But what exactly is literature good for?

但文學到底有什麼好處？

Why should we spend our time reading novels or poems when out there, big things are going on.

為什麼當世界上有更重要的事時，我們還要花時間在那邊讀小說跟詩呢？

Let's have a think about some of the ways that literature benefits us.

讓我們來想想文學對我們來說有那些好處。

Of course, it looks like it's wasting time, but literature is ultimately the greatest time-saver.

當然，它看起來很浪費時間，但文學其實是最棒的省時方法。

Because it gives us access to a range of emotions and events that it would take you years, decades, millenia to try to experience directly.

因為你能夠從中了解原先你可能要花上好幾年、幾十年、幾千年才能親身體會的各種情感及事件。

Literature is the greatest "reality simulator," a machine that puts you through infinitely more situations than you could ever directly witness.

文學是最棒的「現實模擬器」，讓你體悟各種無法親身經歷的情境。

It lets you safely, that's crucial, see what it's like to get divorced.

它讓你不用離婚 (這很重要) 也能知道離婚會是什麼樣子。

Or kill someone and feel remorseful.

或因犯下謀殺而感到極為後悔

Or chuck in your job and take off to the desert.

或是放棄你的工作到沙漠休假

Or make a terrible mistake while leading your country.

或是身為領導者時卻犯了一個嚴重的錯誤

It lets you speed up time in order to see the arc of a life from childhood to old age.

它讓你把時間加速：可以看到生命從孩提到老年的脈絡

It gives you the keys to the palace, and to countless bedrooms, so you can assess your life in relation to that of others'.

它賦予你權利了解宮殿和無數臥房

It introduces you to fascinating people: a Roman general, an 11th century French princess, or a Russian upper class mother just embarking on an affair.

它介紹你去認識迷人的人們：一個羅馬將軍，一個11世紀的法國公主、一個俄國飽受緋聞折磨的上流社會母親

It takes you across continents and centuries.

它能帶你穿越空間和時間

Literature cures you of provincialism and, at almost no cost, turns us into citizens of the world.

文學消除你狹隘的眼光 和在幾乎不花一毛錢的情況下把我們變成世界的公民

Literature performs the basic magic of showing us what things look like from someone else's point of view.

文學的魔法讓我們能夠設身處地

It allows us to consider the consequences of our actions on others in a way we otherwise wouldn't.

它讓在我們做事情之前了解我們行為的後果

And it shows us examples of kindly, generous, sympathetic people.

它讓我們看到親切、慷慨、有同情心的人們

Literature typically stands opposed to the dominant value system, the one that rewards money and power.

文學基本上是和名利的主流思想對立

Writers are on the other side, they make us sympathetic to ideas and feelings

作家讓我們同理不同的理念和感受

that are of deep importance but that can't afford airtime in a commercialised, status-conscious, and cynical world.

他們舉足輕重，卻無法承擔商業化、階級意識以及一個憤世嫉俗的世界

We are weirder than we're allowed to admit.

我們比我們自己想承認的還要奇怪

We often can't say what's really on our minds.

我們很少表達自己內心的想法

But in books, we find descriptions of who we genuinely are and what events are actually like,

但在書中，我們找到自我以並發掘事件的真實樣貌

described with an honesty quite different from what ordinary conversation allows for.

闡述著一般對話中所缺乏的真知灼見

In the best books, it's as if the writer knows us better than we know ourselves.

在最好的書中，作者彷彿比我們更了解我們自己

They find the words to describe the fragile, weird, special experiences of our inner lives:

他們能夠用文字來描述在我們生命中脆弱、奇怪、特別的經驗

the light on a summer morning, the anxiety we felt at the gathering,

在夏天早晨的曙光；在人群中的焦慮；

the sensations of a first kiss, the envy when a friend told us of their new business,

初吻時的悸動；得知朋友新工作時的羨慕

the longing we experienced on the train, looking at the profile of another passenger we never dare to speak to.

在火車上曾體會過仰慕著另一名乘客的光鮮亮麗 卻遲遲不敢上前攀談。

Writers open our hearts and minds and give us maps to our own selves so that we can travel in them more reliably and with less of a feeling of paranoia and persecution.

作家打開我們的心靈，給予我們遨遊於文學中的地圖，讓我們少一點偏執及困擾

As the writer Emerson remarked: "In the works of great writers, we find our own neglected thoughts."

如同作家 Emerson 所說的：「在偉大作家的作品中，我們找回被自己忽略的想法。」

Literature is a corrective to the superficiality and compromises of friendship.

文學是矯正膚淺及妥協的良伴

Books are our true friends, always to hand, never too busy, giving us unvarnished accounts of what things are really like.

書是我們真正的朋友，總是扶持我們，從來不曾缺席，幫我們解釋事物真正的面貌

All of our lives, one of our greatest fears is of failing, of messing up of becoming, as the tabloids put it, a "LOSER."

終其一生，我們最大的恐懼是失敗，是混亂，是成為...就像文摘中說的，一個「失敗者」

Every day, the media takes us into stories of failure.

每天媒體都給我們看失敗的故事

Interestingly, a lot of literature is also about failure.

有趣的是，很多文學也是關於失敗。

In one way or another, a great many novels, plays, and poems are about people who've messed up,

不管如何偉大的小說、戲劇、詩都是跟搞砸事物的人們、不小心跟媽媽上床的人們

people who slept with mum by mistake, or who let down their partner,

讓同伴失望的人們

or who died after running up some debts on shopping sprees.

或是在購物狂熱之下積欠很多債務後而死的人們有關

If the media got to them, they'd make mincemeat out of them.

如果媒體報導他們，媒體只會雪上加霜地摧毀他們

But great books don't judge as harshly or as one-dimensionally as the media.

但偉大的書不會像媒體一樣只用一種面向判斷。

They evoke pity for the hero and fear for ourselves based on a new sense of how near we all are to destroying our own lives.

他們在我們快要接近自我毀滅的時候，喚起我們對於英雄及自身恐懼的憐憫。

But if literature can really do all these things, we might need to treat it a bit differently to the way we do now.

但如果文學真的可以做到這些事，我們可能要換個方法對待它。

We tend to treat it as a distraction, an entertainment, something for the beach.

我們常把它視為一種消遣、一種娛樂，像是可以帶去海邊的讀物。

But it's far more than that, it's really therapy, in the broad sense.

但它不只這樣，廣義來講它是一種療法。

We should learn to treat it as doctors treat their medicines, something we prescribe in response to a range of ailments, and classify according to the problems it might be best suited to addressing.

我們面對文學的態度應該像是醫生對待他們的病人一樣，???對症下藥。

Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others:

文學應該得到它應有的聲望，最重要的理由是：

because it's a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

文學幫助我們增長智慧、美德以及理智。