奥巴马暑假读书单

Obama’s Revealing Book Bag

奥巴马“霸气侧露”的书单

Aug 23, 2011 7:08 PM EDT

“每日野兽”（Daily Beast）新闻网2011年8月23日讯

AUTHOR | Michael Medved

作者：迈克尔·梅德韦德（Michael Medved）

A president’s vacation reading list speaks volumes about him. Michael Medved on how, when it comes to his literary diet, Obama is no George W. Bush.

从一个总统的假期读书单中，人们可以解读出许多关于他的信息。迈克尔·梅德韦德试就文学品味而言，论“奥巴马与小布什的迥然不同”。

Does it make sense for the president of the United States to carve time out of his busy schedule to read novels? And what message does Barack Obama send to the world when four of the five books on his well-publicized summer reading list turn out to be works of fiction?

美国总统打算从繁忙的公务中腾出时间来看看小说，你觉得合理吗？白宫大肆宣传巴拉克·奥巴马的暑假读书清单，结果五本里面有四本都是小说，这到底又向世界传达着怎样的讯息呢？

To be fair, none of these titles count as lightweight, beach-reading diversions. Unlike President Kennedy, whose passionate embrace of James Bond novels (did he consider 007 an erotic role model?) helped make Ian Fleming an international sensation, President Obama demonstrates no devotion to espionage thrillers—or to sword-and-sorcery epics, science fiction, or vampire romance, for that matter. (The president’s potential rival Mitt Romney recently confessed an altogether unexpected enthusiasm for Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, giving new ammunition to those critics who discern something otherworldly, even eerie, in the former governor’s unflappable self-assurance.)

公正地讲，这几本小说都算不上轻松的海滩消遣读物。在美国历史上，曾有一任总统十分热爱007系列小说（他该不会觉得詹姆士·邦德是个性感偶像？），而且他的这份热爱还促使小说作者伊安·弗莱明蜚声海内外；这位总统，是肯尼迪。与肯尼迪不同的是，奥巴马总统无心属意惊悚谍战——或就小说种类而言，他对刀剑魔法类的史诗、或科幻、吸血鬼罗曼史之流也兴趣寥寥。（米特·罗姆尼，奥巴马总统大选的潜在对手，最近就因承认自己热衷于斯蒂芬妮·迈耶的《暮光之城》系列小说，令广大群众大跌眼镜；同时，从这位马萨诸塞州前州长淡定的自信中，有的评论家察觉到了一丝甚或诡异的“超凡脱俗”，并因此而备足了新一轮毒舌弹药。）

In his book choices, Obama turned exclusively to critically acclaimed bestsellers with no discernible connection to politics or the presidency: The Bayou Trilogy features three different “country noir” crime stories by Winter’s Bone author Daniel Woodrell; Rodin’s Debutante by Ward Just is a sweeping coming-of-age saga centered on an Illinois boarding school in the postwar era; Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese delivers an exotic tale set in Ethiopia about twin boys born to a glamorous Indian nun; and To the End of the Land offers an eloquent meditation on war, loss, and family ties by Israeli peace advocate David Grossman.　　奥巴马的择书方向，似专情于广受好评的畅销书，且图书内容与政治或总统职务并无明显相关：《长沼三部曲》（The Bayou Trilogy）包含三个各不相同的“乡村黑色文学”犯罪小说，作者是写《冬之骨》（Winter\'s Bone）的丹尼尔·伍瑞德尔（Daniel Woodrell）；《罗丹的初次亮相》（Rodin’s Debutante），作者瓦德·贾斯特（Ward Just），背景设定在战后美国伊利诺伊斯州的一所寄宿学校，巨细靡遗地描绘了主人公传奇的成长经历；《双生石》，作者亚伯拉罕·维盖瑟（Abraham Verghese），讲述了一个发生在埃塞俄比亚的异域故事，故事主人公是一对孪生兄弟，他们的妈妈是个迷人的印度修女；《大地尽头》（To the End of the Land）则是对战争、家庭及失去亲人等议题发人深省的沉思，作者是以色列的和平倡导者大卫·格罗斯曼（David Grossman）。

Each of the chosen tomes that the president picked up at the popular Bunch of Grapes bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard combined bestseller status with overwhelming critical acclaim, but they also represented a break with the past in terms of reading habits by the commander in chief. Obama himself had previously announced his commitment to titles like Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt or Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World—more standard fare for any working politician, and especially for a nonfiction author who made his personal fortune through works of autobiography and political commentary.

在马萨葡萄园岛上的人气书店“葡萄串”（Bunch of Grapes）里，奥巴马挑选了上述这么几本“巨著”，每一本都是获得评论界压倒性一致好评的畅销书，但也都同时意味着这位三军统帅的阅读习惯已今非昔比。奥巴马早期曾宣称自己将致力于多读较严肃书籍，如埃德蒙·莫里斯（Edmund Morris）的《罗斯福的崛起》（The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt），或法里德·扎卡里亚（Fareed Zakaria）的《后美国世界》（The Post-American World）——此类“精神食粮”对从政人士而言，尤其是对奥巴马这样一个因写自传、发表政治评论而盆钵满盈的非小说作者而言，好歹还能算得上是标准答案。

George W. Bush boasted an almost exclusive focus on works of history and biography, devoting the summer of 2006 (the White House announced) to reading life stories of Lincoln, Mao, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Babe Ruth, and Roberto Clemente—as well as heady accounts on the position of Muslim women and major diseases (polio and influenza) that exerted a profound impact on the United States. His only chosen work of fiction, the existentialist Camus classic The Stranger, might have been part of an effort to repair tattered relations with France, or to make up for assignments he blithely ignored during prep school at Andover. In any event, Bush took his summer reading seriously: during an off-the-record meeting in the Oval Office in 2006, I was present when he spoke knowledgeably and passionately about Lincoln’s reliance in even the darkest days of the Civil War on unwavering support from Union soldiers and Christian clergy, and expressed the hope that he could sustain a similar connection with the same forces in our society.

相比之下，小布什对历史及传记作品情有独钟，例如2006年他曾（通过白宫宣布）吹嘘自己夏天要读的书除了包括林肯、毛泽东、美国物理学家罗伯特·J·奥本海默、俄罗斯沙皇亚历山大二世、美国职棒大联盟名人“贝比”鲁斯（Babe Ruth）及罗伯托·克莱门特（Roberto Clemente）等人的传记故事外，还包括几份重磅报告，内容涉及穆斯林妇女地位、以及当时对美国造成了深重打击的大规模疾病（小儿麻痹症与流感）。那年夏天他所选的唯一一本小说，是法国存在主义经典之作——加缪的《陌生人》；这一选择可能是出于为了努力修缮当时法美两国破败关系的目的，或也可能只是因为他在安多弗预科中学念书时太贪玩，所以现在不得不补一补阅读作业。但无论怎么说，布什的确严肃地对待了他的夏季阅读计划：后来，那年有一次在他的总统办公室（即椭圆形办公室）开会，是个非正式的会议，我当时在场，亲耳听到布什激昂、深刻地大谈林肯，谈到林肯即使在美国内战最黑暗的时期，其背后也有来自联邦军士兵与基督教神职人员的坚定支持；他还表示希望自己在当下美国社会里，也能与此两股力量保持紧密联系。

In a fascinating Washington Post piece, Tevi Troy of the Hudson Institute notes that leading GOP candidates express a similar preference for meaty nonfiction in their literary explorations. Michele Bachmann, for instance, insists that “When I go on vacation and I lay [sic] on the beach, I bring Von Mises.”

《华盛顿邮报》有一篇很精彩的文章，作者是华府智库哈德逊研究所的特维·特洛伊，他在文中指出：共和党的一些顶尖候选人在探索文学这条道路时，似都表现出对内容扎实丰满的非小说的偏好。例如米歇尔·巴赫曼（Michele Bachmann）吧，她就坚持说“当我去度假的时候，我喜欢躺在沙滩上休息一下蛋（原话如此）我不光是休息，我还带着冯·米赛斯的书。”

If the president of the United States manages time for fiction, why can’t we?　　如果连美国总统都可以花时间读小说，那凭什么我们就不能？In part, she emphasizes her devotion to the Austrian School economist to convey the impression that she’s no ditzy airhead, just as Obama may focus on emotionally charged works of fiction to counter the suggestion that he’s a bloodless, one-dimensional wonk or drone.

在某种程度上，米歇尔强调自己对这位奥地利经济学派大师的钟爱，借此传达给人某种她并非“浆糊脑袋”的印象——而奥巴马也极有可能是出于类似的动机，想通过展示自己对情感丰富的小说作品的喜爱，借以回击外界将他称作“冷血无情一根筋”的负面评论。

But if Obama successfully devours the four announced novels (amid his inevitable games of golf and beach visits and ice-cream runs with his girls), then that raises a serious question for the rest of us: if the president of the United States manages time for fiction, why can’t we?

但是，若奥巴马果真如此贪读小说，并最终将这四部作品全数啃下（当然一边啃还一边少不了要玩几盘高尔夫，去几趟海边，跟她的宝贝女儿们吃几轮冰激凌），那可就为我们所有人提出了一个严肃的问题：如果连美国总统都可以花时间读小说，那凭什么我们就不能？

I read almost constantly, carrying multiple bags of newspapers, magazines, think-tank reports, and assorted clippings and printouts onto airplanes, into dentist offices, to screenings, and into every room of the house. Sure, I go through numerous books as well—but they’re always nonfiction volumes by authors I will interview on the air, never novels for relaxation.

因为工作，我走到哪儿都在读，读各种不同的新闻、报纸、智囊团报告、各类剪报与打印文稿；无论是去看牙医还是看电影，甚至是在家里走来走去的时候，我手里都拎着这些大包小包的资料。当然我还要读很多书，但全都是非小说类题材，作者也都是我即将在节目上访问的某位嘉宾；我可从没单纯为了放松心情而读过什么小说。

Most people I know in politics or journalism work desperately to cope with the molten-lava flow of new information that threatens each day to bury us alive. Shouldn’t the president feel that pressure more intensely than anyone else, given the sheer volume of facts and opinion he needs to digest to do his job?　　而且，在政界或新闻界里，我所认识的大多数人每天都在拼死拼活地工作，对付着像熔岩一样席卷而来、几乎要吞噬我们的大量信息；作为一国总统，其工作需要消化各种事实与各方观点，这一部分单就量而言已不容小觑，难道他不应该比任何人都更强烈地感到那种压力吗？

Perhaps Obama’s novelistic inclinations reflect the conviction, cited by his admiring aides, that he’s always the smartest one in any room he graces with his presence. Since he’s already so well prepared, so supremely conversant with even the most complicated and arcane issues, why wouldn’t he relax with stories about crime-fighting detectives in Louisiana or grieving, war-weary families in Israel?

或许，奥巴马对小说的嗜好反映了人们对他的某种“信念”——也就是据他的仰慕者们所说：他们相信“奥巴马大人”无论走到哪里，其智慧的光芒都会令所到之处蓬荜生辉；他们相信，即使是面对最复杂、最晦涩难懂的问题，奥巴马也炳若观火、成竹在胸——那么他凭什么不能消遣消遣，读一读小说，看看路易斯安那州的侦探打击犯罪的故事，看看小说里以色列那些悲伤的家庭是如何厌倦战争呢？

The interest in fiction may also reassure the aesthetically inclined among his supporters that even in a period of tight budgets for arts organizations, the president recognizes the importance of creative imagination. Let Bush plod through his weighty biographies or watch his football games; Barack Obama seconds the sentiment of D. H. Lawrence that “the novel is the one bright book of life.”

同时，对于他支持者中颇具审美倾向的一部分群体而言，奥巴马对小说的兴趣也有可能为他们打上了一记强心针，使他们相信即使是在艺术团体们预算紧张的时期，总统仍然意识到了创新想象力的重要性。那就任布什慢慢啃他的重磅传记去吧，任他看他的足球赛去吧；巴拉克·奥巴马在这方面首肯了英国作家D·H·劳伦斯的多愁善感：“小说可真是一部缤纷斑斓的生活之书呵。”

In fact, after his retirement in 2017 (or, better yet, 2013), we may look to this most unusual president to shun the standard doorstop of a memoir and to instead craft a fictional epic that traces the fate of one sprawling, brawling family from the verdant hills of Kenya to the sunset beaches of Hawaii, to the mean streets of Chicago, to the corridors of power in the nation’s capital, and finally to the sand dunes and mansions of Martha’s Vineyard, where artistic fulfillment arrives at last in a beach bag stuffed with novels.

事实上，在奥巴马2017年退休后（或2013年就退了更好），我们大可指望这位不走寻常路的总统先生绕开“回忆录”这条寻常大路，转而精心打造一部史诗小说，讲述一个逆境求生的家庭，讲述这家人柳暗花明的命运，讲述他们如何从肯尼亚的青山绿野，转战到了夏威夷的日落海滩，走过芝加哥的商业街头，走进这个国家首都的权力走廊，并最终来到了马萨葡萄园岛上：这里有沙滩，有豪宅，还有将这部史诗大作的艺术成就推至顶峰的一个沙滩包，包里面装满了——小说。