評論
打印
Culture
文藝版塊
Back Story
幕后故事
What “Severance” gets right about work
關于工作，《人生切割術》說對了什么
The surreal show is TV's greatest drama of modern office life.
這部超現實的劇集是講述現代辦公室生活的最偉大電視劇。
Every morning you heave on your armour and steel yourself for the office.
每天清晨，你穿上盔甲，打起精神走進辦公室。
The real you is in there somewhere, but in disguise, peeping through your carapace like a warrior through his visor.
真實的你藏在這里的某個地方，但身披偽裝，你像戰士透過面甲一樣透過外殼窺視周遭。
In the evening you slip out of your workday persona, much as you part with your shadow at dusk.
傍晚下班時，你褪去工作日的面具，如同在黃昏時與自己的影子告別。
Or maybe it’s the other way round.
也或許情況正好相反。
After all, the office is where you spend many of your waking hours; it may linger in your reveries after you clock off.
畢竟你的許多清醒時刻都是在辦公室度過，就算打卡下班后，辦公室生活也可能在你的腦海中揮之不去。
For some people it is less a trial than a refuge.
對某些人來說，辦公室更像是庇護而非考驗。
Who’s to say whether the home or office version is the authentic you?
誰能說得清，家里的你還是辦公室里的你才是真實的你呢？
The friction between domestic and professional life has powered many of the finest TV dramas.
家庭生活與職業生活之間的摩擦催生了許多最優秀的電視劇。
Tony Soprano throttles mobsters and wrangles teenagers.
《黑道家族》中的托尼·索普拉諾既會掐死黑幫分子，也會與青春期的孩子打嘴仗。
In “Mad Men” faithless Don Draper slinks back from Madison Avenue to his brooding wife.
在《廣告狂人》中，不忠的唐·德雷珀從麥迪遜大道灰溜溜地回到沉思幽怨的妻子身邊。
But the split-personality syndrome, common to wage-slaves everywhere, is depicted supremely in “Severance” (the finale of its second season airs on Apple TV+ on March 21st).
這種人格分裂綜合癥在各地的工薪社畜中都很常見，但在《人生切割術》中被刻畫得入木三分（第二季最后一集將于3月21日在Apple TV+上播出）。
Its madcap genius is to turn this daily bifurcation into neurological reality.
這部劇有瘋狂的天才創想，將這種日常的分裂轉化為神經學上的現實。
For the uninitiated: employees on the “severed floor” of Lumon Industries, a cultish mega-corporation, have a chip implanted in their brains that cleaves their consciousness in two.
對沒看過劇的讀者一些背景提要：在盧蒙工業公司（一家很像邪教的大型企業）的“隔離樓層”工作的員工，他們的大腦中植入了一塊芯片，將他們的意識一分為二。
Their “outies” have no knowledge of their stints at work, their “innies” no memory of their outside lives.
他們的“外人格”對工作期間的事情一無所知，他們的“內人格”對工作以外的生活也沒有任何記憶。
In effect the innies never leave the office.
實際上，內人格從未離開過辦公室。
The first season introduced Mark (played by Adam Scott), who chose to be severed after losing his wife.
第一季介紹了馬克（亞當·斯科特飾），他在失去妻子后選擇切割意識。
He and his colleagues in “Macrodata Refinement” (MDR) stage a rebellion against their spooky managers.
他和“宏觀數據細化”部門的同事們對幽靈般的經理們進行了反抗。
Fans may have questioned how much further the show could push its zany premise.
粉絲們可能會有疑問，這部劇還能把它離奇的設定向前推多遠。
Season two’s answer is: mind-bendingly far.
第二季的答案是：令人難以想象的遠。
Short-circuiting the severance process, some innies glimpse their outie selves, and judge them—as you might if you stumbled on your own life afresh.
有些內人格繞過了切割程序，瞥見了自己的外人格，并對其進行評判——如果你偶然重新審視自己的生活，可能也會這樣評判自己。
They wonder why they were condemned to the limbo of the severed floor—just as everyone wonders, now and then, how they wound up where they have.
他們想知道為什么他們會被打入隔離樓層的地獄——就像每個人時不時都會想，他們是如何走到今天這步田地的。
Lumon’s corporate lore grows ever more outlandish.
盧蒙的企業傳說變得越來越離奇。
The external world, off-kilter in season one, turns downright dystopian.
在第一季就已經不正常的外部世界現在直接變成了反烏托邦。
Part of the show’s triumph is the tension it generates amid the surrealism.
這部劇的部分成功之處在于，超現實主義制造了戲劇張力。
Viewers want to know what happened to Mark’s wife, what Lumon truly does and why it keeps a herd of baby goats.
觀眾想知道馬克的妻子發生了什么事，盧蒙公司真正在做什么，以及為什么盧蒙養了一群小山羊。
The cast, which includes Christopher Walken and Patricia Arquette, is terrific.
包括克里斯托弗·沃肯和帕特里夏·阿奎特的演員陣容也非常出色。
Above all, “Severance” shines in the distorted light it sheds on the quotidian drama of work.
最重要的閃光點是《人生切割術》將扭曲的光線投射到了日常工作故事上。
Take the psychogeography of the office.
以辦公室的心理地理象征為例。
In some ways the Lumon workplace is deranged.
在某些方面，盧蒙的工作場地是精神錯亂的。
The architecture is part Soviet monumentalism, part Silicon Valley hubris.
辦公大樓部分是蘇聯式的紀念碑風格，部分是硅谷式的傲慢自大風格。
The delightfully retro stylings include antiquated computer terminals, blazing fluorescent lights and nightmarishly endless corridors.
美觀宜人的復古裝飾包括老式計算機顯示器和鍵盤、炫目的日光燈、噩夢般沒有盡頭的走廊。
The severed floor has a “break room” where staff endure marathon re-education sessions.
隔離樓層有一個“休息室”，員工們在這里忍受馬拉松式的再教育課程。
In the wellness centre they are soothed with upbeat snippets of their inscrutable outie lives: “Your outie is skilled at kissing…Your outie can parallel park in less than 20 seconds.”
在健康中心，他們從外人格的不得而知、積極向上的生活片段中得到安慰：“你的外人格吻技很好……你的外人格不到20秒就能搞定平行停車。”
Yet the set-up is also uncannily familiar.
然而，劇里的場景設定也有一種詭異的熟悉感。
People linger in indecision at the vending machine.
人們在自動售貨機前猶豫不決。
Confidences are shared in the kitchenette or washrooms.
在茶水間或洗手間里分享秘密。
The elevator is a shuttle between worlds.
電梯是內外兩個世界之間的穿梭機。
Likewise the corporate rituals are bizarre but recognisable—stilted parties, excruciating team-building events, measly perks and opaque quarterly targets.
同樣，公司的固定儀式很奇怪，但又可以辨認——氣氛生硬的聚會、痛苦的團建活動、微薄的津貼、不透明的季度目標。
Performance reviews can last six hours.
還有可能持續六個小時的績效評估。
Meanwhile “Severance” captures the quirks of office relationships, all the rivalries, alliances, flirtations and suspicion of other departments: the MDR team are rumoured to carry their young in pouches like kangaroos.
與此同時，《人生切割術》捕捉到了辦公室關系中的古怪之處，比如所有的競爭、聯盟、調情和對其他部門的懷疑：有傳言說，宏觀數據細化團隊像袋鼠一樣把孩子放在育兒袋里。
In bleak circumstances, Mark and the others find friendship and a narrow but deep intimacy.
在陰郁的環境中，馬克和其他人找到了友誼和一種狹隘但深厚的親密關系。
The show conveys the awkwardness of running into a manager in down time, and the mini-bereavement of quittings and firings (since when a severed worker leaves, their innie expires).
這部劇傳達了在休息時間偶遇經理的尷尬，以及辭職和被解雇時的小型哀悼（因為隔離層的員工離職時，他們的內人格就失效了）。
Naturally, this screwball, sci-fi satire omits some aspects of work today.
當然，這部怪誕的科幻諷刺作品忽略了當今時代工作的某些方面。
Lots of jobs are more rewarding than the drudgery of macrodata refinement.
許多工作都比宏觀數據細化的苦差事更有回報。
Some bosses are actually nice.
有些老板實際上人很好。
“Severance” isn’t very interested in salaries or money.
《人生切割術》對工資或金錢并不是很感興趣。
And the pandemic chipped away at the innie/outie barrier; people eavesdropped on their spouses’ Zoom calls and found they were living with a stranger.
而且疫情打破了內人格/外人格之間的界限，人們偷聽配偶的Zoom視頻通話，然后發現與自己朝夕生活的人忽然變得有些陌生。
Still, this is TV’s most insightful commentary on the absurdities and consolations of office life.
盡管如此，下面這句臺詞仍是電視劇對辦公室生活的荒謬和慰藉之處最犀利的評論。
“Work is just work,” Mark says. “Right?”
“工作就只是工作，”馬克說，“對嗎？”
Wrong.
不對。
