14.Loving and Hating New York
Thomas Griffith
1 Those ad campaigns celebrating the Big Apple, those T-shirts with a heart design proclaiming “I love New York,” are signs, pathetic in their desperation, of how the mighty has fallen. New York City used to leave the bragging to others, for bragging was “bush” Being unique, the biggest and the best, New York didn’t have to assert how special it was.
2 It isn’t the top anymore, at least if the top is measured by who begets the styles and sets the trends. Nowadays New York is out of phase with American taste as often as it is out of step with American politics. Once it was the nation’s undisputed fashion authority, but it too long resisted the incoming casual style and lost its monopoly. No longer so looked up to or copied, New York even prides itself on being a holdout from prevailing American trends, a place to escape Common Denominator Land.
3 Its deficiencies as a pacesetter are more and more evident. A dozen other cities have buildings more inspired architecturally than any built in New York City in the past twenty years. The giant Manhattan television studios where Toscanini’s NBC Symphony once played now sit empty most of the time, while sitcoms cloned and canned in Hollywood, and the Johnny Carson show live, preempt the airways from California. Tin Pan Alley has moved to Nashville and Hollywood. Vegas casinos routinely pay heavy sums to singers and entertainers whom no nightspot in Manhattan can afford to hire. In sports, the bigger superdomes, the more exciting teams, the most enthusiastic fans, are often found elsewhere.
4 New York was never a good convention city – being regarded as unfriendly, unsafe, overcrowded, and expensive – but it is making something of a comeback as a tourist attraction. Even so, most Americans would probably rate New Orleans, San Francisco, Washington, or Disneyland higher. A dozen other cities, including my hometown of Seattle, are widely considered better cities to live in.
5 Why, then, do many Europeans call New York their favorite city? They take more readily than do most Americans to its cosmopolitan complexities, its surviving, aloof, European standards, its alien mixtures. Perhaps some of these Europeans are reassured by the sight, on the twin fashion avenues of Madison and Fifth, of all those familiar international names – the jewelers, shoe stores, and designer shops that exist to flatter and bilk the frivolous rich. But no; what most excites Europeans is the city’s charged , nervous atmosphere, its vulgar dynamism .
6 New York is about energy, contention, and striving. And since it contains its share of articulate losers, it is also about mockery, the put-down , the loser’s shrug (“whaddya gonna do?”). It is about constant battles for subway seats, for a cabdriver’s or a clerk’s or a waiter’s attention, for a foothold , a chance, a better address, a larger billing. To win in New York is to be uneasy; to lose is to live in jostling proximity to the frustrated majority.
7 New York was never Mecca to me. And though I have lived there more than half my life, you won’t find me wearing an “I Love New York” T-shirt. But all in all, I can’, t think of many places in the world I’d rather li, ve. It’, s not easy to define why.
8 Nature’s pleasures are much qualified in N, ew York, . You never see a star-filled sky; the city’s bright glow arrogantly obscures the heavens. Sunsets can be spectacular: oranges and reds tinting the sky over the Jersey meadows and gaudily reflected in a thousand windows on Manhattan’s jagged skyline. Nature constantly yields to man in New York: witness those fragile sidewalk trees gamely struggling against encroaching cement and petrol fumes. Central Park, which Frederick Law Olmsted designed as lungs for the city’s poor, is in places grassless and filled with trash, no longer pristine yet lively with the noise and vivacity of people, largely youths, blacks, and Puerto Ricans, enjoying themselves. On park benches sit older people, mostly white, looking displaced. It has become less a tranquil park than an untidy carnival.
9 Not the glamour of the city, which never beckoned to me from a distance, but its opportunity – to practice the kind of journalism I wanted – drew me to New York. I wasn’t even sure how I’d measure up against others who had been more soundly educated at Ivy League schools, or whether I could compete against that tough local breed, those intellectual sons of immigrants, so highly motivated and single-minded, such as Alfred Kazin, who for diversion (for heaven’t sake!) played Bach’s Unaccompanied Partitas on the violin.
10 A testing of oneself, a fear of giving in to the most banal and marketable of one’s talents, still draws many of the young to New York. That and, as always, the company of others fleeing something constricting where they came from. Together these young share a freedom, a community of inexpensive amusements, a casual living, and some rough times. It can’t be the living conditions that appeal, for only fond memory will forgive the inconvenience, risk, and squalor. Commercial Broadway may be inaccessible to them, but there is off- Broadway, and then off-off-Broadway. If painters disdain Madison Avenue’s plush art galleries, Madison Avenue dealers set up shop in the grubby precincts of Soho. But the purity of a bohemian dedication can be exaggerated. The artistic young inhabit the same Greenwich Village and its fringes in which the experimentalists in the arts lived during the Depression, united by a world against them. But the present generation is enough of a subculture to be a source of profitable boutiques and coffeehouses. And it is not all that estranged.
11 Manhattan is an island cut off in most respects from mainland America, but in two areas it remains dominant. It is the banking and the communications headquarters for America. In both these roles it ratifies more than it creates. Wall Street will advance the millions to make a Hollywood movie only if convinced that a bestselling title or a star name will ensure its success. The networks’ news centers are here, and the largest book publishers, and the biggest magazines – and therefore the largest body of critics to appraise the films, the plays, the music, the books that others have created. New York is a judging town, and often invokes standards that the rest of the country deplores or ignores. A market for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.
12 The ad agencies are all here too, testing the markets and devising the catchy jingles that will move millions from McDonald’s to Burger king, so that the ad agency’s “creative director” can lunch instead in Manhattan’s expense-account French restaurants. The bankers and the admen. The marketing specialists and a thousand well-paid ancillary service people, really set the city’s brittle tone— catering to a wide American public whose numbers must be respected but whose tastes do not have to shared. The condescending view from the fiftieth floor of the city’s crowds below cuts these people off from humanity. So does an attitude which sees the public only in terms of large, malleable numbers— as impersonally as does the clattering subway turnstile beneath the office towers.
13 I am surprised by the lack of cynicism, particularly among the younger ones, of those who work in such fields. The television generation grew up in the insistent presence of hype, delights in much of it, and has no scruples about practicing it. Men and woman do their jobs professionally, and, like the pilots who from great heights bombed Hanoi, seem unmarked by it. They lead their real lives elsewhere, in the Village bars they are indistinguishable in dress or behavior from would-be artists, actors, and writers. The boundaries of “art for art’s sake” aren’t so rigid anymore; art itself is less sharply defined, and those whose paintings don’t sell do illustrations; those who can’ get acting jobs do commercials; those who are writing ambitious novels sustain themselves on the magazines. Besides, serious art often feeds in the popular these days, changing it with fond irony.
14 In time the newcomers find or from their won worlds; Manhatten is many such words, huddled together but rarely interaction. I think this is what gives the city its sense of freedom. There are enough like you, whatever you are. And it isn’t as necessary to know anything about an apartment neighbor- or to worry about his judgment of you- as it is about someone with an adjoining yard. In New York, like seeks like, and by economy of effort excludes the rest as stranger. This distancing, this uncaring in ordinary encounters, has another side: in no other American city can the lonely be as lonely.
15 So much more needs to be said. New Your is a wounded city, declining in its amenities . Overloaded by its tax burdens. But it is not dying city; the streets are safer than they were five years age; Broadway, which seemed to be succumbing to the tawdriness of its environment, is astir again.
16 The trash-strewn streets, the unruly schools, the uneasy feeling or menace, the noise, the brusqueness- all confirm outsiders in their conviction that they wouldn’t live here if you gave them the place. Yet show a New Yorker a splendid home in Dallas, or a swimming pool and cabana in Beverly Hills, and he will be admiring but not envious. So much of well-to-do America now lives antiseptically in enclaves, tranquil and luxurious, that shut out the world. Too static, the New Yorker would say. Tell him about the vigor of your outdoor pleasures; he prefers the unhealthy hassle and the vitality of urban life. He is hopelessly provincial. To him New York- despite its faults, which her will impatiently concede (“so what else is new?”) — is the spoiler of all other American cities.
17 It is possible in twenty other American cities to visit first-rate art museums, to hear good music and see lively experimental theater, to meet intelligent and sophisticated people who know how to live, dine, and talk well; and to enjoy all this in congenial and spacious surroundings. The New Yorkers still wouldn’t want to live there.
18 What he would find missing is what many outsiders find oppressive and distasteful about New York – its rawness, tension, urgency; its bracing competitiveness; the rigor of its judgments; and the congested, democratic presence of so many other New Yorkers, encased in their own worlds, the defeated are not hidden away somewhere else on the wrong side of town. In the subways, in the buses, in the streets, it is impossible to avoid people whose lives are harder than yours. With the desperate, the ill, the fatigued, the overwhelmed, one learns not to strike up conversation (which isn’t wanted ) but to make brief, sympathetic eye contact, to include them in the human race. It isn’t much, but it is the fleeting hospitality of New Yorkers, each jealous of his privacy in the crowd. Ever helpfulness is often delivered as a taunt: a man, rushing the traffic light, shouts the man behind him. “ You want to be wearing a Buick with Jersey plates?” — great scorn in the word Jersey, home of drivers who don’t belong here.
19 By Adolf Hitler’s definition, New York is mongrel city. It is in fact the first truly international metropolis. No other great city- not London, Paris, Rome or Tokyo- plays host (or hostage) to so many nationalities. The mix is much wider- Asians, Africans, Latins - that when that tumultuous variety of European crowded ashore at Ellis Island. The newcomers are never fully absorbed, but are added precariously to the undigested many.
20 New York is too big to be dominated by any group, by Wasps or Jews or blacks, or by Catholics of many origins — Irish, Italian, Hispanic. All have their little sovereignties, all are sizable enough to be reckoned with and tough in asserting their claims, but none is powerful enough to subdue the others. Characteristically, the city swallows up the United Nations and refuses to take it seriously, regarding it as an unworkable mixture of the idealistic, the impractical, and the hypocritical. But New Yorkers themselves are in training in how to live together in a diversity of races- the necessary initiation into the future.
21 The diversity gives endless color to the city, so that walking in it is constant education in sights and smells. There is wonderful variety of places to eat or shop, and though the most successful of such places are likely to touristy hybrid compromises, they too have genuine roots. Other American cities have ethnic turfs jealously defended, but not, I think, such an admixture of groups, thrown together in such jarring juxtapositions . In the same way, avenues of high-rise luxury in New York are never far from poverty and mean streets. The sadness and fortitude of New York must be celebrated, along with its treasures of art and music. The combination is unstable; it produces friction, or an uneasy forbearance that sometimes becomes a real toleration.
22 Loving and hating New York becomes a matter of alternating moods, often in the same day. The place constantly exasperates , at times exhilarates . To me it is the city of unavoidable experience. Living there, one has the reassurance of steadily confronting life.
第十四课亦爱亦恨话纽约
托马斯格里非斯
那些赞美"大苹果"的广告活动，还有那些印着带有"我爱纽约"字样的心形图案的T恤衫，只不过是它们在绝望中发出悲哀的迹象，只不过是纽约这个非凡的城市日趋衰落的象征。纽约过去从不自我炫耀，而只让别的城市去这样做，因为自我炫耀显得"小家子气"。纽约既然是独一无二的、最大的而且是最好的城市，也就没有必要宣称自己是如何与众不同了。
然而，今日的纽约再不是头号城市了。至少，在开创时尚、领导潮流方面，纽约是再也配不_卜这个称号了。今日的纽约非但常常跟不上美国政治前进的步伐，而且往往也合不上美国人生活情趣变化的节拍。过去有一个时期，它曾是全国流行服装款式方面无可争议的权威，但由于长期抵制越来越流行的休闲服装款式而丧失了，其垄断地位。纽约已不再是众望所归、纷起仿效的对象了，如今它甚至以成为风行美国的时装潮流的抵制者，以成为摆脱全国清一色的单调局面的一隅逃遁之地而自鸣得意。
纽约无力保持排头兵的地位这一点已是越来越明显了。有十多座其他城市都已经有了一些在建筑艺术上很富有创造性的建筑物，而纽约最近二十年来所造的任何一幢建筑物都不能与之相比。曾是托斯卡尼尼全国广播公司交响乐团演出场所的巨人般的曼哈顿电视演播厅，现在经常是空无一人，而好莱坞大量生产出的情景喜剧和约翰尼·卡森节目的实况转播却占满了加利福尼亚的广播电视发送频道。美国流行歌曲创作发行中心从纽约的廷潘胡同转移到了纳什维尔和好莱坞。拉斯韦加斯的赌场经常出高薪聘请曼哈顿没有哪一家夜总会请得起的歌手和艺员。而体育运动方面，那些规模较大的体育馆、比较激动人心的球队以及热情最高的球迷们，往往都出现在纽约以外的地方。
纽约从来都不是召集会议的好场所--因为那儿少友情．不安全，人口拥挤，消费高昂--但现在它似乎正在一定程度上争回其作为旅游胜地的地位。即便如此，大多数美国人对新奥尔良、旧金山、华盛顿或迪斯尼乐园等地的评价可能还是高于纽约。人们普遍认为，还有十几座其他城市，包括我的家乡西雅图，都比纽约更适于居住。
那么，为什么有许多欧洲人称纽约是他们最喜爱的城市呢?他们比大多数美国人更欣赏纽约这个国际大都市的五彩缤纷的生活，它那残存的、独此一家的欧洲社会准则以及它那众多外来民族混杂而居的社会。这些欧洲人中有些人也许是因为在麦迪逊大街和第五大街这两条双胞胎似的繁华大街上看到那些熟悉的国际名牌商号--那些专为迎合并蒙骗那些轻浮浅薄的有钱人而存在的珠宝店、鞋店和服装设计店…而感到心头踏实。然而事实并非如此，最令欧洲人激动不已的是这个城市的那种精神饱满的紧张气氛和它那种野性的活力。
纽约充满着活力、竞争和奋斗。同时，由于存在着一批能说会道的失意者，它也充满着嘲笑、轻侮和失意者的心灰意冷("你说该咋办?")。它充满着无休无止的斗争一一为了地铁上的座位，为了引起一个的士司机、一个办事员或一个侍者的注意，为了有一个立足之地，为了一次成功的机会。为了一个较好的居住地方，为了让自己名字出现在一张大一点的海报上。在纽约，一个人若成功了，他会感到惶惶不安；如果失败了，他就得和那灰心丧气的大多数人一起苦熬岁月。
纽约从来都不是我心目中的麦加圣地。尽管我在那儿生活了大半辈子，你却休想看到我穿上一件印着"我爱纽约"的文化衫。但总的说来，我倒还想不出这世界上有多少个地方我更愿意去居住。至于为什么，就很难说得清。
在纽约所能欣赏到的自然美景非常有限。你从来看不到一片繁星点点的夜空，城里的万家灯火交相辉映使得天空黯然失色。唯有日落时分的景色尚可谓壮观：泽西市草地上的天空染上了一块块深浅不一的橙红色，在曼哈顿那些高高矮矮、大大小小的建筑物上的万千扇玻璃窗的反射下，更显得绚丽多彩。大自然对纽约人总是低头服输。只须看看人行道上那些脆弱的树木迎着四面进逼的水泥路面和阵阵袭来的石油烟气拚命挣扎的样子，就足以说明问题了。由弗雷德里克·劳·奥姆斯特德设计的纽约中央公园本应是城市贫民休养身体、呼吸新鲜空气的场所，但如今园内有些地方已寸草不生，垃圾遍地，无复当年的清新质朴之气，然而依旧人声嘈杂，生意盎然，许多人一一多数为年轻人、黑人和波多黎各人，仍在其间自得其乐。公园中的长条椅上则坐着一些上了年纪的人，其中以白人居多，看样子都是一些流离失所的人。这里已经不是什么静造的公园了，倒更像是一个乱哄哄的狂欢场所。
吸引着我来到纽约的不是这个城市的魅力--它从没有在远方向我遥遥招手呼唤，而是它给我提供了一个从事我梦寐以求的新闻事业的机会。我当时甚至拿不准自己的能力如何能比得上那些在东北部一些名牌大学受过更好教育的人，又怎能竞争得过纽约那些意志坚强的本地人，那些才华横溢的移民子弟．他们是那样的目标明确，用心专一，比如那个艾尔弗雷德·卡津，他作为业余消遣(真是不可思议j)竞能用小提琴演奏巴赫的无伴奏组曲。
今天仍有许多青年被吸引到纽约来，因为他们想考验一下自己，怕让自己的才能沦为极其平庸而易于上市的商品。除此之外，还有另外一些为逃避家乡某种束缚的年轻同伴，也总是被吸引到纽约来。这些青年们在一起共享自由，同处于一个消费低廉的娱乐区，一起过着自由自在的生活，也共同度过了一些艰难时刻。吸引他们的不可能是纽约的生活条件，因为只有不合实际的乐观回忆才会忘记他们在那儿的生活中所遇到的不便、危险和贫困。商业性的百老汇剧院可能不会向他们开门，但还有那些外百老汇剧院和外外百老汇剧院。倘若画家们对麦迪逊大街上那些奢侈豪华的画廊不屑一顾，那些画廊老板们便会在索荷区陋巷之内开设小分店。可是·也许是波希米亚式艺术献身的纯洁性被人渲染过甚，这些年轻艺术家们也住进了格林威治村及其外围地区。那是大萧条时期由于面对一个敌对的世界而团结在一起的一批艺术实验主义者住过的地方。但今天的这一代青年艺术家已经形成了一个显著的亚文化群，以至于他们成了一些精品时装和咖啡馆的赚钱对象。他们已不再是那么与世隔绝了。
曼哈顿是一个在许多方面与美国大陆隔绝的孤岛，但在两个领域内它仍处于支配地位。它是美国金融和通讯的中枢。在这两个方面，它所起的审批作用大于其创造作用。华尔街只有在确信某种畅销书或是某位影星的大名准保一部影片的成功时才会为制作一部好莱坞影片投放百万巨资。美国广播电视网的新闻中心、最大的图书出版商和最大的期刊杂志都在这里，因而最庞大的一支评论家队伍也在这里，他们可以对别人创作出的电影、戏剧、音乐、图书和其他作品评头论足。纽约是一个裁判城市，经常炮制出一些全国其他地方的人不是为之感到遗憾就是完全不予理睬的规范标准。在纽约这地方真正的知识学问没有市场，狡黠伶俐却颇有市场。
商业广告公司也全集中在这里。这些广告公司窥测着市场动向，挖空心思地炮制出一些琅琅上口、易于记诵的广告词，把千千万万的顾客从"麦克唐纳"拉到"伯格·金"，因而广告公司的"创作主任"便可以坐在曼哈顿那些记帐报销的高级法国餐馆里吃午餐了。实际上，就是那些银行家、广告商、市场营销专家以及那数以千计的为他们工作的高薪雇员们为纽约这个城市定下了尖锐生硬的调子--对广大的美国公众要投其所好，对他们人数的多寡必须予以重视，但对他们的兴趣爱好却不必加以认同。从摩天大楼的五十层楼上屈尊俯就地光顾楼下的芸芸众生。这些富人们就会感觉到他们与这些芸芸众生仿佛不是同类；还有他们那种就像他们的办公高楼下面地铁入口处卡嗒作响的转门一样，丝毫不带任何感情地视广大人民群众如一大堆可以任意排列组合的数字的态度，也同样使他们产生不属于人类的感觉。
我对这些行业的从业人员，尤其是其中较为年轻的一些人那种缺乏愤世嫉俗情绪的态度感到惊讶。电视的一代是在强烈的广告刺激的环境中成长起来的一代。他们也很欣赏这种广告刺激，并且毫不犹豫地去亲身实践。许多男男女女都以职业性的态度对待自己的工作，就像那些从高空向河内投掷炸弹的飞行员一样，对于其工作本身的意义似乎毫不在意。他们真正的生活寄托在别的地方。在格林威治村的酒吧间里，他们的衣着打扮、言谈举止都与那些预备艺术家、演员和作家毫无二致。"为艺术而艺术"的界限已不再那么难以突破了，艺术本身的定义也不像以前那样明晰了。艺术家的画作卖不出去便转而画插图；演员找不到拍戏的机会就去拍广告；作家在创作鸿篇巨著的同时还得为通俗杂志撰文以维持生计。此外，这些年来严肃艺术往往要靠通俗艺术来提供养料，这倒使通俗艺术发生了一些可喜的讽刺性变化。
那些初来纽约的人早晚有一天会找到或形成他们自己的小圈子。曼哈顿有许多这类小圈子，密密麻麻地挤在一起，但彼此之间却极少往来。我想正是这种情况给纽约一种自由感。不管你属于哪类人，与你同样的人都多的是。对于同住一座公寓的邻居，你不必去了解他的任何情况，也不必在意他对你的看法如何，只有住在乡下的屋院相连的邻居才有此必要。在纽约，人以群分，人们对于自己圈子以外的人一律视同路人，以免浪费精力。人们在日常交往中的这种保持距离、冷漠无情的态度还有一种影响：那些有孤独感的人在纽约比在其他任何美国城市都更觉孤独。
要说的情况还有很多。总之，纽约是一个受了创伤的城市，它重税压身，不堪负担，好景不再，江河日下。但纽约并不是一个就要死的城市；与五年前相比较，如今纽约的街道更安全了，曾一度似乎是在繁华旖旎的环境包围之下一蹶不振的百老汇大街如今又呈现出勃勃的生机。
街道上布满垃圾，学校里毫无秩序，市民们个个惶惶不安，到处噪声不绝于耳，人人讲话粗声大气--这一切都会使局外人更加坚定决心：就算把纽约送给他们，他们也不愿意在这里居住。然而，你如果让一个纽约人去看达拉斯市的一所富丽堂皇的住宅，或是贝弗利希尔斯市的一个带小屋的游泳池，他一定会表示赞赏，但却不会眼红。现在有许多美国有钱人在安静、豪华、与世隔绝的小天地里过着世外桃源式的生活。纽约人会说，这太沉闷了。可是，你如果对他讲起户外游山玩水的劲头，他又会说他更欣赏都市生活那种虽有害于健康但却热热闹闹的活泼气氛。他有着无可改变的乡土观念。对他来说，纽约--就算连他自己也无可奈何地承认有一些缺点("还有什么新的吗?")--使他对所有其他美国城市都不屑一顾。
人们有可能在二十个其他的美国城市里参观到第一流的艺术博物馆，听到美妙的音乐，看到生动活泼的实验戏剧，遇到懂得怎样生活、吃饭和谈话，而且是在舒适宽敞的环境中去享受这一切聪明而又世故的人物。然而，纽约人还是不愿意居住在那里。 他所恋恋不舍的正是纽约的那些在许多外地人看来难以忍受、令人讨厌的地方…它的粗俗、紧张、急迫感，它那剑拔弩张的竞争，它那严厉苛刻的评判，以及那么多封闭在各自的小圈子里、不分尊卑贵贱地挤作一团的纽约人。那些在竞争中吃了败仗的人并非躲在城里某个看不见的地方。在地铁里，在公共汽车上，在大街上，到处都会不可避免地遇见一些生活过得比你艰难的人。对于那些悲观绝望、疾病缠身、精疲力竭、不知所措的人，最好不要与之交谈(他们并不希望交谈)．只需用同情的目光稍稍接触一下，表示把他们视同人类就行了。这虽没什么了不起，但对于最忌在大庭广众之中暴露隐私的纽约人来说，这就是他们那种一闪即逝的友好表示。即使是一种帮助，纽约人往往也要用嘲骂来表示：一个人闯红灯，冲到一辆开过来的汽车前，他身后的那个人便会大声喊叫："当心点，老弟，你难道想让一辆带着泽西牌照的汽车撞倒吗?"--"泽西"一词具有很强的讽刺意味，指的是所有的外地司机的家乡。
按照阿道夫希特勒的定义，纽约是一个杂种城市。事实上，它是第一个真正的国际大都市。没有别的大城市--无论是伦敦、巴黎、罗马还是东京--能接纳(或是收容)这么多的民族。现在比当时各种各样的欧洲人吵吵嚷嚷登上埃利斯岛的时候更为混杂一一又有了亚洲人、非洲人和拉丁系人。新来者永远不会被完全同化。只是不稳定地加入到未被消化的多数中去。
纽约太大了，无法为任何一个集团所控制，不论是盎格鲁撤克逊新教的白人还是犹太人、黑人或来源不同的天主教徒--爱尔兰人、意大利人、西班牙血统的人。所有这些集团都有他们小小的天地，人数相当多，不容忽视；在维护他们的要求方面都很坚韧，但没有一个强大到足以制服其他集团。这个城市很典型地把联合国加以吞没，不把它当一回事，把它看作一个空想、不切实际、虚伪、无法运转的混合体。但是纽约人却在训练自己如何在一个多民族的社会里共同生活--这是迈向未来必要的开端。
多样化使这个城市色彩无穷。漫步此城，可以不断受到情景与风味方面的教育。有众多的各有特色的地方可以去吃饭或购买物品。虽然其中最成功的似乎是那些为招引游客而把各种：民族特色混在一起的地方，但是他们也都有真正的根基。在其他的美国城市，不同的民族各有自己的地盘，并小心翼翼地加以保护，但是我认为那里没有这种不和谐地把不同的集团搁在一起的大杂烩。f司样地，在纽约拥有多层高楼的豪华大街与它近邻的穷街陋巷相映成趣。对纽约的忧伤和刚毅要与其艺术和音乐的财富一起加以赞美。这种结合是不稳定的，它产生摩擦或是一种不稳定的克制。这种克制有时变成一种真正的容忍。
对纽约的爱与恨成了一个不断交替变化着的情绪问题。这种情绪的变化常常发生在同一天。这个地方经常使人恼怒，有时也让人振奋。对我来说，这是一个取得不可或缺的经验的城市。住在这儿，人们可以放心，一定能持续地面向生活。
(选自《大西洋》，1978年9月)
词汇(Vocabulary)
bush (adj.) : rustic，countrified，belonging to small towns粗俗的；乡土气的；乡下的
beget (v.) : bring into being；produce使产生，引起，招致
holdout (n.) : [Americanism]a place that holds out [美语]坚固据点
deficiency (n.) : the quality or state of being deficient; absence of something essential；a shortage缺乏，缺少，欠缺；缺陷，不足之处
pacesetter (n.) : a person that leads the way or serves as a model标兵
sitcom (n.) : [口]situation comedy的缩略
clone (v.) : derive all the descendants asexually from a single individual无性繁殖
preempt (v.) : radio and TV]replace(a regularly scheduled program)[广播、电视]先占，先取得
casino (n.) : a public room or building for entertainments．dancing，or，now specifically，gambling俱乐部，娱乐场；(现尤指)赌场
nightspot (n.) : nightclub夜总会
bilk (v.) : cheat or swindle；defraud欺骗，蒙骗
dynamism (n.) : the quality of being energetic，vigorous，etc．推动力；活力，精力，劲头
put-down (n.) : [American slang]a belittling remark or crushing retort[美俚]贬低的话；反驳；无礼的回答
foothold (n.) : a secure position from which it is difficult to be dislodged立足点，据点
jostle (v.) : bump or push，as in a crowd；elbow or shove roughly(在人群中)拥挤；用肘推；撞
proximity (n.) : the state or quality of being near；nearness in space，time，etc．最近；接近；(地方，时间等)最接近
obscure (v.) : darken；make dim使黑暗；使朦胧
tint (v.) : give a color or a shading of a color to着上(淡)色
gaudy (adj.) : bright and showy, but lacking in good taste；cheaply brilliant and ornate华丽而俗气的，炫丽的
jagged (adj.) : having sharp projecting points锯齿状的；(外形)参差不齐的
skyline (n.) : an outline，as of a city，seen against the sky (城市等)以天空为背景映出的轮廓
gamely (adv.) : pluckily；courageously勇敢地，不屈不挠地
encroach (adj.) : trespass or intrude (on or upon the rights．property，etc．，of another)，esp. in a gradual or sneaking way侵占，占用(别人的时间)；侵犯(别人的权力、财产等)
pristine (adj.) : still pure or untouched；uncorrupted; unspoiled质朴的；纯洁的；未受腐蚀的
vivacity (n.) : the quality or state 0f being vivacious；liveliness to pint；animation快活；活泼；充满生命力；有生气
carnival(n.) : a reveling or time of revelry；festivity；merrymaking狂欢，欢宴，尽情作乐
glamour (n.) : seemingly misterious and elusive fascination or allure，as o{some person，0bject，etc．；bewitching charm; the current sense(人的)魅力；(物、景色的)吸引力，迷惑力
beckon (v.) : call or summon by a silent gesture(以招手、点头等)表不召唤或招呼
breed (n.) : kind；sort；type种类，类别，类型
banal (adj.) : dull or stale as because of overuse；trite：hackneyed；commonplace陈腐的；平庸的；平凡的；老一套的
squalor (n.) : the quality or condition of being squalid；filth and wretchedness肮脏；悲惨，不幸
inaccessible (adj.) : impossible to reach or enter诀不到的；进不去的
plush (adj.) : [American slang]luxurious，as in furnishings [美俚]豪华的
grubby (adj.) : messy；untidy脏的；凌乱的
precincts (n.) : environs neighborhood范围；界线
fringe (n.) : an outer edge；border；margin外围，边缘；边界
subculture (n.) : the distinct cultural patterns of a group(within a society)of persons of the same age，social or economic, status. ethnic background，etc．亚文化群
boutique (n.) : a small shop，or a small department in a store，where fashionable，usually expensive，clothes and other articles are sold时装精品店(或百货公司中的时装精品部)
estrange (n.) : turn(a person)from an affectionate or friendly attitude to an indifferent，unfriendly，or hostile one. alienate the affections of使疏远；使失和
ratify (v.) : pprove or confirm，esp.，give official sanction to批准；认可
deplore (v.) : be regretful or sorry about；lament懊悔；遗憾；痛惜
catchy (adj.) : easily caught up and remembered醒目的；引人注意的
jingle (n.) : a verse that jingles；jingling arrangement of words or syllables具有简单韵律的诗句；合于简单韵律的排列
admen (n.) : [Americanism]a person whose work or business is advertising[美]广告员
ancillary (adj.) : that serves as an aid；helping；auxiliary作为助手的；辅助的
brittle (adj.) : having a sharp，hard quality(声音)尖利的，刺耳的
condescending (adj.) : showing condescension，esp.，patronizing表示屈尊的；(尤指)以恩人自居的，屈尊俯就的
malleable (adj.) : capable of being changed，molded，trained，etc．；adaptable柔顺的；易适应的；可训练的
turnstile (n.) : a similar apparatus，often coin-operated used at entrances to admit persons one at a time and to count those passing through(使人逐个通过的)旋转(式)栅门
hype (n.) : cheating，esp. the extravagant promotional advertising欺骗；骗局(尤指大肆宣传，大做广告)
scruple (n.) : a feeling of hesitancy，doubt，or uneasiness arising from difficulty in deciding what is right，proper，ethical．etc．：qualm or misgiving about something one thinks is wrong踌躇；顾忌，犹豫
adjoining (adj.) : touching at some point or along a line；contiguous隔壁的：毗连的；毗邻的
amenity (n.) : an attractive or desirable feature,as of a place, climate,ere.(地方,气候等的)舒适,宜人;温柔
succumb (v.) : give way；yield；submit屈服，屈从
tawdry (adj.) : cheap and showy；gaudy；sleezy俗气的；俗丽的；花哨而庸俗的
astir (adj.) : in motion; in excited activity动起来的；轰赳采的；有活动力的
strew (v.) : scatter，partly cover撒，撒布
brusque (adj.) : rough and abrupt in manlier or speech．curt(态度、语言上)粗暴的，鲁莽的；唐突的
cabana (n.) : a small shelter used as a bath house on the beach, etc,；a cabin(海滩等地的)简易浴室(或更衣处)；小屋；棚屋
antiseptic (adj.) : untouched by life，its problems，emotions，etc．冷静的；超然的；客观的
enclave (n.) :a minority culture group living as an entity within a larger group在大文化团体中的一少数派集团
hassle (n.) : [Americanism]a state of commotion or confusion；turmoil[美]混乱
congenial (adj.) : suited to one's needs or disposition；agreeable适合的；惬意的；令人愉快的
bracing (adj.) : invigorating；stimulating；refreshing令人鼓舞的；令人振奋的；激励的
rigor (n.) : harshness or severity严厉
taunt (n.) : a scornful or jeering remark; gibe嘲笑，嘲弄，嘲骂
mongrel (n.) : [a derogatory term] mixed breed，race．origin or character[贬]杂种；混交种
metropolis (n.) : any large city or center of population：culture，etc．大城市，大都会
tumultuous (adj.) : full of or characterized by tumult：wild and noisy；uproarious；riotous喧闹的，喧嚣的；吵闹的
hybrid (adj.) : (of animal，plant，etc．)from parents of different species or varieties混合的；杂种的(动植物等)
turf (n.) : [slang]a neighbour hood area regarded by a street gang as its own territory to be defended against other gangs[俚](街头流氓集团的)地盘；势力范围
admixture (n.) : a mixture混合(状态)
jar (n.) : clash，disagree，or quarrel sharply抵触；冲突；不调和，不和谐；争吵
juxtaposition (n.) : putting side by side or close together并列，并置
fortitude (n.) : the strength to bear misfortune，pain，etc．，calmly and patiently firm courage坚韧不拔，刚毅
forbearance (n.) : ．the quality of being forbearing；self control；patient restraint容忍，忍耐
exhilarate (v.) : fill with high spirits鼓舞；使兴奋
短语 (Expressions)
out of phase : out of harmony相异的，不协调的
例： The driver f10und that the windshield wipers were out of phase．司机发现挡风玻璃上的刮水器动作不协调。
measure up : be good enough t0 do a particular job or to reach a par-ticular standard合格，符合标准
例： How will the manager measure up to his new responsibilicy?经理怎样才能达到他新职责的标准呢?
play host(to) : provide the place，food etc．for a special meeting or event招待，接待
例： Beijing will play host to the Olympics in 2008．北京将在 2008年主办奥运会。
|