Chapter 7

Two nights a week Babette goes to the Congregational church at the other end of town and lectures to adults in thebasement on correct posture¹. Basically she is teaching them how to stand, sit and walk. Most of her students are old.

　　It isn't clear to me why they want to improve their posture. We seem to believe it is possible to ward³ off death byfollowing rules of good grooming⁴. Sometimes I go with my wife to the church basement and watch her stand, turn,assume various heroic poses, gesture gracefully⁵. She makes references to yoga, kendo, trance-walking. She talks ofSufi dervishes, Sherpa mountaineers. The old folks nod and listen. Nothing is foreign, nothing too remote to apply. Iam always surprised at their acceptance and trust, the sweetness of their belief. Nothing is too doubtful to be of use tothem as they seek to redeem⁶ their bodies from a lifetime of bad posture. It is the end of skepticism. We walked homeunder a marigold moon. Our house looked old and wan² at the end of the street, the porch light shining on a moldedplastic tricycle, a stack of three-hour colored-flame sawdust and wax logs. Denise was doing her homework in thekitchen, keeping an eye on Wilder, who had wandered downstairs to sit on the floor and stare through the ovenwindow. Silence in the halls, shadows on the sloping lawn. We closed the door and disrobed. The bed was a mess.

　　Magazines, curtain rods, a child's sooty sock. Babette hummed something from a Broadway show, putting the rodsin a corner. We embraced, fell sideways to the bed in a controlled way, then repositioned ourselves, bathing in eachother's flesh, trying to kick the sheets off our ankles. Her body had a number of long hollows, places the hand mightstop to solve in the dark, tempo-slowing places. We believed something lived in the basement.

　　"What do you want to do?" she said.

　　"Whatever you want to do.""I want to do whatever's best for you.""What's best for me is to please you," I said.

　　"I want to make you happy, Jack⁷.""I'm happy when I'm pleasing you.""I just want to do what you want to do.""I want to do whatever's best for you.""But you please me by letting me please you," she said.

　　"As the male partner I think it's my responsibility to please.""I'm not sure whether that's a sensitive caring statement or a sexist remark.""Is it wrong for the man to be considerate toward his partner?""I'm your partner when we play tennis, which we ought to start doing again, by the way. Otherwise I'm your wife. Doyou want me to read to you?""First-rate.""I know you like me to read sexy stuff.""I thought you liked it too.""Isn't it basically the person being read to who derives⁸ the benefit and the satisfaction? When I read to Old ManTreadwell, it's not because I find those tabloids⁹ stimulating¹⁰.""Treadwell's blind, I'm not. I thought you liked to read erotic passages.""If it pleases you, then I like to do it.""But it has to please you too, Baba. Otherwise how would I feel?""It pleases me that you enjoy my reading.""I get the feeling a burden is being shifted back and forth¹¹. The burden of being the one who is pleased.""I want to read, Jack. Honestly.""Are you totally and completely sure? Because if you're not, we absolutely won't."Someone turned on the TV set at the end of the hall, and a woman's voice said: "If it breaks easily into pieces, it iscalled shale¹². When wet, it smells like clay."We listened to the gently plummeting¹³ stream of nighttime traffic.

　　I said, "Pick your century. Do you want to read about Etruscan slave girls, Georgian rakes? I think we have someliterature on flagellation brothels. What about the Middle Ages? We have incubi and succubi. Nuns¹⁴ galore.""Whatever's best for you.""I want you to choose. It's sexier that way.""One person chooses, the other reads. Don't we want a balance, a sort of give-and-take? Isn't that what makes itsexy?""A tautness¹⁵, a suspense¹⁶. First-rate. I will choose.""I will read," she said. "But I don't want you to choose anything that has men inside women, quote-quote, or menentering women. 'I entered her.' 'He entered me.' We're not lobbies or elevators. 'I wanted him inside me,' as if hecould crawl completely in, sign the register, sleep, eat, so forth. Can we agree on that? I don't care what these peopledo as long as they don't enter or get entered.""Agreed.""'I entered her and began to thrust.'""I'm in total agreement," I said.

　　"'Enter me, enter me, yes, yes.'""Silly usage, absolutely.""'Insert yourself, Rex. I want you inside me, entering hard, entering deep, yes, now, oh.'"I began to feel an erection stirring. How stupid and out of context. Babette laughed at her own lines. The TV said:

　　"Until Florida surgeons attached an artificial flipper¹⁷."Babette and I tell each other everything. I have told everything, such as it was at the time, to each of my wives. Thereis more to tell, of course, as marriages accumulate. But when I say I believe in complete disclosure I don't mean itcheaply, as anecdotal sport or shallow revelation. It is a form of self-renewal and a gesture of custodial¹⁸ trust. Lovehelps us develop an identity secure enough to allow itself to be placed in another's care and protection. Babette and Ihave turned our lives for each other's thoughtful regard, turned them in the moonlight in our pale hands, spoken deepinto the night about fathers and mothers, childhood, friendships, awakenings, old loves, old fears (except fear ofdeath). No detail must be left out, not even a dog with ticks or a neighbor's boy who ate an insect on a dare. The smellof pantries, the sense of empty afternoons, the feel of things as they rained across our skin, things as facts andpassions, the feel of pain, loss, disappointment, breathless delight. In these night recitations we create a spacebetween things as we felt them at the time and as we speak them now. This is the space reserved for irony¹⁹, sympathyand fond amusement, the means by which we rescue ourselves from the past.

　　I decided²⁰ on the twentieth century. I put on my bathrobe and went down the hall to Heinrich's room to find a trashymagazine Babette might read from, the type that features letters from readers detailing their sexual experiences. Thisstruck me as one of the few things the modern imagination has contributed to the history of erotic practices. There isa double fantasy at work in such letters. People write down imagined episodes and then see them published in anational magazine. Which is the greater stimulation²¹?

　　Wilder was in there watching Heinrich do a physics experiment with steel balls and a salad bowl. Heinrich wore aterry cloth robe, a towel around his neck, another towel on his head. He told me to look downstairs.

　　In a stack of material I found some family photo albums, one or two of them at least fifty years old. I took them up tothe bedroom. We spent hours going through them, sitting up in bed. Children wincing²² in the sun, women in sun hats,men shading their eyes from the glare as if the past possessed²³ some quality of light we no longer experience, aSunday dazzle that caused people in their churchgoing clothes to tighten²⁴ their faces and stand at an angle to the future,somewhat averted²⁵ it seemed, wearing fixed²⁶ and finedrawn smiles, skeptical²⁷ of something in the nature of the boxcamera.

　　Who will die first?

1 posture   

n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势

参考例句：

• The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
• He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣，摆出一副打架的架势。

2 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。

3 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

4 grooming   

n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发

参考例句：

• You should always pay attention to personal grooming. 你应随时注意个人仪容。
• We watched two apes grooming each other. 我们看两只猩猩在互相理毛。

5 gracefully   

ad.大大方方地；优美地

参考例句：

• She sank gracefully down onto a cushion at his feet. 她优雅地坐到他脚旁的垫子上。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line. 新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

6 redeem   

v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等）

参考例句：

• He had no way to redeem his furniture out of pawn.他无法赎回典当的家具。
• The eyes redeem the face from ugliness.这双眼睛弥补了他其貌不扬之缺陷。

7 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

8 derives   

v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• English derives in the main from the common Germanic stock. 英语主要源于日耳曼语系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derives his income from freelance work. 他以自由职业获取收入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 tabloids   

n.小报，通俗小报（版面通常比大报小一半，文章短，图片多，经常报道名人佚事）( tabloid的名词复数 )；药片

参考例句：

• The story was on the front pages of all the tabloids. 所有小报都在头版报道了这件事。
• The story made the front page in all the tabloids. 这件事成了所有小报的头版新闻。

10 stimulating   

adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的

参考例句：

• shower gel containing plant extracts that have a stimulating effect on the skin 含有对皮肤有益的植物精华的沐浴凝胶
• This is a drug for stimulating nerves. 这是一种兴奋剂。

11 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

12 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

13 plummeting   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Prices are rising, falling, going up, going down, shooting up, plummeting, etc. 物价在上涨、下跌、上升、下落、猛然上涨、骤然下跌等。 来自辞典例句
• The enemy plane went plummeting into the sea. 敌机直直掉进海里。 来自辞典例句

14 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

15 tautness   

拉紧，紧固度

参考例句：

• For a string of specified length, tautness and density only certain notes can be generated. 一根确定长度、松紧和密度的弦只能发出某某音。 来自辞典例句

16 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

17 flipper   

n. 鳍状肢，潜水用橡皮制鳍状肢

参考例句：

• The seal's flipper is homologous with the human arm. 海豹的鳍肢与人类的手臂同源。
• It's almost like a flipper action as she kicks down. 她向下踢腿时有鱼鳍的效果。

18 custodial   

adj.监护的，照管的

参考例句：

• The teenagers were convicted of manslaughter and given a two-year custodial sentence. 这些青少年被判过失杀人罪，及二年的监禁（拘留）刑罚。
• This article interrogates the cultural experience of being a non custodial mother. 本文审视一位无监护权的母亲所感受到的文化体验。

19 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

20 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

21 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

22 wincing   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She switched on the light, wincing at the sudden brightness. 她打开了灯，突如其来的强烈光线刺得她不敢睜眼。
• "I will take anything," he said, relieved, and wincing under reproof. “我什么事都愿意做，"他说，松了一口气，缩着头等着挨骂。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

23 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

24 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

25 averted   

防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
• Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙，才避免了麻烦。

26 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

27 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。