经济学人198:法国政治小说 纯属巧合?

 　　French political fiction

　　法国政治小说
　　What if it were true?
　　如有雷同，纯属巧合？
　　When truth really is stranger than fiction
　　事实远比小说离奇
　　ONE pleasure of the French summer is the publication of political fiction in media usually busy with the soap opera of real political life. During the holidays, reporters let their imaginations run wild. Improbable alliances, liaisons 1 and betrayals are invented. Le Figaro, a conservative newspaper, ran a 17-part fictional 2 series in August entitled “Hollande departs”.L'Opinion, another daily, ran a 14-part series originally called “The kidnapping of Arnaud Montebourg”.
　　法国夏日的乐趣之一---媒体相传的政治小说通常都是取自于真正政治闹剧或政界风云。在假日里，记者们让自己自由驰骋在想象的大草原上。他们构造出不可能的联盟、伙伴和对手。保守派报刊费加罗报在8月连载了一部17期的系列小说《奥德朗的离开》。另一份观点日报则连载了一部14期的原创小说《阿诺德·蒙特博的绑架》。
　　法国政治.jpg
　　Other countries turn out political drama, from America's “House of Cards” to Denmark's “Borgen”. But the French seem keen on fiction based on real characters. In recent years directors have made films about serving, or recently active, politicians, including “La conquete”, a fictional portrayal 3 of the rise to power of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president. “Quai d'Orsay” was an entertaining glimpse into theatrics at the foreign office under a fictitious 4 Dominique de Villepin, a former foreign minister.
　　从美国的《纸牌屋》到丹麦的《博根》，其他国家也有政治题材的电视剧。但是似乎只有法国尤其喜欢基于真实人物的作品。近些年导演们只做了一些关于服役、近期政治动作或政客的电影，包括《征服》。这部电影虚构的描述了前总统尼古拉斯·萨尔科齐的崛起。《奥尔赛码头》则是对虚构的前外交部长多米尼克·德维尔潘手下的外交部做了一个有趣的窥探。
　　Television does it too. A French series, “L'Ecole du Pouvoir”, followed five characters who met at the elite 5 Ecole Nationale d'Administration in the late 1970s, ahead of the election of a Socialist 6 president, Fran?ois Mitterrand, in 1981. One seemed rather like Fran?ois Hollande, the incumbent 7; another resembled Ségolène Royal, his classmate, former partner and defeated 2007 presidential candidate.
　　电视媒体也很热衷政治剧。一部名为《学院权利》的电视剧讲述了19世纪70年代末在精英学校国家行政学院相遇的5名主角的故事。剧中背景为1981年，正值社会主义总统弗朗索瓦·密特朗当选前。其中一名主角就像现总统弗朗索瓦·奥朗德，另一个就像他的同学塞格琳·罗雅尔。罗亚尔也是奥朗德的前女友，但她在2007年总统候选人选举中落选。
　　French publishers also like the stuff, although more often as apocalyptic 8 futurism. Recent titles include “La nuit de la faillite”, a racy thriller 9 by Gaspard Koenig, a former speechwriter for Christine Lagarde when she was finance minister, in which he imagines a New York trader provoking a default on French sovereign debt. Nicolas Baverez, a lawyer and writer, recently published “Lettres béninoises”, a novel set in a dystopian 2040 France.
　　法国出版商也很喜欢这种题材，尽管这类作品经常被当做世界末日的预警。最近一些作品名，例如加斯帕德·科尼戈的生动惊悚片《夜间破产》。他是克里斯蒂娜·拉加德就任财政部长期间的前演讲稿攥稿人。在影片中他想象纽约以拖欠国债来挑衅法国。律师兼作家尼古拉斯·巴维莱兹最近出版了一部小说《贝宁的文学》，其背景设定在2040反乌托邦的法国。
　　Why the passion for political fiction? The truth in French politics is often as strange as, or stranger than, such musings. A summer 2013 series in Le Figaro imagined Mr Valls as prime minister; in 2014 it happened. And in “The kidnapping of Arnaud Montebourg”, also penned by Mr Koenig, a group of libertarians snatch the former minister to stop him damaging France. The series was still running when Mr Montebourg was evicted 10 from the government for criticising its economic policy
　　为何媒体如此热衷于政治小说呢？事实上，法国政治经常与这种小说思路一样奇特，有时甚至更甚。2013年夏天《奥朗德的离开》中虚构瓦尔斯担任总理，结果2014年这变为现实。在科尼戈所著的《阿诺德·蒙特博的绑架》中，一群自由主义者抓了前任部长以阻止他继续破坏法国。这部剧集在蒙特伯格因批评政府的经济政策而被逐出政府时仍在播映。