Bruce McCall: Nostalgia for a future that never happened

翻译人员: beibei su 校对人员: Xin Chang

I don't know what the hell I'm doing here.

我压根儿不明白我到底来这儿干嘛

I was born in a Scots Presbyterian ghetto in Canada,

我出生在加拿大一个苏格兰长老会（基督教）贫民窟

and dropped out of high school. I don't own a cell phone,

高中就辍学了。我没有手机。

and I paint on paper using gouache, which hasn't changed in 600 years.

另外，我用水粉在纸上画画，这工艺六百年来都没变过

But about three years ago I had an art show in New York,

但是，三年前，我在纽约有个画展。

and I titled it "Serious Nonsense."

我管它叫“严肃的胡说”（正经不着调）

So I think I'm actually the first one here -- I lead.

所以我觉得我其实在这儿算第一人——我是始作俑者

I called it "Serious Nonsense" because on the serious side,

我叫它“严肃的胡说”，因为从严肃的一面来说，

I use a technique of painstaking realism of editorial illustration

我用一种细致的现实主义手法进行社论式地描绘

from when I was a kid. I copied it and I never unlearned it --

是我还小的时候学的，我反复使用它，从没放弃过。

it's the only style I know. And it's very kind of staid and formal.

这是我知道的唯一一种画风。它是很保守很正统的。

And meanwhile, I use nonsense, as you can see.

与此同时呢，你发现，我也用了“胡说”

This is a Scottish castle where people are playing golf indoors,

这是一座苏格兰城堡，人们在里面玩高尔夫

and the trick was to bang the golf ball off of suits of armor --

规则是要把高尔夫球从一身中世纪铠甲上打下来

which you can't see there.

你们在那儿可能看不太清

This was one of a series called "Zany Afternoons," which became a book.

这是我的系列图画“滑稽下午”中的一幅，后来出了书

This is a home-built rocket-propelled car. That's a 1953 Henry J --

这叫家装（土制）火箭推进车。这是辆1953年产的亨利J

I'm a bug for authenticity -- in a quiet neighborhood in Toledo.

在拖雷多一个安静的社区中——我重视本真性

This is my submission for the L.A. Museum of Film.

这幅是我提交的洛杉矶电影博物馆设计图

You can probably tell Frank Gehry and I come from the same town.

你都能看出来，我和弗兰克 盖里（著名建筑师）是从一个地方来的。

My work is so personal and so strange

我的作品很个性化很奇特

that I have to invent my own lexicon for it.

所以我不得不为它发明新的词汇

And I work a lot in what I call "retrofuturism,"

我创作了很多，我称之为“复古未来主义”

which is looking back to see how yesterday viewed tomorrow.

就是回顾一下昨天是怎么看明天的

And they're always wrong, always hilariously, optimistically wrong.

他们总是犯错，总是以很搞笑、乐观地方式犯着错

And the peak time for that was the 30s,

最高潮的时间是三十年代

because the Depression was so dismal

因为大萧条太凄凉了

that anything to get away from the present into the future ...

任何东西只要能把大家从现在带进未来（就行）

and technology was going to carry us along.

科技就是这样的东西

This is Popular Workbench. Popular science magazines in those days --

这是本《大众工作间》，一本当时很流行的科学杂志，

I had a huge collection of them from the '30s --

我收集了很多这样的三十年代的杂志

all they are is just poor people being asked to make sunglasses

这些可怜的人，就像叫他们用晾衣架的铁丝来造墨镜一样

out of wire coat hangers and everything improvised

都是即兴创作

and dreaming about these wonderful giant radio robots

梦想着这些神奇的巨大的无线电机器人

playing ice hockey at 300 miles an hour --

以每小时300英里的时速玩儿着冰球

it's all going to happen, it's all going to be wonderful.

都会实现的，都会变得妙极了

Automotive retrofuturism is one of my specialties.

机动类复古未来主义是我的特长之一

I was both an automobile illustrator and an advertising automobile copywriter,

因为我既是一个汽车插画画家，又是一个汽车广告文案

so I have a lot of revenge to take on the subject.

所以对这个主题我有点儿报复性心理

Detroit has always been halfway into the future -- the advertising half.

底特律总是已经有一只脚踏进未来了——广告中的那只脚——

This is the '58 Bulgemobile: so new, they make tomorrow look like yesterday.

这是58年的Bulgemobile车：多新，他们让明天看上去像昨天

This is a chain gang of guys admiring the car.

这是一票爱车族在膜拜这辆车。

That's from a whole catalog -- it's 18 pages or so --

那是从一整本目录册里来的，有差不多18页

ran back in the days of the Lampoon, where I cut my teeth.

回到我在《国家讽刺周刊》的日子，我那时候还把牙给磕了

Techno-archaeology is digging back and finding past miracles that never happened --

科技-考古的意思是说挖掘以前，找寻过去从未发生过的奇迹

for good reason, usually.

当然通常是出于善意的。

The zeppelin -- this was from a brochure about the zeppelin

齐柏林飞艇 - 这是从一个关于飞艇的小册子上来的

based, obviously, on the Hindenburg.

很显然，是取材于“兴登堡号”

But the zeppelin was the biggest thing that ever moved made by man.

飞艇是人类创造的会动的最大玩意儿

And it carried 56 people at the speed of a Buick at an altitude you could hear dogs bark,

它能载56人，速度和一辆别克差不多，飞行高度能让你听见狗叫

and it cost twice as much as a first-class cabin on the Normandie to fly it.

另外想坐它飞，要比坐巨轮“诺曼底号”的头等舱还贵两倍

So the Hindenburg wasn't, you know, it was inevitable it was going to go.

所以“兴登堡号”（惨剧）不是，你知道，它是不可避免，必将发生的。

This is auto-gyro jousting in Malibu in the 30s.

这是1930年马里布的自转旋翼机长枪比武大赛

The auto-gyro couldn't wait for the invention of the helicopter,

这个旋翼机还没等到直升飞机的发明，

but it should have -- it wasn't a big success.

但是它应该等等——它不是个巨大的成功

It's the only Spanish innovation, technologically, of the 20th century, by the way.

这是西班牙唯一的发明，科技类的，20世纪里，题外话

You needed to know that.

你要知道

The flying car which never got off the ground -- it was a post-war dream.

飞车从没离开过地面——算是后二战时代的一个梦吧

My old man used to tell me we were going to get a flying car.

我老爸曾经告诉我，我们将来会有一辆飞车

This is pitched into the future from 1946,

这是从1946年跌进未来

looking at the day all American families have them.

看看将来，每个美国家庭都能拥有他们

"There's Moscow, Shirley. Hope they speak Esperanto!"

插画的题注：“到莫斯科啦，雪莉，希望他们说世界语。”

Faux-nostalgia, which I'm sort of -- not, say, famous for, but I work an awful lot in it.

山寨怀旧，我其实，不是说成名于此吧，但是我画了很多这类的作品

It's the achingly sentimental yearning for times that never happened.

那是一种对从未发生的过去柔情百转的留恋

Somebody once said that nostalgia is the one utterly most useless human emotion --

有人曾经说过，怀旧是一种最最没用的人类情感

so I think that’s a case for serious play.

所以我觉得正好押住这个“严肃游戏”的主题

This is emblematic of it -- this is wing dining,

这是其中有代表性的一个——这个叫机翼餐

recalling those balmy summer days somewhere over France in the 20s,

回想起20年代的法国，那些温暖的夏日

dining on the wing of a plane. You can't see it very well here,

在飞机的机翼上进餐。你在那儿可能看不太清

but that's Hemingway reading some pages from his new novel

但是海明威正在朗读他的新小说

to Fitzgerald and Ford Madox Ford until the slipstream blows him away.

给菲茨杰拉德和福特 马多克斯 福特听，直到他被螺旋桨滑流吹走

This is tank polo in the South Hamptons.

这是南汉普顿的坦克马球，这是

The brainless rich are more fun to make fun of than anybody. I do a lot of that.

开没脑子的有钱人的玩笑，比开其他人玩笑都好玩儿。我老干这事儿

And authenticity is a major part of my serious nonsense.

还有，本真性是我“严肃的胡说”的一个重要部分

I think it adds a huge amount.

我觉得它给我的作品增色不少

Those, for example, are Mark IV British tanks from 1916.

那些，你比如，就是1916年英产的马克四型坦克

They had two machine guns and a cannon,

他们有两个机关枪和一个加农炮

and they had 90 horsepower Ricardo engines.

还有90马力里卡多引擎

They went five miles an hour and inside it was 105 degrees in the pitch dark.

他们每小时只能走五英里，里面有华氏105度（摄氏40度），一片漆黑

And they had a canary hung inside the thing

他们这里面还挂着个金丝雀

to make sure the Germans weren't going to use gas.

以防德国人使用毒气。

Happy little story, isn't it?

多喜兴的小故事啊，不是么？

This is Motor Ritz Towers in Manhattan in the 30s,

这是三十年代的曼哈顿，奢华的还能进车的丽兹大厦

where you drove up to your front door, if you had the guts.

你有胆的话，可以开车直达你房间的正门

Anybody who was anybody had an apartment there.

丽兹大厦有公寓的人非富则贵

I managed to stick in both the zeppelin and an ocean liner out of sheer enthusiasm.

纯粹为了个人喜好，我还想方设法把飞艇和一个巨轮给画进去了

And I love cigars -- there's a cigar billboard down there.

我喜欢雪茄，那下面还有个雪茄的广告牌

And faux-nostalgia works even in serious subjects like war.

山寨怀旧还能用在很多严肃的主题上，比如说战争

This is those wonderful days of the Battle of Britain in 1940,

这是1940年不列颠之战中的那些好日子

when a Messerschmitt ME109 bursts into the House of Commons

当梅塞斯密特Me-109型战斗机闯进英国下议院

and buzzes around, just to piss off Churchill, who's down there somewhere.

嗡嗡做响，就为了气一气坐在下面的丘吉尔，

It's a fond memory of times past.

多么美妙的“往事”啊

Hyperbolic overkill is a way of taking exaggeration to the absolute ultimate limit,

巨无霸是一种把夸张伸展到绝对极限的表达方式

just for the fun of it. This was a piece I did -- a brochure again --

就为了它的好玩儿。这幅画我画的，又是一个小册子

"RMS Tyrannic: The Biggest Thing in All the World."

英国皇家邮轮泰霸尼克号，世上最大的玩意儿

The copy, which you can't see because it goes on and on for several pages,

这一版，你没法儿看，因为它就这么下去好多好多页

says that steerage passengers can't get their to bunks before the voyage is over,

说下等舱的乘客还没到他们的铺位呢，整个行程已经结束了

and it's so safe it carries no insurance.

它太安全都不需要保险

It's obviously modeled on the Titanic.

这原型当然是泰坦尼克号

But it's not a cri de coeur about man's hubris in the face of the elements.

但是它不是对人类夜郎自大的心灵恸哭

It's just a sick, silly joke.

它就是一个疯疯癫癫，傻了吧唧的笑话

Shamelessly cheap is something, I think -- this will wake you up.

不知廉耻的低俗是，我觉得，绝对能把你叫醒的

It has no meaning, just -- Desoto discovers the Mississippi,

它没有什么任何意义，就是，迪索托发现密西西比

and it's a Desoto discovering the Mississippi.

而这就是，一辆迪索托汽车发现密西西比河

I did that as a quick back page -- I had like four hours to do a back page

我是速成的这个封底画，我当时只有四个小时画一个封底

for an issue of the Lampoon, and I did that,

为一期《国家讽刺周刊》，我就画了它

and I thought, "Well, I'm ashamed. I hope nobody knows it."

我想：“就这样吧，虽然很惭愧，希望没人注意到。”

People wrote in for reprints of that thing.

结果居然有读者写信来要求再版那幅画。

Urban absurdism -- that's what the New Yorker really calls for.

城市荒诞主义——这是纽约客给它取的大名儿

I try to make life in New York look even weirder than it is with those covers.

我画这些封面的时候，试图让纽约的生活看上去比实际上更光怪陆离

I've done about 40 of them, and I'd say 30 of them are based on that concept.

我画了大概40幅左右，其中有大概30幅是基于这个理念

I was driving down 7th Avenue one night at 3 a.m.,

我有一次夜里三点开车过第七街

and this steam pouring out of the street, and I thought, "What causes that?" And that --

就看见一股蒸汽从地下冒出来，然后我就想：“这是什么造成的呢？”之后——

who’s to say?

谁又能说什么呢？

The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan in New York -- it's a very somber place.

纽约大都会博物馆里的古埃及顿都神庙——是个很阴郁的地方

I thought I could jazz it up a bit, have a little fun with it.

我就想把它弄活泼点儿，搞得有意思点儿

This is a very un-PC cover. Not in New York.

这封面很不合时宜，至少在纽约不合适。

I couldn't resist, and I got a nasty email from some environmental group saying,

我是实在忍不住要画，之后我收到一封从什么环保组织发来的烦人电邮

"This is too serious and solemn to make fun of. You should be ashamed,

“这个问题神圣不可搞笑，你应该感到惭愧

please apologize on our website."

请在我们的网站上道歉”

Haven't got around to it yet but -- I may.

我一直没时间做这件事儿——但说不定我会

This is the word side of my brain.

这是我大脑中文字的一面

(Laughter)

（笑声)

I love the word "Eurotrash."

我喜欢这个词“欧洲滥人”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

That's all the Eurotrash coming through JFK customs.

这是所有“欧洲滥人”经纽约肯尼迪机场入海关时的特别通道

This was the New York bike messenger meeting the Tour de France.

这是纽约自行车递送小弟迎战环法自行车大赛

If you live in New York, you know how the bike messengers move.

如果你住在纽约，你就知道这些递送员是怎么辗转腾挪的

Except that he's carrying a tube for blueprints and stuff -- they all do --

除了他们还会背个装图纸一类的画筒——他们全都这样

and a lot of people thought that meant it was a terrorist

很多读者还以为他是恐怖分子

about to shoot rockets at the Tour de France --

正要向环法自行车赛发射火箭炮呢

sign of our times, I guess.

算是我们时代的印记了，我猜

This is the only fashion cover I've ever done.

这是我画的唯一一个时尚封面

It's the little old lady that lives in a shoe, and then this thing --

这些老太太们住在鞋里面，然后出来这么个东西

the title of that was, "There Goes the Neighborhood."

这个题目叫：“瞧瞧那个小区”

I don't know a hell of a lot about fashion --

对时尚，我懂得不多

I was told to do what they call a Mary Jane,

我被叫来画一个被她们称作玛丽简的鞋

and then I got into this terrible fight between the art director and the editor saying:

之后我被卷进艺术总监和总编的一场旷日持久的争论中

"Put a strap on it" -- "No, don't put a strap on it" -- "Put a strap on it -- "Don't put a strap on it" --

一个说要鞋带，一个说不要，要，不要

because it obscures the logo and looks terrible and it's bad and --

因为要的话就会挡住杂志标题，而且看上去也不美，不好

I finally chickened out and did it for the sake of the authenticity of the shoe.

但是我最后还是打退堂鼓了，为了保证这个鞋的本真性

This is a tiny joke -- E-ZR pass. One letter makes an idea.

这是一个小玩笑——“更”快捷收费站，一字之差就是个好主意

This is a big joke.

这是个大玩笑

This is the audition for "King Kong."

这是金刚的试镜现场

(Laughter)

（笑声）

People always ask me, where do you get your ideas, how do your ideas come?

总有人问我，你都是哪里找到灵感的，你怎么想到这些点子的

Truth about that one is I had a horrible red wine hangover,

说实在的，这是在有一天我喝红酒宿醉

in the middle of the night, this came to me like a Xerox -- all I had to do was write it down.

大半夜，这个想法突然闪现——我唯一要做的就是把它写下来

It was perfectly clear. I didn't do any thinking about it.

清晰无比，我想都不需要想

And then when it ran, a lovely lady, an old lady named Mrs. Edgar Rosenberg --

出版以后，一个可爱的女士，叫埃德加 罗森伯格女士

if you know that name -- called me and said she loved the cover, it was so sweet.

如果你知道她是谁的话——打电话给我，跟我说她特别喜欢这幅画，太贴心了

Her former name was Fay Wray, and so that was --

她以前叫菲伊·雷，（1933年版金刚的女主角），所以呢

I didn't have the wit to say, "Take the painting."

我当时傻了吧唧的，也没说，“把画拿走吧”

Finally, this was a three-page cover, never done before,

最后，这是个三页的封面，以前从来没做过

and I don't think it will ever be done again --

我估计也不会再有了

successive pages in the front of the magazine.

连页的杂志封面

It's the ascent of man using an escalator, and it's in three parts.

这是《人类的攀升》利用了一个自动扶梯，分三个部分

You can't see it all together, unfortunately, but if you look at it enough,

你没法一下看全，遗憾的是，但是如果你看得足够久

you can sort of start to see how it actually starts to move.

你就能发现它实际上是会动的

(Applause)

（掌声）

Pretty elegant. Nothing like a crash to end a joke. That completes my oeuvre.

不错吧，什么都没有最后摔一跤更适合结束一个笑话。这就是我的艺术生涯。

I would just like to add a crass commercial --

我还想贸然插一个的广告

I have a kids' book coming out in the fall called "Marvel Sandwiches,"

我马上有个儿童读物今年秋天要出了，叫“神奇的三明治”

a compendium of all the serious play that ever was,

算是对所有“严肃游戏”的提纲携领吧

and it’s going to be available in fine bookstores, crummy bookstores,

在高雅的，不高雅的书店

tables on the street in October.

路边的书报亭有售，尽在十月

So thank you very much.

非常感谢