经典英文书单 咕哒镇
经典英文书单 | NO.2 ----《美丽新世界》
书 名：Brave New World
作 者：[英] Aldous Huxley
中 文 译 者：陈超
豆 瓣 评 分：9.1（10分）
Goodreads评分：3.99（5分）
如果你的书单上给「科幻」留了一席之地，这本书出版于1932年的「反乌托邦」名作要放在TOP3的位置。
故事背景设定在未来。那时人们的生活在物质层面上极为丰富，科学技术高度发达，人类的负面情绪可以通过服用合法药品随时得到释放，欲望随时可以得到满足同时无需背负道德的谴责。「幸福」俯拾皆是，「痛苦」无处可寻；人们无需思考，无需信仰，无需追求，无需反抗。
一切都井井有条完美至极。你需要做的，只是「服从」和「享受」。
故事的另一面呢？
在社会制度和个人层面上，从受精卵开始，所有个体的未来都精密地设计，严格地标准化：家庭被取缔，生育被控制，社会层级和职业分工被设定，对自由的追求和人类的真实情感被扭曲和删除。
人性像机器一样被严格控制后，人类方可在「美丽新世界」里过上「幸福」的生活，永不醒来。
但「幸福」和「痛苦」是一体的两面，一个被篡改，另一个也会随之不受控制地发生变化。
这部伟大的作品带给读者对未来的胆战心惊以及对一系列重要问题的思索，其中一个就是：
为了实现全人类的终极「幸福」，你愿意交换哪些上天馈赠给人类的礼物：智慧？个性？家庭？信仰？情感？思考能力？自由（包括犯错的自由）？
《1984》里描述的强权和正面压迫让人本能地心生反抗之意，而《美丽新世界》里面勾画的「温柔陷阱」让人本能地屈服其中。
《美丽新世界》节选
（有删减）
'For of course,' said Mr·Foster, 'in the vast majority of cases, fertility is merely a nuisance. '
“当然，”弗斯特先生说道，“绝大多数情况下，拥有生育能力是很讨厌的事情。”
'One fertile ovary in twelve hundred—that would really be quite sufficient for our purposes. '
“1200个人中有一个拥有生育能力的卵巢对我们来说就足够了。”
'But we want to have a good choice. And of course one must always leave an enormous margin of safety. '
“但我们希望有好的选择，当然人总是希望更高的安全系数。”
'So we allow as many as thirty per cent of the female embryos to develop normally. '
“因此，我们允许最多30%的女性胚胎正常发育。”
'The others get a dose of male sex-hormone every twenty-four metres for the rest of the course. '
“其他的胚胎在剩下的行程里，每24米进行一次男性荷尔蒙注射。”
'Result: they're decanted as freemartins structurally quite normal(except,' he had to admit, 'that they do have just the slightest tendency to grow beards),but sterile. Guaranteed sterile.
“结果就是：它们被培育成了雄化雌体——在结构上很正常（不过他不得不承认，只是它们确实有极为轻微的长胡子的趋势），但没有生育能力，保证没有生育能力。”
'Which brings us at last,' continued Mr Foster, 'out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature into the much more interesting world of human invention.'
“现在到了最后的内容，”弗斯特先生继续说道，“绝不只是对自然的模仿，而是进入了更加有趣的人类创造发明的世界。”
He rubbed his hands.
他搓着双手。
For, of course, they didn't content themselves with merely hatching out embryos; any cow could do that.
他们当然不满足于只是孕育胚胎，任何一头奶牛都可以做得到那个。
'We also predestine and condition. '
“我们还进行命运规划和培育。”
'We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future…’
“我们将试管中的婴儿培育成社会化的个体，培育成阿尔法或是埃普斯隆，或是未来的下水道工人或未来的......”
He was going to say future World Controllers, but correcting himself, said 'future Directors of Hatcheries' instead.
他本想说“未来的世界主宰”，但他改口说的是“未来的生育与培育中心的主任”。
The DHC acknowledged the compliment with a smile.
生育与培育中心的主任微笑着接受了这一赞美。
They were passing Metre 320 on Rack 11.
他们正经过11号架子的第320米处。
A young Beta-Minus mechanic was busy with screw-driver and spanner on the blood-surrogate pump of a passing bottle.
一个年轻的次等贝塔技术工人正忙着用螺丝刀和扳手对经过的瓶子的替代血液离心泵进行调整。
The hum of the electric motor deepened by fractions of a tone as he turned the nuts.
随着他将螺丝逐渐旋紧，电动马达嗡嗡嗡的声音越来越深沉。
Down, down…A final twist, a glance at the revolution counter, and he was done.
低点，再低点……最后拧一下，然后瞧一眼旋转器，大功告成。
He moved two paces down the line and began the same process on the next pump.
他往流水线挪了两步，对下一个离心泵进行同样的操作。
'Reducing the number of revolutions per minute,' Mr Foster explained. 'The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen.'
“通过减少每分钟的转数，”弗斯特先生解释道，“替代血液的循环就会慢下来，从而以较长的间歇流经肺部，胚胎就得到较少的氧气。”
'Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par.'
“而氧气不足是让胚胎发育不良的最佳手段。”
Again he rubbed his hands.
他又搓了搓双手。
'But why do you want to keep the embryo below par?' asked an ingenuous student.
“但为什么要让胚胎发育不良呢？”一个单纯的学生问道。
'Ass!' said the Director, breaking a long silence. 'Hasn't it occurred to you that an Epsilon embryo must have an Epsilon environment as well as an Epsilon heredity?'
“笨蛋！” 沉默许久的主任突然发话，“难道你就想不到，一个埃普斯隆的胚胎必须有一个埃普斯隆的环境和埃普斯隆的资质吗？”
It evidently hadn't occurred to him. He was covered with confusion.
显然，学生没有想到这一点。他的脸上写满了迷惑。
'The lower the caste,' said Mr Foster, 'the shorter the oxygen.'
“人种越低贱，”弗斯特先生说道，“氧气供应就越少。”
'The first organ affected was the brain. After that the skeleton. '
“第一个受影响的器官就是大脑，接着就是骨骼。”
'At seventy per cent of normal oxygen you got dwarfs. At less than seventy, eyeless monsters.'
“正常供应70%的氧气，你可以培育出侏儒。低于70%的话就会培育出没有眼睛的畸形儿。”
'Who are no use at all,' concluded Mr Foster.
“他们根本毫无用处。”弗斯特先生总结道。
Whereas (his voice became confidential and eager), if they could discover a technique for shortening the period of maturation, what a triumph, what a benefaction to Society!
而如果他们能发明一种缩短成熟期的技术（他的声音变得隐密而热切），那将会是莫大的成功，是对社会做出的伟大贡献！
'Consider the horse.'
“想想马吧。”
They considered it.
他们就开始想马。
Mature at six; the elephant at ten. While at thirteen a man is not yet sexually mature; and is only fully grown at twenty.
马六岁就成熟，大象十岁成熟；而一个人类到了十三岁，还没有性成熟，要等到二十岁才算完全长大。
Hence, of course, that fruit of delayed development, the human intelligence.
当然，延迟发育的好处就是人类拥有智慧。
'But in Epsilons,' said Mr Foster very justly, 'we don't need human intelligence.'
“但在埃普斯隆身上，”弗斯特先生义正言辞地说道，“我们不需要人类的智慧。”
Didn't need and didn't get it.
不需要，也不会得到。
But though the Epsilon mind was mature at ten, the Epsilon body was not fit to work till eighteen.
但是，虽然埃普斯隆的思想十岁时就成熟，他们的身体要长到18岁才适合劳动。
Long years of superfluous and wasted immaturity.
长年的多余的不成熟时期就这么白白浪费掉了。
If the physical development could be speeded up till it was as quick, say, as a cow's, what an enormous saving to the Community!
如果身体的发育能被加速到，比方说，像奶牛的发育一样快的话，对集体来说，那将是多大的节约啊！
'Enormous!' murmured the students.
“的确很大！”那些学生喃喃地念叨着。
Mr Foster's enthusiasm was infectious.
弗斯特先生的热情感染了他们。
Their wanderings through the crimson twilight had brought them to the neighbourhood of Metre 170 on Rack 9.
他们穿过深红色的昏暗光线，来到九号架子第170米旁。
From this point onwards Rack 9 was enclosed and the bottles performed the remainder of their journey in a kind of tunnel, interrupted here and there by openings two or three metres wide.
从这里开始，九号架子被封闭起来，在接下来的行程中，那些瓶子形成了一条隧道，每隔两三米就有一个开口。
'Heat conditioning,' said Mr Foster.
“高温培育。”弗斯特先生说。
Hot tunnels alternated with cool tunnels. Coolness was wedded to discomfort in the form of hard X-rays.
热管与冷管交错排布，寒冷与强X光造成的不适结合在一起。
By the time they were decanted the embryos had a horror of cold.
当胚胎出瓶时会很怕冷。
They were predestined to emigrate to the tropics, to be miners and acetate silk spinners and steel workers.
按照安排，他们将被分派到热带地区，去当矿工，醋酸丝纺织工人和炼钢工人。
Later on their minds would be made to endorse the judgement of their bodies.
然后他们的意识会接受培育，以认同他们身体的感受。
'We condition them to thrive on heat,' concluded Mr Foster. 'Our colleagues upstairs will teach them to love it.'
“我们培育它们能在高温下茁壮成长，”弗斯特先生总结道，“而我们楼上的同事会教导他们去热爱它。”
'And that,' put in the Director sententiously, 'that is the secret of happiness and virtue—liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.'
主任语重心长地说道：“而这就是快乐和美德的秘密——热爱你必须去做的事情。培育的目标就是：让人们热爱他们无法逃避的社会使命。”
Mr Foster was left in the Decanting Room.
弗斯特先生被留在出瓶室里。
The DHC and his students stepped into the nearest lift and were carried up to the fifth floor.
生育与培育中心的主任和他的学生们走进最近的电梯，来到五楼。
'INFANT NURSERIES. NEO-PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING ROOMS' announced the notice board.
门牌上写着：育儿所新巴普洛夫培育室。
The nurses stiffened to attention as the DHC came in.
生育与培育中心的主任进来时，几个护士立正敬礼。
'Set out the books,' he said curtly.
“把书摆好。” 他简扼地说道。
In silence the nurses obeyed his command.
那几个护士默默地遵守命令。
Between the rose bowls the books were duly set out—a row of nursery quartos opened invitingly each at some gaily-coloured image of beast or fish or bird.
在玫瑰花碗之间整齐地摆好书——一排四开本的幼儿读本打开着，上面印着格外招人喜爱的鸟兽鱼虫的彩色图片。
'Now bring in the children.'
“现在把孩子们带进来。”
They hurried out of the room and returned in a minute or two, each pushing a kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, on all its four wire-netted shelves, with eight-month-old babies, all exactly alike (a Bokanovsky Group, it was evident) and all (since their caste was Delta) dressed in khaki.
她们匆忙走出房间，一两分钟后回来了，每个人推着一架高高的小型升降机，上面有好几个四面围着铁丝网的架子，里面全是八个月大的婴儿，全都长得一模一样（显然是一组波卡夫斯基多胞胎），全部都穿着黄褐色的衣服（因为他们的级别是德尔塔）。
'Put them down on the floor.'
“把他们卸下来。”
The infants were unloaded.
那些婴儿被卸了下来。
'Now turn them so that they can see the flowers and books.'
“把他们转过身，这样他们可以看到鲜花和书本。”
Turned, the babies at once fell silent, then began to crawl towards those clusters of sleek colours, those shapes so gay and brilliant on the white pages.
那些婴儿被转过身，立刻安静下来，然后开始朝那些亮丽的色彩斑斓的花瓣和白纸上鲜艳活泼的图案爬过去。
As they approached, the sun came out of a momentary eclipse behind a cloud.
他们爬近时，太阳暂时从乌云后面露出来。
The roses flamed up as though with a sudden passion from within; a new and profound significance seemed to suffuse the shining pages of the books.
那些玫瑰似乎绽放出内在的激情，那些闪闪发光的书页似乎弥漫散发出新的深奥含义。
From the ranks of the crawling babies came little squeals of excitement, gurgles and twitterings of pleasure.
那些正蹒跚爬行的婴儿们兴奋地尖叫着，开心得咯咯咯地笑个不停。
The Director rubbed his hands. 'Excellent!' he said. 'It might almost have been done on purpose.'
主人搓着双手，“很好！”他说道，“简直就是量身定制的安排。”
The swiftest crawlers were already at their goal.
爬得最快的几个婴儿已经来到了终点。
Small hands reached out uncertainly, touched, grasped, unpetalling the transfigured roses, crumpling the illuminated pages of the books.
他们漫无目的地伸出小手，触摸着、紧抓着和撕扯着变形的玫瑰花，那些闪闪发光的书页被揉成一团。
The Director waited until all were happily busy. Then, 'Watch carefully,' he said.
主任等到所有的孩子都玩得不亦乐乎时，开口说道：“仔细看好了。”
And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal.
然后，他举起手发出信号。
The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever.
站在房间另一头的开关面板旁边的护士长拉下一个小小的拉杆。
There was a violent explosion.
一声剧烈的爆炸声响起。
Shriller and ever shriller,a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded.
然后是尖利的警报声，声音越来越尖，几乎让人发疯。
The children started, screamed; their faces were distorted with terror.
那些孩子被吓得哇哇大哭，脸蛋因为恐惧而变得扭曲。
'And now,'the Director shouted (for the noise was deafening), 'now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock.'
“现在,”主任高喊着（因为噪音震耳欲聋）,“现在我们开始用轻微强度的电击进行培育。”
He waved his hand again, and the Head Nurse pressed a second lever.
他再次挥了挥手，那个护士长拉下第二个拉杆。
The screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone.
那些婴儿的啼哭声突然间变了腔调。
There was something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance.
他们发出尖利的痉挛般的叫嚷，声音里透着绝望和癫狂。
Their little bodies twitched and stiffened; their limbs moved jerkily as if to the tug of unseen wires.
他们小小的身体僵硬地抽搐着，四肢似乎在看不见的丝线牵引下呆板地扭动着。
'We can electrify that whole strip of floor,' bawled the Director in explanation. 'But that's enough,'he signalled to the nurse.
“我们可以给整片地板通电。”主任高声解释道，“但这样就够了。” 他朝那位护士做了个手势。
The explosions ceased, the bells stopped ringing, the shriek of the siren died down from tone to tone into silence.
爆炸声平息了，铃声也停止了，尖利的警报声渐渐降低，直至悄无声息。
The stiffly twitching bodies relaxed, and what had become the sob and yelp of infant maniacs broadened out once more into a normal howl of ordinary terror.
那些僵硬的抽搐的身躯松弛了下来，原本失魂落魄的痛哭哀号回到了正常的出于恐惧的啼哭。
'Offer them the flowers and the books again.'
“再把鲜花和书本给他们。”
The nurses obeyed.
那些护士执行了命令。
But at the approach of the roses, at the mere sight of those gaily-coloured images of pussy and cock-a-doodle-doo and baa-baa black sheep, the infants shrank away in horror; the volume of their howling suddenly increased.
但是那些玫瑰花一凑近过来，一看到那些鲜艳的猫咪、喔喔叫的公鸡和咩咩叫的黑绵羊的图片，婴儿们就恐惧地缩开了，哭声突然间转弱为强。
'Observe,' said the Director triumphantly, 'observe.'
“看到了吗？”主任得意地说道，“看到了吗？”
Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks—already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly.
书本与噪音，鲜花与触电——已经在这些婴儿的头脑里紧密地联系在一起，经过200次相同或类似的重复教育，将会变得根深蒂固。
What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.
人类缔造的联系是大自然无力解开的。
'They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an instinctive
hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives.'
“他们长大以后将会，用心理学家的话说， ‘本能地’痛恨书本和鲜花，那将是无法改变的条件反射。他们会一辈子对书本和鲜花避之不及。”
'I see,' said the student, and was silent, lost in admiration.
“我懂了。”那个学生说道，然后默不做声，崇拜得五体投地。
「作者简介」
阿道司·赫胥黎 (Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963)，英国哲学家、作家，大名鼎鼎的「赫胥黎」家族后人——他的祖父就是「进化论」代表人物托马斯·赫胥黎。
阿道司·赫胥以一等荣誉学位毕业于牛津大学英语文学专业，后移居美国，在美生活20余年，直至1963年逝世。他一生著书约50部，涵盖散文、短篇小说、诗歌、电影剧本以及非虚构类文学作品等等。他曾被七次提名「诺贝尔文学奖」，也被认为是当时最杰出的知识分子之一。
这部《美丽新世界》使他名垂青史。
「乌托邦(Utopia) 」这个词语意为「理想中的完美社会」，出自英国空想社会主义学者托马斯·莫尔的同名著作，它寄托了人类对未来的美好想象。但近代以来，两次世界大战和科技的迅猛发展所带来的后果改变了人们对未来的幻想，知识分子开始重新审视人类社会， 进而抨击现实、忧虑未来的「反乌托邦(dystopia) 」文学应运而生——《美丽新世界》就是在这样的背景下创作的。
在科技飞速发展，凶猛地推搡着人类社会踉跄前行的今天，「反乌托邦」类文学和影视作品也迎来了空前的繁荣——这背后，是有先见之明者不无绝望的担忧。
欢迎来到咕哒镇！