Handy work

　　手工勞動

　　Made By Hand: Searching For Meaning in aThrowaway World. By Mark Frauenfelder.

　　《手工制作：在被拋棄的世界中尋找意義》：馬克弗勞恩菲爾德著;

　　The Case for Working With Your Hands: or WhyOffice Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things FeelsGood. By Matthew Crawford.

　　《動手干活的理由：為什么辦公室工作與人無益而修理東西卻感覺良好》：馬修克勞弗德著;

　　Anyone who has taken an axe to a laptop battery and thrown the bits in a pond will like Mark Frauenfelder s book. Those who haven t will find atantalising whiff of what they are missing. The author takes a hands-on approach tosuburban life in Los Angeles. He rewires his espresso machine to produce what he callsproper coffee, keeps bees and chickens, whittles spoons from scrap wood, makes a ukuleleand a cigar box from toothpicks, grows his own vegetables and tries to teach his childrenmaths at home.

　　任何一個曾用斧子砍破筆記本電腦的電池并把碎片扔進水塘里的人都會喜歡馬克弗勞恩菲爾德的書。那些還沒這么做的人則會對他們錯過的事感到蠢蠢欲動。作者對洛杉磯的郊區(qū)生活采取的是一種親自動手的方式。他改接了意式咖啡機的電路以制作出他所謂的好喝的咖啡，飼養(yǎng)蜜蜂和雞，把廢木料削成勺子，用牙簽做成夏威夷四弦琴和雪茄煙盒，自己種菜，還試著在家里教他的孩子們學(xué)數(shù)學(xué)。

　　The lawn is the archetypal enemy. Why do Americans spend such huge amounts of time,money, water, fertiliser and fuel on growing a useless smooth expanse of grass? Much betterto cultivate something useful, like tomatoes. But how to do it? Mr Frauenfelder considersusing herbicide to kill his unwanted lawn, but settles for covering it thickly withnewspaper and weeding any grass that grows through: as with many of his projects, it is funto start with, but becomes laborious.

　　草坪就是個典型的敵人。為什么美國人要把如此大量的時間、金錢、水、化肥和燃料花在一大片平整卻毫無用處的草地上呢?還不如栽培些實用的東西，比如西紅柿。可是該怎么做呢?弗勞恩菲爾德先生也考慮過用除草劑來消滅那些無用的草坪，但他最終決定用報紙把草坪層層覆蓋，然后再除去從中長出的任何一根草：這和他的很多方案一樣，開頭都很有趣，可隨后就變得既耗時又費力。

　　As the editor of Make, a magazine for American hobbyists, the author is well-placed to tap thenation s vein of frustrated creativity and fiddling. Time was, he says nostalgically, whenhousehold equipment came with the expectation that the owner could and would wield thetools required to fix it: a wrench, pliers, screwdriver and hammer were all that was neededto keep an early Ford automobile on the road. That changed, he says, thanks to SigmundFreud s nephew, Edward Louis Bernays, the pioneer of emotional advertising. He solddreams of perfection instead of a partnership between man and machine. Now domesticappliances come with forbidding labels, such as no user-serviceable parts anddisassembly voids warranty.

　　本書作者作為美國業(yè)余愛好者雜志《動手做》的編輯，由他來開發(fā)這個國家未得施展的創(chuàng)造力和動手搗鼓東西的本事，正是再合適不過了。他懷舊地說道，曾幾何時，家用設(shè)備的出現(xiàn)帶著這樣一種期望：其擁有者可以也愿意使用必要的工具對其進行修理。扳手、鉗子、螺絲刀和錘子是保證一輛早期福特車在路上行使的必備物品。這種情況已經(jīng)改變了，他說，這都要歸功于西格蒙德弗洛伊德的外甥愛德華路易斯伯奈斯這位情感廣告的先驅(qū)者。他用出售完美的夢想取代了出售人與機器之間的伙伴關(guān)系。現(xiàn)在的家用電器都帶上了禁止標簽，比如不含用戶可維修零件和拆開產(chǎn)品保修無效。

　　For the mechanically curious, that is no obstacle. And in some ways technology has made itmuch easier to fiddle and fix. You can find unofficial instruction manuals on the internet, andwatch YouTube to see someone doing it properly. You may make mistakes, but that is theway you learn how things work and how to mend them. Doing so makes you a better person,Mr Frauenfelder argues: master, not prisoner, of your environment.

　　出于機械方面的好奇心，這根本算不上什么障礙。科學(xué)技術(shù)也在某些方式上使這種拆拆弄弄更容易了。你能在英特網(wǎng)上找到非官方的操作手冊，還能通過YouTube看看別人是怎么做的。你可能會犯錯，但這就是你了解事物的工作原理并學(xué)習(xí)如何修理它們的方法。弗勞恩菲爾德先生聲稱，這樣做會讓你變成一個更優(yōu)秀的人：一個外界環(huán)境的主人，而不是俘虜。

　　The book echoes Matthew Crawford s masterly and reflective, The Case for Working withYour Hands, a bestseller in America which has just come out in Britain. Mr Crawford focuseson motorbikes, with doses of classical philosophy, rather than domestic gripes.

　　這本書回應(yīng)了馬修克勞弗德精巧嫻熟、深思熟慮的新書《動手干活的理由》，一本剛剛在英國出版的美國暢銷書。克勞弗德先生的重點集中在摩托車上，又加上幾劑古典哲學(xué)的良藥，以代替做家務(wù)活的滿腹牢騷。

　　Mr Frauenfelder rightly highlights the impotent fury aroused by tamper-proof tabs seals, andthe joy of mastering recalcitrant gadgets. But his own literary craftsmanship is irritatingtoo. An ill-planned attempt to start a new life in the South Pacific is irrelevant and tiresome.His prose is tinny, and the mentions of his children dull and cutesy. The reader does feelsorry for his wife, though, when dead bees clog the light fittings and a coyote eats thefavourite chickens. His motto is DIY. Hers is HAP . One can see why.

　　弗勞恩菲爾德先生恰當?shù)赝怀隽吮荒切┓乐箒y拆亂動的標簽封條激起的無力的憤怒，以及自如地掌控那些難以馴服的裝置的樂趣。可是他自己筆下的手工技藝卻同樣令人抓狂。一次打算在南太平洋開始新生活卻計劃不周的嘗試脫離了主題，令人厭煩。他的文筆不算好，提到他的孩子們時既無趣又做作。不過，當死去的蜜蜂堵塞了照明裝置，郊狼吞吃掉心愛的小雞的時候，讀者確實會為他的妻子感到難過。他的格言是DIY，而她的是HAP。你能明白這是為什么。

　　Handy work

　　手工勞動

　　Made By Hand: Searching For Meaning in aThrowaway World. By Mark Frauenfelder.

　　《手工制作：在被拋棄的世界中尋找意義》：馬克弗勞恩菲爾德著;

　　The Case for Working With Your Hands: or WhyOffice Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things FeelsGood. By Matthew Crawford.

　　《動手干活的理由：為什么辦公室工作與人無益而修理東西卻感覺良好》：馬修克勞弗德著;

　　Anyone who has taken an axe to a laptop battery and thrown the bits in a pond will like Mark Frauenfelder s book. Those who haven t will find atantalising whiff of what they are missing. The author takes a hands-on approach tosuburban life in Los Angeles. He rewires his espresso machine to produce what he callsproper coffee, keeps bees and chickens, whittles spoons from scrap wood, makes a ukuleleand a cigar box from toothpicks, grows his own vegetables and tries to teach his childrenmaths at home.

　　任何一個曾用斧子砍破筆記本電腦的電池并把碎片扔進水塘里的人都會喜歡馬克弗勞恩菲爾德的書。那些還沒這么做的人則會對他們錯過的事感到蠢蠢欲動。作者對洛杉磯的郊區(qū)生活采取的是一種親自動手的方式。他改接了意式咖啡機的電路以制作出他所謂的好喝的咖啡，飼養(yǎng)蜜蜂和雞，把廢木料削成勺子，用牙簽做成夏威夷四弦琴和雪茄煙盒，自己種菜，還試著在家里教他的孩子們學(xué)數(shù)學(xué)。

　　The lawn is the archetypal enemy. Why do Americans spend such huge amounts of time,money, water, fertiliser and fuel on growing a useless smooth expanse of grass? Much betterto cultivate something useful, like tomatoes. But how to do it? Mr Frauenfelder considersusing herbicide to kill his unwanted lawn, but settles for covering it thickly withnewspaper and weeding any grass that grows through: as with many of his projects, it is funto start with, but becomes laborious.

　　草坪就是個典型的敵人。為什么美國人要把如此大量的時間、金錢、水、化肥和燃料花在一大片平整卻毫無用處的草地上呢?還不如栽培些實用的東西，比如西紅柿。可是該怎么做呢?弗勞恩菲爾德先生也考慮過用除草劑來消滅那些無用的草坪，但他最終決定用報紙把草坪層層覆蓋，然后再除去從中長出的任何一根草：這和他的很多方案一樣，開頭都很有趣，可隨后就變得既耗時又費力。

　　As the editor of Make, a magazine for American hobbyists, the author is well-placed to tap thenation s vein of frustrated creativity and fiddling. Time was, he says nostalgically, whenhousehold equipment came with the expectation that the owner could and would wield thetools required to fix it: a wrench, pliers, screwdriver and hammer were all that was neededto keep an early Ford automobile on the road. That changed, he says, thanks to SigmundFreud s nephew, Edward Louis Bernays, the pioneer of emotional advertising. He solddreams of perfection instead of a partnership between man and machine. Now domesticappliances come with forbidding labels, such as no user-serviceable parts anddisassembly voids warranty.

　　本書作者作為美國業(yè)余愛好者雜志《動手做》的編輯，由他來開發(fā)這個國家未得施展的創(chuàng)造力和動手搗鼓東西的本事，正是再合適不過了。他懷舊地說道，曾幾何時，家用設(shè)備的出現(xiàn)帶著這樣一種期望：其擁有者可以也愿意使用必要的工具對其進行修理。扳手、鉗子、螺絲刀和錘子是保證一輛早期福特車在路上行使的必備物品。這種情況已經(jīng)改變了，他說，這都要歸功于西格蒙德弗洛伊德的外甥愛德華路易斯伯奈斯這位情感廣告的先驅(qū)者。他用出售完美的夢想取代了出售人與機器之間的伙伴關(guān)系。現(xiàn)在的家用電器都帶上了禁止標簽，比如不含用戶可維修零件和拆開產(chǎn)品保修無效。

　　For the mechanically curious, that is no obstacle. And in some ways technology has made itmuch easier to fiddle and fix. You can find unofficial instruction manuals on the internet, andwatch YouTube to see someone doing it properly. You may make mistakes, but that is theway you learn how things work and how to mend them. Doing so makes you a better person,Mr Frauenfelder argues: master, not prisoner, of your environment.

　　出于機械方面的好奇心，這根本算不上什么障礙。科學(xué)技術(shù)也在某些方式上使這種拆拆弄弄更容易了。你能在英特網(wǎng)上找到非官方的操作手冊，還能通過YouTube看看別人是怎么做的。你可能會犯錯，但這就是你了解事物的工作原理并學(xué)習(xí)如何修理它們的方法。弗勞恩菲爾德先生聲稱，這樣做會讓你變成一個更優(yōu)秀的人：一個外界環(huán)境的主人，而不是俘虜。

　　The book echoes Matthew Crawford s masterly and reflective, The Case for Working withYour Hands, a bestseller in America which has just come out in Britain. Mr Crawford focuseson motorbikes, with doses of classical philosophy, rather than domestic gripes.

　　這本書回應(yīng)了馬修克勞弗德精巧嫻熟、深思熟慮的新書《動手干活的理由》，一本剛剛在英國出版的美國暢銷書。克勞弗德先生的重點集中在摩托車上，又加上幾劑古典哲學(xué)的良藥，以代替做家務(wù)活的滿腹牢騷。

　　Mr Frauenfelder rightly highlights the impotent fury aroused by tamper-proof tabs seals, andthe joy of mastering recalcitrant gadgets. But his own literary craftsmanship is irritatingtoo. An ill-planned attempt to start a new life in the South Pacific is irrelevant and tiresome.His prose is tinny, and the mentions of his children dull and cutesy. The reader does feelsorry for his wife, though, when dead bees clog the light fittings and a coyote eats thefavourite chickens. His motto is DIY. Hers is HAP . One can see why.

　　弗勞恩菲爾德先生恰當?shù)赝怀隽吮荒切┓乐箒y拆亂動的標簽封條激起的無力的憤怒，以及自如地掌控那些難以馴服的裝置的樂趣。可是他自己筆下的手工技藝卻同樣令人抓狂。一次打算在南太平洋開始新生活卻計劃不周的嘗試脫離了主題，令人厭煩。他的文筆不算好，提到他的孩子們時既無趣又做作。不過，當死去的蜜蜂堵塞了照明裝置，郊狼吞吃掉心愛的小雞的時候，讀者確實會為他的妻子感到難過。他的格言是DIY，而她的是HAP。你能明白這是為什么。