國家地理:難以適應的新常態(tài)(1)

The nomenclature was so strange at first, and then it was everywhere: in our stories, our questions, our arguments, our dreams. In California, where I live, I wake with a racing heart one morning because in the nightmare I was trying to buy cloth, for a mask, but the other shoppers wouldn't distance. How do they say it where you are? I type online to friends in other places, and the responses pile on. Distanciamento social, Brazil. Distanciation sociale, France. To meters avstand, Norway -- two meters distance.

這個術語一開始很怪，接著就無所不在了：在我們的報道、提問、論述以及夢里。在我居住的加州，一天早上我醒來時心臟跳得很快，因為做了個惡夢：我想買布來做口罩，但其他顧客不肯跟我保持距離。你們那里是怎么說的？我在網絡上問了其他地方的朋友，得到了一大堆回復。巴西是這么說的：Distanciamento social，法國是這么說的：Distanciation sociale。而挪威則是To meters avstand，也就是保持兩米的距離。

From Mexico City comes a picture of the new cartoon superhero, Susana Distancia, grinning from a sort of isolation bubble inside of which she holds both arms straight out to the sides, marking the no-approach zone. A Delhi friend passes on a comic's line about wanting to meet this famous new guy, Soshal Distan Singh. A friend in Boston insists the phrasing has been wrong from the start, that what the coronavirus began forcing upon the world isn't "social" distancing at all. Anybody fortunate enough to have access to a screen and an internet connection has rushed toward others, wildly, inventively, using live chat and video conferencing to talk, plan, teach, cook, drink, work, dance, sing, weep, exercise, pray, listen, mourn. This distancing is physical, my Boston friend observes. We can connect. We are connecting. We just can't... touch.

墨西哥城推出了一款新的超級英雄卡通形象--衛(wèi)生距離俠蘇珊娜，她在一個隔離泡泡中露齒而笑，并張開雙臂往兩側伸展，劃出禁止靠近的范圍。一位德里的朋友轉貼了一則滑稽推文，提到想見見一位名叫“Soshal Distan Singh”的新名人。一位波士頓的朋友則堅稱，這個詞從一開始就錯了，新型冠狀病毒開始強迫這個世界接受的根本不是保持“社交”距離。任何有幸能連上屏幕和網絡的人，早已用熱切和創(chuàng)意十足的方式奔向其他人，通過線上聊天和視頻會議來交談、計劃、教學、做菜、喝酒、工作、跳舞、唱歌、哭泣、運動、禱告、傾聽、哀悼。我們本來就可以聯(lián)系，也一直都在聯(lián)系。我們只是不能...接觸。