The California dream
加州之梦
How it was back then
曾几何时
Aug 6th 2009
From The Economist print edition
Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950-1963. By Kevin Starr. Oxford University Press; 576 pages; $34.95 and £19.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
《金色之梦：加州，在那物华天宝的年代（1950-1963）》 凯文•斯塔尔著，牛津大学出版社，576页，售价：$34.95（£19.99），购买请登录Amazon.com和 Amazon.co.uk
THESE days the California dream looks a little tarnished. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s government is dysfunctional and the legislature gridlocked. Unemployment is high, public schooling poor and the physical infrastructure in dire need of renewal.
近来，加州之梦失去了一些往日的光彩。阿诺德•施瓦辛格执掌的州政府办事不力，立法机构举步维艰。 失业率居高不下，公立学校捉襟见肘，实体基建急需重建。
But that is now. By contrast Kevin Starr’s eighth offering in his epic series, “Americans and the California Dream”, covers a period when the dream was at its most persuasive. By 1963 the “Golden State” was overtaking New York to become the most populous in the nation, with Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown proudly declaring that “the balance of the most powerful nation of the world will shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
但今时毕竟不同往日，在史诗巨著《美国人与加州之梦》系列丛书的第八辑中，凯文•斯塔尔所描述的加州正值蒸蒸日上的年代。早在1963年，这个“黄金之州”就已经逐步超越纽约州成为国内人口最多的州，时任州长的埃德蒙•帕特•布朗曾自豪的宣称“世界上最强大国家的天平从此将从大西洋偏向太平洋”。
In fact, the dream had its flaws even then. As Mr Starr points out, the state’s minorities, chiefly African-Americans, Hispanics, Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos, were all victims of a racism that was both personal and institutional (the Los Angeles Police Department was a shockingly corrupt example). Moreover, the state’s growth in population after the Second World War was producing horrible signs of environmental damage, though drivers and carmakers alike were reluctant to admit that the smog over Los Angeles was the result of automobile emissions.
事实上，即便是在那欣欣向荣的年代，加州之梦也并非完美无暇。正如斯塔尔先生所指出的那样，该州的少数族裔（主要由非洲裔、西班牙裔、日本裔、华裔及菲律宾裔组成）一直饱受种族主义之害，这种种族偏见不仅反映在个人思想上，同时也体现在政府机构办事准则上（洛杉矶警察局就是这样一个很好的是非不分的例子）。不仅如此。虽然车主与汽车制造商们都不愿承认洛杉矶上空的滚滚黑烟是由于汽车尾气造成的，但事实上，伴随着加州二战后人口大增长的却是一幕幕触目惊心的环境遭破坏的画面。
Yet the balance was positive: racial discrimination met with judicial defeat; pollution increased support for the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth; and a series of great figures—in politics, business, the arts and even sport—made their mark on the 20th century. Part of the reason was the accident of history. California’s huge defense and aerospace industry grew first from the Second World War, then from the Korean war and the cold war (and, beyond the scope of this book, finally the Vietnam war). In tandem came some of the world’s finest research institutes, many of them part of the public-sector and multi-campus University of California. Add the magic of Hollywood and later the sound of the Beach Boys’ pop and cool West Coast jazz: no wonder the world thought California to be especially blessed.
但是，情况已有好转：司法审判对种族歧视严惩不贷；环境污染唤起了人们对塞拉俱乐部及地球之友的支持；多位政治、商业、文艺甚至是体育界人士都在20世纪崭露头角。这种改变，部分要归功于历史上的机缘巧合。加州庞大的国防和航空工业首先兴起于二战时期，随后从朝鲜战争、冷战（到最后的越南战争，不过并不在此书讨论之列）时期逐步发展壮大的。一些世界上最好的科研机构都纷纷落户加州，其中有很多都是公共部门以及拥有众多校区的加州大学的分支机构。再加上好莱坞的神奇魅力，以及后来“沙滩男孩”的流行音乐和西海岸冷爵士乐的话，难怪那时全世界都认为加州太受上帝的眷顾了。
All this Mr Starr relates in an erudite but lively style that happily stops this long book from becoming indigestible. His technique is to describe history through its players, with all their foibles. The chapter on Big Sur, for instance, not only notes the sexual activities of Henry Miller but points to the presence of Emil White, “a Polish-Jewish refugee who lived down the road on Highway 1 and acted as factotum, gatekeeper and designated substitute seducer of the women who came to Big Sur to seduce Henry Miller and found him, temporarily, a happily married man.”
斯塔尔先生博学多才却又生动活泼的叙事风格使得这本鸿篇巨著读起来不至于味同嚼蜡。他的诀窍就是通过相关历史人物及其性格怪癖来描述历史。例如在“大苏尔”一章中，不仅记述了亨利•比勒的风流韵事，同时也提到了伊密尔•怀特——“一个住在1号公路末端的波兰裔犹太人难民，以做杂工和看门人为生，对于那些特地来大苏尔勾引亨利•比勒却最后发现那时的他正沉浸在快乐婚姻生活的女人来说，伊密尔也是一个候补人选。“
At times the technique, putting biography ahead of analysis, leads Mr Starr astray. A chapter on suburbia, for example, is rather too full of detail of developers long forgotten. Similarly, readers not enamoured of jazz may wonder why they need to know so much about Dave Brubeck. But this is a tiny criticism to set against Mr Starr’s masterly accounts of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco (where he posits a cultural battle between old guard “Provincials” and the liberal “Baghdader” newcomers, so called after an article “Baghdad by the Bay”, by the city’s main columnist, Herb Caen).
但这种注重传记叙述而非史实分析的方法有时会使斯塔尔先生有失偏颇。正如在有关郊区生活的一章中，他用了过多的篇幅来介绍那些已被人遗忘的开拓者。同样的，那些不热衷于爵士乐的读者可能要对有关戴夫•布鲁贝克过多的内容表示不解。但与斯塔尔先生对洛杉矶、圣迭戈以及旧金山相关内容记述的娴熟笔法相比，这只是一个小小的指正罢了。以他的设想，在以上三座城市中存在着一种因循守旧的“乡下人”和不拘一格的“巴格达人”新移民（这种说法由该市的主要专栏作家赫布•凯恩在《海湾旁的巴格达》一文中首创）之间在文化上的斗争。
One small quibble is the affectation in the title that this period of California’s history began in 1950 and ended in 1963 (coincidentally the year of President Kennedy’s assassination). In the book itself Mr Starr sensibly delves into the 1940s and even earlier. In a previous book in the series, “Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003”, published in 2004, Mr Starr has already come almost up to date and begun his take on the Schwarzenegger era. It will be fascinating to see how he chooses to conclude it.
如果非要吹毛求疵的话，那就是该书的标题显得有些矫揉造作——加州的鼎盛时期始于1950年，却终于1963年（巧合的是，肯尼迪总统正好在那年遭到暗杀）。在书中，斯塔尔先生非常明智的对20世纪40年代及更早的时期进行了细致的研究。在2004年出版的该系列丛书的上一辑《梦想的海岸：如坐针毡的加州（1990-2003）》一书中，斯塔尔先生就已经将目光转向现在，并开始对施瓦辛格时代进行研究。到底他会做出何种结论，我们将拭目以待。