经典阅读：飞行

闲情UID: 111016

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Flying

　　High, high above the North Pole, on the first day of1969, two professors of English literature approached each other at a combined velocity of 1,200 miles per hour. They were protected from the thin, cold air by the pressurized cabins of two Boeing 707s, and from the risk of collision by the prudent arrangement of the international air corridors. Although they had never met, the two men were known to each other by name. They were, in fact, in process of exchanging posts for the next six months, and in an age of more leisurely transportation the intersection of their respective routes might have been marked by some interesting human gesture: had they waved, for example, from the decks of two ocean liners crossing in mid-Atlantic, each man simultaneously focusing a telescope, by chance, on the other, with his free hand; or, more plausibly, a little mime of mutual appraisal might have been played out through the windows of two railway compartments halted side by side at the same station somewhere in Hampshire or the Mid-West, the more self-conscious party relieved to feel himself, at last, moving off, only to discover that it is the other man's train that is moving first...However, it was not to be. Since the two men were in airplanes, and one was bored and the other frightened of looking out of the window "since, in any case, the planes were too distant from each other to be mutually visible with the naked eye, the crossing of their paths at the still point of the turning world passed unremarked by anyone other than the narrator of this duplex chronicle.

　　"Duplex" as well asshavingsthe general meaning of "two-fold" applies in the jargon of electrical telegraphy to "systems in which messages are sent simultaneously in opposite directions"(OED). Imagine, if you will, that each of these two professors of English Literature (both, as it happens, aged forty) is connected to his native land, place of employment and domestic hearth by an infinitely elastic umbilical cord of emotions, attitudes and values "a cord which stretches and stretches almost to the point of invisibility, but never quite to breaking-point, as he hurtles through the air at 600 miles per hour. Imagine further that, as they pass each other above the polar ice-cap, the pilots of their respective Boeings, in defiance of regulations and technical feasibility, begin to execute a series of playful aerobatics "criss-crossing, diving, soaring and looping, like a pair of mating bluebirds, so as thoroughly to entangle the aforesaid umbilical cords, before proceeding soberly on their way in the approved manner. It follows that when the two men alight in each other's territory, and go about their business and pleasure, whatever vibrations are passed back by one to his native habitat will be felt by the other, and vice versa, and thus return to the transmitter subtly modified by the response of the other party "may, indeed, return to him along the other party's cord of communication, which is, after all, anchored in the placeswhereshe has just arrived; so that before long the whole system is twanging with vibrations travelling backwards and forwards between Prof A and Prof B, now along this line, now along that, sometimes beginning on one line and terminating on another. It would not be surprising, in other words, if two men changing places for six months should exert a reciprocal influence on each other's destinies, and actually mirror each other's experience in certain respects, notwithstanding all the differences that exist between the two environments, and between the characters of the two men and their respective attitudes towards the whole enterprise.

　　One of these differences we can take in at a glance from our privileged narrative altitude (higher than that of any jet). It is obvious, from his stiff, upright posture, and fulsome gratitude to the stewardess serving him a glass of orange juice, that Philip Swallow, flying westward, is unaccustomed to air travel; while to Morris Zapp, slouched in the seat of his eastbound aircraft, chewing a dead cigar (a hostess has made him extinguish it) and glowering at the meagre portion of ice dissolving in his plastic tumbler of bourbon, the experience of long-distance air travel is tediously familiar.

　　Philip Swallow has, in fact, flown before; but so seldom, and at such long intervals, that on each occasion he suffers the same trauma, an alternating current of fear and re-assurance that charges and relaxes his system in a persistent and exhausting rhythm. While he is on the ground, preparing for his journey, he thinks of flying with exhilaration "soaring up, up and awaysintosthe blue empyrean, cradled in aircraft that seem, from a distance, effortlessly at home in that element, as though sculpted from the sky itself. This confidence begins to fade a little when he arrives at the airport and winces at the shrill screaming of jet engines. In the sky the planes look very small. On the runways they look very big. Therefore close up they should look even bigger but in fact they don't. His own plane, for instance, just outside the window of the assembly lounge, doesn't look quite big enough for all the people who are going to getsintosit. This impression is confirmed when he passes through the tunnelsintosthe cabin of the aircraft, a cramped tube full of writhing limbs. But when he, and the other passengers, are seated, well-being returns. The seats are so remarkably comfortable that one feels quite content to stay put, but it is reassuring that the aisle is free should one wish to walk up it. There is soothing music playing. The lighting is restful. A stewardess offers him the morning paper. His baggage is safely stowed away in the plane somewhere, or if it is not, that isn't his fault, which is the main thing. Flying is, after all, the only way to travel.

飞行

　　1969年的第一天，北极的高空上，两位英国文学教授正以每小时1200英里的相对速度相互靠近。两架波音707的密封舱将他们隔离在稀薄寒冷的空气之外，国际空中走廊的严格划分使他们免于相撞的危险。尽管他们素未谋面，却久闻对方的大名。事实上，他们正在奔赴为期6个月的校际互访的新岗位。在使用比较从容悠闲的交通工具的时代，这两个人路线的交点可能会记下一些有趣的、有人情味的手势。比如说，两艘远洋客轮在大西洋中相遇，两人站在各自的甲板上碰巧用各自的望远镜对准了对方，于是用闲着的那只手向对方挥舞致意。或者更有可能的是，在汉普郡或美国中西部的某个地方，两列火车并排停靠在同一个车站，在紧挨着的两个车厢里，隔着车窗，会演出一幕相互掂量的小哑剧，感觉不自然的一方如释重负地感到自己的车终于开动了，结果发现开的却是对方的车……但眼下这些是不可能的。因为这俩人都在飞机上，一人感到百无聊赖，另一人则不敢往窗外看--由于不管在什么情况下，这两架飞机相距很远，他们无法用肉眼看见对方。因此，在转动的地球上发生两人路线交汇的这一静止点，除了这一“复式”(duplex)故事的叙述者外不会再有其他人注意。

　　“duplex”一词通常的意思是“双重的”，在电信术语里，它表示“信息从两头同时向对方传递的系统”(见《牛津英语词典》)。不妨发挥一下你的想像力，假设这两位文学教授(都正好40岁)与各自的故土--他们工作的地方，他们家中的壁炉边--之间，都有一条弹性无穷大的纽带将他们相连，这条纽带交织着他们的情感、态度和价值观--他们各自以每小时600英里的速度在高空飞行时，这条纽带被拉伸到几乎看不见但又不至崩断的地步。再想像下去，当他们在冰雪覆盖的极地上空交错而过时，两架波音飞机的驾驶员，不顾飞行规定和技术可行性，玩儿起了一系列的特技--交叉飞舞、俯冲、攀升、转圈，就像一对交配中的蓝色鸣鸟上下翻飞，以至于把前面所说的纽带彻底缠绕在一起，然后才回归正常的飞行方式。这样一来，当这两个人分别降落在对方的领地，开始各自的工作和生活时，其中一个人通过纽带传回给故土的任何振动，都会被另一个人感觉到，而后者的反应会使传回给发送者的信息发生微妙变化--事实上，这些信息可能是通过另一方的纽带传回去的，毕竟，这条纽带是固定在他刚刚到达的地方。于是，用不了多久，随着A教授和B教授之间的来回振动感应，整个系统就会嗡嗡作响：这些振动一会儿沿着这条纽带，一会儿又通过那条，有时从这一条开始，又在那条结束。换句话说，如果换位6个月的这两位对彼此的命运产生了影响，并在某些方面反映了对方的经历也不足为奇，尽管两人所处的环境、各自的性格以及他们在整个换位这件事上的态度都有所不同。

　　从叙述者得天独厚的高度(比任何喷气式飞机都要高)来看，我们可以发现其中一点不同。很显然，从僵硬笔直的坐姿和对端上橙汁的空中小姐过分感激的态度来看，朝西飞行的菲利普-斯沃娄并不习惯空中旅行；再瞧莫里斯-扎普，无精打采地坐在向东飞行的飞机上，嘴里叼着一根灭了的雪茄(一位空姐刚让他把烟掐了)，注视着面前那杯威士忌中慢慢融化的冰块。对于空中长途旅行，他已习以为常得有些生厌了。

　　其实，菲利普-斯沃娄以前也坐过飞机，但次数之少，隔的时间之长，使他每次都感到同样的精神折磨：恐惧和释然感轮番袭来，不断使他的神经一会儿紧张，一会儿放松，直搞得他精疲力尽。上飞机之前为远行做准备时，他满怀喜悦地想像着飞行--向空中一路高飞，飞入蓝色的苍穹，而自己就像安坐在摇蓝里一样。从远处看，飞机在空中显得那样自在，就像是从天空本身雕刻出来似的。但是，等他到了机场听见引擎刺耳的尖叫时，不由本能地退缩，信心也随之减退。飞机在空中显得如此渺小，在跑道上看着却很庞大，走近了应该感觉更大--事实却不是这样。拿他要坐的那架飞机来说，光从候机大厅的窗口看去，它仿佛根本就装不下所有要登机的人。当他经过通道进入机舱时，眼见狭窄的机舱里满是蜷缩弯曲的手脚，这种想法就更加肯定了。但是当他和其他乘客坐定后，舒服愉快的感觉又回来了。座位异常舒适，让人满意得一坐进去就不想动弹，但是如果有人愿意起来走动，走道也肯定够宽敞够舒适。机舱里播放着舒缓的音乐，灯光柔和惬意。空中小姐送来了一份早报。他的行李安全地存放在飞机上的某一处，或者，如果没有放好，那也不是他的错，这一点很要紧。毕竟，搭乘飞机是现在惟一的旅行方式。

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