1、Unit 23Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta _Kate Braverman第1页，共27页。Kate Braverman(born 1950 Philadelphia)is an American novelist,short story writer,and poet.She was raised in Los Angeles,which is the focus for much of her writing.第2页，共27页。Kate Braverman is a poet and experimental writer of a singular a
2、nd ruthless breed.She is author of four books of poetry,the novels:Lithium for Medea,Palm Latitudes,Wonders of the West,and The Incantation of Frida K.Her Graywolf Prize for Creative Non-Fiction award winning memoir,Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles:An Accidental Memoir was published in
3、Feb.2006.第3页，共27页。LifeAwardsWorksAuthor Interview第4页，共27页。Life Braverman has a BA in Anthropology from University of California,Berkeley and an MA in English from Sonoma State University.She was a member of the Venice Poetry Workshop,Professor of Creative Writing at California State University,Los A
4、ngeles,staff faculty of the UCLA Writers Program and taught privately a workshop which included Janet Fitch,Cristina Garcia and Donald Rawley.She currently lives in Santa Fe,New Mexico.第5页，共27页。第6页，共27页。第7页，共27页。Kate has also received a Recongition Award from the California Legislature Assembly,and
5、a San Francisco Public Library Honoree.Her certificate reads:For your success as an influential novelist,short story writer,and poet,and for your literary acheivements that have garnered great acclaim,numerous awards and a Pushcart Prize,thereby making California a better place to live.第8页，共27页。Work
6、sNovelsNovelsLithium for Medea(1979).Kate Palm Latitudes(1988).The Incantation of Frida K(2001).Short StoriesShort StoriesSquandering the Blue(1990).Small Craft Warnings.(1998).第9页，共27页。PoetryPoetryLullaby for sinners(1981).Postcard from August(1990).MemoirMemoirFrantic Transmissions to and from Los
7、 Angeles:An Accidental Memoir(2006).第10页，共27页。Author InterviewpLooking back was there something in particular that helped you to decide to become a writer?Growing up as a marginalized girl child of the secret dirty city of Los Angeles,as slippage deep within a colossus of yellow hibiscus,in a region
8、 that didnt exist in literature,I was,in complex ways,as described in my new“Frantic Transmissions to and from Los Angeles:An Accidental Memoir”alienated and only comfortable alone and writing.I knew words were sacred and books revered.I was writing at college workshops when I was 13.I never wasnt a
9、 writer.第11页，共27页。p When it comes to plotting,do you write freely or plan everything in advance?Plot is not a strong suit for me.No writer does it all,possesses a full repertoire of tools.Description.Style.Dialogue.Architecture.One identifies ones strengths as a writer and uses them extravagantly,re
10、cognize weaknesses and avoid them.My gift is innovation,experimentation,accessing my emotions,my internal intellectual dialogue and language,the sound and rhythm of words.I can also write dialogue.Im a poet who can write dialogue and I want to inhabit the page as a female.I want grandeur and eleganc
11、e,danger and chaos.I can make words ignite.Thats whats in my toolbox.第12页，共27页。pWhat inspires you?I work as many painters do,landscapes,portraits,collages,still lifes.I also work on multiple aspects of a long project or sequences of shorter pieces,so there is always an area Im working on.I learned t
12、his living with a painter,something always on the walls drying or not finished or fully realized,some reason why a brush was always required.Inspiration and motivation are entirely different issues.第13页，共27页。1 Squandering the Blue2 Characters3 Theme4 Analysis 5 Questions第14页，共27页。Squandering the Blu
13、eBelow,the whales are passing south,swelling the ocean with intelligence.Kate Braverman第15页，共27页。There are many such surprising images in this collection.Her stories are autobiographical;she does not seem to know how to write any other way.Most deal with women on the verge of a nervous breakdown who
14、 are fighting a losing battle against chemical dependency of one kind or another.第16页，共27页。CharactersThe unnamed woman A thirty-eight-year-old California woman who is divorced and raising a young daughter,has been a recovering alcoholic for five months,and is currently seeing an analyst.She is a bor
15、ed,upper-middle-class Beverly Hills woman who,at the age of thirty-eight,has fallen prey to the conventional twentieth century modes of self-destructiondivorce,alcoholism,and drugsand is trying to patch things back together through Alcoholics Anonymous and psychotherapy.She is,however,a woman of int
16、elligence and rich imagination;she teaches creative writing and is a writer herself.It is precisely this inner life that makes her vulnerable.第17页，共27页。Lenny A short,fat,pale man with bad teeth.He invites the woman for coffee,inquires about her life,and tells her that he will show her the other side
17、 and give her the ride of her life.He is the rebel,the outlaw,who offers her a glimpse of the forbidden,the dangerous,and the deadly.He knows exotic places such as Vietnam,Colombia,and Thailand;has experienced war and adventure;has been in prison and smuggled drugs;and has access to luxurious homes,
18、cars,and diamonds.第18页，共27页。Theme Lenny proves to be no better than the alcohol that once removed her from the painful reality of her life,however,and after she has a farewell drink with him,there is every indication that she will return once again to the bottle for her fantasies.The color blue,used
19、 throughout the story,has become an infected blue at the end,a kind of contagion that fills up the protagonist.第19页，共27页。Her dreams of a richer,fuller life depart with Lenny,and the emptiness within her is still there.He has become just a tall tale to tell her friends,like his own tall tales of the
20、Mekong Delta,and although she may have gotten a glimpse of the other side,she knows she will never reach it.The China blue sky of possibility will always be inside her,never letting her forget.第20页，共27页。Analysis Kate Braverman wrote“Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta”as a series of dramatized encounte
21、rs between the protagonist and Lenny,each involving them more deeply in their relationship with each other.After the initial meeting in the parking lot,there are encounters in the meeting room of the community center,in the basement of a church,in a public park,and in a Bel Air mansion.第21页，共27页。The
22、 more open settingsthe park,the mansions swimming poolare appropriate for the fantasies of the protagonist,who envisions skies,rivers,sunsets,and flowers.The dramatic encounters also point up the differences between the woman and Lenny.第22页，共27页。Lennys speech is crude,profane,bullying,and selfish;th
23、e protagonists is direct,defensive,apologetic,and spare.The most poetic passages are the protagonists fantasies,gracefully written passages that are full of color and beauty,a stark contrast to her simple speech.第23页，共27页。Braverman places the final scene on Christmas Eve.Although there are other rel
24、igious references in the story,such as an AA meeting that takes place in the basement of a church,the final encounter between the protagonist and Lenny suggests the Christian virtues that are lacking between them:love,charity,and selflessness.第24页，共27页。Lennys departure takes place on an evening of t
25、all tales about Santa Claus and flying reindeer,an appropriate setting for his final appearance in the womans life and for the tall tales he leaves behind.第25页，共27页。Questions1 Talk bout the complicated relationship between Lenny and the woman.2 Do you like the style of Kate Bravermans language?Can you image the“the china blue sky”?3 Whats the meaning of the meets between them?第26页，共27页。The EndThank you!第27页，共27页。
