What fear can teach us | Karen Thompson Walker

Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Thu-Huong Ha

Translator: Lea Peternel Reviewer: Lenka Tušar

One day in 1819,

Nekega dne, leta 1819,

3,000 miles off the coast of Chile,

4.828 km od čilske obale,

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

v enem najbolj oddaljenih področij pacifiškega oceana

20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater.

je 20 ameriških mornarjev gledalo kako je njihovo ladjo zalila morska voda.

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

Udaril jih je kit glavač in naredil

a catastrophic hole in the ship's hull.

ogromno luknjo v ladjinem trupu.

As their ship began to sink beneath the swells,

Ko se je njihova ladja začela potapljati

the men huddled together in three small whaleboats.

so se možje nagnetli skupaj v tri majhne rešilne čolne.

These men were 10,000 miles from home,

Bili so 16.093 km od doma,

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

več kot 1.609 km stran od najbližjega koščka kopnega.

In their small boats, they carried only

V svojih majhnih čolnih so imeli samo

rudimentary navigational equipment

osnovno navigacijsko opremo

and limited supplies of food and water.

in omejene zaloge hrane in vode.

These were the men of the whaleship Essex,

To so bili možje s kitolovke Essex,

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

katerih zgodba je bila kasneje navdih za dele "Moby Dick-a".

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

Celo v današnjem svetu bi bila njihova situacija zelo grozljiva,

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

pomislite koliko težje je bilo šele takrat.

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

Nihče na kopnem ni imel pojma, da je šlo kaj narobe.

No search party was coming to look for these men.

Nihče ni iskal teh mož.

So most of us have never experienced a situation

Torej, večina izmed nas se ni nikoli znašla v situaciji

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

tako strašljivi kot je bila ta, v kateri so se znašli ti mornarji,

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

toda vsi vemo kako je, če nas je strah.

We know how fear feels,

Vemo kako občutimo strah,

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

vendar nisem prepričana, da dovolj časa razmišljamo o tem

what our fears mean.

kaj naši strahovi pomenijo.

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

Ko odraščamo, nas pogosto vzpodbujajo naj razmišljamo o strahu

as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard

kot o slabosti, še eni otroški stvari, ki jo moramo opustiti,

like baby teeth or roller skates.

kot mlečne zobe in kotalke.

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

In menim, da ni naključje, da tako razmišljamo.

Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings

Nevrologi so namreč dokazali, da smo ljudje

are hard-wired to be optimists.

v osnovi optimisti.

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

Torej, mogoče zato včasih razmišljamo o strahu samem

as a danger in and of itself.

kot o nevarnosti.

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

"Ne skrbi" radi rečemo drug drugemu. "Ne paničari."

In English, fear is something we conquer.

V angleškem jeziku je strah nekaj kar premagamo,

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

nekaj, s čimer se borimo. Nekaj kar obvladamo.

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

Toda kaj ča bi na strah pogledali z novimi očmi?

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

Kaj če bi strah videli kot osupljivo dejanje domišljije,

something that can be as profound and insightful

nekaj kar je lahko tako globoko in pronicljivo

as storytelling itself?

kot pripovedovanje zgodb?

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

Najlažje je videti to povezavo med strahom in domišljijo

in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid.

pri majhnih otrocih, katerih strahovi so pogosto izredno slikoviti.

When I was a child, I lived in California,

Ko sem bila otrok, sem živela v Kaliforniji,

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

ki je, kot veste, praviloma zelo prijazen kraj za življenje.

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

Toda zame, kot otroka, je bila Kalifornija tudi malo strašljiva.

I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier

Spominjam se kako strašljivo je bilo videti lestenec,

that hung above our dining table swing back and forth

ki je visel nad mizo in se zibal sem ter tja

during every minor earthquake,

med vsakim manjšim potresom.

and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified

Včasih ponoči nisem mogla spati, saj me je bilo strah,

that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping.

da bo udaril Ta Velik, medtem ko bomo spali.

And what we say about kids who have fears like that

In o otrocih, ki imajo takšne strahove,

is that they have a vivid imagination.

rečemo da imajo bujno domišljijo.

But at a certain point, most of us learn

Toda v določeni točki se večina izmed nas nauči,

to leave these kinds of visions behind and grow up.

da te vrste predstave pustimo za seboj in odrastemo.

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

Naučimo se, da se pod posteljo ne skrivajo pošasti

and not every earthquake brings buildings down.

in da vsak potres ne poruši poslopij.

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

Toda mogoče ni naključje, da nekateri naši nabolj kreativni umi,

fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults.

ne uspejo pustiti teh vrst strahov za seboj ko odrastejo.

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

Ista neverjetna domišljija, ki je rodila "O nastanku vrst",

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

"Jane Eyre" in "Iskanje izgubljenega časa",

also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives

je tudi vzbujala silne skrbi, ki so preganjali odrasla življenja

of Charles Darwin, Charlotte BrontĂŤ and Marcel Proust.

Charles-a Darwin-a, Charlotte Bronte in Marcel-a Proust-a.

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

Torej, vprašanje je, kaj se lahko mi naučimo o strahu

from visionaries and young children?

od vizionarjev in majhnih otrok?

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

Za trenutek se bomo vrnili v leto 1819,

to the situation facing the crew of the whaleship Essex.

k situaciji, s katero se je soočala kitolovka Essex.

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

Poglejmo strahove, ki jih je vzbujala njihova domišljija,

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

ko so bili izgubljeni sredi Pacifika.

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

Štiriindvajset ur je minilo odkar se je ladja prevrnila.

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

Prišel je čas, da možje naredijo načrt,

but they had very few options.

toda imeli so malo možnosti.

In his fascinating account of the disaster,

V svoji navdušujoči pripovedi te katastrofe

Nathaniel Philbrick wrote that these men were just about

je Nathaniel Philbrick zapisal, da so bili ti možje

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

tako daleč od kopnega kot bi bilo to mogoče kjerkoli na Zemlji.

The men knew that the nearest islands they could reach

Vedeli so, da je najbližje otočje, ki ga lahko dosežejo

were the Marquesas Islands, 1,200 miles away.

Markeški otoki, 1.931 km stran.

But they'd heard some frightening rumors.

Toda slišali so strah vzbujajoče govorice.

They'd been told that these islands,

Slišali so, da so ti otoki

and several others nearby, were populated by cannibals.

in nekaj otokov v bližini naseljeni z ljudožerci.

So the men pictured coming ashore only to be murdered

Možje so si torej predstavljali, da bodo prišli na obalo in bodo takoj ubiti,

and eaten for dinner.

in ljudožerci jih bodo pojedli za večerjo.

Another possible destination was Hawaii,

Drugi možen cilj so bili Havaji,

but given the season, the captain was afraid

toda zaradi letnega časa se je kapetan bal,

they'd be struck by severe storms.

da jih bodo ujele močne nevihte.

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

Zadnja možnost je bila najdaljša in najtežja, in sicer

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

pluti 2.414 km južno v upanju, da bi dosegli

a certain band of winds that could eventually

določene vetrove, ki bi jih na koncu

push them toward the coast of South America.

potisnili proti obalam Južne Amerike.

But they knew that the sheer length of this journey

Toda zavedali so se, da bodo že zaradi razdalja tega potovanja,

would stretch their supplies of food and water.

imeli težave z zalogami hrane in vode.

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

Da jih pojedo ljudožerci, da jih bijejo nevihte,

to starve to death before reaching land.

da umrejo od lakote preden dosežejo kopno.

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

To so bili strahovi, ki so plesaili v domišljiji teh ubogih mož

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

in kot se je kasneje izkazalo, strah ki so mu prisluhnili

would govern whether they lived or died.

je odločal o tem ali bodo preživeli ali umrli.

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

Te strahove bi prav lahko poimenovali tudi z drugim imenom.

What if instead of calling them fears,

Kaj če bi jih namesto strahovi,

we called them stories?

poimenovali zgodbe?

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

Ker strah je, če nekoliko pomislimo, pravzaprav v resnici

It's a kind of unintentional storytelling

neke vrste nenamerno pripovedovanje zgodbe

that we are all born knowing how to do.

in s tem znanjem smo vsi rojeni.

And fears and storytelling have the same components.

Strahovi in pripovedovanje zgodb imata enake sestavne dele.

They have the same architecture.

Imajo enako arhiitekturo.

Like all stories, fears have characters.

Kot vse zgodbe imajo strahovi igralce.

In our fears, the characters are us.

V naših strahovih smo igralci mi sami.

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

Strahovi imajo tudi zaplet.

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

Vkrcaš se na letalo. Letalo vzleti. Motor odpove.

Our fears also tend to contain imagery that can be

Naši strahovi imajo praviloma tudi metaforiko, ki je lahko

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

enako slikovita kot jo lahko najdemo na straneh romana.

Picture a cannibal, human teeth

Predstavljajte si ljudožerca, človeški zobje

sinking into human skin,

se zasadijo v človeško kožo,

human flesh roasting over a fire.

človeško meso se peče nad ognjem.

Fears also have suspense.

Strahovi nas tudi držijo v napetost.

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

Če sem danes opravila svoje delo kot pripovedovalka zgodbe,

you should be wondering what happened

bi se morali sedaj spraševati kaj se je zgodilo

to the men of the whaleship Essex.

z možmi s kitolovke Essex.

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

Naši strahovi v nas vzbudijo zelo podobno napetost.

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention

Prav tako kot vse velike zgodbe, se naši strahovi osredotočajo

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

na vprašanje, ki je ravno tako pomembno v življenju kot v literaturi:

What will happen next?

Kaj se bo zgodilo?

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

Z drugimi besedami, naši strahovi nas silijo, da razmišljamo o prihodnosti.

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

In, mimgrede, ljudje smo edina bitja sposobna

of thinking about the future in this way,

razmišljati o prihodnosti na način,

of projecting ourselves forward in time,

da si sami sebe predstavljamo v prihodnosti.

and this mental time travel is just one more thing

In to miselno potovanje v času je samo še ena stvar,

that fears have in common with storytelling.

ki je skupna strahovom in pripovedovanju zgodb.

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

Kot pisateljica vam lahko povem, da je velik del pisanja leposlovja

is learning to predict how one event in a story

znati predvidevati kako bo en dogodek zgodbe

will affect all the other events,

vplival na vse ostale dogodke.

and fear works in that same way.

In strah deluje na podoben način.

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

Pri strahu, ravno tako kot v leposlovju, ena stvar vodi k drugi.

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

Ko sem pisala svoj prvi roman "Leto čudežev",

I spent months trying to figure out what would happen

sem več mesecev poskušala ugotoviti kaj se bo zgodilo,

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

če bi se Zemlja naenkrat začela vrteti počasneje.

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

Kaj bi se zgodilo z našimi dnevi? Kaj bi se zgodilo z našo letino?

What would happen to our minds?

Kaj bi se zgodilo z našim razumom?

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

In šele kasneje sem se zavedla kako zelo podobna so bila

these questions were to the ones I used to ask myself

ta vprašanja tistim, ki sem si jih zastavljala

as a child frightened in the night.

kot prestrašen otrok v noči.

If an earthquake strikes tonight, I used to worry,

Skrbelo me je, kaj če nas potres strese nocoj,

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

kaj se bo zgodilo z našo hišo? Kaj se bo zgodilo z našo družino?

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

In odgovor na ta vprašanja je vedno imel obilko zgodbe.

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

Torej, če o svojih strahovih razmišljamo ne le kot o strahovih

but as stories, we should think of ourselves

ampak kot o zgodbah, bi morali o sebi razmišljati

as the authors of those stories.

kot o avtorjih teh zgodb.

But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves

In ravno tako pomembno, o sebi moramo razmišljati

as the readers of our fears, and how we choose

kot o bralcih svojih strahov. In to, kako se odločimo, da bomo

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

svoje strahove brali, ima močan učinek na naša življenja.

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

Nekateri izmed nas že po naravi bolj natančno berejo svoje strahove kot drugi.

I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs,

Pred kratkim sem brala raziskavo o uspešnih podjetnikih,

and the author found that these people shared a habit

v kateri je avtor ugotovil, da imajo ti ljudje skupno navado,

that he called "productive paranoia," which meant that

ki jo je poimenoval "produktivna paranoja", kar pomeni,

these people, instead of dismissing their fears,

da ti ljudje, namesto da bi zavračali svoje strahove,

these people read them closely, they studied them,

jih natančno berejo, jih preučujejo

and then they translated that fear into preparation and action.

in nato ta strah pretvorijo v pripravljenost in akcijo.

So that way, if their worst fears came true,

Na tak način, če se njihovi najhujši strahovi uresničijo,

their businesses were ready.

so njihova podjetja pripravljena.

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

In včasih se naši najhujši strahovi uresničijo.

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

To je ena izmed stvari, ki je tako nenavadna pri strahu.

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

Vsake toliko časa lahko naši strahovi napovedo prihodnost.

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

Toda nikakor se ne moremo pripraviti na vse naše strahove,

that our imaginations concoct.

ki jih naša domošljija lahko skuje.

So how can we tell the difference between

Torej, kako lahko ločimo med

the fears worth listening to and all the others?

strahovi, katerim je vredno prisluhniti in med vsemi drugimi strahovi?

I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex

Menim, da konec zgodbe o kitolovki Essex

offers an illuminating, if tragic, example.

ponudi poučen, čeravno tragičen primer.

After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision.

Po temeljitem razmisleku, so se možje končno odločili.

Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands

Ker so se bali ljudožercev, so se odločili, da bodo pluli mimo najbližjih otokov

and instead embarked on the longer

in se namesto tega podali na daljšo

and much more difficult route to South America.

in veliko težjo pot do Južne Amerike.

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

In po več kot dveh mesecih na morju, jim je zmanjkalo hrane,

as they knew they might,

kar so sicer lahko pričakovali.

and they were still quite far from land.

Še vedno pa so bili daleč od kopnega.

When the last of the survivors were finally picked up

Ko sta zadnje preživele končno rešili

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

dve ladji, ki sta pluli mimo, jih je bilo le še manj kot polovica.

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

In nekateri izmed njih so se zatekli k svoji obliki ljudožerstva.

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

Herman Melville, ki je to zgodbo uporabil pri pisanju "Moby Dick-a",

wrote years later, and from dry land, quote,

je nekaj let kasneje, na trdni zemlji, zapisal

"All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex

"Vsemu trpljenju teh nesrečnih mož iz Essex-a

might in all human probability have been avoided

bi se lahko izognili,

had they, immediately after leaving the wreck,

če bi se, takoj ko so zapustili potopljeno ladjo

steered straight for Tahiti.

obrnili naravnost proti Tahitiju.

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

Toda", kakor pravi Melville: "groza jih je bilo ljudožercev."

So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals

Vprašanje je torej, zakaj so se ti možje bolj močno bali ljudožercev,

so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation?

kot velike verjetnosti, da bodo umrli od lakote?

Why were they swayed by one story

Zakaj je ena zgodba

so much more than the other?

močneje vplivala nanje kot druga?

Looked at from this angle,

Če pogledamo z druge strani

theirs becomes a story about reading.

njihva zgodba postane zgodba o branju.

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader

Romanopisec Vladimir Nabokov je dejal, da ima najboljši bralec

has a combination of two very different temperaments,

kombinacijo dveh različnih temperamentov, in sicer

the artistic and the scientific.

umetniški in znanstveni.

A good reader has an artist's passion,

Dober bralec ima umetniško strast,

a willingness to get caught up in the story,

voljnost, da se ujame v zgodbo.

but just as importantly, the readers also needs

Pa ravno tako pomembno, bralec tudi potrebuje

the coolness of judgment of a scientist,

razsodnost znanstvenika

which acts to temper and complicate

ki ublaži in zaplete

the reader's intuitive reactions to the story.

bralčev intuitiven odziv na zgodbo.

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

Kot smo videli, možje z Essexa niso imeli težav z umetniškim delom.

They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios.

Izmislili so si različne grozljive scenarije.

The problem was that they listened to the wrong story.

Težava je bila v tem, da so prisluhnili napačni zgodbi.

Of all the narratives their fears wrote,

Od vseh zgodb, ki so jih spisali njihovi strahovi,

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

so se odzvali samo na najbolj šokantno in najbolj slikovito.

the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture:

Tisto, ki si jo je njihova domišljija najlažje predstavljala:

cannibals.

ljudožerci.

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

Toda mogoče, če bi lahko svoje strahove brali bolj kot

more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment,

znanstvenik, z več razsodnosti,

they would have listened instead to the less violent

bi prisluhnili manj nasilni,

but the more likely tale, the story of starvation,

a bolj verjetni zgodbi, zgodbi o smrti zaradi lakote

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

in se usmerili proti Tahitiju, tako kot predlaga žalosten Melvill-ov komentar.

And maybe if we all tried to read our fears,

In mogoče, če bi vsi poskusili brati svoje strahove,

we too would be less often swayed

bi najbolj veliki strahovi

by the most salacious among them.

manj pogosto vplivali na nas.

Maybe then we'd spend less time worrying about

Mogoče bi zato manj časa skrbeli o

serial killers and plane crashes,

serijskih morilcih in letalskih nesrečah,

and more time concerned with the subtler

in bi se več časa ukvarjali z bolj subtilnimi

and slower disasters we face:

in počasnejšimi katastrofami, s katerimi se soočamo:

the silent buildup of plaque in our arteries,

tiho kopičenje oblog v naših arterijah,

the gradual changes in our climate.

počasne spremembe našega podnebja.

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

Ravno tako kot so najbolj niansne zgodbe v literaturi pogosto najbogatejše,

so too might our subtlest fears be the truest.

tako so lahko naši nabolj subtilni strahovi najresničnejši.

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

Če jih beremo na pravi način, so naši strahovi osupljivo darilo

of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance,

domišljije, neke vrste vsakdanja jasnovidnost,

a way of glimpsing what might be the future

način za hiter pogled v to, kaj nam lahko prinese prihodnost.

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

In to takrat, ko je še čas, da vplivamo na to, kako se bo prihodnost odvila.

Properly read, our fears can offer us something as precious

Če jih pravilno beremo, nam naši strahovi lahko ponudijo nekaj tako dragocenega

as our favorite works of literature:

kot naša literarna dela:

a little wisdom, a bit of insight

malo modrosti, nekaj uvida

and a version of that most elusive thing --

in različico najbolj izmuzljive stvari --

the truth.

resnice.

Thank you. (Applause)

Hvala. (Ploskanje)