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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Chapter Eleven - continued
"Why?" The Provost turned towards him a still broadly grinning face. "Why? But because it's so extraordinarily2 funny."
In the cinematographic twilight3, Bernard risked a gesture which, in the past, even total darkness would hardly have emboldened4 him to make. Strong in his new importance, he put his arm around the Head Mistress's waist. It yielded, willowily. He was just about to snatch a kiss or two and perhaps a gentle pinch, when the shutters5 clicked open again.
"Perhaps we had better go on," said Miss Keate, and moved towards the door.
"And this," said the Provost a moment later, "is Hypnopaedic Control Room."
Hundreds of synthetic6 music boxes, one for each dormitory, stood ranged in shelves round three sides of the room; pigeon-holed on the fourth were the paper sound-track rolls on which the various hypnopaedic lessons were printed.
"You slip the roll in here," explained Bernard, interrupting Dr. Gaffney, "press down this switch ..."
"No, that one," corrected the Provost, annoyed.
"That one, then. The roll unwinds. The selenium cells transform the light impulses into sound waves, and ..."
"And there you are," Dr. Gaffney concluded.
"Do they read Shakespeare?" asked the Savage as they walked, on their way to the Bio-chemical Laboratories, past the School Library.
"Certainly not," said the Head Mistress, blushing.
"Our library," said Dr. Gaffney, "contains only books of reference. If our young people need distraction7, they can get it at the feelies. We don't encourage them to indulge in any solitary8 amusements."
Five bus-loads of boys and girls, singing or in a silent embracement, rolled past them over the vitrified highway.
"Just returned," explained Dr. Gaffney, while Bernard, whispering, made an appointment with the Head Mistress for that very evening, "from the Slough9 Crematorium. Death conditioning begins at eighteen months. Every tot spends two mornings a week in a Hospital for the Dying. All the best toys are kept there, and they get chocolate cream on death days. They learn to take dying as a matter of course."
"Like any other physiological10 process," put in the Head Mistress professionally.
Eight o'clock at the Savoy. It was all arranged.
On their way back to London they stopped at the Television Corporation's factory at Brentford.
"Do you mind waiting here a moment while I go and telephone?" asked Bernard.
The Savage waited and watched. The Main Day-Shift was just going off duty. Crowds of lower-caste workers were queued up in front of the monorail station-seven or eight hundred Gamma, Delta12 and Epsilon men and women, with not more than a dozen faces and statures between them. To each of them, with his or her ticket, the booking clerk pushed over a little cardboard pillbox. The long caterpillar13 of men and women moved slowly forward.
"What's in those" (remembering The Merchant of Venice) "those caskets?" the Savage enquired14 when Bernard had rejoined him.
"The day's soma ration," Bernard answered rather indistinctly; for he was masticating15 a piece of Benito Hoover's chewing-gum. "They get it after their work's over. Four half-gramme tablets. Six on Saturdays."
He took John's arm affectionately and they walked back towards the helicopter.
Lenina came singing into the Changing Room.
"You seem very pleased with yourself," said Fanny.
"I am pleased," she answered. Zip! "Bernard rang up half an hour ago." Zip, zip! She stepped out of her shorts. "He has an unexpected engagement." Zip! "Asked me if I'd take the Savage to the feelies this evening. I must fly." She hurried away towards the bathroom.
"She's a lucky girl," Fanny said to herself as she watched Lenina go.
There was no envy in the comment; good-natured Fanny was merely stating a fact. Lenina was lucky; lucky in having shared with Bernard a generous portion of the Savage's immense celebrity16, lucky in reflecting from her insignificant17 person the moment's supremely18 fashionable glory. Had not the Secretary of the Young Women's Fordian Association asked her to give a lecture about her experiences? Had she not been invited to the Annual Dinner of the Aphroditeum Club? Had she not already appeared in the Feelytone News-visibly, audibly and tactually appeared to countless19 millions all over the planet?
Hardly less flattering had been the attentions paid her by conspicuous20 individuals. The Resident World Controller's Second Secretary had asked her to dinner and breakfast. She had spent one week-end with the Ford11 Chief-Justice, and another with the Arch-Community-Songster of Canterbury. The President of the Internal and External Secretions21 Corporation was perpetually on the phone, and she had been to Deau-ville with the Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Europe.
"It's wonderful, of course. And yet in a way," she had confessed to Fanny, "I feel as though I were getting something on false pretences22. Because, of course, the first thing they all want to know is what it's like to make love to a Savage. And I have to say I don't know." She shook her head. "Most of the men don't believe me, of course. But it's true. I wish it weren't," she added sadly and sighed. "He's terribly good-looking; don't you think so?"
"But doesn't he like you?" asked Fanny.
"Sometimes I think he does and sometimes I think he doesn't. He always does his best to avoid me; goes out of the room when I come in; won't touch me; won't even look at me. But sometimes if I turn round suddenly, I catch him staring; and then-well, you know how men look when they like you."
Yes, Fanny knew.
"I can't make it out," said Lenina.
She couldn't make it out; and not only was bewildered; was also rather upset.
"Because, you see, Fanny, / like him."
Liked him more and more. Well, now there'd be a real chance, she thought, as she scented24 herself after her bath. Dab25, dab, dab-a real chance. Her high spirits overflowed26 in a song.
"Hug me till you drug me, honey;
The scent23 organ was playing a delightfully28 refreshing29 Herbal Capric-cio-rippling arpeggios of thyme and lavender, of rosemary, basil, myrtle, tarragon; a series of daring modulations through the spice keys into ambergris; and a slow return through sandalwood, camphor, cedar30 and newmown hay (with occasional subtle touches of discord-a whiff of kidney pudding, the faintest suspicion of pig's dung) back to the simple aromatics31 with which the piece began. The final blast of thyme died away; there was a round of applause; the lights went up. In the synthetic music machine the sound-track roll began to unwind. It was a trio for hyper-violin, super-cello and oboe-surrogate that now filled the air with its agreeable languor32. Thirty or forty bars-and then, against this instrumental background, a much more than human voice began to warble; now throaty, now from the head, now hollow as a flute33, now charged with yearning34 harmonics, it effortlessly passed from Gaspard's Forster's low record on the very frontiers of musical tone to a trilled bat-note high above the highest C to which (in 1770, at the Ducal opera of Parma, and to the astonishment35 of Mozart) Lucrezia Ajugari, alone of all the singers in history, once piercingly gave utterance36.
Sunk in their pneumatic stalls, Lenina and the Savage sniffed37 and listened. It was now the turn also for eyes and skin. The house lights went down; fiery38 letters stood out solid and as though self-supported in the darkness. THREE WEEKS IN A HELICOPTER . AN ALL-SUPER-SINGING, SYNTHETIC-TALKING, COLOURED, STEREOSCOPIC FEELY. WITH SYNCHRONIZED39 SCENT-ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENT.
"Take hold of those metal knobs on the arms of your chair," whispered Lenina. "Otherwise you won't get any of the feely effects." The Savage did as he was told.
Those fiery letters, meanwhile, had disappeared; there were ten seconds of complete darkness; then suddenly, dazzling and incomparably more solid-looking than they would have seemed in actual flesh and blood, far more real than reality, there stood the stereoscopic images, locked in one another's arms, of a gigantic negro and a golden-haired young brachycephalic Beta-Plus female.
The Savage started. That sensation on his lips! He lifted a hand to his mouth; the titillation40 ceased; let his hand fall back on the metal knob; it began again. The scent organ, meanwhile, breathed pure musk41. Ex-piringly, a sound-track super-dove cooed "Oo-ooh"; and vibrating only thirty-two times a second, a deeper than African bass42 made answer: "Aa-aah." "Ooh-ah! Ooh-ah!" the stereoscopic lips came together again, and once more the facial erogenous zones of the six thousand spectators in the Alhambra tingled43 with almost intolerable galvanic pleasure. "Ooh ..."
The plot of the film was extremely simple. A few minutes after the first Oohs and Aahs (a duet having been sung and a little love made on that famous bearskin, every hair of which-the Assistant Predestinator was perfectly44 right-could be separately and distinctly felt), the negro had a helicopter accident, fell on his head. Thump45! what a twinge through the forehead! A chorus of ow's and aie's went up from the audience.
The concussion46 knocked all the negro's conditioning into a cocked hat. He developed for the Beta blonde an exclusive and maniacal47 passion. She protested. He persisted. There were struggles, pursuits, an assault on a rival, finally a sensational48 kidnapping. The Beta blond was ravished away into the sky and kept there, hovering49, for three weeks in a wildly anti-social tete-a-tete with the black madman. Finally, after a whole series of adventures and much aerial acrobacy three handsome young Alphas succeeded in rescuing her. The negro was packed off to an Adult Re-conditioning Centre and the film ended happily and decorously, with the Beta blonde becoming the mistress of all her three rescuers. They interrupted themselves for a moment to sing a synthetic quartet, with full super-orchestral accompaniment and gardenias50 on the scent organ. Then the bearskin made a final appearance and, amid a blare of saxophones, the last stereoscopic kiss faded into darkness, the last electric titillation died on the lips like a dying moth51 that quivers, quivers, ever more feebly, ever more faintly, and at last is quiet, quite still.
But for Lenina the moth did not completely die. Even after the lights had gone up, while they were shuffling52 slowly along with the crowd towards the lifts, its ghost still fluttered against her lips, still traced fine shuddering53 roads of anxiety and pleasure across her skin. Her cheeks were flushed. She caught hold of the Savage's arm and pressed it, limp, against her side. He looked down at her for a moment, pale, pained, desiring, and ashamed of his desire. He was not worthy54, not ... Their eyes for a moment met. What treasures hers promised! A queen's ransom55 of temperament56. Hastily he looked away, disengaged his imprisoned57 arm. He was obscurely terrified lest she should cease to be something he could feel himself unworthy of. "I don't think you ought to see things like that," he said, making haste to transfer from Lenina herself to the surrounding circumstances the blame for any past or possible future lapse58 from perfection. "Things like what, John?" "Like this horrible film."
"Horrible?" Lenina was genuinely astonished. "But I thought it was lovely."
"It was base," he said indignantly, "it was ignoble59." She shook her head. "I don't know what you mean." Why was he so queer? Why did he go out of his way to spoil things? In the taxicopter he hardly even looked at her. Bound by strong vows60 that had never been pronounced, obedient to laws that had long since ceased to run, he sat averted61 and in silence. Sometimes, as though a finger had plucked at some taut62, almost breaking string, his whole body would shake with a sudden nervous start. The taxicopter landed on the roof of Lenina's apartment house. "At last," she thought exultantly63 as she stepped out of the cab. At last-even though he had been so queer just now. Standing64 under a lamp, she peered into her hand mirror. At last. Yes, her nose was a bit shiny. She shook the loose powder from her puff65. While he was paying off the taxi-there would just be time. She rubbed at the shininess, thinking: "He's terribly good-looking. No need for him to be shy like Bernard. And yet ... Any other man would have done it long ago. Well, now at last." That fragment of a face in the little round mirror suddenly smiled at her.
"Good-night," said a strangled voice behind her. Lenina wheeled round. He was standing in the doorway66 of the cab, his eyes fixed67, staring; had evidently been staring all this time while she was powdering her nose, waiting-but what for? or hesitating, trying to make up his mind, and all the time thinking, thinking-she could not imagine what extraordinary thoughts. "Good-night, Lenina," he repeated, and made a strange grimacing68 attempt to smile.
"But, John ... I thought you were ... I mean, aren't you? ..." He shut the door and bent69 forward to say something to the driver. The cab shot up into the air.
Looking down through the window in the floor, the Savage could see Lenina's upturned face, pale in the bluish light of the lamps. The mouth was open, she was calling. Her foreshortened figure rushed
away from him; the diminishing square of the roof seemed to be falling through the darkness.
Five minutes later he was back in his room. From its hiding-place he took out his mouse-nibbled volume, turned with religious care its stained and crumbled70 pages, and began to read Othello. Othello, he remembered, was like the hero of Three Weeks in a Helicopter-a black man.
Drying her eyes, Lenina walked across the roof to the lift. On her way down to the twenty-seventh floor she pulled out her soma bottle. One gramme, she decided71, would not be enough; hers had been more than a one-gramme affliction. But if she took two grammes, she ran the risk of not waking up in time to-morrow morning. She compromised and, into her cupped left palm, shook out three half-gramme tablets.
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1
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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synthetic
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| adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品 | |
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distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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delta
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| n.（流的）角洲 | |
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caterpillar
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| n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫 | |
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14
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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15
masticating
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| v.咀嚼( masticate的现在分词 )；粉碎，磨烂 | |
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celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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secretions
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| n.分泌（物）( secretion的名词复数 ) | |
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pretences
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| n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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25
dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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coma
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| n.昏迷，昏迷状态 | |
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delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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aromatics
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| n.芳香植物( aromatic的名词复数 )；芳香剂，芳香药物 | |
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languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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38
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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synchronized
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| 同步的 | |
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titillation
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| n.搔痒，愉快；搔痒感 | |
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musk
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| n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫 | |
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42
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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43
tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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45
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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46
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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maniacal
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| adj.发疯的 | |
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sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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49
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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gardenias
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| n.栀子属植物，栀子花( gardenia的名词复数 ) | |
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51
moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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52
shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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53
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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54
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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59
ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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exultantly
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| adv.狂欢地，欢欣鼓舞地 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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65
puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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68
grimacing
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| v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的现在分词 ) | |
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69
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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70
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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