加州：美国的梦想，还是梦魇

America's dream, or nightmare

 
A classic history of the state that allows Americans to see their future
一部可以让美国人看到他们未来的加州历史的经典之作

IF IT were a country, California would be one with more people than Canada and an economy the size of China's. Its scientists shoot, with their rockets, for the moon; its films spread Hollywood's culture around the globe; its athletes break world records; even its wines now rank with the best of France's. Somehow [adv. 不知何故], it is always at the cutting edge, be it in the flower-power [“权力归花儿”]days of the 1960s or the dotcom boom of the 1990s. As Kevin Starr points out in his history of the state, California has long been “one of the prisms [n. 棱镜] through which the American people, for better and for worse, could glimpse their future”.

如果它是一个国家，那么加利福尼亚州将是一个人口超过加拿大，而经济规模与中国相当的强国。它的科学家将火箭发射到月球；它的电影将好莱坞的文化传播到全世界；它的运动健儿打破了世界纪录；它出产的美酒可与法国的顶级佳酿并驾齐驱。但不知何故，它却总处在一种如履薄冰的状态，不管是20世纪60年代那个“权力归花儿”的时代还是90年代准时到来的经济繁荣时期。正如凯文.斯塔在他为加州撰写的历史中所指出的，长期以来，加州一直像一个棱镜，“通过它，美国人可以窥见自己的未来，不管是好的还是坏的。”

Mr Starr is too good a historian to offer any pat [adj.合适的，恰当的] explanation; instead, he concentrates on the extraordinary［特别的] array of people and events that have led from the mythical 1 land of Queen Calafia, through the rule of Spain and Mexico, and on to the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger (what other state in America would have elected an iron-pumping film star with an Austrian accent?). Moreover, he does so with such elegance 2 and humor that his book is a joy to read.

斯塔先生是一位非常优秀的历史学家。他不会解释这一说法，相反，他将笔墨集中在那些特别的历史事件和人物的排列上。这段历史，从英女王管辖下的这块神奇土地开始，经历了西班牙和墨西哥人的统治，再到今天阿诺德.施瓦辛格治理下的州政府（美国还有那一个州拥有这样一位带着奥地利口音的以演硬汉著称的明星州长呢？）。而且，斯塔先生简练幽默的文笔更为读者带来了阅读的乐趣。

What emerges is not all Californian sunshine and light. Think back to the savage 3 violence that accompanied the 1849 Gold Rush; or to the exclusion 4 orders against the Chinese; or to the riots[骚乱、暴动] that regularly marked industrial and social relations in San Francisco (though dictionaries prefer Bavaria [n.巴伐利亚(位于德国南部,昔时为一独立王国)] as the origin of “hoodlum”[暴徒、流氓], Mr Starr reckons it derives 5 from young men invading Chinatown with the war cry “huddle 6 them!”). California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way to statehood.

书中展现的并不仅仅是加州美好的阳光。它还让我们回想起伴随1849年的淘金热而来的野蛮的暴力，那曾经的驱逐境内中国人的事件，还有旧金山的经济危机。人们更应该铭记于心，直到1850年加入美利坚合众国之前，加利福尼亚只是一个蛮荒的西部地区。

So what tamed it? Mr Starr's answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects. He emphasizes the development of California's infrastructure 7 [基础，尤指一个组织或系统的]: the extraordinary system of aqueducts and canals that transferred water from the north of the state to the arid[干燥的] south; the development of agriculture; the spread of the railroads and freeways; and, perhaps the most important factor for today's hi-tech California, the creation of a superb[极好的; 最上等的] set of public universities.

到底是什么驯服了它？斯塔先生的答案是：伟大的人物+伟大的思想+伟大的工程。他强调了加州基础设施的发展建设：为北水南调而修建的特别的高架渠和运河系统，农业的发展，铁路和高速公路的四通八达以及大批优秀的公立大学的创建——这可能是成就今日高科技加州最重要的因素。

All this, he writes, “began with water, the sine qua non [n.必要条件, 要素]of any civilization.” He goes on cheerfully to note the “monumental damage to the environment” caused by irrigation projects that were “plagued by claims of deception 8, double-dealing and conflict of interest”: a state of affairs[事态、情势] that was fodder[饲料] for such Hollywood films as Roman Polanski's “Chinatown”.

他写道，所有这些，“来源于水，水是任何文明产生的必不可少的条件。”他还兴致高昂地提到了由“颇具争议”的灌溉工程造成的“对环境的巨大破坏”，这些都成了后来由罗曼-波兰斯基执导的好莱坞电影“唐人街”的素材。

One virtue 9 of this book is its structure. Mr Starr is never trapped by his chronological[按年代顺序排列的] framework. Instead, when the subject demands it, he manages deftly[熟练地、灵巧地] to flit back and forth 10 among the decades (throughout the book, he is particularly good on the regular outbreaks of labor 11 unrest, be it in the San Francisco dockyards[船舶修造厂] or the fields of the Central Valley). Less satisfying is his account of California's cultural progress in the 19th and 20th centuries: does he really need to invoke 12 so many long-forgotten writers to accompany such names as Jack 13 London, Frank Norris, Mark Twain or Raymond Chandler?

这本书处理得很好的一点是它的结构。斯塔先生没有被他年代顺序的框架所局限；相反，根据主题的需要，他把数十年间的事件熟练地前后穿插而未造成混乱。但有一点不太令人满意的是他对19、20世纪加州文学发展史的阐述。真的有必要引用如此多早已被遗忘的作家，来与我们早已熟知的这些名字——杰克·伦敦、弗兰克·诺里斯、马克·吐温、雷蒙德·钱德勒一起排列吗？

But that is a minor 14 criticism for a book that will become a California classic. The regret is that Mr Starr, doubtless pressed for[缺少、缺乏] space, leaves so little room—just a brief final chapter—for the implications[暗示] of the past for California's future. He poses the question that most Americans prefer to gloss 15 over[掩饰]: is California governable? “For all its impressive growth, there remains 16 a volatility 17 in the politics and governance of California, which became perfectly 18 clear to the rest of the nation in the fall of 2003 when the voters of California recalled one governor and elected another.”

但那只是对这部将成为加州经典著作的书的一个微小的批评。令人遗憾的是，显然由于空间不够，斯塔先生只在书中留下如此小的一角——非常简洁的最后一章，来用加州的过去为它的未来做一些暗示。他提出了一个大多数美国人不愿正视的问题：加州能治理好吗？尽管它有令人钦佩的发展，但它在政治上仍有不稳定因素存在，这一点，在2003年的州长竞选中，当投票者高喊着一个名字却将选票投给另一位候选者时，美国的其他各洲已经清楚看到了。

施瓦辛格面临的困难(Tough for the Terminator)

Indeed so, and Mr Starr wisely avoids making any premature 19 judgment 20 on their choice. Ills such as soaring house prices, gridlocked freeways and “embattled” public schools, combined with the budgetary problems that stem from [起源于] the tax revolt of 1978 would test to the limit any governor, even the Terminator. As Mr Starr notes, no one should cite California as an unambiguous[明确的] triumph: “There has always been something slightly bipolar about California. It was either utopia[乌托邦，理想化的地方] or dystopia, a dream or a nightmare, a hope or a broken promise—and too infrequently anything in between.”

确实如此，斯塔先生聪明地避免对他们的选择做出不成熟的评价。一系列问题如房价的一路攀升，高速公路的拥挤不堪，公立学校的处境维艰，还有早自1978年抗税运动引起的政府预算的问题，这些，对每位州长都是严峻的考验，即使是终结者，也不能例外。正如斯塔先生所指出的，没有人认为加州是毫不含糊的胜利：“总是有一些轻微的两极化的东西。或是天堂，或是地狱；或是美梦，或是梦魇；或是希望，或是破灭——但经常是这样的情况：居于两者之间，两者兼而有之。”