Longreads Best of 2019: Profiles
Lisa Whittington-Hill
丽莎惠廷顿希尔
Lisa Whittington-Hill is the publisher of This Magazine.
丽莎·惠廷顿·希尔 (Lisa Whittington-Hill) 是本杂志的出版商。
Her writing about arts, pop culture, feminism, mental health, and why we should all be nicer to Lindsay Lohan has appeared in a variety of Canadian magazines.
她关于艺术、流行文化、女权主义、心理健康以及为什么我们都应该对林赛·罗韩好一点的文章出现在各种加拿大杂志上。
She is currently working on a book about the band Cub to be published by Invisible Publishing.
她目前正在写一本关于 Cub 乐队的书，该书将由 Invisible Publishing 出版。
## Celine Dion is Everywhere (Suzannah Showler, The Walrus)
## 席琳·迪翁无处不在（苏珊娜·肖勒、海象）
## Alanis Morissette Isn’t Angry Anymore (Rachel Syme, New York Times Magazine)
## Alanis Morissette 不再生气（Rachel Syme，纽约时报杂志）
## Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair (Jessica Hopper with Sasha Geffen and Jenn Pelly,Vanity Fair and Epic Magazine)
## 构建神秘：莉莉丝博览会的口述历史（杰西卡·霍珀、萨莎·格芬和詹·佩利、《名利场》和 Epic 杂志）
I didn’t set out to consciously have a theme for my picks, but these three stories all feature female musical pioneers from Celine Dion to Alanis Morissette to Sarah McLachlan.
我并没有刻意为自己的选择设定一个主题，但这三个故事的主角都是女性音乐先驱，从席琳·迪翁（Celine Dion）到艾拉妮丝·莫莉塞特（Alanis Morissette）再到莎拉·麦克拉克伦（Sarah McLachlan）。
They are also all, like me, Canadian.
他们也和我一样都是加拿大人。
Who knew I was so patriotic?
谁知道我这么爱国？
These women have been mocked and misunderstood at many points in their careers so it is nice to see them celebrated in these great pieces.
这些女性在职业生涯的许多阶段都受到嘲笑和误解，所以很高兴看到她们在这些伟大的作品中受到赞扬。
Today’s Taylors and Selenas could definitely learn a thing or two from them (these are serious #squadgoals to have, ladies).
今天的泰勒和赛琳娜绝对可以从他们身上学到一两件事（女士们，这些都是严肃的#squadgoals）。
“Celine Dion is Everywhere” by Suzannah Showler examines Celine Dion, the Celinassance, and why it took the world so long to catch on to Dion’s cool.
苏珊娜·肖勒 (Suzannah Showler) 的《席琳·迪翁无处不在》探讨了席琳·迪翁 (Celinassance)，以及为什么全世界花了这么长时间才了解席琳·迪翁 (Celine Dion) 的魅力。
The Canadian singer has released 12 studio albums in English (27 in total), sold over 200 million albums, and has been performing for over 39 years.
这位加拿大歌手已发行了 12 张英文录音室专辑（总共 27 张），专辑销量超过 2 亿张，演出时间已超过 39 年。
While she’s always been known for her good pipes, being cool, well, not so much.
虽然她一直以她的好烟斗而闻名，但酷，嗯，并不是那么多。
Showler travels to Las Vegas to not only see the singer in concert during the final days of her Celine residency, but also to interview Celine Dion impersonators whose hearts went on for her long before the internet’s did.
肖勒前往拉斯维加斯，不仅是为了在席琳驻场的最后几天观看这位歌手的演唱会，而且还采访了席琳·迪翁的模仿者，他们的心早在互联网出现之前就已经开始关注她了。
Showler tells the fascinating history of Dion, tracing the Canadian singer’s rise from Québec to her recent Las Vegas residency, something Showler credits Dion with making cool again (think less Barry Manilow and more Britney Spears).
肖勒讲述了迪翁迷人的历史，追溯了这位加拿大歌手从魁北克的崛起到她最近在拉斯维加斯的驻场演出，肖勒认为迪翁再次变得酷起来（少想巴里·曼尼洛，多想布兰妮·斯皮尔斯）。
Dion’s first Vegas stint was the highest grossing concert residency ever, earning the equivalent of $610 million (Canadian), and her recent Vegas concerts were the second highest grossing residency.
迪翁在维加斯的首次驻场演出是有史以来票房收入最高的驻场音乐会，收入相当于 6.1 亿美元（加拿大），而她最近在维加斯的驻场音乐会也是票房收入第二高的驻场演出。
Showler makes the case that Celine has always been cool and along the way brings up questions of identity, impersonation, illusion, and just what it means to be a fan.
肖勒认为席琳一直很酷，并在此过程中提出了身份、模仿、幻觉以及成为粉丝意味着什么的问题。
Also, the story about the bronze replica of Dion’s husband’s hand will haunt your dreams.
此外，关于迪翁丈夫手的青铜复制品的故事也会萦绕在你的梦中。
In “Alanis Morissette Isn’t Angry Anymore.
在《艾拉妮丝·莫莉塞特不再生气了。
But Jagged Little Pill Rages On” writer Rachel Syme uses both the 25th anniversary of the album and its recent Broadway adaptation as an opportunity to talk about its influence and the Canadian singer’s place in pop culture.
但《Jagged Little Pill Rages On》的编剧雷切尔·赛姆 (Rachel Syme) 利用这张专辑的 25 周年纪念日及其最近的百老汇改编作品来谈论其影响力以及这位加拿大歌手在流行文化中的地位。
Syme takes us back to 1995 when the album was released and Morissette was both celebrated and criticized.
Syme 将我们带回 1995 年，当时专辑发行，Morissette 受到赞扬和批评。
She topped the charts, but male critics and journalists never trusted that she got there on her own talent.
她名列榜首，但男性评论家和记者从不相信她是凭借自己的才华取得这一成就的。
For some Jagged Little Pill is the most feminist album of the ’90s, for others it’s an album that may have resonated with them at a particular point in their lives, but now just seems dated and not actually that good (these people should have rain on their wedding day always).
对于一些人来说，《Jagged Little Pill》是 90 年代最具女权主义的专辑，对于另一些人来说，这张专辑可能在他们生命中的某个特定时刻引起了共鸣，但现在看起来已经过时了，实际上并不那么好（这些人应该在婚礼当天总是下雨）。
Syme’s piece travels back and forth between the past and the present, telling both the history of the album and how the songs are being adapted by writer Diablo Cody for a modern theater-going audience.
赛姆的作品在过去和现在之间来回穿梭，讲述了专辑的历史，以及作家迪亚布罗·科迪如何为现代剧院观众改编这些歌曲。
Syme reminds us of all the obstacles Morissette dealt with when Jagged Little Pill was released.
赛姆让我们想起了莫莉塞特在《锯齿小药丸》发行时遇到的所有障碍。
Initially manufactured as the next mall sensation a la Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, this album changed all that.
这张专辑最初是作为蒂芙尼和黛比·吉布森的下一个商场轰动作品而制作的，但它改变了这一切。
But the backlash was cruel and Morissette was portrayed by the media as the angry female singer, criticized by other female performers and mocked for what many perceived to be manufactured angst.
但强烈的反对是残酷的，莫莉塞特被媒体描绘成愤怒的女歌手，受到其他女表演者的批评，并嘲笑许多人认为这是制造出来的焦虑。
A piece about authenticity and acceptance, Syme also reminds us of the important role Morissette has had in making it okay for women to write about the difficulties and struggles in their lives, and to play four different versions of themselves in a really great video.
赛姆是一部关于真实性和接受性的作品，它还提醒我们莫里塞特在让女性可以写下她们生活中的困难和挣扎，并在一个非常精彩的视频中扮演四个不同版本的自己方面所发挥的重要作用。
My last pick is technically an oral history and not a long form piece of writing, but I can’t even imagine how many interviews this piece required so I am going to include it.
从技术上讲，我的最后一个选择是口述历史，而不是长篇文章，但我什至无法想象这篇文章需要多少次采访，所以我将把它包括在内。
Also, it is a fascinating read.
此外，这也是一本引人入胜的读物。
“Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair” tells the story of Lilith Fair, the travelling music festival started by Canadian signer Sarah McLachlan in 1997.
《构建神秘：莉莉丝博览会的口述历史》讲述了莉莉丝博览会的故事，这是由加拿大歌手莎拉·麦克拉克兰 (Sarah McLachlan) 于 1997 年创办的巡回音乐节。
At a time when radio station staff and record label execs couldn’t wrap their sexist little brains around having more than one woman on their rosters (We already have Sheryl Crow, take a lady hike!), McLachlan launched an ambitious festival that eventually went on to make over 130 stops during its three-year run.
当广播电台工作人员和唱片公司高管们无法接受他们的性别歧视小脑袋里有不止一名女性在他们的花名册上时（我们已经有谢丽尔·克劳，来一场女士徒步旅行吧！），麦克拉克兰发起了一个雄心勃勃的音乐节，最终在三年的运行期间举办了 130 多次。
Lilith Fair was the opposite of the popular dudecentric festivals of the mid-to-late ’90s where the line ups tended to be over 90 percent male performers (Ladapalooza, anyone?).
莉莉丝博览会与 90 年代中后期流行的以男性为中心的节日相反，当时的排队人数往往超过 90% 是男性表演者（Ladapalooza，有人知道吗？）。
This history chronicles the challenges of getting female performers and sponsors to sign on, the skeptics who doubted the festival could sell tickets, and the criticism over the festival’s lack of diversity.
这段历史记录了让女性表演者和赞助商签约的挑战、怀疑音乐节能否售票的怀疑者，以及对音乐节缺乏多样性的批评。
This is a great look at both the festival’s beginnings and the many performers who played on its stages.
这是对音乐节的起源和舞台上表演的众多表演者的精彩回顾。
Fun fact: Christina Aguilera played the side stage in 1999.
有趣的事实：克里斯蒂娜·阿奎莱拉 (Christina Aguilera) 于 1999 年在舞台旁表演。
(I did not know that until this piece).
（直到这篇文章我才知道）。
While these three pieces really stood out, I must also give an honourable mention to two others.
虽然这三件作品确实很突出，但我还必须赞扬另外两件作品。
There was no shortage of writing this year devoted to the HBO television show Succession.
今年不乏专门针对 HBO 电视节目《继承》的文章。
No more cousin Greg think pieces please, I beg of you.
格雷格表弟别再胡思乱想了，我求你了。
He is like the Park Coke of Succession characters for me.
对我来说，他就像《继承之战》中的帕克·可乐角色。
These two stories didn’t mention the words “prestige television” or make a 1500-word case for why Succession is the best show on television.
这两个故事没有提到“声望电视”这个词，也没有用 1500 字的理由来解释为什么《继承之战》是最好的电视节目。
Instead, they focussed on two things I hadn’t paid much attention to while watching the show: impressive sweater collections and food.
相反，他们专注于我在观看节目时没有太注意的两件事：令人印象深刻的毛衣系列和食物。
Carrie Wittmer’s ranking of the best sweaters on Succession for Vulture was funnier than Kendall Roy’s rap (We were supposed to laugh at that, right?) and was also refreshing because it was a fashion piece about the show that didn’t focus on Shiv Roy’s butt in pants.
Carrie Wittmer 在《Succession for Vulture》中对最佳毛衣的排名比 Kendall Roy 的说唱更有趣（我们应该嘲笑它，对吧？），而且也令人耳目一新，因为这是一篇关于该节目的时尚文章，没有关注 Shiv Roy 裤子里的屁股。
Jenny G.
珍妮·G。
Zhang’s ranking of the show’s dinners by food, ambiance, and power plays illustrates how meals for the Roy family function as “battlefields on which to negotiate power, money and daddy Logan’s love.” Less dusting off of your college copy of King Lear to sound smart when you write about Succession and more of these pieces in 2020 please!
张根据食物、氛围和权力游戏对节目中的晚餐进行了排名，说明了罗伊家族的晚餐如何充当“谈判权力、金钱和爸爸洛根的爱的战场”。当你写《继承》以及 2020 年更多此类文章时，请少掸一下大学版《李尔王》的灰尘，这样听起来就很聪明！
Alexis OkeowoAlexis Okeowo is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa.
亚历克西斯·奥克沃 (Alexis Okeowo) 亚历克西斯·奥克沃 (Alexis Okeowo) 是《纽约客》的特约撰稿人，也是《无月无星的天空：非洲的普通男女与极端主义作斗争》一书的作者。
## The End of Straight (Gabriel Mac, GQ)
## 直线的终结（Gabriel Mac，GQ）
When Longreads asked me to recommend my favorite profile of this year, my mind immediately went to a piece I had read a couple of months prior that had left me devastated and hopeful for weeks afterward.
当 Longreads 让我推荐今年我最喜欢的个人资料时，我的思绪立即转到几个月前读过的一篇文章，这篇文章让我在几周后感到震惊和充满希望。
And then I remembered that it actually isn’t a profile.
然后我想起来这实际上不是一个个人资料。
“The End of Straight” in GQ magazine is a personal essay that, as its author Gabriel Mac, a trans man, wrote, began as a reported piece before he realized that the truth of it lay in his own experiences with the subject: gender and queerness and the performance of femininity.
《GQ》杂志上的《直男的终结》是一篇个人文章，正如作者加布里埃尔·麦克（跨性别者）所写，最初是一篇报道文章，后来他意识到这篇文章的真相在于他自己对这个主题的经历：性别和酷儿以及女性气质的表现。
I opened the essay at the tail end of a summer in which I had been examining my own experiences of gender, and deciding that I was no longer satisfied with how I had settled for a limited expression of it.
我在一个夏天即将结束时打开了这篇文章，当时我一直在审视自己的性别经历，并决定我不再满足于自己对性别的有限表达。
Mac is a fellow foreign correspondent, one who has covered similar conflict and human rights stories in an arena still dominated by men, and I was impressed with his honesty about his feelings over losing a certain kind of female-identified attractiveness and privilege.
麦克是一位外国记者，他在一个仍然由男性主导的舞台上报道过类似的冲突和人权故事，他对失去某种女性认同的吸引力和特权的诚实感受给我留下了深刻的印象。
The essay is a startling and moving.meditation on what it can mean to reckon with trauma and fear of the unknown and finally choose yourself.
这篇文章是一篇令人震惊和感人的思考，探讨了面对创伤和对未知的恐惧并最终选择自己意味着什么。
For days and weeks after I read it, I texted friends the link to the essay with my exhilarated conclusion: it is never too late to radically change your life.
在我读完这本书后的几天和几周里，我给朋友们发了这篇文章的链接，并附上了我令人兴奋的结论：从根本上改变你的生活永远不会太晚。
Seyward DarbyEditor in Chief, The Atavist.
赛沃德·达比 (Seyward Darby) 《返祖派》主编。
## Bong Joon-ho’s Dystopia Is Already Here (E.
## 奉俊昊的反乌托邦已经到来 (E.
Alex Jung, Vulture)
亚历克斯·荣格（《秃鹫》）
If there were an award for best opening anecdote, this story would take it.
如果要评选最佳开场轶事奖，这个故事将获得最佳奖。
It’s wild, guffaw-inducing, and impossible to forget.
它很狂野，令人发笑，而且令人难以忘记。
It also perfectly sets the tone and terms of E.
它还完美地设定了 E 的基调和术语。
Alex Jung’s profile of Bong Joon-Ho, director of the celebrated 2019 movie PARASITE.
Alex Jung 对 2019 年著名电影《寄生虫》导演奉俊昊的简介。
(If you haven’t seen it, run don’t walk.) Bong’s encounter with Harvey Weinstein’s bullying and small-mindedness is a portal into his identity as an artist: What matters to him, why, and how he brings it to bear on his films, all of which are scathing critiques of inequality, capitalism, and power.
（如果你没看过，请跑，不要走。）奉俊昊遭遇哈维·韦恩斯坦的欺凌行为和心胸狭隘，是了解他作为艺术家身份的门户：什么对他来说重要，为什么重要，以及他如何将其应用到他的电影中，所有这些都是对不平等、资本主义和权力的严厉批评。
The rest of Jung’s incisive, rollicking profile situates Bong’s identity in contemporary culture as both vital and iconoclastic.
荣格尖锐、欢快的形象的其余部分将奉俊昊在当代文化中的身份定位为既重要又反传统的身份。
Jung writes: “The hope in Bong’s movies often springs from this longing: to find a little patch of sunlight to call your own, if only for a moment.” The profile leaves readers wishing mightily for Bong to keep finding patches of his own, because the world is richer each time he does.
荣格写道：“奉俊昊电影中的希望常常源于这种渴望：找到属于自己的一小片阳光，哪怕只是片刻。”这篇简介让读者强烈希望奉俊昊能够继续寻找自己的足迹，因为他每次这样做，世界都会变得更加丰富。
Danielle A.
丹妮尔·A.
JacksonDanielle A.
杰克逊丹妮尔 A.
Jackson is a contributing editor at Longreads.
杰克逊是 Longreads 的特约编辑。
## At 82, Glenda Jackson Commands the Most Powerful Role in Theater (Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Magazine)
## 格伦达·杰克逊 (Glenda Jackson) 82 岁高龄，在剧院中扮演最重要的角色（Parul Sehgal，《纽约时报》杂志）
I enjoy Parul Sehgal’s criticism, so much so that it would be more accurate to say I’m a student of it.
我很喜欢 Parul Sehgal 的批评，以至于更准确地说我是它的学生。
The work of my favorite writers and critics has a generous, teaching spirit.
我最喜欢的作家和评论家的作品具有慷慨的教学精神。
Beyond offering context, it allows the reader to participate, to bring her own experiences to bear, to look on a subject anew.
除了提供背景之外，它还允许读者参与其中，运用自己的经历，重新审视一个主题。
It teaches her how to look.
它教会她如何看待。
Sehgal’s profile of actress Glenda Jackson on the occasion of a Broadway revival of King Lear appealed to me for its layers upon layers of study — on, among many things, aging, Shakespeare, Brexit, Britain’s intra-War years.
塞格尔在百老汇重演《李尔王》时对女演员格伦达·杰克逊的侧写吸引了我，因为它对许多事情进行了层层研究——其中包括老龄化、莎士比亚、英国脱欧、英国战内时期。
Of course, it also works beautifully as character study, illuminating the subject with intricate details of her physicality as a performer, (“You could make a study of the movement of Jackson’s right hand alone,” Sehgal writes), and on the mood and tenor of the subject-reporter relationship.
当然，它作为角色研究也很有效，用她作为表演者的身体的复杂细节来阐明主题（“你可以单独研究杰克逊右手的运动，”塞格尔写道），以及主题与记者关系的情绪和基调。
I was taken with the spaces of refusal, where Jackson draws borders around herself.
我被拒绝的空间所吸引，杰克逊在其中为自己划定了界限。
Sehgal’s deft rendering of the words unsaid between the two reminded me how negative space is as essential to a portrait as its main image.
塞格尔对两人之间未说出口的话的巧妙诠释让我想起负空间对于一幅肖像来说和它的主要图像一样重要。
Zaina ArafatZaina Arafat is a Palestinian-American writer.
扎伊娜·阿拉法特 (Zaina Arafat) 扎伊娜·阿拉法特 (Zaina Arafat) 是一位巴勒斯坦裔美国作家。
Her debut novel YOU EXIST TOO MUCH is forthcoming from Catapult in 2020.
她的处女作《YOU EXIST TOO MUCH》将于 2020 年由 Catapult 出版。
## Constance Wu’s Hollywood Destiny (Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker)
## 吴恬敏的好莱坞命运（范嘉阳，《纽约客》）
I haven’t stopped thinking about Jiayang Fan’s profile of Constance Wu since first I read it in September, along with the larger ideas about representation, assimilation and cross-cultural identity that percolate throughout the piece.
自从我九月份第一次读到范嘉阳对吴恬敏的描述以来，我就一直在思考这本书，以及贯穿整篇文章的关于再现、同化和跨文化身份的更大的想法。
Wu’s story is inspiring; she entered acting later in life and worked as a waitress with $40,000 of debt; at the same time, she seems an incredibly challenging person to render on the page, a woman who defies Hollywood norms (Fan describes her as “refreshingly uncircumspect for a celebrity”) and is full of contradictions.
吴的故事鼓舞人心；她后来进入演艺圈，当过女服务员，负债4万美元。与此同时，她似乎是一个难以在页面上呈现的人，一个挑战好莱坞规范的女人（范形容她“对于名人来说是一种令人耳目一新的粗心”）并且充满了矛盾。
she’s a vocal critic of the lack of Asian representation in film and television yet resists the burden of being a representative, not out of a desire to resist stereotypes — “if someone just so happens to fall into stereotypical traits,” says Wu, “it doesn’t mean that we should try to take that part of her away and hide it from the light” — but because artists shouldn’t have to be role models.
她直言不讳地批评电影和电视中亚洲人的代表性不足，但她拒绝承担作为代表的负担，这并不是出于抵制刻板印象的愿望——“如果一个人恰好陷入刻板特征，”吴说，“这并不意味着我们应该试图夺走她的那一部分并将其隐藏起来”——而是因为艺术家不应该成为榜样。
Her response to success has been rather unconventional; she laments Fresh Off the Boat being renewed for another season, and missing the opportunity to take on a new challenge.
她对成功的反应相当非传统。她感叹刚下船又续订了一季，错过了接受新挑战的机会。
Fan brings Wu to life with impeccable physical details — “her face, smooth as the inside of a seashell,” as well as quotes that reveal her rebellious character, including the first one we get in the opening scene, when speaking to her makeup artist: “I feel like you’re making me too pretty.” In Fan’s sharp observations and her fresh and funny descriptions, she brings entire characters to life on the page, including Wu’s acting coach, who Fan describes as having “the soothing voice of a mindfulness-app guide.”
范冰冰用无可挑剔的身体细节将吴栩栩栩栩如生地呈现出来——“她的脸，光滑得像贝壳的内部”，以及揭示她叛逆性格的引言，包括我们在开场场景中与她的化妆师交谈时看到的第一句话：“我觉得你把我弄得太漂亮了。”在范的敏锐观察和新鲜有趣的描述中，她将整个角色生动地呈现在页面上，其中包括吴的表演教练，范将他描述为“正念应用程序指南的舒缓声音”。
Fan interrupts the piece in delightful ways; at one point she describes an instance of Wu admonishing her for texting during the interview, then speaking directly to Fan’s phone “as if recording an audiobook.” Fan even manages to capture a few rare moments of vulnerability from her subject, observing that Wu speaks of herself in third person when describing her parents’ divorce.
范以令人愉快的方式打断了这首曲子；有一次，她描述了吴在采访中发短信警告她的一个例子，然后直接对着范的手机说话，“就像录制有声读物一样”。范甚至设法从她的拍摄对象中捕捉到一些罕见的脆弱时刻，观察到吴在描述父母离婚时以第三人称谈论自己。
In describing Wu’s exploration of her Asian identity through her roles, Fan reflects on her own, seamlessly and quietly entering the piece in integral ways, like mentioning that she recognizes her own mother in Wu’s Fresh Off the Boat character, feels a connection to the “band of outsiders” in Hustlers, and remembers the many occasions of being accused of sounding white and labeled a “banana,” yellow on the outside and white inside.
在描述吴宇森通过角色探索自己的亚洲身份时，范冰冰以完整的方式无缝、安静地融入到了这部作品中，比如提到她在吴宇森的《刚下船》角色中认出了自己的母亲，在《骗子》中感受到了与“外来者乐队”的联系，并记得多次被指责听起来像白人，被贴上“香蕉”的标签，外面是黄色的，里面是白色的。
Throughout, Fan asks the question of whether it’s possible to achieve Americanness as a child of immigrants, and if assimilation is the prerequisite.
自始至终，范都提出了一个问题：作为移民的孩子是否有可能实现美国化，以及同化是否是先决条件。
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