bubble50 DH Freelance 中翻英 英翻中

Is Any Topic Off Limits When You Write for Teenagers? Maybe Just One

為青少年寫作時，是否會有主題限制？或許只有一個

Source(資料來源): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/25/books/review/religion-taboo-young-adult.html

A persistent question for those of us who write young adult literature is, What are we not allowed to do or say when writing for teenagers?

對於我們這些寫青少年文學的人來說，有一個已存在很久的問題，那就是在為青少年寫作時，我們不允許做些什麼或說些什麼？

I usually answer with an anecdote about a near-crisis at my publisher nine years ago, regarding a single use of the F-word in my second novel (the F-word remained). Now, I say, we are long past that worry. A writer can go as dark and violent as it gets (see “The Hunger Games”). Sex is more than fine (see all of B. T. Gottfred’s giddy, explicit novels). Graphic, instructive, erotic, romantic, disappointing: Bring it all on! Even better, current Y.A. novels now have many L.G.B.T.Q. protagonists (see Meredith Russo’s “If I Was Your Girl”), which was not the case even 10 years ago. Now, I say, the sky is the limit.

通常我的回答都是一個關於9年前在我第二本小說中使用髒話的一個小趣聞(不過那髒話仍在那本書中出版)，當時差點釀成危機。現在，我說，我們已經過了會為此感到危機的時期。作家可以寫的很黑暗、很暴力（參見《飢餓遊戲》）。性愛也不僅只能形容好而已（參見戈弗雷所有輕挑而直白的小說）。圖片式的、教育性的、色情的、浪漫的、令人失望的：全都寫的出來！不僅如此，現在的YA小說(指青少年小說)中有許多LGBTQ主角（參見*梅瑞狄斯．魯索的《*如果我是你的女孩》），而這在10年前卻不是如此。但現在，我說，想寫什麼就寫什麼。

But reader, I lie.

但是讀者阿，我說謊了。

Religion. Religion is the last taboo.

宗教。宗教是最後的禁忌。

Yes, there exist Y.A. novels that contend with religion or spirituality in some way — not a lot, but some. Francisco X. Stork’s “Marcelo in the Real World” has one of the best conversations about sex and religion I’ve ever encountered. Marcelo is deeply curious about God, and regularly talks to a rabbi about his religious questions.

是的，YA小說中可能出現以某種方式與宗教或靈性作鬥爭，但這卻不多。思徒克的《*馬塞羅的真實世界》是我看到過關於性和宗教議題中交流的最好的小說之一。馬塞羅對神深感好奇，並經常與拉比談論他對宗教的疑惑。

I think Alex Sanchez’s beautiful, smart “The God Box,” about a gay teenager who comes out at a high school in a conservative Christian community, should be required reading for young people (my college students agree). Deborah Heiligman’s “Intentions” focuses on sex abuse in a Jewish community, and Brendan Kiely’s moving “The Gospel of Winter” does the same in the Catholic tradition. And we’ve come a long way from 2007, when “Does My Head Look Big in This,” by Randa Abdel-Fattah, a wonderful book, introduced the rare Muslim teenage character to American readers.

我認為應該要讓年輕人都讀一讀艾力克斯．桑柴斯美好知性的《上帝的百寶箱》（我那些大學的學生們也是這樣認為），這是一本關於一個出身於保守基督教社區的同性戀高中男生的故事。黛博拉．赫黎曼的《*意圖》則著重在猶太社區的性虐待、布蘭登．凱利感人的《冬之福音》在天主教傳統中也是如此。從2007年起我們取得了重要的進展，當時蘭達·阿卜杜勒·費塔將其精彩的《我的頭看起來很大嗎?》，一本關於穆斯林青少年主角的書，介紹給美國的讀者們。

Fuller treatments of religion in recent Y.A. have come in Julie Berry’s “The Passion of Dolssa” and Laura Amy Schlitz’s “The Hired Girl” — but both are historical fiction, set in bygone eras. Religion and spirituality still feel off limits within Y.A. set in the present.

最近YA小說中更完善處理宗教議題的是*朱莉．貝里的《多爾沙的情感》和蘿拉．愛米．舒麗滋的《女傭》。但是這兩本書都是歷史小說，時間背景都是設在過去的年代。在YA小說中故事時空為現代的，關於宗教和靈性的議題仍然備受限制。

The source of this feeling of mine — that a Y.A. writer had best stay away from the topic of faith — is elusive, a kind of vapor that began swirling around me a decade ago when I wrote my first Y.A. novel, “The Possibilities of Sainthood,” about a Catholic girl who longs to become the first living saint, followed by “This Gorgeous Game,” about a young woman struggling with her faith amid the Catholic abuse scandal.

身為一個YA作家最好不要觸碰信仰的話題這種感覺的來源是相當難以捉摸的，這是一種我在十年前寫第一部YA小說《*聖徒的可能》時圍繞在我身邊的氛圍。這本小說是關於一位渴望成為第一個活著的聖徒的天主教女孩。之後我第二本小說《*華麗的遊戲》則是關於一個年輕女孩在她的信仰及天主教虐待醜聞中掙扎的故事。

In the years after those first two books I found myself going underground. I wrote stories about losing a parent, about a young gymnast who gets her first gold medal and an ice skater who makes it to the Olympics; even a science fiction trilogy that takes up the perils and possibilities of new technology. Being too overt about religion in a Y.A. novel seemed a mistake, maybe even an act of self-sabotage — unless one is writing about cults or lampooning religion à la Pete Hautman’s “Godless.”

在這兩本書之後的幾年裡，我發現自己漸漸銷聲匿跡。我寫過關於失去父母的故事、關於一位獲得她的第一枚金牌的年輕體操運動員和一位擠身進入奧運的滑冰運動員的故事。甚至是科幻三部曲，關於接收新技術的危險性和可能性的小說。似乎，在YA小說中對宗教過於公開描述是一種錯誤，甚至可能是一種自我破壞的行為，除非寫的是關於邪教或諷刺宗教的文章，如彼特．霍特曼的《無神》。

While I used to say that I have a Ph.D. in religious studies, I started referring instead to my dissertation topic, postmodern French feminist philosophy. That way, no one would assume I was conservative, antisex and intolerant. To be known as a person of faith, especially of the Christian, Catholic variety, I noticed, was to cause a kind of allergic reaction, to provoke suspicion and distrust.

雖然我曾說過我有宗教研究方面的博士學位，但我卻開始只提我關於後現代法國女權主義哲學的論文。這樣的話沒有人會認為我是保守派、反對性愛和不寬容的人。我注意到的是，那些被認為是信徒的人，特別是天主教、基督教，會引起他人的過敏反應，並引發對這人的懷疑和不信任感。

Of course, it’s for all the right reasons that talk of religion in the mainstream Y.A. publishing world makes people nervous. We worry someone might be trying to convert or indoctrinate teenagers; we resist preachiness about certain moral perspectives. Religions and religious people have done and still do reprehensible things in our world, to women, to children, to some of the people I care most deeply about.

當然，對YA出版界的主流而言，談論宗教會讓大家感到緊張，而不去談論有其必要的理由。我們擔心有人可能會試圖皈依或灌輸青少年特定的宗教;我們拒絕對某些道德觀點進行宣傳。而這世界上也多有宗教和宗教人士曾對或仍在對婦女、兒童以及我們最關心的人中做出一些應受譴責的事情。

Calls for censorship of novels for children and young adults typically arise from religiously affiliated quarters; Harry Potter has been banned because of fears of witchcraft, and His Dark Materials has been banned because Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist.

而為兒童和青少年進行小說審查的呼籲通常都來自宗教附屬區; 《哈利波特》被禁是因為害怕巫術，《黑暗元素》被禁是因為作者菲力普·普曼是一個直言不諱的無神論者。

Talk of religion makes me twitchy for all those reasons, and because I am feminist, liberal, pro-L.G.B.T.Q. Religion can make me enraged, dismayed, disgusted.

因為這些原因，談論宗教讓我感到焦慮不安。而因為我是女權主義者、自由派、支持LGBTQ，宗教讓我感到憤怒、沮喪、厭惡。

And yet, it is a part of me. Maybe one of the best parts.

然而儘管如此，它仍是我的一部分。也許可以說是最好的部分之一。

I see it in the big questions (the bigger the better) that percolate in my brain, that drive my curiosity into a thrilling frenzy, and in the playful, at times comedic, cultural trappings of my Italian-Portuguese immigrant family. I was the kid — and still am the adult — who wanted to know why we are here, if there is a God, what it means to live a good life.

在我腦中深思醞釀的各種大問題(越大越好)中我看到了這一點。它將我的好奇心轉變為一種驚心的狂熱，以及體現在我那義大利-葡萄牙移民家庭中逗趣的，甚至喜劇般的文化表現上。從小我就是那個想知道我們為什麼在這裡、是否有神的存在、美好生活的意義是什麼的孩子—而至今，我仍然是那個這麼想的成年人。

In my yearning to widen my knowledge of religious experience and ideas, I studied saints, mystics, philosophers, writers on a search for spiritual enlightenment. The Catholic tradition of my youth can be reprehensible, blind, maddening, even criminal, and it also can be rich, complex, beautiful and justice-oriented.

在我渴望能夠拓寬對於宗教經驗和思想的認識的過程中，為了尋求精神啟蒙，我研究過聖人、神秘主義者、哲學家、作家。年輕時我追求的天主教傳統是應受譴責的、盲目的、瘋狂的，甚至是犯罪的，但同時它也是豐富的、複雜的、美麗的和正義的。

Religion and spiritual questions are forces — powerful ones — in the lives of so many Y.A. readers. While there’s been an increase in young people who profess no religious affiliation (about 30 percent claim the “none” label, with L.G.B.T.Q. young adults twice as likely to identify this way), many more respond positively when asked if they consider themselves “spiritual” to some degree. Several studies, including the longitudinal National Study of Youth and Religion, and one of my own from 2008 that involved college students, have clocked American young adult interest in broad ideas about spirituality and God at about 80 percent.

在許多YA小說讀者的生活中，宗教和精神議題是一股力量，一股強大的力量。雖然自稱沒有宗教信仰的年輕人數量有所增加（大約有30％的人自己貼上「無信仰」的標籤；而LGBTQ年輕人中更有60%的人如此自我認定），但是當他們被問及是否認為自己在某種程度上有「精神上的」信仰時，許多人的回應仍然是正面的。許多研究，包括縱向的國家青年和宗教研究，以及我自己2008年的一項涉及大學生的研究，都使大約80％的美國年輕人對於精神性和神的廣泛議題上產生了興趣。

As a frequent speaker on college campuses, I can confirm that while young adults may be more skeptical about traditional religion, their hunger for a more inclusive, nontraditional spirituality is a constant. I find that even atheists tend to perk up when discussing the possibilities and freedoms a more open, forgiving spirituality might bring to their lives.

作為大學演講者的常客，我可以證實，雖然年輕人可能對傳統宗教更加懷疑，但他們對更具包容性、非傳統精神的渴望是不變的。在關於生命中是否可能存有一種更為開放寬容的精神和自由的討論上，我發現即使是無神論者也會持有更加活躍的態度。

Yet few Y.A. protagonists identify with a particular faith tradition, or claim spirituality as something of interest. Even fewer pray occasionally, or attend services with their families, or wonder about God, or struggle with doubt and faith alongside the rest of the things they do — play sports, go to school, fall in love, have sex, come out. One study from 2013 found that nearly 90 percent of protagonists in award-winning and best-selling Y.A. titles claim no religious or spiritual identity whatsoever. That does not align with the real lives of American teenagers.

然而，很少有YA小說的主角認同特定的信仰傳統，或者將靈性視為一種他們感興趣的東西。甚至不常見到主角會偶爾禱告、或與家人一同參加禮拜、或對神感到疑惑、或掙扎於懷疑與信仰，好像這些與他們會作的其他事情像是運動、上學、墜入愛河、做愛、出櫃，都不一樣。2013年的一項研究發現，有大約90％獲獎和暢銷的YA小說主角都說自己沒有任何宗教或精神上的身份。這與現實生活中美國青少年的情況並不一致。

To ignore religion in Y.A. cedes the entire conversation about religion and spirituality, and all that it stands for, to exactly the kind of intolerant voices that Y.A. publishing has fought so hard against. Teenage readers search for themselves in books. The world of Y.A. is an activist one — an ideal sphere in which to interrupt the toxic religion-speak and attitudes that dominate our politics and culture at the moment, and to model the kind of spiritual longing so many young adults harbor, often secretly. Like me, they learn to be ashamed of it.

在YA小說中忽略了宗教議題，將放棄所有關於宗教和靈性的討論以及它所代表的一切，也將屈服於YA小說出版一直以來強力對抗的不寬容聲音。青少年讀者經常在書中找尋自我。YA小說的世界是一個活躍的世界，一個可以斷絕目前主導我們政治和文化中有毒的宗教言論和態度的理想領域，並塑造出許多年輕人所偷偷懷有的精神渴望。就像我一樣，他們學會為此感到羞恥。

Just recently something has changed for me. Writing my latest novel, I found myself going back to those topics and themes, that hunger to explore faith, doubt, spiritual longing — despite the equally powerful alarm bells ringing inside me about doing just this. I couldn’t help myself. As I once more took up the big questions of religion, I was writing the stories of my heart.

不過，就在最近，有些事情改變了。在我最新的小說中，我發現我回到了那些渴望探索信仰、懷疑、精神追求的主題；儘管在寫的當下，同樣強大的警鈴仍在我內心中響起。但是我忍不住了。當我再次更加探討宗教的重大問題時，我寫下的是我心中的故事。

I’m still nervous, but I’m trying to remember the big audience out there of young adults who share my need. And as all teenagers come to know, sometimes what seems like breaking the rules is the only way to be true to ourselves.

我仍然感到緊張，但我正在努力記住那些與我有共同需求的年輕人。而正如所有青少年都知道的那樣，有時候，那些似乎違反規則的行為才是對自己忠誠的唯一方法。