“It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” Fahrenheit 451 opens in a blissful blaze - and before long, we learn what’s going up in flames.
「燃燒讓人愉悅。 看東西被吞噬、看到東西變黑、 改變,特別讓人愉悅。」 《華氏 451 度》的開頭 是幸福的熊熊燃燒——沒多久, 我們就會了解在火焰中 發生了什麼事。
Ray Bradbury’s novel imagines a world where books are banned from all areas of life - and possessing, let alone reading them, is forbidden. The protagonist, Montag, is a fireman responsible for destroying what remains. But as his pleasure gives way to doubt, the story raises critical questions of how to preserve one’s mind in a society where free will, self-expression, and curiosity are under fire.
雷布萊伯利的小說中 有個幻想的世界, 在那裡,在各領域中 書都是被禁止的—— 也禁止持有書籍, 更不用說閱讀了。 主角蒙塔格是位消防員, 要負責摧毀殘餘物。 但他的樂趣無法解除他的懷疑, 這個故事中最關鍵的問題就是, 在這種自由意志、自我表現, 以及好奇心都被燒掉的社會中, 要如何保存一個人的心智?
In Montag’s world, mass media has a monopoly on information, erasing almost all ability for independent thought. On the subway, ads blast out of the walls. At home, Montag’s wife Mildred listens to the radio around the clock, and three of their parlor walls are plastered with screens. At work, the smell of kerosene hangs over Montag’s colleagues, who smoke and set their mechanical hound after rats to pass the time.
在蒙塔格的世界裡, 大眾媒體獨佔資訊, 幾乎消除了所有獨立思考的能力。 在地鐵,牆壁上大聲播放廣告。 在家中,蒙塔格的太太 米爾德里德整天都在聽廣播, 客廳的三面牆壁被螢幕蓋滿。 工作時,蒙塔格的同事 身上散發著煤油味, 他們打發時間的方式是抽菸 和放他們的機械獵犬去抓老鼠。
When the alarm sounds they surge out in salamander-shaped vehicles, sometimes to burn whole libraries to the ground. But as he sets tomes ablaze day after day like “black butterflies,” Montag’s mind occasionally wanders to the contraband that lies hidden in his home. Gradually, he begins to question the basis of his work. Montag realizes he’s always felt uneasy - but has lacked the descriptive words to express his feelings in a society where even uttering the phrase “once upon a time” can be fatal.
當警報響起時,他們會 衝上外面的蠑螈型車輛, 有時要把整座圖書館燒毀。 但,隨著蒙塔格像「黑蝴蝶」 一樣日覆一日地焚書, 他的思想偶爾會神遊到 他家中藏的違禁品上。 漸漸地,他開始質疑 他的工作的基礎。 蒙塔格發現他總是感到不自在—— 但他沒有文字可以表述他的感受, 因為在這個社會中, 光是唸出「很久很久以前」 這個句子就會招致殺身之禍。
Fahrenheit 451 depicts a world governed by surveillance, robotics, and virtual reality- a vision that proved remarkably prescient, but also spoke to the concerns of the time. The novel was published in 1953, at the height of the Cold War. This era kindled widespread paranoia and fear throughout Bradbury’s home country of the United States, amplified by the suppression of information and brutal government investigations. In particular, this witch hunt mentality targeted artists and writers who were suspected of Communist sympathies.
《華氏 451 度》所描述的世界是由 監控、機器人, 以及虛擬現實所主宰—— 這個遠景已經被證明 是很有先見之明的, 但也說出了這個時代的擔憂。 這本小說於 1953 年出版, 那時是冷戰的高峰。 這個時代激起的 是廣泛的妄想與恐懼, 遍及布萊伯利的母國:美國, 資訊的打壓和殘酷的 政府調查讓狀況更糟。 特別是這種獵女巫的心態, 目標是被懷疑贊同 共產主義的藝術家和作家。
Bradbury was alarmed at this cultural crackdown. He believed it set a dangerous precedent for further censorship, and was reminded of the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and the book-burning of Fascist regimes. He explored these chilling connections in Fahrenheit 451, titled after the temperature at which paper burns. The accuracy of that temperature has been called into question, but that doesn’t diminish the novel’s standing as a masterpiece of dystopian fiction. Dystopian fiction as a genre amplifies troubling features of the world around us and imagines the consequences of taking them to an extreme.
布萊伯利警覺到這種文化壓迫。 他認為這開了危險的先例, 可能招致進一步的審查制度, 且讓他想起了在法西斯統治時, 亞歷山大圖書館被摧毀, 書籍都被燒毀。 他在《華氏 451 度》中探討了 這些讓人心寒的連結, 書名則是紙張燃燒時的溫度。 溫度的精確性有待確認, 但那並不會影響到這本小說 身為反烏托邦傑作的地位。 反烏托邦虛構小說是一種類別, 會放大我們周遭世界中 讓人憂慮的特徵,
In many dystopian stories, the government imposes constrictions onto unwilling subjects. But in Fahrenheit 451, Montag learns that it was the apathy of the masses that gave rise to the current regime. The government merely capitalized on short attention spans and the appetite for mindless entertainment, reducing the circulation of ideas to ash.
並想像這些特徵 到了極端時會有什麼後果。 在許多反烏托邦的故事中, 政府針對不情願的對象施加約束。 但在《華氏 451 度》中, 蒙塔格發現,其實是大眾的冷漠 造成了目前的政權。 政府只利用注意力短暫 及大家喜歡不用腦娛樂的特性, 就把想法的流通化為灰燼。
As culture disappears, imagination and self-expression follow. Even the way people talk is short-circuited - such as when Montag’s boss Captain Beatty describes the acceleration of mass culture: "Speed up the film, Montag, quick. Click? Pic? Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here, There, Swift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out, Why, How, Who, What, Where, Eh? Uh! Bang! Smack! Wallop, Bing, Bong, Boom! Digest-digests, digest-digest-digests. Politics? One column, two sentences, a headline! Then, in mid-air, all vanishes!" In this barren world, Montag learns how difficult it is to resist when there's nothing left to hold on to. Altogether, Fahrenheit 451 is a portrait of independent thought on the brink of extinction - and a parable about a society which is complicit in its own combustion.
隨著文化消失,接著消失的 就是想像和自我表現。 連大家說話的方式也是短路的, 比如,蒙塔格的老闆比提隊長 是這樣描述大眾文化的加速: 「把影片加速,蒙塔格,快。 點?圖?看、眼、現在、影片、 這裡、那裡、快速、步調、 上、下、內、外、 為何、如何、誰、 什麼、哪裡、啊?呃! 砰!啪!重擊、乒、乓、碰! 消化—消化、消化—消化—消化。 政治?一個專欄、 兩句話、一道標題! 接著,半空中,通通消失!」 在這貧瘠的世界中, 蒙塔格了解到, 當沒有什麼要守住的時候, 要抗拒是很難的。 整體來說,《華氏 451 度》 是在描繪獨立思想 面臨絕種邊緣—— 它也是個寓言,說明社會其實 也是讓它自己燃燒的共犯之一。