What fear can teach us | Karen Thompson Walker

Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Thu-Huong Ha

Prevoditelj: Lidija Funtek Recezent: Sanda L

One day in 1819,

Jednog dana, 1819. godine,

3,000 miles off the coast of Chile,

5000 km od obale Čilea,

in one of the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean,

na jednom od najudaljenijih mjesta u Tihom oceanu,

20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater.

20 američkih mornara gledalo je kako im se brod puni vodom.

They'd been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped

Udario ih je kit ulješura i napravio

a catastrophic hole in the ship's hull.

ogromnu rupu u trupu broda.

As their ship began to sink beneath the swells,

Dok im je brod tonuo među valovima,

the men huddled together in three small whaleboats.

mornari su se stisnuli zajedno u tri mala čamca.

These men were 10,000 miles from home,

Bili su 16 000 km udaljeni od kuće

more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land.

i više od 1600 km udaljeni od najbližeg kopna.

In their small boats, they carried only

U svojim čamcima imali su samo

rudimentary navigational equipment

najosnovniju navigacijsku opremu

and limited supplies of food and water.

i ograničene količine hrane i vode.

These were the men of the whaleship Essex,

Bili su to kitolovci s broda Essex,

whose story would later inspire parts of "Moby Dick."

čija priča će kasnije nadahnuti neke dijelove "Moby Dicka".

Even in today's world, their situation would be really dire,

Čak i danas bi takva situacija bila strašna, no zamislite

but think about how much worse it would have been then.

kako je strašno njima tada bilo.

No one on land had any idea that anything had gone wrong.

Nitko na kopnu ne zna da je nešto pošlo po zlu.

No search party was coming to look for these men.

Nije pokrenuta potraga za njima.

So most of us have never experienced a situation

Većina nas se nikada nije našla

as frightening as the one in which these sailors found themselves,

u tako strašnoj situaciji kao što je to slučaj s ovim mornarima,

but we all know what it's like to be afraid.

ali svi znamo kako je to bojati se.

We know how fear feels,

Znamo osjećaj straha,

but I'm not sure we spend enough time thinking about

ali mislim da ne razmišljamo dovoljno o tome

what our fears mean.

što naši strahovi znače.

As we grow up, we're often encouraged to think of fear

Kada odrastamo, uče nas da razmišljamo o strahu

as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard

kao o slabosti, o još jednoj djetinjoj stvari koje se treba riješiti,

like baby teeth or roller skates.

poput mliječnih zuba ili koturaljki.

And I think it's no accident that we think this way.

Mislim da nije slučajno što tako razmišljamo.

Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings

Neuroznanstvenici su, zapravo, dokazali

da su ljudi programirani da budu optimisti.

are hard-wired to be optimists.

So maybe that's why we think of fear, sometimes,

Zato možda nekada razmišljamo o strahu

as a danger in and of itself.

kao o opasnosti.

"Don't worry," we like to say to one another. "Don't panic."

"Ne brini", volimo reći jedni drugima. "Bez panike".

In English, fear is something we conquer.

U engleskom je strah nešto što pobjeđujemo.

It's something we fight. It's something we overcome.

Nešto protiv čega se borimo. Nešto što svladavamo.

But what if we looked at fear in a fresh way?

No, što ako pogledamo strah iz drugog kuta?

What if we thought of fear as an amazing act of the imagination,

Što ako razmislimo o strahu kao o nevjerojatnom djelu mašte,

something that can be as profound and insightful

nečem što može biti duboko i pronicljivo,

as storytelling itself?

poput pričanja priča?

It's easiest to see this link between fear and the imagination

Vezu između straha i mašte najlakše je vidjeti

in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid.

kod male djece, čiji su strahovi često veoma snažni.

When I was a child, I lived in California,

Kao dijete sam živjela u Kaliforniji,

which is, you know, mostly a very nice place to live,

koja je uglavnom lijepo mjesto za život,

but for me as a child, California could also be a little scary.

ali tada je za mene znala biti dosta strašna.

I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier

Sjećam se kako je zastrašujuće bilo promatrati luster

that hung above our dining table swing back and forth

iznad stola u blagovaonici kako se njiše

during every minor earthquake,

za vrijeme svakog manjeg potresa

and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified

i nekada noću nisam mogla spavati u strahu

that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping.

da će Veliki udariti kada spavamo.

And what we say about kids who have fears like that

Za djecu koja imaju takve strahove kažemo

is that they have a vivid imagination.

da imaju bujnu maštu.

But at a certain point, most of us learn

No, nakon nekog vremena većina nas

to leave these kinds of visions behind and grow up.

ostavi takva zamišljanja iza sebe i odraste.

We learn that there are no monsters hiding under the bed,

Naučimo da nema čudovišta ispod kreveta

and not every earthquake brings buildings down.

i da neće svaki potres srušiti kuću.

But maybe it's no coincidence that some of our most creative minds

No, možda nije slučajno da se neki od najkreativnijih umova

fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults.

ne mogu riješiti tih strahova ni kada odrastu.

The same incredible imaginations that produced "The Origin of Species,"

Mašte koje su nam dale "Podrijetlo vrsta,"

"Jane Eyre" and "The Remembrance of Things Past,"

"Jane Eyre" i "U potrazi za izgubljenim vremenom,"

also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives

stvorile su i brige koje su proganjale odrasle živote

of Charles Darwin, Charlotte BrontĂŤ and Marcel Proust.

Charlesa Darwina, Charlotte Bronte i Marcela Prousta.

So the question is, what can the rest of us learn about fear

Pitanje je što mi ostali možemo naučiti o strahu

from visionaries and young children?

od vizionara i male djece?

Well let's return to the year 1819 for a moment,

Vratimo se na trenutak u 1819. godinu,

to the situation facing the crew of the whaleship Essex.

onome što proživljavaju mornari Essexa.

Let's take a look at the fears that their imaginations

Pogledajmo strahove koji su se stvarali

were generating as they drifted in the middle of the Pacific.

u njihovim glavama dok su plutali Tihim oceanom.

Twenty-four hours had now passed since the capsizing of the ship.

Prošla su 24 sata od prevrtanja broda.

The time had come for the men to make a plan,

Došlo je vrijeme da naprave plan,

but they had very few options.

ali su imali jako malo mogućnosti.

In his fascinating account of the disaster,

U svom nevjerojatnom opisu te katastrofe,

Nathaniel Philbrick wrote that these men were just about

Nathaniel Philbrick napisao je da su bili

as far from land as it was possible to be anywhere on Earth.

na najvećoj mogućoj udaljenosti od kopna na Zemlji.

The men knew that the nearest islands they could reach

Znali su da je najbliži otok do kojeg mogu stići

were the Marquesas Islands, 1,200 miles away.

Markižansko otočje udaljeno 1900 km.

But they'd heard some frightening rumors.

No, čuli su uznemirujuće glasine.

They'd been told that these islands,

Rečeno im je da te otoke

and several others nearby, were populated by cannibals.

i nekoliko obližnjih, nastanjuju kanibali.

So the men pictured coming ashore only to be murdered

Zamišljali su kako dolaze do obale gdje će ih ubiti

and eaten for dinner.

i pojesti za večeru.

Another possible destination was Hawaii,

Druga mogućnost bili su Hawaii,

but given the season, the captain was afraid

no zbog godišnjeg doba kapetan se bojao

they'd be struck by severe storms.

da će upasti u jake oluje.

Now the last option was the longest, and the most difficult:

Posljednja mogućnost bila je najduža i najteža:

to sail 1,500 miles due south in hopes of reaching

ploviti 2400 km na jug nadajući se da će uhvatiti

a certain band of winds that could eventually

određene vjetrove koji bi ih mogli

push them toward the coast of South America.

pogurnuti prema obali Južne Amerike.

But they knew that the sheer length of this journey

No, znali su da bi zbog same duljine putovanja

would stretch their supplies of food and water.

morali jako štediti na zalihama hrane i vode.

To be eaten by cannibals, to be battered by storms,

Pojest će ih kanibali, umrijet će u oluji

to starve to death before reaching land.

ili od gladi prije nego dođu do kopna.

These were the fears that danced in the imaginations of these poor men,

Ti su strahovi zaokupljali umove ovih jadnih mornara

and as it turned out, the fear they chose to listen to

i, kao što se pokazalo, strah koji odluče poslušati

would govern whether they lived or died.

odredit će hoće li preživjeti ili umrijeti.

Now we might just as easily call these fears by a different name.

Sve te strahove možemo nazvati drugačijim imenom.

What if instead of calling them fears,

Što ako ih umjesto strahovima,

we called them stories?

nazovemo pričama?

Because that's really what fear is, if you think about it.

Ako malo razmislite, strah je upravo to.

It's a kind of unintentional storytelling

Kao neka nenamjerna priča

that we are all born knowing how to do.

koju od rođenja znamo pričati.

And fears and storytelling have the same components.

Strah i pričanje priča imaju ista obilježja.

They have the same architecture.

Imaju istu strukturu.

Like all stories, fears have characters.

Kao i sve priče, strahovi imaju likove.

In our fears, the characters are us.

U našim strahovima mi smo ti likovi.

Fears also have plots. They have beginnings and middles and ends.

Strahovi imaju i zaplete. Imaju početak, sredinu i kraj.

You board the plane. The plane takes off. The engine fails.

Ukrcate se na avion. Avion poleti. Motor se pokvari.

Our fears also tend to contain imagery that can be

Naši strahovi sadrže i slike

koje mogu biti stvarne poput onih koje nalazite na stranicama romana.

every bit as vivid as what you might find in the pages of a novel.

Picture a cannibal, human teeth

Zamislite kanibala, ljudske zube

sinking into human skin,

kako grizu ljudsku kožu,

human flesh roasting over a fire.

ljudsko meso kako se peče na vatri.

Fears also have suspense.

Strahovi imaju i trenutak neizvjesnosti.

If I've done my job as a storyteller today,

Ako sam danas dobro ispričala priču,

you should be wondering what happened

trebali biste se pitati

što se dogodilo mornarima broda Essex.

to the men of the whaleship Essex.

Our fears provoke in us a very similar form of suspense.

Naši strahovi u nama bude sličan osjećaj neizvjesnosti.

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention

Kao i sve velike priče, naši strahovi zadržavaju nam pažnju

on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature:

na pitanju koje je važno i u životu i u književnosti:

What will happen next?

Što će se sljedeće dogoditi?

In other words, our fears make us think about the future.

Dakle, strahovi nas tjeraju da razmišljamo o budućnosti.

And humans, by the way, are the only creatures capable

A ljudi su jedina stvorenja koja mogu

of thinking about the future in this way,

na taj način razmišljati o budućnosti,

of projecting ourselves forward in time,

zamisliti sebe u budućem vremenu

and this mental time travel is just one more thing

i to mentalno putovanje kroz vrijeme je još jedna

that fears have in common with storytelling.

zajednička značajka strahova i pričanja priča.

As a writer, I can tell you that a big part of writing fiction

Kao spisateljica znam da je kod pisanja fikcije važno

is learning to predict how one event in a story

naučiti predvidjeti kako jedan događaj

will affect all the other events,

utječe na sve ostale događaje,

and fear works in that same way.

a strah funkcionira na isti način.

In fear, just like in fiction, one thing always leads to another.

Kod straha, kao i kod fikcije, jedna stvar vodi drugoj.

When I was writing my first novel, "The Age Of Miracles,"

Kada sam pisala svoj prvi roman "Doba čuda",

I spent months trying to figure out what would happen

mjesecima sam pokušavala saznati što bi se dogodilo

if the rotation of the Earth suddenly began to slow down.

kada bi se Zemlja odjednom počela sve sporije okretati.

What would happen to our days? What would happen to our crops?

Što bi se dogodilo s danima? Što bi se dogodilo s usjevima?

What would happen to our minds?

Što bi se dogodilo s našim umovima?

And then it was only later that I realized how very similar

Tek kasnije sam shvatila koliko su ta pitanja

these questions were to the ones I used to ask myself

slična onima koja sam si postavljala

as a child frightened in the night.

kao uplašeno dijete tijekom noći.

If an earthquake strikes tonight, I used to worry,

Brinula sam se što će se dogoditi s našom kućom

what will happen to our house? What will happen to my family?

ako dođe do potresa večeras? Što će se dogoditi mojoj obitelji?

And the answer to those questions always took the form of a story.

Odgovor na to pitanje uvijek je bio u obliku priče.

So if we think of our fears as more than just fears

Ako mislimo o strahovima kao o nečem više,

but as stories, we should think of ourselves

kao o pričama, moramo misliti o sebi

as the authors of those stories.

kao o autorima tih priča.

But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves

Što je još važnije, moramo misliti o sebi

as the readers of our fears, and how we choose

kao o čitateljima naših strahova i način na koji

to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.

čitamo svoje strahove može veoma utjecati na naš život.

Now, some of us naturally read our fears more closely than others.

Neki od nas svoje strahove čitaju pažljivije od drugih.

I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs,

Nedavno sam čitala o istraživanju o uspješnim poduzetnicima

and the author found that these people shared a habit

i autor je saznao da svi imaju jednu naviku

that he called "productive paranoia," which meant that

koju je nazvao "produktivnom paranojom", što znači

these people, instead of dismissing their fears,

da su ti ljudi, umjesto da ignoriraju strahove,

these people read them closely, they studied them,

pažljivo pročitali svoje strahove, proučili ih

and then they translated that fear into preparation and action.

i zatim ih pretvorili u pripremu i djelovanje.

So that way, if their worst fears came true,

Tako je njihovo poslovanje bilo spremno

their businesses were ready.

ako dođe do ostvarivanja najgorih strahova.

And sometimes, of course, our worst fears do come true.

Ponekad se, naravno, naši najgori strahovi i ostvare.

That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about fear.

To je jedna od nevjerojatnih stvari kod strahova.

Once in a while, our fears can predict the future.

Tu i tamo naši strahovi mogu predvidjeti budućnost.

But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears

No, ne možemo se pripremiti za sve strahove

that our imaginations concoct.

koje naš um može izmisliti.

So how can we tell the difference between

Kako onda možemo razlikovati strahove

the fears worth listening to and all the others?

koje treba slušati od svih ostalih strahova?

I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex

Mislim da završetak priče o brodu Essexu

offers an illuminating, if tragic, example.

nudi poučan, iako tragičan primjer.

After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision.

Nakon mnogo razmišljanja, mornari su konačno odlučili.

Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands

U strahu od kanibala odlučili su zaobići najbliže otoke

and instead embarked on the longer

i uputiti se na duže

and much more difficult route to South America.

i puno teže putovanje do Južne Amerike.

After more than two months at sea, the men ran out of food

Nakon više od dva mjeseca na moru, ponestalo im je hrane,

as they knew they might,

kao što su i znali,

and they were still quite far from land.

a bili su još daleko od kopna.

When the last of the survivors were finally picked up

Kada su posljednje preživjele

by two passing ships, less than half of the men were left alive,

spasila dva broda, manje od polovice mornara je bilo živo,

and some of them had resorted to their own form of cannibalism.

a neki su pribjegli vlastitom obliku kanibalizma.

Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick,"

Herman Melville, koji je tu priču koristio pri pisanju "Moby Dicka",

wrote years later, and from dry land, quote,

kasnije je, s kopna, napisao,

"All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex

"Sve patnje ovih jadnih mornara Essexa

might in all human probability have been avoided

mogle su se izbjeći

had they, immediately after leaving the wreck,

da su odmah nakon napuštanja broda

steered straight for Tahiti.

krenuli ravno prema Tahitiju.

But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals."

Ali, Melville kaže, "bojali su se kanibala."

So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals

Pitanje je, zašto su se kanibala bojali

so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation?

više od vjerojatnosti da će umrijeti od gladi?

Why were they swayed by one story

Zašto ih je jedna priča ponijela

so much more than the other?

više od druge priče?

Looked at from this angle,

Ako pogledamo iz tog kuta,

theirs becomes a story about reading.

njihova priča je priča o čitanju.

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader

Pisac Vladimir Nabokov rekao je da je najbolji čitatelj

has a combination of two very different temperaments,

spoj dvaju različitih temperamenata,

the artistic and the scientific.

umjetničkog i znanstvenog.

A good reader has an artist's passion,

Dobar čitatelj ima strast umjetnika,

a willingness to get caught up in the story,

volju da se izgubi u priči,

but just as importantly, the readers also needs

ali isto tako potrebna je

the coolness of judgment of a scientist,

i objektivnost znanstvenika

which acts to temper and complicate

koja umiruje i komplicira

the reader's intuitive reactions to the story.

čitateljevu reakciju na priču.

As we've seen, the men of the Essex had no trouble with the artistic part.

Očito mornari Essexa nisu imali problema s umjetničkim dijelom.

They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios.

Zamislili su mnogo različitih strašnih scenarija.

The problem was that they listened to the wrong story.

Problem je bio što su poslušali krivu priču.

Of all the narratives their fears wrote,

Od svih priča koje su im strahovi napisali,

they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid,

reagirali su samo na onu najgrozniju, najživopisniju,

the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture:

onu koju je bilo najlakše zamisliti:

cannibals.

kanibali.

But perhaps if they'd been able to read their fears

No, da su možda uspjeli

more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment,

pročitati svoje strahove poput znanstvenika, s više objektivnosti,

they would have listened instead to the less violent

poslušali bi manje nasilnu,

but the more likely tale, the story of starvation,

ali vjerojatniju priču, priču o umiranju od gladi,

and headed for Tahiti, just as Melville's sad commentary suggests.

i krenuli prema Tahitiju, kao što je to predložio i Melville.

And maybe if we all tried to read our fears,

Kada bismo i mi probali čitati svoje strahove,

we too would be less often swayed

možda bismo se manje zanosili

by the most salacious among them.

onim najsočnijim pričama.

Maybe then we'd spend less time worrying about

Možda bismo provodili manje vremena

serial killers and plane crashes,

brinući se o serijskim ubojicama i nesrećama,

and more time concerned with the subtler

a više vremena brinući se o tišoj

and slower disasters we face:

i sporijoj katastrofi koja nas čeka:

the silent buildup of plaque in our arteries,

tiho začepljivanje arterija,

the gradual changes in our climate.

postupne promjene u klimi.

Just as the most nuanced stories in literature are often the richest,

Baš kao što su najdetaljnije priče u književnosti često i najbogatije,

so too might our subtlest fears be the truest.

tako i naši najmanji strahovi mogu biti istiniti.

Read in the right way, our fears are an amazing gift

Ako ih dobro pročitamo, naši strahovi su poklon

of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance,

naše mašte nama, vrsta svakodnevne vidovitosti,

a way of glimpsing what might be the future

način da vidimo što može donijeti budućnost,

when there's still time to influence how that future will play out.

dok još imamo vremena da utječemo na to kako će ta budućnost izgledati.

Properly read, our fears can offer us something as precious

Ispravno pročitani, strahovi nam mogu ponuditi nešto vrijedno,

as our favorite works of literature:

kao i naša omiljena književna djela:

a little wisdom, a bit of insight

malo mudrosti, malo opažanja

and a version of that most elusive thing --

i inačicu one najnedostižnije stvari -

the truth.

istine.

Thank you. (Applause)

Hvala vam. (Pljesak)