A. 作者Janet Fitch简介 英文版
内容简介
Astrid Magnussen is a twelve year old girl living in Hollywood, California. She and her mother, poet Ingrid Magnussen, live a solitary life with little outside influence. Ingrid left her husband, Klaus Anders, before Astrid was old enough to remember him and forbade him to contact Astrid after they left. Astrid relies solely on Ingrid and has trouble fitting in at school. However, Ingrid is self-centered, cold-hearted and eccentric. She lives by a set of her own rules and shows little interest in Astrid, sometimes seeming to forget she has a daughter at all. As a result, Astrid fears abandonment above all else.
Ingrid begins dating a man named Barry Kolker. At first Ingrid is disgusted by his vulgarity and finds him repulsive. Barry continues to woo her and Astrid watches her mother break every self-imposed rule as she becomes more involved with him. Eventually he's revealed as a womanizer, leaving Ingrid shattered and enraged. Numerous attempts at reconciliation leave Ingrid more and more humiliated and culminate with her breaking into Barry's house and spreading a mixture of DMSO, an arthritis drug, and oleander sap all over the surfaces of Barry's home. The DMSO allows the oleander poison to be absorbed into skin, ostensibly killing Barry. She is eventually charged with his murder and sentenced to life in prison. She promises her daughter that she will come back, but Astrid is sent to a series of foster homes.
The first foster family is that of Starr, a former stripper, drug addict, and alcoholic. She has two children of her own, as well as two other foster children. Starr takes in foster children because her own children were in foster care at one time e to her addictions. Despite the fact that he is nearly fifty years old, Astrid has an affair with Starr's boyfriend, Ray. As Ray becomes more and more disinterested in Starr, she relapses. One night, after a loud, drunken argument with Ray over his relationship with Astrid, Starr shoots Astrid with a .38. Astrid suffers some broken bones and stitches from the gunshots and is hospitalized for a few weeks.
Her next home is with the Turlocks. Ed and Marvel are the parents of a toddler. In their home, Astrid becomes an unpaid babysitter. Astrid befriends the Turlocks' next-door neighbor, a beautiful African-American woman named Olivia Johnstone. Astrid admires Olivia's beauty, wealth and hedonistic lifestyle. Olivia is a prostitute by profession and is hated by the Turlock family. After befriending Olivia, Astrid begins using drugs and performing oral sex on a boy in a park in exchange for some pot. Olivia teaches Astrid about all of the finer things in life. On her fifteenth birthday, Astrid goes for a walk, and is bitten by a pack of dogs, leaving scars on her arms and face. During the winter break, Astrid is expelled from the Turlock household after accidentally falling asleep at Olivia's house one night.
Next, Astrid is sent to the home of a Hispanic woman named Amelia Ramos. Amelia is an interior designer, originally from Argentina, and lives in Hollywood, with a huge, elegant house. Amelia has a son, but he has AIDS and the girls do not see him much. The other foster girls in the house are all Latino. All the girls in Amelia's household, however, are treated the same in that they are fed dinner, but Amelia keeps a lock on her fridge so the girls starve in the mornings. Astrid starves to the point that she stops menstruating. She resorts to eating unfinished lunches from the garbage at school. Astrid eventually gets a new caseworker who finds her a new placement.
Astrid is taken in by a former actress named Claire Richards, and her husband, Ron. Claire does everything she can to ensure Astrid's comfort. For once, Astrid is doing well in school and pursuing art. Astrid continues corresponding with her mother in prison, but Astrid becomes increasingly bitter towards Ingrid. Claire suspects that Ron is having an affair, and Astrid watches their fights worsen as Ron makes constant trips away from home. After New Years, Claire commits suicide by overdosing.
Astrid is then placed in MacLaren Children's Center (known as Mac), which is known as a final resort for foster kids without a placement. Astrid meets a boy named Paul Trout, and they bond through the shared experience of living in foster care.
Astrid's final home is with Russian immigrant Rena Grushenka. She intentionally chooses Rena over better prospective foster parents because she is devastated by Claire's death, and does not want to become part of a nuclear family. Astrid is afraid it would be too easy to forget the pain she has gone through. At Rena's, she lives with two other teenage girls named Niki and a pregnant girl named Yvonne. Astrid becomes very close friends with Niki and Yvonne and has sex with Rena's boyfriend Sergei, one night after getting high on acid with Niki, Astrid begins to have memories of a woman named Annie.
Meanwhile, Ingrid has begun to build up a following of fans and admirers from prison, who all believe she is innocent. Ingrid and her lawyer begin to build up a case to get Ingrid released from prison. However, their case depends on Astrid — if she testifies that Ingrid did not murder Barry, Ingrid could probably get out, but if she testifies the truth, Ingrid could not win her case. Astrid realizes that she is in a position of power over her mother, and tells her that unless she answers some of her questions, she will testify against her. Astrid asks Ingrid about her father and Barry and then Annie, Ingrid is shattered to learn that Astrid remembers Annie at all, and tells Astrid that Annie was a babysitter who Ingrid left Astrid with for over a year, making Astrid realise why she fears abandonment from her mother. Astrid lets Ingrid know how damaged she is because of what Ingrid did to her, even going as far as becoming completely gothic, Astrid gives Ingrid a choice, to have her testify or to have her return to the person her mother knew her as. Astrid ends up not testifying in the case.
Two years later, Astrid is 20 years old and living with Paul in a run down flat in Berlin, Germany. Astrid has spent a lot of her time and effort into buying suitcases and making them into artwork detailing the journey Astrid has taken from her mothers imprisonment to her life with Rena. One afternoon Paul brings home a newspaper article reporting Ingrid's release from prison after winning her appeals trial. Astrid acknowledges the power that her mother still has over her and even reveals her secret dream of going back to California. She never fulfills this dream, knowing that too much has happened and she would never fit into the daughter mold her mother wants from her. She also realizes that if she returns to California, she must abandon Paul, leaving him much like she has been abandoned so many times before. She embraces the life she has lived, the past that has made her who she is and accepts her mother's love, but continues to live the life she leads.
作者简介：
Janet Fitch (born 1955) is most famously known as the author of the Oprah's Book Club novel White Oleander, which became a film in 2002. She is a graate of Reed College, located in Portland, Oregon.
Janet Fitch was born in Los Angeles, a third-generation native, and grew up in a family of voracious readers. As an undergraate at Reed College, Fitch had decided to become an historian, attracted to its powerful narratives, the scope of events, the colossal personalities, and the potency and breadth of its themes. But when she won a student exchange to Keele University in England, where her passion for Russian history led her, she awoke in the middle of the night on her twenty-first birthday with the revelation she wanted to write fiction.
Janet Fitch is a faculty member in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, where she teaches fiction.
Some of her favorite authors include Fyodor Dostoevsky and Edgar Allan Poe.
Her third novel, Paint It Black, named after the Rolling Stones song of the same name, was published in September 2006.
Extra:In addition to the overwhelming success of White Oleander, she has published short stories in literary journals such as A Room of One's Own, briefly attended film school in the director's program at the University of Southern California, worked at various times as a typesetter, a proofreader, a graphic artist, a freelance journalist, the managing editor of American Film magazine, and the editor of The Mancos Times Tribune, a weekly newspaper in the mountains of Southwestern Colorado. Currently, she teaches fiction writing at the University of Southern California’s Masters of Professional Writing program. She lives in Los Angeles.
White Oleander, the story published in Black Warrior Review which grew into her novel, was named as a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories 1994.
Interestingly enough, the story was rejected from The Ontario Review with a note from Joyce Carol Oates, long a literary hero of Fitch’s, saying that while she enjoyed it, it seemed more like the first chapter of a novel than a short story. It had never occurred to Fitch to extend the story, but, armed with this advice, she decided to take a chance and write the novel.
Her writing process is simple. "I write all the time, whether I feel like it or not," she says. "I never get inspired unless I'm already writing. I write every day, including weekends. For writers there are no weekends. It's just that your family is around, looking mournful, wondering when you're going to pay attention to them."
Her journalistic experience proved a vaccination against writer's block. "When I had the newspaper, I had to come up with 12 or 15 stories a week regardless of whether there was anything to write about. Someone would call me up and say, "My kid just caught a big fish, come over and take a picture of it." So you'd go take a picture of the fish and then interview the kid. What do you ask a kid who caught a big fish? "What kind of t were you using? Where'd you catch it? What time of day was it?" I learned you could always write. You just couldn't be too perfectionistic about it."
But the artistry of her work, the lines that take the reader's breath away, were hard-won. "I could always tell a story," she said, "but I needed to learn the poetics of the literary craft." She found her mentor in the poet and novelist Kate Braverman, under whom she learned to work until she found the right word, the right sound.
Poetry plays a great part in her writing of prose fiction. "I always read poetry before I write, to sensitize me to the rhythms and music of language. Their startling originality is a challenge. I like Dylan Thomas, Eliot, Sexton. There are parts of White Oleander which use cadences of Pound--whatever you think of Pound, there's a specific music to him. I like Joseph Brodsky and the late Donald Rawley. A novelist can get by on story, but the poet has nothing but the words."
B. 谁能介绍下HIPHOP的品牌以及他们的特色的产品
PHAT FARM 由著名HIPHOP DEF JAM RECORDS<唱片公司>创立于1992年，Rocawear的形象代言人已经是贝克汉姆的老婆，辣妹维多利亚。
ROCA WEAR 创立于1999,著名RAPPER JAY-Z做形象代言人.
SEAN JOHN 创立于1991年,形象代言人是PUFFY DIDDY,本人最喜欢HIPHOP品牌ENYCE 创立于1996年
VOKAL 创立于1997年,形象代言人人是当前很红的RAPPER NELLY
LRG(Lifted Research Group) 创立于1999,URBAN style接近于HIPHOP SYTLE.AVIREX 创立于1975PELLE PELLE 创立于1978,起初做皮草生意起家,然后渐渐地转形于HIPHIP OUTWEAR
ECKO 创立于1993,以做T- SHIRT的形式起家..发展到今天已经是人人皆知的是HIPHOP 和STREET style的品牌!
FUBU 创立于1992年美国NEW YORK CITY,由 RAPPER LL COOL J做形象代言人,曾经大紫大红的品牌开始走下坡路.
（转一个）
TRIBAL
NY
ROCA WEAR
G-UNIT
FUBU
BAPE
LRG
THE SOURCE
PLAYERZ69
KARL KANI
SEAN JOHN
KANGOL
MECCA
PHAT FARM
PNB NATION
TRIP 5 SOUL
SNOOP DOGG
Pelle Pelle
ENYCE
ECKO
Akademiks
VOKAL
SHADY
附一些品牌历史:
hiphop作为一门文化越来越得到大家的认可，服饰作为他最直接表现出来的元素更是得
到了极大的发展，不要光以为大t恤大裤子就是hiphop style，他的内涵很多，品牌也很
多，许多走在了时尚的最前沿，和gucci lv等都有cross－over，引领着时尚的方向，再
者，象我们这么大岁数正是拗街头风格的时候，以后上班整天工作装，出门正装，没乐
趣啊，不讲废话，下面都是我搜集整理的，大家有兴趣可以去官方网站看看，一般都是
KARL KANI
不能不提它,HIPHOP WEAR中最传奇的人物KARL KANI,(本名是CARL WILLIAMS)创造的同名
品牌.早在77年的时候就已经成为全美最大的黑人自创HIPHOP服装品牌.想说的是,他的衣
服特点每件都有他的****商标,KARL KANI本身就是创始人兼设计师,曾经还受到前美国总
统克林顿的召见,是黑人设计师成功的象征性人物!!!!
SEAN JOHN
SEAN JOH由大名鼎鼎的吹牛老爹P DIDDY创立的品牌，最近还得了VH1的时尚大奖，他
的东西更多的加入了白人休闲服饰的元素，是第一个走进白人的时尚品牌
KANGOL
热爱KANGOL的人可以说遍布了全世界.38年创立的英国品牌.BEATLES,RUN
DMC,LLCOOLJ,JANET JACKSON,到已经去世的值得尊敬的戴安娜王妃都是它的忠实支持
者. 据我所知,KANGOL的名字是由三个词中的字母拼成的,分别是"KNITTING"(编织)的
K,"ANGORA"(安哥拉羊毛)的A,以及"WOOL"中的OL.这个品牌对商品的坚持是不言而喻的.
MECCA
这个牌子其实刚成立的时候并不是那么受人瞩目,84年创立的.最有特色的就是它的复古
鞋和OLD SHOOL 风格的棒秋外套,夹克和美式足球JERZY!!!为什么我要提它呢?我最先知
道的时候是因为看到NOTORIOUS B.I.G在VEDIO JUICY中穿着MECCA CHURSKY美式足球球衣
和BILL COSBY在COSBY SHOW经常穿着MECCA新款毛衣!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!太太太吸引我
PHAT FARM
RUSSEL SIMMONS在92年成立的品牌..没有它..估计SIMMON也写不了LIFE AND DEF那书..
怎么评价这个牌子...我得想想....男式精品?这个一个EAST COAST风格走向世界的设计,
有别于其他HIPHOP服饰,它结合了HIPHOP于时尚,SO有时尚的元素.."黑"化的程度没有那
么深,也是它的成功所在吧. 美国许多喜欢OLD SCHOOL风格的HIPHOPA对它都情有独衷,是
HIPHOP市场上最POPOLAR的BRAND了
PNB NATION
也许有人注意了,当时还没有创立SHADY的EMINEM,是PNB的疯狂FANS,不管是出席颁奖典礼
还是平时都喜欢一身PNB套装.这个品牌诞生于87年,属于OLD SCHOOL涂鸦风格的HIPHOP走
向的BRAND,由最受尊敬的涂鸦团体(FAME CITY)所成立的,而FC是由PHIL 167,AKS,THUD成
立于NYC的,这个团体拥有非常非常非常有价值的成员!!!!包括知名的DASH 和KAWS!!!!是
IRT最有名的一群人.尤其是1和3系列方面,今天这些人在NY创作了一些最精细的壁画,因
此BRUE,WEST AND ZULU共同成立了PNB NATION公司,最早将其创造的涂鸦风格带入了进
去.许多后起之秀也纷纷在近几年效仿之~,被誉为近代涂鸦艺术最有贡献的品牌~
TRIP 5 SOUL
凭着一股对衣服的热情,CAMELLA EHLKE在89年NYC创立了TRIPLE 5,由于处于地下艺术的
发展重地和HIPHOP文化的黄金时代,使555-SOUL很快成为年轻人的焦点.值得一提的是,它
最初的设计灵感都来字街上流浪汉身上滑稽的雷鬼乐的服饰,很快的,他自创的服饰在
HIPHOP界广受好评.97年是对555最重要的一年.因为它将NYC的总店从东边搬到了中部,并
得到指明街头设计师品牌STAPLE创办人,设计师JEFF NG,SSUR 和STASH的帮忙.成功的开
创了男装和女装的两条线..是即适合运动又时髦的服饰,比较有实用性和流行色彩.2000
年这个BRAND才正式进军亚洲.它的棒球外套,军帽,复古外套都很受好评.
SNOOP DOGG
看名字咯,SNOOPDOGG创立的同名品牌~不能不提~这位~他是先成立DOGG HOUSE唱片公司
的,然后为了把旗下的歌手一手包办,,创立了自己的品牌...同时也打响了自己的品牌的
知名度.目前是美国WESTCOAST数一数二的品牌了.
Roca Wear
Roca Wear和Roc-A-Fella公司与Comet Group服装制造商合资成立,是由Damon Dash和
Jay-z一起创立的.Damon Dash从小在Harlem长大,30岁时在黑人娱乐界拥有一股相当程度
的影响力,而Roca Wear是在99年才引进给美国的消费者.当时正好是Jay-z名垂青史的
HARD KNOCK LIFE TOUR巡回演唱会,当时演唱会中的所有艺人,包括
REDMAN,METHODMAN,DMX,MEMPHOIS BLEEK,BEATIE SIGEL和DJ CLUE都穿ROCA WEAR的衣
服,DASH以他丰富经验下的新颖行销手段,掌握了这个机会并且利用巡回这场演唱会的免
费宣传把ROCA WEAR的名号带到了民众眼前,随着演唱会巡回到第40个城市,使得在创立的
第一年就变成HIPHOP WEAR的销售冠军,还曾看过一个VEDIO INTERVIEW,DASH说,这都归功
于ROCA WEAR这个品牌确保衣服呈现真实生活风格,并注重每一细节包括设计,品牌和形
象.这两年ROCA WEAR也把市场重点部分转移到了女装.他的设计虽然没有PF,SJ的大方高
贵,但充满了生活话和舒适感,我最喜欢它的空军外套^^.
Pelle Pelle
Pelle Pelle是combined了European style和street soul然后再创新consistently
innovative and fashionable collections.
ENYCE
ENYCE的发音是取自NYC的,也就是"En-ee-chay".这个品牌比较重视衣服的款式和细节,应
该就是下一个Urban Clothing Leader .
ECKO
93年创立的品牌,目前似乎更受SKATER的关爱.感觉这从去年开始在倒退了.这个牌子见的
较多，可能出名早的缘故，不大喜欢
Akademiks
老黑喜欢的牌子
VOKAL
NELLY自己的FASHION CLOTHING LINE!!!!
G-UNIT
去年大红大紫的说唱明星50cent所在的团体g-unit创立的品牌
SHADY
大家都知道的说唱明星eminem创立的品牌
其实这么多牌子认真看的肯定没几个人，不过要因为这个帖子有人喜欢上hiphop
cloth，喜欢上hiphop文化，那就没白累了!