fc2ブログ

Uncharted Territory

自分が読んで興味深く感じた英文記事を中心に取り上げる予定です

RSS     Archives
 

JFK暗殺50年、何を読む?

 
今年の11月22日がちょうどJFK暗殺50年となり、米国ではブームとなっているようです。自分が小さい頃のテレビでは陰謀説や新事実の類いのテレビ番組がよく流れていた印象です。





pbsのテレビ番組のサイトではいろいろな資料が充実しています。

JFK
Coming November 11 & 12, 2013 -- Forever enshrined in myth by an assassin's bullet, Kennedy's presidency long defied objective appraisal. Recent assessments have revealed an administration long on promise and vigor, and somewhat lacking in tangible accomplishment. His proposals for a tax cut and civil rights legislation, however, promised significant gains in the months before his assassination. While maturation, as evidenced in the handling of the Cuban missile crisis, was apparent, the potential legacy of the New Frontier will forever be left to speculation.

日本の洋書売り場でもケネディのコーナーができていて何から読んでいいか分からない状況になっています。そんななか、先日このブログでも取り上げたニューヨークタイムズの編集長Jill Abramsonがケネディ関連図書について大きな見取り図を描いてくれています。



動画のなかでAbramson編集長がオススメするのは以下の評伝と事件直後のケネディ家公認本の2つとニューヨーカーの記事でした。


An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963
(2013/10/08)
Robert Dallek

商品詳細を見る



The Death of a President, 1963: November 20 - November 25, 1963The Death of a President, 1963: November 20 - November 25, 1963
(1977/12/08)
William Manchester

商品詳細を見る


“The Death of a President”の方はアマゾンで確認してもKindle版が出ていなかったのですが、いわく付きの本だったようです。50年を機に再刊されるようで、Kindle版が出るといいですね。

In a gripping piece from his 1976 collection of essays, “Controversy,” Manchester described what happened next. First there were the many insertions and deletions made by various Kennedy minions, who applied so much pressure that Manchester became a nervous wreck. An especially low point came when Robert Kennedy hunted Manchester down in a New York hotel room and banged on the door, demanding to be let in to argue for still more changes. Next, Jackie Kennedy, who had not bothered to read the manuscript, accepted the view of her factotums that many of its details, like the fact that she carried cigarettes in her purse, were too personal. Further angered by the $665,000 Manchester had received from Look magazine for serial rights, Mrs. Kennedy went to court to enjoin the author from publishing the book. Eventually, she settled out of court and finally read “The Death of a President” when it was published in 1967. She deemed it “fascinating.”

Nevertheless, the Kennedy family, which controlled publication rights to “The Death of a President,” allowed it to go out of print, and for a number of years copies could be found only online or at rummage sales. The good news, maybe the best, of the 50th anniversary is that Little, Brown has now reissued paperback and e-book editions.

ニューヨーカーの方の記事も定期購読者のみにしか読めないようになっています。読んで面白かったらご紹介させていただこうと思います。

A REPORTER AT LARGE
THE BUFFS

BY CALVIN TRILLIN
JUNE 10, 1967

以下の記事では、もっと幅広くいろいろな本を紹介していました。ただ、新事実や新たな視点から考察したものがほとんどなく、信頼に足るものはほとんどないと手厳しいコメントをしています。

Kennedy, the Elusive President
By JILL ABRAMSON
Published: October 22, 2013

ノンフィクションの本が中心に取り上げられていますが、小説もいくつか触れられています。
11/22/63については、At more than 800 pages, the novel demands a commitment that exceeds its entertainment value.と長すぎると暗に批判しています。

Kennedy’s murder was bound to attract novelists, and some have approached the subject inventively, if with strange results. Stephen King’s “11/22/63,” a best seller published in 2011, takes the form of a time-travel romp involving a high school English teacher who finds romance in Texas while keeping tabs on Oswald. At more than 800 pages, the novel demands a commitment that exceeds its entertainment value.

デリーロで一冊を選ぶならという話題では候補にあがるであろうLibraについても厳しめの評価です。

Most critics seem to think the outstanding example of Kennedy assassination fiction is “Libra,” Don DeLillo’s postmodern novel, published in 1988. The narrative is indeed taut and bracing. But the challenge DeLillo set for himself, to provide readers with “a way of thinking about the assassination without being constrained by half-facts or overwhelmed by possibilities, by the tide of speculation that widens with the years,” exceeds even his lavish gifts.

It is telling that DeLillo reverts to the shadowy realm of “half-facts.” Their persistence raises the question of just how many secrets remain, not only about Kennedy’s death but also about his life. And if there are secrets, who is guarding them, and why?

キングやデリーロに対してもこのような評価ですから、他の作家のものはほとんど相手にしていないという感じです。とても長い記事ですが、ケネディ関連図書の見取り図として大変参考になるものでした。

彼女の薦めるケネディの評伝はぜひとも読んでみたいと思いますが、英語学習的には以下の本も魅力を感じます。ホワイトハウスでのケネディの音声を書き起こしたもので、CD2枚がついています。Abramsonに言わせれば録音するのを分かっての話だからとそれほど評価はしていないようですが、どんな話をしていたのか、どのような表現が使われているかに興味があります。


Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. KennedyListening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy
(2012/09/25)
Ted Widmer、Caroline Kennedy 他

商品詳細を見る


The other, “Listening In,” offers White House conversations captured in a secretly installed taping system in the Oval Office. Since Kennedy controlled the device, these conversations are more guarded, but the book includes at least one memorable moment


2冊目はケネディ大統領の父親の評伝です。2012年のニューヨークタイムズの今年の10冊に選ばれているというのと、ケネディ家というのがイマイチピンとこないので読んでみたいと思います。幸い図書館で借りられたので、さっそく読んでいこうと思います。


The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. KennedyThe Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
(2012/11/13)
David Nasaw

商品詳細を見る


THE PATRIARCH
The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy.
By David Nasaw.
The Penguin Press, $40.
Nasaw took six years to complete this sprawling, arresting account of a banker-cum-speculator-cum-moviemaker-cum-ambassador-cum-dynastic founder. Joe Kennedy was involved in virtually all the history of his time, and his biographer persuasively makes the case that he was the most fascinating member of his large, famous and very formidable family.


あとはデリーロのLibraを読んでみようと思っています。


LibraLibra
(2011/09/29)
Don DeLillo

商品詳細を見る


そろそろ日本でも関連雑誌、図書が出始めるのでしょうね。
スポンサーサイト



 

あのコーヒー事件

 
訴訟社会アメリカを象徴するエピソードとしてほぼ必ず登場するマクドナルドのコーヒー訴訟について回顧する動画がありました。自分がコーヒーをこぼしたのに高額の損害賠償を要求したがめつい消費者というステレオタイプしかなかったです。訴訟の英語表記だとLiebeck v. McDonalds Restaurantsと原告が前でvを挟んで被告が続くというかたちになるようです。



記事よりも動画の方が充実しているように思えます。メディアの記事はローカルなニュースから、全国ニュース、海外ニュースになるにつれて伝えられる文字数が少なくなり、単純化・矮小化されて伝えられてしまった点や、urban legend(都市伝説)となり面白おかしくバラエティのネタにされてしまった点が考えさせられます。

But as the story cycled through newspaper headlines, talk show story lines and late night punch lines, one thing was lost: the fact.

ギガジンでこの動画についての解説があります。

記事の方では、コーヒーカップはその頃とくらべ進化しているため、随分遠い昔のように感じると書いています。確かに、今ではマクドナルドでもカフェラテなんかも頼めるようになっていますし、自分で砂糖とミルクを入れるというのは少数派になってきているのかもしれません。

RETRO REPORT
Not Just a Hot Cup Anymore
By HILARY STOUT
Published: October 21, 2013
More than 20 years ago, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck ordered coffee at a McDonald’s drive-through in Albuquerque, N.M. She spilled the coffee, was burned, and one year later, sued McDonald’s. The jury awarded her $2.9 million. Her story became a media sensation and fodder for talk-show hosts, late-night comedians, sitcom writers and even political pundits. But cleverness may have come at the expense of context, as this Retro Report video illustrates. And below, a consumer affairs reporter for The Times reflects on how the world has changed since the lawsuit.

The point is, the world now caters to the coffee drinker. The idea of getting into a car without cup holders and lifting the lid off the cup in order to add milk and sugar and drink the coffee, as the facts of the case show Ms. Liebeck did that morning, seems strangely anachronistic.
Within the ensuing years, some genius invented a sculptured lid with a little sipping hole in the top, eliminating the need to open the cup and reducing the potential for spills. Sloshing grew less likely once the lip was raised above the cup rim.
Let’s not forget the evolution of the cup holder. Teams of car engineers continuously work to perfect their design for drivers in the front and those passengers two rows back.
Coffee technology has definitely come a long way.
We now have that little cardboard thing that goes around the disposable cup so you can hold a cup of hot coffee without discomfort. (It actually has a name: the zarf, and one Jay Sorenson is said to have invented it in 1993 and he holds a patent on it under the trademark Java Jacket. Now multiple companies make them.)


動画とほぼ同じような原告の立場に立った記事は以下の通りで、frivolous lawsuit(とんでも訴訟)ではないとまとめで語っています。

The McDonald’s Coffee Lawsuit

What can be learned from this case? First, the McDonald’s coffee case is not a frivolous lawsuit, as many people believe. In fact, Ms. Liebeck had a very strong case against a very unsympathetic corporate defendant. An argument can obviously be made that the punitive damages should not have been decreased, especially in light of the purpose of punitive damages. A judgment of $480,000 certainly would not be the same deterrent as $2.7 million.

Second, our profession can and must do our part to help change the public perception of our legal system.


ウィキペディア日本語版でもこの件について詳しく載っていました。以下、少し抜粋します。

マクドナルド・コーヒー事件
事件の一部始終
1992年2月、ニューメキシコ州アルバカーキのマクドナルドで、ステラ・リーベック(Stella Liebeck、1912年 - 2004年8月4日、当時79歳)とその孫がドライブ・スルーでテイクアウト用の朝食を購入した。ステラはその後、マクドナルドの駐車場で停車しているときにコーヒーを膝の間に挟み、ミルクとシュガーを入れるためにコーヒーの蓋を開けようとした。そのとき、誤ってカップが傾いてしまい、コーヒーがすべてステラの膝にこぼれた。
コーヒーはステラが着用していた服に染み込み、ステラはコーヒーの熱さに叫び声をあげた。運転していた孫は、最初はただコーヒーをこぼしただけと思っていたが、徐々にただ事ではないことに気付き、服を脱がせるなどの処置をして近くの病院へ向かった。直近の病院は満杯であったが、その次の病院は空いていたためステラは収容され、第3度の火傷であると診察された。

裁判とその判決
ステラは、火傷の直接的な原因が自分の行動にあることは認識していた。しかし、火傷の一因となったコーヒーの熱さは異常であり、この点についてマクドナルドは是正すべき義務があり、また治療費の一部を補償するべきであるとして訴訟を起こした。
陪審員による評議の結果、次の理由でリーベックに20%、マクドナルドに80%の過失があるとした。
• 訴訟と同様の苦情が過去10年間に700件あったこと
• マクドナルドのコーヒーが客に提供される際の温度は華氏180~190度(摂氏約85度)だが、家庭用コーヒーメーカーのコーヒーは華氏158~168度(摂氏約72度)であったこと
• コーヒーを渡す際、マクドナルドはなんら注意をせず、またカップの注意書きも見難いこと
その上で、填補賠償認定額20万ドルの80%にあたる16万ドルを本来の填補賠償額として、またマクドナルドのコーヒー売り上げ高の2日間分に相当する270万ドルを懲罰的損害賠償額として、それぞれ支払いを命じる評決が下された。
しかし、判事のスコットは評決後の手続で懲罰賠償額を「填補賠償額の3倍」に当たる48万ドルに減額を命じ、最終的にはマクドナルドが合計64万ドルの賠償金支払いを命じる判決が下された。その後、和解が成立し、マクドナルドは60万ドル未満(非公開)の和解金をステラに支払った。

真偽と真相
日本でこの事件は「コーヒーをこぼしただけで、裁判で3億円(16万ドル+270万ドルの当時の為替レートによる円換算額)もの賠償金を得た」という都市伝説めいたストーリーで知られ、訴訟大国アメリカを象徴するものとしてテレビ番組などで取り上げられた。
実際は、ステラには皮膚移植手術を含む7日間の入院と、その後2年間の通院が必要であり、娘はそのため仕事を辞めて介護にあたった。そして、治療費は1万1千ドルにも上り、治療が終わっても火傷は完全には癒えず、その痕が残った。また、マクドナルドは裁判中に「10年間で700件というのは0に等しい」と発言するなど、裁判において陪審員の心証を損ねた。

判決に対する、その後のアメリカ国内における反応
マスコミによる報道において、原告側のステラが重傷を実際に負った事実よりも、「コーヒーをこぼしただけで、賠償金目当てに裁判を起こした」という趣旨の偏向報道が当時はもとより、現代にいたるまでなされてきた。その結果、この事件と裁判はあくまで「治療費の請求」であったにもかかわらず、アメリカ国内外に「既存の訴訟システムが生み出す弊害」の1例として強く認識されている。


このRetro reportという連載は知らなかったのですが面白そうですね。
 

Mentor and Protégé

 
Timeアジア版のiPadアプリがアップグレードされてNewsstandに入ったんですね。そこで最初の広告にあったのが以下の写真。

Rolex.jpg

興味深いプログラムですね。MentorはTOEICではビジネス研修的な文脈出るのかもしれませんが、mentorもしくはmentoringがどんなものか今回のようなプログラムを見るとどんなものか分かりやすいですね。妹島 和世が世界的な建築家であることが伺えます。



Kazuyo Sejima and Yang Zhao
A year of mentoring
Overview (Chapter 1 of 3)
During the mentoring year, young Chinese architect Yang Zhao designed a Home-for-All, a communal gathering place that was part of a project created by his mentor Kazuyo Sejima and other leading Japanese architects in response to the devastation caused by the 2011 tsunami in Japan. At the beginning of the mentorship, Zhao said: “My objectives are to experience a challenging and creative collaboration process with Sejima-san, to learn from the design culture in Japan, and to make my contribution to the whole reconstruction project.”

Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiativeについての説明は以下の通り、幅広い芸術分野でこのプログラムを実施しているのですね。個人的にはMargaret Atwoodのものに興味があります。



Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative
The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative is a philanthropic programme that was set up in 2002 to make a contribution to global culture. The programme seeks out gifted young artists from all over the world and brings them together with artistic masters for a year of creative collaboration in a one-to-one mentoring relationship.

In keeping with its tradition of supporting individual excellence, Rolex gives emerging artists time to learn, create and grow.

Over the past decade, Rolex has paired mentors and protégés in dance, film, literature, music, theatre, visual arts and – as of 2012 – architecture. In the decade since it was launched, the mentoring programme has evolved into an enriching dialogue between artists of different generations, cultures and disciplines, helping ensure that the world’s artistic heritage is passed on to the next generation.

(オックスフォード)
mentor noun
an experienced person who advises and helps someone with less experience over a period of time
She was a friend and mentor to many young actors.
compare mentee
mentoring noun [uncountable]
a mentoring program
The point of the mentoring program is to empower young fathers with parenting skills.

protégé noun
feminine protégée
(from French)
a young person who is helped in their career and personal development by a more experienced person
a protégé of the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin



Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman
A year of mentoring
Overview (Chapter 1 of 6)
A shared interest in history, technology and religion created an immediate rapport between mentor Margaret Atwood and her protégée Naomi Alderman. Their mentoring year proved intellectually exciting as their conversation, both in person and online, ranged from observations on the existential dread that zombies represent in the Western psyche to the validity of popular culture as an art form. Fully engaged in writing for the digital world, they even co-wrote a zombie novella for Canadian digital platform Wattpad.
 

Kindle Paperwhiteの第一冊目は

 
Kindle Paperwhiteが予定通り22日に届きました。ページ送りも問題なく満足しています。これまでバックライトは不要と思っていたのですが、バックライトがあるとどんな場所でも同じような条件で読めるようになるので快適なんですね。


The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of ForecastingThe Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting
(2013/10/22)
Alan Greenspan

商品詳細を見る

さて、一冊目に選んだのはFRB議長だったAlan GreenspanのThe Map and the Territoryです。2008年のリーマンショック時には議長を退任していましたから、距離を置いて書いていますので、教科書を読んでいるような退屈な感じがする本です。下記は6分15秒あたりからGreenspanが登場します。





この本を買った理由は単純です。リーマンショックから5年というタイミングもありますし、Uncharted Territory というブログをやっているので、この本のタイトルに魅力を感じたからです。 Uncharted watersという言葉が最初の方で出てきました。Kindleでは検索しやすいから楽ですね。

This book touches on many related issues of importance to our economic future. Writing it has taken me into some uncharted waters—some that might, because of the nature of some of my concerns about the course we are now on, prove to be uncomfortably warm. But I did not write this book in a spirit of criticism, or of pessimism. My interest in writing it was not to establish what I now think but what I now believe I can demonstrate with some reasonable degree of assurance.

この本が出るのを知ったのは、先週末のFTでローレンス・サマーズが書評を書いていたからです。このブログを読んでくださる方はそれほど経済には興味がない人もいるでしょうから(そもそも自分も興味がない方です(汗))、この書評では「相手は立てつつも自分の意見は述べる」という表現を確認してみたいと思います。ローレンス・サマーズはFRB議長候補になったというよりも、Facebookのサンドバーグの元上司といった方が一般の人の通りはいいかもしれませんね。

October 18, 2013 7:09 pm
The Map and the Territory, by Alan Greenspan
Review by Lawrence Summers

この書評では複数箇所で、サマーズはグリーンスパンの功績を讃えつつも、すべてに同意しているわけではないということを強調しています。批判した後には、意見の相違が彼への尊敬をくもらせるものではないとフォローもしています。

It was my privilege to work closely with Alan Greenspan for the eight years I served at the Treasury during the Clinton administration. His new book, The Map and the Territory, brings me back to fond memories of our conversations over the years. I haven’t always agreed with my friend but he has always left me wiser and with something to ponder.

The range of topics and arguments makes this book a very important statement, whether one ultimately agrees or disagrees with the author. I found myself doing plenty of both.

批判に言及するときにも個人的な意見であることを強調して、明らかに間違だとは言わずに慎重に書いていることが分かります。
I wish Greenspan had been more specific in
Strikingly, Greenspan joins many of his traditional opponents in suggesting that “too big to fail” can very easily lead to crony capitalism. “Too big to fail” is surely the besetting challenge for financial regulation in the years ahead. I wish Greenspan had been more specific in his recommendations, although “too big to fail”, like nuclear deterrence, may be an area where ambiguity is essential. It is not clear that breaking up firms is the answer.

I found myself disappointed that
I found myself disappointed that the events of the past few years had not led Greenspan to any revision of his anti-Keynesian views on macroeconomic policy. Perhaps understandably, he sidesteps monetary policy issues in the post-crisis period.

it is much less clear to me than Greenspan that
Greenspan regards raising the US saving rate as a central priority. At a time when output appears to be constrained by demand rather than by supply and when even long-term real interest rates are at near-record low levels, it is much less clear to me than Greenspan that raising savings rates is the right growth strategy.

最後の部分もMy disagreements with some important policy conclusions that he reaches do not detract at all from my admirationと意見が違うところがあっても尊敬に変わりはないとフォローしています。

No important book on economics – and Greenspan has written a major work – fails to generate controversy. My disagreements with some important policy conclusions that he reaches do not detract at all from my admiration for the power of the thought that has gone into this splendid book.

やはりお互い立場というものがありますので、大物になればなるほど表現は配慮したものになるのでしょう。まあ、サマーズは俺様の人なので、自分アピールに書かさないと読む事も可能かもしれませんが、表現は丁寧なものです。

少し前に英語は配慮した物言いができないというエッセイが話題になりましたが、このような文書に目を通した事がない、もしくは、読みとる実力がないということなんでしょうね。
 

私はてっきり港にはいっているものだと思っていた

 
引用句辞典で見かけた以下の言葉が好きで、前のブログでも取り上げたことがあります。

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
発見者になれない人は、見渡す限りの海を前にして陸地がないと思ってしまう。
フランシス・ベーコン


この言葉はThe Advancement of Learning (学問の進歩)という本に出てくるようです。学問研究での実体験を基に何かを回顧しているのでも思っていたのですが、グーテンベルグにあったので該当箇所を調べてみたのですが、イメージしていたのと違った文脈で使われていました。

The Advancement of Learning, by Francis Bacon

(5) For metaphysic, we have assigned unto it the inquiry of formal and final causes; which assignation, as to the former of them, may seem to be nugatory and void, because of the received and inveterate opinion, that the inquisition of man is not competent to find out essential forms or true differences; of which opinion we will take this hold, that the invention of forms is of all other parts of knowledge the worthiest to be sought, if it be possible to be found. As for the possibility, they are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea. But it is manifest that Plato, in his opinion of ideas, as one that had a wit of elevation situate as upon a cliff, did descry that forms were the true object of knowledge; but lost the real fruit of his opinion, by considering of forms as absolutely abstracted from matter, and not confined and determined by matter; and so turning his opinion upon theology, wherewith all his natural philosophy is infected.

形而上学についていえば、われわれは、それに形相因と目的因との研究をふりあてたのであるが、そのようなふりあては、形相因に関するかぎり、つまらぬ空虚なものと思われるかもしれない。というのは、人間の行う研究は、本質的形相すなわち真の種差を見出すことができないという、一般に認められた根深い考えがあるからである。この考えから、われわれは、すべての知識の部門のうち、もしそれが見つけられることが可能であるなら、形相の発見は、探索するのにもっとも価値あるものであると推定してよいだろう。それの可能性についていえば、海のほか何も見えないときに、陸地がないと考えるのは、けっしてすぐれた探検家ではないのである。ところが、プラトンは、かれのイデアの説においては、あたかも絶壁上の高みから見はるかすような知力をもっていた人のように、「形相こそ知識の真の対象である」ことを発見した[『国家論一〇の一』]が、しかし、形相を、質料からまったく分離したもの、質料によって限定も規定もされないものと考え、こうして神学的思弁に転じてその自然科学がすっかり神学に染まったために、かれの学説の実際の成果をとり逃したことはあきらかである。

日本語訳は以下の岩波文庫からの引用です。


学問の進歩 (岩波文庫 青 617-1)学問の進歩 (岩波文庫 青 617-1)
(1974/01/16)
ベーコン

商品詳細を見る


一読してもよく分からないのですが、下記のような説明を読むとある程度ベーコンの意図したことが掴めるかもしれません。

では形相という言葉でベイコンは何を意味しているのか。彼はまずそれがプラトンのイデアのように質料から離れて存在するものではないとする。しかし質料と不可分であるからと言って、アリストテレス哲学の形相と同一視されるべきでもない。というのもスコラ哲学者のように形相を事物の本質としながら、それを人間に知ることのできないものとみなすのは学問の進歩を妨げる誤った見解だからである。これらの批判は、ベイコンが形相を質料と不可分で、かつ人間に認識可能なものと考えていたことを示している。

形相因や目的因のような哲学的な文脈ではなく、もう少し俗な文脈で理解しようとすれば、以下のような部分が参考になるでしょうか。同じ本の最初の部分でベーコンが語っているところです。

To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works, divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together.

それゆけ、結論としていえば、穏当というたわいない観念やはきちがえた節度からわり出して、人間は神のことばをしるした書物[聖書]、あるいは神のみわざをしるした書物[自然]の研究に、すなわち、神学あるいは哲学において、ふか入りしすぎたり、よく通じすぎたりすることがありうるなどと考えたり、主張したりしてはならない。それよりもむしろ、双方において無限の進歩と上達をとげるようにつとめるべきである。ただ、双方を愛のために用いて高慢のために用いないように、実用にあてて誇示にあてないように、なおまた、これらの学問を愚かにも混合したり、混同したりしないように気をつけなければならない。

「真理」は到達できないからと無責任な言動を無反省にするのではなく、少しでも真理に近づけるように努力を怠らないようにすべきだと自分では理解しました。この探求のadvancementは一直線ではないし、陸地に達成できる保障もあるわけではなさそうです。まあ、英語学習の航海においては、下記のライプニッツの言葉が自分にはしっくりきます。

I though I had reached the port; but … I seemed to be cast back again into the open sea.
私はてっきり港にはいっているものだと思っていたが、しかし……海の真ん中に押し戻されていた
ライプニッツ
 

TEDラインアップに日本人建築家

 
5月に行われたTED Tokyoの中で建築家坂茂さんの講演がTEDのチャンネルで紹介されていたんですね。MitraさんのTed動画を探しているときに気づきました。世界的にも有名な方ですから、TED登場は遅すぎるくらいですね。



マルコムグラドウェルやサンデル教授もTEDに登場していました。といってもご自身の新刊について語っているだけですが。。。






David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling GiantsDavid and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants
(2013/10/03)
Malcolm Gladwell

商品詳細を見る

新刊『David and Goliath』については予想通り(?)、ほとんどの書評で酷評されています(苦笑)エコノミストの書評も短いもので、扱いもひどかったです。。。

Malcolm Gladwell
Canned ham
Winning is better than losing, and other words of counterintuitive wisdom
Oct 19th 2013 |From the print edition

Mr Gladwell’s earlier books, particularly “The Tipping Point”, his first, were genuinely thought-provoking. This one is about as insightful as a fortune cookie. Read something else.


BOOKSHELF
Book Review: 'David and Goliath' by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell too often presents as proven laws what are just intriguing possibilities and musings about human behavior.
By CHRISTOPHER F. CHABRIS
Updated Sept. 28, 2013 7:59 p.m. ET

One thing "David and Goliath" shows is that Mr. Gladwell has not changed his own strategy, despite serious criticism of his prior work. What he presents are mostly just intriguing possibilities and musings about human behavior, but what his publisher sells them as, and what his readers may incorrectly take them for, are lawful, causal rules that explain how the world really works. Mr. Gladwell should acknowledge when he is speculating or working with thin evidentiary soup. Yet far from abandoning his hand or even standing pat, Mr. Gladwell has doubled down. This will surely bring more success to a Goliath of nonfiction writing, but not to his readers.

といっても彼の本は読みやすいので、とりあえず何か英語で読んでみたい方には選択肢の一つとして選んでもいいのではないでしょうか。日本語翻訳版は勝間さんがまた登場するのですかねえ。
 

いよいよ出荷準備

 





Kindle Paperwhiteデビューをするのですが、先ほどチェックしたら出荷準備中になっていたので早ければ明日に届くかもしれません。楽しみです。
Kindle.jpg

Pre-ordered
予約注文済み

ステータス: 出荷準備中
STATUS: Shipping Soon

最新の配送状況: ご注文を承りました - 2013/09/05 2:35:47
LATEST EVENT: • Order Received - Sep 5, 2013 2:35:47 AM

説明: ご注文の商品は現在出荷準備中です。商品を発送する際には、Eメールでお知らせいたします。なお、通常、出荷準備に要する時間によってお届け予定日が変更されることはありません。
DESCRIPTION: We've started preparing your shipment for delivery and it should leave our facility in the next few hours to a few days. We'll send you an e-mail once your order has shipped. The length of time your shipment spends in this status does not impact your delivery date.

DELIVERY ESTIMATE Tuesday, October 22, 2013
お届け予定日 2013年10月22日火曜日

CNETのレビューでも性能は明らかによくなっているといっていますし、現時点で一番いい電子書籍リーダーともいってくれています。



Kindle Paperwhite (2013) e-reader review:
2013 Paperwhite is subtly better, faster

The good: Amazon has improved on last year's excellent Paperwhite e-reader with a faster processor, more responsive touch screen, and a better integrated light that's brighter and whiter and displays more evenly across the screen. Pages also refresh less frequently (less flashing). A smattering of new features enhance Amazon's already best-in-class content ecosystem.

The bad: Device hasn't gotten smaller or significantly lighter since last year, an AC adapter isn't included (just a Micro-USB cable for charging). The ad-free version costs $20 more.

The bottom line: While the "all-new" Paperwhite may seem like an unspectacular upgrade on the surface, it's a clear improvement over the original Paperwhite and arguably the best e-reader currently available.
 

国境も育ちも関係ない学びの場への希望

 


しつこくエリジウムの世界観をひきづってしまいますが、ワイズマンの本の視点はエリジウムの世界=持つ側からの視点、先進国の現状維持の願望ではないかと思っていまうんですよね。映画の地球の場面はメキシコのスラム街で撮影されたそうですが、思い切った教育方法でそんなスラム街からメキシコ一の秀才が生まれたという希望を感じる記事がWiredの最新号にありました。


Wired [US] November 2013 (単号)Wired [US] November 2013 (単号)
(2013/10/20)
不明

商品詳細を見る


How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses
BY JOSHUA DAVIS10.15.136:30 AM

Words checked = [5172]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [86%]

画一的なカリキュラムやペーパーテストではなく、子供達の知的好奇心を満足させていくことの重要性を説いている記事なので、目新しさはないかもしれませんが、メキシコでの実例や最新の研究など具体例を知るだけでもこの記事を読む価値があると思います。Sergio Juárez Correaという若い先生と生徒であるPaloma Noyola Buenoの話はウルウルきてしまいます。

下記の部分で企業で求められているスキルが変わりつつあり“In 1970 the top three skills required by the Fortune 500 were the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1999 the top three skills in demand were teamwork, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. “とありますが、これは日本だけでなくどの国も抱えている問題のようです。

The results speak for themselves: Hundreds of thousands of kids drop out of public high school every year. Of those who do graduate from high school, almost a third are “not prepared academically for first-year college courses,” according to a 2013 report from the testing service ACT. The World Economic Forum ranks the US just 49th out of 148 developed and developing nations in quality of math and science instruction. “The fundamental basis of the system is fatally flawed,” says Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford and founding director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. “In 1970 the top three skills required by the Fortune 500 were the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1999 the top three skills in demand were teamwork, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. We need schools that are developing these skills.”

That’s why a new breed of educators, inspired by everything from the Internet to evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and AI, are inventing radical new ways for children to learn, grow, and thrive. To them, knowledge isn’t a commodity that’s delivered from teacher to student but something that emerges from the students’ own curiosity-fueled exploration. Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for children to discover their passion—and uncovering a generation of geniuses in the process.

人工知能や心理学の研究から、詰め込み型よりも、失敗などから学んでいく自発的取り組みの方が効果があるという結果が出ているようです。One Laptop per Childのプロジェクトで子供達にラップトップを渡したら教えてもいないことができるようになったとあります。

Gopnik’s research is informed in part by advances in artificial intelligence. If you program a robot’s every movement, she says, it can’t adapt to anything unexpected. But when scientists build machines that are programmed to try a variety of motions and learn from mistakes, the robots become far more adaptable and skilled. The same principle applies to children, she says.

Evolutionary psychologists have also begun exploring this way of thinking. Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College who studies children’s natural ways of learning, argues that human cognitive machinery is fundamentally incompatible with conventional schooling. Gray points out that young children, motivated by curiosity and playfulness, teach themselves a tremendous amount about the world. And yet when they reach school age, we supplant that innate drive to learn with an imposed curriculum. “We’re teaching the child that his questions don’t matter, that what matters are the questions of the curriculum. That’s just not the way natural selection designed us to learn. It designed us to solve problems and figure things out that are part of our real lives.”

Some school systems have begun to adapt to this new philosophy—with outsize results. In the 1990s, Finland pared the country’s elementary math curriculum from about 25 pages to four, reduced the school day by an hour, and focused on independence and active learning. By 2003, Finnish students had climbed from the lower rungs of international performance rankings to first place among developed nations.

Nicholas Negroponte, cofounder of the MIT Media Lab, is taking this approach even further with his One Laptop per Child initiative. Last year the organization delivered 40 tablets to children in two remote villages in Ethiopia. Negroponte’s team didn’t explain how the devices work or even open the boxes. Nonetheless, the children soon learned to play back the alphabet song and taught themselves to write letters. They also figured out how to use the tablet’s camera. This was impressive because the organization had disabled camera usage. “They hacked Android,” Negroponte says.



メキシコの先生CorreasさんはSugata Mitraさんの試みに出会って自らも実践をしたとありました。

He too had grown up beside a garbage dump in Matamoros, and he had become a teacher to help kids learn enough to make something more of their lives. So in 2011—when Paloma entered his class—Juárez Correa decided to start experimenting. He began reading books and searching for ideas online. Soon he stumbled on a video describing the work of Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in the UK. In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Mitra conducted experiments in which he gave children in India access to computers. Without any instruction, they were able to teach themselves a surprising variety of things, from DNA replication to English.

メキシコの生徒の話は是非、読んでいただきたいのですが、burro(ロバ)の寓話は印象的でした。 “Everything that is thrown at us is an opportunity to rise out of the well we are in.” 逆境をチャンスと捉えて這い上がっていこうという姿勢は生徒たちにも十分伝わったようです。

Juárez Correa also brought something else back from the Internet. It was the fable of a forlorn burro trapped at the bottom of a well. Since thieves had broken into the school and sliced the electrical cord off of the classroom projector (presumably to sell the copper inside), he couldn’t actually show them the clip that recounted the tale. Instead, he simply described it.

One day, a burro fell into a well, Juárez Correa began. It wasn’t hurt, but it couldn’t get out. The burro’s owner decided that the aged beast wasn’t worth saving, and since the well was dry, he would just bury both. He began to shovel clods of earth into the well. The burro cried out, but the man kept shoveling. Eventually, the burro fell silent. The man assumed the animal was dead, so he was amazed when, after a lot of shoveling, the burro leaped out of the well. It had shaken off each clump of dirt and stepped up the steadily rising mound until it was able to jump out.

Juárez Correa looked at his class. “We are like that burro,” he said. “Everything that is thrown at us is an opportunity to rise out of the well we are in.”

When the two-day national standardized exam took place in June 2012, Juárez Correa viewed it as just another pile of dirt thrown on the kids’ heads. It was a step back to the way school used to be for them: mechanical and boring. To prevent cheating, a coordinator from the Ministry of Education oversaw the proceedings and took custody of the answer sheets at the end of testing. It felt like a military exercise, but as the kids blasted through the questions, they couldn’t help noticing that it felt easy, as if they were being asked to do something very basic.

スペイン語はさっぱり分からないですが、YoutubeではPalomaさんの動画がありました。



下記の動画タイトルはPaloma Noyola Bueno; la "Steve Jobs" del futuroとあるので、雑誌WiredでNext Steve Jobsと紹介されたことを取材しているのでしょう。



詰め込み教育ではなく、生徒の創造性を発揮する教育をというのは恐らく義務教育が導入されてから言われてきたことだと思いますが、改めて創造性を発揮させることの重要性を感じることができました。まあ、詰め込み教育は言われたこと、決まった範囲をやればいいので、創造性のない受け身の人にはいいのかもしれませんが、われわれは自主的に英語を学んでいるのですから、自分の興味を元に世界を広げていきたいですね。


 

日本は課題先進国?

 


映画『エリジウム』を観たおりに以下のように書かせていただきました。

「人口爆発」「資源不足」「食糧不足」というのは、現実味のある問題として考えられ始めていますから、このような映画も生まれるのでしょう。タブー承知で書かせてもらえば、「間引き」という誘惑に人類は勝てるのか、ついつい考えてしまいます。自分はマルサスのような悲観論者ではありませんが、倫理や道徳さえ脇にやれば、一番簡単な解決法になってしまいます。現に、日本でも「おしん」の世界のような身売りみたいなものは、昭和初期まであったんですから。。。

人口が多すぎる事を問題視した本が9月下旬に出ていたのですね。NYTのBook ReviewのPodcastで知り、早速本を読んでみました。Kindle版はなかったのですが、ジュンク堂池袋店で買う事ができました。

Oct. 13, 2013
This week, Jonathan Franzen discusses his “Kraus Project”; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Alan Weisman talks about “Countdown”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host



Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
(2013/09/24)
Alan Weisman

商品詳細を見る


無理矢理タイトルに意図を読み込もうとすれば、人口爆発で地球存続のカウントダウンが始まっている事と、人口の数を減らす事(=カウントをダウンしろ!)でこの危機を乗り越えることができるという二つの意味を掛けているのかもしれません。

Earth Control
‘Countdown,’ by Alan Weisman
By NATHANIEL RICH
Published: October 11, 2013

“Countdown” is a bleak sequel to “The World Without Us,” Weisman’s elegant account of what would happen to the planet should human beings suddenly vanish. That book drew its subtle and visceral power from Edenic descriptions of an Earth reclaimed by its forests and oceans, healing from the wounds inflicted by civilization. With its imaginative force and vivid storytelling, it had the power of the best speculative fiction; but in “Countdown,” “there’s no imagining.”

Perhaps motivated by the urgency of his theme, or frustration over the intransigence of the problem, Weisman abandons subtlety in favor of making his message — we need to slow our rate of procreation, if we want to survive — explicitly and didactically in every chapter. His dire warnings, and the warnings of the scientists and government officials he interviews, are unrelenting, with variations of the following sentence appearing at regular intervals: “In the entire history of biology, every species that outgrows its resource base suffers a population crash — a crash sometimes fatal to the entire species.”



「人口減少経済」の新しい公式―「縮む世界」の発想とシステム「人口減少経済」の新しい公式―「縮む世界」の発想とシステム
(2004/05)
松谷 明彦

商品詳細を見る

このニューヨークタイムズの書評だと日本の例がロボットを導入して少子化に対応しているという奇異な感じで紹介されていましたが、Weismanの本ではShrink and Prosper(縮小と繁栄)とむしろ良い例として紹介されていました。『「人口減少経済」の新しい公式―「縮む世界」の発想とシステム』の著者である松谷 明彦さんも登場して彼の試みも評価しています。

Metaphors bring us closer. Over the course of the book, man is likened to a cancer; to “a voracious monoculture” that sucks “resources in at the cost of the rest of life on the planet”; and to the mule deer of Arizona’s Kaibab Plateau, an example of a species once “doomed to ­overpopulate.”

But the book’s most indelible image comes from Weisman’s visit to Japan, where the fertility rate is so low — 1.4 children per female — that the population has been declining since 2006. This might make Japan something of a best-case situation, but an aging population means there are too many senior citizens, and not enough young people to take care of them. Already Japan has a shortage of geriatric nurses. Weisman visits Nagoya Science Park, where Japan’s oldest scientific firm has built RIBA II, a robotic white bear designed to carry elderly people around the house. It has large, widely-spaced black eyes, cute little ears and a painted smile.
“I will do my best,” says the bear, as it approaches a man who is lying on a hospital bed. “I will carry you as though you were a princess.”
RIBA II slides one paw under the patient’s knees, the other beneath his back. The robot cradles the man in its arms. It carries the man across the room, and lowers him tenderly into a wheelchair.
“I’m finished,” announces RIBA II, and it’s hard not to wonder whether the robot speaks for us all.



動画3 5分あたりからコウノトリ(stork)が戻ってくるようになった兵庫県豊岡市の試みを紹介していますが、Shrink and Prosperの章の最後の部分が以下です。里山などの日本の試みを紹介していて、ロハス的な世界を積極的に評価しています。

The value to be reaped from tourists and fancy organic rice is easy to quantify. Harder, but most critical, is calculating the value of nature – what conservation ecologists call natural capital. How much is a grasshopper worth, anyway, if nature always provided them for free? Trees in forests were free. Rivers and the atmosphere were free places to toss wastes. Free, but ultimately costly, when they vanish or can hold no more.

The accounting of nature’s capital has never included in corporate balance sheets, but every prechemical farmer knew it well. In a Japan with far fewer Japanese, as Japan will inevitably become this century, there is a chance for natural capital to replenish, and for people to enjoy healthier, even happier lives.

The rice fields may yield less, if humans mush share the grains with grasshoppers – but with fewer humans, that won’t be such a problem.

人口増を問題にすると、家族計画=避妊が有効な対策として出てきます。この本でも避妊の大切さを伝えようとしていて、一番成功した例としてイランを挙げていました。女性への教育が一番効果的のようです。日本も戦後すぐに避妊を合法化しているんですね。

Book review: ‘Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?’ by Alan Weisman
By Fred Pearce,October 10, 2013

Weisman’s biggest good-news story, however, comes from another supposed heartland of theocracy: Iran. In 1987, a month after its bloody conflict with Iraq ended, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the development of what Weisman calls the best voluntary family-planning program in the world. It has since cut the average family size from eight children to fewer than two.
Across the world, he talks to women who want fewer children and men who want more. He understands a big truth: Solving the population problem requires helping women take greater control of their reproductive lives, rather than snatching it from them.


こういう悲観論が出るとどうしても人間の課題解決力や新技術への期待を述べたくなります。ワシントンポストの書評もそのようなかたちで締めていました。

Weisman is probably right to say that, at 7 billion people, we have overshot for now. But who knows what the greener and smarter technologies of the future may allow? Who knows what could be achieved if we used what we have already? Ehrlich’s doomsday prediction of billions starving in the 1980s failed to spot that the green revolution would double world food production in the final 30 years of the 20th century. Today, solar energy, electric cars, drip irrigation and a few other easily available technologies could dramatically increase the world’s carrying capacity.

Weisman, however, makes no such predictions. Forecasting what humans might do is harder than working out how nature would respond to our absence. He is gloomy, warning that “technological leaps have yet to solve anything without causing other unforeseen problems.” Sure. But maybe the first farmers were chastised on similar grounds. Innovating is what our species does. We are problem-solvers, for better or worse. The countdown continues.

人口を減らすことができれば、二酸化炭素排出の問題もそれほど気にしなくてよくなるようですが、経済発展から背を向けてそのような方向に舵を取る事ができるかどうか。。。

 

Japan Times On SundayはNYTなし

 
International Herald Tribuneが日曜日休刊だったことを考えると予想できたことですが、日曜日のJapan TimesにはNew York Timesの記事は一個もありませんでした。

Japan Times On Sunday
世界で定番のタブロイド版サンデー・ニュースペーパーがついに誕生
The Japan Times On Sunday は国際的な視点に立って、国内の日刊紙では読めない幅広い話題を提供します。
28ページ建て(12ページがカラー)の紙面には、コンパクトでありながら掘り下げた分析記事や最新のニュースが満載です。政治、経済、スポーツはもちろん、文化、娯楽に関する読み物等、多彩な情報を発信していきます。国際感覚に磨きをかける知的情報源として役立ちます。

商品紹介にもNew York Timesのことは触れていませんね、勝手にNew York Timesの日曜版の一部が読めると早合点してしまいました(苦笑)雨の中、早起きして駅まで買いに行ったのに。。。(涙)

Japan Times On Sundayは何かといえば、従来のJapan Timesの日曜版をJapan Times Weeklyのフォーマットであるタブロイド版にして、Japan Times Weeklyにあった語注や日本語概要がつけられたという感じでしょうか。

日曜版の自然環境関連やTimeOutのコーナーの記事が好きだった方は引き続き楽しめるかもしれません。日曜版ということで、2000語を超える読み応えのある記事もありました。

NATIONAL
Fukushima 2020: Will Japan be able to keep the nuclear situation under control?
BY JUN HONGO
STAFF WRITER

Words checked = [2145]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [84%]

土曜日のJT/INYTは買わなかったのですが、IHTの頃の土曜日版は文化関連も充実していました。Japan Timesの同様日はObserverの記事も読めたので、土曜日のものを買った方が楽しめるかもしれません。以下のような興味深い連載も土曜日にあるようですし。。。



COMMUNITY | TELLING LIVES
Norma Field, champion of Japan’s leftist literature, retires — but not from anti-nuclear activism
BY DREUX RICHARD

Words checked = [2239]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [81%]


Telling Lives profiles interesting individuals with links to Japan on Saturdays. Send all your comments and story ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp.


Japan Times On Sundayでがっかりしたのは書評がTimeOutのコーナーと合併したことです。どちらかというと観光目線での日本紹介になっている感じがしました。これまでのJapan Timesの書評は日本の歴史や文学や詩などを紹介してくれていて、さらにObserverの書評があったので、そちらの方が好きでしたね。まあ、Observerはサイトで見てしまった方が書評の数も多いのでこれからはサイトで確認するようにします。スミスのモリッシーの自伝が出たんですね。

The Observer: The New Review
Sunday 20 October 2013




Autobiography by Morrissey – review
Brilliant one minute, petulant the next, Morrissey's autobiography is as maddening as the man himself
Stuart Maconie
The Observer, Saturday 19 October 2013 15.00 BST

今週はJapan Times/International New York Timesを紙で買ってよんだのですが。新聞や雑誌をiPadで読むのに慣れてしまってきたので、紙の新聞を読むのがおっくうになってきました。とくに普通の新聞って大きくてかさばって読みにくいですよね。はやければ明日にはKindle Paperwhiteがきますし、やっぱり電子書籍メインに戻ろうと思います。
 

Lean Inその後

 


雑誌Fortune恒例のMost Powerful Women50人の時期がきました。IBMのGinni RomettyやPepsiCoのIndra Nooyiがワンツーとおなじみなランキングでしたが、表紙はFacebookのサンドバーグでした。(去年はYahooのメリッサマイヤー)よく考えてみたらCEOがランクインしている中でNo2のCOOが5位にランクインしているのは異色ですね。そのような疑問を持ってFortuneのカバーストーリーも書かれていました。

Sheryl Sandberg: The real story
By Miguel Helft, senior writer @FortuneMagazine October 10, 2013: 8:52 AM ET

日本でも話題になったLean Inは百万部を超えるベストセラーになっているようですね。Facebookでの彼女の役割は以下の3パラグラフを読めば分かるようになっています。

Her book, Lean In, is not merely successful: It's been at the top of bestseller lists and sold more than 1 million copies since its launch in March. Its publication ignited an international movement that made feminism mainstream again, at least among professional women. Sandberg is on a first-name basis not only with the CEOs of America's biggest companies, but also with celebrities like Oprah, Bono, and Michael Bloomberg, who hosted a glitzy launch party for Lean In. She gets her calls answered by senators, senior White House officials, and prime ministers. And while Sandberg could run just about any company in America (she's been on virtually every list of possible successors to Steve Ballmer at Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500)), she has chosen to be No. 2 at a company where her chances of becoming No. 1 are close to zero.

Of course, Sandberg is not your typical No. 2. While her international fame ballooned over the past year following the publication of Lean In, it is how the 44-year-old Sandberg has defined her role as COO and her relationship with her much younger boss that make her so unusual in the business world. There's no one job description for COOs, but they are almost always inward-facing bureaucrats who make sure the trains run on time, cut a low profile, and toil in the shadow of their bosses. Sandberg, who declined to be interviewed for this article, does keep the trains on time, for sure. But she's also a chief dealmaker and an ad sales honcho responsible for all of Facebook's revenue; she taps her influential network to open doors; she travels the world to meet with politicians and channels the desires of the world's biggest marketers in a language Facebook's engineers understand. Over the past year, as Zuckerberg shifted gears to turn mobile services into Facebook's top priority, she pushed the ads and operations teams to follow in lockstep. "She runs the business," says Dan Rose, one of Facebook's earliest business-side executives and one of Sandberg's deputies, in charge of partnerships.

Sandberg's hefty portfolio and her fluid, trusting relationship with Zuckerberg are liberating for him. She does all the things he doesn't want to do so he can focus on what he likes: product and engineering. As part of that bargain, he's given her space to be the public face of Facebook in many arenas, to roam far and wide -- from Davos to Sun Valley -- and to pursue extracurricular activities, like Lean In, with gusto. While tongues wag that Sandberg's celebrity and her crusade for women in the workplace are distractions, they are a strategically invaluable asset for Facebook. "Lean In has done a lot more for Facebook than Facebook has done for Lean In," Zuckerberg recently told employees. The result is this: While Zuckerberg is a celebrity in his own right -- and the antihero of an Oscar-winning Hollywood film -- Sandberg is not only the world's most famous COO but also a rock star in business, politics, and popular culture, with unprecedented influence and reach.

ここ最近のFacebookはIPOやモバイルへの転換などいろいろ批判もされていましたが、挽回しているようです。これもサンドバーグの人脈が役に立っていると書いています。

This year Sandberg brought her focus and energy to the problem of mobile advertising. As Zuckerberg realigned his engineers and product managers to prioritize mobile apps over the Facebook website, Sandberg rallied the business side. She pushed to simplify ad formats, did away with the emphasis on social ads, and convened biweekly meetings with ad and product executives to balance user experience with the needs of marketers. She bombarded senior managers with lengthy stories of conversations she'd had at the Unilevers (UL) and Procter & Gambles (PG, Fortune 500)and Coca-Colas (KO, Fortune 500) of the world to drill into the heads of Facebook's engineers the needs of marketers, and she reoriented the company's sales force.

The results speak for themselves. Shares, which tanked after Facebook's botched IPO in May 2012 amid doubt the company would succeed in mobile, are up 140% in the past year, to around $50. That's in part because mobile ads, nonexistent a year ago, accounted for 41% of Facebook's $1.6 billion in ad revenue in the most recent quarter. Zuckerberg predicted that mobile revenue will soon become the majority of Facebook's business. Sandberg has been well rewarded in the process. She earned about $26 million in cash and stock in 2012, and her vested Facebook shares and options are worth about $704 million, according to Equilar, an executive compensation research firm. (She has an additional $277 million in unvested shares and options, and undisclosed millions more from her time as an executive at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), where she helped the startup evolve into the largest seller of ads in the world. It is safe to say she's a billionaire.)

Cataloguing the full scope of Sandberg's activities and impact inside Facebook is nearly impossible. But her deputies like to single out her strategic involvement with top business leaders with whom she's developed relationships over time. A few years ago Facebook found itself negotiating a tricky partnership with PayPal. Whenever the teams were stuck, Sandberg would personally reach out to John Donahoe, the CEO of eBay, which owns the payments company. The high-level check-ins ironed out the differences and over time also led to eBay spending far more on Facebook ads. "I like dealing with Sheryl because I trust her enormously," says Donahoe.

Lean Inとう本の効果はFacebookにもあったようで、女性エンジニアの採用や定着率に効果があがっているようです。

Lean In has turned Sandberg into even more of an international celebrity. But the impact of the book has also been profound inside Facebook, helping with recruiting and retention of women engineers and executives. Most female candidates "reference how attractive Sheryl is to them," says Emily White, who heads business operations for Instagram, the photo-sharing company Facebook acquired for $1 billion. "It's almost always in the conversation." This year, partly as a result of the book, Facebook had a record-breaking number of female interns, says Lori Goler, the head of human resources, though she refused to reveal specific numbers. In the senior ranks, though, Facebook's record of promoting women has been mixed. Sandberg is one of three C-level executives (the other two, Zuckerberg and CFO David Ebersman, are men), and the company has two women on its nine-member board, slightly above average for large companies. Women executives also lead Facebook's global sales, public policy, mobile engineering, human resources, European operations, and other important groups. But only one of Sandberg's five direct reports is a woman, and all of Zuckerberg's six direct reports, except Sandberg, are male. Regardless, the book has had a major role in changing public perception of the company. As one executive noted, The Social Network depicted Facebook as something of a bawdy college fraternity. "No one thinks of Facebook as a frat house anymore," the executive said.

この記事の最後はサンドバーグなしのFacebookの心配でした。どうやらこの記者はサンドバーグの次のフェーズは政界進出と見ているようです。2016年にヒラリー大統領が誕生したら政府要職につくのかもしれませんね。

It's possible that Zuckerberg himself will have to grapple with those issues some day. There's long been speculation that Sandberg will leave the company for other pursuits in business or in government. No one knows whether that will be soon. For now, Facebook is still a young, growing company, and Andreessen says Sandberg has vowed to stay at Facebook at least through the "next phase of the company." ("Sheryl is 100% committed to Facebook," says Michael Buckley, vice president of global business communications.) Regardless, the publication of Lean In has heightened expectations about Sandberg's post-Facebook life, especially in Washington. In the past, Sandberg's future would come up an hour into a dinner; now it's discussed during the appetizers, says Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary under Bill Clinton who was a communications executive at Facebook for more than a year. "It gives a D.C. future more life," Lockhart says. Some people close to Sandberg say it's just the opposite. Had she postponed her passion to become an advocate for women, she'd be more likely to be itching to go. The fact that she's doing Lean In makes it more likely she'll stay at Facebook longer. At some point, however, Sandberg is likely to be ready for the next thing. But trying to predict her future may be futile: Whatever she does next is sure to be surprising, and bound to once again break the mold.

このフォーラムには"Why Women Still Can't Have It All"でサンドバーグに先駆けて女性問題に改めて一石を投じたスロータさんもいたようです。Lean inだけでは不十分という立場のようですね。



Why the 'Lean In' conversation isn't enough
By Colleen Leahey, Reporter October 17, 2013: 2:42 PM ET

サンドバーグの本が個人の頑張りに力点があったことに対して、スロータさんはcompetition と同時にcare for othersが大事で、care for othersできる環境作りが必要だと環境整備にも力点がある点が違いでしょうか。

ちなみにインターナショナル50人には日本人が一人もいませんでした。。。

 

名前が変わっただけなのか。。。

 

Adieu IHT, Bonjour INYT 投稿者 tvnportal

IHTが終わりと聞いてしんみりしている人が他にもいました。NYTタイムズのコラムニスの一人Roger Cohenです。タイトルにAdieu … Bonjour …と書いているのはIHTはパリで編集されていたことを意識したものでしょう。もし日本で編集されていたらSayonara … Konnichiwa …となっていたはずです(笑)

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Adieu IHT, Bonjour INYT
By ROGER COHEN
Published: October 14, 2013

Still, the romance was there. The Trib was a paper made for the world in the French capital by Americans, a trans-Atlantic hybrid that flattered Parisians, made them feel more important. Bergman to Bogart: “What about us?” Bogart to Bergman: “We’ll always have Paris.” And in Paris, it seemed, there would always be the Herald Tribune.

The paper was a refuge for the holed-up expat, a good excuse for the second chilled Brouilly on the terrace of Le Select, a discreet statement of worldliness, a ticket to membership in a borderless club, and a venue for exploration of all the French-American rivalry that turned out to be just another expression of the eternal French-American love affair.

The Trib was sexy. It got to the point while French papers meandered like the Seine through Normandy. American journalists knew how to find the facts and tell a story without frills. If anyone doubted a newspaper could be sexy, all they had to do was watch the pert Jean Seberg, wearing a Herald Tribune T-shirt, hawking the paper (then The New York Herald Tribune) in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless.” Case closed.


IHTの最終号をわざわざ取り置きしてもらい、新創刊されたINYTと読み比べたのですが、タイトル周りと問い合わせ先が変わっただけで、正直肩すかしでした(苦笑)

ここからはちょっとマニアックな話になるかもしれません。OpEdページには編集スタッフが書かれています。IHTとINYTでは編集スタッフが大幅に変更されていました。OperationやHuman Resourcesなどのスタッフに変更がなかったこととは対照的です。

IHTEditor.jpg
INYTEditors.jpg

ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR., Publisher
JILL ABRAMSON, Executive Editor

上記の発行者と編集長の名前を見て、そうかと思った方はメディアに詳しいですね。そうです、ニューヨークタイムズと同じ顔ぶれになったのです。まあ、名前がインターナショナルニューヨークタイムズになったのだから当然と言えば当然なんですが。。。

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Takes The New York Times To An International Level
Sulzberger this week announced the rebrand of the International New York Times specifically targeted towards a global and digital audience.

Newspaper executives say the re-branding of the Tribune will allow readers to enjoy the best of both worlds, while industry observers expect that the parent company will now be able to complete the gradual unification of the two newspapers’ editorial staffs, a procedure that has been taking place over the last few years.
The New York Times gained control of the International Herald Tribune more than ten years ago, when they acquired a controlling interest in the paper’s co-owner, The Washington Post.

Subscribers to the print edition of the International Herald Tribune Herald Tribune, just less than one quarter of a million in 135 countries, will not have to get used to too many cosmetic changes, most prominently a new masthead bearing the paper’s new title, although they certainly will enjoy the enhanced editorial content and enhanced opinion pieces by the top level team of columnists, now on board at the International New York Times.

The International New York Times’ European operations will continue to be based in Paris, France.

上記の記事にあるように、これから編集方針が国際版も一本化されていくことが予想できますね。IHTの頃はパリで編集をしていて、紙面構成やOpEdの記事などは独自色をある程度出していました。INYTに替わることでそのようなヨーロッパからの視点はなくなり、アメリカ的視点でINYTも作られていくと理解して良さそうです。まあ、この辺りの違いはよほど熱心な読者ではないと気づかないと思いますが。。。そもそもヨーロッパ的な視点を期待するならIHTよりもイギリスやフランス、ドイツのメディアを見た方がいいに決まっていますから、編集スタッフの差し替えは普通の読者にとっては重要ではないのではと思います。記事にしておいてなんですが。。。

先日雑誌Timeの編集長がNancy Gibbsという女性になりましたが、Jill Abramsonは2年前にNYT初の女性編集長になっていました。





Jill AbramsonはPoliticoやNewsweekなどでも大きくとりあげられていました。人望がないという批判的タッチですが。。。

Good Jill, Bad Jill
The Queen of the New York Times
By Lloyd Grove

April was an unusual, if not the cruelest, month for New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who in September will mark two years on the job. On Monday afternoon, April 15, Abramson—who, at 59, is the first woman to serve as top editor in the Times’ 160-year history—had barely begun savoring the four Pulitzer Prizes that her staff had just won (this year’s biggest haul, by far, for any journalistic outlet) when the Boston Marathon bombings occurred. Pulling an all-nighter at one point in the third-floor newsroom of the Times’ Renzo Piano–designed Manhattan skyscraper, she presided over a breathless week of “flooding the zone” (as one of her predecessors, Howell Raines, liked to say), while her reporters and editors managed to avoid the sort of embarrassing errors committed by the Associated Press, CNN, and even the Times Co.–owned Boston Globe.

Then, the night of April 23, Politico—the Washington trade paper that aims to “drive the conversation”—published a story suggesting that Abramson’s young editorship was already a failure. Quoting anonymous former and current Times employees, Politico claimed she was widely considered “stubborn,” “condescending,” “difficult to work with,” “unreasonable,” “impossible,” “disengaged,” and “uncaring”—“on the verge of losing the support of the newsroom.” One staffer confided to media reporter Dylan Byers: “The Times is leaderless right now ... Jill is very, very unpopular.”


Politicoの記事は以下です。

Turbulence at The Times

By: Dylan Byers
April 23, 2013 08:59 PM EDT

これに対して8月にNew Republicで彼女のインタビューがありました。こういう切り返しをストックしておきたいですね。

A Q&A With Jill Abramsonhington Post
BY MICHAEL KINSLEY
Michael Kinsley: So I understand Newsweek scooped me. They had you on the cover, with an article by Lloyd Grove. I didn’t even know there was a Newsweek.1
Jill Abramson: Me neither. Or a cover.
MK: Or a Lloyd Grove for that matter.
JA: Well, I knew there was a Lloyd Grove.
MK: So, you know the cliché rap on you is that you’re mean?2
JA: Well my answer is, I’m not. And most of the people who know me well are somewhat surprised by that stereotype, just because I’m not someone who frequently expresses anger or acts in a high-handed way. I’m trying to think of the other stereotypical behaviors.
MK: You said once that you hope to improve. Do you feel you have improved?
JA: [Laughs] Well, I guess I don’t have much evidence to show that I have, but I actually feel that I have.

人をみかけで判断してはいけませんが、動画を見る限り快活そうなタイプではないですよね。。
 

今日まで無料アクセス

 
ComplimentaryService.jpg

INYTの立ち上げを記念して今日までアクセス無制限のキャンペーンをしているようです。ニューヨークタイムズのプレスリリースをみてみます。

International New York Times Debuts Tomorrow
10/14/2013

Complimentary Access to NYTimes.com, INYT.com and iOS Mobile Apps Courtesy of Citi
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The New York Times (NYTimes.com) today announced that it will offer unlimited complimentary access to its digital readers on the Web and on iOS mobile apps from October 14 at 5pm ET until October 19 at 5pm ET to mark the launch of the International New York Times (INYT.com), previously called the International Herald Tribune. The open access is courtesy of Citi, a leading global bank.

Edited from Paris, London, Hong Kong and New York, the INYT will be tailored specifically for global audiences. Over the past year, The Times has built one news gathering operation by combining the journalist strengths and newsrooms of The New York Times and International Herald Tribune (IHT). Additionally, The Times has announced promotions and new hires on the international news and opinion desks.

The New York Times iPhone and iPad news apps will allow the user to choose between a U.S. or International Edition. On October 15th, the International Edition will be available to users of the most current iOS apps. The International Edition replaces the IHT app. INYT.com will be available on all devices via the mobile Web.

After the open access period expires on October 19, limits to nonsubscribers will apply. Nonsubscribers may access a combined total of 10 articles each month on INYT.com and NYTimes.com and three articles per day across all sections of the apps. A subscription is required for access beyond those limits.

International New York Times digital subscription plans are available at INYT.com/Access. For details and pricing on home delivery, visit Subscribe.INYT.com.


it will offer unlimited complimentary access to its digital readersなんて表現はTOEIC学習者にはおなじみでしょう。ニュース記事では以下のように言い換えられていました。

For the launch week, access to the international edition's website, global.nytimes.com, will be free, Stevenson said.

冒頭に載せた新聞の接写でもCourtesy of Citiとありますが、どこかの好意で無料になる場合はこのような表現が使われるのですね。

The open access is courtesy of Citi, a leading global bank.

まあ、TOEICの公式問題集では使われない言葉でしたが、公開テストなどでは使われてもおかしくないような表現でしょう。


(オックスフォード)
courtesy of someone/something
1 (also by courtesy of someone/something) with the official permission of someone or something and as a favor
The pictures have been reproduced by courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.
2 given as a prize or provided free by a person or an organization
Win a trip to New York, courtesy of Coast Airways.

Japan Times/
International New York Timesの創刊に関しては以下のようなランチイベントが開かれるようです。花形ニューヨークタイムズ記者が参加するので、平日じゃなかったら参加してみたかったですね。

LunchMeeting.jpg

In CONVERSATION
A special lunch event in Tokyo
on October 23rd to celebrate
the launch of The Japan Times/
International New York Times.
Andrew Ross Sorkin. New York Times columnist and
founder of DealBook will discuss and take questions on:

"INNOVATION,
INVESTMENT
AND THE JAPANESE
ECONOMY"


The discussion will be followed by a lunch.

A limited number of places are available for readers.
To secure your place contact Masami Furuya at
mfuruya@nytimes.com or telephone +813 3248 6112.

The discussion will be followed by a lunch.の文章に関しては、ディスカッションが先でしょうか、ランチが先でしょうか、この辺りは動詞の態の問題というよりも、動詞followの語彙の問題ですね。この点ケンブリッジの括弧内の説明を付け加えてくれていて次に起こるものだとわかるので親切ですね。

(ケンブリッジ)
follow
[I or T] to happen or come after something:
We were not prepared for the events that followed (= happened next).
The meal consisted of smoked salmon, followed by guinea fowl (= with this as the next part).



ソーキンさんがリーマンショック5周年について語っている動画です。金融ニュース関連のブログとしてDealBookは有名なのかもしれませんが、自分のような普通の人に取ってはリーマンショックを書いたToo Big to Failという本の著者と言った方がわかりやすいでしょうね。


Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and ThemselvesToo Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves
(2010/09/07)
Andrew Ross Sorkin

商品詳細を見る

 

二発屋

 


決済システムのスクエアが最近ウエブ広告を積極的に出していますね。この会社のサイトを訪れたところジャック・ドーシーの手紙がありました。TOEICの勉強にもなるし、自分が手紙を書くときの参考にもなります。日本から多くのことを学んだと、我々を立てて手紙を書いていますね。英語には敬語がないとか、言いたい事をはっきり言うっていうのが浅い見方だというのはこのような配慮のある手紙を読めばすぐに分かります。

ジャック・ドーシーが書いた手紙なので、英語から日本語に翻訳したのでしょう。以下のような表現をみると、オリジナルの英語にひきづられずに自然な日本語にしようとしていることがうかがえます。

the philosophy of wabi-sabi, a relentless pursuit of excellence
わびさびの精神、品質に対するとことんこだわる姿勢

A letter to Japan.
Today we are honored to bring Square to Japan, a country and culture we deeply admire and whose traits have helped guide building our products and company.
日本の皆様へ
今日、日本にSquareを提供でき光栄に思います。私たちは、日本とその文化に深く感銘を受け、プロダクトづくりや経営に活かしているからです。

Square's mission is to make commerce easy. We started with a simple idea: a little square-shaped credit card reader that plugged into a smart phone, enabling anyone to accept payments for whatever they do, anywhere. As our customers grew, our software grew into a full-fledged point of sale system that fits just as well in a pocket, as it does on a counter. Today Square is the smartest way to run and grow a business of any size. Simple, fast, and free tools to level the playing field for everyone to compete.
Squareのミッションは、Make Commerce Easy—“あなたの商業活動”をかんたんにすること。私たちのアイディアの始まりは、スマートフォンに取り付けた小さな正方形(Square)のクレジットカードリーダーで、あらゆる人がいつでもどこでも簡単に決済を受け付けられるようにするというシンプルなものでした。そこからSquareの利用が広まるとともに、お店のカウンターはもちろん、ポケットにさえおさまるシンプルさはそのままに、POSシステムとしての機能を揃えました。今、Squareはあらゆる規模の事業主にとって最もスマートにビジネスを運営し成長させるツールです。Squareは、簡単、スピーディ、無料なツールを通して、事業サイズなどの制約にとらわれずビジネスすることを可能にします。

We thank you for everything Japan has taught us: a focus on craftsmanship and ritual, the philosophy of wabi-sabi, a relentless pursuit of excellence. We are excited to join you in growing local entrepreneurship and businesses across the nation.
日本がSquareに教えてくれた多くのことに感謝しています。職人の技や慣習、わびさびの精神、品質に対するとことんこだわる姿勢など、さまざまなことを教わりました。その日本で、全国の起業家やビジネスをサポートできることを嬉しく思います。

Square, Inc. CEO
ジャック・ドーシー
Jack Dorsey

ちょうど今週のNew Yorkerでは彼とSquareを特集していました。一万語を超える長い記事ですが、一般公開されていますので興味のある方は是非。

PROFILES
TWO-HIT WONDER
Jack Dorsey, of Twitter, is now making big money at Square—and is out to prove that he’s more than a lucky man.
BY D. T. MAX
OCTOBER 21, 2013

タイトルのtwo-hit wonderは面白いですね。一発屋のことをone-hit wonderと呼ぶようですが、ツイッターを創業し、スクエアを創業したドーシーは大きなヒットを2つも出した、prove that he’s more than a lucky manと運がよかっただけではないんだということですね。

(コリンズ)
one-hit wonder
Definitions
noun
a singer, composer or group that only ever has one successful piece
a composition that is someone's one and only successful creation
a person or thing that has an unrepeated success of some kind

Example Sentences Including 'one-hit wonder'
A one-hit wonder , his career disintegrated into a farce, with some fans now coming to concerts just to see his shambolic incompetence.
INDEPENDENT (1998)

But I don't just want to be a one-hit wonder and be remembered only as the man who scored 'that goal '.
SUN, NEWS OF THE WORLD (2001)

He intends to continue his medical practice but also plans to stay in politics and not to be a " one-hit wonder ", he says.
IRISH TIMES (2002)

I wasn't a one-hit wonder , I was in there every race, challenging the best in the world.
CBC (2004)

New Yorkerの記事はこれから読もうと思います。
 

さようならIHT

 


IHTの最終日を迎えて、International New York Timesになるようです。日本では明日からJapan Timesと合併したものが出ます。『勝手にしやがれ』ではニューヨークヘラルドトリビューンと言っていますね。

Rem Rieder, USA TODAY 8:22 p.m. EDT October 14, 2013
It now will be known as the International New York Times.

The International Herald Tribune, the iconic newspaper treasured for years by Americans in Europe and immortalized by actress Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave classic Breathless, is no more.

The paper is being renamed by its owner, the New York Times Co,, as part of the company's survival strategy.

Monday marked the last edition of the IHT. Starting Tuesday, it will be known as The International New York Times.

The rebranding is part of the Times Co.'s plan to shed peripheral enterprises and focus its efforts on buttressing the flagship newspaper as an international news force. Earlier this year, Times Co. President and CEO Mark Thompson said that there was "significant potential to grow the number of New York Times subscribers outside of the United States."


以下が、ニューヨークタイムズでの発表です。IHTが終わるというよりもInternational New York Timesが創刊しますって前向きなものになっています。

LETTER TO OUR READERS
Introducing The International New York Times
Published: October 14, 2013
Today we celebrate the debut of The International New York Times (www.INYT.com), a news report tailored specifically for the valued members of our global audience.
Edited from Paris, London, Hong Kong and New York, The International New York Times will continue to serve the many loyal readers of The International Herald Tribune by maintaining its tradition of journalistic excellence and innovation.
Only a few decades ago, The New York Times was a well respected but metropolitan newspaper. My father, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, had the vision to make The Times a national newspaper in 1980. Though seen as a gamble at the time, it was clearly the right decision.
Today, our future is global. The need for high-quality, authoritative, on-the-ground reporting and analysis from around the world has never been greater.

IHTのこれまでを振り返った特設サイトブログがあるので、しばらくはこれらを読んで余韻にひたっていようと思います。

おじさんくさい話になりますが、20年前はインターネットもたいしたことがなく海外の事情をリアルタイムに知る事の出来るIHTはそれはもう憧れでした。それに20年前はニューヨークタイムズとワシントンポストが一緒に読めたので、より一層憧れが増したものです。一部500円だったので図書館で読んで、OpEdだけコピーするというのが精一杯でしたが。。。

Japan Timesと合併することで問題となるのは、やはり時差の問題をどうするかでしょう。ニューヨークタイムズの記事を基にすると半日前の鮮度が低い記事になってしまいます。そのあたりを明日から出る2つのTimesはどう処理するのでしょうか。相変わらず、前日のニューヨークタイムズの記事を半日遅れで記事にしていたら、iPadで夕方にリアルタイムで読んだ方がましということになってしまいますから。。。

少なくとも日曜版は楽しみにしたいと思います!
 

論理と倫理

 
国立の試験で面接が導入されることに対しての反応がすごいですが、面接=人間力を測定という図式が単純だとしても、そのようなものを全く求めなくていいのか、それは違うのではないかと思ってしまいます。

まあ、面接だったら真っ先に落ちそうなヴィトゲンシュタインを持ち出すのはいい例でないかもしれませんが、論理学や言語理論を扱った本とみなされる『論理哲学論考』はポイントは論理ではなく倫理であったのではないか、という視点は考えさせられます。以前紹介した『ヴィトゲンシュタインのウィーン』からです。

Wittgenstein's ViennaWittgenstein's Vienna
(1996/10)
Allan Janik、Stephen Toulmin 他

商品詳細を見る


ヴィトゲンシュタインに最も近かったオーストリアの人々は、彼が何かに専念するときは、きまって倫理的な観点からであった、と主張する。この意味で、ヴィトゲンシュタインは、彼らの一人に直ちにキルケゴールを思い出させた。『論考』は、彼の家族や友人のみるところでは、単に倫理学の書物以上であった。それは倫理の証文であり、倫理学の本性を示したものである。

Those Austrians who were close to Wittgenstein insist that whenever he concerned himself with anything, it was from the ethical point of view; in this sense he reminded one of them directly of Kerkegaard. The Tractatus was more than a merely a book on ethics in the eyes of his family and friends; it was an ethical deed, which showed the nature of ethics.

個人的にはan ethical deed(倫理の証文)の部分は「倫理の実践」と訳したくなります。Words and deeds(言行)と「言葉と実践」対比的に用いられる言葉ですので、「実践」と訳した方がより方向性がはっきりすると思うからです。

『論理哲学論考』でのヴィトゲンシュタインは論理では倫理を問えないと書いていますので、彼自身も試験や面接でそのような力を測ることはできないと考えるのかもしれません。オリジナルはドイツ語ですが。。。

6.4 All propositions are of equal value.
すべての命題は等価である。

6.41 The sense of the world must lie outside the world. In the world everything is as it is and happens as it does happen. In it there is no value -- and if there were, it would be of no value.
If there is a value which is of value, it must lie outside all happening and being-so. For all happening and being-so is accidental.
What makes it non-accidental cannot lie in the world, for otherwise this would again be accidental.
It must lie outside the world.

世界の意義は世界の外にあるのでなければならない。世界の中では、すべてはあるようにあり、すべては起きるように起きる。その中に価値は存在しない。--仮にあったとしても、それは価値ある価値ではないであろう。
価値ある価値があるとすれば、それは、起きるもの、あるようにあるものすべての外になければならない。起きるもの、あるようにあるものすべては偶然であるから。
それを偶然でないものとするものは、世界の中にはありえない。なぜなら、世界の中にあるとすれば、これもまた偶然となるであろうから。
それは世界の外にあるのでなければならない。


6.42 Hence also there can be no ethical propositions.
Propositions cannot express anything higher.
それゆえ倫理学の命題も存在しえない。
命題はより高きことを何ひとつ表現することができない。

6.421 It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed.
Ethics is transcendental.
(Ethics and æthetics are one.)
明らかに、倫理を言葉で言い表すことはできない。
倫理は超越論的である。
(倫理と美はひとつである。)

かれの有名な言葉は次の章の最後に出てきますが、試験で測れないからそれを求めなくていいことにはならないと思うんです。

7 Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
語りえぬことについては,沈黙するしかない。

漫画とゲームしか読まないけど専門だけでいいんだ、試験さえ通ればいいんだ、そんな態度だとどうなるか、そんなのは今の英語教師のレベルの低さをみればわかるでしょう。やっぱり「〜あるべきだ」みたいな理想は重要だと個人的には思うんです。そんなのは面接でも、時間をかけたとしても測れないものなのかもしれません。それに他人に押し付けられるものではないかもしれません。でも、だからといって問うべき問いではないとノーテンキな態度になっていいとは思えないのです。。。
 

Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

 
TimeのManaging Directorを務めたRichard Stengelが就こうとしている国務省のPublic Diplomacy and Public Affairsとはどんなことをしているのでしょうか。気になったので少し調べてみました。White Houseでの発表資料を見てみようと思って最初に出てきたのは以下の文でした。Shutdownを実感できます。。。

Due to Congress’s failure to pass legislation to fund the government, the information on this web site may not be up to date. Some submissions may not be processed, and we may not be able to respond to your inquiries.
Information about government operating status and resumption of normal operations is available at USA.GOV.

ShutdownについてはNewYorkerのCartoonもなかなかだったのでついでにどうぞ。

以下が国務省の説明です。外交を取り仕切るという感じではないので、結構地味な役割のようです。

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affair
The mission of American public diplomacy is to support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and Government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world.

The Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs leads America's public diplomacy outreach, which includes communications with international audiences, cultural programming, academic grants, educational exchanges, international visitor programs, and U.S. Government efforts to confront ideological support for terrorism. The Under Secretary oversees the bureaus of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Public Affairs, and International Information Programs, well as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, and participates in foreign policy development.



Richard Stengel を任命するWhiteHouseの9月の発表資料を見てみます。彼の経歴を見ると2000年にはビルブラッドリーの選挙アドバイザーやスピーチライターも務めたりしていて政治とは無縁ではなかったようですね。

Richard Stengel, Nominee for Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Department of State
Richard Stengel is the Managing Editor of Time Magazine, a position he has held since 2006. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Stengel was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In 2000, Mr. Stengel served as a Senior Adviser and Chief Speechwriter for Bill Bradley’s Presidential campaign. In 1999, Mr. Stengel was the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Stengel worked with Nelson Mandela on his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. Mr. Stengel has written for many publications and is the author of several books. He began his career at TIME in 1981 as a writer and correspondent. He received a B.A. from Princeton University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Christ Church at the University of Oxford.

なぜ彼が国務省入りを決意したのかについては、Politicoの記事ではTIMEの経営がジリ貧になっていて、新たな方向性を模索したからではないかと見ています。

Richard Stengel leaving Time for State Department
By JOE POMPEO and DYLAN BYERS | 9/12/13 4:20 PM EDT

Stengel’s looming exit is the latest sign of disruption at a venerable publisher that has been grappling with leadership changes and financial hardships.

Parent company Time Inc. looks a lot different today from the time Stengel was named managing editor of its flagship title following a long career as a writer and editor there. And perhaps that’s why some people familiar with the magazine were not surprised to hear that he plans to move on.

“I think he’s looking for something fresh to do, and the magazine’s looking for some fresh leadership because it’s such a different place now than when he came in,” a former Time editor told Capital.

このポストの前任者Tara D. Sonenshineさんも米国のABC放送のジャーナリストだったようです。



November 04, 2011
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts
Tara D. Sonenshine, Nominee for Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Department of State

Tara D. Sonenshine is the Executive Vice President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior to joining USIP, she was a strategic communications adviser to many international organizations including USIP, the International Crisis Group, Internews, CARE, The American Academy of Diplomacy, and the International Women’s Media Foundation. Ms. Sonenshine served in various capacities at the White House during the Clinton Administration, including Transition Director, Director of Foreign Policy Planning for the National Security Council, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications. Prior to serving in the Clinton Administration, Ms. Sonenshine was an Editorial Producer of ABC News’ Nightline, where she worked for more than a decade. She was also an off-air reporter at the Pentagon for ABC’s World News Tonight and is the recipient of 10 News Emmy Awards for coverage of international affairs. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University.

彼女は辞めた直後に以下のような寄稿をしていました。秋からはジョージワシントン大学で教える側に回るようですね。

From One Glass Ceiling to the Next
JUL 17, 2013 4:45 AM - BY TARA D. SONENSHINE
After a productive tenure at the State Department, Tara Sonenshine asks: when can successful women finally rest on their laurels without feeling guilty?

Molly Marine gives me courage—the courage to admit that I have had my turn as a woman diplomat and I can pause a moment and take great comfort in that. And in knowing that many talented women are on the rise within the foreign service, civil service, and the throughout the political process. I can use up a few moments to reflect on those trips I made this past year—to China, Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, and the Middle East—where I discovered other women leaders, Americans and non-Americans, shattering glass ceilings and defying tradition by taking on powerful roles in society. And that I was one of them.

It’s OK, now and then, for women to sit back and enjoy the ride they’ve taken—not for too long, but just long enough to savor the moment and acknowledge their role as trailblazers. And then—get back to work!

Tara D. Sonenshine served as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs from April 2012 to July 2013. She is enjoying a summer off before starting at George Washington University in the fall.

わずか14ヶ月だったようですが、退任メッセージを下記リンクで読む事ができます。

A Farewell Note from Under Secretary Sonenshine
Newsletter
Tara Sonenshine
Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Washington, DC
July 1, 2013

5月には退任がしらされていたようですね。1999年に創設されてから3割の期間は空白のポストが続き、その10数年の間には7人が入れ替わっているようです。そんな状況を批判しているブログがありました。

The State Department’s Revolving Door of Public Diplomacy
Helle Dale
May 8, 2013 at 2:30 pm

Though of major importance for U.S. global leadership, U.S. public diplomacy has been adrift for over a decade. The turnover in the under secretary post is both a symptom and a cause. It is a symptom of the diminished power and resources invested in public diplomacy since the U.S. Information Agency was folded into State in 1999 and a cause because rapid leadership turnover undermines strategic planning and operational effectiveness.

By comparison, the National Endowment for Democracy, which does related work with foreign publics, and operates on a grant from the U.S. government but is not a part of it, has been under one director, Carl Gershman, since its founding in 1984.
Since 1999, when the office of under secretary was created, it has been vacant 30 percent of the time and held by seven people. According to a 2011 report by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, the average tenure of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy since 1999 has been 500 days. That is about half the tenure (in the same time frame) of the position of Under Secretary for Political Affairs and less than a third of that of the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs.

As noted by Nicholas Cull of the University of Southern California, speaking in Washington yesterday about his new book, The Decline and Fall of the United States Information Agency, the essence of public diplomacy is building international relationships over time. Within the State Department, the turnover in the public diplomacy top spot and the increasingly shorter rotations of U.S. diplomats undermine a crucial element of foreign policy.

Tara D. Sonenshineさんはクリントンさんと仲がよさそうな感じですから2016年に向けてヒラリー陣営作りに関わったりするのでしょうか。。。
 

it was always to climb up the hill

 




NYタイムズの有名コラムニストMaureen Dowdがレッドフォードの最新号について書いていました。レッドフォード一人しか登場しない海上サバイバル劇ですが、早くともアカデミー賞のうわさが出ているようです。

The Sun-Dried Kid
Robert Redford Goes to Sea in ‘All Is Lost’
Robert Redford in Pictures: Images of the actor and his work.
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 9, 2013

He didn’t think about dying while he was making his new movie about it, J. C. Chandor’s melancholy mariner’s tale, “All Is Lost.” He thought about enduring.

“I’m interested in that thing that happens where there’s a breaking point for some people and not for others,” he said over morning coffee recently in the deserted Owl Bar at his resort here. “You go through such hardship, things that are almost impossibly difficult, and there’s no sign that it’s going to get any better, and that’s the point when people quit. But some don’t.”

That’s also what drew him to an earlier story: his 1972 tale about a 19th-century mountain man battling the wild, “Jeremiah Johnson,” shot on Mount Timpanogos where we were sitting.

“You just continue,” Mr. Redford said. “Because that’s all there is to do.”

映画製作の裏話などは実際の記事を読んでいただくとして、“You go through such hardship, things that are almost impossibly difficult, and there’s no sign that it’s going to get any better, and that’s the point when people quit. But some don’t.(体験する苦境が、乗り越えることが出来ないほど困難なもので、好転する兆しが何もなく、普通の人ならあきらめてしまう所まできているものでも、あきらめない人がいるんです)”“You just continue,” Mr. Redford said. “Because that’s all there is to do.(ただ続けるのです。とレッドフォードは語る。そうするしかないんですから)”という部分は英語学習にも励みになりますね。

また、タイトルに使わせていただいた“To me, it was always to climb up the hill,”は記事の最後に登場したのですが、彼のような人が語るからこそ重みが出ますね。

He says he has grown more comfortable in himself as he gets older, and abides by his favorite T. S. Eliot line: “There is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”

“To me, it was always to climb up the hill,” said the man sitting on his own mountain. “Not standing at the top.”

NYTの記事でも紹介されていたニューリパブリックの映画評もべた褒めしています。

The Best Film of the Year Has Just One Actor
"All Is Lost": Why Robert Redford deserves an Oscar
BY DAVID THOMSON

All Is Lost is amazing, deeply moving, and a harking back to an age when the best mainstream films might be the best pictures America made. It is an adventure and an epic with one person. I am warning you that it may win Best Picture, and that its one person, Robert Redford, deserves what has never come to him before, an Oscar for best actor.

He plays a man sailing a yacht single-handed 1,700 nautical miles from Sumatra. He is broken out of sleep one morning; there is water slapping around in his cabin. His yacht has been hit by a rogue container, a sinister rust-red oblong, a hideous moribund Moby, loaded with running shoes that are now leaking into the still Indian Ocean. (How many of these beasts lurk in the oceans?) Far worse, the container has put a wound in the side of the yacht. If ever the sea gives up its stillness, the boat will flood. The sailor’s radio has been destroyed. His cell phone is waterlogged. He says nothing, but he knows the peril.

And because he is Robert Redford, he is seventy-six in the film, which is too old and aching for the buffeting of storms. Moreover, this is an old man, denied any of the photographic kindnesses that have made some of Redford’s films too fussy. We never know why this man is far south in the Indian Ocean and 1,700 miles from the closest shore. Is he part of a race? Or is this just an old man’s love of solitude and sailing? We don’t know his personal situation or his family ties. We never learn his name. In the credits he is simply “Our Man.” That is one of many strokes of wisdom in a film directed and written by J.C. Chandor.


また、Esquireの最新号でもレッドフォードの演技を絶賛して以下のように書いて締めていました。

All Is Lost won’t be any sort of box-office blockbuster, but it’s far too good a movie, with too great a performance by Redford, to ignore.

まだまだアカデミー賞は先ですが、楽しみですね。アリスマンローのように取るべき人がとってもいいんじゃないでしょうか。
 

(続)新国立競技場

 


昨日のJapan Timesに東京オリンピックについての語学学習記事がありました。新国立劇場の写真があり、Work in progress: An artist's rendering of the new National Stadium, which will become the main venue for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. というキャプションがついていました。

LANGUAGE | BILINGUAL
What we talk about when we talk about the Olympics
BY KAORI SHOJI
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

If you’re lamenting the number of kōji (工事, construction works) clogging Tokyo streets and coating your lungs with toxic fumes, you can lump at least part of the blame on the Olympics, slated to happen in the summer of 2020. And take comfort in the fact that in the years leading up to the last time Tokyo hosted the games, in 1964, the kōji-genba (工事現場, construction sites) were much noisier and more obnoxious and poisonous than they are today, with zilch regard for safety or environmental measures. “Ano koro wa hidokatta” (「あの頃はひどかった」, “Things were awful back then”), reminisces my 76-year old neighbor Yamazaki-san. “Demo yatto sengo ga owatta kanji ga shita” (「でもやっと戦後が終わった感じがした」, “But I got the feeling the postwar years of hardship were finally over”).

Yamazaki-san has a point. Nineteen sixty-four is branded in the collective Japanese memory as the turnaround year — when the nation showed the world its miraculous resurrection from the ashes of World War II by hosting an international event. Landmark kōkyōjigyō(公共事業, public works) projects were embarked on in the runup to that year, such as the shutokō (首都高, metropolitan highway), shutoken suidōsetsubi (首都圏水道設備, metropolitan plumbing works) and the shinkansen (新幹線, bullet train). Haneda Airport was revamped in time for the games, and the Hotel New Otani opened its doors for the benefit of the 30,000 foreign guests set to pour into the city. Architectural feats of wonder such as the Kokuritsu Kyōgijyō (国立競技場, National Stadium) and the Yoyogi Taiikukan (代々木体育館, Yoyogi National Gymnasium) and the Nippon Budokan (日本武道館) demonstrated the skill and scale of Japanese architecture.

東京江戸博物館では来週まで東京オリンピックをとりあげた展示会を開いているようです。

オリンピックがやってくる 1964−2020

終戦から20年にも満たない1964年(昭和39)、東京で第18回オリンピック東京大会が開催されました。93の国と地域から、5,152人の参加選手を集めたスポーツの祭典。アジア地域で初めて開催されたこの大会で、東京は改めて世界都市への仲間入りを果たしました。
 このたび、2020年のオリンピック・パラリンピックを東京で開催することが決定しました。そこで今回の展覧会では、今からおよそ50年前に、ここ東京で行われた第18回大会に焦点をあて、当時の人々を熱気で包んだ一大イベントを改めて振り返ってみたいと思います。また、来るべき2020年の大会がどのような形で行われるのか、その魅力とあわせて紹介いたします。

この展示会についてメトロポリスでレビューがありました。the Edo-Tokyo Museum bravely decided to host an exhibitionとあるように、確かに決定の時期を合わせて開催したということはそれ以前から準備していたということですから、他に決まっていたらどうしていたのでしょうか。。。

The Olympics Are Coming!
Preparing for 2020 by looking back at 1964
By: C.B. Liddell | Sep 27, 2013 | Issue: 1018 | No Comments | 559 views

It will be hard for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to make the same kind of impact on the city and the country as the last event of its kind, held here 49 years ago. Tokyo 1964 was undoubtedly special. It marked an important watershed in the country’s history and influenced so much, from architecture and infrastructure to the social mood and the international perception of Japan, which, of course, greatly improved.
To coincide with the International Olympic Committee’s decision on the 2020 venue, the Edo-Tokyo Museum bravely decided to host an exhibition entitled “The Olympics Are Coming!” looking at the art, posters, photography and various odds and ends from the 1964 games.

This was a risky strategy, as the exhibition would have looked ridiculous if the IOC had instead chosen Madrid or Istanbul and the Olympics were not coming, but luckily Tokyo triumphed and now, with the world’s eyes upon us, it’s fitting to think what the Olympics will mean through the prism of a previous experience.

この展覧会にいってみたのですが、個人的に驚いたのは「首都美化総点検カード」のようなものが一般家庭にも配られ、青のポリバケツも使われるようになったことを知ったことでしょうか。下水道整備もオリンピックの存在とは無関係ではないようです。

Guide books on manners, architectural diagrams and publicity posters all testify to the enormous efforts that the Japanese people put into preparing for the Games. This naturally also boosted the learning of English. Attempts were also made to beautify the city, but, on the other hand, some of the infrastructure projects connected to the Olympics, such as concrete expressways, had quite the opposite effect.


青いポリバケツでごみを出す習慣は自分が子供の頃はまだありました。まさか東京オリンピックあたりからとは思いませんでした。

第13回
オリンピックとプラスチック~「ポリバケツ」

ポリエステルの「ポリ」と桶の意である「ペール」を組み合わせた商標の製品を販売するにあたって、同社が広めた「街を清潔にする運動」というフレーズは、62年初頭から東京都が開始した「首都美化運動」の「首都美化はオリンピックの一種目」や、「一千万人の手で東京をきれいに」といったスローガンとも合致し、また、東京都の「東京を美しくする展覧会」(62年の12月)などの啓蒙活動や、生活保護世帯への容器貸与制度などを経て、東京のみならず各地に普及した。


知らないほうが幸せだった雑学
日本も、東京オリンピックの時は23区民に「首都美化総点検カード」を配ってた。
「さあ!お客さまがやってくる!せめて家のまわりはきれいに…」と題され、30前後の項目があり、
「タワシの家の塀には、落書きなどしていない」「私の店の商品や陳列台は、道路にはみ出していない」
「私は、路上でタンつばを吐かない」「私は、街頭で立ち小便をしない」など○×チェックして
「全部○なら優秀です!もしひとつでも×があったらすべて○にするように!」
で首都美化運動の一環でゴミ袋も配られた。
河出書房の「図説東京流行生活」にカードの写真など載ってる。

もちろん2020年のオリンピックは64年の頃と違います。東日本大震災後ですからit may be difficult for Japan to recapture the sense of naive optimism that preceded the 1964 Olympicsというライターと同じ感覚です。

With the problems caused by the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear accident, as well as ongoing criticism of the government’s priorities, it may be difficult for Japan to recapture the sense of naive optimism that preceded the 1964 Olympics, but if it can be done anywhere, it can be done by visiting the Edo-Tokyo Museum.

個人的には東京オリンピックのころの英会話ブームの教材を見てみたかったなと思います。
 

新国立競技場

 


グローバルTIME100のイベントが10月にロンドンで開かれたようです。Nancy Gibbs新編集長の顔見せの役割もあったのでしょうか。

TIME 100 London Panel: For Better Or Worse, Social Media Is Shaping Our Lives
On Tuesday night, some of the world's most influential people gathered together for a TIME 100 event in London.
By Megan Gibson @MeganJGibsonOct. 08, 2013

On Tuesday night, some of the world’s most influential people gathered together for a TIME 100 event in London and agreed that, for better or worse, social media has changed our lives — and our livelihoods.
The event saw several TIME 100 alumni, selected by the editors of TIME as some of the world’s most influential people in finance, philanthropy, activism and the arts, gather together in London’s Shard to hear an august panel discuss how technology influences the influencers.

The panel — which was moderated by TIME International Editor Bobby Ghosh and featured architect Zaha Hadid, billionaire and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk, supermodel and activist Liya Kebede, and chef René Redzepi — quickly found common ground when everyone began discussing how digital technology had shaped their lives. Each of the panelists agreed that social media, especially, had guided the way their industries worked.

ここに登場していたのは新国立競技場の設計コンペで最優秀賞を取られたZaha Hadidさんも出ていますね。

Others agreed that the direct interaction that social media allows, had an effect on their work. According to Zaha Hadid, the criticism of her architecture provided by social media is inescapable. “My office, they try to protect me from bad news when people don’t like something [I did],” she said. “But I come across it because all my friends send it to me and I find out.” Yet she doesn’t view the feedback as a negative. “That is very important for us as architects, that there is a discourse between us and our client,” she said. “Because your client is no longer one person. Your client is your city.”

The panel’s theme was set by TIME’s newly minted managing editor, Nancy Gibbs, who introduced the event and welcomed the guests. Describing the difference between power and influence, she explained, “Power rules with a fist. Influence rules with a finger.”


受賞理由などはコンペのサイトを見ていただくとして、彼女のサイトにあった紹介ビデオと概要を見てみたいと思います。



New National
Stadium
Tokyo. Japan

Japan Sports Council

290,000m2

Capacity 80,000 people

The new Tokyo National Stadium
more than a large sports facility
designed to the highest design
specifications and functional
requirements. It is a piece of the
city's fabric, and urban connector
which enhances and modulates
people moving through the site
from different directions and
points of access. The elevated
ground connections govern the
flow of people through the site,
effectively carving the geometric
forms of the building.


The building volume sits gently within the urban landscape and is
articulated as an assembly of stadium bowl, structural skeleton,
cladding membranes and the museum, together forming an intricate
structural composition that is both light and cohesive. The perimeter of
the bowl structure becomes a new inhabited bridge, a continuous
exhibition space that creates a new type of journey for visitors flowing
along the project's North-South axis.

The stadium roof defines an iconic silhouette that integrates gently
within the cityscape around it. It is an intricate assembly of efficient
long-spanning structural ribs which are spanned by a system of
lightweight, translucent membranes. This unique structure is a
lightweight solution, where the stadium elevation graciously touches
the ground, defining a clear approach towards the stadium entrances.
The interior of the stadium is also given a clearly identifiable identity
through the strong roof structure that contrasts with the lightness of the
translucent membrane tensile structures.


The museum is displaced from the main bowl geometry as a
discernibly separate element. It defines an elevated plaza for public
use - a new urban gathering space that can be used by the public for
functions outside of sports events, yet its carefully controlled views into
the stadium intimately tie it to the overall sports complex. The museum
is lifted up above the ground plane, allowing for a minimal footprint on
ground where the landscape extends beneath it.


いつから建設を開始して、実際にどんなものが出来上がるか楽しみですね。
 

今更ですが TIMEに新編集長

 


今週のTIMEには往年のテニス選手アガシのインタビューがあって動画を見てみようといろいろ探している時にNancy Gibbsが編集長になったことを知りました。先月に発表されていたのですね。

決定を告げる社内メールを紹介している記事があります。編集長が国務省に抜擢されたための人事のようですが、彼女は一番多くのカバーストーリを書いた人のようなので適任なのかもしれませんね。

Nancy Gibbs, author of the most cover stories in Time’s history, named deputy managing editor
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News
September 7, 2011 5:59 PM
The Cutline

Below, the internal memo from Time Inc. editor-in-chief John Huey:

------ Forwarded Message
From: John Huey [email redacted]
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 16:32:13 -0400
Subject: Staff Announcement
September 7, 2011
To: Time Inc. Employees
From: John Huey and Richard Stengel
Re: Staff Announcement

On the recommendation of Rick Stengel, I am very pleased to announce that Nancy Gibbs is the new deputy managing editor of TIME. Nancy, as I've often noted, is the very embodiment of the TIME brand, and her work has long set the journalistic standard for its writing, its ethics, and its ability to connect with TIME readers around the world. This new role will take advantage of all her many skills. But I will defer to Rick to tell the story in more detail:

Well, when it comes to Nancy, you already know the historic stuff: most covers written — among them four presidential election nights, Columbine, Katrina, the great original 9/11 cover (and a wonderful essay in this 9/11 + 10 issue) — a record that will never be broken. But what you don't know is how Nancy has applied some of those same cover-writing skills to her work as a manager: she has brought great creativity to dealing with the business side, she has excelled at planning stories and covers many months in advance, and she has been a perfect mentor to writers and editors. Nancy Gibbs becoming deputy managing editor is also evidence that there is no one path at TIME. I think if you had said to her even three years ago, "How would you like to become a top editor?" she would have laughed. (I know, because I did, and she laughed.) But I think she would say that she has enjoyed it far more than she expected, and I would guess that she has enjoyed it in part because she loves TIME so much that she relishes having an even greater role in influencing it. And for that I am very grateful. As we all should be.

Please join Rick and me in congratulating Nancy and wishing her the best in this important new role.
J.H. R.S.

ご本人の意気込みを語る動画



家にあるバックナンバーを見返してみたら、9月30日号に以下のような記事が出ていました。自分もこの号についてブログで取り上げていたのに余裕でスルーしていました(汗)


Time Asia September 30, 2013 (単号)Time Asia September 30, 2013 (単号)
(2013/09/24)
不明

商品詳細を見る


Monday, Sep. 30, 2013
A New Beginning
By NANCY GIBBS

Every new editor of time gets his--or her--chance to reimagine it, and there has never been a more exciting time to do that.

TIME now reaches an audience its founders could only have dreamed of: 50 million people around the world, in print, online and via mobile devices. That's partly because of the growing demand for news you can trust, stories that move you, photos you can't forget and exploration of ideas and individuals who are shaping how we work, play, learn, love, save, vote and parent. I believe TIME's mission is more vital than ever--not just weekly but daily, hourly and by the minute when news is breaking.

Our purpose is in our very name. Time is valuable; people are busy. We all know we need to stay on top of the news because we're living through a period of historic change, with events that have enormous impact that we can't escape and can't ignore. And while there is a vast amount of information available, all that data can have the perverse effect of making us feel less aware, less informed, unsure of what to believe or whom to trust. Later this fall, we will introduce a new, more powerful TIME.com to increase the speed, volume and depth of our coverage.

素朴に米国のメディアの方がすごいと言う気はさらさらありませんが、どの記者も直接コンタクトできるようにメールアドレスを伝えているのは覚悟ができていますよね。いろいろ批判もくるでしょうに。。。

I think that in the U.S., to the extent there is such a thing as a national mood, it reflects an abiding concern with how detached our politics feels from the reality of our lives. TIME approaches hard questions with a conviction that smart people of good will can disagree fiercely--but that discourse can be reasoned, enlightening, even entertaining. I don't believe debate divides us; it draws us together, because the premise is that we are looking for the best answer, for our communities and for our country. Build more wind farms or drill more wells? Legalize pot or crack down harder on drugs? Break up the big banks or leave them alone? The rough, brassy nature of our politics masks a quiet but profound commitment Americans have to progress, to figuring out what works.

I come from a family of teachers, and I believe ideas matter. The good ones deserve reverence and the bad ones defiance. So I am committed to using every new tool--and those not yet invented--to engage readers in a conversation with the world's best thinkers about what's new, what's smart, what's scary, what's stirring, and I will always invite you to help us, challenge us, correct us, join us.

You can find me at ngibbs@time.com

Nancy Gibbs, MANAGING EDITOR


編集長交代を話題に出すのはコアなファンでしょうから、自分も含めてそれほど真剣なTIMEファンがいないということでしょうが、アメリカで唯一残っている週刊ニュース雑誌としてなんとか生き延びてほしいですね。
 

(小ネタ)Is there life before death?

 


ジジェクの本はそれほど読んでいないのですが、彼のやり取りが面白かったのでご紹介します。簡単なインタービューはやり取りの楽しさを味わうことができます。

October 11, 2013 7:28 pm
The Inventory: Slavoj Zizek
Interview by Hester Lacey
‘I find myself intolerable. I cannot look at myself on screen,’ says the philosopher and star of ‘The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology’

Philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek, 64, has been described as “the Elvis of cultural theory”. He is senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, and professor of philosophy and psychoanalysis at the European Graduate School.

師匠に関する質問は傲慢な答えなので、まねできませんが、言い切れるとかっこいいです。

Who was or still is your mentor?
Unfortunately the answer is no one. I mostly considered my professors idiots.

面白い答えと思ったのは以下の部分です。
Do you believe in an afterlife?
The German dissident Wolf Biermann said that the idealist question is “Is there life after death?” but the true question is “Is there life before death?” Are we truly alive? I sometimes doubt it.

If you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10, what would you score?
Considering my work, my books, 10. For my personal life, zero.

ブレヒトの有名な言葉“Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life”にも通じるものがありますが、 “Is there life after death?”という問いを“Is there life before death?”と変えるところが面白いですね。それになかなか痛いところついてきますよね。特に今は暢気にネットを読んでいる最中なので。。。

質問に答える事のバリエーションの楽しさは、アクターズスタジオのお決まりの10の質問でもうかがえますが、まずジジェクの回答を見てみます。

What ambitions do you still have?
To write another big, fat, substantial book on philosophy.

What is the greatest achievement of your life so far?
My last big, fat book, Less Than Nothing.


これに対して、9月に似たようなインタビューに答えていたMargaret Atwoodの答えが以下です。

What are you most proud of writing?
I’m Canadian. We’re not allowed to have emotions like that.

これはCanadianをJapaneseに変えれば我々も使えそうなものですね(笑)

“Is there life before death?”に答えるためにも、今から遊びにいってこようと思います。
 

(小ネタ)アマゾンBezosの評伝が来週発売

 
The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store
By Brad Stone October 10, 2013

しつこくてすみませんが、今回のは本筋には関係ないところの雑感についてです。

Within Amazon.com (AMZN) there’s a certain type of e-mail that elicits waves of panic. It usually originates with an annoyed customer who complains to the company’s founder and chief executive officer. Jeff Bezos has a public e-mail address, jeff@amazon.com. Not only does he read many customer complaints, he forwards them to the relevant Amazon employees, with a one-character addition: a question mark.


TOEICでもおなじみのcustomer complaints(顧客の苦情)がBezosにとどくと「?」だけつけて担当社員に転送するというくだりが特集記事のキャッチに使われていました。ベゾスの場合は多忙なCEOなので「?」をつけて出しているだけなのでしょうが、「?」をつけて出すだけなのが世界最短の手紙と言われているようです。ユゴーがレミゼラブルの売れ行きを出版社に確認したときのやりとりがウィキペディアにありました。

(ウィキペディア)
ヴィクトル・ユーゴーは当初、本作の売れ行きを心配し、出版社に「?」とだけ記した問い合わせの手紙を出し、「!」とだけ記された返事を受け取ったという。それぞれ「売れてる?」「売れて売れて!」を意味したと思われるこれら2通は、世界一短い手紙であると言われている。
ちなみに、ユーゴーは本作の発表より前に何作か作品を完成させているが、出版社側は本作の完成のほうを待ち望んでいた。

(英語版)
The work was a great commercial success and has been a popular book ever since it was published. While exiled in England shortly after its publication, Hugo telegraphed his English publishers a one-character query: "?". Hurst & Blackett replied: "!".

英語版にはHugo telegraphedとありますから電報なんで短くしたという事情もあるかもしれません。

次に買収の対象となったQuidsiという会社の創業者たちがBezosを研究し、尊敬していたという文脈で日本語が登場していました。

In the late 2000s, Competitive Intelligence began tracking a rival with an odd name and a strong rapport with female shoppers. Quidsi (Latin for “what if”) was a Jersey City company better known for its website Diapers.com. Grammar school friends Marc Lore and Vinit Bharara founded the startup in 2005 to allow sleep-deprived caregivers to painlessly schedule recurring shipments of vital supplies. By 2008 the company had expanded into selling baby wipes, infant formula, clothes, strollers, and other survival gear for new parents. In an October 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek cover story, the Quidsi founders admitted to studying Amazon closely and idolizing Bezos. In private conversations, they referred to Bezos as “sensei.”

Senseiという言葉ですが、日本での「先生」の使い方と完全にイコールではない感じです。このような文脈では「師」「師匠」という方が普通のような気がします。

カタカナ英語がやり玉に挙げられやすいですが、外国の言葉はどこでも独自の意味を持ちやすいと思います。コリンズやwebsterにはsenseiで見出しがたっていました。

(コリンズ)
sensei
noun
• (martial arts) a Japanese title for a teacher, master or professional; in English used especially for a martial arts teacher

Urbandictionaryにはsenpai(先輩)と間違わないようにという注意書きがありました。漢字が違うので日本語では間違いにくいですが、確かにアルファベットにするとまぎらわしいかもしれませんね。

-sensei
Used with masters of any profession. Teachers, scholars, etc. Can be added to the end of a name (usually the surname), or simply 'sensei' in replacement of any name at all. Not to be confused with someone who is of higher status than you in the school or workplace (-sempai).
Saitou-sensei, kono tegami o Eigo ni yakushite itadakitai desu. (Teacher/master, I would like you to translate this letter into English for me.)

この辺りの語感は想像するしかないんですが、martial artsとラベルがあったようにベストキッド(Karate Kid)のシーンみたいな感覚をsenseiに持っているのかもしれません。



以下のようなブログ記事もありました。この記事でははっきりとsenseiはmentorだと言っています。

Sensei- The Role of the Mentor…National Mentoring Month

Of course, to really talk the talk, you must walk the walk. In martial arts we call our mentors “Sensei.”
Most people think Sensei means “teacher.” Well, we use the title for our teachers but it means much more. You can read a book and teach- Sensei is the person who wrote the book; or he’s the guy the book is about!

Sensei literally means “one who has gone before.” The Sensei is the person who has walked the path you’re on now. He can lead without pushing and share from authentic experience and wisdom. Most of all, Sensei knows that your journey is your own. Sensei is going to teach, coach, advise and often correct- but never do the work for you.

A genuine Sensei knows that when people are pushed they in turn push back; when people are mentored by an authentic leader- they follow. He knows that all authentic leaders are teachers and that effective leadership is not a process of control, but one of sharing.

Most of all, a genuine Sensei understands that the measure of a great teacher is not one whose talents and abilities are superior to his students, but rather one who measures success only when his students’ talents and abilities surpass his own.

If you’re a mentor, shouldn’t you aspire to be like Sensei? If you’re looking for a mentor- isn’t this who you’re looking for?

まあ、しょせんアメリカの人に取っては外国語なので日本人の観点からsenseiの使われ方が正しい、正しくないと断じるのは野暮でしょう。彼らに取ってどういった文脈でどういった意味で使われているか、そういう部分を感じ取れるようになっていきたいですね。ただ、今回の連想はYutaによるものなので、大はずれの可能性もあります(汗)。詳しい方どうかご教示ください。


 

(続)アマゾンBezosの評伝が来週発売

 




Business Weekを読んだ自分の印象を記事にしておきます。日本だとユニクロの柳内さんの非情さが話題になりますが、アマゾンのBezosも馴れ合いを嫌う厳しい経営者であることは間違いないようです。これだけの短期間で会社を大きくしていくにはそれだけの厳しさが要求されるという事でしょうか。

The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store
By Brad Stone October 10, 2013

The one unguarded thing about Bezos is his laugh—a pulsing, mirthful bray that he leans into while craning his neck back. He unleashes it often, even when nothing is obviously funny to anyone else. And it startles people. “You can’t misunderstand it,” says Rick Dalzell, Amazon’s former chief information officer, who says Bezos often wields his laugh when others fail to meet his lofty standards. “It’s disarming and punishing. He’s punishing you.”

上記のようにBezosの笑い方は冒頭の動画でも触れていました。やさしいタイプなのかと思いきや、そうとう厳しい事を社員には言っているようで、その例をいくつか紹介していました。

Intensity is hardly rare among technology CEOs. Steve Jobs was as famous for his volatility with Apple (AAPL) subordinates as he was for the clarity of his insights about customers. He fired employees in the elevator and screamed at underperforming executives. Bill Gates used to throw epic tantrums at Microsoft (MSFT); Steve Ballmer, his successor, had a propensity for throwing chairs. Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel (INTC), was so harsh and intimidating that a subordinate once fainted during a performance review.

Bezos fits comfortably into this mold. His drive and boldness trumps other leadership ideals, such as consensus building and promoting civility. While he can be charming and capable of great humor in public, in private he explodes into what some of his underlings call nutters. A colleague failing to meet Bezos’s exacting standards will set off a nutter. If an employee does not have the right answers or tries to bluff, or takes credit for someone else’s work, or exhibits a whiff of internal politics, uncertainty, or frailty in the heat of battle—a blood vessel in Bezos’s forehead bulges and his filter falls away. He’s capable of hyperbole and harshness in these moments and over the years has delivered some devastating rebukes. Among his greatest hits, collected and relayed by Amazon veterans:

“Are you lazy or just incompetent?”
“I’m sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?”
“Do I need to go down and get the certificate that says I’m CEO of the company to get you to stop challenging me on this?”
“Are you trying to take credit for something you had nothing to do with?”
“If I hear that idea again, I’m gonna have to kill myself.”
“We need to apply some human intelligence to this problem.”
[After reviewing the annual plan from the supply chain team] “I guess supply chain isn’t doing anything interesting next year.”
[After reading a start-of-meeting memo] “This document was clearly written by the B team. Can someone get me the A team document? I don’t want to waste my time with the B team document.”
[After an engineer’s presentation] “Why are you wasting my life?”


精一杯取り組んだ仕事に対してCEOにこんなきついことを言われると自分は泣いちゃうかもしれません(苦笑)また、コンセンサスを求めるよりもお互いを競わせてより良い方法を模索するアプローチをとっているようです。

The people who do well at Amazon are often those who thrive in an adversarial atmosphere with almost constant friction. Bezos abhors what he calls “social cohesion,” the natural impulse to seek consensus. He’d rather his minions battle it out backed by numbers and passion, and he has codified this approach in one of Amazon’s 14 leadership principles—the company’s highly prized values that are often discussed and inculcated into new hires:

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

Some employees love this confrontational culture and find they can’t work effectively anywhere else. “Everybody knows how hard it is and chooses to be there,” says Faisal Masud, who spent five years in the retail business. “You are learning constantly, and the pace of innovation is thrilling. I filed patents; I innovated. There is a fierce competitiveness in everything you do.” The professional networking site LinkedIn (LNKD) is full of “boomerangs”—Amazon-speak for executives who left the company and then returned.

この記事のメインはQuidsiという会社の買収までのいきさつでした。競合となりそうな会社に対しては容赦なく対応していく様子を実感することができます。

やっぱり仲良しグループでは現状維持が精一杯になってしまうのでしょうか。会社を大きくしていくには、これくらいの厳しさ、非情さがないといけないのだなと実感できる記事でした。
 

アマゾンBezosの評伝が来週発売

 


アマゾンBezosの評伝The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazonが10月17日に発売されるようです。楽しみですね。

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of AmazonThe Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
(2013/10/15)
Brad Stone

商品詳細を見る


ありがたいことに抜粋を今週のBusiness Wekkで読む事ができます。抜粋と言っても7000語の読み応えのあるものです。

The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store
By Brad Stone October 10, 2013


Words checked = [7184]
Words in Oxford 3000™ = [83%]


Amazon.com rivals Wal-Mart as a store, Apple as a device maker, and IBM as a data services provider. It will rake in about $75 billion this year. For his book, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Brad Stone spoke to hundreds of current and former friends of founder Jeff Bezos. In the process, he discovered the poignant story of how Amazon became the Everything Store.

Within Amazon.com (AMZN) there’s a certain type of e-mail that elicits waves of panic. It usually originates with an annoyed customer who complains to the company’s founder and chief executive officer. Jeff Bezos has a public e-mail address, jeff@amazon.com. Not only does he read many customer complaints, he forwards them to the relevant Amazon employees, with a one-character addition: a question mark.

When Amazon employees get a Bezos question mark e-mail, they react as though they’ve discovered a ticking bomb. They’ve typically got a few hours to solve whatever issue the CEO has flagged and prepare a thorough explanation for how it occurred, a response that will be reviewed by a succession of managers before the answer is presented to Bezos himself. Such escalations, as these e-mails are known, are Bezos’s way of ensuring that the customer’s voice is constantly heard inside the company.

 

(続々)世代のギャップを取り上げる映画

 

NHK ラジオ 攻略!英語リスニング 2013年 10月号 [雑誌]NHK ラジオ 攻略!英語リスニング 2013年 10月号 [雑誌]
(2013/09/14)
不明

商品詳細を見る


NHKラジオ 攻略!英語リスニングの今月は『美味礼賛』のBrillat-Savarinを取り上げるようです。テキストにも書かれていましたが、以下の台詞は有名ですね。以前のブログでも取り上げたことがあります。

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.
どんなものを食べているか言ってみたまえ、君がどんな人かを言い当ててみせよう。

フランスの人なので、Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.がオリジナルのようですが、この引用句はドンキホーテに出てくるもののバリエーションのようです。

Tell me what company you keep and I'll tell you what you are.
Miguel de Cervantes
Spanish adventurer, author, & poet (1547 - 1616)


ですから、この映画のオリジナルタイトルThe Company You Keepは、当時の仲間に合っていくことによって、その人物の人となりが分かっていくという意味も込められたのかもしれません。オックスフォードにしろ、ロングマンにしろ、動詞judgeを使った例文になっていますので、この有名句が連想されやすいようです。

(オックスフォード)
the company someone keeps
the people that someone spends time with
Judging by the company he kept, Mark must have been a wealthy man.

(ロングマン)
company
friends [uncountable] your friends or the group of people you spend time with:
People judge you by the company you keep (=the people you spend time with).
Things began to go wrong when he got into bad company.

companyの他に気になった言葉はkidです。映画では若者、20代後半から30代前半であろうラブーフに対してもkidという言葉が使われていました。

(スーザンサランドン)
But at that time, all these... kids were... taking to the streets in, uh, Japan, and France, China, Angola, There was revolution, and I wanted to be part of it.

(レッドフォード)
I hope you get what you're looking for, kid. Take care.

辞書で調べたら「若者」という意味でもあり、30代近くでも使えるんですね。

(ルミナス)
kid
《略式》 若者, 青年.
・college kids 大学生.
・Dozens of kids were dancing at the disco. ディスコでは何十人という若者が踊っていた.

(オックスフォード)
informal a young person:
college kids


(マクミラン)
a young adult
a bunch of middle-class college kids


まあ、60代70代にとっては20代も10代も大差のないkidなのかもしれません。。。
 

デヴィッド・ボウイの100冊

 


新潮クレスト・ブックス+海外文学編集部のツイッターで知った情報です。デヴィッド・ボウイの展覧会がカナダで開かれているようです。そこで彼の愛読書100冊が紹介されているというのです。ジョージ・オーウェル好きのようで、3冊も選ばれているようです。彼が1日に1冊読むほどの読書家とは知りませんでした。。。

From Homer to Orwell: David Bowie's 100 favourite books revealed
See the full list, as well as our picks from the musician's favourite titles
ADAM SHERWIN
TUESDAY 01 OCTOBER 2013

The “Bowie’s 100 books” list was sent to the exhibition curators by the singer’s archivist, who keeps watch over a treasure chest of 75,000 costumes, sheet music, books and other memorabilia.

The exhibition’s audio guide features an interview with Bowie in which he says that, if he hadn’t become a musician, he “would have written novels,” referring to his songs as “little stories set to music.”

There are three Orwell titles in the top 100: Inside the Whale and Other Essays, The Road to Wigan Pier, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, which inspired a song of the same name on Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs. Bowie was denied the rights to stage a musical adaptation of Orwell’s dystopian vision.

Martin Amis, Peter Ackroyd, Tom Stoppard and Ian McEwan feature along with a 1950s annual of The Beano.
Academic studies of art and popular music sit alongside classic 20th century novels. The most recently published entry, The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby, in which the author surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of “junk thought”.

くまなく本を読んでいるというよりも、本から着想を得ているだけではないかと考えている人もいるようです。

Mr Marsh, director of the V&A’s department of theatre and performance, said: “In the archive, there are massive numbers of books that he’s kept. Supposedly, when he went to the desert to make The Man Who Fell to Earth, he took a trunk of books with him.

“The idea that he sits down and reads every book cover to cover, I don’t think that’s what he does. I think he’s more interested in ideas – and what he’s really interested in is how he can rework those ideas. He is the ultimate postmodernist, sampling stuff even before postmodernism arrived. I don’t think it’s a direct connection to him. It’s much more complicated.”

インデペンデントの記事でも100冊のリストがありますが、下記リンク先は年代順に本が並んでいるので分かりやすいです。

SPECIAL FEATURE: HOW TO READ LIKE BOWIE - DAVID BOWIE'S TOP 100 BOOKS
Submitted by Grace on September 26, 2013 - 12:36pm

画家フランシスベーコンのインタビューや『怒り新党』でやっていたジョンケージの本などは、さすがアーティストだなとおもいますが、ジョージスタイナーのような文芸評論家も読んでいるんですね。

Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 1980
Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage, 1961

In Bluebeard’s Castle : Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner, 1971

古典にあたるのが、ダンテの神曲とホメロスぐらいだったのが気になりますが、日本人の本としては三島由紀夫の『午後の曳航』が一冊選ばれていました。

Inferno, from the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, about 1308-1321
The Iliad, Homer, about 800 BC

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963


どこかの時点で何でもいいから読むくせをつけないと、まったく本を読めない人になってしまいます。それはほとんどの英語教師を見ればわかるでしょう。無理してでも読むようにしないと、口では本物の素材といいながら、本物の素材を読む実力が備わっていない痛い人たちになってしまうので、たくさんの良作に触れるようにしたいです。
 

新潮クレスト・ブックス 15周年フェア

 
文学ネタで思い出したので記事にします。新潮クレスト・ブックス 15周年フェアとして小冊子『物語の生まれる場所』を下記リンク先の本屋で入手できます。

新潮クレスト・ブックス 15周年フェア 開催店
開催日程は書店によって異なる場合がありますのでご注意ください。
開催店舗にて創刊15周年記念ブックレット無料贈呈中。
数に限りがございますのであらかじめご了承ください。

このシリーズでアリスマンローの本も何冊か出しており、新作のディアライフも翻訳中のため、小冊子には訳者の小竹由美子さんが作品について語っている1ページの記事があります。下記のNHKの記事にもありますが、今作で引退のようですね。

ノーベル文学賞にカナダのA・マンロー氏
10月10日 22時1分

翻訳家「広く読まれてほしい」
ノーベル文学賞を受賞したカナダの小説家、アリス・マンローさんの作品は、日常生活を舞台にした短編小説が高く評価され、これまでに「林檎の木の下で」や「イラクサ」などが、日本語に翻訳されています。
マンローさんの小説を翻訳してきた香川県の翻訳家、小竹由美子さん(59)は、マンローさんの受賞について、「とてもうれしく思います。
彼女の作品はカナダのローカルな社会を舞台にして、その土地に根ざしながら、人間の心を描き、高い普遍性を持っています。
地味ではありますが、普通の人の、日常生活の中からドラマをすくい取って、文学に昇華するところがとても魅力的だと思います。
現代を生きる女性を取り巻く社会の変化が巧みに描かれていて、受賞を機会に広く読まれてほしい作家です」と話していました。
アリス・マンローさんは、ことしの夏、執筆活動からの引退を宣言していますが、最後の短編小説集となる「ディア・ライフ」は、日本でもことし12月に小竹さんの翻訳で刊行されるということです。
 

この小冊子はジュノディアスやジュンパラヒリのインタビューも載っていて、無料ですからオススメです。
ていうか、無料の販促用の冊子ならpdfにしてサイトで配布してもいいと思うんですが、新潮社はKindleでも売り出していないし、対応策として遅れ過ぎですよね。

「クレスト・ブックス」 15周年記念の小冊子
海外文学しなやかに
 海外の現代文学をしなやかに紹介する「新潮クレスト・ブックス」が、創刊15周年を迎えた。シリーズ創設時の編集長だった作家の松家仁之編の短編アンソロジー『美しい子ども』や記念の小冊子が出版された。
 同シリーズは1998年以来、ドイツの作家、ベルンハルト・シュリンクの『朗読者』をはじめ、102作を刊行する。
 『美しい子ども』は、この5年間に出版された本から12編を選んだ。世界文学の幅広さを感じさせる。詩を愛する一見、穏やかな老齢の教師が出てくるロシアのリュドミラ・ウリツカヤ「自然現象」には、社会体制の変化といった問題がすけて見える。戦争など歴史の傷を背景に置く作品もある。
 一方で、インド系のジュンパ・ラヒリ、生後3か月のとき、両親と南ベトナムから「ボートピープル」となり豪州に移住したナム・リーなど、新しいタイプの英語圏の書き手も目立つ。
 一昨年に訳された『オスカー・ワオの短く凄まじい人生』に続き、今回同時に刊行された短編集『こうしてお前は彼女にフラれる』の著者ジュノ・ディアスもドミニカ共和国にルーツを持ち、米国に住む。浮気を繰り返すドミニカ男を主人公に、かつて独裁が行われた国の社会と彼個人の内面の破綻を重ねたような書き方が心に強く残る。
 

納得の選出

 


This is one of those years where no one can complain about the Nobel Committee’s choice. I’m so incredibly happy that she won.とJeffrey Eugenidesが語っているように今回の選出は異論がほとんどないようですね。

選出についてのいろいろなメディアの記事はこのサイトがまとまっています。

ワシントンポストにあったJeffrey EugenidesとJonathan Franzenの祝福コメントです。

Reactions to Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize
By Style staff, Published: October 11

Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of “The Virgin Suicides,” “Middlesex” and “The Marriage Plot” Jeffrey Eugenides:
People talk about Munro being a “master of the short-story form.’’ But she didn’t master the form so much as re-create it. Her traditional-seeming stories are anything but. She’ll shift multiple points of view or time schemes — hair-raisingly complicated stuff — not to show off formally but to find a means of packing her stories with maximum density. She’s the most savage writer I’ve ever read, also the most tender, the most honest, the most perceptive. This is one of those years where no one can complain about the Nobel Committee’s choice. I’m so incredibly happy that she won.

Author of “The Corrections” and National Book Award-winner Jonathan Franzen in 2005:
“Reading Munro puts me in that state of quiet reflection in which I think about my own life: about the decisions I’ve made, the things I’ve done and haven’t done, the kind of person I am, the prospect of death. She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion.”

アリスムンローが受賞するということはMargaret Atwoodの受賞がなくなってしまったことになります。個人的には残念ですが、Atwood自身はムンローの受賞を喜んでいるようです。

Margaret Atwood: Alice Munro's road to Nobel literature prize was not easy
Initially regarded as a housewife whose writing was domestic and boring, elusive perfection drove Canadian to literary stardom
The Guardian, Thursday 10 October 2013

The road to the Nobel wasn't an easy one for Munro: the odds that a literary star would emerge from her time and place would once have been zero. She was born in 1931, and thus experienced the Depression as a child and the second world war as a teenager. This was in south-western Ontario, a region that also produced Robertson Davies, Graeme Gibson, James Reaney, and Marian Engel, to name several.

It's this small-town setting that features most often in her stories – the busybodies, the snobberies, the eccentrics, the cutting of swelled heads down to size, and the jeering at ambitions, especially artistic ones.

The pressure of cramped conditions may create the determination to break free, to gain some sort of mastery; but if you try this, you'd better do it well. Otherwise those who have laughed at you will laugh even harder, since an ice dancer who tries a triple axel and falls on her behind is hilarious.

アリスムンローの短編集は数冊読みましたが、正直彼女の凄さは分かっていません(汗)ちょうどフランスのマガジンリテレーが2013年版の世界の作家10人を取り上げていましたが、その中にアリスムンローも選ばれていました。

10 GRANDES VOIX DE LA LITTÉRATURE
John Irving
Laura Kasischke
Zadie Smith
Orhan Pamuk
Mo Yan
Arnaldur Indridason
Lídia Jorge
Richard Powers
Alice Munro
Enrique Vila-Matas

渡辺由佳里さんの洋書ベスト500にはアリスムンローはもちろん選ばれていますが、上に入っているZadie SmithやRichard Powersは入っていないんですよね。ちなみに2012年には村上春樹も選ばれています

Italie - Milena Agus : La sorcière bien aimée

États-Unis - Russell Banks : Ainsi parlent les parias de l’Amérique

Afrique du Sud - John Maxwell Coetzee : Ni noir, ni blanc

Autriche - Peter Handke : parfaite énigme

Russie - Édouard Limonov : Aventureux à l’extrême

Japon - Haruki Murakami : L’athlète de l’entre-deux

États-Unis - Joyce Carol Oates : La noirceur est son métier

Espagne - Jorge Semprún : Aux lumières de la mémoire

Italie - Antonio Tabucchi : Les livres de l’intranquillité

Pérou - Mario Vargas Llosa : Le maître contour


Dear LifeDear Life
(2013/10/03)
Alice Munro

商品詳細を見る

ミーハー丸出しですが、彼女の新作Dear Lifeを読んでみようと思います。
 

(続)世代のギャップを取り上げる映画

 


ロバートレッドフォードのインタビューではI was probably empathetic because I believed it was time for a change.と当時の運動に対する共感を明言しています。

トランスクリプト
STEPHANOPOULOS: And we are joined now by Robert Redford. Thank you so much for coming in. My wife and I watched the movie over the weekend. Completely engrossing. And it seems to me at least, that you packed a lot of your passions into a single movie. Political commitment, love and family life, journalism, I just wondered where did the spark come from on this one?
ROBERT REDFORD: Well, first of all, that's a great description. You ought to get on the marketing team. When I was younger, I was very much aware of the movement. I was more than sympathetic, I was probably empathetic because I believed it was time for a change. Whether that change was a revolution or not, I don't know. But I was very much for what was going on.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even when you read about bombings?
REDFORD: All of it. I knew that it was extreme and I guess movements have to be extreme to some degree. Years later I thought this is an interesting story but we're too close to it and I thought, when this gets-- when we get some distance from this so that we can look back on it as a piece of American history then I might be interested and now that's the time. So that's why I decided to make it now.

下記のスーザンサランドンの場面にぐっとくるものがある人はこの映画を楽しめるのではないかと思います。



Hello.
- Wow, you're much younger than I thought you'd be.

Well, that's always nice to hear.

I didn't mean it as a compliment.

Well... still, thank you.
- You did me a favor when you wrote that article.

I wouldn't mistake it for sympathy.

No... just clarity.

Yeah... clarity.
So, let's talk clarity.

Okay.

You were on your way to
New York to turn yourself in?

How does Billy Cusimano fit in?
- Billy's my friend, and he did nothing but encourage me to...

turn myself in if I thought that
that would bring me peace.

Mmm... you know his phone was tapped?
- Yeah. They got lucky.

And you got unlucky.
- Yeah.

Why now, after thirty years?

You don't have kids, do you?
- No, I... I barely have furniture.

Well, if you do, you
realize that they change you.

I have two, a boy and a girl...
- Mm-hmm.

and I waited until I thought they were
old enough to be able to handle it,

but still young enough that... I can...

So was it a crisis of conscience?

Hmm?

Remorse for past transgressions
that became intolerable?

The past thirty years in a sentence! Ha.

Wow, it must be nice to see
the world so cleanly.

Didn't you once?

Most of us led very sheltered lives,
we had no real relationship with violence.

But at that time, all these...
kids were... taking to the streets

in, uh, Japan, and France, China, Angola,

There was revolution, and I
wanted to be part of it.

Sure! Sounds groovy.

You think we were all just a...
bunch of doped up hippies running around.

It was hardly groovy,

our government was murdering millions,
and we could see...

horrifying images, on the news... magazines,

My Lai, Selma...

made us crazy, we didn't know what to do, we...

we, uh, protested, we sat in, we got our sculls cracked

and the war just kept escalating.

And then there was Kent State, and Jackson State, and...

kids our age... were being murdered
by our government... on campuses.

It's not our finest hour.
- It wasn't abstract, there was a draft.

You would've gotten a number, and then...
all you could do is just wait.

And everybody knew somebody that was going over,
or somebody who was not coming back.

You never get over that.
- Apparently not.

It sounds to me like justification,

I find it hard to believe that the only
option available to you at the time was violence.

Well, we thought that sitting at home while your government
committed genocide and doing nothing about it, that that was violence.

What about you?

What are you willing to take a risk for?

I don't know. I know that I wouldn't
blow up a building. I wouldn't kill anybody for anything.

Yeah, well... dissent can be dicey.

But you can't get to my age
without some regrets.

Would you do it again?

If... I didn't have kids,
and old parents that I love,

Yeah, I would do it again.

Smarter, better... different.

But I'd do it, yeah.

We made mistakes,
but we were right.

Hmm... and is Nick Sloan right?

He has a daughter much younger than yours,
that he abandoned in a hotel room.

People do what they have to do.
- Well, what are you doing then, here

with me? I mean, you...
you had a choice in all this after all.

Well, look at me. It doesn't matter what I say, unless...
I say it to somebody who's interested in the truth.

And it seems, as if you're interested in the truth.
Most people aren't.

What are you gonna do?
- My job.

Good.

And what do you think Jim... Nick...
what do you think he's doing now?

Maybe you should figure that out.
- Hmm.

Look, if my coming here in
any way was responsible for...

him being found out, well that
was not my intention, and he knows that.

We never betrayed each other,
not once, any of us, over all these years,

and I'm not about to start now.

What about Mimi Lurie?

Is she out there living a good, clean, productive life?
- Anything's possible.

Mimi and Nick...

were different.

Radicals? Yes.
But also lovers.

Did you ...
- Time's up, sir.

Thank you for talking to me.
- Thank you for listening.
プロフィール

Yuta

Author:Yuta
FC2ブログへようこそ!




最新トラックバック

月別アーカイブ


FC2カウンター

検索フォーム



ブロとも申請フォーム

QRコード
QR