2018-09-16 文章导读

China will struggle to produce another Jack Ma

马云退休啦，那么接下来国内还会出现马云一样的传奇人物吗？

But one question presents itself: could China produce another story to match his? The answer is almost certainly not.
但是一个问题出现了：中国会有另一个能与之相媲美的传奇吗？答案是基本不可能。

The reality was always more complicated, but Mr Ma embodies an idea of China as market-driven and open. That idea has faded.
实际情况往往更复杂，但是马云代表了国内市场驱动和开放的思想。这个想法在逐渐消退。

A manifesto for renewing liberalism

Revolutionaries insist that, to build a better world, you first have to smash the one in front of you.
革命者坚持破而后立。

John Steinbeck was a sadistic womaniser, says wife in memoir

John Steinbeck，62年诺贝尔得主（我刚查的orz），这篇文章介绍了他妻子眼中的他——虐待狂，傲慢而专横。

During their marriage, Conger Steinbeck described a husband who was emotionally distant and demanding. “Like so many writers, he had several lives, and in each he was spoilt, and in each he felt he was king,” she wrote. “From the time John awoke to the time he went to bed, I had to be his slave.”

Varieties of Ether

这篇文章好像主要想要介绍一下Pearl S. Buck遭到的嫉妒，但是这一部分内容好像不多。然后扯到了各种作家之间的过节……并且在思考艺术的性质。

When she was young, though, she grew disenchanted with her family’s calling, which presumed a condescending distance from the heathen masses. Instead, she sympathized with China’s everyday strivers.
但是在她小的的时候，她开始对自己家族的职业丧失兴趣——这个职业需要维持与群众保持居高临下的距离。相反的，她对中国日常的奋斗者充满了同情。

When we are young, we are taught that great art comes from lofty, ambitious places—the pursuit of truth, beauty, the sublime. Artists struggle with themselves on behalf of the rest of us, in the hope that they might produce something that reflects back a small part of our collective soul, a part that might awe or reshape us. All of this proceeds from long-held beliefs involving muses and divine inspiration, elevating art to some rarefied zone of human exchange. A good book or a painting, we are told, can improve our lives. But rap music taught me a different story about inspirations and motives. When someone undeserving is praised too loudly, this, too, abets creativity.
小时候，我们被教导好的艺术来自崇高的，有野心的地方——追求真理、美和高尚。艺术家代表我们所有人而奋斗，希望能够创造出可以反映我们共同灵魂的一小部分的事物——这一小部分可能会让我们敬畏，甚至能重塑我们。所有这一切都源于长期以来涉及缪斯和神圣的灵感的信仰，将艺术提升到曲高和寡的位置。我们被告知一本好的书或者一幅好的画可以提高我的的生活。但是说唱音乐告诉我关于激励和动机的不同一面。当一个不值得被表扬的人被称赞的时候，这也会激发创造力。

It stands to reason that artists who possess a sensitivity to human nature would themselves be hypersensitive people. And it makes sense that those with gifts for storytelling and narration are capable of shaping petty jealousy into something noble and epic.
按理说，对人性敏感的艺术家本身就是过度敏感的人。 那些有着讲故事和叙述天赋的人能够将小小的嫉妒塑造成高贵而史诗性的东西，这也是有意义的。