What fear can teach us | Karen Thompson Walker

カレン・トンプソン・ウォーカー: “恐怖” が教えてくれること

Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Thu-Huong Ha

翻訳: Kazunori Akashi 校正: Sachiko Tanigaki

One day in 1819,

時は 1819年―

3,000 miles off the coast of Chile,

チリ沖 から4,800km離れた

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

太平洋の ど真ん中で 20名のアメリカ人船員が

20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater.

自分達の船が 沈むのを見ていました

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

巨大なクジラに衝突して

a catastrophic hole in the ship's hull.

船体に大きな穴が開いたのです

As their ship began to sink beneath the swells,

船が波間に飲まれる間

the men huddled together in three small whaleboats.

彼らは３隻の小さな捕鯨用ボートで 身を寄せ合っていました

These men were 10,000 miles from home,

故郷から 16,000km―

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

最も近い陸地でも 1,600km も離れています

In their small boats, they carried only

ボートの備品は

rudimentary navigational equipment

ごく基本的な航海計器と

and limited supplies of food and water.

限られた食料と水だけでした

These were the men of the whaleship Essex,

彼らは捕鯨船 エセックス号の乗組員です

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

後に 『白鯨』 の モデルの一部になりました

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

現在だったとしても 深刻な状況ですから

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

当時の過酷さがしのばれます

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

陸地では 事故のことなど 知る由もなく

No search party was coming to look for these men.

捜索隊が来るはずもない

So most of us have never experienced a situation

この船員達ほど―

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

恐ろしい体験を する人は まれですが

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

怖いという感情は 誰もが知っています

We know how fear feels,

ただ 感覚的には わかっていても

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

恐怖の意味を きちんとは

what our fears mean.

考えてきませんでした

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

成長するにつれて 恐怖は 弱さの表れで―

as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard

捨てるべき幼稚なものと 考えるようになります

like baby teeth or roller skates.

乳歯やローラー・ スケートと同じように・・・

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

でも私達が そう考えるのは 偶然ではありません

Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings

神経科学は人間が本来

are hard-wired to be optimists.

楽観的にできていることを 明らかにしています

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

私達が恐怖を 危険なものと考えるのは

as a danger in and of itself.

そのせいかも知れません

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

「心配ないよ」「慌てないで」と 人はよく言います

In English, fear is something we conquer.

私達にとって 恐怖は克服すべきもの―

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

戦う相手であり 乗り越えるべき障害です

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

でも見方を変えると どうなるでしょう

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

恐怖は 見事な 想像力の作用であり

something that can be as profound and insightful

“物語” と同じくらい深遠で

as storytelling itself?

洞察に満ちていると 考えてみてはどうでしょう？

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

小さな子供の場合 恐怖と想像力の関係が

in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid.

はっきりしています 恐怖がとても鮮明だからです

When I was a child, I lived in California,

私は 小さい頃 カリフォルニアにいました

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

住むには いい所でしたが

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

子供の私には少し 怖いこともありました

I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier

小さな地震が起きる度に 食卓の上のシャンデリアが

that hung above our dining table swing back and forth

ゆらゆら揺れるのを見て

during every minor earthquake,

怖かった事を覚えています

and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified

寝ている間に 大地震が来やしないかと

that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping.

不安で眠れない こともありました

And what we say about kids who have fears like that

私達はそんなささいなことを 恐れる子供を見て

is that they have a vivid imagination.

想像力が たくましいと考えます

But at a certain point, most of us learn

でも いつしか私達は

to leave these kinds of visions behind and grow up.

こうした想像力を忘れて 成長します

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

私達は ベッドの下に 怪物などいないことや

and not every earthquake brings buildings down.

地震で必ず家がつぶれる わけではないことを学びます

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

一方 才能あふれる人々が 大人になっても

fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults.

恐怖を忘れないのは 偶然ではないかもしれません

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

『種の起源』や 『ジェイン・エア』―

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

『失われた時を求めて』を 生んだ想像力が

also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives

同時に強い不安を生み 大人になったダーウィンや

of Charles Darwin, Charlotte BrontĂŤ and Marcel Proust.

シャーロット・ブロンテや プルーストを脅かしたのです

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

では 恐怖について 天才や子供達から

from visionaries and young children?

何を学べるでしょうか？

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

話を1819年に戻して

to the situation facing the crew of the whaleship Essex.

エセックス号の乗組員が 直面した状況を思い出してください

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

太平洋の真ん中で 漂流する彼らが

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

想像した恐怖とは どんなものだったでしょう

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

船が転覆してから 24時間が過ぎていました

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

生き残るための 算段が必要でしたが

but they had very few options.

選択肢は限られていました

In his fascinating account of the disaster,

ナサニエル・フィルブリックは 著書の中で

Nathaniel Philbrick wrote that these men were just about

遭難の様子を こう描写しています

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

「彼らは地球上の誰よりも 陸地から遠い場所にいた」

The men knew that the nearest islands they could reach

最も近い島は 1,900km先にある

were the Marquesas Islands, 1,200 miles away.

マルキーズ諸島だと 彼らは分かっていました

But they'd heard some frightening rumors.

ただ そこには恐ろしい噂がありました

They'd been told that these islands,

マルキーズ諸島とその周辺には

and several others nearby, were populated by cannibals.

食人種が住んでいるという噂です

So the men pictured coming ashore only to be murdered

彼らは上陸してすぐに殺され

and eaten for dinner.

食べられる自分を想像したのです

Another possible destination was Hawaii,

もう一つの選択肢は ハワイでした

but given the season, the captain was afraid

しかし季節が悪く

they'd be struck by severe storms.

激しい嵐に合うことを 船長は恐れました

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

最後の選択肢は 最も長く 厳しいものでした

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

まず 2,400km 南下してから

a certain band of winds that could eventually

風をとらえて

push them toward the coast of South America.

南アメリカ沿岸を 目指すのです

But they knew that the sheer length of this journey

ただ 長旅になるので

would stretch their supplies of food and water.

食料と水はギリギリでした

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

食人種に食われるか 嵐に襲われるか

to starve to death before reaching land.

陸に着く前に 飢え死にするか・・・

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

そんな恐怖が 想像力を支配し

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

その結果 どの恐怖に従うかが

would govern whether they lived or died.

彼らの生死を 分ける事になりました

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

さて恐怖は 別の言葉で 言い換えられるでしょう

What if instead of calling them fears,

“恐怖” ではなく

we called them stories?

“物語” と呼んでは？

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

恐怖は本来 物語なのです

It's a kind of unintentional storytelling

恐怖とは 私達が 生まれつき知っている―

that we are all born knowing how to do.

無意識の物語なのです

And fears and storytelling have the same components.

恐怖と物語は 共通の要素と

They have the same architecture.

構造をもっています

Like all stories, fears have characters.

恐怖には 物語と同様に 登場人物がいます

In our fears, the characters are us.

恐怖では 登場人物は 私たち自身です

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

筋書きも 起承転結もあります

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

飛行機に乗り 離陸し エンジンが停止 といったように

Our fears also tend to contain imagery that can be

また恐怖には　 小説に出て来そうな

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

生々しいイメージがつきがちです

Picture a cannibal, human teeth

想像してください　食人種の歯が

sinking into human skin,

人肌に食らいつく・・・

human flesh roasting over a fire.

火であぶられる人肉・・・

Fears also have suspense.

恐怖にはサスペンスの 要素もあります

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

もし私が上手に語っているなら

you should be wondering what happened

皆さんはエセックス号の乗員が

to the men of the whaleship Essex.

どうなったか知りたいはずです

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

恐怖は これによく似た サスペンスを生みます

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention

あらゆる傑作と同様に 恐怖に導かれて私達が意識するのは

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

文学においても人生においても 重要な問い すなわち―

What will happen next?

「次は何が起こるだろう？」 という問いです

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

つまり 恐怖を通して 未来を考えるのです

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

未来について このように考え

of thinking about the future in this way,

未来に自己を投影する能力は

of projecting ourselves forward in time,

人間だけがもっています

and this mental time travel is just one more thing

このような頭の中の タイム・トラベルも

that fears have in common with storytelling.

恐怖と物語の 共通点の一つです

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

フィクション作家の主な仕事は

is learning to predict how one event in a story

ある出来事が 他に与える —

will affect all the other events,

影響を予測することです

and fear works in that same way.

恐怖も同じです

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

小説と同様に ある出来事が他へと続きます

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

処女作 『奇跡の時代』を 書いていたとき―

I spent months trying to figure out what would happen

私は何か月も考えていました

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

地球の自転が 突然 遅くなったら何が起こるか―

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

人生はどうなるか 作物はどうなるか―

What would happen to our minds?

精神にはどんな変化が生じるのか？

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

後になって気付いたのですが 私が考えていたことは

these questions were to the ones I used to ask myself

子供の頃 夜中に怯えながら

as a child frightened in the night.

考えたことに似ていました

If an earthquake strikes tonight, I used to worry,

子供の頃は 今夜 地震が来たら

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

家や家族はどうなるだろうと いつも心配していました

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

そして その答えはいつも 物語になっていました

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

恐怖を単なる感情ではなく

but as stories, we should think of ourselves

物語としてとらえるなら その物語の作者は

as the authors of those stories.

自分自身のはずです

But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves

もう一つ重要なことは

as the readers of our fears, and how we choose

恐怖の読み手も 自分だと考えるべきです

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

恐怖をどう捉えるかで 人生は大きく変わります

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

恐怖を細かく読み取るのが 上手な人がいます

I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs,

最近 成功した起業家に関する 論文を読んだのですが

and the author found that these people shared a habit

著者によると 彼らには共通して

that he called "productive paranoia," which meant that

「恐怖心を生かす」習慣が あるそうです

these people, instead of dismissing their fears,

彼らは自分の恐怖を無視せず

these people read them closely, they studied them,

きちんと読み取って 検討し

and then they translated that fear into preparation and action.

準備や行動の 指針として理解していました

So that way, if their worst fears came true,

だから仮に最悪の事態が起きても

their businesses were ready.

仕事を進められるのです

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

しかも最悪の事態は しばしば起こります

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

恐怖の驚くべき所はここです

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

恐怖を通じて 未来を予知できるのですから

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

でも想像しうる あらゆる恐怖に

that our imaginations concoct.

準備できるわけではありません

So how can we tell the difference between

では私達が従うべき恐怖と

the fears worth listening to and all the others?

そうでないものを どうやって見分ければいいのでしょう

I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex

エセックス号の話は

offers an illuminating, if tragic, example.

悲劇に終わりますが 教訓になると思います

After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision.

船員たちは 考えた末に決断しました

Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands

食人種を恐れて 最寄りの島をあきらめ

and instead embarked on the longer

より遠く 遥かに困難な

and much more difficult route to South America.

南アメリカ行の ルートを選んだのです

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

漂流を始めて２か月 予想していた通り―

as they knew they might,

食料が尽きました

and they were still quite far from land.

陸地はまだ遥か彼方です

When the last of the survivors were finally picked up

通りかかった２隻の船に 最後の生存者が救助されたとき―

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

生き残りは 半数以下になっており

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

中には人肉を食べて 生き延びた者もいました

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

メルヴィルはこの話を 『白鯨』の題材に使い

wrote years later, and from dry land, quote,

後年 次のように 書いています

"All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex

「可哀想なエセックス号の乗員は

might in all human probability have been avoided

難破した場所から すぐに ―

had they, immediately after leaving the wreck,

タヒチ島に向かっていれば

steered straight for Tahiti.

苦しまずに済んだであろう

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

しかし彼らは 食人種をひどく恐れた」

So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals

不思議なのは なぜ彼らが 飢える可能性よりも

so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation?

食人種の方を 恐れたのかということです

Why were they swayed by one story

なぜ彼らは ２つの物語の

so much more than the other?

片方に強く 惹かれたのでしょう？

Looked at from this angle,

このような視点から見ると

theirs becomes a story about reading.

これは解釈についての 物語だと わかってきます

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader

小説家ナボコフは言っています 「最良の読者は―

has a combination of two very different temperaments,

２つの異なる気質を あわせ持っている

the artistic and the scientific.

芸術的気質と科学的気質だ」

A good reader has an artist's passion,

よい読者は 芸術家のような情熱で

a willingness to get caught up in the story,

物語に没頭します

but just as importantly, the readers also needs

一方 読者は 科学者のような

the coolness of judgment of a scientist,

冷静な判断力を 持つ必要があります

which acts to temper and complicate

読者は直感的に 反応しますが

the reader's intuitive reactions to the story.

冷静さは 反応を和らげたり 強調したりします

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

エセックス号の船員は 芸術的気質には優れていました

They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios.

様々な恐ろしい シナリオを想像したのです

The problem was that they listened to the wrong story.

ただ 間違った物語に 注目したのは失敗でした

Of all the narratives their fears wrote,

恐怖が生み出した 物語の中で

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

彼らが反応したのは 最も怖ろしく 生々しい―

the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture:

しかも想像しやすい物語 すなわち―

cannibals.

食人種でした

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

もし彼らが自分の恐怖を

more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment,

科学者のように捉え 冷静に判断していれば

they would have listened instead to the less violent

食人ほど 血なまぐさくないですが

but the more likely tale, the story of starvation,

より可能性の高い 餓死のシナリオに注目したはずです

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

メルヴィルが言うとおり タヒチに向かっていたでしょう

And maybe if we all tried to read our fears,

自分の恐怖を解読すれば

we too would be less often swayed

ひどいシナリオに 左右されずに

by the most salacious among them.

済むかもしれません

Maybe then we'd spend less time worrying about

殺人鬼や航空事故を

serial killers and plane crashes,

心配する時間を減らして

and more time concerned with the subtler

より捉えにくく緩慢な

and slower disasters we face:

目の前の悲劇に 時間を割けるはずです

the silent buildup of plaque in our arteries,

例えば 静かに 進む動脈硬化や

the gradual changes in our climate.

少しずつ起こる 気候変動です

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

文学では 繊細な物語が 最も豊かだとされます

so too might our subtlest fears be the truest.

同様に 小さな恐怖が 最も真実に近いのです

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

正しく読み取れば 恐怖は 想像力が与えてくれる―

of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance,

素晴らしい贈り物― 身近な予知能力です

a way of glimpsing what might be the future

未来に影響を 与えられる段階で

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

未来を垣間見る手段です

Properly read, our fears can offer us something as precious

正しく読み取れば 恐怖は 文学作品のように

as our favorite works of literature:

貴重なものを与えてくれます

a little wisdom, a bit of insight

それは 少しの知恵と洞察―

and a version of that most elusive thing --

そして 極めて 捉え難いもの―

the truth.

つまり 真実です

Thank you. (Applause)

ありがとうございます　（拍手）