出名的代价之一 -- 强迫症

强迫症──焦虑不安、为死亡和年龄而心神不宁、异常敏感和固执己见──听起来是不是很耳熟呢？在健身房里大练块头、被外科医生缝缝补补、注射肉毒杆菌，当代的名人们似乎更像是劫后余生者，而非成功人士。
Doesn't the hypochondriac-anxious, death- and age-obsessed, hypersensitive and self-absorbed-sound suspiciously familiar? Pumped into lumpy strangeness at the gym, filleted and stitched by the surgeon, embalmed in Botox, our contemporary celebrities look more like survivors than people who are going places.
　　
在18世纪，强迫症几乎成为了时尚，而且被认为是过度奢华和舒适的一个表现。如今，我们似乎已经超越了过去那种把病态地自我关注说成是完美典范的强迫症文化。好莱坞一直以来都充斥着整过的牙齿、隆过的胸部、难辨真假的发际线和缩小的腰围。不过名望也越来越多地伴随着一种近乎崩溃的状态。
In the 18th century, hypochondria became almost fashionable, and was thought to be a symptom of excess luxury and ease. Today we appear to have excelled the hypochondriac cultures of the past by elevating the morbidly self-involved to the level of paragon. Hollywood has long been the land of fixed teeth and busts, blurred hairlines and effaced waistlines. But fame increasingly consists in a state of almost constant near-collapse.
　　
霍华德·休斯似乎为如今强迫症名人们的怪癖和遁世树立了标杆。休斯晚年阴郁的生活──他的独居、自我忽略，再加上他为抵御外部世界而精心安排的种种仪式──是对权力和名望可能付出的代价发出的一次似曾相识的警告。他的传记作家们猜测说，休斯的强迫症从孩童时代母亲对他的健康过份关注的时候就已经开始了。这个听起来有说服力、但无疑过于简单化的解释也被用在了格伦·古尔德的身上。这位钢琴家在音乐会舞台上各种古怪的行为──身穿大衣、戴着围巾演奏，在演奏巴赫乐曲的同时哼唱──也同样表现在他的个人生活里：他惧怕身体接触，还一直保持着详细记录他的（大部分是幻想的）各种病症的习惯。
Howard Hughes seems to have set the standard for today's hypochondriac celebrities' tics and reclusion. The grim scenography of Hughes's decline-his solitary, twilit self-neglect, combined with elaborate prophylactic rituals against the outside world-is a familiar warning about the potential price of power and fame. His biographers have conjectured that Hughes's hypochondria began in childhood, with his mother's excessive concern for his health. This tempting and no doubt simplistic explanation has been suggested too in the case of Glenn Gould. The pianist's manifold eccentricities on the concert stage-playing in coat and scarf, humming along to his own renditions of Bach-were matched in private by his horror of physical contact and habit of keeping a sedulous record of his (largely imaginary) symptoms.
　　
在古尔德和休斯身上，强迫症在很大程度上表现为让世界无法靠近自己。如今的名人们似乎是在向人们展现他们的恐惧和病症。当下强迫症文化的一位人所共知的先驱者要算安迪·沃霍尔。由于自己“糟糕身体”的病痛和缺陷，沃霍尔一生大部分时间里都生活在焦虑状态中。这位艺术家的日记里记录着一大堆令他无比困扰的事，其中包括粉刺、脱发、减重、长胖、衰老、癌症、艾滋病和脑瘤。
With Gould and Hughes, hypochondria was mostly a matter of keeping the world at bay. Today's celebrities seem to advertise their fears and symptoms. The most obvious precursor of our present hypochondriac culture was Andy Warhol, who lived most of his life in a state of anxiety regarding the ailments and imperfections of his 'bad body.' The artist's diaries record an array of obsessions, including acne, baldness, weight loss, weight gain, aging, cancer, AIDS and brain tumors.