀谈起来了，连招呼都不打。 来自辞典例句

9 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。

10 rebellious   

adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的

参考例句：

• They will be in danger if they are rebellious.如果他们造反，他们就要发生危险。
• Her reply was mild enough,but her thoughts were rebellious.她的回答虽然很温和，但她的心里十分反感。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 treatise   

n.专著；(专题)论文

参考例句：

• The doctor wrote a treatise on alcoholism.那位医生写了一篇关于酗酒问题的论文。
• This is not a treatise on statistical theory.这不是一篇有关统计理论的论文。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

16 cosy   

adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的

参考例句：

• We spent a cosy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。
• It was so warm and cosy in bed that Simon didn't want to get out.床上温暖而又舒适，西蒙简直不想下床了。

17 cluttered   

v.杂物，零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 )；乱糟糟地堆满，把…弄得很乱；（以…） 塞满…

参考例句：

• The room is cluttered up with all kinds of things. 零七八碎的东西放满了一屋子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The desk is cluttered with books and papers. 桌上乱糟糟地堆满了书报。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

19 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

20 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

21 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 acquiescent   

adj.默许的，默认的

参考例句：

• My brother is of the acquiescent rather than the militant type.我弟弟是属于服从型的而不是好斗型的。
• She is too acquiescent,too ready to comply.她太百依百顺了。

23 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》