介绍:
This is a small segment from our weekly literary program, Ink&Quill. For previous episodes or the complete version, please download the podcast by simply searching the key words Ink&Quill on iTunes.
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In 1993, a film titled "The Remains of the Day" hit theatres worldwide. Starring award-winning actors Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, the movie is set during pre-World War II Britain, where a punctilious, duty-bound butler is tormented by his love for a fellow housekeeper and his commitment to his pro-Nazi master.
This subtle, delicate, yet powerful masterpiece received eight Oscar nominations and introduced audiences to Kazuo Ishiguro,the mastermind behind the story.
Feng Tao is an editor from Shanghai Translation Publishing House. He has been reading Ishiguro's writings since the early 1990s:
"Like many other foreign literature lovers in China, I learnt about Ishiguro through 'The Remains of the Day' and its film adaptation. When this novel won the Man Booker Prize in 1989, it caused quite a stir back then. Because 'The Remains of the Day' is about British aristocracy told from a butler's perspective. You have to understand that the tradition of having a butler is a unique development in English culture while Ishiguro is a Japanese immigrant. So when he won the Booker Prize, (Britain's most prestigious literary award), it was big news. Out of curiosity, I started reading his books and took a fancy immediately. "
So how did a Japanese-born writer grow up to become one of the brightest and most revered stars in Anglophone literature?
Born in Nagasaki in 1954, Ishiguro left his native land Japan at the age of five, when his father was offered a job in Britain as an oceanographer. Growing up in Surrey in Sothern England, the young lad developed a strong interest in music. Among many songs he listened to, those produced by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen became his favorites, since both song-writers had "a literary approach in their lyrics". Inspired by his musical idols, Ishiguro started writing his own songs. After graduating from college, he even applied for jobs in recording studios.
But the young man's dream of becoming a lyricist was not without its setbacks.
In his later interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, this once "guitar-playing hippie" confessed:"I used to see myself as some sort of musician type but there came a point when I thought: actually, this isn't me at all. I'm much less glamorous. I'm one of these people with corduroy jackets with elbow patches. It was a real comedown."
Almost by accident, the frustrated Ishiguro turned his literary bent from song-writing to something more serious. Studying creative writing at the University of East Anglia, he submitted a thesis for his master program, which later became his highly acclaimed debut, A Pale View of Hills. Few years later, he published his second book, An Artist of the Floating World. Both novels are set in his birthplace Nagasaki, and just a few years after World War II.
Yet Feng Tao, editor from Shanghai Translation Publishing House, argues that Kazuo Ishiguro is not your typical immigrant writer.
"Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, and V.S. Naipaul are recognized as the three most outstanding immigrant writers at British literati. However, Ishiguro is different compared with many others who focus on their immigrant experiences. Take Naipaul for example, many of his early works are about how a young man comes to London from a foreign country and faces all kinds of culture shock, discomfort and discriminations, which is a common theme in immigration literature. Yet for Kazuo Ishiguro, although his earliest works are set in Japan, those books have nothing to do with immigration. Instead, themes such as time, memory, and self-delusion run through his writings. "
These themes are particularly notable in his most renowned novel, "The Remains of the Day". Published in 1989, this Booker-Prize-winning novel charts the life of a painfully-shy and repressed English butler and was later turned into a highly noted movie.
In an interview with New York-based Bomb Magazine, Ishiguro explained: "I tend to be attracted to pre-war and post-war settings because I'm interested in this business of values and ideals being tested, and people having to face up to the notion that their ideals weren't quite what they thought they were before the test came."
Following the tremendous success of "The Remains of the Day", Kazuo Ishiguro has continued to push his writings further beyond the usual cultural norms of immigration literature. In the following decade, he published two novels: one is "The Unconsoled", a dreamlike story taking place in an unspecified European city; while another is "When We Were Orphans", which is about a Chinese-born British detective goes back to Shanghai to solve the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of his family members.
However, once published, "When We Were Orphans" has received mixed reviews in China, as some readers complain that Ishiguro's depiction of Shanghai in the 1930s is not historically accurate.
Feng Tao, who is in charge of the Chinese editions of Ishiguro's books, justifies the novelist's cause: "The story is set in Shanghai. In fact, it could happen in Istanbul, Moscow, or other any other city. In this book, Shanghai merely serves as a geographic name. What the author looks for is emotional truth rather than historical accuracy. "
If Ishiguro's previous books still adhere to certain historical footing, then his 2005 dystopian work, "Never Let Me Go", introduces "a cold undercurrent" of science fiction.
"At first glance, you may think that this book features a group of students and their trifles in a normal British boarding school. The atmosphere is tranquil and the plot seems to be filled with trivial matters. " Feng further elaborates: "Yet slowly, as you read more, you will notice there is something wrong with the boarding school. All the details lead you to the conclusion that these students are actually clones. They are living, breathing humans yet they are bred for organ donation. That revelation could produce a dreadful impact, as the once peaceful, idyllic Merry England suddenly changes. For me, that kind of emotional contrast is indelible. "
In 2010, "Never Let Me Go" was adapted into a multi-award winning film, featuring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield as leading actors.
Yet for the author himself, his exploration into the fantastical elements hasn't come to an end. His latest novel, "The Buried Giant" from 2015, explores "in a moving manner, how memory relates to oblivion, history to the present, and fantasy to reality". In the book, an elderly couple goes on a road trip through an archaic English landscape, hoping to reunite with their adult son, whom they have not seen for years. During their journey, they come across some knights and encounter unworldly creatures such as a she-dragon and ogres.
But in the eyes of Feng Tao, a long-time Ishiguro fan, no matter how bold his literary hero tinkers with varied genres, there is always something coherent in his oeuvre.
"I don't think he goes after changes wholeheartedly. There might be some twists in terms of plot, but for me, his style is consistent. He always raises some fundamental questions regarding time, memory, oblivion, and self-deception. That's why I think he is a terrific writer. His writings remind me of a classic Japanese aesthetic, which emphasizes on letting still water run deep. It's calm and unperturbed on the water. Yet right underneath the seemingly restrained surface, the emotions are quite intense. Sometimes, when you finally realize what Ishigruo is really writing about, the sheer emotional power will take your breath away. I find that contrast quite enchanting. "
His view is also echoed by Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.
"He's a writer of great integrity. Right from the start he managed to find his voice. He had already found his voice, and has worked out a style that's precise, very sensitive to the casual and even tender sometimes. Very held back, unassuming."
That's probably one of the reasons that Kazuo Ishiguro became the recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the first Briton to win the world's most prestigious literary award in a decade, since Doris Lessing's recognition in 2007.
In its citation, the academy said that Ishiguro's eight books are works of emotional force that uncover "the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world."
Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, concludes: "He is a very interesting writer in many ways, I would say that if you mix Jane Austen - her comedy of manners and her psychological insights - with Kafka, then I think you have Ishiguro, in a nutshell."
But for the newly-crowned laureate, the news was "totally unexpected". Facing journalists rushing to his house, this publicity-shy writer said he hoped the kinds of themes he tackled in his works would actually be helpful to the climate of uncertainty in the world we have at the moment.
"This is amazing and totally unexpected news for me. It comes at a time when the world is uncertain about its values, its leadership and its safety. I just hope that by receiving this huge honour will even in a small way encourage the forces for goodwill and peace at this time."
