评论
打印
The week my eldest son finished nursery, I decided to clear out the playroom where he had spent much of his young life forming bonds with inanimate objects.
大儿子从幼儿园毕业的那个星期，我决定清理一下游戏房，他生活中大部分时间都待在那个房间里和无生命物体建立情感联系。
Toys had kept him company whenever other duties or distractions had occupied his mother and me, and over the years we had amassed a truly crass number of them. As I sifted through pile after pile, I felt as though I was in the pit of an immense archaeological dig.
每当我和他妈妈在工作或忙其他事情的时候，玩具就会陪伴他，于是这些年来我们积累了一大堆玩具。当我仔细检查一堆堆玩具时，我觉得自己仿佛身处一个巨大的考古挖掘坑中。
I had not considered us to be particularly pushy or indulgent parents; mostly, I wanted my children to grow up to be financially independent and live lives of nothing worse than common unhappiness.
我认为我们不是特别强势或纵容的父母，一般来说，我希望我的孩子长大后经济独立，过得比普通不快乐的生活好一点就够了。
But the artefacts in our playroom midden told another tale. Here is a partial inventory of what I found: 13 floor puzzles, including several meant to teach the alphabet. Two sets of magnetic tiles, along with dozens of figurines and matchbox cars, for constructive and imaginary play.
但游戏房里堆放的玩具则讲述了另一个故事。以下是我发现的部分玩具清单: 13个地板拼图，包括几个教字母表的拼图。两套磁力贴，以及几十个小雕像和小玩具车，用来玩建房子和假扮游戏。
Xylophones and tambourines to foster musical ability, and a smattering of finger paints to inspire artistic creativity. Four logic games and a set of dice for practising maths. A speaker box that could play Mozart or children's versions of the Iliad and Odyssey. Endless Duplo.
培养音乐能力的木琴和铃鼓，少量几张用于激发艺术创造力的手指画，练习数学用的四个逻辑游戏和一套骰子，一个可以播放莫扎特或儿童版《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》的音箱，还有数不清的乐高积木。
And, to teach our kids how to unwind after the vigorously pedagogical afternoon those other things were meant to facilitate, the Fisher-Price Meditation Mouse, an electronic plush toy offering guided stretching and relaxation exercises (advertising copy: "help your little one learn how to nama-stay relaxed").
另外，在经历了一下午精力充沛的教学活动之后（其他玩具是用于辅助这些活动的），为了教会孩子如何放松，玩具里还有费雪牌的冥想小老鼠，这是一个提供拉伸和放松练习指导的电子毛绒玩具(广告文案: "帮助你的小不点学会如何放松身心")。
Our heap of playthings may have been extreme, but it was by no means atypical. American families spend, on average, around 600 dollars per year on toys; a typical 10-year-old child in the UK may have possessed 238 toys in her short life, totalling about 6,500 pounds.
我家堆积如山的玩具可能算极端情况，但绝不算反常。美国家庭平均每年在玩具上的花费约为600美元，一个10岁的英国普通小孩在其短短的人生中可能就已经拥有了238个玩具，总价值约为6500英镑。
That abundance bespeaks an entire world--of a postwar boom in plastics, babies and disposable income, of humans in Chinese factories and Madison Avenue marketing agencies, of the not always benign neglect of parents with relentless careers or hangovers or an aversion to spending time with other emotionally volatile beings.
这种丰富性反映了世界万象----战后塑料制品、婴儿数量、可支配收入猛增；中国的工厂和麦迪逊大道的营销机构蒸蒸日上；因为忙不完的工作，或宿醉，或不愿与情绪反复无常的孩子相处，父母并不总是出于善意地忽视孩子。
Above all, perhaps, the glut of toys reveals a particular vision of what play and childhood are for.
而最重要的也许是，玩具过剩揭示了人们对于玩耍与童年有何作用的一种特定的想象。
