经济学人94:年轻与焦躁 The young and the restless

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;The young and the restless;

　　文艺；书评；年轻与焦躁;

　　British and American fiction gets off to a promising¹ start in 2010;

　　2010年英美小说闪亮开篇;

　　The Unnamed. By Joshua Ferris.

　　《莫名》，作者约书亚·费里斯。

　　VLADIMIR NABOKOV, who liked to observe other people, once declared that “professional book reviewers are veritable bookmakers”. They gleefully declare who's in, who's out, and ask: “Where are the snows of yesteryear?” Hot young novelists, many believe, are meant to follow a predictable script. First, burst onto the scene with some bold, voice-of-the-generation debut²—preferably with a comely³ author photo. Then, years later, deliver to the expectant public a sophomore⁴ effort that is, alas⁵, disappointing. Critics favour lamenting⁶ squandered⁷ promise to praising yet another fine book from someone with unlined skin.

　　喜欢评论他人的费拉迪米尔·纳博科夫曾经宣称“专业书评家是名副其实的庄家”，他们兴致勃勃地宣布谁是入时的，谁是落伍的，并问出“去年的雪在哪里？”这样的问题。许多走红的青年小说家都被认为是循着老套的模子走出来的。首先，在文艺界以大胆表露情感，代表时代之声的形象如惊雷般亮相出场——最好再有着英俊的长相。接着，在数年之后向期待中的大众呈上他一个黄毛小子呕心沥血的成果，然而，却只不过是令人失望的作品。批评家们倒也热衷于哀叹对于某位青年才俊又一部好作品尽溢美之词的许诺又无法兑现了。

　　Not all writers oblige. Occasionally, a well-known name, such as Peter Carey, an Australian, will go through a fallow period only to enjoy a return to form (see article); a rare few, having written a debut of note, then go on to pen an even better second book.

　　并非所有作家都是被迫写作的。间或也有像澳大利亚著名作家皮特·凯里这样的人，他将休笔一段时间，而这仅仅是为了调整自己的状态；极少有作家在完成一部佳作后还会继续创作另一部超越性的作品。

　　Joshua Ferris became an international success in 2007 with “Then We Came to the End”, a smart and breezy satire⁸ of office life in an advertising⁹ firm. Told in the collective first person, it was a stylish¹⁰ rendering¹¹ of workplace ambivalence¹² in the wake of the dotcom bust¹³. (“We were delighted to have jobs. We bitched about them constantly.”) It wasn't perfect, but it was fresh, with pages that turned freely and unpretentiously. At 32, Mr Ferris—gracious, photogenic, based in Brooklyn—was anointed a writer to watch.

　　约书亚·费里斯在2007年因《当我们来到尽头》一书而享誉世界。在这本书中，他用富有智慧的语言及轻松愉快的笔调嘲讽了一个广告公司的办公室生活。全书用第一人称的口吻，生动的描述了在网络经济崩溃中觉醒的人们在工作场所的矛盾心理（我们为有一份工作而感到高兴，然而也时常抱怨）。这部作品并不完美，但体裁新颖，文风自在狂妄。在费里斯先生32岁的时候，他居住在布鲁克林，和蔼，上镜，就像上帝为我们挑选的作家。

　　Readers have not had long to wait for “The Unnamed”, his second novel. Anyone keen on another comedy of manners will be disappointed. So too will those who hoped to write off Mr Ferris as a victim of literary hype.

　　他的第二本书《莫名》并没有让读者们等太久。但那些期待着又一部风尚喜剧的人将会大失所望，同样会失望的还有那些希望费里斯先生被扼杀在文学炒作中的人。

　　From the opening page, he makes it plain that this is a very different book. “It was the cruellest winter. The winds were rabid off the rivers. Ice came down like poisoned darts…They were waiting for him. They didn't know they were waiting for him.” The novel seizes readers by the lapels with a story that feels serious and mysterious. Tim Farnsworth, a successful Manhattan lawyer in his 40s, returns home one night and declares to his wife, Jane, “It's back.” What's back? A strange, unknown disease—one that compels the hero to walk helplessly, incessantly¹⁴, until he drops from exhaustion¹⁵. After a reprieve¹⁶, Tim is once again a victim of his wayward body, “the frightened soul inside the runaway¹⁷ train of mindless matter, peering out from the conductor's car in horror.”

　　在第一页作者就向我们展示了这本书的与众不同。“这是一个严酷的冬天。狂风卷过河面，冰屑像浸了毒的飞镖落下……他们正等着他。然而他们却并不知道。”小说开篇就用一种紧张神秘的气息抓住了读者。40多岁的缇姆·法恩斯沃思是曼哈顿有名的律师，一天晚上他回到家郑重地告诉妻子简说：“它又来了。”什么又来了？那是一种奇怪的不为人知的疾病——它让我们的主人公无助、不停地行走，直到精疲力竭。短暂的间歇之后，缇姆又会成为他失控身体的受害者，“他的躯体就像无缘由失控的列车，他的灵魂惊恐的向这车外望着。”

　　Tim is otherwise “horse-healthy” and content, a self-assured workaholic, devoted¹⁸ husband and father to a teenage daughter. But in a flash he is uncontrollably off, leaving his wife to find him passed out in a municipal parking place, a hospital or behind some chemist's shop in the middle of the night. “Was she up for this?” Jane asks herself. These spells last for months at a time, and caring for him is a full-time¹⁹ job. But Jane has no choice: he could die out there. So she reads survivalist manuals, prepares his pack (a first-aid kit²⁰, snacks, GPS, a poncho—to carry at all times), and then waits for the call to pick him up. The only alternative is to tie him to the bed and ignore his screams.

　　缇姆原本是一个健康，满足，自信的人，他醉心于工作，是一个衷心的丈夫，一个十几岁女孩的父亲。但是突然间他无法控制的想要走路，他的妻子三更半夜找到他时他出没在政府的停车场，医院，或者在一些药店的后面。“我要这么做吗？”简问自己。缇姆的病每次发作长达几个月，照顾他成了简的全职工作。但是简没有选择：他这样下去会死的。于是她阅读生存手册，为缇姆准备背包（一套急救装备，零食，全球定位系统，一件斗篷——时刻都带在缇姆身边），然后等电话去接他。除此之外就只能把他绑在床上，任由他叫喊了。

　　Doctors around the world have no idea what the problem is. Tim, alone in his mutinous²¹ body, is left wondering whether the trouble is in his head. Readers wonder about this too. Here Mr Ferris achieves a clever balance: Tim behaves strangely, but isn't that natural for anyone who loses the life he understood? Isn't madness inevitable²² when suffering from something no one can explain? A subplot about a murder trial, which yields a haunting exchange between Tim and a possible suspect on a bridge at night, raises more questions about his mental stability. Yet Jane stops speculating that her husband might be crazy after she goes through the menopause. She could only imagine how infuriating it would be if a doctor insisted her hot flushes were “all in her head”.

　　所有的医生都束手无策。缇姆的灵魂独自留在他失控的身体里，思考着是否他的大脑真的出了问题；读者们也在思考。在这里作者费里斯先生很高明的设置了两个难以抉择的判断：缇姆的行为是怪异的，但当一个人失去了他所能理解的生活时这不又是正常的吗？小说中有一个关于一起谋杀案的审判的次要情节，在审判过程中，缇姆在一个晚上同本案的嫌疑犯在一座桥上进行了一场令他难忘的交易，这也使他的精神状况越发不稳定。而此时简在经过她的更年期后也不再猜测丈夫可能患上了精神病。她能想象的到如果医生坚持说她的潮红症状都是她想出来的那将会是一件多么令人恼怒的事情。

　　Mr Ferris keeps his prose direct and uncluttered, with only occasional flourishes (Tim's feet “were like two engorged and squishy hearts”; a diner's “fluorescent brutality” is “the national colour of insomnia²³ and transience”). His fondness for his characters sometimes veers²⁴ towards the sentimental²⁵. Still, he exercises a mature writer's restraint, content to leave questions unanswered. He also has a fine ear for speech, and a good sense of what feels real, even when chronicling the surreal.

　　费里斯先生的散文依旧简洁明快，偶尔也会迸发出奇特的灵感（缇姆的双脚“就像两颗饱满、湿软的心脏”；一位用餐者的“野蛮行为散发的荧光”是“失眠症和暂时性的名族色彩”）。他热爱自己笔下的人物，但不见得完全受感情的支配，他依旧会运用成熟作家的控制力，遗留一些未给出答案的问题。他还可以清醒地聆听演讲，对真实的事物有着良好的感受力，即使是在将超现实的事情载入编年史的时候。

　　Mr Ferris insists that “The Unnamed” is not a work of magical realism, but of “realist magic”. By inventing an incurable²⁶ disease, he can meditate²⁷ on its impact—on a marriage, on a career, on a character's self-esteem—without dragging in the baggage of a familiar illness. This also amplifies²⁸ the horror, leaving readers just as perplexed²⁹ about what is afflicting³⁰ Tim. Is this a physical or mental problem? Can a line be drawn³¹ between the two? In the last third of the book, Tim gives himself over to his need to walk. Raving³² and deteriorating³³, he lets his legs take him across the country, living a hobo's life without possessions or attachments³⁴ (“To own something was to keep it on his back or risk losing it forever”). Yet Tim's dilemmas³⁵ still feel real and his needs sympathetic. How does he go on? How does anyone?

　　费里斯先生坚持《莫名》并不是一部“魔幻现实主义”的作品，而是一部“现实魔幻小说”。他能够通过创造一种难以治愈的疾病来思考它对于婚姻，事业或者主人公自尊心的影响——而不是通过某种司空见惯的疾病。也正是这样，小说又加深了它带来的恐惧感，使读者对缇姆痛苦的原因困惑不解，到底是生理的还是心理的问题呢？这两者之间能不能画出一条分界线？在小说后三分之一的部分，缇姆放弃了一切去满足自己行走的需要。他任由自己的双腿穿越整个国家，咆哮着，病情不断恶化，他过上了流浪者的生活，没有财产，没有携带任何附属装置（“拥有某物就是一直将他背在背上或者冒着永远失去它的危险”）。但缇姆的困境始终可以被真实的感知，并且他需要人们的同情。他会怎么样？其他人呢？

　　This is a story about a man with a walking problem, but it is also a larger tale about struggling with uncertainty³⁶. Scattered³⁷ throughout the novel are some odd events: blizzards³⁸, floods, fires, dying bees. Mr Ferris is reminding us of how little we know about the world we live in, and how little we know about ourselves within it, and yet we persist. This is not to say that Tim's walking is some clunky metaphor³⁹. Mr Ferris is wise enough not to teach a lesson. Rather, he has teased ordinary circumstances into something extraordinary, which is exactly what we want our fiction writers to do.

　　这是一个关于行走强迫症患者的故事，更是一部描述了于不确定中的挣扎的作品。小说中充斥着古怪的事件：暴风雪、洪水、大火、垂死的蜜蜂。费里斯先生让我们意识到我们对于我们生存之世界及我们自己是多么的不了解，然而我们仍旧存在。这并不是说缇姆的行路癖是一个拙劣的隐喻，菲尔斯先生有足够的智慧使他的作品不流于说教。相反地，他把一些平常的事件夸大并进行了嘲讽，而这也正是我们期待着作家做的。

1 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

3 comely   

adj.漂亮的，合宜的

参考例句：

• His wife is a comely young woman.他的妻子是一个美丽的少妇。
• A nervous,comely-dressed little girl stepped out.一个紧张不安、衣着漂亮的小姑娘站了出来。

4 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

5 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

6 lamenting   

adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Katydids were lamenting fall's approach. 蝈蝈儿正为秋天临近而哀鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Lamenting because the papers hadn't been destroyed and the money kept. 她正在吃后悔药呢，后悔自己没有毁了那张字条，把钱昧下来！ 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡

7 squandered   

v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squandered all his money on gambling. 他把自己所有的钱都糟蹋在赌博上了。
• She felt as indignant as if her own money had been squandered. 她心里十分生气，好像是她自己的钱给浪费掉了似的。 来自飘（部分）

8 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

9 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

10 stylish   

adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的

参考例句：

• He's a stylish dresser.他是个穿着很有格调的人。
• What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.巴黎女性时装往往会引导世界时装潮流。

11 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

12 ambivalence   

n.矛盾心理

参考例句：

• She viewed her daughter's education with ambivalence.她看待女儿的教育问题态度矛盾。
• She felt a certain ambivalence towards him.她对他的态度有些矛盾。

13 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

14 incessantly   

ad.不停地

参考例句：

• The machines roar incessantly during the hours of daylight. 机器在白天隆隆地响个不停。
• It rained incessantly for the whole two weeks. 雨不间断地下了整整两个星期。

15 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

16 reprieve   

n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解

参考例句：

• He was saved from the gallows by a lastminute reprieve.最后一刻的缓刑令把他从绞架上解救了下来。
• The railway line, due for closure, has been granted a six-month reprieve.本应停运的铁路线获准多运行6 个月。

17 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

18 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

19 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

20 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

21 mutinous   

adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变

参考例句：

• The mutinous sailors took control of the ship.反叛的水手们接管了那艘船。
• His own army,stung by defeats,is mutinous.经历失败的痛楚后，他所率军队出现反叛情绪。

22 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

23 insomnia   

n.失眠，失眠症

参考例句：

• Worries and tenseness can lead to insomnia.忧虑和紧张会导致失眠。
• He is suffering from insomnia.他患失眠症。

24 veers   

v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的第三人称单数 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转

参考例句：

• The car veers out of control. 这辆车失去了控制。 来自辞典例句
• His fondness for his characters sometimes veers towards the sentimental. 他对那位主人公的偏爱有时也稍显矫情。 来自互联网

25 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

26 incurable   

adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人

参考例句：

• All three babies were born with an incurable heart condition.三个婴儿都有不可治瘉的先天性心脏病。
• He has an incurable and widespread nepotism.他们有不可救药的，到处蔓延的裙带主义。

27 meditate   

v.想，考虑，（尤指宗教上的）沉思，冥想

参考例句：

• It is important to meditate on the meaning of life.思考人生的意义很重要。
• I was meditating,and reached a higher state of consciousness.我在冥想，并进入了一个更高的意识境界。

28 amplifies   

放大，扩大( amplify的第三人称单数 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• Gain is the number of times the amplifier amplifies a signal. 增益就是放大器放大信号的倍数。
• Such panicky behaviour amplifies the impact of the Russian export ban. 这样的恐慌行为放大了俄罗斯小麦出口禁令的影响效应。

29 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

30 afflicting   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• Violent crime is only one of the maladies afflicting modern society. 暴力犯罪仅仅是困扰现代社会的严重问题之一。
• Violent crime is only one of the maladies afflicting modern society. 暴力犯罪仅仅是危害社会的弊病之一。

31 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

32 raving   

adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地

参考例句：

• The man's a raving lunatic. 那个男子是个语无伦次的疯子。
• When I told her I'd crashed her car, she went stark raving bonkers. 我告诉她我把她的车撞坏了时，她暴跳如雷。

33 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

34 attachments   

n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物

参考例句：

• The vacuum cleaner has four different attachments. 吸尘器有四个不同的附件。
• It's an electric drill with a range of different attachments. 这是一个带有各种配件的电钻。

35 dilemmas   

n.左右为难( dilemma的名词复数 )；窘境，困境

参考例句：

• They dealt with their dilemmas by mixing perhaps unintentionally an explosive brew. 他们――也许是无意地――把爆炸性的佐料混合在一起，以此来应付困难处境。 来自辞典例句
• Ten years later we encountered the same dilemmas in Vietnam. 十年后，我们又在越南遇到了同样进退两难的局面。 来自辞典例句

36 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

37 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

38 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

39 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。