The Paper's reporter Xu Minghui intern Wang Ling
Testimony is Margaret Atwood's latest novel, and its release is one of the few major cultural events of global attention in recent years.
On the afternoon of October 31, Shanghai Translation Publishing House held a sharing meeting for the Chinese edition of the new book "Testimony" at sinan Literature House. The translator and writer of this book, the critic Lai Yingyan, the writer Zhao Song came to the scene and shared with the readers the feelings after reading this new work.
The scene of the event
The Handmaid's Tale takes place in the Republic of Gilead, a country based on theocratic rule. Environmental degradation, ecological destruction and other reasons have led to a sharp decline in the country's fertility rate. In order to maintain human reproduction, fertile women are gathered together to become "fertility machines". Because the novel ends with an open-ended ending, for more than thirty years readers have been asking for details about Gilead and its inner workings, as well as the development of the heroine's fate. In this regard, Atwood said: "These questions have become the inspiration for this book. The other part of the inspiration comes from the world we are in. ”
Set fifteen years after the finale of the previous game, "Testimony" breaks through the fog left by the previous game through the experiences and perspectives of three different female characters, telling the truth behind the overthrow of Gilead.
As a sequel to the original novel of the most high-profile American drama "The Handmaid's Tale" in recent years, "Testimony" has attracted a lot of attention around the world as soon as it was released, and writer Atwood has won the Booker Award. After the first season of the American drama "The Handmaid's Tale" premiered, it immediately became the most watched episode in the history of the broadcast platform, and continued to break the viewing record of the same type of drama around the world.
At the 2017 Emmy Awards, "The Handmaid's Tale" won five awards, and the three seasons currently broadcast have an average score of 8.8 points on Douban, and the fourth season is scheduled to be launched in 2021, and "Testimony" will also be adapted into a TV series. It is hoped that the continuity between the two, as well as the linkage effect of novels and movies and dramas, can bring more surprises to readers and audiences.
The details come from history
Writing The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood said, "The details of this book come from history. In other words, she's not making up details to write about the future, creating a futuristic world, she's talking about the future based on human history. In this regard, Zhao Song explained: "The characteristics of mankind, the sense of history and the lessons of history are accompanied by tortuous development, although we cannot summarize the world with progressive and optimistic development. In fact, the art of history is still there, and it is precisely because there is the art of history that Atwood leaves a glimmer of hope at the end of the book, there is a possibility of salvation, of course, she puts the possibility of salvation in women, she believes that women will become the people who save the world. ”
Yang Yijing feels that the reason why Atwood's book resonates so much with today's readers is precisely because the materials selected by the author are all real events in history. Atwood did a great deal of research and re-read the material he had referenced when he wrote The Handmaid's Tale. In addition, Atwood's language has a tragic poetry, she is meticulous and has a very strong depiction of details. And this may have something to do with her family background, her family is a scientist, she grew up in the jungles of Canada, so her work will also reflect the opposition to technology destroying the human living environment.
Lai Yingyan believes that "a novel is a kind of fictional history, showing a lot of essential things. "Atwood's original intention was to restore the things that exist in our lives but we turn a blind eye because we take it for granted. She sets up a peculiar environment for us to see. So we can not just look at the book from a retrospective point of view, but go deeper and discuss the problems mentioned in the book.
So when I talked about translating this book during the epidemic, I felt that this book was actually reminding everyone to pay attention to something. The details of our seemingly natural routine are hard-won. The book tells that women's credit cards were stopped, ownership rights were given to men's immediate family members, they had no names and jobs, not even basic daily necessities, toilet paper, coffee. Coinciding with the epidemic, when you see this, you will think that many daily things are not easy to come by.
Stills from "The Handmaid's Tale" from Douban
It's not just feminist fiction
When people mention "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Testimony", they always talk about the problem of women's writing. Lai Yingyan believes that many of Atwood's novels, although they are cut from a female perspective, she explores the common destiny of mankind. From this perspective, her work cannot simply be classified as feminist fiction. "Just like a lot of people took out Beauvoir's The Second Sex, it's a very stark feminist work. A lot of people say you think that because you're a woman and she says no, and I think so because it's true. Its purpose is not just to reinvent something, but to solve some problems from a broader, more holistic perspective. ”
So in response to the reader's question, he explained that emphasizing that the Testimony is not just a feminist text, but actually hopes that everyone will care about topics other than feminism. Now everyone, every kind of person is suffering from the oppression of multiple identities, feminism is only one of the multiple, if this weight is specifically raised, it will ignore other problems, and other problems will become small problems. On the question of feminism, what we can see in this book is the oppression of women in a society dominated by male totalitarianism. But we should also pay attention to other details, such as Aunt Lydia, what kind of sacrifice does she have to make as a female ruler under the patriarchal rule? Why did she become the one who oppressed and ruled over other women?
Whenever we mention the label feminism, it is easy to force ourselves into a very narrow political line position. But if we understand it according to the categories that feminism should have, it should be a very large field, including women's bodies, women's work, women's views of the family, and so on. The "Testimony" talks about the issue of women's education, girls have to learn to arrange flowers, cook, and work as women. But when we label feminism, we can mislead young girls that it's not right to do that. But embroidery itself is beautiful, and it is wrong to use it as a standard to define women.
Zhao Song believes that not only is feminism, does not mean that this is not important. The problems are not single, and all problems are related, not fragmented. If you label a book, the problem is simplified. Lai Yingyan added, "Many times it can be said that women write and use feminism with caution. Why is there a lot of wariness about attributing Atwood's writing to feminist writing, because she explores many issues: economic, ecological. If the focus is on women's identity, these problems are ignored. ”
Writing is dangerous
Atwood specifically mentioned that writing is a dangerous thing, and although she borrowed the words from Grandma Lydia in the book, it is likely that she expressed her own voice. Atwood wrote poetry by background, and canadian literature was deserted when she wrote poetry. So we call her the "Queen of Canadian Literature", not only to praise her writing ability, but also to promote her role in the Canadian literary world. At that time, she and a group of poets wanted to revitalize the Canadian literary scene, and actively participated in international exchange activities, and maintained contacts with some writers in North and South America.
When Atwood first wrote The Handmaid's Tale, he had the consciousness to write about the literature of the Witnesses. This awareness was important, even more important than what kind of story she decided to write. At that time, she heard a South American female poet talk about some of the sad things exposed in the massacres in South America. But the persecution of these women is not recorded, it is all drowned in history. So, a large part of the facts that female writers want to record are the parts that have been drowned out by history.
Later, Atwood went to the Federal Republic of Germany, where she thought of writing The Handmaid's Tale. Why did she want to write? She heard about Romania's 770 Decree and learned that romania's population had plummeted and the government had intervened in childbirth, and she had the idea of writing "The Handmaid's Tale". So Atwood doesn't go the same path as a science fiction writer, she wants to write about things that have happened in history.
She thought from this, if a woman's sexual power and fertility become resources and assets, what kind of operation will the state institutions and state apparatus become?
Therefore, "The Handmaid's Tale" is actually written based on some investigation, which is obviously dangerous, because she digs up a lot of things that everyone forgets, pretends not to know, and stuffs them into the story.
Of course, the most important reason to say that "writing is dangerous" is that writing is the expression of ideas, and writing can never just tell a story. If the reader follows the train of thought in the story, the world becomes more dangerous. Like the heroine of "The Handmaid's Tale", she is subject to fate, and when this happens, not only the handmaiden is oppressed, but also the archbishop, the archbishop's wife, and those who seem to be at the top of the power are also suppressed. So the book actually tells a dangerous story about hegemony, a story about the struggle for human power.
Editor-in-Charge: Liang Jia
Proofreader: Luan Meng