疯狂英语精华：NaipaulSpeechandStyleinHisOwnWords

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2008:06:21 09:57:12
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

　　Naipaul Speech and Style in His Own Words 1)Horace: Your style, that is a much-discussed 2)phenomenon.

　　Naipaul: Yes.

　　Horace: I even heard someone who had computed the average number of letters in a word in your texts. That it should be four, I think.

　　Naipaul: Yes. I think.

　　Horace: If I remember right that may very well be correct. But, uh, I mean it’s obvious that to any reader the style strikes one...

　　Naipaul: Yes.

　　Horace: As transparent and very clear...

　　Naipaul: Yes.

　　Horace: I think 3)Coetzee said recently in an article recently that it’s cool and clean like a knife.

　　Naipaul: Yes, yes.

　　Horace: Um, and how do you arrive at that style? Is it something that comes naturally or do you arrive at it by 4)elimination, by crossing out words, removing unnecessary adjectives and so on?

　　Naipaul: Well, it, uh, it begins with what I said earlier about how I learned to write, when I tried to get every sentence to say something, and I think that’s become a habit. I no longer think I’m doing it but that is the habit of writing. So the writing moves very fast, and then, I do have to get everything I want to say, into, the sentences. I must be careful not in my speed to leave things out. Uh, I made a speech, a two-minute speech at the, the banquet, the award’s, the award’s banquet, I give you my word that was written three times. There were three drafts for it. One draft then typed out that corrected, then corrected yet again. First to get it all and then, one aspect was to get the spoken language, from that to get it, the, the quality of speech in it and, uh, the other thing was to, as it were to get, when I, I was talking about the watch, my watch strap was broken, and I wanted to make a little, a little story about this, for the, for the dinner. And I wondered about the symbolism, and I talked about various people of the past who looked for 5)portents and, uh, then I said, "Well, yes, it was because I was coming to the 6)ceremony. It was OK. That’s what it meant that time was going to stop and then, time was going to become new and so the watch, then, had become benign again." Now I had to and that came in about the third 7)version-the watch was benign again and it was telling me that my time was running out, and I had, I forgot to put in the first draft: it was telling me without threat...

　　Horace: Hmmm.

　　Naipaul: That my time was running out.

　　Horace: Yes.

　　Naipaul: You know that is, these are the little things I do...

　　Horace: Yes, I see.

　　Naipaul: I hope the, I’m sorry to give it in this little fine detail.

　　Horace: No, no.

　　Naipaul: But, this is...

　　Horace: It’s most useful I think for the listener.

　　Naipaul: This is a lot how the writing is done.