John Nash & His Beautiful Mind

 

   

In the film version of his life, John Nash’s character played by Russell Crow, sees people who really aren’t there. The real John Nash, like most ¹⁾schizophrenics, did not imagine people, he heard ²⁾bizarre voices.

Interviewer: Did aliens speak to you?

Nash: When I began to hear voices I thought of the voices as from something of that sort.

Interviewer: What would they say to you?

Nash: Well, you see it’s really my ³⁾subconscious¹ talking. It was really that night because I know that.

Interviewer: People described you back then as ⁴⁾brash and arrogant².

Nash: Yeah. Those are two words that have been used.

Harold Kuehn was one of those classmates. One of his best friends is responsible for the title “The Beautiful Mind” and the full quotation³ goes something like this “John was ⁵⁾obnoxious⁴, but he had a beautiful mind.”

Interviewer: Your arrogance⁵ back then was said to be ⁶⁾monumental. “You don’t know, crap” you would say to some of your fellow graduate students. “How could you?” Accurate?

Nash: Well, I think the first one is probably invented but the second one might be accurate.

Interviewer: And you took yourself quite seriously and your work.

Nash: Well, of course I took myself seriously.

By 1958 John Nash seemed to have it all, a beautiful wife, a remarkable⁶ career, but shortly after his thirtieth birthday, that same year, the same year Fortune Magazine named him one of the country’s ⁷⁾mathematical stars, it all began to fall apart. He began to see ⁸⁾conspiracies and hidden messages, where there were none.

Interviewer: What happened when you went into the mental illness?

Nash: Now, you know that it’s mental illness if you’re coming out of that reality. It’s like the movie you see, at first the signals in the newspaper, the codes, and all this is the true reality which has been discovered.

Interviewer: But when you are in that reality you are in that reality, and you don’t realize that you are schizophrenic.

Nash: You’re not mentally ill, you’re rather extra-normally alerted to hidden truths. You’re enlightened, you’re exceptionally enlightened.

    And then one day two decades later, a mysterious man showed up to speak with Dr. Nash about his early work.

    It was Jurgen Voeble a visiting economics professor from Sweden on a secret mission for the Nobel Prize Committee.

Voeble: When we stood outside ⁹⁾the Faculty⁷ Club and I met him, I had never met him before, he was nervously⁸ smoking and then I introduced myself and invited him to go into the Faculty Club and have lunch, and then he asked me, “Can I enter? I’m not faculty.” And I was so moved by that and I felt that this was such an injustice⁹.

    Voeble reported back to Stockholm that this man who had changed the face of economics in his twenties deserved the Nobel regardless of his mental status. And in 1994 Dr. Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, which his friend Kuehn wrote about years later.

Interviewer: Recognition, you write, is a cure for many ills.

Kuehn: Absolutely. I did. John, was a person who wouldn’t meet your eyes, after the prize he was a changed man. People would greet him on the streets of Princeton he would react and answer, and it just made the difference and it, it continues.

Interviewer: Russell Crow played you in the film. Would he have been your choice to play you?

Nash: No, I guess not.

Interviewer: Correct me if I’m wrong but you had the ¹⁰⁾notion that maybe Tom Cruise would be the right guy?

Nash: No, that was their idea, I said, no, no, no. He’s associated with these action movies and he’s rather short. CE

 

07、约翰·纳什的『美丽心灵』

 

在电影《美丽心灵》中，约翰·纳什的角色由罗素·克罗扮演，他看到其实并不存在的人。真正的约翰·纳什就像大多数妄想型精神分裂症患者，他不是想象出人物，但他听到怪异的声音。

记者∶外星人跟你说过话吗？

纳什∶我刚开始听到那种声音的时候，以为是外星人之类的声音。

记者∶他们对你说什么了？

纳什∶嗯，你知道那其实是我的潜意识在说话，我确实是那天晚上知道的。

记者∶现在人们描述当时的你是“傲慢而又无礼”。

纳什∶是的，那两个词是曾被用过。

纳什的同学及好友之一——哈罗德·库恩——是他给出“美丽心灵”这个题目，我们完整地引用他说过的话是∶“约翰并不招人喜欢，但是他有一颗美丽的心灵。”

记者∶据说你那时傲慢得出了名。你会对一些同窗说出“你们这些无知的废物”这样的话。“你怎么想得出来？”对不对？

纳什∶嗯，我想第一句应该是捏造出来的，第二句我倒可能说过。

记者∶你对自己和工作都相当认真。

纳什∶嗯，我当然要认真对待自己。

1958年时，约翰·纳什似乎拥有一切——漂亮的妻子、优越的工作，但是就在他刚过三十岁的那年——也是同年他被《财富》杂志称为一颗数学明星后——他的生活开始崩溃。他开始臆想看到了不存在的阴谋和隐藏的信息。

记者∶当你被精神上的疾病所困扰时，究竟是怎么回事？

纳什∶现在康复了，回到现实生活中后，就知道过去得的是精神病。就像你在电影中看到的一样，起初报纸上浮现出信号、代码，这些情节都真的在我身上发生过。

记者∶但当你置身在那样的生活中时，你并没有意识到自己得了精神分裂症。

纳什∶并不认为说自己得了精神病，而是觉得自己对隐藏的真相异于寻常地警觉。领悟到自己有异常的领悟力。

二十年后的一天，出现了一个神秘的人，他找纳什博士了解他早期的一部作品。

那个人是朱根·沃布尔——瑞典的一位经济学客座教授，他肩负着诺贝尔奖委员会的一项秘密任务。

沃布尔∶当我们站在教员俱乐部外面时，我遇见了他，我以前从未见过他，他很紧张地吸着烟。于是我作了自我介绍，并邀请他进入教员俱乐部共进午餐。他问我：“我可以进去吗？我不是教员。”那件事很触动我，我觉得那是如此的不公平。

    沃布尔向斯德哥尔摩写回汇报，讲述纳什在二十来岁的时候就已经改变了经济学的面貌，尽管他有精神病，但他应该得到诺贝尔奖。1994年纳什博士荣获诺贝尔奖，多年后，他的朋友库恩写下了此事。

记者∶你写道，获得认可是医治许多疾病的良方。

库恩∶我确实是这样写的。约翰从前是一个不看你眼睛的人，获奖后他完全改变了。人们在普林斯顿的路上跟他打招呼，他会做出反应去回答，他发生了变化，并且变化还在继续。

记者∶罗素·克罗在电影中扮演你。你希望由他来演你吗？

纳什：不，我不希望。

记者∶如果我说错了就纠正我∶你有没有这样的想法，认为汤姆·克鲁斯才是最佳人选？

纳什∶没有，那是别人的说法，我会说：不，不，不。因为他在动作片中的形象太深入人心了，而且他太矮了。CE

 

1) schizophrenics [ skidzEu5freniks] n. 精神分裂症患者

2) bizarre [bi5za:] a. 异乎寻常的；怪诞的

3) subconscious [7 sQb5kCnFEs] a. 下意识的；潜意识的

4) brash[brAF]  a. 粗鲁的；草率的

5) obnoxious [Eb5nCkFEs]a. 惹人讨厌的，淘气的

6) monumental [ 7mCnju5mentl] a. 纪念的；不朽的；雄伟的

7) mathematical [ mAWi5mAtikEl] a. 数学的，数学上的

8) conspiracy¹⁰ [kEn5spirEsi] n. 阴谋集团；同谋；合谋

9) the Faculty Club 教员俱乐部

10) notion [5nEuFEn] n. 想法；意图；打算

 

1 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

2 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。

3 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

4 obnoxious   

adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的

参考例句：

• These fires produce really obnoxious fumes and smoke.这些火炉冒出来的烟气确实很难闻。
• He is the most obnoxious man I know.他是我认识的最可憎的人。

5 arrogance   

n.傲慢，自大

参考例句：

• His arrogance comes out in every speech he makes.他每次讲话都表现得骄傲自大。
• Arrogance arrested his progress.骄傲阻碍了他的进步。

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

8 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

9 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

10 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。