写作与思考2019lareviewofbooks.org编辑精选
写作的独特力量
The Singular Power of Writing
导读
这篇是对 Thomas Chatterton Williams 的访谈，围绕写作、身份与种族分类展开，讨论人如何被身份标签塑造，以及写作如何让人审视这些分类。值得写作者读，因为它提醒我们：写作要警惕现成标签，用更精确的语言和具体经验去表达复杂身份。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写身份时不要套用现成标签，要落到具体经验、细节和无法归类的部分。
- 02
检验常用词是否真的准确：所谓“白”“黑”并不精确对应肤色，语言要经得起现实推敲。
- 03
用反主流声音或拒绝被归类的例子建立文章张力，让观点不只停留在单一阵营。
- 04
好文章能激发共情和想象，但不要假设读者会因此彻底改变信念；用具体故事搭桥更现实。
HN 评论精选
身份表格和标签无法容纳复杂经历，写作应保留这种无法归类的具体细节。
我娘家姓源自爱尔兰。曾几何时，爱尔兰裔美国人也是被“他者化”的群体，现在他们只是白人的一个子集。我母亲是德国移民，肤色很橄榄色，接近一些浅肤色的黑人；当然，因为她是德国人，她就算“白人”。有人告诉我，我父亲有 1/16 切罗基血统。我往往不太融入白人中产美国人，从来如此；我在文化上和他们太不一样。当然，有色人种也不愿把我算作他们的一员。原住民对我这样的人极其挑剔，我在他们那里并不受欢迎。填表时，我开始在种族问题上选“拒绝回答”。他们提供的选项似乎不符合我的现实，也没有足够空间解释。如果我解释了，读表的人无疑会立刻断定我是白人，而我对这个问题的不适只是神经质，并不正当。
DoreenMichele查看英文原文
My maiden name is Irish in origin. At one time, Irish Americans were an othered group. Now, they are just a subset of white. I have a German immigrant mother with very olive skin. Her skin color is very close to that of some light skinned blacks. But, of course, she's "white" because she's German. I have been told my father was 1/16th Cherokee. I tend to not really fit in with white middle class Americans. I never really have. I'm too culturally different from them. Of course, people of color don't want to claim me as one of theirs. Natives are extremely critical of people like me. I'm not really welcome by them. I've started checking "decline to answer" the race question when filling out forms. The options they provide just don't seem to fit my reality and there isn't enough space to explain it. If I did, no doubt whoever read it would promptly conclude that I'm white and my discomfort with the question is neurotic and not legitimate.
用反主流声音和拒绝被归类的例子，说明写作中呈现异见声音的价值。
这位作者的声音正是我们需要的，可以对抗美国政治中当下流行的思路。我一定会读他的书。顺便说，我不禁想到 Kanye 宣称“他不是黑人，他是 Kanye”，像是在表达 Williams 这里说的意思；当然，这招彻底适得其反。我还想到一些 Morgan Freeman 的采访，他在其中冷静地拒绝被归类。
spookybones查看英文原文
This author is a voice we really need as a counterpoint to the current train of thought running through American politics. I will definitely check out his books. As a side-note, I couldn't help but think of Kayne declaring that 'he's not black, he's Kanye' as an attempt to get across what Williams is talking about here. Of course, it tremendously backfired. I'm also reminded of some of Moran Freeman interviews, in which he cooly refuses to be pigeonholed.
好文章能激发共情与想象，但作者要面对一个现实：文字未必能让人放弃身份或彻底改变信念。
这是一篇很棒的访谈。我很兴奋地想把它分享给所有认识的人。我想到一位黑人父亲已去世的好友；我总想象他父亲会怎样讲述自己的婚姻曾属违法的那个年代。这篇文章让我意识到，我想象中的他的经历可能完全不是那样，这很值得思考；也想到我朋友的亲属可能因自己的偏狭而失去了多少。随后我留下一个沉重的念头：任何人放弃自己的身份，包括种族身份，也包括其他束缚我们的身份，究竟能得到什么回报？这个想法很好，文中也有记录，但不是每个人都会搬到法国去审视自己的想法。这让我难过。我怀疑大多数人不会读这篇访谈，也怀疑读的人中大多数不会彻底改变信念体系。老实说，我也得把自己算在内。
xrd查看英文原文
This is a fantastic interview. I was so excited to share this with everyone I know. I think about a great friend with a black father, now deceased. I always imagined what his father he might have related to life during a time when his marriage was illegal. This article really stimulated ideas like the way I imagined it was for him might not at all have been the case, which is wonderful to think about. And how my friend's relatives might have lost so much in their bigotry. Then, I was left with this harrowing thought: what's the payoff for anyone to give up their identities (including racial identities, but also every other identity that binds us). I mean, it's a wonderful idea and wonderful documented here, but not everyone will move to France and investigate their thoughts. That made me sad. I'm doubtful that most people will read this interview, and doubtful most people that do read it will radically change their belief systems. I must include myself in that assessment to be honest.
写作中要警惕不准确的身份标签，并注意自己的用词是否与论点一致。
> 我认为你需要这种孩子般的看待事物的方式，就像作家 Albert Murray 描述的那样，也是孩子在被种族思维规训之前的样子：你皮肤的颜色不是白色，我皮肤的颜色也不是黑色。这些颜色甚至并不出现在人的肉体上。我们甚至不是用真正准确描述肤色的词来描述自己。任何傻瓜都能看出白人实际上不是白色，黑人也不是黑色。 我同意这一点。我认为把人称为“白人”或“黑人”很愚蠢，我不这么做，也不仅因为这个原因。但 Williams 在访谈别处确实用这些词指人。我很好奇，在明确提出这一点之后，他为什么还这样做？
oska查看英文原文
> I think that you need to have this kind of childlike way of looking at things, as the writer Albert Murray described, and which you see with children before they’ve been conditioned into race-thinking, which is that the color of your skin is not white. The color of my skin isn’t black. Those colors don’t even manifest on human flesh. We don’t even describe ourselves in words that are actually accurate to flesh tones. Any fool can see that white people are not actually white and black people are not black. I agree with this. I think calling people 'white' or 'black' is stupid and I don't do it (and not just for this reason). But Williams does use these words to refer to people elsewhere through the interview. I wonder why he does it, after making this explicit point?
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