[原创] 自由人的领地，勇敢者的家园？（翻译稿）

李苗

LETTER FROM AMERICA BY SHASHI THAROOR
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave?


"WARNING NOTICE?" A friend asked the other day, not long after New York City announced its smoking ban. We were walking past the Joseph Papp Public Theater when she spotted the sign near the ticket window, cautioning playgoers that the performance they were about to see involved (gasp!) explicit live cigarette smoking onstage.
I don't know how many fans of the theater were put off by the prospect of secondhand smoke wafting down from the boards. But since most New Yorkers couldn't afford seats close enough to be affected (the price of Broadway tickets these days is a scandal in itself), we realized the notice served another purpose altogether. The theater was simply making sure it was legally protected in case some tourist in the front row took offense--and sued.
Farfetched? A couple of weeks later an indignant letter writer to The New York Times asked why the actors actually needed to smoke. If the scene called for smoking, she fulminated, couldn't they just hold unlit cigarettes and pretend? Fair enough, I suppose. After all, when a script calls for a fatality, no one actually obliges an actor to die. Yet something worries me here. The issue isn't just to smoke or not to smoke. It's the whiff of the puritanical, or worse. Run-amok public morality, coupled with the fear of litigation, is turning America into a nanny state. And this nanny is Nurse Ratchet.
In the land where Thomas Jefferson proclaimed the best government to be one that governs the least, we now see the most persnickety intrusions into daily life. You can't smoke in public places, including bars and restaurants. You can't use a cell phone in your car, though that's about the most useful place in the world to have one. ("Hell-oo? How the heck do I get to your place? Your directions are hopeless!"). Laws of all sorts prohibit all kinds of behavior at the workplace, from casual touching to off-color jokes.
Home is no haven, either. It is illegal in several cities to be in a state of undress if a peeping Tom across the way claims he glimpsed you. Neighbors are now legally entitled to report "inappropriate" noises coming from your apartment. The city of San Francisco encourages hairdressers to report domestic violence if they find suspicious bumps or scratches on their clients' heads. Public schools have even legislated anti-bullying ordinances governing all sorts of commonplace juvenile behavior--name-calling, teasing and even "shunning," or avoiding kids you don't like.   What's next--dirty looks?
Such rules, however unenforceable have the effect of inhibiting normal human contact In Nurse Ratchet's nanny state, teachers are terrified of hugging children for fear of being fired. (The state of Michigan bars teachers from touching a child for any reason.) The descendants of Buffalo Bill and Wyatt Earp now ban seesaws, lest their kiddies hurt themselves. For seven years now, New Yorkers getting into taxis have listened to maddeningly grating recorded voices instructing them to fasten their seat belts and "get a receipt from the driver." The tone is guaranteed to irritate.  Here, at least, a backlash has set in. Spurning the blandishments of such luminaries as Placido Domingo and Joan Rivers--as if anyone would listen to her--67 percent of New Yorkers refuse to "buckle up", according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Showing rare common sense, the city has thus decided to phase out the announcements. No longer will the hurried businessman leaping into a cab be harried by the canned voice of Michael Buffer screaming "Let's get ready to rrrummmble!"


沙希·塔鲁尔从美国发来的函件
自由人的领地，勇敢者的家园？
"警告标志？"一位朋友有一天问道，当时纽约宣布禁烟不久。我们走过约瑟夫·巴泊公共剧院，这时她在售票窗口发现了一个标志，提醒看戏的人，他们即将观看的节目在舞台上含有（喘气！）露骨的吸烟行为。
二手烟从舞台上飘下来，我不知道这种景象阻碍了多少戏迷去看戏。但是既然大部分纽约人买不起太靠近、太容易受到影响的座位（那些天百老汇的票价本身就是一个丑闻），我们意识到这个提醒别有用意。这家剧院只是确信自己是受到合法保护的，以免前排的观众冒犯他们，或者起诉他们。
觉得牵强？几周之后，有人给纽约时报写了一封愤慨的信，责问那些演员为什么要吸烟。如果是剧情需要吸烟，她猛烈抨击，那些演员就不能夹着未点燃的烟假装一下吗？够了，我想。毕竟，当一个剧本要求表演一个死亡事件，实际上没有人强迫一个演员真的去死。这里有些事情还是让我担心。这不是一个抽烟或者不抽烟的问题。这是一种清教徒式的难闻味道，或者更糟。抹杀公共道德，外加害怕诉讼，正在把美国变成一个保姆式的国家。这个保姆就是棘齿护士。
在这块土地上，托马斯·杰斐逊曾经宣称过，最好的政府就是管理得最少的政府，可是我们今天却看见了一些严重侵犯日常生活的行为。你不能再公共场合抽烟，包括酒吧和餐馆。你不能在汽车上使用手机，虽然我们都知道手机在汽车上最有用。（“你好，我怎样才能到达你那里？你指的路不管用!”）。各种各样的法律在工作场所禁止各种各样的行为，从不经心的接触到颜色不佳的玩笑。
家也不是天堂。有几个城市，在家里脱衣服也不合法，只要有一个好偷看的人声称在街对面可以看见你。只要有不适当的噪音从你的公寓里传出来，你的邻居就可以合法地举报。三藩市鼓励理发师举报国内的暴力行为，只要他们在客户的头上发现有可疑的撞击或者摩擦。公立学校甚至已经为反欺压条例立法，规划了各种各样的少年人的日常行为：命名啊，称呼啊，取笑啊，甚至包括"躲避"，或者说是避开你不喜欢的孩子。下一个肮脏的条例会是什么样子呢？
这些条例，是多么的不可执行，使人处在棘齿护士保姆般的状态中，阻止了正常的人员接触，教师不敢拥抱孩子，因为害怕被解雇。（密西根州禁止教师因为任何原因接触学生。）布法罗·比尔和怀亚特·厄普，他们的后裔现在禁止跷跷板，以免他们的孩子自伤。七年来，上出租车的纽约人已经听疯了那些问候性的录音，要求他们系好安全带并且"找司机要发票"。那种声调保证是恼人的。
最后，至少，有人开始反抗了。一脚踢开普莱西多·多明戈和琼·里弗斯等名人的说教，好像有人会听她的，根据出租车和轿车管理委员会的报告，百分之六十七的纽约人拒绝"扣上安全带"。因为显示出罕见的常识，城市决定逐步淘汰公告。一位赶路的商人跳跃到一辆出租车，再也不会被迈克尔·巴福的录音尖叫声折磨"让我们准备好啊拉啊啦啊啦----！"

李苗

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zoufeng_1234

“棘齿护士”有点让人一头雾水，所以维基了一下。原来是个小说和电影中的反面人物，一个精神病医院里冷血无情可怕的护士长。

Nurse Mildred Ratched is the primary antagonist from Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as well as the 1975 film. A cold, heartless tyrant, Nurse Ratched has become the stereotype of the nurse as a battleaxe. She has also become a popular metaphor for the corrupting influence of power and authority in bureaucracies such as the mental institution in which the novel is set.

In the novel and film

Nurse Mildred Ratched is the head administrative nurse at the Salem, Oregon State Hospital, a mental institution where she exercises near-absolute power over the patients' access to medications, privileges, and basic necessities such as food and toiletries. She capriciously revokes these privileges whenever a patient displeases her. Her superiors turn blind eyes because she maintains order, keeping the patients from acting out, either through antipsychotic and anticonvulsant drugs or her own brand of "therapy", which consists mostly of humiliating patients into doing her bidding. Her greatest success is the stuttering, suicidal Billy Bibbit, who is so terrified of her that he does whatever she says.

When Randle McMurphy arrives at the hospital, however, her dictatorial rule is nearly toppled; he flouts her precious rules with impunity, and inspires other patients to follow. Her attempts to cow him into submission — at first with threats and mild punishments, then with shock therapy — are unsuccessful, serving only to fuel his defiance.

Eventually McMurphy sneaks his prostitute girlfriend into the asylum, and encourages her to relieve Billy of his virginity. Ratched threatens to tell Billy's mother about the transgression. Since Billy fears his mother as much as or more than he fears Ratched, the threat frightens him into committing suicide. Enraged, McMurphy attacks Ratched, and nearly chokes her to death.

In retribution, Ratched has McMurphy lobotomized. Chief Bromden, another patient and the narrator of the book, later smothers McMurphy as a mercy killing. Although Ratched's main antagonist has been removed, McMurphy's permanent damage to her vocal cords - rendering her unable to speak well, and requiring her to often resort to write notes to communicate - has diminished her control over the other patients.

李苗

“棘齿护士”有点让人一头雾水，所以维基了一下。原来是个小说和电影中的反面人物，一个精神病医院里冷血无情可怕的护士长。

Nurse Mildred Ratched is the primary antagonist from Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One  ...
zoufeng_1234 发表于 2012-3-11 05:53

Nurse Mildred Ratched 在美国可是知名度很高的，作者没必要解释，翻译过来就有问题了。

ironland

喜欢文中观点。
幸灾乐祸等着更多禁止出现，已经有了限制脂肪、限制糖，嘿嘿，希望对化妆品的禁止快点出现。那些唇膏、粉底、香水什么的，有致癌物还对儿童发育有糟糕影响。

忽然想起来，为什么法律不禁止自杀，但却要限制人们抽烟吃糖吃油炸食品？

施国英

忽然想起来，为什么法律不禁止自杀，但却要限制人们抽烟吃糖吃油炸食品？


ironland 发表于 2012-3-11 13:09

限制在公共室内抽烟，主要还有一个二手烟的危害问题，而且容易引起不抽烟者得了肺癌后的诉讼。这大概就是个人自由不得侵犯他人权益的边界。

吃糖吃油炸食品不限制吧，但得高血压，糖尿病等疾病的人越多，意味着国民的医疗开支也就越大，所以政府会登一些宣传健康饮食的广告，算建议吧。