Why should you read Flannery O’Connor? - Iseult Gillespie

翻译人员: Carolina Zhang

A garrulous grandmother and a roaming bandit face off on a dirt road.

一位喋喋不休的祖母，和一位 流浪强盗在一起泥土路上对峙。

A Bible salesman lures a one-legged philosopher into a barn.

一位圣经销售员引诱一位 单脚哲学家进入一个粮仓。

A traveling handyman teaches a deaf woman her first word on an old plantation.

一个旅行的杂工，在一个老农场上 教导着一位耳聋的女子她的第一个字。

From her farm in rural Georgia,

在位于格鲁吉亚乡村里的农村，

surrounded by a flock of pet birds,

被一群家禽鸟围绕着，

Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts,

弗兰纳里·奥康纳刻画的故事 讲的是被抛弃者，

intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best:

入侵者，以及无法融入者， 而都是她最熟知的世界：

the American South.

美国南方。

She published two novels,

她出版了两部小说，

but is perhaps best known for her short stories,

但最为所知的应该是 她的短篇故事，

which explored small-town life with stinging language, offbeat humor,

这些故事探讨小镇人物， 用尖酸，非传统的幽默，

and delightfully unsavory scenarios.

以及令人讨厌又愉快的情境来描写。

In her spare time O’Connor drew cartoons,

在闲暇的时间， 奥康纳会画些漫画，

and her writing is also brimming with caricature.

她的写作中也充满着漫画手法。

In her stories, a mother has a face “as broad and innocent as a cabbage,”

在她的故事中，一位母亲的脸孔 “和白菜一样宽，一样无辜”，

a man has as much drive as a “floor mop,”

一位男子开车的车程 和“拖把”一样多，

and one woman’s body is shaped like “a funeral urn.”

一位女子的身体形状 和“骨灰坛”一样。

The names of her characters are equally sly.

她在设计角色名字时也同样淘气。

Take the story “The Life You Save May be Your Own,”

以《你救的可能是 你自己的命》这个故事为例，

where the one-handed drifter Tom Shiftlet wanders into the lives

故事中，单手的浪人汤姆

of an old woman named Lucynell Crater

一位老女人露西妮尔·克雷特

and her deaf and mute daughter.

及她的聋哑女儿的生命当中。

Though Mrs. Crater is self-assured,

虽然克雷特女士很有自信，

her isolated home is falling apart.

但她那孤立的家正在四分五裂中。

At first, we may be suspicious of Shiftlet’s motives

一开始，我们可能会怀疑 许佛特雷特愿意协助

when he offers to help around the house,

房子的杂物背后有什么动机，

but O’Connor soon reveals the old woman to be

但奥康纳很快就揭露出这位老女人

just as scheming as her unexpected guest–

其实和她的不速之客同样奸诈——

and rattles the reader’s presumptions about who has the upper hand.

让读者感到不安， 无法推定到底谁站上风。

For O’Connor, no subject was off limits.

对奥康纳而言，选主题没有禁忌，

Though she was a devout Catholic,

虽然她是虔诚的天主教徒,

she wasn’t afraid to explore the possibility

但她并不害怕去探索各种可能性，

of pious thought and unpious behavior

能将敬神的想法以及不敬神的行为

co-existing in the same person.

在同一个人身上共存。

In her novel The Violent Bear it Away,

在她的小说《暴取天国》中，

the main character grapples with the choice to become a man of God –

主角努力的做出选择， 成为神的孩子，

but also sets fires and commits murder.

但却也会杀人放火。

The book opens with the reluctant prophet in a particularly compromising position:

这本书的开场，是这位不情愿的 预言者处在一个特别妥协的位置上：

“Francis Marion Tarwater’s uncle had been dead for only half a day

“法兰西丝·玛莉安塔·华特的叔叔 半天前才刚刚过世，

when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave.”

那时这个男孩喝的太醉了， 无法挖好坟墓。”

This leaves a passerby to “drag the body from the breakfast table

这就导致一位路人要把 “还趴在早餐桌上的尸体拖下来，

where it was still sitting and bury it […]

将他埋掉……

with enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.”

用足够的沙土覆盖， 以确保狗不会挖出来。”

Though her own politics are still debated,

虽然奥康纳自己的 政治立场还有争议，

O’Connor’s fiction could also be attuned to the racism of the South.

她的小说可被视为是 非常理解南方的种族主义。

In “Everything that Rises Must Converge,”

在《上升的一切必将汇合》中，

she depicts a son raging at his mother’s bigotry.

她描述一个儿子 对于他母亲的偏执感到愤怒。

But the story reveals that he has his own blind spots

但这个故事揭露出 她也有自己的盲点，

and suggests that simply recognizing evil

说明了若仅仅只是辨识出邪恶，

doesn’t exempt his character from scrutiny.

并不能让她的角色免受检视。

Even as O’Connor probes the most unsavory aspects of humanity,

即使当奥康纳在探究 人性不好的面向时，

she leaves the door to redemption open a crack.

她也会让通往救赎的门 留下一道缝隙，不会关闭。

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,”

在《好人难寻》中，

she redeems an insufferable grandmother for forgiving a hardened criminal,

她挽救了一位令讨厌的祖母， 让她宽恕一位强硬的罪犯，

even as he closes in on her family.

即使他渐渐逼近她的家人。

Though we might balk at the price the woman pays for this redemption,

既然我们这位女子为了 救赎和付出的代价不能得到赞同，

we’re forced to confront the nuance in moments

我们仍然被迫去正视这些本来可能的

we might otherwise consider purely violent or evil.

被我们视为纯粹的暴力 或者邪恶的时刻，都不见得是如此。

O’Connor’s mastery of the grotesque

奥康纳精通怪异风格，

and her explorations of the insularity and superstition of the South

且会探究南方的偏狭以及迷信，

led her to be classified as a Southern Gothic writer.

这些特性让她被归类为 南方的哥德风作家。

But her work pushed beyond the purely ridiculous

但她的作品超越了这个类别常见的

and frightening characteristics associated with the genre

纯粹荒诞以及吓人角色，

to reveal the variety and nuance of human character.

揭示出人类性格的 多样性和细微差别。

She knew some of this variety was uncomfortable,

她知道有些多样性会让人不舒服，

and that her stories could be an acquired taste –

而且她的故事要慢慢才能被欣赏——

but she took pleasure in challenging her readers.

但她从挑战她的读者来得到乐趣。

O’Connor died of lupus at the age of 39,

奥康纳在三十九岁时死于狼疮，

after the disease had mostly confined her to her farm in Georgia for twelve years.

这之前的十二年，这疾病使她 无法离开她在乔治亚的农场。

During those years,

在这些年中，

she penned much of her most imaginative work.

她写下了她大部分充满想象的作品。

Her ability to flit between revulsion and revelation

她在现实和虚幻之间 灵活切换的能力

continues to draw readers to her endlessly surprising fictional worlds.

持续吸引读者进入 她那惊喜不断的虚构世界中。

As her character Tom Shiftlet notes,

如同她笔下的角色 汤姆·许佛特雷特提到的，

the body is “like a house:

身体就“像是一间房子：

it don’t go anywhere,

它不会移动，

but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile:

但女人的心就像是一台汽车：

always on the move.”

总是在移动着。”