在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon.

Tiger Times 01

门罗是一位如此可怕的母亲，我们还要继续读她的故事吗 ?

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门罗的小女儿为什么在母亲去世后不久指责这位“文学圣徒”？
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《多伦多星报》的这篇文章如何揭露了一个不为人知的门罗？
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▸弗雷姆林如何在自辩信中引用纳博科夫的人物为自己开脱？
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▸#Metoo 运动中发展出来的“取消文化”有什么缺点？
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▸阅读一个道德有严重瑕疵的门罗，是不道德的吗？
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▸如何以新的眼光，重新在门罗的故事中寻找复杂人性的真相？
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“op-ed”这个词是什么意思？ 扫码听课

目前淘宝（日更）：
讲解文本 热爱英语10年或者星球
整理不易，感谢支持
Alice Munro Was a Terrible Mother 其它渠道皆为搬运

By Xochitl Gonzalez, The Atlantic, Published July 10, 2024

听课笔记

But we shouldn't stop reading her stories.

By now, we should be used to this story: A beloved artist is undone

by their own bad behavior, knocked off their pedestal, their works
removed to a remote shelf. Since the #MeToo movement began,
publishing, just like film and music, has seen its share of idols
abandoned. But the distress over the Nobel Prize–winning author
Alice Munro has a different tenor.

The death of Munro, at 92 years old in May, was followed by an

outpouring of encomium by her many fans. Her obituary in The
New York Times called her the closest thing there was to a "literary
saint" in her native Canada. But this week her daughter Andrea Robin
Skinner published an op-ed in the Toronto Star revealing that her
stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, had molested her when she was a child,
and that Munro had remained married to him even after learning the
truth. As a young woman, Skinner went to the police and he was
convicted of indecent assault. But Skinner never spoke publicly
about the case, or about her estrangement from her mother, until
now. "She was adamant that whatever had happened was between
me and my stepfather," Skinner wrote. "It had nothing to do with
her."
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 02

Measuring horrors is an unpleasant business. Although Munro did

not herself abuse her daughter, her behavior was unfathomably
revolting. In his letters, Fremlin blamed Skinner for what happened,
saying the 9-year-old girl had been a "Lolita" who seduced him. The
decision to stick by him suggests that Munro may have accepted this
disgusting defense. According to Skinner, whose account has been
backed up by many sources, the abuse was an open secret not just in
their family, but in literary circles.

How, many of Munro's fans are now wondering, can they ever
reconcile the saint with this history? Can they still read and admire
her stories? The #MeToo movement has given us one answer to the
question of how to manage art we love after it has been recategorized
as the output of a morally "bad actor." We throw it out. We rip the
artist from their pedestal and cast the films, music, novels, paintings,
clothing that we formerly admired into the nearest cultural refuse
bin. There are now scores of films we should not watch, albums we
should not stream, and brands we should not wear.

In the beginning this was, I admit, a thrilling act. As woman after

woman came forward with long-kept secrets about powerful men, we
found catharsis in rising against these protected predators. We were
invigorated by seizing our power as consumers of art and devaluing
perpetrators with so much wealth and fame and glory. But this
reaction was not only culturally immature; it was also unsustainable.
At this rate, we risk throwing away the art and culture that define us.

Inevitably, someone is reading this and thinking: If we don't shun

the work, how will we punish the artist? That's the wrong question to
ask. For one thing, Munro is dead and doesn't care anymore what we
think. But even for artists who are alive and well, the more effective
response is to stop putting them on pedestals in the first place. Just
as there are terrible, troubled people who are excellent mechanics or
stock brokers, there are terrible, troubled people who make excellent
art. Perhaps they are even overrepresented. Perhaps, in some cases,
it is precisely their troubled terribleness that helped make that art
excellent. That, alone, might be reason enough to keep engaging
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 03

with the art after our idols have fallen. Not blindly, like acolytes. But
critically, to see what it was about their work that made it resonate.

Art is powerful not because it mirrors only our innate goodness, but
rather because it reveals our innate complexity: the delicate balance
of love and sin that exists, to varying degrees, within us all. Munro
published a story called "Vandals" in The New Yorker soon after she
was first told, in a letter from her daughter, about the abuse. The story
is about a woman whose husband molested a much younger neighbor.
The woman can't or won't admit that she knows, at some level, what
happened, and she does nothing. It was the last story in her 1994
collection Open Secrets. It should not only be read again; it should be
read again in that gray and nauseating light of what we know now.
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 04

重点词汇

undo (undone) /ʌnˈduː/ v. 打败；挫败 unfathomable (unfathomably) /ʌnˈfæðəməbl/ adj. 难以理

○ to make somebody / something fail 解的；莫测高深的
○ e.g. The team was undone by the speed and strength of ○ too strange or difficult to be understood
their opponents. 这个队伍被对手的速度和力量打败了。 ○ e.g. an unfathomable mystery 难以解释的奥秘

pedestal /ˈpedɪstl/ n.（柱子或雕塑等的）底座，基座 revolting /rɪˈvəʊltɪŋ/ adj. 令人作呕的；极其讨厌的

○ the base that a column, statue, etc. rests on ○ extremely unpleasant
○ e.g. I replaced the vase carefully on its pedestal. 我小心地 ○ e.g. a revolting smell 令人作呕的气味
把花瓶放回基座上。
stick by 继续帮助；继续支持
distress /dɪˈstres/ n. 忧虑；悲伤；痛苦 ○ If you stick by someone, you continue to give them help or
○ a feeling of great worry or unhappiness; great suffering support.
○ e.g. The newspaper article caused the actor considerable ○ e.g. friends who stuck by me during the difficult times as
distress. 报上的文章给这位演员带来极大的痛苦。 Council Leader 在我任议会主席的困难时期一直支持我的
朋友们
tenor /ˈtenə(r)/ n. 大意；主旨；要领
○ The tenor of something is the general meaning or mood reconcile /ˈrekənsaɪl/ v. 使和谐一致；调和；使配合
that it expresses. ○ to find an acceptable way of dealing with two or more
○ e.g. Her dreams were troubled, reflecting the tenor of her ideas, needs, etc. that seem to be opposed to each other
waking hours. 她在梦中焦虑不安，反映了她白天生活的 ○ e.g. an attempt to reconcile the need for industrial
基调。 development with concern for the environment 协调工业发
展的需要和环境保护之间关系的努力
encomium /enˈkəʊmiəm/ n. 高度赞扬的话（或文章）；颂
词 scores of 很多
○ a speech or piece of writing that praises sb. or sth. highly ○ a large amount or number of something
○ e.g. He sent scores of enthusiastic letters to friends. 他给
obituary /əˈbɪtʃuəri/ n. 讣闻；讣告 朋友们寄去很多封热情洋溢的信。
○ an article about sb.'s life and achievements, that is printed
in a newspaper soon after they have died stream /striːm/ v. 用流式传输，流播（无须待整个文件下
○ e.g. His obituary was published in one edition of his own 载到计算机便可播放互联网上的视频或音频文件）
newspaper before it was discovered that he was alive. 他的讣 ○ to play video or sound on a computer by receiving it as
文刊登在他自己的报纸版面上之后，才发现他还活着。 a continuous stream, from the internet for example, rather
than needing to wait until the whole of the material has been
op-ed /ˌɒp ˈed/ n.（报章上与社论版位置相对的）评论版 downloaded
○ the page in a newspaper opposite the editorial page that ○ e.g. You can stream the song for a single listen. 你可以把
contains comment on the news and articles on particular 这首歌流式播放一次。
subjects
catharsis /kəˈθɑːsɪs/ n. 宣泄，净化（如通过戏剧或其他艺
molest (molested) /məˈlest/ v. 对（儿童）进行性骚扰 术活动）
○ to attack sb., especially a child, sexually ○ the process of releasing strong feelings, for example
○ e.g. men who molest young boys 猥亵男童的男子 through plays or other artistic activities, as a way of providing
relief from anger, suffering, etc.
convict (convicted) /kənˈvɪkt/ v. 定罪；宣判 … 有罪 ○ e.g. He wrote out his rage and bewilderment,
○ to decide and state officially in court that sb. is guilty of a which gradually became a form of catharsis leading to
crime understanding. 他写出了自己的愤怒和疑惑，这些慢慢变
○ e.g. He was convicted of fraud. 他被判犯有诈骗罪。 成一种精神宣泄方式，最终导致了他的理解。

estrangement /ɪˈstreɪndʒmənt/ n. 疏远（的一段时间）；分 invigorate (invigorated) /ɪnˈvɪɡəreɪt/ v. 使生气勃勃；使精

居（期） 神焕发
○ the state of being estranged; a period of being estranged ○ to make sb. feel healthy and full of energy
○ e.g. a period of estrangement from his wife 他与妻子分居 ○ e.g. The cold water invigorated him. 冷水让他打起了精
期间 神。

adamant /ˈædəmənt/ adj. 坚决的；坚定不移的 shun /ʃʌn/ v. 避开；回避；避免

○ determined not to change your mind or to be persuaded ○ to avoid sb. / sth.
about sth. ○ e.g. She was shunned by her family when she remarried.
○ e.g. Eva was adamant that she would not come. 伊娃坚决 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
不来。
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 05

overrepresent (overrepresented) /ˈəʊvəˌreprɪˈzent/ v. 使（某 vandal (Vandals) /ˈvændl/ n. 故意破坏公物者

一类型的人）数量超过比例 ○ a person who deliberately destroys or damages public
○ to include a disproportionately large number of (a property
particular category or type of person), especially as part of a ○ e.g. Vandals broke into the factory and set fire to a cabin.
statistical exercise 破坏分子闯入工厂将小木屋付之一炬。
○ e.g. Using telephone owners as the sampling list would
seriously overrepresent the better off. 只对有电话的人进行 nauseating /ˈnɔːzieɪtɪŋ/ adj. 令人厌恶的；令人作呕的
抽样调查将使有钱人的代表超过比例。 ○ If you describe someone's attitude or their behaviour as
nauseating, you mean that you find it extremely unpleasant
acolyte (acolytes) /ˈækəlaɪt/ n. 助手，随从，追随者 and feel disgusted by it.
○ someone who follows and admires a leader ○ e.g. The judge described the offences as nauseating and
unspeakable. 法官把这些罪行描述为 “ 令人作呕、难以言
innate /ɪˈneɪt/ adj. 天生的；先天的；与生俱来的 表 ”。
○ that you have when you are born
○ e.g. the innate ability to learn 天生的学习能力
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 06

今日习题

1. 根据英文释义写出文中出现的对应单词

_________: determined not to change your mind or to be persuaded about sth.

_________: to make sb feel healthy and full of energy

2. 一词多义

Which of the following underlined words is closest in meaning to the one in the sentence "There are
now scores of films we should not watch, albums we should not stream, and brands we should not
wear."? ____

A. The programme was streamed on the Web 24 hours a day.

B. Pupils are streamed for French and maths.
C. She was walking by the sea, her fair hair streaming.
D. Sunlight streamed through the windows.

3. 根据给定中文回译英文

我们抓住了作为艺术品消费者的权力，并贬低了拥有如此多财富、名誉和荣耀的肇事者，这让我
们感到振奋。但这种反应不仅在文化上不成熟，而且在文化上也是不成熟的。这也是不可持续的。
照这样下去，我们就有可能抛弃那些定义我们的艺术和文化。

_____________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

习题答案

unsustainable. At this rate, we risk throwing away the art and culture that define us.
so much wealth and fame and glory. But this reaction was not only culturally immature; it was also
3. We were invigorated by seizing our power as consumers of art and devaluing perpetrators with
2. A
1. adamant; invigorate
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 07

参考译文

注：译文基于机器翻译生成，便于同学们理解文章大意。具体词句意请以老师讲解为准。

爱丽丝 · 门罗是一位糟糕的母亲

但我们不应该停止阅读她的故事。

现在，我们应该已经习惯了这个故事：一位受人喜爱的艺术家因自己的不良行为而被毁掉，他们的基座被推倒，他们的作品被移
到遥远的架子上。自从 “#MeToo” 运动开始以来，出版业就像电影和音乐一样，也见证了自己的偶像被抛弃。但诺贝尔奖获得者
作家爱丽丝 · 门罗的苦恼却有着不同的基调。

蒙罗于 5 月去世，享年 92 岁，众多粉丝对她表示哀悼。

《纽约时报》在她的讣告中称她是祖国加拿大最接近 “ 文学圣人 ” 的人。但本周，
她的女儿安德里亚 罗宾 斯金纳在《多伦多星报》上发表了一篇专栏文章，透露她的继父杰拉尔德 · 弗雷姆林在她小时候猥亵了
· ·
她，而蒙罗甚至在得知真相后仍然与他保持着婚姻关系。作为一名年轻女性，斯金纳向警方报案后，其继父被判犯有非礼罪。但
斯金纳此前从未公开谈论过此案，也从未公开谈论过她与母亲的疏远。“ 她坚称发生的一切都是我和继父之间的事情，” 斯金纳写道。
“ 这件事与她无关。”

衡量恐怖是一件令人不愉快的事情。虽然门罗本人并没有虐待她的女儿，但她的行为却令人深感反感。弗雷姆林在信中将所发生
的事情归咎于斯金纳，称这个 9 岁的女孩是引诱他的 “ 洛丽塔 ”。坚持支持他的决定表明，蒙罗可能已经接受了这种令人厌恶的防守。
斯金纳的说法得到了许多消息来源的支持，据斯金纳说，这种虐待不仅在他们的家庭中是一个公开的秘密，而且在文学界也是如此。

许多门罗的粉丝现在想知道，他们如何才能使这位圣人与这段历史和解呢？他们还能阅读并欣赏她的故事吗？ #MeToo 运动为我

们提供了一个答案，回答了如何管理我们喜爱的艺术，因为它被重新归类为道德上 “ 坏演员 ” 的产物。我们把它扔掉。我们把艺
术家从他们的基座上撕下来，把我们以前欣赏的电影、音乐、小说、绘画、服装扔进最近的文化垃圾箱。现在有许多我们不应该
观看的电影、我们不应该播放的专辑以及我们不应该佩戴的品牌。

我承认，一开始这是一个令人兴奋的举动。当一个又一个的女人站出来揭露有关有权有势的男人的长期秘​​密时，我们在反抗这些
受保护的掠食者的过程中找到了宣泄的方式。我们抓住了作为艺术品消费者的权力，并贬低了拥有如此多财富、名誉和荣耀的肇
事者，这让我们感到振奋。但这种反应不仅在文化上很幼稚，而且也是不可持续的。照这样下去，我们就有可能抛弃那些定义我
们的艺术和文化。

不可避免地，有人读到这篇文章时会想：如果我们不回避这个作品，我们将如何惩罚艺术家？这是错误的问题。一方面，门罗已
经死了，不再关心我们的想法。但即使对于还活着并且健康的艺术家来说，更有效的应对措施也是首先停止将他们奉上神坛。正
如有一些可怕的、陷入困境的人是优秀的机械师或股票经纪人一样，也有一些可怕的、陷入困境的人创造了出色的艺术。也许他
们的比例甚至过高。也许，在某些情况下，正是他们陷入困境的可怕性才使这种艺术变得卓越。仅此一点，就足以成为我们在偶
像陨落后继续从事艺术的理由。不像侍僧那样盲目。但更重要的是，看看他们的作品是什么引起了共鸣。

艺术之所以强大，并不是因为它只反映了我们与生俱来的善良，而是因为它揭示了我们与生俱来的复杂性：我们所有人内心不同
程度地存在着爱与罪的微妙平衡。蒙罗在女儿的一封信中首次得知有关虐待事件后不久，就在《纽约客》上发表了一篇名为 “ 破坏者 ”
的报道。这个故事是关于一个女人的丈夫猥亵一个年轻得多的邻居的。女人不能或不愿承认她在某种程度上知道发生了什么，但
她什么也没做。这是她 1994 年出版的小说集《公开的秘密》中的最后一个故事。它不仅应该再读一遍；应该以我们现在所知的灰
色和令人作呕的眼光再次阅读它。

背景知识

“ 门罗事件 ”

爱丽丝 · 门罗，加拿大女作家，代表作有短篇小说集《快乐影子之舞》《逃离》等。她被誉为 “ 加拿大的契诃夫 ”，三次获

得加拿大总督奖，于 2009 年获得布克国际奖。2013 年，以 “ 当代短篇小说大师 ” 的成就，成为第一位加拿大籍女性诺贝尔奖得主，
也是第 13 位获得诺贝尔文学奖的女性作家。当地时间 2024 年 5 月 13 日，诺贝尔文学奖得主爱丽丝 · 门罗，在安大略省的家中去世，
享年 92 岁。

近日，门罗的小女儿安德丽娜 · 斯金纳对加拿大媒体《多伦多星报》披露，称自己童年时曾经遭受继父盖瑞 · 弗兰姆林性侵，

母亲对此知情，但仍与弗兰姆林继续生活，直到他于 2013 年去世。

根据安德丽娜的描述，虽然她在事后告诉了生父，她的生父却决定向门罗隐瞒此事。当安德丽娜时隔 25 年终于向门罗坦白
 在下林伯虎丨 2024 年 第 136 期 讲师丨但汉松 上线日期丨 2024.7.15 Mon. 08

真相，门罗的反应是 “ 感到自己被背叛了 ”，似乎完全意识不到自己在跟一名受害者说话，而受害者正是自己的女儿。从安德丽娜

的自述中可以看出，性侵对她的一生产生了持久的影响：她因此患上暴食症等病症，让人稍感欣慰的是，她找到了应对创伤的方式，
她如今是安大略省的一名冥想和正念教师，擅长治疗童年创伤。

参考资料：维基百科、百度百科、界面新闻

本期拓展

注：基于老师讲解音频整理，供同学们自行查阅。
尼尔 · 盖曼的丑闻；Op-ed；《多伦多星报》

编辑丨童雨欣