新世纪大学英语综合教程2课文3.doc

TheShadowland of DreamsAlex Haley1. Many ayoung person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that theres a difference between being a writer and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth andfame, not the long hours alone at the type-writer. Youve got to want to write, I say to them, not want to be a writer.2. The reality is that writing is a lonely,privateand poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune, there are thousands more whose longing is neverrewarded. Even those who succeed often know long periods ofneglectand poverty. I did.3. When I left a 20-year career in theCoast Guardto become afreelancewriter, I had noprospectsat all. What I did have was a friend with whom Id grown up inHenning,Tennessee. George found me my home-a cleaned-outstorageroom in theGreenwich Villageapartment building where he worked assuperintendent. It didnt even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. Immediately I bought a usedmanualtypewriter and felt like agenuinewriter.4. After a year or so, however,I still hadnt received a breakand began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that I barely made enough to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years.I wasnt going to be one of those people who die wondering, What if?I would keepputting my dream to the test-even though it meant living withuncertaintyand fear of failure.This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.5. Then one day I got a call that changed my life. It wasnt anagentoreditoroffering a bigcontract. It was the opposite,a kind ofsirencalltemptingme to give up my dream.On the phone was an oldacquaintancefrom the Coast Guard, nowstationedinSan Francisco.He had once lent me a fewbucksand liked to egg me about it.When am I going to get the 15, Alex? heteased.6. Next time I make a sale.7. I have a better idea, he said. We need a new public-information assistant out here, and were paying 6,000 a year. If you want it, you can have it.8. Six thousand a year! That was real money in 1960. I could get a nice apartment, a used car, pay off debts and maybe save a little something. Whats more, I could writeon the side.9. As the dollars were dancing in my head, something cleared my senses.From deep inside abull-headedresolutionwelledup.I had dreamed of being a writer-full time. And thats what I was going to be. Thanks, but no, I heard myself saying. Im going tostick it outand write.10. Afterward, as Ipacedaround my little room, I started to feel like a fool. Reaching into mycupboard-an orangecratenailed to the wall-I pulled out all that was there: two cans ofsardines.Plungingmy hands inmy pockets, Icame up with18 cents. I took the cans and coins and jammed them into acrumpledpaper bag. There Alex, I said to myself. Theres everything youve made of yourself so far. Im not sure I ever felt so low.11. I wish I could say things started getting better right away. But they didnt. ThankgoodnessI had George to help me over the rough spots.12. Through him I met other struggling artists, likeJoe Delaney, aveteranpainter fromKnoxville, Tennessee. Often Joe lacked food money, so hed visit a neighborhood butcher who would give him big bones with small pieces of meat, and agrocerwho would hand him somewitheredvegetables. Thats all Joe needed to make his favorite soup.13. Another Village neighbor was a handsome young singer who ran a struggling restaurant.Rumorhad it thatif a customer orderedsteak, the singer woulddashto a supermarket across the street to buy one. His name wasHarry Belafonte.14. People like Delaney and Belafonte becamerole modelsfor me. I learned that you had tomakesacrificesand live creatively to keep working at your dreams. Thats what living in the Shadowland is all about.15. As I absorbed the lesson, Igraduallybegan to sell my articles. I was writing about what many people were talking about then:civil rights, black Americans and Africa. Soon, like birds flying south, my thoughts were drawn back to my childhood. In the silence of my room, I heard the voices of Grandma, Cousin Georgia, Aunt Plus, Aunt Liz and Aunt Till as they told stories about our family andslavery.16. These were stories that black Americans had tended toavoidbefore, and so I mostly kept them to myself. But one day at lunch with editors ofReaders Digest, I told these stories of my grandmother and aunts and cousins. I said that I had a dream totracemy familys history to the first African brought to these shores in chains. I left that lunch with a contract that would help support my research and writing for nine years.17. It was a long, slow climb out of the shadows.Yet in 1970, 17 years after I left the Coast Guard,Rootswas published. Instantly I had the kind of fame and success that few writers ever experienced.The shadows had turned intodazzlinglimelight.18. For the first time I had money and open doors everywhere. The phone rang all the time with new friends and new deals. Ipacked upand moved toLos Angeles, where I could help in the making of theRootsTV mini-series. It was a confusing, exciting time, andin a sense, I was blinded by the light of my success.1) Then one day, while unpacking, Icame acrossa box filled with things I had owned years before in the Village. Inside was a brown paper bag.2) I opened it, and there were twocorrodedsardine cans, a nickel, adimeand three pennies. Suddenly the past cameflooding inlike atide. I could picture myself once againhuddledover the typewriter in that cold,bleak, one-room apartment. And I said to myself, The things in this bag are part of my roots, too. I cant ever forget that.3) I sent them out to be framed. I keep that clear plastic case where I can see it every day. I can see it now above my office desk in Knoxville, along with thePulitzer Prize, aportraitof nineEmmysawarded to the TV production ofRoots, andthe Spingarnmedal-the NAACPshighest honor.Idbe hard pressed tosay which means the most to me.But only one reminds me of the courage andpersistenceit takes tostay the coursein the Shadowland.4) Its a lesson anyone with a dream should learn.