Ch 11-12|On Writing Well (11.8)

1. Summary

Chapter 11 is a chapter of encouraging and reassuring. Nonfiction isn't inferior to the "literature" (novels, short stories and poems). Actually, good "journalism" becomes good literature. What matters is that whether it's good writing or not.

Chapter 12 talks about the writing of people, and focuses on the interview. Zinsser believes nonfiction should have a human element, which asks for a suitable "absence of the writer". And also bear in mind two standards: brevity and fair play. Clean up and link the language wherever the conversation is ragged. But keep the idea and style intact.

2. Thoughts

1. 大学上比较文学，教授的第一个问题是：什么是文学？（？？？）整个教室一片寂静。后来老师说，文学可以说是“给人以教化的书写作品”。狭义上的文学指fiction，而广义上的文学就包括一切文字作品，nonfiction可以理解为literature of facts。我们从纪实文学，评论等等之中可以了解世界和周遭的生活，同样是得到了教化。

2. 我们都喜欢看故事，不论是传记还是小说，是因为那是另一个精彩的世界，有鲜活的人。Zinsser总强调人在非虚构作品中的重要性，不亚于虚构作品中人物形象的塑造。采访、人物传记等，总要尽可能保留人物本身的话语和态度，写出来像那个人，这样才鲜活，算得上fair play。

3. 词（组）

1. invoke

“He didn’t know what to make of that, and he began to invoke the names of authors like Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow and William Styron, whom we surely regarded as literary giants.”

“Let me invoke the work of Joseph Mitchell to suggest some guidelines.”

invoke这里指引用，援引。这个词还可以用在法庭上表示“援引法律”，甚至可以表示“召唤亡灵”。

2. run

“It was the beginning of a golden era of nonfiction, especially in Life, which ran finely crafted articles every week”

“The six Mitchell pieces that would eventually constitute his book, The Bottom of the Harbor, a classic of American nonfiction, ran with maddening infrequency in The New Yorker during the late 1940s and early ’50s”

run在这两段里都是表示发表，刊登的意思。

3. juggle

“To what extent can you cut or juggle his words?”

“I know that it’s just not possible to write a competent interview without some juggling and eliding of quotes;”

juggle本来是指抛接球杂耍，引申为同时处理很多事情、工作、角色等。在这里应该是将被采访人的话挑挑拣拣，穿插使用。