評論
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Unlike any other creature on this planet, human beings can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's places.
與這個星球上任何其他的動物不同，人類可以學習和理解未曾經歷過的事情。他們可以換位思考，能夠設身處地去體會他人的感受。
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathize.
當然，這種能力就像我在小說里虛構的魔法一樣，沒有邪惡之分。有人可能會利用這種能力去操縱或控制別人，也有人選擇用它去了解和同情他人。
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
而很多人不愿去運用他們的想象力。他們選擇舒適地生活在自己經驗所及的范圍內，從來不愿費心去想想如果生在別處會怎樣。他們會拒絕去聽別人的尖叫，不愿看一眼囚禁的籠子；對于與自身無關的苦難，他們會封閉自己的內心；他們會拒絕了解這一切。
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terror. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
我可能會受到誘惑，去嫉妒那樣生活的人。但我不認為他們做的噩夢會比我更少。選擇生活在狹窄的空間會導致不敢面對開闊的視野，那種生活同樣會有恐懼。我認為不愿展開想象的人會看到更多的怪獸，他們往往更會感到害怕。而且，那些沒有同情心的人會激活真正的怪獸。因為盡管他們自身沒有作惡，但他們對于罪惡無動于衷，這已足以使他們成為作惡者的共謀。
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
18歲時，為了追尋我當時還無法解釋的東西，我踏上了學習古典文學的征途并汲取了許多知識，其中一點便是希臘作家普魯塔克所說：我們的內在修養將會改變外在的現實。
