2024年4月12日发(作者：瞿巧兰)
I hate to tell you this, but your best friend has a dark secret in his past, the kind of
shameful history that might just have you looking at him (or her?) a little
sheepishly, with a furtive, sidelong glance instead of the former adoring gaze.
我讨厌跟你说这件事，但是你最好的朋友在他的过去有一个阴暗的秘密，这种可耻的历史可
能会让你用羞怯地，用一种鬼鬼祟祟的眼光而不是从前的崇拜的眼光。
I speak not of a human being, mind you, the walking and talking kind of best
friend, but of your cherished electronic companion, that stylish helpmate, warm
intimate and source of delightful entertainment known as an iPhone. As I look at
mine this morning, I can‟t help feeling a bit guilty, and a bit betrayed. I fear some
of the magic has gone out of our relationship.
提醒你，我说的不是一个人——走路说话时最好的朋友，而是你的珍贵的电子产品朋友——
时髦的助手，热情的至交，快乐的娱乐的来源，就像iPhone。当我早上看到我的电子产品朋
友时，我会情不自禁地感到一些内疚感和背叛感。我害怕这些具有魔力的东西会把我们的关
系泄露出去。
This seismic shift in my consciousness came about thanks to Mike Daisey, whose
latest theatrical monologue, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” is a
mind-clouding, eye-opening exploration of the moral choices we unknowingly or
unthinkingly make when we purchase nifty little gadgets like the iPhone and the
iPad and the PowerBook.
我意识里的重大改变产生了我对Mike Daisey的感谢，他最近的戏剧独白，“乔布
斯的痛苦与快乐，”是一种当我们购买像iPhone、iPad和PowerBook这样的俏皮
的小配件时，我们不知不觉地、不假思索地做出的道德上的选择，对这种道德选择
做出的思维不清晰，眼光开放的探索。
To be fair, while Mr. Daisey‟s particular obsession is the product line of the Apple
corporation, the ethical problems he explores are not exclusive to owners of
MacBooks and iPods. As he points out in this meditation on our wonderful world
of technology and the troubling economic imbalances that underlie it, any
number of other electronic gizmos filling up our homes and taking up our time
are similarly morally tainted goods.
公平的说，当Daisey先生特别的痴迷着苹果公司的产品线时，他探索的道德问题不
是特别针对着MacBooks和iPods的拥有者。他指出他困扰着我们这个美妙的世界
充满了科技和麻烦的经济不平衡，填满了我们家庭、占据着我们的市价的许多数量
的小玩意都是相似的道德上有污染的商品。
About half of all consumer electronics sold in the world today are produced at a
single mammoth factory campus in Shenzhen, China, according to Mr. Daisey.
His illuminating trip to this campus, the sprawling Foxconn Technology plant,
forms the dramatic spine of his smart, pointed and often very funny exploration
of the rise of Apple and the career and vision of Mr. Jobs, who died this month
after a long battle with cancer.
根据Daisey先生，这种在全世界各地被销售的消费类电子产品大约有一半是在中国
深证的一个庞大工厂生产的。他去富士康科技园工厂的启蒙式的旅行，形成了他智
慧的脊椎和对崛起的苹果事业以及对一个月钱死于癌症的乔布斯视野的非常有趣的
思索。
Mr. Daisey has been creating monologues on various subjects — “How Theater
Failed America“ and “21 Dog Years” are among his best-known — for more than a
decade. His methods are simple. Here he sits, behind a glass-topped table with
just a few pages of notes and a glass of water before him, looking like a big boy
who never lost all his baby fat. (Or maybe any of it.) His performance style mixes
the quiet reflectiveness of Spalding Gray with more histrionic colorings.
In relating his giddy relationship with his Apple products, and impersonating
fellow obsessives, Mr. Daisey transforms into a cackling mad scientist of creaky
thrillers, and at his most fervid he recalls the jabbering, slightly unhinged aspect
of the comic Lewis Black of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” When it comes to
discussing the sobering discoveries he made at Foxconn, which employs some
430,000 people in its compound in Shenzhen, Mr. Daisey speaks more gravely
and with a charged intensity.
“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” which opened on Monday night at the
Public Theater in a production directed by Mr. Daisey‟s frequent collaborator
(and wife) Jean-Michele Gregory, is pretty equally divided between the two
heated emotional states of the title. Most of the ecstasy derives from Mr. Daisey‟s
misty-eyed recounting of his own highly charged relationship with Apple
products, which dates back to an early model of an Apple computer that was
given to the family by a wealthy uncle, and that was treated with such deference
and awe that it was provided its own room.
For Mr. Daisey, as for many others, affection for Apple products evolved into
reverence for Mr. Jobs, the Apple co-founder whose identification with the
company and its products has been much remarked upon, and worried over, since
his illness made news several years ago.
Mr. Daisey has been performing this show since July of last year, and while the
death of Mr. Jobs lends the evening a certain eerie timeliness, it also means that
many in the audience will be familiar with the life and career of Mr. Jobs from
reading obituaries and tributes.
The hippie-meets-tech-geek ethos, the founding of and then ouster from Apple,
the triumphant return and the revolutionary series of consumer products that
followed: Mr. Daisey covers this material fluently and with amiable humor,
mixing obvious hero worship with some pointed skepticism. (Mr. Jobs, he notes,
was the kind of imperious guy who divided the world‟s population into “geniuses
and bozos.”)
But the show is most engrossing, and most disturbing, when Mr. Daisey delves
into the grim realities of workers‟ lives in Shenzhen, a city that he memorably
describes as looking as if “ „Blade Runner‟ threw up on itself.” Here is where the
agony of the title enters the picture.
The Foxconn campus is tightly controlled, its entrance secured by gun-wielding
guards. A series of suicides at the plant several years ago made international
headlines. When Mr. Daisey‟s attempts to visit through official channels were
rebuffed, he simply rented a car and a driver and translator, and showed up at the
gates to interview workers as they emerged from their shifts.
He had to wait quite a while. As he notes, while the official Chinese workday is 8
hours, the norm at Foxconn is more like 12 and even longer when the
introduction of a product is at hand. One worker died after a 34-hour shift. Some
of the workers he meets are as young as 13, and because of the repetitive nature of
the labor, their hands often become deformed and useless within a decade,
rendering them unemployable.
Mr. Daisey does not go all “j‟accuse” on Mr. Jobs himself, but he does observe
that Apple and other American corporations have been shamefully lax in taking
responsibility for the treatment of workers at the overseas plants that
manufacture their products. (He does not refer to an investigation Apple made
into worker conditions at Foxconn this year.)
But of course the responsibility shouldn‟t stop there. The conveniences and
pleasures that all these gadgets have brought to our lives have been purchased at
the cost of considerable human suffering, of which we remain willfully ignorant or
simply choose to ignore.
Mr. Daisey pushes the notes of quiet outrage and guilt-mongering perhaps a little
too hard in the show‟s culminating moments, although he avoids full diatribe
mode. But he doesn‟t really need to bang the drum so hard; he has made his
points clearly and powerfully already. Anyone who sees Mr. Daisey‟s show — and
anyone with a cellphone and a moral center should — will find it hard to forget
the repercussions that our casual purchases can have in the lives of men and
women (and children) half a world away.
Uncomfortable reflections along these lines have certainly been springing into my
consciousness a lot since I saw it, like psychic pop-up ads that just won‟t go away.
I can‟t seem to find a little box that says “Skip this thought.”
2024年4月12日发(作者：瞿巧兰)
I hate to tell you this, but your best friend has a dark secret in his past, the kind of
shameful history that might just have you looking at him (or her?) a little
sheepishly, with a furtive, sidelong glance instead of the former adoring gaze.
我讨厌跟你说这件事，但是你最好的朋友在他的过去有一个阴暗的秘密，这种可耻的历史可
能会让你用羞怯地，用一种鬼鬼祟祟的眼光而不是从前的崇拜的眼光。
I speak not of a human being, mind you, the walking and talking kind of best
friend, but of your cherished electronic companion, that stylish helpmate, warm
intimate and source of delightful entertainment known as an iPhone. As I look at
mine this morning, I can‟t help feeling a bit guilty, and a bit betrayed. I fear some
of the magic has gone out of our relationship.
提醒你，我说的不是一个人——走路说话时最好的朋友，而是你的珍贵的电子产品朋友——
时髦的助手，热情的至交，快乐的娱乐的来源，就像iPhone。当我早上看到我的电子产品朋
友时，我会情不自禁地感到一些内疚感和背叛感。我害怕这些具有魔力的东西会把我们的关
系泄露出去。
This seismic shift in my consciousness came about thanks to Mike Daisey, whose
latest theatrical monologue, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” is a
mind-clouding, eye-opening exploration of the moral choices we unknowingly or
unthinkingly make when we purchase nifty little gadgets like the iPhone and the
iPad and the PowerBook.
我意识里的重大改变产生了我对Mike Daisey的感谢，他最近的戏剧独白，“乔布
斯的痛苦与快乐，”是一种当我们购买像iPhone、iPad和PowerBook这样的俏皮
的小配件时，我们不知不觉地、不假思索地做出的道德上的选择，对这种道德选择
做出的思维不清晰，眼光开放的探索。
To be fair, while Mr. Daisey‟s particular obsession is the product line of the Apple
corporation, the ethical problems he explores are not exclusive to owners of
MacBooks and iPods. As he points out in this meditation on our wonderful world
of technology and the troubling economic imbalances that underlie it, any
number of other electronic gizmos filling up our homes and taking up our time
are similarly morally tainted goods.
公平的说，当Daisey先生特别的痴迷着苹果公司的产品线时，他探索的道德问题不
是特别针对着MacBooks和iPods的拥有者。他指出他困扰着我们这个美妙的世界
充满了科技和麻烦的经济不平衡，填满了我们家庭、占据着我们的市价的许多数量
的小玩意都是相似的道德上有污染的商品。
About half of all consumer electronics sold in the world today are produced at a
single mammoth factory campus in Shenzhen, China, according to Mr. Daisey.
His illuminating trip to this campus, the sprawling Foxconn Technology plant,
forms the dramatic spine of his smart, pointed and often very funny exploration
of the rise of Apple and the career and vision of Mr. Jobs, who died this month
after a long battle with cancer.
根据Daisey先生，这种在全世界各地被销售的消费类电子产品大约有一半是在中国
深证的一个庞大工厂生产的。他去富士康科技园工厂的启蒙式的旅行，形成了他智
慧的脊椎和对崛起的苹果事业以及对一个月钱死于癌症的乔布斯视野的非常有趣的
思索。
Mr. Daisey has been creating monologues on various subjects — “How Theater
Failed America“ and “21 Dog Years” are among his best-known — for more than a
decade. His methods are simple. Here he sits, behind a glass-topped table with
just a few pages of notes and a glass of water before him, looking like a big boy
who never lost all his baby fat. (Or maybe any of it.) His performance style mixes
the quiet reflectiveness of Spalding Gray with more histrionic colorings.
In relating his giddy relationship with his Apple products, and impersonating
fellow obsessives, Mr. Daisey transforms into a cackling mad scientist of creaky
thrillers, and at his most fervid he recalls the jabbering, slightly unhinged aspect
of the comic Lewis Black of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” When it comes to
discussing the sobering discoveries he made at Foxconn, which employs some
430,000 people in its compound in Shenzhen, Mr. Daisey speaks more gravely
and with a charged intensity.
“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” which opened on Monday night at the
Public Theater in a production directed by Mr. Daisey‟s frequent collaborator
(and wife) Jean-Michele Gregory, is pretty equally divided between the two
heated emotional states of the title. Most of the ecstasy derives from Mr. Daisey‟s
misty-eyed recounting of his own highly charged relationship with Apple
products, which dates back to an early model of an Apple computer that was
given to the family by a wealthy uncle, and that was treated with such deference
and awe that it was provided its own room.
For Mr. Daisey, as for many others, affection for Apple products evolved into
reverence for Mr. Jobs, the Apple co-founder whose identification with the
company and its products has been much remarked upon, and worried over, since
his illness made news several years ago.
Mr. Daisey has been performing this show since July of last year, and while the
death of Mr. Jobs lends the evening a certain eerie timeliness, it also means that
many in the audience will be familiar with the life and career of Mr. Jobs from
reading obituaries and tributes.
The hippie-meets-tech-geek ethos, the founding of and then ouster from Apple,
the triumphant return and the revolutionary series of consumer products that
followed: Mr. Daisey covers this material fluently and with amiable humor,
mixing obvious hero worship with some pointed skepticism. (Mr. Jobs, he notes,
was the kind of imperious guy who divided the world‟s population into “geniuses
and bozos.”)
But the show is most engrossing, and most disturbing, when Mr. Daisey delves
into the grim realities of workers‟ lives in Shenzhen, a city that he memorably
describes as looking as if “ „Blade Runner‟ threw up on itself.” Here is where the
agony of the title enters the picture.
The Foxconn campus is tightly controlled, its entrance secured by gun-wielding
guards. A series of suicides at the plant several years ago made international
headlines. When Mr. Daisey‟s attempts to visit through official channels were
rebuffed, he simply rented a car and a driver and translator, and showed up at the
gates to interview workers as they emerged from their shifts.
He had to wait quite a while. As he notes, while the official Chinese workday is 8
hours, the norm at Foxconn is more like 12 and even longer when the
introduction of a product is at hand. One worker died after a 34-hour shift. Some
of the workers he meets are as young as 13, and because of the repetitive nature of
the labor, their hands often become deformed and useless within a decade,
rendering them unemployable.
Mr. Daisey does not go all “j‟accuse” on Mr. Jobs himself, but he does observe
that Apple and other American corporations have been shamefully lax in taking
responsibility for the treatment of workers at the overseas plants that
manufacture their products. (He does not refer to an investigation Apple made
into worker conditions at Foxconn this year.)
But of course the responsibility shouldn‟t stop there. The conveniences and
pleasures that all these gadgets have brought to our lives have been purchased at
the cost of considerable human suffering, of which we remain willfully ignorant or
simply choose to ignore.
Mr. Daisey pushes the notes of quiet outrage and guilt-mongering perhaps a little
too hard in the show‟s culminating moments, although he avoids full diatribe
mode. But he doesn‟t really need to bang the drum so hard; he has made his
points clearly and powerfully already. Anyone who sees Mr. Daisey‟s show — and
anyone with a cellphone and a moral center should — will find it hard to forget
the repercussions that our casual purchases can have in the lives of men and
women (and children) half a world away.
Uncomfortable reflections along these lines have certainly been springing into my
consciousness a lot since I saw it, like psychic pop-up ads that just won‟t go away.
I can‟t seem to find a little box that says “Skip this thought.”