日间收听WNYC的广播，这一日的新闻的主题是Leona Helmsley辞世。她生前和丈夫创办了价值数十亿的房地产公司，也曾经因为税务丑闻而入狱。1972年，Harry B. Helmsley抛弃了33年的结发老妻，娶了Leona。从1980年代开始，他的娇妻开始涉足管理他的酒店集团，而后控制他的整个价值50亿美元的产业，其中包括纽约的帝国大厦。她的一生最为人所知的绰号叫做“queen of mean”(吝啬女王)，她为人处事的作风可想而知了。
Leonard Lopate Show 本期所介绍的不为人所知的著名作家是来自于阿根廷的Roberto Arlt。据说此人1900年出生，1942年去世，短短的一生中，从蓝领工人变成了阿根廷最重要的作家，他的作品《疯狂的玩具》（Mad Toy）和《七个狂人》（Seven Madmen）直到最近才由杜克大学翻译出版。据说他三年级就被赶出了学校，此后一直自学成材。他的小说对博尔赫斯、马尔克斯等等都曾经产生过重要的影响。他的作品对后世的作者，例如 Irvine Welsh and William Burroughs，也有很大的启发。然而，终其一生，他因为文风过于前卫，始终不算出名。他大概要算是他那个时代的王小波，要等上几十年才能被读者所接受。
根据维基不知道的介绍：
His first novel, El juguete rabioso (1926) (trans. The Rabid Toy), was conventional but energetic Socialist Realism, but it was with his next novel Los siete locos (trans. The Seven Madmen) that his genius first showed itself. Rough, brutal, colloquial and surreal it was a complete break from the polite, middle-class literature more typical of Argentine literature (as exemplified, perhaps, by the work of Jorge Luis Borges, however innovative his work was in other respects). Los lanzallamas (trans. The Flame-Throwers) was the sequel, and these two novels together are probably his greatest work.
After this Arlt turned to short stories and the theatre, where he pursued his vision of bizarre, half-mad, alienated characters pursuing insane quests in a landscape of urban chaos. Worn out and exhausted by a lifetime of hard living, he died in from a stroke in 1942. His coffin was lowered from his apartment by an operated crane, an ironic eulogy considering his bizarre stories.
没有评论:
发表评论