2019年经济学人 记录别人的生活(3)（在线收听）

That interrogatory bent is, he thinks, why he enjoys another, contrasting genre, which he has honed alongside the social realism: fantasy. That is also a means to ask “fascinating questions about the world”, he says. “The Fades”, a supernatural drama broadcast in 2011, which followed two nerdy teenagers battling the evil spirits of the dead, was really about pacifism, Mr Thorne suggests. A few years ago he adapted Dickens’s moralistic ghost story “A Christmas Carol” for the stage.

他认为，这种质疑的倾向是他喜欢另一种与社会现实主义形成鲜明对比的流派的原因，这种流派是他与社会现实主义一起磨练出来的：幻想。他说，这也是提出“关于世界的迷人问题”的一种方式。索恩认为，2011年播出的超自然剧《灵界》实际上是关于和平主义的。该剧讲述了两个书呆子少年与亡灵搏斗的故事。数年前，他把狄更斯的道德鬼故事《圣诞颂歌》搬上了舞台。

He also wrote the script for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, based on an original tale by J.K. Rowling. The play won more Olivier awards (Britain’s most prestigious theatrical gongs) than any previous West End production. He wanted it to capture the predicament of outsiders; it follows Albus Severus Potter, Harry’s son, as he is bullied at Hogwarts and struggles to live up to his father’s legacy. And he has adapted Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” for a forthcoming serialisation. Lyra, the protagonist, struggles to assert her free will in the face of unpleasant parents, while trying to set the world to rights.

他还为《哈利波特与被诅咒的孩子》写了剧本，改编自J.K.罗琳的原著。该剧获得的奥利维尔奖(英国最负盛名的戏剧奖项)比伦敦西区以往任何一部作品都要多。他希望它能捕捉到局外人的困境；故事围绕着哈利的儿子阿不思·西弗勒斯·波特展开，他在霍格沃茨饱受欺凌，努力不辜负父亲的遗愿。他还改编了菲利普·普尔曼的《黑暗物质》，将于近期连载。主人公莱拉在面对令人不快的父母时，努力维护自己的自由意志，同时努力让世界恢复正常。

Harry Potter and the state of the nation Perhaps inevitably, details from Mr Thorne’s own life have found their way into his locations, scenes and characters. For “the end of history...”, his most personal piece of writing to date, he mined his childhood in a politically active household where—like some of his creations—he felt he was constantly falling short of his parents’ ideals and expectations. His father, a union representative, took him and his siblings to rallies and protests from an early age; Mr Thorne has been a member of the Labour Party since he was 16.

《哈利·波特与国家的现状》也许不可避免地会从索恩先生自己生活的细节中找到他的拍摄地点、场景和人物。代表“历史的终结……，这是他迄今为止最具个人色彩的一篇文章。他在一个政治活跃的家庭中挖掘了自己的童年，在那里，像他的一些创作一样，他觉得自己总是达不到父母的理想和期望。他的父亲是一名工会代表，从小就带着他和兄弟姐妹参加集会和抗议；索恩先生从16岁起就是工党成员。

“My politics are very important to me,” he acknowledges. He resists the seepage of those views into his work, but all the same they “infect the stories I tell”. He dislikes speechifying, but says that, as he writes, he constantly questions “what right we have to try and change the world and how we can, if indeed we can”. A motto is tattooed on the inside of his wrist: “Be good”.

“我的政治观点对我来说非常重要，”他承认。他拒绝将这些观点渗透到他的作品中，但作品同样“感染了我讲述的故事”。他不喜欢高谈阔论，但他说，正如他所写的，他经常质疑“我们有什么权利去尝试改变世界，如果我们真的能做到，我们又该如何去做”。他手腕内侧纹着一句格言:“做个好人”。