Chapter4 2017.3.24
这一章才正儿八经地来介绍Winston的工作了,之前我还对他抱有英雄的幻想,现在看来这个幻想是要破灭了。他是一个有良知的体制内部人员,并且是一个直接把谎言编纂成真理的人,现在看来他记日记不是为了揭露些什么,不过是他自己在用自己仅可以做到的方式来抵抗这个扭曲的社会。
Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain. 之前对1984这个时间抱有疑问,现在才知道一切都是可改动的,faded away这个词,形象地反映了人们被洗脑的过程……
Winston was good at this kind of thing. On occasion he had even been entrusted with the rectification of 'The Times' leading articles, which were written entirely in Newspapers.看到这里可以看出来Winston是一个对政治比较敏感的人,他的良知也许正是出自于他对这个社会的了解,他的知识以及他所从事的工作都会使他的内心陷入挣扎。从某种程度来说,他既是这个灰暗体制的抗议者,又是一名不折不扣的捍卫者。而日记不过是他用以排遣内心痛苦的一种发泄方式。
Withers, however, was already an UNPERSON. He did not exist: he had never existed. 这里的Unperson给人一种举重若轻的感觉,一个词就把一本书的部分内容给概括了。
He had no subjects of conversation except the principles of Ingsoc, and no aim in life except the defeat of the Eurasian enemy and the hunting-down of spies, saboteurs, thought-criminals, and traitors generally.这里的no…except…可以拿来多用,尤其用强调语气时。
It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones. Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar. 这段话算是对本章的一个总结吧,权威即真理。struck一词和前面的descend一词一样,很生动。
这一章内容虽然不多,但是刚开始要勾画主人公的工作环境还是有些困难,有些单词并不陌生,但拼凑在一起就没法想象了,总有把电影看了的冲动……