英语阅读：Larger than life
Reader question:In this sentence – Pavarotti was known as much for his larger than life
personality as he was for his voice – please explain "larger than life".
My comments:
Why not, let's begin with Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007). The Italian tenor,
one of the best opera singers of his generation, is better known in China as one
of the Three Tenors (José Carreras and Placido Domingo being the other two) who
performed in the royal Palace in Beijing. Pavarotti also shared the stage with
pop singers (Pavarotti with Friends, including notably Bryan Adams), something
few classical musicians would stoop themselves to do. In 1993, he sang for
500,000 fans in New York's Central Park. The next year, he performed under the
Eiffel Tower in front of 300,000 Parisians. And in 2003, at the age of 68, he
married his former secretary Nicoletta Mantovani....
So you see, Pavarotti had quite an appetite (he had a big belly to show for
it too) for music and life.
Before giving definitions, let's bring on more people who are considered
larger than life. Albert Einstein was larger than life – his influence went far
beyond physics. Louis Armstrong was and remains larger than life – he epitomizes
jazz. Yao Ming is larger than life – the guy is 7-foot-6, for starters. Michael
Jordan is certainly larger than life – it sometimes felt that he was bigger than
the NBA in his playing day. Mahatma Gandhi was larger than life despite his
small stature – he brought down the British Empire and closed the entire
colonial era....
These people have all been described as larger than life. Do you see a
common thread?
They are unusual. They're extraordinary. They're uncommon. They seems
larger than (what we experience in everyday)life. Their achievements seem
enlarged, exaggerated and unbelievable. Wilt Chamberlain, for instance, once
scored 100 points in one game. In another, he grabbed 55 rebounds alone. Ask Yao
and he'll shake his head – One-hundred points and 55 rebounds, come on. No-one
will be able to duplicate these numbers (the 55 rebounds especially) ever if
they don't change the rules.
Anyways, you get the idea what it means to describe people or things to be
larger, or bigger, than life.
Here are more media examples.
1. A headline:
Composer is larger than life; concert isn't
- Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2007.
2. Love the music or not, (Richard) Wagner cannot be ignored. Larger than
life in his own lifetime, posthumously he gets no smaller.
- What is it about Wagner? The Sunday Times, August 5, 2007.
3. Long before Elvis Mitchell's last movie review for the New York Times
was published, on April 30, it was clear he'd been hired to play against type.
Mitchell, over six feet, with two-foot-long dreads (which he tends with Kiehl's
products), robed in Costume National and Helmut Lang, will never be your average
be-khaki'd Timesman. He's bigger than life, or at least bigger than most print
journalists, a road show of pop-culture exuberance who makes the rounds of TV
shows, film festivals, and lecture appointments, hobnobbing with stars and
industry figures.
- Elvis and His Times, New York Magazine, May 3, 2004.
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