不要喧宾夺主.doc

What Daniel Handler got wrong at the National Book Awards, and what he got right todayDaniel Handler attends the 2014 National Book Awards on Wednesday in New York. (Robin Marchant/Getty Images)
The National Book Awards were marred last night when author Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket), presenting the award for Young People’s Literature to Jacqueline Woodson for her verse memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming,” decided that the occasion was right for him to tell a joke about race and watermelon. He told the audience:
I told you! I told Jackie she was going to win. And I said that if she won, I would tell all of you something I learned this summer, which is that Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Just let that sink in your mind. And I said you have to put that in a book. And she said, ‘You put that in a book.’ And I said, ‘I am only writing a book about a black girl who is allergic to watermelon if I get a blurb from you, Cornel West, Toni Morrison and Barack Obama saying, “This guy’s okay! This guy’s fine!’ “
Handler’s choice of anecdote demonstrates a poverty of imagination on any number of levels. There is a long-running conversation about a lack of diversity in young adult fiction, the genre in which Handler himself works, which makes Woodson’s win a significant occasion as well as a joyful one. And in an environment that already limits the number of stories about young characters of color, Handler relied on an anecdote that riffed on an exceptionally old stereotype. Rather than celebrating Woodson’s creativity, he found a way to define her by her relationship to old tropes about what black people eat.
The apology Handler issued this morning is not explicitly about that failure to come up with a joke or a story that would spotlight what makes Woodson truly unique, rather than measuring her by a strange, stale metric. But I think it gets at something else important.
“My job at last night’s National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson,” he tweeted, “and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry.”
I think he is right to apologize for drawing attention to himself. What is uncomfortable about this story is not simply that it is about African Americans and watermelon, but that it is an attempt at self-flattery. In the anecdote, Woodson tries to deflect Handler’s suggestion that she should write about her allergy. And in response, Handler tries to show off how racially aware he is.
The man in the story knows that he could not write about the supposed black taste for watermelon without being excoriated as racist. The mantelling the story is eager to show off that he knows the limits of what he has the authority to speak about, and what jokes it is okay and not okay for him to make.
I can understand why such an anecdote might have been tempting to relate. It is nice to get credit for being smart and perceptive, or to be reassured that you have handled a difficult situation with grace and sensitivity. But on someone else’s night, it was unwise and inappropriate for Handler to swipe even a little bit of Woodson’s glow, particularly by shoring up his racial bona fides.
In an environment where prominent people’s apologies are often flip, insufficient or even outright distortions of the facts, I am glad to see Handler not just apologizing, but also apologizing for the right thing.
riff
英 [rɪf]

美 [rɪf]

n.反复乐节； 即兴重复段； 里弗族
v.反复演奏即兴段

stale
美 [stel]
· n. 尿
· adj. 陈腐的；不新鲜的
· vt. 使变旧；变得不新鲜
· vi. 变陈旧；撒尿；变得不新鲜
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[网络短语]
· Stale 走味的,陈腐的,不新鲜的
· stale bread 陈面包,不新鲜的面包,不新颖的面包
· stale fiavour 陈香

flip
英 [flɪp]
美 [flɪp]
· n. 弹；筋斗
· vi. 用指轻弹；蹦跳
· adj. 无礼的；轻率的
· vt. 掷；轻击
trope英 [trəʊp]美 [trop]
n. 比喻；修辞；转义
temperance trope 禁酒比喻
Fischer trope 费托合成
deflect英 [dɪ'flekt]美 [dɪ'flɛkt]
vt. 使转向；使偏斜；使弯曲
vi. 转向；偏斜
Deflect Missile 偏转飞弹,飞弹反射
excoriate英 [ɪk'skɔːrɪeɪt; eks-]美 [,ɛks'kɔrɪet]
vt. 严厉的责难；擦破...的皮肤
[网络短语]
excoriated 表皮剥脱的
Excoriated As Puppets 被指
Tempt 英 [tempt] 美
vt.引诱，怂恿； 吸引； 冒…的风险； 使感兴趣
vi.有吸引力
网 络
引诱；吸引；诱惑；引诱，诱惑

‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1’ movie review: Jennifer Lawrence brings the series to a boil
By definition, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1” is only half a movie.
As the first part of the last installment of the juggernaut adaptation of thewildly popular young-adult novel, this dutiful, glumly atmospheric placeholder feels like a long, extended inhale: a collective “Here we go” before the last triumphant hurrah.
As the movie opens, the series’ heroine, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), is being held at a rebel outpost in District 13, where precinct president Alma Coin — played by Julianne Moore with silver-haired seriousness — is seeking to galvanize the remaining districts to overtake the capital city and rid the nation, Panem, of its fascistic leader, President Snow (Donald Sutherland).
Katniss, having just destroyed the sadistic Hunger Games by way of her steady aim with a bow and arrow, is the obvious choice to rally the rebels. As Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) keeps insisting to Coin, Katniss has just the “anger-driven defiance” to be the perfect face of the burgeoning revolution.
The choice of words is meaningful: Although there are some explosive battles and grisly scenes of their aftermath in “Mockingjay,” the war is primarily fought by way of televised pronouncements and carefully choreographed electronic propaganda. When an early attempt at an inspirational video featuring Katniss falls flat, she winds up doing an extended video opp — much like an electronic press kit for a movie like “Mockingjay” — by visiting a field hospital, receiving a welcome one might expect for Eleanor Roosevelt or Joan of Arc.
"The Hunger Games" continues to set the world on fire with "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1." Directed by Francis Lawrence, Everdeen fights to save Peeta Mellark in this film based on a novel that is the third in a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. (Lionsgate)
As a charismatic figure, Katniss is a singularly reticent and unsmiling one: She’s uncertain whether the allies she made during the Hunger Games have all died, and she’s in particular mourning for Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), from whom she became separated during the last chapter. Even her best friend, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), can’t seem to shake her out of her lugubrious mood. One of the only seemingly spontaneous moments in “Mockingjay” occurs when Katniss travels to her ravaged home in District 12 to retrieve her beloved sister’s pet cat.
“You’re breakin’ my heart,” she mutters when she stuffs the squalling creature into her bag. It’s just the kind of irreverent line that one would expect from Lawrence, the bold, often recklessly unpredictable young actress who has become fused with the literary heroine of a generation. As ever, Lawrence is not only the best thing about “Mockingjay,” but also probably the one thing that makes an otherwise dreary, derivatively dystopian franchise worth watching. Even trudging through the post-industrial carnage and underground bunkers of the film’s blighted universe, she radiates unaffected humanity and light.
That’s all the more remarkable considering how much time she’s forced to spend crying, scowling and looking steely-eyed into cameras — which, as in Lawrence’s real life, are omnipresent. Like the actress herself, Katniss isn’t one for cutesy, canned promo shots. But she knows the value of projecting the right persona. Even though her stylist, Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), is no more, Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) is on hand, a bit more drab for the wear, but armed with cool designs for Katniss’s next incarnation as the messianic icon of a new world order. “We will make you the best dressed rebel in history,” Effie coos. “Everyone’s going to want to kiss you, kill you or be you.”
Such is the stuff that all girls’ dreams are made of.
Perhaps the cleverest feat of the “Hunger Games” epic has been to marry so seamlessly the shallow values of our own image-driven culture, the virtues of fashion at its most self- expressive, classic anti-authoritarian political ideals and the irresistible, ungovernable force that is female adolescence. Lawrence’s Katniss is the perfect foil for all four, her raw-boned beauty, strength and steady focus just as compelling, at their most unadorned, as when they’re tricked out for maximum stage presence.
Directed by Francis Lawrence from a script by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, “Mockingjay” gains steam as it goes. Its retro-futuristic aesthetic lacks the flamboyance of past installments, but possesses its own grim integrity, and even contains one authentically shocking reversal that bears more than a whiff of a “Manchurian Candidate”-like menace. It’s a joyless, surpassingly dour enterprise, but one that fulfills its mission with Katniss’s own eagle-eyed efficiency and unsentimental somberness. “Mockingjay” sets up the end Game with a grim sense of purpose.
★ ★ ½
PG-13. At area theaters. Contains intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images and mature thematic material. 123 minutes
outpost
英 ['aʊtpəʊst]
美 ['aʊtpost]
· n. 前哨；警戒部队；边区村落
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[网络短语]
· Outpost 编译,前哨,哨站
· Outpost well 探边井,油藏边界外的井
· Outpost Offensive 进攻前哨

precinct
英 ['priːsɪŋ(k)t]
美 ['prisɪŋkt]
· n. 选区；管理区；管辖区
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[网络短语]
· precinct 区域,购物区,区
· Precinct Jacket 警署夹克
· 17th Precinct 第17区,区特警

galvanize
英 [ˈgælvənaɪz]

美 [ˈɡælvəˌnaɪz]

vt.（用电）刺激； 通电； 电镀，镀锌； 激励
网 络
· 通电流于；
· 通电；
· 刺激行动；
· 电镀、镀锌

defiance英 [dɪ'faɪəns]美 [dɪ'faɪəns]
n. 蔑视；挑战；反抗
更多释义>>
[网络短语]
Defiance 反抗军,抗争,反抗
Fort Defiance 迪凡堡风云,迪法恩

burgeoning英 ['bə:dʒəniŋ]美 ['bə:dʒəniŋ]
adj. 增长迅速的；生机勃勃的
v. 成长（burgeon的ing形式）；迅速发展
更多释义>>
[网络短语]
Burgeoning 贝健宁,萌芽,新兴
burgeoning rate 发芽率
Burgeoning Market 政策市
fall flat
生词本
英 [fɔ:l flæt] 美 [fɔl flæt]
完全失败，未产生预期的效果
网 络
失败；平躺在地上；碰壁；完全失败
charismatic去背诵
英 [ˌkærɪzˈmætɪk]

美 [ˌkærɪzˈmætɪk]

adj.有魅力的； 神赐能力的； 神授
网 络
· 有魅力的；
· 超凡魅力的；
· 魅力型；
· 灵恩
lugubrious
生词本
英 [ləˈgu:briəs]

美 [lʊˈɡubriəs, -ˈɡju-]

adj.悲哀的； 阴郁的； 令人伤心的； 令人灰心的
网 络
· 可怜的；
· 郁郁不乐的；
· 忧伤的；
· 忧郁的悲伤的

How the Kardashians exploit racial bias for profit
By Sally Kohn November 18 at 10:07 AM Follow sallykohn
Sally Kohn is an essayist and a CNN political commentator.
As you surely know, last week Kim Kardashian posed — naked — on the pages of Paper Magazine. The stated goal? #BreakTheInternet.
Most cultural critics rolled their eyes and cried stunt. But the Kardashians aren’t just trashy. They’re dangerous—actively exploiting and reinforcing racial and gender biases that bite us in the ass.
Kim Kardashian’s picture is an almost exact replica of a 1976 portrait, also shot by photographer Jean-Paul Goude. The original version features Carolina Beaumont, who is black. The portrait was published in Goude’s book called, ahem, “Jungle Fever.”
Both images harken back to even more offensive representations of black women, particularly of Saartjie Baartman — the “Hottentot Venus” — a black woman with a large rear end who was violently exploited as a sexual object in a traveling “freak show” during the slave trade era.
For centuries since (and likely before) black women and their bodies have been smeared by stereotypes of hyper-sexuality simultaneously displayed and denigrated, their individuality and self-determination suppressed by the whims of the white male gaze. Goude, a white man, embodies this exploitative obsession. “Blacks are the premise of my work,” he said in 1979. “I have jungle fever.”
As Yomi Adegoke wrote in the Guardian in September, non-black women have a history of appropriating black women’s bodies and culture. Black women’s big bottoms were “the butt of fashion industry jokes for years,” Adegoke writes, until Jennifer Lopez, Iggy Azalea and even Miley Cyrus started boasting their own rear attributes,  “Why does a black butt only look good in white skin?” Adegoke wrote.  

It’s unclear whether Kardashian knew about her photo’s ugly context. If she did, her defense might be that she’s subverting the image — she’s not being exploited by society; she’s exploiting us. If society gives you racial and sexual exploitation, make lemonade, right? Isn’t Kardashian just an empowered modern woman taking control of her own body and career?
On Twitter, Kardashian even mocked her detractors:
And they say I didn’t have a talent…try balancing a champagne glass on your ass LOL #BreakTheInternet #PaperMagazine
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) November 12, 2014
But I think Kardashian does have a talent — exploiting the fetishization of women of color to line her own pocket. She’s like a buck-naked Trojan horse for a devious message: that the rest of us shouldn’t get our panties in a bunch about sexism and racism because, hey, Kim Kardashian is laughing about it. All the way to the bank.*
It’s as impossible to untangle for Kardashian as it is for her entire family. Just a week ago, Kim’s sister Khloe Kardashian posted a picture on Instagram of herself, Kim and sister Kourtney Kardashian with the caption: “The only KKK to ever let black men in.”
It’s like saying, “Hey, people of color, don’t be so freaked out about the Ku Klux Klan threatening ‘lethal force’ against protesters in Ferguson because, ya know, the KKK is a joke.  The Kardashians said so!” Khloe also posted a Halloween picture of herself next to Scott Disick (longtime partner of Kourtney), dressed as an Arab sheik, with the caption, “Sheik P*ssy.”* Why can’t everyone just have a sense of humor about racism and sexism like the Kardashians?
When the subject of racial bias does come up, the Kardashians often claim ignorance.
 “To be honest, before I had North, I never really gave racism or discrimination a lot of thought,” Kim Kardashian wrote on her blog last May soon after giving birth.
 “We don’t want to reduce ignorance to prejudice,” Alexis McGill Johnson, executive director of Perception Institute, said of the Kardashians. “But at the same time, we need to be able to call out flagrant examples of bias and hope that someone at this level of public privilege will work to get this right — not just for themselves, but for all the people who follow them.”
But whether Kim Kardashian has thought about it or not, racial bias and discrimination certainly created the cultural climate that allowed the family to rise to fame.
The very title of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” suggests that while these women of color are successfully using their, uh, assets, everyone else is behind.  Certainly race and gender discrimination can’t be part of the answer because the Kardashian women are so successful?
The implication is that something is wrong with the rest of us that we can’t keep up.  But it would certainly help if the Kardashians weren’t so recklessly feed