May 17th, 1957

Gellert,

盖勒特，

I'm afraid he's a little out of the infantile Dark Lord stage. We may be into skulking and temperamental early adolescence, a phase of Dark development I know well from my time with you. Unfortunately he has no friend to spend that troubled time with, and I have stretched this hapless metaphor to its snapping point.

我恐怕他已经脱离了黑魔王的初期阶段，我们大概正位于他躲躲闪闪又喜怒无常的早期青春期。通过我们的相处，这种情况我已经很清楚了。不过不幸的是，他没有什么朋友和他共度这个糟糕的阶段，而我已经把这个倒霉的比喻发挥到极致了。

As for the choice you mention—it weighs on me heavily, yes. My Pensieve has been invaluable. And—at times my heart proves difficult to untangle as well.

至于那个你提过的选择——没错，它重重压在我心头上。我的冥想盆是无价的。然而——有时，我也没办法解开我的心结。

One can think almost endlessly on that question, that of Muggles. Though they've answered some of your wonders themselves—the further you look into Muggle artistic criticism, the more you realize that there are valid criteria for judging creative output beyond its practical-magical usefulness. I'm enclosing a text that's been particularly helpful with that, if also dry. One thing I've found particularly difficult to realize, as a wizard, that to a Muggle a life of the mind does, in fact, entail losing any ability to affect reality directly. Yet, for that, it is often surprising how many of them choose such a life, and those who don't, who choose professions of battle and labor where they can change physical reality through their own natural means, are generally considered to be a second class. I'd heard it proposed that they're unconsciously mimicking wizarding society. I think perhaps the cause and effect there is off.

在那个关于麻瓜问题上，人们几乎可以无休止地思考下去。即使他们回答了一些你想知道的——对麻瓜的文化评论研究得越深入，你就越会意识到，评判一件造物的时候，除过具有魔力和实用性，其实还有很多合理的标准。我给你附上一些对这些特别有帮助的文稿，希望它没有被打湿。我发现身为巫师很难认识到的一点就是，麻瓜没有单依靠意识就能直接改变现实的能力。然而于此，常常令人惊讶的是，很多麻瓜都选择了过这种空想的生活。而除此之外的人，那些以劳动为业，通过原始手段来改造现实的人，地位却位于次等。我听说这是他们无意识去模仿魔法社会的行为，但我却并不是这么看的。

But, I beg your pardon, I ramble. This topic has been my pet hobby as of late. And, as you've pointed out, I have a Dark Lord to attend to.

抱歉，我扯得有些远了。这个话题是我最近的小爱好。还有，就像你说的，我还要当心一个黑魔王呢。

[enclosure: Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism]

[附：诺思洛普·弗莱，批评的剖析]

注：

1.《批评的剖析》提出原型批评的基础是神话理论，大概是映照前后文的芬兰史诗《卡萨瓦拉》（其中有神话色彩）的一个小细节。弗莱这本书厚得能把人砸死，我都担心猫头鹰飞一半体力不支然后掉下去了……

下一章是大工程，估计写完之后这俩又要开始冷战了……

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第17章 第十六只猫头鹰