- 注释版
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来源:
By Kurt Vonnegut
[1] Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stacked wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.
- freaks 怪人
- ink-stacked 王渊源注：这个说法我真没有接触过，也查不到别的用过的地方。反正是指用笔墨写东西的。
- wretches 不幸的人、恶棍、淘气的人
- revelations 被暴露或披露的信息、也可以指自己醒悟的事情
- accidental 以外的、偶然的、非故意的
- intentional 有意的
[2] These revelations tell us as readers what sort of person it is with whom we are spending time. Does the writer sound ignorant or informed, stupid or bright, crooked or honest, humorless or playful — ? And on and on.
- ignorant 不知情的、蒙昧的、
- informed 有见识的、有依据的
- bright 鲜艳的、明亮的、聪明的
- crooked 弯曲的、不诚实的、不正当的
- humorless 无幽默感的
[3] Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead — or worse, they will stop reading you.
- mark 符号、标签
- scribble 潦草地写、匆忙地写、乱画、甩笔杆子
- any which way 无方向的
- egomaniac 极端利己主义者、非常自大的人
- chowderhead 笨蛋
[4] The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don’t you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show you or make you think about? Did you ever admire an empty-headed writer for his or her mastery of the language? No.
- damning 谴责性的、可定醉的、诅咒的
- mastery 精通
[5] So your own winning style must begin with ideas in your head.
1. Find a subject you care about
[6] Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.
- genuine 真诚的、真实的
- compelling 引人入胜的、令人信服的、让人觉得有意思
- seductive 引诱性的、吸引人的
[7] I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.
- provided 假如、只要
- petition 祈求、申诉、请愿书
- pothole 坑洼
2. Do not ramble, though
[8] I won’t ramble on about that.
- ramble 闲逛、漫谈
3. Keep it simple
[9] As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. “To be or not to be?” asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story “Eveline” is this one: “She was tired.” At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of the reader as those three words do.
- profound 深奥的
- frisky 活泼的
- intricate 错综复杂的
- glittering 闪闪发光的
- Cleopatra 克娄巴特拉七世
[10] Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. The Bible opens with a sentence well within the writing skills of a lively fourteen-year-old: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
- reputable 声誉好的
- sacred 神圣的
4. Have the guts to cut
[11] It may be that you, too, are capable of making necklaces for Cleopatra, so to speak. But your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.
- guts 内脏、勇气（胆量）
- eloquence 雄辩、修辞
- servant 用人
- illuminate 照亮、阐明
- scratch 划破、挠、取消
5. Sound like yourself
[12] The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. English was the novelist Joseph Conrad’s third language, and much that seems piquant in his use of English was no doubt colored by his first language, which was Polish. And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical. I myself grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin, and employs a vocabulary as unornamental as a monkey wrench.
- bound 一定的
- echo 使回响、重复、与…相似
- piquant 辛辣适口的、激动人心的、有趣的
- Polish 波兰语
- amusing 有趣的
- band saw 钢带锯
- galvanized tin 镀锌的锡
- unornamental 无观赏性的
- monkey wrench 螺丝扳手
[13] In some of the more remote hollows of Appalachia, children still grow up hearing songs and locutions of Elizabethan times. Yes, and many Americans grow up hearing a language other than English, or an English dialect a majority of Americans cannot understand.
- remote 遥远的、偏远的
- hollows 山谷 (remote hollows就是指偏僻的地方）
- Appalachia 阿巴拉契亚 （美国的地区，传统来讲民俗丰富，经济贫困）
- locutions 词语或说话的风格
- Elizabethan 伊丽莎白女王一世的
- dialect 方言
[14] All these varieties of speech are beautiful, just as the varieties of butterflies are beautiful. No matter what your first language, you should treasure it all your life. If it happens not to be standard English, and if it shows itself when you write standard English, the result is usually delightful, like a very pretty girl with one eye that is green and one that is blue.
[15] I myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound most like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am. What alternatives do I have? The one most vehemently recommended by teachers has no doubt been pressed on you, as well: to write like cultivated Englishmen of a century or more ago.
- alternative 可能的选择
- vehemently 强烈的、激烈的、猛烈的
- cultivated 栽培的、有修养的
6. Say what you mean to say
[16] I used to be exasperated by such teachers, but am no more. I understand now that all those antique essays and stories with which I was to compare my own work were not magnificent for their datedness or foreignness, but for saying precisely what their authors meant them to say. My teachers wished me to write accurately, always selecting the most effective words, and relating the words to one another unambiguously, rigidly, like parts of a machine. The teachers did not want to turn me into an Englishman after all. They hoped that I would become understandable — and therefore understood. And there went my dream of doing with words what Pablo Picasso did with paint or what any number of jazz idols did with music. If I broke all the rules of punctuation, had words mean whatever I wanted them to mean, and strung them together higgledy-piggledy, I would simply not be understood. So you, too, had better avoid Picasso-style or jazz-style writing, if you have something worth saying and wish to be understood.
- exasperated 被使烦恼
- antique 古老的
- magnificent 壮丽的、壮观的、极好的
- datedness 过时性
- precisely 恰好的、精确地
- unambiguously 不含糊的
- rigidly 坚固的、严格的
- punctuation 标点符号
- string 连起来
- higgledly-piggledly 很糊涂很乱的
[17] Readers want our pages to look very much like pages they have seen before. Why? This is because they themselves have a tough job to do, and they need all the help they can get from us.
7. Pity the readers
[18] They have to identify thousands of little marks on paper, and make sense of them immediately. They have to read, an art so difficult that most people don’t really master it even after having studied it all through grade school and high school — twelve long years.
- pity 同情、可怜
[19] So this discussion must finally acknowledge that our stylistic options as writers are neither numerous nor glamorous, since our readers are bound to be such imperfect artists. Our audience requires us to be sympathetic and patient teachers, ever willing to simplify and clarify — whereas we would rather soar high above the crowd, singing like nightingales.
- acknowledge 承认
- stylistic 文体上的、风格的
- numerous 许多的
- glamorous 富有魅力的、令人向往的
- imperfect 有缺陷的
- sympathetic 有同情的
- soar 高飞
- nightingale 夜莺
[20] That is the bad news. The good news is that we Americans are governed under a unique Constitution, which allows us to write whatever we please without fear of punishment. So the most meaningful aspect of our styles, which is what we choose to write about, is utterly unlimited.
- govern 治理
- Constitution 宪法
- punishment 惩罚
- utterly 完全的
8. For really detailed advice
[21] For a discussion of literary style in a narrower sense, in a more technical sense, I commend to your attention The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White (Macmillan, 1979). E.B. White is, of course, one of the most admirable literary stylists this country has so far produced.
- commend 称赞、推荐
[22] You should realize, too, that no one would care how well or badly Mr. White expressed himself, if he did not have perfectly enchanting things to say.
- enchanting 迷人的
重点单词
- freaks 怪人
- ink-stacked 王渊源注：这个说法我真没有接触过，也查不到别的用过的地方。反正是指用笔墨写东西的。
- wretches 不幸的人、恶棍、淘气的人
- revelations 被暴露或披露的信息、也可以指自己醒悟的事情
- accidental 以外的、偶然的、非故意的
- intentional 有意的
- ignorant 不知情的、蒙昧的、
- informed 有见识的、有依据的
- bright 鲜艳的、明亮的、聪明的
- crooked 弯曲的、不诚实的、不正当的
- humorless 无幽默感的
- mark 符号、标签
- scribble 潦草地写、匆忙地写、乱画、甩笔杆子
- egomaniac 极端利己主义者、非常自大的人
- damning 谴责性的、可定醉的、诅咒的
- mastery 精通
- genuine 真诚的、真实的
- compelling 引人入胜的、令人信服的、让人觉得有意思
- seductive 引诱性的、吸引人的
- provided 假如、只要
- ramble 闲逛、漫谈
- profound 深奥的
- intricate 错综复杂的
- glittering 闪闪发光的
- reputable 声誉好的
- sacred 神圣的
- guts 内脏、勇气（胆量）
- eloquence 雄辩、修辞
- servant 用人（在这里是抽象的用法）
- illuminate 照亮、阐明
- scratch 划破、挠、取消
- bound 一定的
- echo 使回响、重复、与…相似
- amusing 有趣的
- remote 遥远的、偏远的
- dialect 方言
- alternative 可能的选择
- exasperated 被使烦恼
- antique 古老的
- magnificent 壮丽的、壮观的、极好的
- precisely 恰好的、精确地
- unambiguously 不含糊的
- rigidly 坚固的、严格的
- punctuation 标点符号
- string 连起来
- pity 同情、可怜
- acknowledge 承认
- stylistic 文体上的、风格的
- numerous 许多的
- glamorous 富有魅力的、令人向往的
- imperfect 有缺陷的
- sympathetic 有同情的
- soar 高飞
- govern 治理
- punishment 惩罚
- utterly 完全的
- enchanting 迷人的
重点表达法
- any which way 无方向的
其他词语
- ink-stacked 王渊源注：这个说法我真没有接触过，也查不到别的用过的地方。反正是指用笔墨写东西的。
- chowderhead 笨蛋
- petition 祈求、申诉、请愿书
- pothole 坑洼
- frisky 活泼的
- Cleopatra 克娄巴特拉七世
- piquant 辛辣适口的、激动人心的、有趣的
- Polish 波兰语
- band saw 钢带锯
- galvanized tin 镀锌的锡
- unornamental 无观赏性的
- monkey wrench 螺丝扳手
- hollows 山谷 (remote hollows就是指偏僻的地方）
- Appalachia 阿巴拉契亚 （美国的地区，传统来讲民俗丰富，经济贫困）
- locutions 词语或说话的风格
- Elizabethan 伊丽莎白女王一世的
- vehemently 强烈的、激烈的、猛烈的
- cultivated 栽培的、有修养的
- datedness 过时性
- higgledly-piggledly 很糊涂很乱的
- nightingale 夜莺- Constitution 宪法
- commend 称赞、推荐
金句
If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.
No matter what your first language, you should treasure it all your life.
So this discussion must finally acknowledge that our stylistic options as writers are neither numerous nor glamorous, since our readers are bound to be such imperfect artists.
来源:
By Kurt Vonnegut
[1] Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stacked wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style.
[2] These revelations tell us as readers what sort of person it is with whom we are spending time. Does the writer sound ignorant or informed, stupid or bright, crooked or honest, humorless or playful — ? And on and on.
[3] Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts an which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead — or worse, they will stop reading you.
[4] The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don’t you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show you or make you think about? Did you ever admire an empty-headed writer for his or her mastery of the language? No.
[5] So your own winning style must begin with ideas in your head.
1. Find a subject you care about
[6] Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.
[7] I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.
2. Do not ramble, though
[8] I won’t ramble on about that.
3. Keep it simple
[9] As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. “To be or not to be?” asks Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story “Eveline” is this one: “She was tired.” At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of the reader as those three words do.
[10] Simplicity of language is not only reputable, but perhaps even sacred. The Bible opens with a sentence well within the writing skills of a lively fourteen-year-old: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
4. Have the guts to cut
[11] It may be that you, too, are capable of making necklaces for Cleopatra, so to speak. But your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.
5. Sounds like yourself
[12] The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child. English was the novelist Joseph Conrad’s third language, and much that seems piquant in his use of English was no doubt colored by his first language, which was polish. And lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical. I myself grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin, and employs a vocabulary as unornamental as a monkey wrench.
[13] IN some of the more remote hollows of Appalachia, children still grow up hearing songs and locutions of Elizabethan times. Yes, and many Americans grow up hearing a language other than English, or an English dialect a majority of Americans cannot understand.
[14] All these varieties of speech are beautiful, just as the varieties of butterflies are beautiful. No matter what your first language, you should treasure it all your life. If it happens not to be standard English, and if it shows itself when you write standard English, the result is usually delightful, like a very pretty girl with one eye that is green and one that is blue.
[15] I myself find that I trust my own writing most, and others seem to trust it most, too, when I sound most like a person from Indianapolis, which is what I am. What alternatives do I have? The one most vehemently recommended by teachers has no doubt been pressed on you, as well: to write like cultivated Englishmen of a century or more ago.
6. Say what you mean to say
[16] I used to be exasperated by such teachers, but am no more. I understand now that all those antique essays and stories with which I was to compare my own work were not magnificent for their datedness or foreignness, but for saying precisely what their authors meant them to say. My teachers wished me to write accurately, always selecting the most effective words, and relating the words to one another unambiguously, rigidly, like parts of a machine. The teachers did not want to turn me into an Englishman after all. They hoped that I would become understandable — and therefore understood. And there went my dream of doing with words what Pablo Picasso did with paint or what any number of jazz idols did with music. If I broke all the rules of punctuation, had words mean whatever I wanted them to mean, and strung them together higgledy-piggledy, I would simply not be understood. So you, too, had better avoid Picasso-style or jazz-style writing, if you have something worth saying and wish to be understood.
[17] Readers want our pages to look very much like pages they have seen before. Why? This is because they themselves have a tough job to do, and they need all the help they can get from us.
7. Pity the readers
[18] They have to identify thousands of little marks on paper, and make sense of them immediately. They have to read, an art so difficult that most people don’t really master it even after having studied it all through grade school and high school — twelve long years.
[19] So this discussion must finally acknowledge that our stylistic options as writers are neither numerous nor glamorous, since our readers are bound to be such imperfect artists. Our audience requires us to be sympathetic and patient teachers, ever willing to simplify and clarify — whereas we would rather soar high above the crowd, singing like nightingales.
[20] That is the bad news. The good news is that we Americans are governed under a unique Constitution, which allows us to write whatever we please without fear of punishment. So the most meaningful aspect of our styles, which is what we choose to write about, is utterly unlimited.
8. For really detailed advice
[21] For a discussion of literary style in a narrower sense, in a more technical sense, I commend to your attention The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White (Macmillan, 1979). E.B. White is, of course, one of the most admirable literary stylists this country has so far produced.
[22] You should realize, too, that no one would care how well or badly Mr. White expressed himself, if he did not have perfectly enchanting things to say.