評論
打印
When I learned, some years ago, that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful,
當我多年前聽說作家們必須有極其不幸的童年才能取得成功的時候，
I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me.
我開始思考如何捏造一些我父母對我做過的惡行。
But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood, full of laughter and love, in a very close-knit family.
但是事實上，我的童年非常愉快，充滿了歡笑和關愛，也有著一個非常親密的家庭。
But I also had grandfathers who died in refugee camps.
但我也有在難民營中死去的祖父。
My cousin Polle died because he could not get adequate healthcare.
我的表兄Polle因為無法得到充足的醫療而去世。
One of my closest friends, Okoloma, died in a plane crash because our fire trucks did not have water.
我最親近的朋友之一Okoloma，死于一場飛機失事，因為我們的消防車中沒有水。
I grew up under repressive military governments that devalued education,
我在不重視教育、充滿壓迫性的軍權政府下長大，
so that sometimes, my parents were not paid their salaries.
以致于我的父母有時根本拿不到他們的工資。
And so, as a child, I saw jam disappear from the breakfast table,
因此，年少的我目睹果醬從早餐桌上消失，
then margarine disappeared, then bread became too expensive, then milk became rationed.
隨后黃油也消失了，面包變得無比昂貴，牛奶需要限量供應。
And most of all, a kind of normalized political fear invaded our lives.
最重要的是，政治恐懼成了我們生活中習以為常的一部分。
All of these stories make me who I am.
所有這些故事都塑造了我。
But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me.
但如果我僅僅關注這些悲觀的故事，那么我就簡化了我的生命歷程，并且忽視了許多其他同樣塑造了我的故事。
The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.
單一的故事衍生單一的傳統典型。而這些以偏概全的想法所存在的問題，并不是在于它們不真實，而是在于它們不完整。
They make one story become the only story.
它們將一個故事轉變成了唯一的故事。
