Longreads Best of 2015: Essays & Criticism
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories.
我们要求一些作家和编辑在特定类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。
Here, the best in essays and criticism.
这里有最好的论文和批评。
* * *
** **
Leslie JamisonJamison is author of The Empathy Exams, hailed as one of the best nonfiction books of 2014.
莱斯利·贾米森 (Leslie Jamison) 贾米森是《同理心考试》一书的作者，该书被誉为 2014 年最佳非小说类书籍之一。
Her work also has appeared in publications including Harper’s, Oxford American, A Public Space, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Believer.
她的作品还出现在《Harper’s》、《Oxford American》、《A Public Space》、《Virginia Quarterly Review》和《The Believer》等出版物上。
## “On Spinsters” (Briallen Hopper, Los Angeles Review of Books)
## “论老处女”（Briallen Hopper，洛杉矶书评）
I love this piece because it offers an instance and vision of criticism as an inspired art, not simply an appraisal or a value judgment.
我喜欢这件作品，因为它提供了批评作为一种灵感艺术的实例和愿景，而不仅仅是一种评价或价值判断。
It takes a book as its occasion, but its discussion of what that book does (or doesn’t do) ventures into such exquisitely soulful territory—thinking about identity, intimacy, and marginalized voices—that I couldn’t possibly do it justice here.
它以一本书为契机，但它对该书做了（或不做了）什么的讨论冒险进入了如此精致的深情领域——思考身份、亲密关系和边缘化的声音——我在这里不可能做到公正。
By its close, it has swelled into a beautiful ode to surprising and enduring forms of spinster community: full of black-eyed peas and repaid student loans (also a one-eyed Chihuahua!).
到了结尾，它已经发展成为一首优美的颂歌，颂扬令人惊讶且持久的老处女社区形式：充满了黑眼豌豆和偿还的学生贷款（还有一只独眼吉娃娃！）。
In its reach and its heart, this piece not only illuminates criticism as passionate conversation—the creative act as utterance, the critical act as response—it also explodes any limited notion of “negative” criticism as a destructive act.
就其影响力和核心而言，这篇文章不仅将批评阐释为充满激情的对话——创造性行为作为话语，批判性行为作为回应——它还打破了任何将“消极”批评视为破坏性行为的有限观念。
Its critique sings with the possibility of what can be.
它的批评充满了可能性。
## “My Writing Education: A Time Line” (George Saunders, The New Yorker)
## “我的写作教育：时间线”（乔治·桑德斯，《纽约客》）
So many people read and loved this beautiful piece by Saunders but I’m going to talk about it here because (dammit!) I loved it too.
很多人阅读并喜欢桑德斯的这篇美丽的作品，但我要在这里谈论它，因为（该死！）我也喜欢它。
It made my pulse race with the sheer fervor and eloquence and non-photoshopped specificity of its appreciation—its appreciation for teachers, for literature, for teaching.
它以纯粹的热情、雄辩和未经修饰的独特性——对教师、对文学、对教学的欣赏——让我心跳加速。
It offers an account of how writing happens across the course of a lifetime—in between the daily realities of kids and jobs (even pharmaceutical company jobs)—and how teachers inspire us to inhabit our best selves, or at least catch sight of what those selves might look like.
它讲述了一生中写作是如何发生的——在孩子的日常现实和工作（甚至是制药公司的工作）之间——以及老师如何激励我们展现最好的自己，或者至少看到那些自我可能是什么样子。
There are lines in here that are some of the best descriptions I’ve ever read, casually uttered, as if Saunders could just toss them off before breakfast, which he probably could, and probably does.
这里有一些台词是我读过的一些最好的描述，随意地说出来，好像桑德斯可以在早餐前把它们扔掉，他可能可以，而且很可能会这样做。
(But of course part of his gift to us, in this piece, is showing us that nothing was easy and everything comes along the course of a long, winding road.) Of his teacher Tobias Wolff, he writes: “Toby is a powerful man: in his physicality, in his experiences, in his charisma.
（当然，在这篇文章中，他给我们的部分礼物是向我们展示，没有什么是容易的，一切都是沿着一条漫长而曲折的道路而来的。）在谈到他的老师托拜厄斯·沃尔夫时，他写道：“托比是一个强大的人：在他的身体、他的经历和他的魅力中。
But all that power has culminated in gentleness.
但所有这些力量都在温柔中达到了顶峰。
It is as if that is the point of power: to allow one to access the higher registers of gentleness.” WTF??
似乎这就是力量的意义所在：让人们接触到更高层次的温柔。”搞什么？？
What a magnificent thing to say about another human being.
对另一个人说这是多么伟大的事情啊。
I will never think about power or gentleness in the same way again.
我再也不会以同样的方式思考力量或温柔了。
Jia TolentinoTolentino is deputy editor at Jezebel, and her work has also appeared in Pitchfork, FADER, Grantland and the New York Times.
Jia TolentinoTolentino 是 Jezebel 的副主编，她的作品还出现在 Pitchfork、FADER、Grantland 和纽约时报上。
## “Addy Walker, American Girl” (Brit Bennett, Paris Review)
##“艾迪·沃克，美国女孩”（布里特·贝内特，《巴黎评论》）
The American Girl phenomenon is often discussed as a universal part of any girl’s experience who was under 10 in the 1990s: conversations, essays and quizzes position the proto-Sex and the City choices between American Girl identities (were you a Molly?
“美国女孩”现象经常被视为 20 世纪 90 年代 10 岁以下女孩经历中普遍存在的一部分：对话、文章和测验将原始性与城市的选择置于美国女孩身份之间（你是莫莉吗？
a Samantha?) as a catchall personality test for every girl.
萨曼莎？）作为针对每个女孩的包罗万象的性格测试。
But the dolls were aimed at a specific market.
但这些娃娃是针对特定市场的。
They were deliberately expensive—drawing on a subconscious premium we place on the American lifestyle pre-Civil Rights—and of course, save Addy, all the American Girls were white.
它们故意卖得很贵——利用了我们对民权运动前的美国生活方式的潜意识溢价——当然，除了阿迪，所有的美国女孩都是白人。
Addy was not only black, but a slave.
艾迪不仅是黑人，还是奴隶。
The slim book that introduces her, Meet Addy, tells the story of a slave owner forcing a worm into the mouth of his property, that dark-skinned and adorable American girl.
介绍她的那本薄薄的书《认识阿迪》讲述了一个奴隶主将一条虫子强行塞进他的财产嘴里的故事，这个故事是那个皮肤黝黑、可爱的美国女孩。
With a deadly calm and phenomenal focus, Brit Bennett’s piece turns over the weight of this shifty juxtaposition—the black doll’s tragedy as a source of joy.
布里特·贝内特的作品以极其平静和惊人的焦点，扭转了这种变化莫测的并置的重量——黑娃娃的悲剧成为欢乐的源泉。
The cruelty and the magnificence of it are inextricable.
其残酷性与伟大性是密不可分的。
She writes about “the grace of my parents, for whom exposing me to brutal stories was an act of love.” Stories can be transposed; every word here evolves the question forward.
她写道：“我父母的恩典，对他们来说，让我接触残酷的故事是一种爱的行为。”故事可以互换；这里的每一个字都在推动问题的发展。
Read the first two paragraphs and you’ll know that Bennett, a wholly unprecious but fundamentally literary writer, is one of the most exciting writers around.
阅读前两段，你就会知道贝内特，一位完全不珍贵但本质上是文学作家，是最令人兴奋的作家之一。
## “The Mother of All Questions” (Rebecca Solnit, Harper’s)
## “所有问题之母”（丽贝卡·索尔尼特，哈泼斯杂志）
“There is no good answer to being a woman; the art may instead lie in how we refuse the question,” writes Rebecca Solnit, neatly packaging a manifesto’s worth of logic into 20 words.
“作为一名女性，没有好的答案；艺术可能在于我们如何拒绝这个问题，”丽贝卡·索尔尼特写道，她将一份宣言的逻辑巧妙地包装成 20 个单词。
She’s talking about the persistent idea that a woman’s life can be morally dictated, and I’ve never been one for slogans, but I would readily get that sentence tattooed.
她谈论的是一种持久的观念，即女性的生活可以由道德决定，而我从来都不是一个喜欢标语的人，但我很乐意把这句话纹在身上。
What this dictation comes down to is biology, more or less, and what Solnit expresses with her gorgeously discreet sense of logic here is that there is simply no great way to get around the fact that (1) female bodies are seen as service objects and (2) female lives are seen as revolving around childbirth (which is of course the greatest bodily service of all).
这个命题或多或少归结为生物学，而索尔尼特在这里用她极其谨慎的逻辑感表达的是，根本没有什么好方法可以回避这样一个事实：(1)女性身体被视为服务对象，(2)女性生活被视为围绕分娩(这当然是最伟大的身体服务)。
In light of that fact—and it is a fact; I have been conscious ever since childhood that one day I’d have to sacrifice autonomy for family or the other way around—the messages stuffed down women’s throats seem almost callously optimistic.
鉴于这一事实——这是事实；我从小就意识到，有一天我必须为了家庭而牺牲自主权，或者反过来——塞进女性喉咙里的信息看起来几乎是冷酷无情的乐观。
Get it right via these 1000 particulars, says the universe, and you will receive approval, which is the same as happiness!
宇宙说，做好这1000个细节，你就会得到认可，那就和幸福一样！
Solnit, always masterful, reminds us that all of this is a false equation; she models a way of getting under and out.
总是高超的索尔尼特提醒我们，所有这一切都是一个错误的等式；她模仿了一种进出的方式。
Roxane GayGay is author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, and Hunger, forthcoming from Harper in 2016.
Roxane GayGay 是《Ayiti》、《An Untamed State》、《Bad Feminist》和《Hunger》等书的作者，该书将于 2016 年由 Harper 出版社出版。
Her writing has appeared in A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, West Branch, Virginia Quarterly Review, NOON, The New York Times Book Review, and Bookforum, among many others.
她的作品曾发表在《公共空间》、《麦克斯威尼》、《锡屋》、《牛津美国》、《美国短篇小说》、《West Branch》、《弗吉尼亚季刊评论》、《NOON》、《纽约时报书评》和《图书论坛》等杂志上。
## “The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning” (Claudia Rankine, New York Times Magazine)
##“黑人生活的状况是哀悼”（克劳迪娅·兰金，《纽约时报》杂志）
The way Claudia Rankine writes about race so plainly and with such profundity and grace overwhelms me.
克劳迪娅·兰金（Claudia Rankine）如此直白、如此深刻和优雅地描写种族的方式让我不知所措。
Her essay, “The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning,” was a painful but necessary read.
她的文章《黑人生活的状况是哀悼的》是一篇痛苦但必要的读物。
Rankine was clear eyed and unwavering as she outlined the constancy of mourning in black life and reinforced the importance of Black Lives Matter.
兰金目光敏锐，坚定不移地概述了黑人生命中持续的哀悼，并强调了“黑人生命也是命”的重要性。
Each line is full of patient rage as Rankine outlines the reality of being black in America, and the losses we continue to sustain without respite.
兰金概述了美国黑人的现实，以及我们继续承受的损失，每一行都充满了耐心的愤怒。
The word that keeps coming to mind each time I read this essay is, necessary.
每次读这篇文章时，脑海中不断浮现的词是“必要”。
I remain haunted and moved by the last line.
我仍然被最后一行所困扰和感动。
“Grief, then, for these deceased others might align some of us, for the first time, with the living.”
“那么，对这些死者的悲伤可能会让我们中的一些人第一次与生者结盟。”
## “How Not to Be Elizabeth Gilbert” (Jessa Crispin, Boston Review)
##“如何不成为伊丽莎白·吉尔伯特”（杰莎·克里斯平，《波士顿评论》）
“How Not to Be Elizabeth Gilbert by Jessa Crispin” was one of the best pieces of criticism I read this year.
杰莎·克里斯平的《如何不成为伊丽莎白·吉尔伯特》是我今年读到的最好的批评文章之一。
I love Eat, Pray, Love and have since I first read it.
我喜欢《美食、祈祷、爱情》，自从我第一次读到它以来，我就一直喜欢它。
That said, I’ve always recognized that the book is the kind of travel narrative expected from women and wealthy, generally white women at that.
也就是说，我一直认为这本书是女性和富有的（通常是白人）女性所期待的旅行叙事。
In her essay, Crispin is incisive and provocative, particularly in examining the notion that women can only be experts on themselves.
克里斯平在她的文章中犀利而具有挑衅性，特别是在审视女性只能成为自己的专家这一观念时。
This essay, frankly, made me uncomfortable, but I appreciated that discomfort and expanding my thinking.
坦率地说，这篇文章让我感到不舒服，但我很欣赏这种不舒服并扩展了我的思维。
I didn’t agree with all of Crispin’s points but damn, she made me think about writing as a woman, the expectations we face and the challenges of overcoming those expectations.
我并不同意克里斯平的所有观点，但该死的，她让我思考作为一名女性写作、我们面临的期望以及克服这些期望的挑战。
Tom ScoccaScocca is the executive features editor of Gawker Media, the weather reviewer for The Awl, and the author of Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future.
汤姆·斯科卡斯科卡 (Tom ScoccaScocca) 是 Gawker Media 的执行专题编辑、The Awl 的天气评论员，也是《北京欢迎你：揭开未来首都的面纱》一书的作者。
## “Ina Garten Does It Herself” (Choire Sicha, Eater)
## “Ina Garten 自己做”（合唱团 Sicha，Eater）
This piece presents itself as a “profile” of Ina Garten, and was even received as such, with a flurry of OMG I love Ina tooooo tweets, but it is something else entirely: “while many might think of her career as being a person who appears on television, she is rather a cookbook writer,” Sicha writes, and what follows is a chatty-seeming but ruthless exercise in close reading of text and utterance that goes thousands of miles away from the kitchen and countless dark fathoms below the surface of aspirational prosperity and comfort, into the cold lightless gears of power.
这篇文章将自己呈现为伊娜·加滕的“简介”，甚至被如此接受，引发了一阵“天哪，我太爱伊娜了”的推文，但这完全是另一回事：“虽然很多人可能认为她的职业生涯是一个出现在电视上的人，但她更像是一个烹饪书作家，”西查写道，接下来是对文字和话语的仔细阅读，这些文字和话语距离厨房数千英里，还有无数的黑暗深渊。在渴望的繁荣和舒适的表面之下，进入冰冷无光的权力齿轮。
## “The Bully’s Pulpit: On the elementary structure of domination” (David Graeber, The Baffler)
## “恶霸的讲坛：关于统治的基本结构”（大卫·格雷伯，《迷惑者》）
What is the nature of bullying?
欺凌的本质是什么？
“Bullying,” Graeber writes, “creates a moral drama in which the manner of the victim’s reaction to an act of aggression can be used as retrospective justification for the original act of aggression itself.” His essay mostly considers the relationship between the logic of the schoolyard and the logic of military conflict, but the clarity of that central concept—reaction as justification for the action that provoked it—read also as a precise accounting of the theatrics of brutality and backlash that would occur in Paris and beyond after the essay was published.
格雷伯写道：“欺凌创造了一场道德戏剧，受害者对侵略行为的反应方式可以作为最初侵略行为本身的回顾性理由。”他的文章主要考虑了校园逻辑和军事冲突逻辑之间的关系，但其中心概念的清晰性——反应是为挑起冲突的行动辩护的——也可以解读为对文章发表后在巴黎及其他地区发生的暴行和强烈反对的精确说明。
**Two bonus picks from my own publication: “Prime of Life: The Story of My 20s, as Told in Amazon Purchases,” by Lacey Donohue, on Gawker (“a grimly hilarious piece of experimental memoir”) and “The Player Whose Bell Stayed Rung,” by Dave McKenna for Deadspin (“in all the coverage of the NFL and concussions, I don’t think anything else quite fused of the joys and the horrors of football”).
**我自己的出版物中的两篇额外精选：《生命的巅峰：亚马逊购物中讲述的我 20 多岁的故事》，由 Lacey Donohue 在 Gawker 上发表（“一部冷酷搞笑的实验回忆录”），以及戴夫·麦肯纳在 Deadspin 上发表的《The Player Whose Bell Stayed Rung》（“在所有关于 NFL 和脑震荡的报道中，我认为没有什么比这更能融合欢乐的了”）以及足球的恐怖”）。
Ann FriedmanFriedman is a freelance journalist, columnist for New York magazine’s website, and a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman.
安·弗里德曼 (Ann Friedman) 弗里德曼是一名自由记者、《纽约》杂志网站的专栏作家以及《绅士》的特约编辑。
She also makes pie charts and sends a weekly email newsletter.
她还制作饼图并每周发送电子邮件通讯。
## “Free Joan Didion” (Haley Mlotek, The Awl)
##“释放琼·迪迪安”（海莉·姆洛泰克，锥子）
I went all the way back to January to pick this essay by Haley Mlotek, which made me think about one of my favorite writers in a new way.
我一路回到一月份，挑选了 Haley Mlotek 的这篇文章，它让我以一种新的方式思考我最喜欢的作家之一。
That’s sort of the point, actually: Joan Didion is one of everybody’s favorite writers.
实际上，这就是重点：琼·迪迪恩是每个人最喜欢的作家之一。
Mlotek’s essay explores how she has made a transition from merely a beloved writer to an easy shorthand for a certain type of literary importance.
姆洛泰克的文章探讨了她如何从一位受人喜爱的作家转变为某种文学重要性的简单速记者。
## “How They Do in Oxford” (Kiese Laymon, ESPN the Magazine)
## “他们在牛津的表现如何”（Kiese Laymon，ESPN 杂志）
Can’t believe I’m choosing a sports feature!
不敢相信我选择了体育功能！
But Kiese Laymon’s essay helped me better understand a few things I’m pretty ignorant about—the appeal of football and the lived experience of racism in the south—in expansive detail.
但基泽·雷蒙的文章帮助我更好地了解了一些我相当无知的事情——足球的吸引力和南方种族主义的生活经历——详细的。
It’s highly personal but also universal and relevant to contentious issues of the moment, which means it’s hitting on all levels that a great essay should.
它具有高度的个人性，但也具有普遍性，并且与当前有争议的问题相关，这意味着它触及了一篇优秀论文应有的各个层面。
Francesca MariMari is a longform editor and writer at Texas Monthly.
Francesca MariMari 是《德克萨斯月刊》的长篇编辑和作家。
## “Young Saul” (Louis Menand, The New Yorker)
##《年轻的索尔》（路易斯·梅南德，《纽约客》）
## “In the New Whitney” (Ingrid Rowland, New York Review of Books)
##“在新惠特尼”（英格丽德·罗兰，纽约书评）
**Two bonus picks from my own publication: Country Notes by Sterry Butcher (“Butcher is like the modern E.B.
**我自己的出版物中的两个额外精选：Sterry Butcher 的乡村笔记（“Butcher 就像现代的 E.B.
White or Marilynne Robinson when Robinson writes from the perspective of Father Ames in ‘Gilead'”) and “The Will of God” by John Spong (“moved me to laugh and cry”).
怀特或玛丽莲·罗宾逊（当罗宾逊在《基列》中从艾姆斯神父的角度写作时）和约翰·斯彭的《上帝的意志》（“让我又笑又哭”）。
Rachel SymeSyme is a writer, reporter, & editor living in New York.
Rachel SymeSyme 是一位居住在纽约的作家、记者和编辑。
Her work has appeared in/on: The New Yorker, The New York Times (print edition and Sunday magazine), GQ, T Magazine, Grantland, New York, Matter, Billboard, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.
她的作品曾出现在：《纽约客》、《纽约时报》（印刷版和星期日杂志）、《GQ》、《T 杂志》、《Grantland》、《纽约》、《Matter》、《公告牌》、《华尔街日报》和 NPR 上。
She is currently working on her first nonfiction book (for Random House).
她目前正在为兰登书屋创作她的第一本非小说类书籍。
## “Against Chill” (Alana Massey, Matter)
##“对抗寒冷”（阿兰娜·梅西，《Matter》）
Full disclosure: Alana and I are now pals IRL, but I had only encountered her via the Twitterverse before I read “Against Chill” in April.
全面披露：阿拉娜和我现在是现实生活中的朋友，但在四月份读到《对抗寒冷》之前，我只是通过 Twitterverse 遇到了她。
We actually met as a result of this essay (which contains so many #firethoughts that it is hard to pick out a favorite line)—after I read it three times through and got my bearings back, I thought to myself, “ok, wherever this woman is in the world, I have to find her, sit down with her, and let her brilliance wash over me in waves.” Massey’s essay was a part of Matter’s “Getting It” series, about relationships, but it stands on its own as a powerful argument about why affecting “chill” is a pose that is working for no one, not just in terms of love but as an entire flawed worldview.
我们实际上是因为这篇文章而认识的（其中包含如此多的#firethoughts，以至于很难选出最喜欢的一句话）——当我读了三遍并重新找回方向后，我心想，“好吧，无论这个女人在世界上的哪个地方，我都必须找到她，和她坐在一起，让她的光辉一波又一波地淹没我。”梅西的文章是马特关于人际关系的“得到它”系列的一部分，但它本身就是一个强有力的论据，说明为什么影响“冷静”是一种对任何人都不起作用的姿势，不仅在爱情方面，而且作为整个有缺陷的世界观。
As Massey wrote: “Chill takes and never gives.
正如梅西所写：“冷静是需要的，但永远不会给予。
Chill is pathologically unfeeling but not even interesting enough to kill anyone.
寒冷在病态上是无情的，但甚至不足以杀死任何人。
Chill is a garbage virtue that will destroy the species.
寒冷是一种垃圾美德，会毁灭物种。
Fuck Chill.” She dismantles, with a withering but measured tone, the act of putting distance between yourself and the world as not just an insipid social trend but as a veneer that is holding us all back —from feeling how we really feel, from getting what we really want.
去他妈的冷静。”她以一种令人沮丧但谨慎的语气，拆除了将自己与世界保持距离的行为，不仅是一种平淡的社会趋势，而且是一种阻碍我们所有人前进的幌子——无法感受我们的真实感受，无法获得我们真正想要的东西。
I have zero chill about how good this piece is.
我对这首曲子的出色程度零感冒。
And so I’ll urge you all to read it, waving my hands around and making a bit too much noise to ever look cool.
因此，我会敦促大家阅读它，挥舞双手并发出太大的声音，看起来很酷。
Because why would you want to be chill when you can be enthusiastic, warm, and bursting at the seams?
因为当你可以热情、温暖、爆裂时，你为什么要保持冷静呢？
Life is too short to pretend not to care about it.
生命太短暂，不能假装不关心它。
## “The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison” (Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, New York Times Magazine)
## “托妮·莫里森的激进愿景”（Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah，纽约时报杂志）
I will read every last word that Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah writes, which is why I am so glad that at the tail end of 2015 she announced that she will be publishing a book (though now we have to wait years for it!).
我会读 Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah 写的每一个字，这就是为什么我很高兴她在 2015 年底宣布她将出版一本书（尽管现在我们必须等待数年！）。
It is always wonderful to read a profile that reads like a true meeting of of minds, a kind of osmosis between writer and subject (so many of them can feel at best staid, and at worst predatory).
阅读一篇读起来像真正的思想碰撞、作者和主题之间的渗透的简介总是很美妙的（所以他们中的许多人充其量是古板的，最坏的是掠夺性的）。
This piece where RKG writes about the long career of Toni Morrison felt like a dance, and it flows back and forth between being a reported profile, a lyrical essay, a deep work of historical research, and a polemic about the states of both black and women’s literature—I appreciate that this piece is so unclassifiable but comes together in the end like a long prose poem, which is what I think the best profiles do; they break down genre boundaries and you start to wonder where the subject ends and the writer begins and you keep learning new things along the way.
RKG 写的这篇关于托妮·莫里森漫长职业生涯的文章感觉就像一场舞蹈，它在一篇报道性的人物简介、一篇抒情文章、一部深入的历史研究作品和一场关于黑人和女性文学状况的争论之间来回流动——我很欣赏这篇文章如此难以分类，但最终像一首长散文诗一样组合在一起，这就是我认为最好的人物简介所做的；它们打破了类型的界限，你开始想知道主题从哪里结束，作者从哪里开始，你一路上不断学习新东西。
Even Kaadzi Ghansah’s in-between paragraphs are gorgeous, those quiet moments when she is setting the scene between interviews or quotes from Morrison.
即使是卡齐·甘萨（Kaadzi Ghansah）的中间段落也很华丽，当她在采访或引用莫里森的话之间设置场景时，那些安静的时刻。
She writes, “It was still winter, but the day had spring undertones, a good deal of sun and now a pink evening sky that I could see through the slots of the skyscrapers.
她写道：“当时还是冬天，但这一天有春天的气息，阳光充足，现在我可以透过摩天大楼的缝隙看到粉红色的夜空。
Across the way, I could see a dance class that was in session, a row of arms in flight.
对面，我看到一个舞蹈班正在上课，一排手臂在空中飞舞。
Yellow taxis scuttled down below like beetles.
黄色出租车像甲虫一样在下面疾驰而下。
The building directly adjacent to his office seemed to be a hotel, and someone was turning down the sheets.
与他办公室紧邻的大楼似乎是一家酒店，有人正在铺床单。
It was one of those moments in which New York feels timeless.” I don’t think I have read a better throwaway paragraph in a long reported piece this year.
这是纽约感觉永恒的时刻之一。”我认为今年我在长篇报道中没有读过更好的一次性段落。
## “The Meme-ification of Misandry” (Charlotte Shane, Matter)
## “厌烦情绪的模因化”（夏洛特·谢恩，《Matter》）
2015 was the year I discovered the work of Charlotte Shane (which makes me already late to the game, her amazing TinyLetter, Prostitute Laundry, began in early 2014 and is now being collected into a book).
2015 年是我发现 Charlotte Shane 作品的一年（这让我已经迟到了，她令人惊叹的《TinyLetter》，《妓女洗衣店》，于 2014 年初开始创作，现在正在收集成一本书）。
I am so glad I did.
我很高兴我做到了。
Shane writes about all kinds of things—sex work, bodies, feminism, identity politics, emotional labor—but one of my favorite essays she wrote this year was this one, both a look back at the growing “misandry meme” that has been bubbling up throughout the Internet (2015 was also the year it became en vogue to talk publicly online about not liking males) and a passionate argument about why lazy misandry is just as bad for women as lazy misogyny.
谢恩写的内容涉及各种各样的东西——性工作、身体、女权主义、身份政治、情感劳动——但她今年写的我最喜欢的文章之一是这篇文章，既回顾了互联网上不断涌现的“厌男模因”（2015 年也是网上公开谈论不喜欢男性的流行年），又热情地讨论了为什么懒惰厌男与懒惰厌女症一样对女性有害。
She writes about how most popular misandrist language comes from a place of privilege (she argues that it is only possible to mock men without the fear of violent retribution) and also says that many anti-men jokes are obscuring the larger systemic issues underneath: “But sometimes, misandrist jokes create a cycle of sisterly confirmation in which discussions about women’s rights begin and end with how we’re wronged by individual men — which may never turn into an analysis of the larger power structures supporting sexism.” I always appreciate Shane’s writing for how clear it is, but also how full of fire it is.
她写道，最流行的厌男者语言是如何来自特权地位的（她认为，只有在不担心暴力报复的情况下才可能嘲笑男性），并表示，许多反男性笑话掩盖了背后更大的系统性问题：“但有时，厌男者笑话会创造一个姐妹确认的循环，在这个循环中，关于妇女权利的讨论开始和结束于我们如何被个别男性冤枉——这可能永远不会变成对支持的更大权力结构的分析。”性别歧视。”我一直很欣赏肖恩的写作，因为它是多么清晰，而且充满激情。
It is very rare to find a writer who can fully support an argument while consistently dropping in surprising provocations that make you think in an entirely new way, but that is just what Shane does.
很少有作家能够完全支持某个论点，同时不断地提出令人惊讶的挑衅，让你以全新的方式思考，但这正是肖恩所做的。
## “Not Knowing” (Katherine Bernard, The Awl)
##“不知道”（凯瑟琳伯纳德，锥子）
One of my favorite books of the year was Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, and like any book that contains multitudes, it inspired some of the best writing of the year as people tried to grapple with its pages.
我今年最喜欢的一本书是玛吉·尼尔森的《阿尔戈英雄》，就像任何一本包含众多内容的书一样，当人们试图阅读它的书页时，它激发了一些年度最佳写作的灵感。
One of my favorite essays to come out of wrestling with Nelson was Katherine Bernard’s beautiful, meandering journey through her own queer identity in “Not Knowing”—Bernard wrote something that is part essay, part memoir, part longform poetry, part performance, and I found myself really hypnotized by her work.
我在与尼尔森摔跤时最喜欢的一篇文章是凯瑟琳·伯纳德在《不知道》中通过她自己的酷儿身份进行的美丽而曲折的旅程——伯纳德写的东西一半是散文，一半是回忆录，一半是长诗，一半是表演，我发现自己真的被她的作品催眠了。
It never comes to any one conclusion—instead, it raises questions and makes you think about your own ways of defining yourself.
它永远不会得出任何一个结论——相反，它会提出问题，让你思考自己定义自己的方式。
Sometimes the most moving writing doesn’t hit hard, instead it envelops you like a cloak and makes you feel warm and protected, in the hands of someone who, like everyone else, is just trying to figure it out.
有时，最感人的作品并不会给你带来沉重的打击，相反，它会像一件斗篷一样包裹着你，让你感到温暖和受到保护，在一个像其他人一样只是想弄清楚它的人手中。
Longreads Editor Pick: Sari Botton@saribotton
长读编辑推荐：Sari Botton@saribotton
## “They Pretend To Be Us While Pretending We Don’t Exist” (Jenny Zhang, BuzzFeed)
##“他们假装是我们，却假装我们不存在”（Jenny 张，BuzzFeed）
Zhang fired off this incisive piece in response to poet Michael Derrick Hudson’s admission that he’d appropriated a Chinese pseudonym–Yi–Fen Chou, the name of a woman with whom he’d gone to high school, without her knowledge or consent—to enhance his chances of having one of his poems published, first in Prairie Schooner, and then in Best American Poetry 2015.
张发表了这篇尖锐的文章，以回应诗人迈克尔·德里克·哈德森(Michael Derrick Hudson)承认，他在未经对方知情或同意的情况下，盗用了一个中文笔名——周一芬，这是一名与他一起上高中的女子的名字——以增加他的一首诗发表的机会，先是在《草原帆船》上发表，然后在《2015年最佳美国诗歌》上发表。
The essay ranges far beyond that one mortifying example of callous white male entitlement.
这篇文章的范围远远超出了冷酷无情的白人男性权利的一个可耻的例子。
It’s a bruising, comprehensive catalogue of the many ways in which the white publishing establishment marginalizes and takes advantage or writers of color, making them suffer for their otherness with both discrimination and envy.
这是一个令人痛心的、全面的目录，列出了白人出版机构边缘化和利用有色人种作家的多种方式，使他们因自己的差异性而遭受歧视和嫉妒。
As an acquiring editor myself, I have been unconsciously guilty of some of these, and I’m grateful for lesson.
作为一名收购编辑，我在不知不觉中对其中的一些问题感到内疚，我很感激这次教训。
The piece is also a call to arms.
这首曲子也是一个战斗的号召。
“For those of us who didn’t grow up entitled, those of us who grew up underestimated, underinvited, undersolicited, underacknowledged, underloved, I say let’s expose each other’s excellence.”
“对于我们这些在成长过程中没有权利的人，对于我们这些在被低估、不被邀请、不被请求、不被认可、不被爱而成长的人，我想说，让我们展示彼此的卓越。”
## “Selfie: The Revolutionary Potential of Your Own Face, In Seven Chapters” (Rachel Syme, Matter)
## “自拍：你自己的脸的革命潜力，分七章”（Rachel Syme，Matter）
Syme’s meditation on the selfie as a vital, valid contemporary means of self-expression is as smart as it is fun.
赛姆将自拍视为一种重要且有效的当代自我表达方式，他的思考既聪明又有趣。
In making her argument that taking self-portraits and posting them on social media can be empowering for women, she presents a well-researched history of women photographing themselves spanning more than a century, from Virginia Woolf’s great aunt in 1883 to Kim Kardashian today.
她认为拍摄自拍照并将其发布到社交媒体上可以赋予女性权力，她介绍了一个多世纪以来女性自拍的历史，从 1883 年弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫的姨婆到今天的金·卡戴珊。
In another section, she includes the selfies and stories of others, which she solicited on social media as she was working on the piece.
在另一部分中，她收录了其他人的自拍照和故事，这些都是她在创作该作品时在社交媒体上征求的。
Throughout, Syme takes to task those who would dismiss the practice of taking and posting selfies as shallow and vain, defending it as a way of allowing women to boldly be seen—something misogynist culture discourages—and to project self-images of their own making.
自始至终，赛姆都在批评那些认为自拍和发布自拍照的做法浅薄而虚荣的人，并捍卫它是一种允许女性大胆地被人看到的方式（这是厌恶女性的文化所不鼓励的），并投射出她们自己创造的自我形象。
She writes, “We are writing the story of how we want to be seen.”
她写道：“我们正在写一个关于我们希望如何被别人看到的故事。”
Longreads Editor Pick: Emily Perper@Emily_Perper
长读编辑精选：Emily Perper@Emily_Perper
## “‘Where’s My Cut?’ On Unpaid Emotional Labor” (Jess Zimmerman, The Toast)
## “关于无酬情感劳动，‘我的切入点在哪里？’”（杰西·齐默尔曼，《吐司》）
As a woman-type person and a good listener, I connected immediately to Jess Zimmerman’s essay.
作为一个女性类型的人和一个好的倾听者，我立即与杰西·齐默尔曼的文章产生了共鸣。
It’s about all the big and small ways women provide emotional support to their male friends without hope of reciprocation.
这是关于女性向男性朋友提供情感支持而不希望得到回报的所有大大小小的方式。
Zimmerman puts into words what so many people feel but can’t explain: Why is emotional labor—pseudo-therapy sessions with lovelorn dude friends, for instance—seen as effortless when it is, in fact, extremely draining and utterly taken for granted?
齐默尔曼用语言表达了很多人的感受，但无法解释：为什么情绪劳动——例如与失恋的朋友进行的伪治疗——被认为是毫不费力的，而事实上，它是极其令人筋疲力尽的，而且完全被认为是理所当然的？
Zimmerman discusses #GiveYourMoneyToWomen, housework, and capitalism with eloquence and sharpness.
齐默尔曼以雄辩和敏锐的方式讨论了#GiveYourMoneyToWomen、家务和资本主义。
Required reading for anyone who has had a friend, like I did in college, who wanted to be a Navy SEAL after graduation, ate lunch with me every day and updated me on the minutiae of his sunrise workouts without letting me get a word in for an entire semester.
对于那些有朋友的人来说，这是必读的，就像我在大学时一样，他想在毕业后成为一名海豹突击队队员，每天和我一起吃午餐，并向我更新他日出训练的细节，整个学期都不让我插话。
He hasn’t spoken to me in three years, because (I assume) he can no longer hold me captive over food.
他已经三年没有跟我说过话了，因为（我猜）他不能再因为食物而囚禁我了。
Zimmerman’s essay captures the nuances of relationships like ours.
齐默尔曼的文章抓住了像我们这样的关系的细微差别。
## “On Pandering” (Claire Vaye Watkins, Tin House)
##“论迎合”（克莱尔·瓦耶·沃特金斯，Tin House）
No “Best Of 2015” would be complete without the transcript of Claire Vaye Watkins’ lecture from the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop.
如果没有 Claire Vaye Watkins 在 Tin House 夏季作家研讨会上的演讲记录，“2015 年最佳”就不完整。
“On Pandering” inspired discussion about the differences in privilege among white men, white women and people of color, as well as the patriarchal structure of academia and the literary canon.
《论迎合》引发了关于白人男性、白人女性和有色人种之间的特权差异，以及学术界和文学经典的父权结构的讨论。
I yelled in recognition as I read lines like “Nearly all of my life has been arranged around this activity.
当我读到诸如“我的一生几乎都是围绕这项活动安排的”这样的文字时，我大声喊道。
I’ve filled my days doing this, spent all my free time and a great amount of time that was not free doing it.
我整天都在做这件事，我把所有的空闲时间和大量不空闲的时间都花在了这件事上。
That hobby, that interest, that passion was this: watching boys do stuff.” And: “She can write like a man, they said, by which they meant, She can write.” Watkins’ words inspire me to interrogate my motivations, my chosen mentors and where I find inspiration.
那种爱好、那种兴趣、那种激情就是：看着男孩们做事。”并且：“他们说，她可以像男人一样写作，他们的意思是，她可以写作。”沃特金斯的话激励我审视自己的动机、我选择的导师以及我从哪里找到灵感。