雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(9)

It is only the shallowest mind that can suppose that all the advance of discovery brings us appreciably nearer to the solution of the riddles of the universe which have haunted man from the beginning …

只有最膚淺的腦子，纔會認爲那些新發現是先進的，認爲我們離解開宇宙奧妙更進了一步……

Such was the miniature, fossilised Britain, where masters and servants still knew their places, and where the miners were disloyal to their school. And while the boys were playing at being servants, loading the milk churns on to the trains until the strike was broken by the masters of their country, the shallow mind of Alan Turing had arrived in their midst. It was a mind that had no interest in the problems of would-be landowners, empire-builders, or administrators of the white man's burden; they belonged to a system that had no interest in him.

這就是一個小型的頑固的英國，在這裏，老大和小弟分得很清楚。在學校外面，男孩們充當小弟，把牛奶桶裝到火車上，直到國家的老大們結束罷工。艾倫也在做這些事，但他的膚淺的腦子，對貴族、帝國建造者和白人政客面對的困難完全不關心，他對這套體制毫無興趣。

The word 'system', indeed, was one which was a constant refrain, and the system operated almost independently of individual personalities. Westcott House, which Alan joined, had taken its first boarders only in 1920, and yet already existed as though the traditional prefects and 'fags' and beatings in the washroom were laws of nature. This was true even though the housemaster, Geoffrey O'Hanlon, had a mind of his own. Then a bachelor in his forties, and nicknamed (rather snobbishly) Teacher, he had extended the original house building with his own private fortune derived from Lancashire cotton. He personally did not believe in moulding the boys to a common form, and failed to instil the religion of 'footer' with quite the enthusiasm of the other housemasters. His house enjoyed in consequence a dim reputation for 'slackness'. He encouraged music and art, disliked bullying, and stopped the song-singing initiation soon after Alan arrived. A Catholic classicist, he was the nearest thing to a liberal government in the 'nation in miniature'. Yet the system prevailed, in all but details. One could conform, rebel, or withdraw – and Alan withdrew.

體制，這是一個經常被提到的詞，但體制的運轉，幾乎是與個體無關的，它會無情地抹殺掉每個人的個性。艾倫所在的西科特學院，從1920年纔開始接收寄宿生，但現在卻已經形成了監督生，小弟，廁所裏的狠打，和弱肉強食的自然法則。雖然院長喬弗雷.奧漢蘭不願承認，但這確實是事實。這個40歲的單身男人，靠着蘭卡棉花賺來的私人財產，擴建了學院的房子。他不想把男孩們培養成流水線產品，也不像其他院長那麼積極地給男孩們灌輸信仰，他的學院也因此被冠上「散漫」的不良名聲。他鼓勵音樂和藝術，反對以強凌弱，在艾倫到來後不久，連唱歌儀式也取消了。作爲一個崇尚兼容幷包的古典主義者，他是這個小型國家裏，最接近自由政府的人。這套體制，如果不考慮細節的話，可以說已經成爲事實政體。你可以選擇遵守，反對或者退出――艾倫選擇了退出。