美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Young People Who Do Extraordinary Things' Are The Norm In Marie Lu's YA World

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The author Marie Lu specializes in science fiction and fantasy novels for young adults. She wrote two bestselling series, "Legacy¹" and "The Young Elites²." Her latest novel, "Warcross," was inspired by her time in the video game industry. NPR's Mandalit del Barco met up with Lu at her loft³ in downtown LA's arts district.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE⁴: Marie Lu's fabulous⁵, modernist loft was featured in Dwell magazine. Its centerpiece is a modular workspace for her and her video game artist husband. The space is dotted with vintage NASA posters, neat stacks of comic books and a carefully curated collection of stuffed animals.

MARIE LU: We wanted it to be playful.

DEL BARCO: A section of the loft is painted with the geometric patterns of one of Lu's favorite video games, "Monument Valley."

LU: It's a game where you walk around structures, figuring out puzzles based on Escher-like geometry. So it's just really, really cool and beautiful.

DEL BARCO: For her latest novel, a science fiction thriller⁶, Lu created her own really cool worlds, real and virtual. In the not-too-distant future, everyone wears virtual reality eyeglasses that connect their brains to a master computer called NeuroLink. That's how they play the game "Warcross." The competition is all the rage, a bit like "Hunger Games" meets "World Of Warcraft." Players use avatars to compete in hyper-realistic settings, trying to capture artifacts from their rivals. The best players battle in person for the world championship inside a Tokyo stadium filled with screaming fans.

(CHEERING)

DEL BARCO: Lu says "Warcross" was inspired by real-life video games such as "League Of Legends."

LU: "League Of Legends" has become a phenomenon of its own, where 50,000 people will pack into the Staples⁷ Center to watch, you know, the world championships. And that very much influenced the creation of "Warcross."

DEL BARCO: The hero of the book is Emika Chen, a plucky⁸ 18-year-old bounty⁹ hunter. She's everything you'd expect - rainbow-dyed hair, a sleeve of tattoos¹¹, an electric skateboard and, as a computer hacker¹², self-taught.

LU: She hacks¹³ her way into the "Warcross" mainframe and kind of understands the underlying¹⁴ code that holds everything together.

DEL BARCO: Emika glitches¹⁵ herself into the game and captures the attention of Hideo Tanaka, the young billionaire genius who created "Warcross" when he was 13. He makes Emika an official player with a secret mission. Unlike her protagonist¹⁶, Marie Lu doesn't know how to code. But she does have a tattoo¹⁰ of a mythological¹⁷ phoenix¹⁸ on her back. And like Emika, she's Chinese-American. Lu was born in Beijing.

LU: In 1984, ironically (laughter), since I write dystopian novels (laughter).

DEL BARCO: Lu's family lived a bike ride away from Tiananmen Square, where her aunt used to take her to get popsicles and to watch students protest. But when those students were massacred there in 1989, the family fled to the U.S. So Lu grew up with her computer scientist mother and engineer father in Baton¹⁹ Rouge²⁰, New Orleans and Houston. She remembers spending hours after school holed up in the broom closet of a Chinese restaurant where her mom once worked. There she learned English by writing little stories.

LU: I had a lot of really emo stories as a kid. I wrote a lot of fan fiction. Anything and everything I could write - oh, and I wrote a lot of wanted reports - like, fake wanted reports because I would see them stapled²¹ on cork²² boards all over the place. So I would make up criminals and write wanted reports about them. I think I was always meant to write dark stories. I don't know why I did that as a kid. It's not like I was traumatized or anything, you know?

(SOUNDBITE OF MASATO NAKAMURA'S "STH2 POWER UP: MEGA DRIVE VERSION")

DEL BARCO: When she wasn't writing or reading sci-fi and fantasy books, Lu was drawing and playing video games like "Sonic The Hedgehog."

LU: My very first system was the Sega Genesis back when I was 7 or 8 years old. And I played that into the ground. Like, my parents had to confiscate²³ it and put it in the attic²⁴ - the whole thing.

(SOUNDBITE OF MASATO NAKAMURA'S "EMERALD HILL ZONE")

DEL BARCO: Lu got a chance to work in the video game industry when she was in college. While studying political science and biology at USC, she landed an internship²⁵ as an artist at Disney Interactive²⁶ Studio. There, she worked with a team to dream up new games.

LU: I came up with a couple ideas based on "Peter Pan" and this one game about a cactus²⁷ man who lived in a balloon world, which is very unfortunate (laughter).

DEL BARCO: She continued to work at Disney, where she met her husband, Primo Gallanosa. They worked on a game called "Fuzz Academy" about cute, fuzzy animals. They had to shut down the game after somebody hacked²⁸ into it. But by then, Lu had already begun writing "Legend," a series of dystopian novels set in a dark, futuristic Los Angeles. The story follows June, a rich teenage genius hired to hunt down a teenage Robin²⁹ Hood-like boy. Lu also wrote a fantasy series called "The Young Elites," featuring 16-year-old Adelina, a Darth Vader-like character. And she was chosen by DC Comics to write a YA story about 18-year-old Bruce Wayne, who becomes Batman. Lu got to create a new villain³⁰ for him to battle.

LU: Madeleine Wallace, who's 18 years old, the youngest inmate³¹ at Arkham Asylum³². And she is incredibly smart. And outwits Bruce on a daily basis. And she's kind of fascinated by her. And she messes with his mind.

LEIGH BARDUGO: Marie has a really good handle on what most people would describe as morally gray characters.

DEL BARCO: Leigh Bardugo is another bestselling YA author, who wrote a new Wonder Woman novel. She admires her friend's young female heroes and antiheroes.

BARDUGO: She writes these incredibly, dark intense, full-frontal stories. And then you meet her, and she's just the kindest, most generous, most fun person. And you just are like, oh, let us go and have some tea together, you know?

LU: (Playing piano).

DEL BARCO: At her loft, Marie Lu often pauses to play her electric grand piano. These days, in addition to Batman, she's also writing a book about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's older sister, Maria Anna.

LU: She composed music. She toured with Wolfgang when they were kids together. They played for all the kings and queens of Europe and. He looked up to her his whole life - nothing in history about her.

DEL BARCO: Many of Lu's stories may soon end up on the big screen. But before they do, she insists the casting be true to their origin, like "Warcross's" Chinese-American hero, Emika Chen.

LU: Yes, it's a deal breaker. That would have to be written into the contract. I am fine with it not ever being made if a studio refuses to do that.

DEL BARCO: Whether she's writing about a musical prodigy³³, a budding superhero, a pubescent computer whiz or adolescent villain, all of Marie Lu's characters have something in common.

LU: I think I'm fascinated by young people who do extraordinary things.

DEL BARCO: Extraordinary things like writing seven best-selling novels, with three more in the works. Marie Lu is just 33 years old. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

LU: (Playing piano).

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 elites   

精华( elite的名词复数 )； 精锐； 上层集团； （统称）掌权人物

参考例句：

• The elites are by their nature a factor contributing to underdevelopment. 这些上层人物天生是助长欠发达的因素。
• Elites always detest gifted and nimble outsiders. 社会名流对天赋聪明、多才多艺的局外人一向嫌恶。

3 loft   

n.阁楼，顶楼

参考例句：

• We could see up into the loft from bottom of the stairs.我们能从楼梯脚边望到阁楼的内部。
• By converting the loft,they were able to have two extra bedrooms.把阁楼改造一下，他们就可以多出两间卧室。

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 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。

6 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

7 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

8 plucky   

adj.勇敢的

参考例句：

• The plucky schoolgirl amazed doctors by hanging on to life for nearly two months.这名勇敢的女生坚持不放弃生命近两个月的精神令医生感到震惊。
• This story featured a plucky heroine.这个故事描述了一个勇敢的女英雄。

9 bounty   

n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与

参考例句：

• He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
• We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。

10 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

11 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 hacker   

n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客

参考例句：

• The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
• This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。

13 hacks   

黑客

参考例句：

• But there are hacks who take advantage of people like Teddy. 但有些无赖会占类似泰迪的人的便宜。 来自电影对白
• I want those two hacks back here, right now. 我要那两个雇工回到这儿，现在就回。 来自互联网

14 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

15 glitches   

n.小过失，差错( glitch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Manufacturing glitches have limited the factory's output. 生产中的故障影响了该厂的产量。 来自辞典例句
• Another kind of period variation,\"Glitches,\" are seen in several pulsars. 在几个脉冲星中还看到了周期的另一种变化，即“自转突快”现象。 来自辞典例句

16 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

17 mythological   

adj.神话的

参考例句：

• He is remembered for his historical and mythological works. 他以其带有历史感和神话色彩的作品而著称。
• But even so, the cumulative process had for most Americans a deep, almost mythological significance. 不过即使如此，移民渐增的过程，对于大部分美国人，还是意味深长的，几乎有不可思议的影响。

18 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

19 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

20 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

21 stapled   

v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The letter was stapled to the other documents in the file. 这封信与案卷里的其他文件钉在一起。 来自辞典例句
• He said with smooth bluntness and shoved a stack of stapled sheets across his desk. 他以一种圆滑、率直的口气说着，并把一叠订好了的稿纸从他办公桌那边递过来。 来自辞典例句

22 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

23 confiscate   

v.没收(私人财产)，把…充公

参考例句：

• The police have the right to confiscate any forbidden objects they find.如发现违禁货物，警方有权查扣。
• Did the teacher confiscate your toy?老师没收你的玩具了吗？

24 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

25 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

26 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

27 cactus   

n.仙人掌

参考例句：

• It was the first year that the cactus had produced flowers.这是这棵仙人掌第一年开花。
• The giant cactus is the vegetable skycraper.高大的仙人掌是植物界巨人。

28 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

29 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

30 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

31 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

32 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

33 prodigy   

n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆

参考例句：

• She was a child prodigy on the violin.她是神童小提琴手。
• He was always a Negro prodigy who played barbarously and wonderfully.他始终是一个黑人的奇才，这种奇才弹奏起来粗野而惊人。