从《饥饿游戏》看“反乌托邦”情结

2012-04-12 00:00:00来源：21英语网

　　The book (and movie) of The Hunger Games are what’s called dystopian fiction. A story set, usually in the future, in a society where conditions are dreadful.
　　《饥饿游戏》一书及其改编而成的影片被称为是“反乌托邦式”小说。这类科幻故事常将背景设定在一个环境极为恶劣的未来社会中。

　　Think of the word utopia: an idealized place or state where everything is perfect.
　　想象一下“乌托邦”这个词语：一个理想的国度，那里一切都很美好。

　　Well, dystopia is the direct opposite: a society in which life is nasty, short and brutish.
　　而“反乌托邦”则是截然相反的：在这个社会中，所有生命都是肮脏，短暂且野蛮的。

　　Recently there has been a flood of modern dystopian fiction for children and young adults. Maximum Ride (a genetic experiment on human-bird hybrids) was by James Patterson and Divergent (a future society divided into five factions, and teens must choose which one to devote themselves to) was written by Veronica Roth.
　　近来,面向儿童、青少年群体的现代乌托邦科幻小说大量涌现出来。詹姆斯帕特森的《极速飞行》讲述了一个关于人鸟杂交基因实验的故事，而在维罗尼卡罗斯的小说《分歧者》中，未来社会分为了五个派系，青少年们必须选择加入其中之一。

　　Why are these grim books so popular? Lucy Mangan writes a blog for the Guardian newspaper’s website.
　　为何这些内容阴暗的书籍会如此大受欢迎？露西曼格在《卫报》的新闻网站上发表了一篇博客。

　　She said: “These stories present worlds full of cowed populations, tyrannical governments, post-nuclear, devastated, war-torn landscapes, corrupt elites, weaponized viruses and other associated horrors that ask how we would function in extreme situations, and test what it means to be human.”
　　她表示：“这些故事描绘出一个人满为患，政府残暴，经历过核爆炸的世界，这里寸草不生；战乱过后，满目疮痍；充斥着腐败精英，生化武器以及与之相关的恐怖事件，这一切都在拷问着我们如何才能在如此极端的环境中生存下去，并思索出人性的含义。”

　　Mangan suggests that dystopian fiction is popular because it speaks of the experience of being a teenager today, such as facing a school bully, peer pressures or even campus violence, albeit in an extreme version.
　　曼格表示，反乌托邦小说之所以广受欢迎，是因为它反映出当今青少年的一些亲身经历，比如他们面对着校园恶霸，同伴压力甚至是校园暴力，只不过小说中所呈现的都是一种极端的版本。

　　She goes on: “Teenagers live with a wide and perpetual unease. Apocalyptic but coherent, resolvable narratives are handbooks for mental survival.”
　　她还谈到：“青少年普遍生活在一种持续性的焦虑之中。这种末日启示题材的故事，叙事连贯，且困难都最终得以解决，从而成为了他们精神上的生存手册。”

　　Paulo Bacigalupi, an award winning novelist for young adults, writes in the opinion pages of The New York Times website: “I suspect that young adults crave stories of broken futures because they themselves are uneasily aware that their world is falling apart.”
　　成功青少年作家保罗巴其加卢比在《纽约时报》网站上的评论版块表示：“我怀疑年轻人们之所以会热衷于这类讲述失落未来的故事，是因为他们不安地意识到自己的世界正在崩塌。”

　　The planet we inhabit suffers a loss of biodiversity, the depletion of cheap and easily accessible energy and the hazards of global warming. “Our children will inherit a world significantly depleted and damaged in comparison to the one our parents handed down to us,” warns Bacigalupi.
　　我们栖息的星球正遭受着生物多样性的丧失，便捷廉价能源的枯竭，全球变暖的危害。“与父辈传给我们的这个世界相比，我们的孩子将生活在一个资源枯竭，严重受损的世界中。”巴其加卢比提醒道。

　　You can find classic examples of dystopian fiction in comics, short stories, novels, cartoons and movies. In the American comic book story Batman: the Dark Knight Returns (later filmed), the caped crusader returns to a dystopian Gotham City populated by fearful citizens and run by corrupt politicians and gangsters. The movie franchise Mad Max, which made Mel Gibson famous, is set in a dystopian Australia gripped by energy starvation. In a world where man’s precious resource, petroleum, is depleted after an oil war, civilization is in meltdown. There is no law and order and motorcycle gangs terrorize the country.
　　在漫画，长短篇小说，卡通动画以及电影中，你都可以找到反乌托邦式科幻的典型代表。在美国漫画《蝙蝠侠：暗夜骑士归来》中（该漫画稍后被改编成电影），这位身披斗篷的战士回到了反乌托邦式的哥谭市，市中到处是惊恐的市民，整座城市被腐败的政治家和恶霸们统治着。梅尔吉布森的成名作——《疯狂的麦克斯》系列影片背景也设定于一个饱受资源紧缺困扰的、反乌托邦式的澳大利亚。一场石油战争之后，人类的这一宝贵资源几近枯竭，文明土崩瓦解。世间没有法律和秩序，只有飞车党横行霸道。

　　Dystopian novels also reveal teenagers’ fear about entering the adult world, which involves brutal competition.
　　反乌托邦式小说同时也揭示出青少年们对踏入满是残酷竞争的成人世界所抱有的那份恐惧。

　　The spectacle of young people being hunted to the death in The Hunger Games as a form of public entertainment is barbaric.
　　在《饥饿游戏》中，年轻人之间相互猎杀成为一种大众娱乐的形式，这一场景不免有些野蛮。

　　But think of the Roman empire. Bloodthirsty crowds watched captured prisoners, slaves, and gladiators fight to the death in the Coliseum in Rome and in amphitheaters in cities throughout the empire.
　　但想象一下在罗马帝国时期。在罗马斗兽场和遍及帝国的每个圆形剧场里，残忍的人群围观囚犯，奴隶和角斗士誓死一战。

　　The only difference is The Hunger Games are for a TV audience.
　　唯一的区别只是，《饥饿游戏》是给那些坐在电视机前的观众们看的。

本文关键字: 反乌托邦