2022暑期精读第5课：幸福结局

选择作品：Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood

         “两次英国布克奖得主的经典巨作”、“元小说的全新观感”、“跳脱惯例的创新叙述”

        “一个通用、美好却平实的人物与结局，六个看似分离实则统一的爱情故事。”

        “任何幸福有趣的爱情结局背后，都可能蕴藏着跌宕起伏且耐人寻味的‘追爱之旅’。美好爱情中真正扣人心弦的往往是那富含戏剧性的爱情过程。”

        “抛开开头与结尾的着重聚焦，关注故事过程的千变万化。”

         

        加拿大作家玛格丽特·阿特伍德的《幸福结局》是元小说的典型作品。“Happy Endings”于1983年首次出版。

        这个故事实际上是六合一的故事。作者首先介绍了两个主要角色约翰和玛丽，然后提供了六个不同的版本-标记为A到F-他们是谁以及可能发生在他们身上的事情。作者通过变化除了“人物”和“结局”以外的元素，以用小说讲述小说的方式描绘新奇而有趣的情节。在一系列不寻常的故事中，她展示了谁和什么”是不够的;读者必须问“如何以及为什么”的理念。

内容干货

1. 作者简介，本文概要

        作者简介：Margaret Atwood,born November 18, 1939, Canada, is a Canadian writer best known for her prose fiction and for her feminist perspective. After completing her university studies at the University of Toronto, Atwood earned a master’s degree in English literature from Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1962. At the age of 30, she published her first novel, The Edible Woman, and received several nominations and awards from her debut.

        She owns the style of poet, romantic and powerful. She is also logical, keeping an eye on the most cruel faculties in the world. Those two factors bring a sense of fresh and touching from her stories, impressing every audience.

         Notable Works:“Alias Grace” “Bluebeard’s Egg”

        

        作品梗概：“Happy Endings” is a short story with the only fixed two figures and one ending. What’s different from other stories is that, the author provides 6 different plots, which the audience can choose from by themselves.

        “Happy Endings”  was first published at Murder in the Dark(1983), then appeared at Good Bones and Simple Murders(1994)

        The story is made up only of 1,500 words, but the content is undulating."Happy Endings" is a story about writing stories, providing thoughtful advice to readers and future writers.

 

2. 单词词组，地道表达

        “他们都有一份worthwhile and remunerative工作,这份工作让他们觉得worthwhile and remunerative。”

        “玛莉把所有她能够找到的sleeping pills和 aspirins 用半瓶雪利酒吞了下去。”

        “约翰 goes on about this 对玛莉说甜言蜜语，玛莉都烦了。”

        “真正的connoisseurs懂得品味故事的 stretch，这是只能任其发展的部分。”

 

3. 散文佳句，沉浸赏析

        ▶ 面对不可得的爱情，人之所想愈难为。

        l  Inside John, she thinks, is another John, who is much nicer. This other John will emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, a Jack from a box, a pit from a prune, if the first John is only squeezed enough.

        ▶ 单向的憧憬是否值得？所看之人是否是心中所望之人？

        l  Everything becomes very underwater, but along comes John, who has a key to Mary's apartment. He finds them stoned and entwined. He's hardly in any position to be jealous, considering Madge, but nevertheless he's overcome with despair.

        爱恨交织，人的情绪鲜有理性的底色。

 

4. 主旨哲思，流连赏玩

        ▶ 命运之轮，转由人心

        “You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality.”

        命运或许会赋予每人定向的轴，但生命历程的无限可能性等待着每个人自己去创造。人心转动之时亦是命运之轮转动之时。

        ▶ 流连于途，静待花开

        “That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.Now try How and Why.”

        路旁的花不会因我们错过而失去芬芳，但我们可能会因错过路旁的花而失去一份芬芳。花的绽放不是一朝一夕而成，它需要无数日夜光影雨露的滋润。

        用心对待生命的每一分钟，让人生的时刻因用心对待而焕发光彩。