摘要：The real you is in there somewhere, but in disguise, peeping through your carapace like a warrior through his visor.
Back Story
幕后故事
What "Severance" gets right about work
关于工作，《人生切割术》说对了什么
The surreal show is TV's greatest drama of modern office life.
这部超现实的剧集是讲述现代办公室生活的最伟大电视剧。
Every morning you heave on your armour and steel yourself for the office.
每天清晨，你穿上盔甲，打起精神走进办公室。
The real you is in there somewhere, but in disguise, peeping through your carapace like a warrior through his visor.
真实的你藏在这里的某个地方，但身披伪装，你像战士透过面甲一样透过外壳窥视周遭。
In the evening you slip out of your workday persona, much as you part with your shadow at dusk.
傍晚下班时，你褪去工作日的面具，如同在黄昏时与自己的影子告别。
Or maybe it's the other way round.
也或许情况正好相反。
After all, the office is where you spend many of your waking hours; it may linger in your reveries after you clock off.
毕竟你的许多清醒时刻都是在办公室度过，就算打卡下班后，办公室生活也可能在你的脑海中挥之不去。
For some people it is less a trial than a refuge.
对某些人来说，办公室更像是庇护而非考验。
Who's to say whether the home or office version is the authentic you?
谁能说得清，家里的你还是办公室里的你才是真实的你呢？
The friction between domestic and professional life has powered many of the finest TV dramas.
家庭生活与职业生活之间的摩擦催生了许多最优秀的电视剧。
Tony Soprano throttles mobsters and wrangles teenagers.
《黑道家族》中的托尼·索普拉诺既会掐死黑帮分子，也会与青春期的孩子打嘴仗。
In "Mad Men" faithless Don Draper slinks back from Madison Avenue to his brooding wife.
在《广告狂人》中，不忠的唐·德雷珀从麦迪逊大道灰溜溜地回到沉思幽怨的妻子身边。
But the split-personality syndrome, common to wage-slaves everywhere, is depicted supremely in "Severance" (the finale of its second season airs on Apple TV+ on March 21st).
这种人格分裂综合症在各地的工薪社畜中都很常见，但在《人生切割术》中被刻画得入木三分（第二季最后一集将于3月21日在Apple TV+上播出）。
Its madcap genius is to turn this daily bifurcation into neurological reality.
这部剧有疯狂的天才创想，将这种日常的分裂转化为神经学上的现实。
For the uninitiated: employees on the "severed floor" of Lumon Industries, a cultish mega-corporation, have a chip implanted in their brains that cleaves their consciousness in two.
对没看过剧的读者一些背景提要：在卢蒙工业公司（一家很像邪教的大型企业）的“隔离楼层”工作的员工，他们的大脑中植入了一块芯片，将他们的意识一分为二。
Their "outies" have no knowledge of their stints at work, their "innies" no memory of their outside lives.
他们的“外人格”对工作期间的事情一无所知，他们的“内人格”对工作以外的生活也没有任何记忆。
In effect the innies never leave the office.
实际上，内人格从未离开过办公室。
The first season introduced Mark (played by Adam Scott), who chose to be severed after losing his wife.
第一季介绍了马克（亚当·斯科特饰），他在失去妻子后选择切割意识。
He and his colleagues in "Macrodata Refinement" (MDR) stage a rebellion against their spooky managers.
他和“宏观数据细化”部门的同事们对幽灵般的经理们进行了反抗。
Fans may have questioned how much further the show could push its zany premise.
粉丝们可能会有疑问，这部剧还能把它离奇的设定向前推多远。
Season two's answer is: mind-bendingly far.
第二季的答案是：令人难以想象的远。
Short-circuiting the severance process, some innies glimpse their outie selves, and judge them-as you might if you stumbled on your own life afresh.
有些内人格绕过了切割程序，瞥见了自己的外人格，并对其进行评判——如果你偶然重新审视自己的生活，可能也会这样评判自己。
They wonder why they were condemned to the limbo of the severed floor-just as everyone wonders, now and then, how they wound up where they have.
他们想知道为什么他们会被打入隔离楼层的地狱——就像每个人时不时都会想，他们是如何走到今天这步田地的。
Lumon's corporate lore grows ever more outlandish.
卢蒙的企业传说变得越来越离奇。
The external world, off-kilter in season one, turns downright dystopian.
在第一季就已经不正常的外部世界现在直接变成了反乌托邦。
Part of the show's triumph is the tension it generates amid the surrealism.
这部剧的部分成功之处在于，超现实主义制造了戏剧张力。
Viewers want to know what happened to Mark's wife, what Lumon truly does and why it keeps a herd of baby goats.
观众想知道马克的妻子发生了什么事，卢蒙公司真正在做什么，以及为什么卢蒙养了一群小山羊。
The cast, which includes Christopher Walken and Patricia Arquette, is terrific.
包括克里斯托弗·沃肯和帕特里夏·阿奎特的演员阵容也非常出色。
Above all, "Severance" shines in the distorted light it sheds on the quotidian drama of work.
最重要的闪光点是《人生切割术》将扭曲的光线投射到了日常工作故事上。
Take the psychogeography of the office.
以办公室的心理地理象征为例。
In some ways the Lumon workplace is deranged.
在某些方面，卢蒙的工作场地是精神错乱的。
The architecture is part Soviet monumentalism, part Silicon Valley hubris.
办公大楼部分是苏联式的纪念碑风格，部分是硅谷式的傲慢自大风格。
The delightfully retro stylings include antiquated computer terminals, blazing fluorescent lights and nightmarishly endless corridors.
美观宜人的复古装饰包括老式计算机显示器和键盘、炫目的日光灯、噩梦般没有尽头的走廊。
The severed floor has a "break room" where staff endure marathon re-education sessions.
隔离楼层有一个“休息室”，员工们在这里忍受马拉松式的再教育课程。
In the wellness centre they are soothed with upbeat snippets of their inscrutable outie lives: "Your outie is skilled at kissing…Your outie can parallel park in less than 20 seconds."
在健康中心，他们从外人格的不得而知、积极向上的生活片段中得到安慰：“你的外人格吻技很好……你的外人格不到20秒就能搞定平行停车。”
Yet the set-up is also uncannily familiar.
然而，剧里的场景设定也有一种诡异的熟悉感。
People linger in indecision at the vending machine.
人们在自动售货机前犹豫不决。
confidences are shared in the kitchenette or washrooms.
在茶水间或洗手间里分享秘密。
The elevator is a shuttle between worlds.
电梯是内外两个世界之间的穿梭机。
Likewise the corporate rituals are bizarre but recognisable-stilted parties, excruciating team-building events, measly perks and opaque quarterly targets.
同样，公司的固定仪式很奇怪，但又可以辨认——气氛生硬的聚会、痛苦的团建活动、微薄的津贴、不透明的季度目标。
Performance reviews can last six hours.
还有可能持续六个小时的绩效评估。
Meanwhile "Severance" captures the quirks of office relationships, all the rivalries, alliances, flirtations and suspicion of other departments: the MDR team are rumoured to carry their young in pouches like kangaroos.
与此同时，《人生切割术》捕捉到了办公室关系中的古怪之处，比如所有的竞争、联盟、调情和对其他部门的怀疑：有传言说，宏观数据细化团队像袋鼠一样把孩子放在育儿袋里。
In bleak circumstances, Mark and the others find friendship and a narrow but deep intimacy.
在阴郁的环境中，马克和其他人找到了友谊和一种狭隘但深厚的亲密关系。
The show conveys the awkwardness of running into a manager in down time, and the mini-bereavement of quittings and firings (since when a severed worker leaves, their innie expires).
这部剧传达了在休息时间偶遇经理的尴尬，以及辞职和被解雇时的小型哀悼（因为隔离层的员工离职时，他们的内人格就失效了）。
Naturally, this screwball, sci-fi satire omits some aspects of work today.
当然，这部怪诞的科幻讽刺作品忽略了当今时代工作的某些方面。
Lots of jobs are more rewarding than the drudgery of macrodata refinement.
许多工作都比宏观数据细化的苦差事更有回报。
Some bosses are actually nice.
有些老板实际上人很好。
"Severance" isn't very interested in salaries or money.
《人生切割术》对工资或金钱并不是很感兴趣。
And the pandemic chipped away at the innie/outie barrier; people eavesdropped on their spouses' Zoom calls and found they were living with a stranger.
而且疫情打破了内人格/外人格之间的界限，人们偷听配偶的Zoom视频通话，然后发现与自己朝夕生活的人忽然变得有些陌生。
Still, this is TV's most insightful commentary on the absurdities and consolations of office life.
尽管如此，下面这句台词仍是电视剧对办公室生活的荒谬和慰藉之处最犀利的评论。
"Work is just work," Mark says. "Right?"
“工作就只是工作，”马克说，“对吗？”
Wrong.
不对。
重点单词
1. back Story 幕后故事
2. heave on armour 穿上盔甲
3. peep through 窥视
4. slip out of 溜出
5. persona 面具人格，角色
6. part with 与…分开
7. linger 徘徊
8. refuge 避难所
9. friction 摩擦
10. split-personality syndrome 人格分裂症候群
11. wage-slaves 工薪社畜
12.second season 第二季
13.madcap 疯狂的
14. uninitiated 没有经验的，没有知识背景的
15.severed floor 隔离楼层
16.consciousness 意识
17.Macrodata Refinement 宏观数据细化
18.Spooky 幽灵般的
19.mind-bendingly 令人费解地
20.limbo 拘禁
21.now and then 有时
22.lore 传说
23.outlandish 古怪的
24.dystopian 反乌托邦
25.downright 彻底的
26.deranged 疯狂的
27.hubris 傲慢
28.antiquated 过时的，老式的
29.retro styling 复古风格
30.fluorescent 日光灯
31.session 研讨
32.break room 休息室
33.sb. be soothed with sth. 被安慰
34.upbeat 乐观的
35.snippet 片段
36.inscrutable 难以捉摸的
37.vending machine 自动售卖机
38.confidence 秘密
39.team-building events 团建活动
40.perk 额外津贴
41.performance reviews 绩效评估
42.quirk 奇怪
43.suspicion 怀疑
44.bleak circumstance 阴郁的环境
45.intimacy 亲密关系
46.in down time 在休息时
47.eavesdrop 窃听，偷听
48.consolation 安慰
来源：殊书观察记
