I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories, 我想知道他们会如何露骨地以新闻的方式，

　　if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon. 在周日下午的新闻台上呈现这些经典悲剧故事。

　　I mentioned Othello; they'd not heard of it but were fascinated. 我谈到他们从未耳闻的《奥赛罗》，他们啧啧称奇。

　　I asked them to write a headline for the story. 我要求他们以奥赛罗的故事写一句头条。

　　They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter." Splashed across the headline. 他们写道，“移民因爱生恨，刺杀参议员之女”。大头条。

　　I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary. Again, a book they were enchanted to discover. 我告诉他们《包法利夫人》的故事，他们再一次感到惊异万分。

　　And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud." 他们写道，“不伦购物狂信用欺诈，出墙妇女吞砒霜”。

　　And then my favorite -- they really do have a kind of genius of their own, these guys 我最喜欢的是，这些记者真的很有才，

　　my favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King: "Sex With Mum Was Blinding." 我最喜欢的是索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯王》：“与母亲的盲目性爱”。

　　In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy, you've got the tabloid newspaper. 如果同理心的一个极端是这些八卦小报，

　　At the other end of the spectrum, you've got tragedy and tragic art. 另一个极端便是悲剧和悲剧艺术。

　　And I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit about what's happening in tragic art. 我想说的是或许我们该从悲剧艺术中学习。

　　It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He is not a loser, though he has lost. 你不会说哈姆雷特是个失败者，虽然他失败了，他却不是一个失败者。

　　And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why it's so very, very important, I think. 我想这就是悲剧所要告诉我们的，也是我认为非常重要的一点。

　　The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety, is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human. 现代社会让我们焦虑的另一个缘故是，我们除了人类以外没有其它重心。

　　We are the first society to be living in a world where we don't worship anything other than ourselves. 我们是从古至今的第一个无神社会，除了我们自己以外，我们不膜拜任何事物。

　　We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should; we've put people on the Moon, done all sorts of extraordinary things. 我们对自己评价极高，为什么不呢。我们把人送上月球，达成了许多不可思议的事。

　　And so we tend to worship ourselves. 我们习惯崇拜自己。