10.The Sad Young Men
Rod W. Horton and Herbert W. Edwards
1 No aspect of life in the Twenties has been more commented upon and sensationally romanticized than the so-called Revolt of the Younger Generation. The slightest mention of the decade brings nostalgic recollections to the middle-aged and curious questionings by the young: memories of the deliciously illicit thrill of the first visit to a speakeasy, of the brave denunciation of Puritan morality, and of the fashionable experimentations in amour in the parked sedan on a country road; questions about the naughty, jazzy parties, the flask-toting "sheik," and the moral and stylistic vagaries of the "flapper" and the "drug-store cowboy." "Were young people really so wild?" present-day students ask their parents and teachers. "Was there really a Younger Generation problem?" The answers to such inquiries must of necessity be "yes" and "no"--"Yes" because the business of growing up is always accompanied by a Younger Generation Problem; "no" because what seemed so wild, irresponsible, and immoral in social behavior at the time can now be seen in perspective as being something considerably less sensational than the degenerauon of our jazzmad youth.
2 Actually, the revolt of the young people was a logical outcome of conditions in the age: First of all, it must be remembered that the rebellion was not confined to the Unit- ed States, but affected the entire Western world as a result of the aftermath of the first serious war in a century. Second, in the United States it was reluctantly realized by some- subconsciously if not openly -- that our country was no longer isolated in either politics or tradition and that we had reached an international stature that would forever prevent us from retreating behind the artificial walls of a provincial morality or the geographical protection of our two bordering oceans.
3 The rejection of Victorian gentility was, in any case, inevitable. The booming of American industry, with its gigantic, roaring factories, its corporate impersonality, and its largescale aggressiveness, no longer left any room for the code of polite behavior and well-bred morality fashioned in a quieter and less competitive age. War or no war, as the generations passed, it became increasingly difficult for our young people to accept standards of behavior that bore no relationship to the bustling business medium in which they were expected to battle for success. The war acted merely as a catalytic agent in this breakdown of the Victorian social structure, and by precipitating our young people into a pattern of mass murder it released their inhibited violent energies which, after the shooting was over, were turned in both Europe and America to the destruction of an obsolescent nineteenth-century society.
4 Thus in a changing world youth was faced with the challenge of bringing our mores up to date. But at the same time it was tempted, in America at least, to escape its responsibilities and retreat behind an air of naughty alcoholic sophistication and a pose of Bohemian immorality. The faddishness , the wild spending of money on transitory pleasures and momentary novelties , the hectic air of gaiety, the experimentation in sensation -- sex, drugs, alcohol, perversions -- were all part of the pattern of escape, an escape made possible by a general prosperity and a post-war fatigue with politics, economic restrictions, and international responsibilities. Prohibition afforded the young the additional opportunity of making their pleasures illicit , and the much-publicized orgies and defiant manifestoes of the intellectuals crowding into Greenwich Village gave them a pattern and a philosophic defense for their escapism. And like most escapist sprees, this one lasted until the money ran out, until the crash of the world economic structure at the end of the decade called the party to a halt and forced the revelers to sober up and face the problems of the new age.
5 The rebellion started with World War I. The prolonged stalemate of 1915 -- 1916, the increasing insolence of Germany toward the United States, and our official reluctance to declare our status as a belligerent were intolerable to many of our idealistic citizens, and with typical American adventurousness enhanced somewhat by the strenuous jingoism of Theodore Roosevelt, our young men began to enlist under foreign flags. In the words of Joe Williams, in John Dos Passos' U. S. A., they "wanted to get into the fun before the whole thing turned belly up." For military service, in 1916-- 1917, was still a romantic occupation. The young men of college age in 1917 knew nothing of modern warfare. The strife of 1861 --1865 had popularly become, in motion picture and story, a magnolia-scented soap opera, while the one hundred-days' fracas with Spain in 1898 had dissolved into a one-sided victory at Manila and a cinematic charge up San Juan Hill. Furthermore, there were enough high school assembly orators proclaiming the character-forming force of the strenuous life to convince more than enough otherwise sensible boys that service in the European conflict would be of great personal value, in addition to being idealistic and exciting. Accordingly, they began to join the various armies in increasing numbers, the "intellectuals" in the ambulance corps, others in the infantry, merchant marine, or wherever else they could find a place. Those who were reluctant to serve in a foreign army talked excitedly about Preparedness, occasionally considered joining the National Guard, and rushed to enlist when we finally did enter the conflict. So tremendous was the storming of recruitment centers that harassed sergeants actually pleaded with volunteers to "go home and wait for the draft," but since no self-respecting person wanted to suffer the disgrace of being drafted, the enlistment craze continued unabated.
6 Naturally, the spirit of carnival and the enthusiasm for high military adventure were soon dissipated once the eager young men had received a good taste of twentieth- century warfare. To their lasting glory, they fought with distinction, but it was a much altered group of soldiers who returned from the battlefields in 1919. Especially was this true of the college contingent, whose idealism had led them to enlist early and who had generally seen a considerable amount of action. To them, it was bitter to return to a home town virtually untouched by the conflict, where citizens still talked with the naive Fourth-of-duly bombast they themselves had been guilty of two or three years earlier. It was even more bitter to find that their old jobs had been taken by the stay-at-homes, that business was suffering a recession that prevented the opening up of new jobs, and that veterans were considered problem children and less desirable than non-veterans for whatever business opportunities that did exist. Their very homes were often uncomfortable to them; they had outgrown town and families and had developed a sudden bewildering world-weariness which neither they nor their relatives could understand. Their energies had been whipped up and their naivete destroyed by the war and now, in sleepy Gopher Prairies all over the country, they were being asked to curb those energies and resume the pose of self-deceiving Victorian innocence that they now felt to be as outmoded as the notion that their fighting had "made the world safe for democracy." And, as if home town conditions were not enough, the returning veteran also had to face the sodden, Napoleonic cynicism of Versailles, the hypocritical do-goodism of Prohibition, and the smug patriotism of the war profiteers. Something in the tension-ridden youth of America had to "give" and, after a short period of bitter resentment, it "gave" in the form of a complete overthrow of genteel standards of behavior.
7 Greenwich Village set the pattern. Since the Seven-ties a dwelling place for artists and writers who settled there because living was cheap, the village had long enjoyed a dubious reputation for Bohemianism and eccentricity. It had also harbored enough major writers, especially in the decade before World War I, to support its claim to being the intellectual center of the nation. After the war, it was only natural that hopeful young writers, their minds and pens inflamed against war, Babbittry, and "Puritanical" gentility , ,should flock to the traditional artistic center (where living was still cheap in 1919) to pour out their new-found creative strength, to tear down the old world, to flout the morality of their grandfathers, and to give all to art, love, and sensation.
8 Soon they found their imitators among the non-intellectuals. As it became more and more fashionable throughout the country for young persons to defy the law and the conventions and to add their own little matchsticks to the conflagration of "flaming youth", it was Greenwich Village that fanned the flames. "Bohemian" living became a fad. Each town had its "fast" set which prided itself on its unconventionality , although in reality this self-conscious unconventionality was rapidly becoming a standard feature of the country club class -- and its less affluent imitators --throughout the nation. Before long the movement had be-come officially recognized by the pulpit (which denounced it), by the movies and magazines (which made it attractively naughty while pretending to denounce it), and by advertising (which obliquely encouraged it by 'selling everything from cigarettes to automobiles with the implied promise that their owners would be rendered sexually irresistible). Younger brothers and sisters of the war generation, who had been playing with marbles and dolls during the battles of Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry, and who had suffered no real disillusionment or sense of loss, now began to imitate the manners of their elders and play with the toys of vulgar rebellion. Their parents were shocked, but before long they found themselves and their friends adopting the new gaiety. By the middle of the decade, the "wild party" had become as commonplace a factor in American life as the flapper, the Model T, or the Dutch Colonial home in Floral Heights.
9 Meanwhile, the true intellectuals were far from flattered. What they had wanted was an America more sensitive to art and culture, less avid for material gain, and less susceptible to standardization. Instead, their ideas had been generally, ignored, , while their behavior had contributed to that standardization by furnishing a pattern of Bohemianism that had become as conventionalized as a Rotary luncheon. As a result, their dissatisfaction with their native country, already acute upon their return from the war, now became even more intolerable. Flaming diatribes poured from their pens denouncing the materialism and what they considered to be the cultural boobery of our society. An important book rather grandiosely entitled Civilization in the United States, w, ritt, en by, "th, irty intellectuals" under the editorship of J. Harold Stearns, was the rallying point of sensitive persons disgusted with America. The burden of the volume was that the best minds in the country were being ignored, that art was unappreciated, and that big business had corrupted everything. Journalism was a mere adjunct to moneymaking, politics were corrupt and filled with incompetents and crooks, and American family life so devoted to making money and keeping up with the Joneses that it had become joyless, patterned, hypocritical, and sexually inadequate. These defects would disappear if only creative art were allowed to show the way to better things, but since the country was blind and deaf to everything save the glint and ring of the dollar, there was little remedy for the sensitive mind but to emigrate to Europe where "they do things better." By the time Civilization in the United States was published (1921), most of its contributors had taken their own advice and were Wing abroad, and many more of the artistic and would-be artistic had followed suit.
10 It was in their defiant, but generally short-lived, European expatriation that our leading writers of the Twenties learned to think of themselves, in the words of Gertrude Stein, as the "lost generation". In no sense a movement in itself, the "lost generation" attitude nevertheless acted as a common denominator of the writing of the times. The war and the cynical power politics of Versailles had convinced these young men and women that spirituality was dead; they felt as stunned as John Andrews, the defeated aesthete In Dos Passos' Three Soldiers, as rootless as Hemingway's wandering alcoholics in The Sun Also Rises. Besides Stein, Dos Passos, and Hemingway, there were Lewis Mumford, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, Matthew Josephson, d. Harold Stearns, T. S. Eliot, E. E. Cumminss, Malcolm Cowley, and many other novelists, dramatists, poets, and critics who tried to find their souls in the Antibes and on the Left Bank, who directed sad and bitter blasts at their native land and who, almost to a man, drifted back within a few years out of sheer homesickness, to take up residence on coastal islands and in New England farmhouses and to produce works ripened by the tempering of an older, more sophisticated society.
11 For actually the "lost generation" was never lost. It was shocked, uprooted for a time, bitter, critical, rebellious, iconoclastic, experimental, often absurd, more often misdirected- but never "lost." A decade that produced, in addition to the writers listed above, such fisures as Eugene O'Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, F. Scott Fitzserald, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, Stephen Vincent Benét, Hart Crane, Thomas Wolfe, and innumerableothers could never be written off as sterile ,even by itself in a moment of self-pity. The intellectuals of the Twenties, the "sad young men," as F. Scot Fitzserald called them, cursed their luck but didn't die; escaped but voluntarily returned; flayed the Babbitts but loved their country, and in so doing gave the nation the Iiveliest, freshest, most stimulating writing in its literary experience.
(from Rhetoric and Literature by P. Joseph Canavan)
第十课悲哀的青年一代
罗德w霍顿，赫伯特w爱德华兹
二十年代社会生活的各个方面中，被人们评论得最多、渲染得最厉害的，莫过于青年一代的叛逆之行了。只要有只言片语提到那个时期，就会勾起中年人怀旧的回忆和青年人好奇的提问。中年人会回忆起第一次光顾非法酒店时的那种既高兴又不安的违法犯罪的刺激感，回忆起对清教徒式的道德规范的勇猛抨击，回忆起停在乡间小路上的小轿车里颠鸾倒凤的时髦爱情试验方式；青年人则会问起有关那时的一些纵情狂欢的爵士舞会，问起那成天背着酒葫芦、勾引得女人团团转的"美男子"，问起那些"时髦少女"和"闲荡牛仔"的奇装异服和古怪行为等等的情况。"那时的青年果真这样狂放不羁吗?"今天的青年学生们不禁好奇地向他们的师长问起这样的问题。"那时真的有过青年一代的问题吗?"对这类问题的回答必然只能是既"对"又"不对"--说"对，，是因为人的成长过程中一贯就存在着所谓青年一代的问题；说"不对"是因为在当时的社会看来似乎是那么狂野。那么不负责任，那么不讲道德的行为，若是用今天的正确眼光去看的话，却远远没有今天的一些迷恋爵士乐的狂荡青年的堕落行为那么耸人听闻。
实际上，青年一代的叛逆行为是当时的时代条件的必然结果。首先，值得记住的是，这种叛逆行为并不局限于美国，而是作为百年之中第一次惨烈的战争的后遗症影响到整个西方世界。其次，在美国，有一些人已经很不情愿地认识到--如果不是明明白白地认识到，至少是下意识地认识到--无论在政治方面还是在传统方面，我们的国家已不再是与世隔绝的了；我们所取得的国际地位使我们永远也不能再退缩到狭隘道德规范的人造围墙之后，或是躲在相邻的两大洋的地理保护之中了。
在当时的美国，摒弃维多利亚式的温文尔雅无论如何都已经是无可避免的了。美国工业的飞速发展及其所带来的庞大的、机器轰鸣的工厂的出现，社会化大生产的非人格性，以及争强好胜意识的空前高涨，使得在较为平静而少竞争的年代里所形成的温文尔雅的礼貌行为和谦谦忍让的道德风范完全没有半点栖身之地。不论是否发生战争，随着时代的变化．要我们的年轻一代接受与他们必须在其中拼搏求胜的这个喧嚣的商业化社会格格不入的行为准则已经变得越来越难了。战争只不过起了一种催化剂的作用，加速了维多利亚式社会结构的崩溃。战争把年轻一代一下子推向一种大规模的屠杀战场，从而使他们体内潜藏的压抑已久的狂暴力量得以释放出来，待到战争一结束，这些被释放出来的狂暴力量便在欧洲和美国掉转矛头，去摧毁那日渐衰朽的十九世纪的社会了。
这样一来，在一个千变万化的世界中，青年一代便面临着使我们的道德习惯与时代合拍这一挑战。而与此同时，青年人。--至少美国的青年人--又表现出这样一种倾向：他们试图逃避自己的责任。沉溺于一种老于世故、以酒自娱的生活作风之中，装出一副波希米亚式的放荡不羁的样子。追求时尚，为了短暂的快乐和一时的新奇而大肆挥霍，纵情地狂欢，寻求各种各样的感官刺激--性行为，吸毒，酗酒以及各种各样的堕落行为--这些都是他们逃避责任的表现形式，是一种由社会的普遍繁荣及战后人们对于政治、经济限制和国际义务所产生的厌烦情绪所造成的逃避方式。禁酒法令使青年人有了更多的机会寻求违禁取乐的刺激。文人墨客纷纷涌人格林威治村，他们那些被大肆渲染的放纵行为和挑战性言论也为青年人的逃避主义提供了一种表现形式和一套哲学辩护辞。这种逃避主义者的纵情狂欢，像大多数逃避主义者的纵情狂欢一样，一直要持续到狂欢者囊空如洗为止。到二十年代末世界经济结构总崩溃之时，这种狂欢宴会便告停歇，那些寻欢作乐者也只得从酣醉中清醒过来，去面对新时代的各种难题了。
青年人的叛逆行为是随着第一次世界大战而开始的。1915-1916年间那旷日持久的僵持局面。德国对美国所表现出的越来越傲慢无礼的态度，以及我国政府迟迟不愿宣布参战的作法，都使我们理想主义的公民觉得无法忍受。我们的青年，本身已怀着典型的美国式冒险精神，又多少受到西奥多·罗斯福的狂热沙文主义思想的怂恿，于是便开始在外国旗帜下入伍参战。用约翰·多斯·帕索斯的《美利坚合众国》中的人物乔·威廉斯的话说，他们"是想趁着战争还没结束就参加到这场游戏中去"。因为在1916-1917年间，入伍当兵还是一种富于浪漫色彩的职业。在1917年正处于上大学年龄的年轻人对于现代战争还一无所知。1861-1865年间的那场战争早已通俗地在电影和小说中成了一部散发出木兰花香的连续剧。而1898年同西班牙之间的百日战争在影剧故事中总是被描写成美军在马尼拉大获全胜或是冲上圣胡安山顶的电影镜头式场面。此外，更有许多演说家们在中学生集会上大肆渲染战场上的紧张生活在培养性格方面的力量，使得那些本来还算有头脑的年轻小伙子们都信以为真，以为到欧洲战场上去服役不仅是一件令人兴奋的理想化的美事，而且具有巨大的人生价值。因此，越来越多的年轻人便开始加入各兵种，"知识分子型的人"加入救护兵团．其余的人则分别加入步兵部队、商船队．或到其他任何有其用武之地的单位去服役。那些不愿到外国军队里去服役的人则慷慨陈辞，表示自己随时"待命出征"；间或也有考虑参加国民自卫队的，待到我国最终决定参战时．他们便踊跃地报名参军。各征兵站的报名者都是人如潮涌，弄得主管征兵事务的军曹们焦头烂额，实在无法应付，以至于恳求志愿报名者"且先归家，静待征召"．然而，有自尊心的人谁也不愿蒙受"被征召入伍"的耻辱，因此，青年人的参军热潮持久不衰。
一旦这些满腔热血的年轻人饱尝了二十世纪战争的滋味以后，那种纵情狂欢的兴致和要从事轰轰烈烈的军事冒险的热情自然很快就烟消云散了。他们可以永远感到光荣，因为他们在战场上表现得很出色，但是1919年从战场上回来的却是一批已经发生了很大变化的士兵。大学兵团的士兵们更是如此。他们在理想主义的感召下很早就到军中服役，可渭是屡经沙场。对他们来说，回到几乎没有受到战争的任何影响的故乡是一件痛苦的事，因为在那里，人们仍在像庆祝独立日时那样天真地大唱爱国的高调，而这是他们自己两三年前也曾犯过的错误。更令他们痛苦的是，他们发现自己原来的工作已被留在家里的人夺占了。而当时又正值经济萧条时期，新的工作无法找到，现有的工作机会本就为数不多，而且人们又宁愿聘用非退伍军人，而把退伍军人看作难对付的孩子，不愿聘用。就连他们自己的家对他们来说也常常是不舒服的；他们再也不能适应家乡和家庭了，并且萌生出一种突如其来的、迷惘的厌世之感。这种感觉不论是他们自己还是他们的亲友都不能理解。战争激起了他们的劲头，打掉了他们的天真幼稚。而现在，在遍布全国的沉睡的、落后的地方，到处都要求他们抑制他们的劲头，并恢复那种自欺欺人的、维多利亚式的天真无邪的态度。但是他们现在觉得这种态度同那种说什么他们的战斗已"使民主在这个世界有了保障"的论调一样，都是陈旧过时的。再者，似乎家乡的情况还不够受的，退伍军人还得面对凡尔赛和约那种愚蠢的、拿破仑式的犬儒主义、禁酒法令那种虚伪的行善主义，以及那些发了战争财的人们的洋洋自得的爱国主义。那些气鼓鼓的美国青年的不满迟早要爆发出来。在经过一段短暂的强烈的怨忿之后，它终于以一种彻底推翻温文尔雅的行为规范的形式而爆发出来了。
格林威治村为他们树立了榜样。自七十年代因其生活消费低廉而成为艺术家和作家聚居地以来，格林威治村在很长时间里一直享有波希米亚式生活和怪僻行为的说不清是好还是坏的名声。过去，尤其是在第一次世界大战之前的十年中，这地方还曾栖居过许多大作家，因而使它成了名副其实的全美国文人雅士中心。战后，那些脑子里和笔杆子里都充满着对战争、市侩气和"清教徒式的"道德修养的仇恨的怒火的年轻有为的作家们便自然而然地云集到这个传统的艺术中心(那儿的生活消费在1919年仍很低廉)，去倾泻他们那新近获得的创造力，去摧毁旧世界，嘲弄前辈们所信守的道德规范，把自己的一切献给艺术、爱情和感官享受。
很快，知识分子阶层以外的人便也开始仿效他们了。在全国各地，青年人蔑视法律和一切传统习惯，为"燃烧着的青年"的大火添柴加油越来越成为时髦之举，而煽起这场大火的正是格林威治村。"波希米亚"生活方式已成为人们追求的时尚，每个城镇都有一群"生活放荡者"，他们为自己的反传统行为感到自豪。可实际上，这种有意识的反传统行为正迅速在全国范围内成为乡村俱乐部的富人们以及一些不那么富有的效仿者所共有的一个基本特征。没过多久，这场运动便得到了教会、电影杂志以及广告商们的正式承认：教会方面是通过谴责的方式对它予以承认；电影杂志则是一方面假意对它进行谴责，一方面又将它描写得放荡胡闹而又引人人胜；广告商们更是间接地对这场运动起了推波助澜的作用，因为他们不论是推销香烟还是推销汽车一类的商品时都在暗示说，这种商品将使买主具有不可抗拒的性感。在贝洛森林战役和蒂耶里堡战役正在进行之时，参战青年的小弟弟小妹妹们还在家里玩着弹子游戏和洋娃娃，他们并没有体验到真正的幻想破灭或失落感，可现在竞也学起兄长们的样子，玩起群众性的反传统游戏来了。他们的父母先是大吃一惊，继而便发现自己以及自己的朋友们也都正在接受这种时兴的快乐的生活方式了。及至二十年代中期，这种"放荡的狂欢会"便像摩登少女、T型汽车或弗拉洛花园的荷兰式房屋一样，成为美国生活中司空见惯的事物了。
其时，真正的知识分子对此现象远远谈不上满意。他们原本所希望的是使美国成为一个对艺术和文化更为敏感，对物质利益不那么贪求，对标准化观念不那么轻易接受的国家。然而，他们的这种思想完全没有受到人们注意，而他们的行为却由于提供了一种已变得如同"扶轮国际午餐会"一样常规化的"波希米亚式"的生活模式，反倒助长了这种标准化观念。结果，他们从战场上归来时本已十分强烈地对自己国家不满的情绪，现在就变得更加忍无可忍了。于是，他们的笔尖下便喷射出愤怒的火花，猛烈抨击着美国社会中的唯物质主义以及他们所称的文化市侩习气。由"三十位知识分子"合撰、哈罗德·斯特恩斯编辑出版的一部颇为庄重地题名为《美国的文明》的重要著作，汇集的便是一些憎恶美国的敏感人士的抨击性言论。这部著作的中心主题是：在美国，杰出人才得不到重视，艺术事业无人理解，大企业腐蚀败坏了整个社会。新闻事业沦为发财赚钱的工具，政治腐败，官场上充斥着庸才和骗子，而美国人的家庭生活也由于人们一心想着挣钱和与邻里斗富而变得索然无味，刻板单调，充满虚情假意。夫妻生活也缺乏鱼水之乐。本来只需让创造性艺术来指明通向美好生活的道路·以上这些缺憾就会自动消失的。可是，美国举国上下除了亮晶晶响当当的美金之外，对其他的一切都视而不见．充耳不闻。因此，对那些敏感的才俊之士来说，唯一的出路便只有移居欧洲，"那儿的情形要好一些"。《美国的文明》正式出版(1921)之时该书的撰稿人大多数已经接受自己的忠告寄居在国外了，还有许多别的艺术家和预备艺术家也纷纷步其后尘。
正是在他们那抗争性的，而总的说来又是短暂的侨居欧洲期间，二十年代我国的那些主要作家开始认识到自己一一用格特鲁德．斯坦的话说一一就是所谓"迷惘的一代"。"迷惘的一代"本身虽不是一场什么文学运动，但那些"迷惘的一代"的作家的态度却是那个时代文学作品的共同特征。战争以及凡尔赛和约所表现出的犬儒主义的强权政治使这些青年男女们确信·精神世界已经不复存在了。他们就像多斯·帕索斯的《三个士兵》中的那个受挫的唯美主义者约翰·安德鲁斯一样感到茫然不知所措，又像海明威《太阳照样升起》中的流浪醉汉一样感到漂泊无依。除斯坦、多斯．帕索斯和海明威外，还有刘易斯·芒福德、埃兹拉·庞德、舍伍德．安德森、马修·约瑟夫森、J哈罗德斯特恩斯、TS'艾略特、E．E．卡明斯、马尔科姆考利，以及其他许多小说家、戏剧家、诗人和评论家，都曾在法国的昂蒂布和塞纳河左岸地区探索过自己的灵魂，都怀着满腔孤愤对自己的祖国进行过猛烈辛辣的抨击·而目．在几年之后，纯粹出于思乡情切，几乎无一例外地又都漂洋过海，回到祖国，定居于沿海小岛上和新英格兰地区的农庄上，来创作他们由于在一个更古老、更复杂的社会里经受磨炼而变得成熟了的作品。
实际上，所谓"迷惘的一代"根本不曾迷惘过。在一段时间里，他们曾有过惊愕、孤独无依的感觉，因而变得痛苦、尖刻，以致于反社会、反权威、好标新立异，其行为往往有些荒唐，更常常近于胡闹--但却从来"迷恫过"除上述那些作家外二十年代还产生出了诸如尤金·奥尼尔、埃德娜·St．文森特。米莱、F．司各特．菲沃杰拉德、威廉福克纳、辛苑莱刘易斯、斯蒂分'文森特·贝尼特、哈特·克莱恩、托马斯·沃尔夫等以及一大批其他人才。因此，即便这十年充满怨艾自怜之声，也绝不能将其看作是荒芜的年代而一笔抹煞。二十年代的知识分子，也就是F司各特菲茨杰拉德所称的"悲哀的青年一代"，诅咒过自己的命运，但并没有消亡；他们曾试图逃避现实，但又自动回到现实中来；他们痛责美国社会的市侩，但对自己的祖国却又充满热爱。正是在这样的过程中，他们创作出了美国文学史上最富有生气、最令人耳目一新、最激动人心的文学作品。
(选自《英国人》)
词汇(Vocabulary)
nostalgic (adj.) : looking for something far away or long ago or for former happy circumstance怀旧的
illicit (adj.) : not allowed by law，custom，rule，etc．：unlawful；prohibited违法的，违禁的，非法的
thrill (n.) : tremor of excitement(一阵)激动
speakeasy (n.) : [slang]a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally，esp. such a place in the U．S．during Prohibition[俚](美国禁酒期的)非法的酒店
denunciation (n.) : the act of denouncing控告；指责，斥责
amour (n.) : a love affair，esp. of an illicit or secret nature 恋情；(尤指)不正当的男女关系
sedan (n.) : an enclosed automobile with two or four doors．and two wide seats．front and rear(两扇或四扇门、双排座的)轿车
naughty (adj.) : improper，obscene不得体的；猥亵的
jazzy (adj.) : (a party)playing jazz music(舞会)放爵士音乐的
flask-toting (adj.) :always carrying a small flask filled with whisky or other strong liquor身带烈性酒的
sheik (n.) : (Americanism)a masterful man to whom women are supposed to be irresistably attracted[美国语](能使女子倾心的)美男子
vagary (n.) : an odd，eccentric，or unexpected action or bit of conduct古怪行径；难以预测的行为
flapper (n.) : [colloq．](in the 1920's)a young woman considered bold and unconventional in actions and dress [口](在20世纪20年代被认为)举止与衣着不受传统拘束的年轻女子，轻佻女郎
perspective (n.) : a specific point of view in understanding or judging things or events，esp. one that shows them in their true relations to one another正确理解或判断事物相互关系的能力
jazzmad (adj.) : blindly and foolishly fond of jazz music爵士乐狂
aftermath (n.) : a result or consequence，esp. an unpleasant one结果，后果(尤指令人不愉快的后果)
provincial (adj.) : narrow，limited like that of rural provinces狭窄的；偏狭的；地方性的
gentility (n.) : he quality of being genteel；now，specifically，excessive or affected refinement and elegance有教养，斯文，温文尔雅；(现尤指)假装文雅，假装斯文
aggressiveness (n.) : bold and energetic pursuit of one's end，enterprise有进取心，进取精神
bustle (v.) : hurry busily or with much fuss and bother繁忙，奔忙
medium (n.) : environment环境
catalytic (adj.) : acting as the stimulus in bringing about or hastening a result起催化作用的；起刺激作用的
precipitate (v.) : throw headlong；cause to happen before expected，needed；bring on猛抛，猛投；突然发生；促使
obsolescent (adj.) : in the process of becoming obsolete即将过时的；逐渐被废弃的
mores (n.) : customs，esp. the fixed or traditional customs of a society，often acquiring the force of law习俗
sophistication (n.) : the state of being artificial，worldly-wise，urbane，etc．老于世故
faddishness (n.) : the following of fads赶时髦，赶时尚
hectic (adj.) : characterized by excitement，rush，confusion，etc．兴奋的；忙乱的；混乱的
gaiety (n.) : cheerfulness；the state of being gay高兴，快乐
perversion (n.) : a perverting or being perverted；corruption走入邪路；堕落；败坏
Prohibition (n.) : the forbidding by law of the manufacture，transportation，and sale of alcoholic liquors for beverage purposes；specifically in the U．S．，the period(1920-1933)of prohibition by Federal law(特指美国20~30年代的)禁酒法令
orgy (n.) : any wild riotous licentious merry-making；debauchery纵酒饮乐；狂欢
spree (n.) : a lively，noisy frolic狂欢，纵乐
reveler (n.) : a person who makes merry or is noisily festive狂欢者，狂宴者
sober (v.) : make or become serious，solemn变清醒；变严肃
prolong (v.) : lengthen or extend in time or space延长；拖长；使持久
stalemate (n.) : any unresolved situation in which further action is impossible or useless；deadlock僵持；困境
insolence (n.) : being boldly disrespectful in speech-or behavior；impudence(言行)无礼，鲁莽；傲慢
belligerent (adj.) : at war；of war处于交战状态的；战争的
adventurousness (n.) : being fond of adventure；willingness to take chances喜欢冒险；大胆
strenuous (adj.) : vigorous，arduous, zealous，etc．奋发的；使劲的
jingoism (n.) : chauvinism characterized by an aggressive。threatening，warlike foreign policy侵略主义，沙文主义
fracas (n.) : a noisy fight 0r loud quarrel；brawl大声吵架；打闹
infantry (n.) : foot soldiers collectively；esp. that branch of an army consisting of soldiers trained and equipped to fight chiefly on foot步兵；(尤指)步兵部队
harass (v.) : trouble，worry．or torment，as with cares, debts，repeated questions，etc．使烦恼(或困忧)，折磨
sergeant (n.) : noncommissioned officer of the fifth grade．ranking above a corporal and below a staff sergeant in the U．S．Army and Marine Corps；generally. any of the noncommissioned officers in the U．S．armed forces with sergeant as part of the title of their rank中士；军士
draft (n.) : the choosing or taking of an individual or individuals from a group for some special purpose，esp. for compulsory military service征兵：挑选
carnival (n.) : a reveling or time of revelry；festivity； merrymaking狂欢，尽情作乐
contingent (n.) : a share, proportion，or quota，as of troops．ships。laborers，delegates，etc．小分队，分遣部队
bombast (n.) : talk or writing that sounds grand or important but has little meaning；pompous language词藻华丽而空洞无物的淡话(或文章)；夸大的语言
recession (n.) : a temporary falling off()f business activity during a period when such activity has been generally increasing商业暂时衰退现象；萧条
whip up : rouse，excite激起
outmoded (adj.) : no longer in fashion or accepted；obsoletc 旧式的；过时的；废弃了的
sodden (adj.) : dull or stupefied，as from overindulgence in liquor(因沉迷于酒而变得)迟钝的，麻木的
dubious (adj.) : rousing suspicion；feeling doubt；skeptical引起怀疑的；感到怀疑的；怀疑的
flout (n.) : be scornful；show contempt；jeer；scoff轻蔑，藐视；嘲弄；侮辱
conflagration (n.) : a big, destructive fire(毁灭性的)大火．大火灾
fast (adj.) : living in a reckless, wild, dissipated way放汤的，放纵的
pulpit (n.) : preachers collectively教士们
vulgar (adj.) : common to the great mass of people in general：common；popular普通的，一般的；流行的
avid (adj.) : having an intense desire or craving；greedy渴望的，热望的；贪婪的
susceptible (adj.) : easily affected emotionally；having a sensitive nature of feelings易被感动的；易受影响的；敏感的
diatribe (n.) : a bitter，abusive criticism or denunciation 谩骂；讽刺；诽谤
grandiose (adj.) :having grandeur or magnificence imposing;impressive雄伟的;壮观的;庄严的;给人深刻印象的
ally (v.) :come bark to normal strength；revive恢复；复元
burden (n.) : central idea；theme主题；重点，要点
adjunct (n.) :a thing added to something else; a person connected with another as a helper or subordinate associate附属物，附加物；帮手，助手
incompetent (n.) :a person who is completely incapable无能力者，不能胜任者
expatriate (v.) : withdraw (oneself) from one's nativeland or from allegiance to it(使自己)移居国外，放弃原国籍
denominator (n.) :a shared characteristic共同特性，共性
iconoclastic (adj.) :opposing to the religious use of images or advocating the destruction of such images反对崇拜偶像的
sterile (adj.) : barren；unfruitful贫瘠的，不长庄稼的；无成效的
flay (v.) :criticize or scold mercilessly严厉斥责；怒骂
短语 (Expressions)
drugstore cowboy : a young man who hangs around drugstores and other public places trying to impress women在杂货店和其他公共场所徘徊试图打动女人的年轻男人
例： You don't see the old drugstore cowboys around this part of town anymore．在这个镇的这片地方你再也看不到以往那些杂货店牛仔了。
see sth.in perspective : view or judge things in a way that show their true relations to one another以联系的观点正确地看待或判断事物
例： We should see these events in perspective．我们应该注意这些事件间的本质联系以正确评价它们。
precipitate sb.／sth:into sth． : thrust violently into(a condition)使突然陷入某种状态
例： precipitate the country into war使国家突然陷人战争
sober up : tfree from drunkenness；become not drunk变清醒
例： Put him t0 bed until he sobers up．送他上床等他清醒过来。
whip up : rouse；excite煽动，激起
例： whip up the mob煽动暴民／whip up enthusiasm激起热情
keep up with the Joneses : compete with one's neighbors．etc．(in the purchase 0f articles，e．g．clothes，a car，indicating social status)和琼斯一家人比(在购买物品如衣物、汽车等方面与邻人等相比以示社会地位)，与他人攀比
FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: cornflowerblue" color=white> common denominator : a commonly shared theme or trait共同点，共同特色
例： All these accidents have a comnlon denominator that they are related with drunk driving．所有这些事故的共同点是它们都与酒后驾车有关。
write off : drop from consideration看不起，认为无价值
例： We'Ve written the project ofr as a nonstarter．我们认为这个项目毫无成功的希望，已经对它不予以考虑了。 |