-
UNIT
3
Text
A
Maia
Szalavitz,
formerly
a
television
producer,
now
spends
her
time
as
a
writer.
In
this
essay
she
explores
digital
reality
and
its
consequences.
Along
the
way,
she
compares
the
digital
world
to
the
world,
acknowledging
the
attractions
of
the
electronic
dimension.
迈亚·塞拉维茨曾是电视制片人，目前从事写作。她在本文中探索了数字化世界及其后果。与此同时，她将数字
化世界与真实
世界做了比较，承认电子空间自有其魅力。
A Virtual Life
Maia Szalavitz
After
too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a
shock. My boyfriend's Liverpool accent suddenly
becomes impossible to interpret
after
his easily understood words on screen; a
secretary's clipped tone seems more rejecting than
I'd imagined it would be. Time itself
becomes fluid
—
hours become minutes, or seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary
days.
虚拟世界的生活
迈亚·塞拉维茨
在
网上呆了太久，听到电话铃声也会吓一大跳。显示屏上看多了我男朋友那些一目了然的文字，他的利物浦口音一下
子变得难
以听懂；而秘书的清脆快速的语调听上去比我想像的要生硬。时间本身变得捉摸
不定——几小时变成几分钟，或几秒钟延伸为
几天。周末原本是我一周的黄金时段，现在
却不过是平平常常的两天。
For the last three
years, since I stopped working as a television
producer, I have done much of my work as a
telecommuter. I
submit
articles
and edit them via email and communicate with
colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend
lives in England, so much of
our
relationship is also computer-assisted.
在我不再当电视制片人的这三年间，我的大部分工作都是在家里使用计算机终端进行的。我通过电子邮件投稿和
校订，利用互
联网上的邮件列表与同行交流。我男朋友住在英国，因此两人的关系也在很
大程度上借助于电脑维系。
If I desired, I
could stay inside for weeks without wanting
anything. I can order food, and manage my money,
love and work. In fact, at
times I have
spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going
out only to get mail and buy newspapers and
groceries. I watched most of
the
endless snowstorm of '96 on TV
.
我要是愿意的话，可以一连几个星期不出门而什么也不缺。我可以在网上订购食品、网上理财、网上恋爱、网上工
作。事实上
我有时独自呆在家里长达三个星期，只偶尔出去拿信、买报纸及日用品。
1996
年那一场接一场的暴风雪我大都是在电视上看到
的。
But after a while, life itself
begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though
I've become one with my machines, taking data in,
spitting them
back out, just another
link in the Net. Others on line report the same
symptoms. We start to feel an aversion to outside
forms of socializing.
We have
become the Net critics' worst nightmare.
然而，一段时间之后，生活本身就显得不那么真实了。我开始觉得自己似乎与机器融为一体了，我接收信息， 再发送出去，就
如同互联网的一个连接点。其他上网的人也谈到了同样的症状。我们开始
厌恶外面的社交方式。我们的状况成了批评互联网的
人们最害怕见到的一幕。
What first seemed like a luxury,
crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about
hair, and clothes and face, has become a form of
escape, a lack of discipline.
And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction, coming back out of the cave can be
quite difficult.
一下床就上机，不再为发型、服饰、面部化妆烦心，起初看似奢华的享受如今却成为一种对生活的逃避
，一种缺乏自律的表现。
你一旦开始用网络交际取代人与人的真实接触，要走出这种穴居
状态就会相当困难。
I find myself shyer,
more cautious, more anxious. Or, conversely, when
suddenly confronted with real live humans, I get
overexcited,
speak
too
much,
interrupt.
I
constantly
worry
if
I
am
dressed
appropriately,
that
perhaps
I've
actually
forgotten
to
put
on
a
skirt
and
walked outside in the
T-shirt and underwear I sleep and live in.
我发现自己变得比以前怯生、谨慎、焦虑。或者，反过来，当我突然面对现实中活生生的人时，会变得过
于兴奋，说个不停，
爱打断别人的讲话。
我老是担心自己衣着是否得体，
担心自己会不会真的忘了穿裙子，
只穿着夜间睡觉、
白天活动时穿 的那件
T
恤和内衣就出门了。
At times, I turn on the television and
just leave it to talk away in the background,
something that I'd never done previously. The
voices of
the programs are comforting,
but then I'm jarred by the commercials. I find
myself sucked in by soap operas, or needing to
keep up with
the latest news and the
weather.
and over, even when they are
of no possible use to me.
Work moves into the background. I decide to check my email.
有时我把电视机开着，让它作为背景声音一直响着，以前我从不这样做。
电视节目中的说话声让人感到宽慰，可那些广告又叫
我心烦。我发现自己沉浸在肥皂剧里
，或者不停地收看最新的新闻报道和天气预报。一而再再而三地从“每日新闻”
、
“一线新
闻”
、
“夜间新闻”
、
有线新闻电视网、纽约一套上收看有关每一条新闻的各种不同视角的报道，尽管它们对我 毫无用处。工作
成了次要的。我决定去看一下自己的电子信箱。
On line, I find myself attacking
everyone in sight. I am bad-tempered, and easily
angered. I find everyone on my mailing list
insensitive,
believing that they've
forgotten that there are people actually reading
their wounding remarks. I don't realize that I'm
projecting until after
I've been
embarrassed by someone who politely points out
that I've attacked her for agreeing with me.
在网上，我发现自己见谁攻谁。我脾气暴躁，动辄生气。我觉得我与之通信的每一个人都麻木不仁， 认为他们已经忘却还有人
真会去读他们那些刻薄伤人的言辞。直到有人礼貌地指出，她同
意我的观点却遭到我的抨击时，我才意识到，自己是在以己度
人，不由得深感尴尬。
When I'm in this state, I fight
my boyfriend as well, misinterpreting his
intentions because of the lack of emotional cues
given by our
typed dialogue. The fight
takes hours, because the system keeps crashing.
I say a line, then he does, then crash! And yet we keep on,
doggedly.
在这种精神状态下，我也和男朋友吵架，常因键出的对话缺乏情感暗示而误解他的本意。由于
系统常出故障，两人一争就是几
个小时。我写一句，他回一句，接着系统失灵！可我们俩
还是锲而不舍地接着吵。
I'd
never
realized
how
important
daily
routine
is:
dressing
for
work,
sleeping
normal
hours.
I'd
never
thought
I
relied
so
much
on
co-workers
for
company.
I
began
to
understand
why
long-term
unemployment
can
be
so
damaging,
why
life
without
an
externally
supported daily plan
can lead to higher rates of drug abuse, crime,
suicide.
以前我从未意识到日常的生活起居是多么重要，如穿戴整齐去上班，
按时就寝。以前我从未想过自己会那么依赖同事做伴。我
开始理解为什么长时间的失业会
那么伤人，为什么一个人的生活缺少了外部支持的日常计划就会导致吸毒、犯罪、自杀率的增
长。
To restore balance to my
life, I force myself back into the real world. I
call people, arrange to meet with the few
remaining friends who
haven't fled New
York City. I try to at least get to the gym, so as
to set apart the weekend from the rest of my week.
I arrange interviews
for stories,
doctor's appointments
—
anything to get me out of the house and connected with others.
为了恢复生活的平衡，我强迫自己回到真实世界中去。我给别人打电话，与所剩无几的仍
然住在纽约城的几个朋友安排见面。
我至少设法去去健身房，以便使周末与工作日有所不
同。我安排采访好写报道，预约看医生——安排任何需要我出门与他人接
触的活动。
But sometimes being face to face
is too much. I see a friend and her ringing
laughter is intolerable
—
the noise of conversation in the
restaurant,
unbearable. I make my excuses and flee. I re-enter
my apartment and run to the computer as though it
were a place of safety.
但有时面对面地与人相处实在难以
忍受。我与一位朋友见面，她那种响亮的笑声让人忍无可忍——饭店里的噪杂谈话声也让人
受不了。我找了个藉口逃之夭夭。我重新回到我的公寓，冲向电脑，似乎那儿才是一个安全的地方。
I click on the modem, the once-annoying sound of the connection now as pleasant as my favorite tune. I enter my password. The real
world disappears.
我
点击鼠标，打开调制解调器，曾经听了就烦的连接声此刻听起来就如同最心爱的曲子那么悦耳。我键入密码。真实
世界转瞬
便消逝了。
Text
B
Thought you were safe sharing secrets
with Internet friends? Wait for the doorbell?
你以为与网友分享秘密不会出事儿吗？等着门铃响起来吧……
Mother's Mad about the InternutsCarol
SarlerR T 1. Tap tap tappa tap-tap. It is the last
sound to be heard before sleep. On especially bad
days, it is the first sound to be heard
in the morning. It is the sound of the only
lasting disagreement in a household that is
otherwise
peaceful. My daughter is
hooked on the Internet and I think that it is mad,
bad and dangerous.
母亲恨死了网虫
卡罗尔·萨尔勒
嗒嗒，嗒嗒，嗒
-
嗒。这是入睡前最后听到的声音。遇到特别糟糕的日子，早上一醒来就听到这种声音 。
这是一个原本安宁的家
庭中唯一持续不去的不和谐音
。女儿沉迷于互联网，我觉得这是一种疯狂的不端行为，而且凶险四伏。
She is in every other respect a
sensible young woman. She graduated in the summer,
she goes to work each day, she and her friends are
on
the phone all evening and she goes
out with them at weekends. But on top of that she
has lately started spending some two hours in
intense communication with a computer.
And I hate it.
她在别的哪个方面都不失为一个明事理的姑娘。她是夏
天毕业的，天天上班，晚上和朋友们在电话里聊天，周末和他们一起外
出玩耍。但除此之
外，近来她每天花两个小时光景与电脑厮守在一起。对此我深恶痛绝。
This is not just fear of new course,
there is value in instant access to information
banks worldwide and, of course, email is
revolutionizing the way we correspond
with each other.
My mistrust is based on the fact that this use of the Internet is such a pale copy
of
the
time-honoured
way
in
which
people
communicate
with
each
other.
It
leads
to
intimacy
before
acquaintance;
it
scatters
secrets
outwards, not inwards; and, most
worrying of all, it is a vehicle for liars.
这不完全是对新科技的恐惧。当然，能随时获取全世界信息库中的信息是很有价值的，电子邮件正在完
全改变人们相互间通信
联系的方式。我的不信任感是基于这样一个事实：使用互联网通讯
与人们传统的相互交流方式相比实在大为逊色。它使人们还
未相识就已亲近；它不能保守
秘密反而扩散秘密；而最令人担心的是，它是撒谎人传播谎言的工具。
What frightens me is that my daughter
rejects all this.
The denial is there in the language she uses.
are friends when, and only
when, you have seen the whites of their eyes. She
just rolls hers, skywards.
最令我心惊胆战的是女儿对
我的一切规劝都拒之不理。这在她的言谈间流露无遗。
“我是一月份‘遇见’珍妮特的，
”她说，
“那
以后我们就成了‘朋友’
。
”有时，她又说“前几天我和亚历克斯‘聊天’
，他‘说’……
”
“不对，他没有说，
”我争辩道；
< p>只有当你亲眼见过一个人之后，只有在那个时候，朋友才成其为朋友。她只是朝上翻了翻白眼。
Imagine this. When I was planning
to go away for a few days last month, this
intelligent 22-year-old announced a plan for a
party, the
guests to include a variety
of Internuts who, coming as they would from all
corners, would need to stay overnight.
你想像得到吗，上个月我正打算外出数日的时候，这位聪明的
22
岁的姑娘宣布打 算举行一次聚会，客人包括各色网虫，他们来
自各地，还要在我家过夜。
Overnight? In my home, my home that
contains everything I care about,
rather high on the list being my daughter herself.
在我家里过夜？在这个有我珍爱的一切的家里，而女儿本身就是我的
最珍爱的宝贝之一。
She said:
reasonable but not
altogether succeeding, that in and among the
things they
just have been overlooked,
might it not?
她说，
“别傻。
”她说不 会有事的，因为她准备邀请的那些人都是“认识”了至少有一年的，而且她“了解”他们，就像了解我
< p>总的来说比较喜欢的她的其他朋友一样。我说，他们啪哒啪哒“讲”给互相听的事情中，杀人的倾向 或许就被忽略了，难道这
不可能吗？我说这话时尽量想做到通情达理，但不完全成功。<
/p>
The party did not happen. The
row most certainly did.
聚会不了了之。但我和她确实大吵了一场。