Name: 【TED】譚恩美(Amy Tan)談創意 (Where does creativity hide? | Amy Tan)
Uploaded: 2015-01-06T03:39:38.000Z
Duration: 24 min 19 s

The Value of Nothing: Out of Nothing Comes Something.

過去簡單式

That was an essay I wrote when I was 11 years old

這是我在十一歲時寫的文章題目

What I'm going to talk about: nothing out of something, and how we create.

我要談的就是：我們要怎麼樣無中生有

the 18-minute time span that we were told to stay within,

that is, actually, something that creates

because Dave Eggers said he was going to heckle me

因為戴夫艾格思說他會猛烈詰問我

if I said anything that was a lie, or not true to universal creativity.

如果我說了任何謊話，或是不符合普遍的創意條件

And I've done it this way for half the audience, who is scientific.

而且是對著將近一半是科學家的觀眾這麼說

When I say we, I don't mean you, necessarily;

當我說我們的時候，我指的不必然包括你們

I mean me, and my right brain, my left brain

and the one that's in between that is the censor

what I think is part of my creative process,

我認為屬於我創意過程中的一部份

which includes a number of things that happened, actually --

包括許多發生過的事情，而事實上

the nothing started even earlier than the moment

Now in the nature area, we look at whether or not

we are innately equipped with something, perhaps

我們自身是否俱備某種事物，或許...

在我們的腦裡，一些不正常的染色體

And some people would say that we're born with it in some other means.

would say that I get my material from past lives.

會說我是從過去的的生活得到靈感

Some people would also say that creativity

may be a function of some other neurological quirk --

van Gogh syndrome -- that you have a little bit of, you know, psychosis, or depression.

某種梵谷症狀--當你有點，你知道，精神不正常，或是陷入低潮

I do have to say, somebody -- I read recently

我得說，有種人--我最近在書上讀到

that van Gogh wasn't really necessarily psychotic,

that he might have had temporal lobe seizures,

and that might have caused his spurt of creativity, and I don't --

那可能激發他創意湧現，而我--

I suppose it does something in some part of your brain.

假設那會在你的腦中某個部位引發某作用

And I will mention that I actually developed

temporal lobe seizures a number of years ago,

but it was during the time I was writing my last book,

and some people say that book is quite different.

有些人就說那本書讀起來挺不一樣

I think that part of it also begins with a sense of identity crisis:

我認為其中一部份起因於認同的危機感：

you know, who am I, why am I this particular person,

我是誰啊，我怎麼會那麼與眾不同，

我到底是誰？為什麼膚色沒跟其他同學一樣黑？

And sometimes you're equipped with skills,

but they may not be the kind of skills that enable creativity.

I used to draw. I thought I would be an artist.

我以前還會畫畫。我曾以為我會成為一個畫家

And it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really creative.

似乎還不壞，但實在算不上什麼創意

Because all I could really do was represent in a very one-on-one way.

因為我所能做的不過是把它們一個個畫下來

And I have a sense that I probably copied this from a book.

而且我想我可能還是從一本書上抄下來的

And then, I also wasn't really shining in a certain area that I wanted to be,

當時我在我真正想要展現的領域以乎並不出色

and you know, you look at those scores, and it wasn't bad,

你知道，你看著那些成績，是不差

but it was not certainly predictive that I would one day make

my living out of the artful arrangement of words.

Also, one of the principles of creativity is to have a little childhood trauma.

創意的其中一項原則是擁有童年的心理創傷

And I had the usual kind that I think a lot of people had,

and that is that, you know, I had expectations placed on me.

你懂的，來自父母對子女過分熱切的期望

figure right there was a toy given to me when I was but nine years old,

是我在九歲的時候得到的一件玩具

and it was to help me become a doctor from a very early age.

它是從小培養我想成為醫生的物品

I have some ones that were long lasting: from the age of five to 15,

還有一些持續比較久的心理創傷：從五到十五歲

this was supposed to be my side occupation,

成為一個鋼琴家理應變成我的第二職業

但最終它只變成我感覺失敗的來源

But actually, there was something quite real in my life

但事實上在我人生中是有一些真實的心理創傷

And it was discovered that my brother, in 1967, and then my father,

就是發現我的兄弟，在1967年，然後我的父親

And my mother believed that something had gone wrong,

and she was gonna find out what it was, and she was gonna fix it.

My father was a Baptist minister, and he believed in miracles,

and that God's will would take care of that.

But, of course, they ended up dying, six months apart.

但當然，相隔六個月，他們都過世了

And after that, my mother believed that it was fate, or curses

在那之後，我母親相信那是命運，是詛咒

-- she went looking through all the reasons in the universe

她找遍了宇宙間所有可能的理由

Everything except randomness. She did not believe in randomness.

除了偶然以外所有的理由。她不相信偶然

And one of the reasons, she thought, was that her mother,

她相信其中一件原因出自於她的母親

who had died when she was very young, was angry at her.

她認為早年過世的母親一直怨恨她

And so, I had this notion of death all around me,

because my mother also believed that I would be next, and she would be next.

因為我母親還相信我會是下一個，或是她會是下一個

And when you are faced with the prospect of death very soon,

you begin to think very much about everything.

You become very creative, in a survival sense.

從一種為了生存的角度來說，你開始非常有創造力，

And they're the same ones that I have today.

And they are: why do things happen, and how do things happen?

為什麼事情會發生，它們是怎麼發生的？

And the one my mother asked: how do I make things happen?

和我母親問的那句：我如何讓這些事情發生的？

It's a wonderful way to look at these questions, when you write a story.

在撰寫故事的時候，這都是一些很重要的問題

Because, after all, in that framework, between page one and 300,

因為你必須在三百頁的篇幅中回答這些問題：

you have to answer this question of why things happen, how things happen,

為什麼事情會這樣發生，它是怎麼發生的

in what order they happen. What are the influences?

How do I, as the narrator, as the writer, also influence that?

我，身為一個敍述者，一個作者，對這個故事又有什麼影響？

And it's also one that, I think, many of our scientists have been asking.

我想這也是所有科學家所問的問題

It's a kind of cosmology, and I have to develop a cosmology of my own universe,

我在我的世界中發展出自己的宇宙觀