Urban Literacy—The Thing Author Tyree Holds Dear

by Dawn M. Burkes翻译：大师

Urban Literacy—The Thing Author Tyree Holds Dear

by Dawn M. Burkes翻译：大师

作为《纽约时报》的最畅销作家，富有写作天赋的小说家奥马尔·泰里十分关注都市人的阅读状况。泰里所希望的，是忙碌的都市人能够抽出一些时间用在阅读上，通过阅读更加了解自己的生活现状，并能够进一步地探索、创新，在书的世界中

使得现实生活更加美好。

作家泰里珍视的都市文化

Best-selling author Omar Tyree has grown.

“It feels like I’m the man who created the monster, Frankenstein注1,” he says during a phone call from his home in Charlotte, N.C.注2“Yeah, I’m the guy that created it, but it’s like, I would love to see it grow into other venues.”

注1：弗兰肯斯坦（Frankenstein），小说《弗兰肯斯坦》中的怪物。小说中年轻的科学家弗兰肯斯坦利用当时的生物学知识，从停尸房等处取得不同人体的器官和组织拼合成了怪物弗兰肯斯坦。

注2：即North Carolina，美国的北卡罗来纳州。

Tyree, 47, who has sold more than three million copies of his novels, holds no1)ill will toward the writers who followed him in the genre. His fans can see him at the Dallas Book Festival.

He’s appreciative of the opportunities he’s gotten because of his early work—which included characters and situations that2)inner-city people could relate to—and the opportunities others have gotten because of it.

“It’s a blessing-and-a-3)curse kind of thing. A blessing4)in the sense that I started something new that young urban people can relate to and read, but it’s a curse in a sense that a lot of them got stuck there and haven’t5)progressed to other subjects and other material,” he says, and his voice rising.

“You look for a good book and you have to search hard for it,” he says. “Now you have an overload of material that’s not beneficial6)intellectually or7)artistically for our people. I want to make money, too, but I still want us to grow.”

8)Rewind to the beginning: At 19, Tyree wrote his first book. He was a star in English at the University of Pittsburgh, where as a9)freshman he was constantly being asked by10)upperclassmen to help them with writing.

It became real when a classmate issued a challenge: “Hey, Omar, you think you know so much, you should write a book.”

And it was decided.

“I don’t have fear like that,” says Tyree, laughing. “I’ve always been that kind of person where if I say I’m going to do it, I’m not playing. It’s not a game. I accepted the challenge.”

“A lot of people don’t understand that’s exactly what I am as an author,” Tyree says. “People don’t know how much authors and artistic people11)hustle to make that living. If you’re an author or a singer or a dancer, we are all hustlers.”

For Tyree, author has never been just a title; it’s an action word, and all roads lead to his Urban Literacy Project.

“It’s about the five key components of literacy: reading, writing, thinking,12)visualization and application,” he says.“And we use all five of those every single day, not just in literacy, but in life period.”

“People are giving up too much access of their real lives,” he says. “You are forced to give up access to your own life, whether you want to or not. I have a whole book on that, a fictional book that’s a great,13)suspenseful book, but now people don’t have the14)attention span to read books.”

He started his own15)publishing company in his early 20s, right after he graduated from Howard University.

“Now, everybody’s afraid to16)put something out,” he says. “If I’m doing something challenging to me and I’m not a brand-new writer, I have to put it out myself again.”

And he may start another publishing revolution.

1) ill will憎恶，敌意

2) inner-city 市中心的

3) curse [kʒːs] n. 灾祸

4) in the sense 就……的意义而言

5) progress to向……方面发展

6) intellectually [,ɪntɪ'lektʃʊəlɪ] adv. 智力上

7) artistically [αː'tɪstɪkəlɪ] adv. 在艺术上

8) rewind [riː'waɪnd] v. 倒回

9) freshman ['freʃmən] n. 大学一年级学生

10) upperclassman ['ʌpə'klαːsmən] n. 〈美〉高年级学生

11) hustle ['hʌsl] v. 奔忙

12) visualization [,vɪzjʊəlaɪ'zeɪʃən] n. 可视化，形象化

13) suspenseful [sə'spεnsfʊl] adj. 悬疑的

14) attention span 集中注意力的时间长度

15) publishing company 出版社

16) put out 出版

畅销书作家奥马尔·泰里成熟了。

“我感觉我才是那个创造了怪物弗兰肯斯坦的人，”他在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特的家中通话时这样说道。“是的，我就是创造了弗兰肯斯坦的人，但这感觉就像是，我想看到这个形象在其他地方生根发芽。”

泰里现年47岁，他所创作的小说已经售出了超过300万本，但他对在体裁上模仿他的作家并无敌意。他的粉丝们可以在达拉斯图书节上看到他。

他的早期作品中有可以与住在城区的人们产生共鸣的人物角色和处境，他因此获得了不少机会，其他人也因此获得了机会—他对这些心存感激。

“这是一件幸事也是一个灾祸。幸运的意义在于我开始了新的创作尝试，让年轻的都市人可以产生共鸣并进行阅读。但在某种程度上这也是个灾祸，因为很多人会被局限于此，不再进一步尝试其他的话题和材料。”他说着说着，嗓门儿也提高了。

“你要想寻找一本好书就必须努力去找，”他说。“如今，人们可以阅读的书籍有很多，但对我们智力和艺术发展有益的书籍并不多。我也想赚钱，但我仍希望我们能够获得成长。”

回首当年：泰里在19岁时就写出了他的第一本书。在他还是匹兹堡大学英语系的一名大一新生的时候，他已是明星学生，常常会有高年级的学生向他请教写作方面的问题。

而写书的梦想能成真则是源于一个同学的挑战：“嘿，奥马尔，你既然觉得自己博学多才，那你就该写本书啊。”

于是，他便决定走上写作这条路。

“我并没有那种恐惧，”泰里笑着说。“我是那种说得出就要做得到的人，并不是说来玩的。这不是场游戏。我接受了这个挑战。”

“很多人并不明白我成为一名作家的原因是因为这样，”泰里说道。“人们不知道作家和艺术家们要付出多少才得以生存。如果你是一名作家、歌手或舞者，那么我们都是有所追求的人。”

对泰里而言，作家从来都不只是个称号；那是一个蕴含着行动力的词语。泰里所有的行动都是为了他创办的“都市扫盲项目”。

“文化水平有五个关键的组成要素：阅读、写作、思考、形象化和应用，”他说。“我们每天都在运用着这五个要素，不仅仅体现了文化水平，在生活中也是如此。”

“人们放弃了太多了解真实生活的途径，”他说。“无论你是否愿意，你都被迫放弃了能够了解你自己生活的方法。我写了整整一本书讨论这个问题，那是本极好的悬疑小说，只是现在人们都没有太多精力去读书了。”

20岁出头的泰里刚从霍华德大学毕业便创立了自己的出版社。

“现在，人们都不太敢出版东西，”他说。“如果我要做一些具有挑战性的事情，而我也并不是新作家了，我就必须自己重新出版。”

由此，他或许会开始又一场出版革命。