【TED演讲】我们能从恐惧中学到什么(2/7)

英语自学网

想象一下你是在浩瀚的太平洋上遇到了海难的水手。你有三种选择来拯救自己和难友——但是每个选择都可能有可怕的后果。你如何抉择？通过讲述捕鲸船ESSEX号的故事，小说家卡伦·汤普森·沃克给我们展示了恐惧如何推动我们的想象，如何迫使我们想象将来的可能性以及如何应对他们。

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Karen Thompson Walker
Fiction writer Karen Thompson Walker explores the connection between fear and the imagination.
【全文听写】
【HINTS】
California
Big One
The Origin of Species
Jane Eyre
The Remembrance of Things Past
Charles Darwin
Charlotte Bronte
Marcel Proust
It's easiest to see this link between fear and the imagination in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid. When I was a child, I lived in California, which is, you know, mostly a very nice place to live, but for me as a child, California could also be a little scary. I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier that hung above our dining table swing back and forth during every minor earthquake, and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping. And what we say about kids who have fears like that is that they have a vivid imagination. But at a certain point, most of us learn to leave these kinds of visions behind and grow up. We learn that there are no monsters hiding under the bed, and not every earthquake brings buildings down. But maybe it's no coincidence that some of our most creative minds fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults. The same incredible imaginations that produced "The Origin of Species," "Jane Eyre" and "The Remembrance of Things Past," also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives of Charles Darwin, Charlotte Bronte and Marcel Proust. So the question is, what can the rest of us learn about fear from visionaries and young children?我们最容易在小孩子身上看到恐惧与想象之间的这种联系，他们的的恐惧往往是极其生动的。我小时候住在加利福尼亚，你们知道，它是一个非常适合居住的地方，但对于我这样一个小孩，加利福尼亚也会有点吓人。我还记得每次发生轻微地震的时候，看着悬挂在餐桌上的吊灯来回晃动是多么地吓人。我有时会彻夜难眠，担心大地震会在我们睡着时突然袭来。我们会说像这样有恐惧感的孩子是具有丰富想象力的。但在特定的时间点，我们大多数人都学着把这些想像放下而长大。我们知道床底下并没有藏着怪物，而且并不是每次地震都会令房屋倒塌。但是我们当中的最具创造力的一些人却无法像其它成年人一样把这类恐惧抛诸脑后，或许这并不是巧合。这样的惊人想象力创造出了《物种起源》《简·爱》和《追忆似水年华》，也造成了强烈的忧虑，一直困扰着查尔斯·达尔文、夏洛特·勃朗特和马塞尔·普罗斯特的成年生活。所以，问题来了，我们其他人可以从这些远见者和小孩子身上的恐惧中学到什么？
——翻译 by 十平　　（水平有限，仅供参考）