評論
打印
In both these roles it ratifies more than it creates.
在這兩個方面，它所起的審批作用大于其創造作用。
Wall Street will advance the millions to make a Hollywood movie only if convinced that a bestselling title or a star name will ensure its success.
華爾街只有在確信某種暢銷書或是某位影星的大名準保一部影片的成功時才會為制作一部好萊塢影片投放百萬巨資。
The networks’ news centers are here, and the largest book publishers, and the biggest magazines – and therefore the largest body of critics to appraise the films, the plays, the music, the books that others have created.
美國廣播電視網的新聞中心、最大的圖書出版商和最大的期刊雜志都在這里，因而最龐大的一支評論家隊伍也在這里，他們可以對別人創作出的電影、戲劇、音樂、圖書和其他作品評頭論足。
New York is a judging town, and often invokes standards that the rest of the country deplores or ignores.
紐約是一個裁判城市，經常炮制出一些全國其他地方的人不是為之感到遺憾就是完全不予理睬的規范標準。
A market for knowingness exists in New York that doesn’t exist for knowledge.
在紐約這地方真正的知識學問沒有市場，狡黠伶俐卻頗有市場。
The ad agencies are all here too, testing the markets and devising the catchy jingles that will move millions from McDonald’s to Burger king,
商業廣告公司也全集中在這里。這些廣告公司窺測著市場動向，挖空心思地炮制出一些瑯瑯上口、易于記誦的廣告詞，把千千萬萬的顧客從"麥克唐納"拉到"伯格?金"，
so that the ad agency’s “creative director” can lunch instead in Manhattan’s expense-account French restaurants.
因而廣告公司的"創作主任"便可以坐在曼哈頓那些記帳報銷的高級法國餐館里吃午餐了。
The bankers and the admen. The marketing specialists and a thousand well-paid ancillary service people, really set the city’s brittle tone— catering to a wide American public whose numbers must be respected but whose tastes do not have to shared.
實際上，就是那些銀行家、廣告商、市場營銷專家以及那數以千計的為他們工作的高薪雇員們為紐約這個城市定下了尖銳生硬的調子--對廣大的美國公眾要投其所好，對他們人數的多寡必須予以重視，但對他們的興趣愛好卻不必加以認同。
The condescending view from the fiftieth floor of the city’s crowds below cuts these people off from humanity.
從摩天大樓的五十層樓上屈尊俯就地光顧樓下的蕓蕓眾生。
So does an attitude which sees the public only in terms of large, malleable numbers— as impersonally as does the clattering subway turnstile beneath the office towers.
這些富人們就會感覺到他們與這些蕓蕓眾生仿佛不是同類;還有他們那種就像他們的辦公高樓下面地鐵入口處卡嗒作響的轉門一樣，絲毫不帶任何感情地視廣大人民群眾如一大堆可以任意排列組合的數字的態度，也同樣使他們產生不屬于人類的感覺。
