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Unit 16
The Role of Science Fiction
The
year
1972
was
marked
by
this
publication
of
a
controversial
book.
The
Limits to Growth. This
study of the world
’
s future,
done by a team of MIT scientists
with
the aid of computer
“
models<
/p>
”
of the future of our
society, forecast a planetwide
disaster
unless humankind
sharply
limits its population growth and consumption of
natural resources.
1972
年为世人所瞩目的一件事就是出版了一本颇有争议的书
——
《增长的
极限》
。这一有关世界前景的研究，是由麻省
理工学院一组科学家借助模拟未来
社会的电脑
“模型”
进行的，
预言了人类若不大幅度限制人口增长和自然资源消
耗，就会出现全球性的灾难。
Most
people were caught by surprise when the book came
out. Many refused to
believe that
disaster is possible, probable, inevitable---if we
don
’
t change our mode of
running
Spaceship
Earth.
But
science
fiction
people
were
neither
surprised
nor
outraged
.
The
study
was
really
old
news
to
them.
They
’
d
been
making
their
own
“
models
”
of tomorrow and testing them all
their lives.
该书问世时大多数人吃了一惊。
许
多人拒绝相信存在发生灾难的可能性、
盖
然性、必然性——倘使
我们不改变对“地球飞船”的管理方式的话。但科幻小说
家及其读者却既不惊讶，
也不愤慨。
事实上，
这项研究对他们来说已不
是什么新
鲜事了。他们毕生都在制作自己的未来世界“模型”
，
并付诸试验。
For what
the scientists
attempted
with
their computer model is
very much like
the thing
that science fiction writers and readers have been
doing for decades. Instead
of using
a computer to
“
mo
del
”
a
future
world
society, science
fiction writers have
used
their human imaginations. This gives the writers
some enormous advantages.
因为科学家们试图用电脑模型
实现的事与科幻小说作家及其读者数十年来
所做的非常相象。科幻小说作家并不依靠电脑
来“模拟”一个未来世界，而是凭
借人类的想象力。这给了作家某些极为有利的条件。<
/p>
One of the advantages is
flexibility.
有利条件之一就是灵活性。
Science fiction writers are not in the
business of predicting the future. They do
something much more important. They try
to show the many possible futures that lie
open to
us.
科幻小说作
家的职责不在预言未来，
他们做的比这重要得多。
他们试图展现
许多可能出现在我们面前的前景。
For there is not simply a future, a
time to come that
’
s
inevitable. Our future is
built, bit by
bit, minute by minute, by the actions of human
beings. One vital role of
science
fiction
is
to
show
what
kinds
of
future
might
result
from
certain
kinds
of
human actions.
因
为并非只有一种前途，
一种时代会不可避免地降临人间。
我们的
未来世界
是由人类用自身的行动一点一滴地、
一分一秒地创造起
来的。
科幻小说的一个重
要作用，便是揭示人类某几种行为的结
果会形成哪几种未来世界。
To
communicate
the
ideas,
the
fears
and
feel
of
all
infinite
possible
futures,
science fiction writers lean heavily on
another of their advantages: the art of fiction. <
/p>
为了展示对可能出现的无穷多的未来世界的种种构想、
恐惧和希望
、
形式和
感受，科幻小说作家在很大程度上依赖他们另一个有利
条件：虚构艺术。
For
while
a
scientist
’
s
job
has
largely
ended
when
he
’
s
reduced
his
date
to
tabular
or
graph
form, the work of a
science fiction writer is just beginning. His task
is to convey the human story: the
scientific basis for the possible future of his
story is
merely
the
background.
Perhaps
< br>“
merely
”
is
too
limiting
a
word.
Much
of
science
fiction consists of
precious
little except the
background, the basic idea, the
gimmick
.
But the
best of science fiction, the stories that make a
lasting impact of generations of
readers, are stories about people. The
people may be nonhuman. They may be robots
or other types of machines. But they
will be people, in the sense that human readers
can
feel
for
them,
share
their
joys
and
sorrows,
their
dangers
and
their
ultimate
successes.
科学家把资料用表格或图表形式表现出
来时，
他的工作几乎算完成了，
而对
科
幻小说作家来说，
他的工作则刚刚开了个头。
他的任务是要讲述
与人有关的故
事：
充当他故事中可能出现的那个未来的科学依据
，
仅仅是个背景资料。
也许
“仅
仅”
这个词的局限性还太大了。
许多科幻小说
除了背景情况，
主要构想和新奇的
玩意儿外几乎空无他物。
但科幻小说中的上乘之作，
即能对几代读者产生持久影
响的作品，
都是写人的故事。
书中人物也许不是人类
，
可能是机器人或者其他类
型的机械装置。
但作为人的读者会同情它们，
分享它们的喜怒哀乐，
为它们
遭遇
危险而担忧，为它们终于成功而庆幸。从这个意义上说，它们应该算是人。
The art of fiction has not
changed much since prehistoric times. The formula
for
telling a powerful story has
remained the same: create a strong character, a
person of
great strengths, capable of
deep emotions and decisive action. Give him
weakness. Set
him
in
conflict
with
another
powerful
character
—
or
perhaps
with
nature.
Let
his
exterior conflict be the mirror of the
protagonist
’
s
own interior conflict, the clash of
his desires, his own strength against
his own weakness. And there you have a story.
Whether
it
’
s
Abraham
offering
his
only
son
to
God,
or
Paris
bringing
ruin
to
Troy
over a women, or Hamlet and Claudius
playing their deadly game, Faust seeking the
world
’
s knowledge
and power
—
the stories that
stand out
in the minds of
the readers
are those whose characters
are unforgettable.
自史前以来，
编故事
的艺术并无多大变化。
讲个引人入胜的故事仍然沿用老
一套：塑
造一个性格坚强的人物，一个勇猛无比、感情丰富、行为果断的人物。
给他配上一个弱点
，
使他与另一名强者
——
或与自然
——
发生冲突。
让主人公的
外部冲突反映出自己的内心冲突，
反映出他的各种欲望之间的冲突，
自身优点与
弱点之间的冲突。
这样你的故事就编好
了。
不管故事说的是亚伯拉罕把独生子献
给上帝，
或帕里斯因一女子而使特洛伊遭受灭顶之灾，
还是讲哈姆雷特与克劳狄
斯图谋置对方于死地，
浮士德对人世间的知识和权力的不断追求
——
凡是深印在
读者脑际的故事都塑造了使人
难以忘怀的人物。
To
show
other
worlds,
to
describe
possible
future
societies
and
the
problems
lurking
ahead, is not
enough. The writer of science fiction must show
these worlds
and these futures affect
human beings. And something much more important:
he must
show how human beings can and
do literally create these future worlds. For our
future
is largely in our own hands. It
doesn
’
t come blindly
rolling out
of the heavens;
it is
the joint product of the actions
of billions of human bings. This is a point
that
’
s easily
forgotten in the
rush
of headlines and the
hectic
badgering
of everyday life.
But it
’
s
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