本帖最后由 音乐盒 于 2010-1-11 08:29 编辑
【中文标题】弥赛亚情结
【原文标题】The Messiah Complex
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【来源地址】http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/opinion/08brooks.html
【译者】音乐盒
【翻译方式】人工。英文不好，请各位多指正，谢谢了。
【声明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。
【译文】
Op-Ed Columnist 观点专栏作家
The Messiah Complex 弥赛亚情结
By DAVID BROOKS 作者：大卫·布鲁克斯
Published: January 7, 2010
David Brooks 大卫·布鲁克斯
Every age produces its own sort of fables, and our age seems to have produced The White Messiah fable.
每个时代都出产它自己的寓言，我们的时代似乎已产生了白人救世主（Messiah）寓言。
This is the oft-repeated story about a manly young adventurer who goes into the wilderness in search of thrills and profit. But, once there, he meets the native people and finds that they are noble and spiritual and pure. And so he emerges as their Messiah, leading them on a righteous crusade against his own rotten civilization.
这是个一再被重复的故事，一个年轻男性冒险者，进入荒野，寻求刺激和利益。但是，一旦他在那里遇到本地人，且发现他们高贵、神圣、纯净，他就会以他们的救世主的面貌出现，领导他们作正义之战，以对抗他自己那腐朽的文明。
Avid moviegoers will remember “A Man Called Horse,” which began to establish the pattern, and “At Play in the Fields of the Lord.” More people will have seen “Dances With Wolves” or “The Last Samurai.”
电影爱好者们会记得《太阳盟A Man Called Horse》（1970年上映，讲述1825年一名英国绅士在美国旅行时被印第安人所擒，经过多年与红人一齐生活，竟然被完全同化，并成为他们的战士和领袖。--译注），自这部片子起建立了这种模式，还有《在上帝的领土游戏At Play in the Fields of the Lord》一片也是。更多人应看过《与狼共舞Dances With Wolves》和《最后的武士The Last Samurai》。
Kids have been given their own pure versions of the fable, like “Pocahontas” and “FernGully.”
孩子们则另有这类寓言的纯净版本，如《风中奇缘Pocahontas》和《最后的雨林FernGully》。
It’s a pretty serviceable formula. Once a director selects the White Messiah fable, he or she doesn’t have to waste time explaining the plot because everybody knows roughly what’s going to happen.
这是个十分好用的公式。一旦一个导演选择了这类白人救世主寓言，他或她就不必浪费时间来解释剧情了，因为每个人都猜得出将要发生什么。
The formula also gives movies a little socially conscious allure. Audiences like it because it is so environmentally sensitive. Academy Award voters like it because it is so multiculturally aware. Critics like it because the formula inevitably involves the loincloth-clad good guys sticking it to the military-industrial complex.
这个公式也赋予电影一点社会意识上的诱惑。观众喜欢它，因为它在环境方面敏感。奥斯卡金像奖选民喜欢它，因为它是如此具有多元文化意识。评论家们喜欢它，因为这个公式不可避免的会涉及如下剧情：衣不蔽体的好人，拒不屈服于军工企业。
Yet of all the directors who have used versions of the White Messiah formula over the years, no one has done so with as much exuberance as James Cameron in “Avatar.”
然而，多年来所有用过各种版本的白人救世主公式的导演，没有一个运用的像詹姆斯·卡梅隆在《阿凡达Avatar》中那样如火如荼。
“Avatar” is a racial fantasy par excellence. The hero is a white former Marine who is adrift in his civilization. He ends up working with a giant corporation and flies through space to help plunder the environment of a pristine planet and displace its peace-loving natives.
《阿凡达Avatar》是一个高水准的种族幻想。其中的英雄是一个白人前海军陆战队员，在自己的文明中无所适从。他决定与一个巨型公司合作，穿越太空飞行至一个原始状态的星球，以帮助掠夺星球上的环境资源，并将爱好和平的当地人取而代之。
The peace-loving natives — compiled from a mélange of Native American, African, Vietnamese, Iraqi and other cultural fragments — are like the peace-loving natives you’ve seen in a hundred other movies. They’re tall, muscular and admirably slender. They walk around nearly naked. They are phenomenal athletes and pretty good singers and dancers.
爱好和平的当地人——由土著美洲人、非洲人、越南人、伊拉克人和其他文化片段杂糅而成——正如你在上百部电影中所看到的爱好和平的当地人一样。他们个子高，肌肉发达，苗条得令人钦羡。他们四处游荡，几近赤裸。他们是非凡的运动员和非常好的歌手及舞蹈演员。
The white guy notices that the peace-loving natives are much cooler than the greedy corporate tools and the bloodthirsty U.S. military types he came over with. He goes to live with the natives, and, in short order, he’s the most awesome member of their tribe. He has sex with their hottest babe. He learns to jump through the jungle and ride horses. It turns out that he’s even got more guts and athletic prowess than they do. He flies the big red bird that no one in generations has been able to master.
这个白人注意到，爱好和平的当地人比贪婪的公司工具和嗜血的美军类型要酷的多，他便跟了过去。他和当地人住一块儿，并且，在很短的时间内，他成了他们部落里最棒的人。他与他们中最辣的妞做爱。他学着在丛林中跳跃和骑马。结果证明，他甚至比他们更具有勇气和运动员的本领。他驾驭大红鸟，这是多少代当地人都掌握不了的本领。
Along the way, he has his consciousness raised. The peace-loving natives are at one with nature, and even have a fiber-optic cable sticking out of their bodies that they can plug into horses and trees, which is like Horse Whispering without the wireless technology. Because they are not corrupted by things like literacy, cellphones and blockbuster movies, they have deep and tranquil souls.
就这样，他觉悟大大提高。爱好和平的当地人与自然融为一体，甚至有一根光纤电缆伸出体外插到马和树上，很像《马语者The Horse Whisperer》，但还不具备无线技术。因为他们不受诸如识字能力、手提电话和热门电影的损毁，他们的灵魂深邃而宁静。
The natives help the white guy discover that he, too, has a deep and tranquil soul.
当地人帮助这个白人发现，他，也有一个深邃而宁静的灵魂。
The natives have hot bodies and perfect ecological sensibilities, but they are natural creatures, not history-making ones. When the military-industrial complex comes in to strip mine their homes, they need a White Messiah to lead and inspire the defense.
当地人身材火爆，拥有完美的生态感受能力，但他们是自然生物，而不是历史创造者。当军工厂进来露天开采他们的家园时，他们需要一个白人救世主（弥赛亚）来领导和激励（他们）作好防御。
Our hero leaps in, with the help of a pack of dinosaurs summoned by Mother Earth. As he and his fellow freedom fighters kill wave after wave of Marines or former Marines or whatever they are, he achieves the ultimate prize: He is accepted by the natives and can spend the rest of his life in their excellent culture.
在大地母亲所召唤出的一群恐龙的帮助下，我们的英雄冲了进去。当他和他的和平捍卫者伙伴们杀了一波又一波的军人或前军人或其他什么人之类，他获得了终极奖励：他被当地人所接受并且可以在他们的优秀文化中渡过余生。
Cameron’s handling of the White Messiah fable is not the reason “Avatar” is such a huge global hit. As John Podhoretz wrote in The Weekly Standard, “Cameron has simply used these familiar bromides as shorthand to give his special-effects spectacular some resonance.” The plotline gives global audiences a chance to see American troops get killed. It offers useful hooks on which McDonald’s and other corporations can hang their tie-in campaigns.
卡梅隆对白人救世主寓言的运用并不是《阿凡达Avatar》全球大热的原因。正如约翰·波多雷茨在《标准周刊》中写道：“卡梅隆只不过用了这些熟悉的平庸人物作缩写用来给他的特效电影一些共鸣。”情节主线使得全球观众有机会一睹美国军队被杀。它为麦当劳和其他企业的搭卖活动提供了商机。
Still, would it be totally annoying to point out that the whole White Messiah fable, especially as Cameron applies it, is kind of offensive?
然而，指出这整个白人救世主寓言其实是一种攻势，会不会完全令人讨厌呢？尤其，它是卡梅隆的作品。
It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration.
它建立在白人是理性主义者和主张技术统治、而殖民牺牲者们是有精神的和体格健壮的陈腔滥调之上。它建立在非白人需要白人救世主来领导他们的正义之战的臆想之上。它建立在识字能力是通往优美之路的臆想之上。它还创造出一种双刃的文化帝国主义。当地人的历史既可能被残酷的帝国主义者所决定，也可能被善意者所改变，但不管是以哪一种方式，他们都将在我们的自我欣赏之旅中一直支持行动者们。
It’s just escapism, obviously, but benevolent romanticism can be just as condescending as the malevolent kind — even when you surround it with pop-up ferns and floating mountains.
很明显，这只是逃避现实，但是，就算你用自动跳起的蕨类植物和悬浮的山脉来环绕它，良性浪漫主义也可能和恶性的一样，是带着居高临下的姿态。 |
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