Over the next ten weeks we're going to read a bunch of books together. I got some of them right here.

接下來的十週我們要一同閱讀一堆書籍，我這裡就有幾本書。

We're going to read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Lord of the Flies by William Golding (my least favourite book)

我們要讀卓拉尼爾赫斯特的他們眼望上蒼、威廉高汀的蒼蠅王，我的最愛，

also Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and a bunch of books that aren't currently on my bookshelf, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

以及拉爾夫艾里森的看不見的人，和一堆目前不在我書架上的書，包含馬克吐溫的頑童歷險記。

and we're gonna round out our reading list this year with One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez,

我們今年要用加布列賈西亞馬奎斯的百年孤寂、幾首莎士比亞的十四行詩，

some Shakespeare sonnets, and a personal favorite of mine, Sula by Toni Morrison.

和我個人最愛的托妮莫里森的秀拉來充實我們的閱讀清單。

So I've talked a little bit in the past about how and why we read,

我先前已經提過關於我們如何以及為何要閱讀了。

but as we go into this course I'd ask you to consider one big question:

但當我們要進入這個課程時，我要請你想想一個大問題：

What in the heck do you mean when you talk about yourself?

當談論到你自己時，你究竟代表什麼呢？

Like you -- and this is not a compliment exactly, just an observation -- are fiendishly complex.

像你...這並不算是種恭維，只是一種觀察...是個極複雜的綜合體。

I mean, to borrow a phrase from Walt Whitman, you contain multitudes, right?

我的意思是借用華特惠特曼的名言來形容，你之中有無數的自己，對吧？

And a lot of the adjectives that other people apply to you,

其他人也有許多適用在你身上的形容詞。

like, for instance, maybe they say that you're smart or that you're stupid, are insufficient.

例如，也許他們說你很聰明或你很笨，這都是不夠的。

Because you know that you are both smart AND stupid.

因為你很清楚你兼具聰明與笨。

There are some facets of the universe that you understand clearly and with depth and others that baffle you.

宇宙有許多面是你很清楚了解的，但它的深度和其他方面也會讓你困惑。

so you aren't a collection of adjectives, at least not entirely.

因此你不是個形容詞的集合體，最起碼不完全是。

You also aren't a body.

你也不僅是個個體。

I mean, you have a body and if you didn't have it, you would cease to be you, but you aren't your body.

我是說，你有具軀體，若你沒有，你就無法做自己。但你不僅是具軀體。

Like, for one thing, there are pieces of you outside of your body.

例如，一方面你的外在有一部分的自己，

You affect your friends and your family.

你會影響到你的朋友與家人。

You also make things that live outside of you, from poetry to artwork to initials carved into trees.

你也讓事物存在於你之外。透過詩歌、藝術品到雕刻在樹上的首字母。

And, not to sound too much like my brother over at Crash Course Philosophy,

以及，我不想讓這聽起來太像我哥哥的哲學速成班，

but the more we think about this question of what constitutes you, the more vexing it becomes.

但我們越是思考是什麼造就了你的這個問題，這問題就變得越惱人。

There are of course many joys to reading literature, but chief among them to me is that literature is a way of exploring and explaining the self,

閱讀文學的過程當然有許多樂趣，但對我而言，文學是一種探索和闡明自身，

of understanding how we come to identify ourselves and other people as human.

並理解我們作為人類是如何對自己與他人產生身分認同的方法。

For lack of a better term, how are you going to make yourself up?

缺乏更好的用詞，你又該如何塑造出自身？

And how are you going to understand the even more complicated worlds of other people?

你又該如何理解他人那更加複雜的世界呢？

And what are you going to do if the world refuses to acknowledge your personhood?

若世界拒絕承認你的人格特質時，你又該怎麼辦？

Those are some of the questions at the heart of the books that we're going to read,

這些是我們要閱讀的書中的核心問題。

along with questions like, should you shoot your husband if he has rabies?

其中還有些問題例如：若你的丈夫有狂犬病你該不該射殺他？

Oh, love, you are so complicated and beautiful and deadly.

吾愛，你真是複雜、美麗與致命。

Speaking of which, our first book will be Their Eyes Were Watching God.

說到這個，我們的第一本書是他們眼望上蒼。

It's a great one, so get to reading it, and I'll see you next week!

這是本巨作，所以快閱讀吧，我們下週見！

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