Best of 2021: Personal Essays
Since we started the #longreads hashtag in 2009 to share great reads on Twitter, curation has been the beating heart of Longreads.
自从我们于 2009 年开始使用 #longreads 标签在 Twitter 上分享精彩读物以来，策展一直是 Longreads 的核心。
All year long, we highlight our favorite stories in the weekly Longreads Top 5.
一整年，我们都会在每周的长读小说前 5 名中突出显示我们最喜欢的故事。
At the end of the year, we love to reflect on and share the pieces that stayed with us, a tradition we’ve kept for 10 years!
到了年底，我们喜欢反思并分享那些留在我们身边的作品，这是我们保持了 10 年的传统！
Today, we’re kicking off our annual curation celebration with five moving personal essays we loved in 2021.
今天，我们将以 2021 年我们喜爱的五篇感人至深的个人文章拉开我们的年度策展庆祝活动。
Watch for lists over the next couple of weeks that highlight reported essays, investigative reporting, features, and profiles.
在接下来的几周内关注重点报道的文章、调查报告、专题和简介的列表。
## The Gradual Extinction of Softness, Chantha Nguon and Kim Green, Hippocampus Magazine, November 8, 2021
## 《柔软的逐渐消失》，Chantha Nguon 和 Kim Green，《海马杂志》，2021 年 11 月 8 日
For this category, I’m recommending a moving, lyrical personal essay from Kim Green and Chantha Nguon.
对于这一类，我推荐 Kim Green 和 Chantha Nguon 写的一篇动人、抒情的个人文章。
Nguon is a co-founder of a women’s social enterprise in rural northeastern Cambodia.
Nguon 是柬埔寨东北部农村地区一家妇女社会企业的联合创始人。
For 10 years, these two friends have been collaborating on Nguon’s life story, through interviews and cooking sessions, which will eventually culminate into Slow Noodles, a memoir on food, loss, and recovered family recipes.
十年来，这两位朋友一直在通过采访和烹饪课程合作讲述 Nguon 的生活故事，最终形成了《慢面条》，这是一本关于食物、失去和恢复的家庭食谱的回忆录。
This excerpt from the memoir-in-progress is an evocative piece on surviving the Cambodian genocide, and remembering the flavors, the memories, and the past that the Khmer Rouge regime tried to erase.
这段摘录自正在出版的回忆录，是一篇令人回味的文章，讲述了柬埔寨种族灭绝的幸存者，并记住了红色高棉政权试图抹去的味道、记忆和过去。
It’s also sprinkled with “recipes,” made up of ingredients that reveal details of Nguon’s life, particularly of her childhood in Battambang: “Take a well-fed nine-year-old with a big family and a fancy French-Catholic-school education.
它还散布着“食谱”，由揭示 Nguon 生活细节的食材组成，尤其是她在马德望的童年：“一个吃饱的 9 岁女孩，有一个大家庭，接受过法国天主教学校的精美教育。
Fold in 2 revolutions, 2 civil wars, and 1 wholesale extermination.
包含 2 次革命、2 次内战和 1 次大规模灭绝。
Separate her from home, country, and a reliable source of food.” I’ve read this gorgeous essay a number of times, and each time I pay attention to new details — aromas, tastes — which make me appreciate it even more.
让她远离家园、国家和可靠的食物来源。”我已经读过这篇精彩的文章很多次了，每次我都会注意到新的细节——香气、味道——这让我更加欣赏它。
—Cheri Lucas Rowlands
——切里·卢卡斯·罗兰兹
Authors Chantha Nguon and Kim Green on the story they wish they’d written this year:
作者 Chantha Nguon 和 Kim Green 谈到他们希望今年写的故事：
We both loved “Cambodian Americans Are Ready to Share Their Cuisine, On Their Terms” by Maryam Jillani in Condé Nast Traveler.
我们都喜欢玛丽亚姆·吉拉尼 (Maryam Jillani) 在《康德纳斯特旅行家》(Condé Nast Traveler) 上发表的“柬埔寨美国人准备按照自己的条件分享他们的美食”。
It’s a great primer on Cambodian cuisine that acknowledges the diaspora’s collective trauma without dwelling on it.
这是一本关于柬埔寨美食的精彩入门读物，它承认了侨民的集体创伤，但没有详细阐述。
And we love how she highlights the artistry of chefs we follow and admire.
我们喜欢她如何强调我们关注和钦佩的厨师的艺术才华。
We wish we had written it but are also thrilled that Jillani did it so well.
我们希望我们能写出它，但也很高兴吉拉尼写得这么好。
## Aftermath, Briohny Doyle, Griffith Review, October 24, 2021
## 《后果》，布里奥尼·多伊尔，《格里菲斯评论》，2021 年 10 月 24 日
In her exquisite piece about the human condition in the age of COVID, climate change, and other calamities, Briohny Doyle challenges readers — and herself — to give up the ghost of renewal.
在她关于新冠病毒、气候变化和其他灾难时代人类状况的精美文章中，布里奥尼·道尔挑战读者和她自己，放弃复兴的幽灵。
“What is an ideal community, a good life,” Doyle asks, “if nothing is renewed, if we are working in and through catastrophe with only what we have now and in the face of what will be?” This question is more than essay fodder.
多伊尔问道：“如果一切都没有更新，如果我们只用现在所拥有的和面对未来的灾难来应对灾难，那么什么是理想的社区、美好的生活呢？”这个问题不仅仅是论文素材。
It’s a mantra, an incantation — for us all.
对于我们所有人来说，这是一个咒语、一个咒语。
—Seyward Darby
——西沃德·达比
Author Briohny Doyle‘s personal essay recommendation:
作者 Briohny Doyle 的个人论文推荐：
I’m a long-time admirer of Vanessa Berry’s writing, which is always marked by assiduous curiosity and intimate detail.
我是瓦妮莎·贝瑞 (Vanessa Berry) 写作的长期崇拜者，她的写作总是充满了孜孜不倦的好奇心和细致入微的细节。
Gentle and Fierce — the title of her new collection — describes her writing as much as her animal subjects.
《温柔与凶猛》——她新作品集的标题——既描述了她的作品，也描述了她的动物主题。
This essay, “Perec’s Cat” is a wonderful example of her enviably light touch at work.
这篇文章“佩雷克的猫”是她在工作中令人羡慕的轻松风格的一个很好的例子。
## Ghosts, Vauhini Vara, The Believer, August 9, 2021
## 鬼魂，Vauhini Vara，信徒，2021 年 8 月 9 日
Even as artificial intelligence creeps across science and technology, bulldozing computational problems, we comfort ourselves in the face of such power by thinking there are some things a program simply can’t do.
尽管人工智能正在跨越科学技术领域，解决计算问题，但面对如此强大的力量，我们仍然会通过认为有些事情是程序根本无法做到的方式来安慰自己。
A program can’t be funny, can’t be fraught, can’t be human.
程序不能有趣，不能令人担忧，不能人性化。
And maybe it can’t.
也许不能。
But in Vauhini Vara’s gutpunch of an essay, we begin to see the glimmer of otherwise.
但在沃希尼·瓦拉 (Vauhini Vara) 的一篇文章中，我们开始看到了一丝曙光。
Unable to write about her sister’s death of a rare cancer years earlier, Vara began feeding the linguistic engine GPT-3 prompts about her sister — and over the course of nine increasingly stirring attempts, their two voices meld in a way that wipes away any preconceptions you might have brought to the piece.
由于无法写出她姐姐多年前因罕见癌症去世的故事，Vara 开始向语言引擎 GPT-3 提供关于她姐姐的提示——在九次日益激动人心的尝试中，她们的两个声音以一种方式融合在一起，消除了你可能对这篇文章产生的任何先入之见。
This isn’t a warning klaxon about robot overlords; it’s a bracing exploration of what can happen when we finally hold the mirror at the perfect angle.
这并不是关于机器人霸主的警告；而是关于机器人霸主的警告。这是一次令人振奋的探索，探索当我们最终以完美角度握住镜子时会发生什么。
—Peter Rubin
——彼得·鲁宾
Author Vanessa Angélica Villarreal on “Ghosts”:
作者凡妮莎·安吉利卡·比利亚雷亚尔 (Vanessa Angélica Villarreal) 在《幽灵》中说道：
“My own writing is largely a practice of communion with the dead—recording forgotten lives, lost records, documenting collective memory.
“我自己的写作很大程度上是一种与死者交流的实践——记录被遗忘的生活、丢失的记录、记录集体记忆。
I personally use tarot to tap into my own unconscious and excavate the buried material there, and have noted the recent trend of astrology apps and tarot on TikTok and the uncanny specificity of its algorithms to ensure the right message finds you.
我个人使用塔罗牌来挖掘自己的无意识，挖掘其中埋藏的材料，并注意到 TikTok 上占星应用程序和塔罗牌的最新趋势及其算法的不可思议的特殊性，以确保正确的信息找到你。
It is brilliant to use AI as a divination tool, and to explore what mathematical fabric algorithms might be connected to beyond our understanding.”
使用人工智能作为占卜工具，并探索数学结构算法可能与我们无法理解的事物之间的联系，这真是太棒了。”
## Contraindications, Alison Criscitiello, The Alpinist, September 17, 2017
## 禁忌症，Alison Criscitiello，The Alpinist，2017 年 9 月 17 日
Alison Criscitiello’s essay about her climbing partner Anna Smith has stayed with me for a long time.
艾莉森·克里希蒂洛（Alison Criscitiello）关于她的攀岩伙伴安娜·史密斯（Anna Smith）的文章一直萦绕在我心头。
It starts off as a rollicking adventure story: Two best friends embarking on a climbing expedition to the Indian Himalayas.
它以一个欢乐的冒险故事开始：两个最好的朋友开始了印度喜马拉雅山的攀登探险。
The affection and admiration the women share spills out of her words, “opposites in almost every way imaginable, end members constantly bringing one another closer to an elusive center.” It is not just an exquisitely told quest: It is also about true friendship — and the joy found in sharing beautiful experiences.
女性们所分享的感情和钦佩从她的话语中流露出来，“几乎在所有可以想象的方面都是相反的，最终成员不断地让彼此更接近一个难以捉摸的中心。”这不仅仅是一次精心讲述的探索：它还关乎真正的友谊——以及分享美好经历中发现的快乐。
Then it becomes something else.
然后它就变成了别的东西。
When Criscitiello describes Anna’s death, it is raw; I felt her pain.
当克里西蒂耶洛描述安娜的死时，它是原始的。我感受到了她的痛苦。
The essay turns into a survival story: Surviving not only the physical challenge of getting Anna off the mountain, but the grief, shock, and loneliness overwhelming Criscitiello now that she “no longer had Anna tethered to me.” For three days, she stays with Anna before a team arrives to help take her body down.
这篇文章变成了一个生存故事：不仅克服了让安娜下山的身体挑战，而且还克服了克里西蒂洛所承受的悲伤、震惊和孤独，因为她“不再把安娜拴在我身上”。在三天的时间里，她和安娜待在一起，直到一支团队到达帮助拆除她的尸体。
Even then, Criscitiello remains, “guarding her” until Anna is finally cremated “along the shores of the Beas River in the heart of Manali” and her ashes taken home.
即便如此，克里西蒂洛仍然“守护着她”，直到安娜最终“在马纳利中心的比亚斯河畔”被火化，骨灰被带回家。
It is time spent remembering Anna, whose “strength emanated from her core” and whose spark “set my aspirations afire.” —Carolyn Wells
这是纪念安娜的时间，她的“力量源自她的核心”，她的火花“点燃了我的愿望”。 ——卡罗琳·威尔斯
## The Grief Artist, Traci Brimhall, Guernica Magazine, January 6, 2021
## 《悲伤艺术家》，Traci Brimhall，《格尔尼卡》杂志，2021 年 1 月 6 日
Brimhall’s essay explores the influence that art, process, and ritual have on dealing with grief and loss as she mourns her mother’s death and the end of her marriage.
布里姆霍尔的文章探讨了当她哀悼母亲的去世和婚姻的结束时，艺术、过程和仪式对处理悲伤和失落的影响。
So many essays deal with grief, but few consider the shape of it through so many disparate lenses.
很多文章都在讨论悲伤，但很少有人通过如此多不同的视角来思考悲伤的形态。
As Brimhall makes art out of the unexpected, she weaves a strand of persistent, insistent hope for the reader.
当布里姆霍尔从意想不到的事情中创造艺术时，她为读者编织了一股持久的、坚持不懈的希望。
“I love that nothing is wasted,” she writes.
“我喜欢没有任何东西被浪费，”她写道。
“Everything is ripe for transformation.” This essay reminds me that despite the fact that humans struggle with loss and change, maybe we can learn something about ourselves if we choose to lean on process and routine.
“一切都已经成熟，可以进行转型。”这篇文章提醒我，尽管人类正在与损失和变化作斗争，但如果我们选择依靠过程和例行公事，也许我们可以了解自己。
Maybe too, we can get better at being more human as we deal with things that end, be it a life, a friendship, a marriage, or even just a time in our lives.
也许，当我们处理即将结束的事情时，我们可以变得更加人性化，无论是生命、友谊、婚姻，甚至只是我们生命中的一段时光。
—Krista Stevens
—克里斯塔·史蒂文斯