美国国家公共电台 NPR Marvel Comics Meet Reality On The Not-So-Mean Streets Of Hell's Kitchen

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Hell's Kitchen has for a long time been pop culture shorthand for gritty New York City.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JESSICA JONES")

KRYSTEN RITTER: (As Jessica Jones) Do you know any drug dealers¹?

MIKE COLTER: (As Luke Cage) I own a bar in Hell's Kitchen. What you think?

MCEVERS: Hell's Kitchen is the backdrop for four popular Netflix series based on Marvel² Comics heroes. Those characters - Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist - now team up in "The Defenders³." It premieres on Netflix today. NPR's Neda Ulaby hit the streets of New York to see how much the fictionalized Hell's Kitchen reflects the real one.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE⁴: I went to Hell's Kitchen with Fred Van Lente, a comic book writer and historian who's lived in New York City for decades. Hell's Kitchen, he says, was once an infamous⁵ den⁶ of crime. In the 19th century, the story goes, a couple of cops were policing a riot near 10th Avenue. One said, this place is hell.

FRED VAN LENTE: And the other cop, said, no, no, hell is a much milder climate. This is hotter. This is hell's kitchen. And so that's where the name comes from.

ULABY: The scrappy Hell's Kitchen mythologized in the Marvel Universe is filled with bruisers and brawlers who crash in its flophouses and drink in its working-class bars. And it's got the kind of cheap, crummy offices where a superhero might moonlight as a detective or a crusading lawyer.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DAREDEVIL")

DEBORAH ANN WOLL: (As Karen Page) Here you are, a survivor⁷ of Hell's Kitchen, the hottest place anyone's ever known, a place where cowards don't last long. So you must be a hero.

VAN LENTE: This stretch of Ninth is some of the best eating in Manhattan.

ULABY: Welcome to the real Hell's Kitchen today. Fred Van Lente points out a fabulous⁸ post-modern structure that exceeds anything you'd see in Architectural Digest.

VAN LENTE: It looks like someone put an apartment building inside a large plastic tube.

ULABY: The kind of building between 34th to 59th Street where a studio apartment could sell for close to a million dollars.

VAN LENTE: (Laughter) This is really, really different than what you would've seen here, like, a hundred years ago. This is really different than what you would've seen here in the '80s.

ULABY: That's when the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics moved to New York City in the '80s. Axel Alonso met me on West 54th Street.

Why is Hell's Kitchen so important for Marvel?

AXEL ALONSO: In Marvel comic books, Hell's Kitchen sort of functioned as Mean Street Central, the underbelly of society, the place where there are predators⁹ and prey¹⁰.

ULABY: Yeah, but the predators today seem a lot more like the people charging you 50 bucks¹¹ for a blowout or 20 for an omelet at brunch¹².

ALONSO: We're fudging the truth with Hell's Kitchen right now. You know, as you and I walk the streets, we see the development, the cafes.

ULABY: The New York of an earlier time informed so many iconic comics. Alonso says fans would revolt if you moved characters deeply associated with New York to any place authentically¹³ grittier like Detroit. And Alonso says the Harlem of Marvel's "Luke Cage" has been updated, much more so than Hell's Kitchen. And the Marvel Universe is making a point of weaving in stories about gentrification.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DAREDEVIL")

TONYA GLANZ: (As Susan Harris) Hell's Kitchen's on the rebound¹⁴, Mr. Nelson. And in 18 months, you won't be able to rent a broom closet at this price point.

ULABY: In the Netflix show "Daredevil," an evil real estate mogul kills tenement¹⁵ activists¹⁶ who will not move out of their rent-controlled apartments. He's motivated only by greed.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DAREDEVIL")

VINCENT D'ONOFRIO: (As Wilson Fisk) The city and its future - seeing Hell's Kitchen to its fullest potential is very important to me.

ULABY: It's smart for Marvel or any other media company balancing between nostalgia¹⁷ for a rough-edge New York of decades past and the playground for the 1 percent that much of Manhattan is today, says comics writer Fred Van Lente. That said, you have to make Hell's Kitchen something it's not in order for it to work.

VAN LENTE: Superheroes defending Hell's Kitchen as it is now, filled with rich people - that's not a good look for superheroes, you know? Well, no, I only save the rich people. It's not - you know, you're not going to get a lot of good PR out of that.

ULABY: There was a time when TV shows like "Friends" painted a picture of a New York City that was aspirational¹⁸ yet affordable¹⁹. Funny in a New York that's remarkably²⁰ safe today but that few can easily afford how pop culture is manufacturing the menace. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

2 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

3 defenders   

n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者

参考例句：

• The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众，只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 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。

5 infamous   

adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的

参考例句：

• He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
• I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。

6 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

7 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

8 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

9 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

11 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 brunch   

n.早午餐

参考例句：

• They eat much the same thing for brunch every day.每天早午餐他们总是吃同样的东西。
• What did you have for your brunch?你早午饭都吃些什么？

13 authentically   

ad.sincerely真诚地

参考例句：

• Gina: And we should give him something 2 authentically Taiwanese. 吉娜：而且我们应该送他有纯正台湾味的东西。
• A loser is one who fails to correspond authentically. 失败者则指那些未能做到诚实可靠的人。

14 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

15 tenement   

n.公寓；房屋

参考例句：

• They live in a tenement.他们住在廉价公寓里。
• She felt very smug in a tenement yard like this.就是在个这样的杂院里，她觉得很得意。

16 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》

17 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

18 aspirational   

志同的，有抱负的

参考例句：

• Most of the images that bombard us all are aspirational. 轰击的图像，我们都期望最大。
• Analysts said self-help and aspirational reading could explain India's high figures. 分析师们指出，自助读书、热爱读书是印度人均读书时间超过别的国家的主要原因。

19 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

20 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。