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美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'The Afterlives,' Holograms And Ghosts Give Meaning To Life After Death

时间:2018-02-09 01:51:02

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Jim Byrd died for a little while. His heart stopped. And, technically1, he died. When he was revived, everything changed. He had this fear of dying again, fear of dying alone and all kinds of anxiety-ridden questions about what happens on the other side of this life. Byrd is the main character in the new novel by Thomas Pierce. The book is called "The Afterlives," and, yes, it's about big, existential questions, but it's also about love, about grief and about ghosts. I recently spoke2 with Thomas Pierce about his new book, and we should note, before he became an award-winning author, Thomas was a producer right here at NPR.

So before I get to your preoccupation with death, which you clearly have, let's just start off a little bit easier. Can you introduce us to the main character in your novel? This is a guy named Jim Byrd. Who is he?

THOMAS PIERCE: Yes. Jim Byrd is a bank loan officer in a small mountain town in the Carolinas. He dies due to a heart condition. I'm already to death, I realize.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

PIERCE: Moved quickly to death. But he sees nothing, no lights or tunnels or angels or anything, anything that might ease his fears (laughter) of what comes next.

MARTIN: Yeah.

PIERCE: And now he has to move forward with his life and try to make sense of this thing that's happened to him.

MARTIN: Would you mind reading? There's a paragraph that speaks to his angst about what happened to him and what he thinks should have happened to him. This is on page 134.

PIERCE: Yeah. OK. (Reading) Some part of me feared that my experience wasn't the rule, but the exception. The oblivion I'd met possibly had flowed directly from the life I'd lead up to that point. What if, fundamentally, I simply wasn't a good enough person to deserve an afterlife? What if some people have no soul, and I was one of them? What if I'd seen no afterlife because I didn't have the will or ability to believe in one?

MARTIN: So, Thomas, these are big questions to tackle in a novel, in any novel - the biggest questions, you could argue. Is this a recent thing for you, I mean, thinking so much about what happens when we die? Or is this something you have long pondered?

PIERCE: Long pondered, I'd say. I mean, I've always had this sort of mystical streak3 in me. And then my wife and I had our first child. And I've always at least intellectually understood that there's an end to this. We all have an expiration4 date. But I really began to feel that more acutely for the first time. And there's such a big difference between feeling something and just thinking it. Little babies and children, they're, like, they're these little clocks. You feel time's passage in a way that maybe you hadn't before. But that really - I went a little deeper in it starting 15 years back. My wife, her great-grandfather is a fairly famous clairvoyant5 from the early part of the 20th century, and her folks have this great library of books related to him but also to all topics, you know, psychic6 phenomenon...

MARTIN: Right.

PIERCE: ...Afterlife, and past lives...

MARTIN: The spirit world.

PIERCE: The spirit world. Yeah. And I've just loved deep-diving into those books over the last 15 years, and I think it was only a matter of time before I started writing about them a little more explicitly7.

MARTIN: So Jim has this episode. He dies for a moment, and it causes all kinds of existential questioning for him. But then he also happens upon a real-life ghost story. This building, it was a home, you know, a century ago, and now it's this restaurant and all kinds of supernatural things start to occur. Can you walk us through how that feeds what is already becoming an obsession8 for him?

PIERCE: He's on this stairwell in this restaurant that you mentioned, and he hears this voice. And a lot of the book is trying to figure out, what is this voice, and if there can be such a thing as a ghost then doesn't that maybe suggest that there is something more? So it really for him is this new avenue to explore to find some ounce of proof that maybe this is not the end.

MARTIN: We should note that this is not taking place in this moment, right? This story takes place slightly in the future?

PIERCE: Yeah. I've seen it described that way, as a slightly futuristic book. I was not thinking of it that way when I wrote it.

MARTIN: There are holograms walking around, Thomas.

PIERCE: There are holograms, that's true. That's true. But, you know, three days from now, I'm pretty sure there might be holograms walking around.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

PIERCE: That's what it feels like. You know, it's...

MARTIN: The future as in, like, maybe next year?

PIERCE: Yeah. Maybe next year. We'll say next year.

MARTIN: What do the holograms give you in this narrative9? What do they do for Jim?

PIERCE: Well, you know, Jim is this person who is looking for some kind of bedrock in a world that does feel so full of mirage10 and spectacle. And I find that to be true in this, our universe. And the holograms are really just a blown-up version of that. What can we trust in? What should we put our faith in? What is real and not real? I mean, the holograms are a constant reminder11 of that for him, and this is a world in which you're walking down the street and maybe you don't know who's flesh and blood. I hope that this holographic future is not the one, but it certainly could be, and I feel like it would be very isolating12.

MARTIN: Well, that was another thing I wanted to ask about because a lot of this book deals with the ways that we remember people who have died, whether it's the graves that we visit or photos that we look at. And in this slightly futuristic tale, people can create holograms that their loved ones can revisit when they die. Personally, is that a reassuring13 thought to you, that if you lost someone you could recreate them in this hologram form even for just a moment?

PIERCE: No. (Laughter). I don't think I'd want to. I wouldn't want to be remembered that way. And I'm not sure it would be healthy, for me, at least. You know, but I'm even the sort of person who I sometimes wonder why we even, you know, film, you know, home movies. This is not so different than that in a lot of ways. It just becomes more three-dimensional.

MARTIN: Why do you see those as similar?

PIERCE: Well, it's, you know, it's more for the living, the people who are still here, and to re-experience that person in some sense, to conjure14 them back up, to remember what it was like to be in their presence. I get - I mean, I get the need for that. I think it scratches an itch15, but the reality is they're still gone.

MARTIN: Have you ever had an encounter with a spirit, do you think?

PIERCE: (Laughter). Yeah, do I think is probably the operative. I don't think so. But again, I'm very open to things that are not explained, and I just have a hard time believing that this material universe is all there is.

MARTIN: The book is called "The Afterlives." It's written by Thomas Pierce. Thomas, thanks so much for talking with us about your book.

PIERCE: Thank you very much, Rachel. I appreciate it.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 technically wqYwV     
adv.专门地,技术上地
参考例句:
  • Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说,这是最先进的设备。
  • The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说,西红柿是一种水果,尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。
2 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
3 streak UGgzL     
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动
参考例句:
  • The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
  • Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹?
4 expiration bmSxA     
n.终结,期满,呼气,呼出物
参考例句:
  • Can I have your credit card number followed by the expiration date?能告诉我你的信用卡号码和它的到期日吗?
  • This contract shall be terminated on the expiration date.劳动合同期满,即行终止。
5 clairvoyant aV5yE     
adj.有预见的;n.有预见的人
参考例句:
  • Love is blind,but friendship is clairvoyant.爱是盲目的,友谊则能洞察一切。
  • Those whom are clairvoyant have often come to understand past lives.那些能透视的人们已能经常理解死去的生命。
6 psychic BRFxT     
n.对超自然力敏感的人;adj.有超自然力的
参考例句:
  • Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
  • She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能,能预知未来。
7 explicitly JtZz2H     
ad.明确地,显然地
参考例句:
  • The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
  • SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条,清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
8 obsession eIdxt     
n.困扰,无法摆脱的思想(或情感)
参考例句:
  • I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
  • She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。
9 narrative CFmxS     
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的
参考例句:
  • He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
  • Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。
10 mirage LRqzB     
n.海市蜃楼,幻景
参考例句:
  • Perhaps we are all just chasing a mirage.也许我们都只是在追逐一个幻想。
  • Western liberalism was always a mirage.西方自由主义永远是一座海市蜃楼。
11 reminder WkzzTb     
n.提醒物,纪念品;暗示,提示
参考例句:
  • I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
  • It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知,她才付应该交的房租。
12 isolating 44778bf8913bd1ed228a8571456b945b     
adj.孤立的,绝缘的v.使隔离( isolate的现在分词 );将…剔出(以便看清和单独处理);使(某物质、细胞等)分离;使离析
参考例句:
  • Colour filters are not very effective in isolating narrow spectral bands. 一些滤色片不能很有效地分离狭窄的光谱带。 来自辞典例句
  • This became known as the streak method for isolating bacteria. 这个方法以后就称为分离细菌的划线法。 来自辞典例句
13 reassuring vkbzHi     
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的,使人放心的
参考例句:
  • He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
  • With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。
14 conjure tnRyN     
v.恳求,祈求;变魔术,变戏法
参考例句:
  • I conjure you not to betray me.我恳求你不要背弃我。
  • I can't simply conjure up the money out of thin air.我是不能像变魔术似的把钱变来。
15 itch 9aczc     
n.痒,渴望,疥癣;vi.发痒,渴望
参考例句:
  • Shylock has an itch for money.夏洛克渴望发财。
  • He had an itch on his back.他背部发痒。

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