Urban Literacy—The Thing Author Tyree Holds Dear

by Dawn M. Burkes翻譯：大師

Urban Literacy—The Thing Author Tyree Holds Dear

by Dawn M. Burkes翻譯：大師

作為《紐約時報》的最暢銷作家，富有寫作天賦的小說家奧馬爾·泰里十分關注都市人的閱讀狀況。泰里所希望的，是忙碌的都市人能夠抽出一些時間用在閱讀上，通過閱讀更加了解自己的生活現狀，并能夠進一步地探索、創新，在書的世界中

使得現實生活更加美好。

作家泰里珍視的都市文化

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：弗蘭肯斯坦（Frankenstein），小說《弗蘭肯斯坦》中的怪物。小說中年輕的科學家弗蘭肯斯坦利用當時的生物學知識，從停尸房等處取得不同人體的器官和組織拼合成了怪物弗蘭肯斯坦。

注2：即North Carolina，美國的北卡羅來納州。

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憎惡，敵意

2) inner-city 市中心的

3) curse [k??s] n. 災禍

4) in the sense 就……的意義而言

5) progress to向……方面發展

6) intellectually [,?nt?'lekt???l?] adv. 智力上

7) artistically [α?'t?st?k?l?] adv. 在藝術上

8) rewind [ri?'wa?nd] v. 倒回

9) freshman ['fre?m?n] n. 大學一年級學生

10) upperclassman ['?p?'klα?sm?n] n. 〈美〉高年級學生

11) hustle ['h?sl] v. 奔忙

12) visualization [,v?zj??la?'ze???n] n. 可視化，形象化

13) suspenseful [s?'spεnsf?l] adj. 懸疑的

14) attention span 集中注意力的時間長度

15) publishing company 出版社

16) put out 出版

暢銷書作家奧馬爾·泰里成熟了。

“我感覺我才是那個創造了怪物弗蘭肯斯坦的人，”他在北卡羅來納州夏洛特的家中通話時這樣說道。“是的，我就是創造了弗蘭肯斯坦的人，但這感覺就像是，我想看到這個形象在其他地方生根發芽。”

泰里現年47歲，他所創作的小說已經售出了超過300萬本，但他對在體裁上模仿他的作家并無敵意。他的粉絲們可以在達拉斯圖書節上看到他。

他的早期作品中有可以與住在城區的人們產生共鳴的人物角色和處境，他因此獲得了不少機會，其他人也因此獲得了機會—他對這些心存感激。

“這是一件幸事也是一個災禍。幸運的意義在于我開始了新的創作嘗試，讓年輕的都市人可以產生共鳴并進行閱讀。但在某種程度上這也是個災禍，因為很多人會被局限于此，不再進一步嘗試其他的話題和材料。”他說著說著，嗓門兒也提高了。

“你要想尋找一本好書就必須努力去找，”他說。“如今，人們可以閱讀的書籍有很多，但對我們智力和藝術發展有益的書籍并不多。我也想賺錢，但我仍希望我們能夠獲得成長。”

回首當年：泰里在19歲時就寫出了他的第一本書。在他還是匹茲堡大學英語系的一名大一新生的時候，他已是明星學生，常常會有高年級的學生向他請教寫作方面的問題。

而寫書的夢想能成真則是源于一個同學的挑戰：“嘿，奧馬爾，你既然覺得自己博學多才，那你就該寫本書啊。”

于是，他便決定走上寫作這條路。

“我并沒有那種恐懼，”泰里笑著說。“我是那種說得出就要做得到的人，并不是說來玩的。這不是場游戲。我接受了這個挑戰。”

“很多人并不明白我成為一名作家的原因是因為這樣，”泰里說道。“人們不知道作家和藝術家們要付出多少才得以生存。如果你是一名作家、歌手或舞者，那么我們都是有所追求的人。”

對泰里而言，作家從來都不只是個稱號；那是一個蘊含著行動力的詞語。泰里所有的行動都是為了他創辦的“都市掃盲項目”。

“文化水平有五個關鍵的組成要素：閱讀、寫作、思考、形象化和應用，”他說。“我們每天都在運用著這五個要素，不僅僅體現了文化水平，在生活中也是如此。”

“人們放棄了太多了解真實生活的途徑，”他說。“無論你是否愿意，你都被迫放棄了能夠了解你自己生活的方法。我寫了整整一本書討論這個問題，那是本極好的懸疑小說，只是現在人們都沒有太多精力去讀書了。”

20歲出頭的泰里剛從霍華德大學畢業便創立了自己的出版社。

“現在，人們都不太敢出版東西，”他說。“如果我要做一些具有挑戰性的事情，而我也并不是新作家了，我就必須自己重新出版。”

由此，他或許會開始又一場出版革命。