美國作家John Steinbeck的小說，我也是第一次讀，讀的第一本是隨手從女兒留下的一堆書裏撿起的Travel with Charley - in Search of America。 作者John Steinbeck 為了真正了解自己筆下的美國這塊土地和美國人，在他58歲那年，在他覺得自己會不久人世之際，獨自一個人開著改裝了等同於今日房車一樣的一輛車，帶著家中的一條老狗Charley，從東部Long Island出發，一路向西，直至加州Salinas, 他的故鄉，他成長的地方。John Steinbeck在1962年獲諾貝爾文學獎，雖然國人對他的獲獎有爭議，然而大作家就是與眾不同，文字好，思想深刻，剖析起美國問題來針針見血。作者在這部1960完成的遊記作品中指出的一些美國問題，半個多世紀後再看，依然存在，依然在蔓延。小說讀完已經快一個星期了，想用英語寫一篇讀書筆記，發現寫不出來。至此 用中文把作者Steinbeck書中提到的自己比較有同感的，加上自己的理解，概括於此，並附上摘抄的原文，做個小結。

 

(一) 美國的浪費現象

來美以後，看到美國漫長的海岸線，寬闊的海域，無邊無際的森林樹木，人們對自然生態環境的保護和愛惜，感慨美國真是個資源大國。同時也看到它的浪費現象，從我們住的周遭，到公司到整個國家，浪費現象比比皆是。美國就像有錢的大戶人家，過日子是大手大腳，扔掉的垃圾夠窮人撿起來用一陣子或一輩子的。書中提到，"我們扔掉的(成山)，比我們用的多。如果在法國或是意大利，這些扔掉的東西一定是會被保存起來另作他用的。"

美國東西的最大特征之一就是大，地大，房子大，冰箱大，連土雞長得也特別大。瞧瞧Costco的那些購物者，常常推著滿滿一車的物品，海吃狂用，吃成大胖子，吃不了的，扔; 用了沒幾年的東西，七成新的，也扔，買新的; 為鼓勵消費者消費，各種廣告刺激，買一送一，折扣卷，免費贈送; 新產品層出不窮， 手機新版升級，電腦更新換代，新車款每幾年出籠。總而言之， 美國人民最豪氣，最爽氣，銀行戶頭空空不要緊，借錢，信用卡刷了再說， 反正它是大國強國，有印鈔機，有全世界人願意為它生產加工價廉物美的產品，連垃圾都可以倒到別人的地盤上。更何況，它自己巨大的資源都沒怎麽用，用掉的都是別人的資源。美國真是一塊被上帝祝福的土地，而美國人民無疑是上帝的寵兒。

 

但是就像作者在書中說的，他不是在批評這個那個體製，而隻是懷疑，這樣的浪費能不能持續，有一天是不是就無法承受了? 

 

（二）美國的城鎮化，村落的消失

書中提到存在於二十世紀五六十年代的城鎮化，村落漸漸消失，變成城鎮，然後再一步步向城市推進。 村子裏村店，不管是雜貨店，五金店等等，都無法與超市連鎖店競爭。人們常常聚眾交流信息，暢談國事的小型餐飲店也急劇消失，取而代之的是，車輛擁擠的街道，霧霾的天空，工業氣體的排放，膨脹的城市。

這些書中描述的現象在今天已經全球化了，這種發展中的陣痛，時代變遷的產物，讓個性化的東西存在的空間越來越小，已經不足為奇了。就像作者說的，自動化，產業化的推廣，求速度，求安全，最後成批機器統一做出來的麵包，整齊劃一，又索然無味。而今天，連造出來的房子像是從cookie cutter 裏切出來的，沒有特征。

 

這又令我想起Amazon, 這個電子商業巨頭，它擠垮了無數家實業店，還宣稱要做成無所不能的everything company。我們無法預估Bezos的野心是不是有實現的那一天，如果有，世界會如何變換?

正如作者在書中所預言的，"世上所有事物都像鍾擺，左右晃動的，總有反方向擺動的一天，因為臃腫的城市會像破裂的子宮，把子孫後代重新撒播回到農村"。現如今不就是如此嗎? 城市的老齡化、擁擠喧囂又讓有錢人逃之夭夭，回到鄉村，把房子建在高山上，大海邊，以求換回寧靜安逸的生活。

 

（三）方言的逐漸消失

書中寫到，隨著收音機電視的普及，方言(local accent)漸漸消失。方言也是一種文化，就像我們語言中歇後語之類的，它的存在賦予了語言的多樣性。想起有一年旅行，經過大沙漠時，導遊煞有其事地說起一個戰爭時代的故事--印第安人的方言讓破譯情報的情報人員犯難。那一刻，讓我想起溫州方言，估計破譯者也很難破譯。幾年前溫州堂弟來美自駕遊，發現堂弟的小孩都講一口純正的普通話，說是現在的小孩溫州話都不太會講，學校也都是講普通話了。這幾年回家也發現這個現象，方言漸漸被普通話取代。不過聽說最近又好像開始提倡恢複地方文化，包括方言。

有點扯遠了。但是問題是一個問題。方言存在的意義有多大?人們隻是因為懷舊才想起恢複，還是總有一天，方言隻存在人的懷舊記憶裏。

 

（四）引進勞工

二十世紀五六十年代，美國一到收獲季節，豐收的土豆堆得比山還高(作者言：一百年全世界人民都吃不完)，那樣就需要勞力。在Maine, 作者遇見一批從加拿大過來的法國裔勞力。他們每到旺季，在中間商的牽引下拖家帶口地來美國做季節工。他們住在車裏，抑或住帳篷，辛勤勞動著。就像當今的大量墨西哥移民，他們都是低端的勞動力。作者在書中說了的這樣一句發人深省的話，"當我們美國人引進人員做苦力時，希望有一天，我們不會充斥著是因為太驕傲，太懶惰或是太軟弱無力，以至於不能彎下腰來撿我們自己口中食物的人。"

 

（五）種族歧視

這個話題太大，我隻摘錄作者書中的描述。作者在書中寫了這樣一個故事。作者開著車，看到路邊一位黑人疲憊不堪地走著，好心停了下來，想載黑人一程。黑人非常勉為其難地上了車，拘謹地回答著作者的提問(因為作者此行主要是體恤民情，了解民風的)。 黑人在回答時，每一句話的結尾都畢恭畢敬地加上Sir這樣一個稱呼。不知過了多久，如坐針氈的黑人問作者，他就住附近，可不可以放他下車了? 作者隻有放他下車，無奈地從後視鏡裏看著勞動一天的黑人拖著沉重的腳步繼續走。 他知道， 黑人不住在附近，但是"自己走路，比坐在我(作者)的車裏安全" (but walking was safer than riding with me.)

 

作者還花了一定的篇幅講述白人的抗議集會，抗議杜絕黑人的孩子和白人的孩子進同一所學校學習。後來作者又遇見一位白人，邀他上他的車喝咖啡，討論這個問題。這個白人告訴他，改變一個的感情很難，白人很難改變對黑人的情感，反之亦然。黑人一直是當奴隸使喚，現在他們想做人，想平等，不是那麽容易接受。

 

我想，半個多世紀後，黑人兄弟通過自己的努力改善了自己在這個社會上的地位。但是正如這位白人所說，人的觀念情感有時又是根深蒂固的。 所以今天，種族歧視依舊存在，存在於各種有色人種之間。

 

曆史在重複，人類又是在重複中前行或是倒退著。

 

 

原文摘抄:

1）American cities are like badger holes, ringed with trash—all of them—surrounded by piles of wrecked and rusting automobiles, and almost smothered with rubbish. Everything we use comes in boxes, cartons, bins, the so-called packaging we love so much. The mountains of things we throw away are much greater than the things we use. In this, if in no other way, we can see the wild and reckless exuberance of our production, and waste seems to be the index. Driving along I thought how in France or Italy every item of these thrown-out things would have been saved and used for something.  This is not said in criticism of one system or the other but I do wonder whether there will come a time when we can no longer afford our wastefulness. (P.26)

2）….The big towns are getting bigger and the villages smaller. The hamlet store, whether grocery, general, hardware, clothing, cannot compete with the supermarket and the chain organization. Our treasured and nostalgic picture of the village store, the cracker-barrel store where an informed yeomanry gather to express opinion and formulate the national character, is very rapidly disappearing. People who once held family fortresses against wind and weather, against scourges of forest and drought and insect enemies, now cluster against the busy breast of the big town. (p71-72)
2）The new American finds his challenge and his love in traffic-choked streets, skies nested in smog, choking with the acids of industry, the screech of rubber and houses leashed in against one another while the townlets wither a time and die.  … And I am sure that, as all pendulums reverse their swing, so eventually will the swollen cities rupture like dehiscent wombs and disperse their children back to the countryside. This prophecy is underwritten by the tendency of the rich to do this already. Where the rich lead, the poor will follow, or try to. (P.72)
2）Since I hadn’t seen the Middle West for a long time many impressions crowded in on me as I drove through Ohio and Michigan and Illinois. The first was the enormous increase in population. Villages had become towns and towns had grown to cities. The roads squirmed with traffic; the cities were so dense with people that all attention had to be devoted to not hitting anyone or being hit.  (p.105)

3）It seemed to me that regional speech is in the process of disappearing, not gone but going. Forty years of radio and twenty years of television must have this impact. Communications must destroy localness, by a slow, inevitable process. I can remember a time when I could almost pinpoint a man’s place of origin by his speech. That is growing more difficult now and will in some foreseeable future become impossible. It is a rare house or building that is not rigged with spiky combers of the air. Radio and television speech becomes standardized, perhaps better English than we have ever used. Just as our bread, mixed and baked, package and sold without benefit of accident or human frailty, is uniformly good and uniformly tasteless, so will our speech become one speech.  (p.106)
I who love words and the endless possibility of words am saddened by this inevitability. For with local accent will disappear local tempo. The idioms, the figures of speech that make language rich and full of the poetry of place and time must go. And in their place will be a national speech, wrapped and packaged, standard and tasteless. Localness is not gone but it is going. … What I am mourning is perhaps not worth saving, but I regret its loss nevertheless. (p. 107)

4）We Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I hope we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat. (p.64)
These Canucks were a hardy people. They traveled and camped by families and groups of families, perhaps even clans: men, women, boys, girls, and small children too.  (p64)
4）Most of these people traveled in big trucks covered with dark canvas tarpaulins, but there are some trailers and a few camper tops like Rocinante. At night some slept in the trucks and trailers, but there were tents pitched in pleasant places,….(p.69）