反击“毁灭麻木症”:勒克莱齐奥、洛佩兹和席娃作品中的信息与悲情

Countering “the Anesthesia of Destruction”:Information and Pathos in the Work of J. M. G. Le Clézio,Barry Lopez and Vandana Shiva

本文主要研究一种麻木症,即感觉的迟钝性,它产生于人脑接收关于事故、悲剧事件或者大灾大难的信息的时刻,并探究其社会和环境成因。印度社会与环境活动家范达娜·席娃称其为"毁灭麻木症",意指人类在面对毁灭的信息时有停止感受的倾向,从而变得麻木不仁。研究这种反应,或者说研究这种没有反应的反应事关重大,因为无论我们讨论的是人类的痛苦还是自然界发生的事情,如何向我们传达毁灭信息,与我们在这个世界上如何思考和行动是息息相关的。本文以席娃的"毁灭麻木症"为理论依据,具体分析了勒克莱齐奥的《飙车及其他社会新闻》和巴里·洛佩兹的《加勒比海光作用》里的短篇小说。这些文学范例均来自于这样的作家,他们不遗余力地把小说当成一种途径,用来启发读者认真思考社会责任和介入心理的问题。

This article studies a type of numbness, a dulling of sensitivity, that occurs when the human mind receives particular kinds of information concerning accidents, tragic events or large-scale calamities. It particularly explores the causes and the social and environmental results of this numbness. The latter has been called 'the anesthesia of destruction' by Indian social and environmental activist Vandana Shiva, referring to the human tendency to turn off our feelings and become anesthetized by information about destruction. The research into this reaction, or lack of reaction, matters a great deal since how the information about these issues is presented to us,whether we're talking about human suffering or what is happening in the natural world, has everything to do with how we think and act in the world. The article uses Shiva's descriptor of the feeling of indifference and numbness,'the anesthesia of destruction,'to examine stories in The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts by J.M.G. Le Cle zio's and Light Action in the Caribbean: Stories by Barry Lopez. These are literary examples from authors deeply involved in the effort to use fiction as a way of making readers think more seriously about social responsibility and the psychology of engagement.