《外刊精读》奥巴马谈读书与写书

近期面世的奥巴马新自传《应许之地》，得到美国资深毒舌文学评论家的盛赞，称其为一部空前绝后的总统自传。在文中，奥巴马畅谈自己读书写作的心得，他认为从青少时代以来的广泛阅读，让他能够跳出自己的视角，看到众生相，从而感同身受，最终在写作中传递出对不同身份的人的生存处境的体察。奥巴马有着怎样的读书秘籍？又是如何痛并快乐地打磨自己的作品？一起来听今天的讲解。  英文原文  Obama, the Best-Selling Author, on Reading, Writing and Radical Empathy  畅销书作家奥巴马谈读书、写书和过剩的同理心  By Michiko Kakutani  Barack Obama’s new memoir “A Promised Land” is unlike any other presidential autobiography from the past — or, likely, future.  奥巴马的新回忆录《应许之地》，不同于以往任何其他的总统自传，未来也不见得会再有像这样的总统自传面世。  It attests to Mr. Obama’s own storytelling powers and to his belief that, in these divided times, “storytelling and literature are more important than ever.”  这本书成为了奥巴马自身讲故事能力的佐证，也是他所信奉的在这个分裂的时代，“讲故事和文学比任何时候都重要”这一观点的佐证。  In a phone conversation last week, Mr. Obama spoke about the experience of writing his new book and the formative role that reading has played.  在上周的一则电话采访中，奥巴马谈及了撰写这本新书的过程，以及阅读在他成长过程中所起到的重要作用。  Talking about his favorite American writers, Mr. Obama points out that they share certain hallmarks: “There is this sense of self-invention and embrace of contradiction. And that has always been both the promise of America, and also what makes America sometimes so contentious.”  谈到他最喜欢的美国作家时，奥巴马指出，他们都有某种共同的特质：“他们都有自我创造和接纳矛盾的意识。这正是美国的希望之所在，也是为什么美国社会总是充斥着各种争端。”  Not only did he read books voraciously, but he inhaled and synthesized the ideas he found in them, assimilating ones that resonated with his personal experiences and values.  奥巴马不仅如饥似渴地读书，还大快朵颐地吸收和整合在书中发现的思想，尤其是吸收那些与自己个人经历和价值有强烈共鸣的内容。  The actual writing remained a painful process, requiring him to really “work at it” and “grind it out.”  写作的过程总是痛苦的，需要他真正地下功夫，并不断地打磨它。  Because he thinks the computer can lend “half-baked thoughts the mask of tidiness,” he writes his first drafts longhand on yellow legal pads. And he tends to do his best writing between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.: “I find that the world narrows, and that is good for my imagination. It’s almost as if there is a darkness all around and there’s a metaphorical beam of light down on the desk, onto the page.”  奥巴马认为，电脑打字的整洁效果会美化一个半生不熟的想法，因此他在标准尺寸的黄色便签纸上亲手写了第一稿。他通常在晚上十点到凌晨两点之间写作：“我感觉在那个时间世界变窄了，这有利于我展开想象。那种情形就像是置身于黑暗中，有一束充满隐喻的光照在桌子和纸面上。