It is possible in twenty other American cities to visit first-rate art museums, to hear good music and see lively experimental theater,to meet intelligent and sophisticated people who know how to live, dine, and talk well; and to enjoy all this in congenial and spacious surroundings.The New Yorkers still wouldn’t want to live there.its bracing competitiveness; the rigor of its judgments; and the congested, democratic presence of so many other New Yorkers, encased in their own worlds, the defeated are not hidden away somewhere else on the wrong side of town.In the subways, in the buses, in the streets, it is impossible to avoid people whose lives are harder than yours.With the desperate, the ill, the fatigued, the overwhelmed, one learns not to strike up conversation (which isn’t wanted ) but to make brief, sympathetic eye contact, to include them in the human race.It isn’t much, but it is the fleeting hospitality of New Yorkers, each jealous of his privacy in the crowd.Ever helpfulness is often delivered as a taunt: a man, rushing the traffic light, shouts the man behind him.
人们有可能在二十个其他的美国城市里参观到第一流的艺术博物馆，听到美妙的音乐，看到生动活泼的实验戏剧，遇到懂得怎样生活、吃饭和谈话，而且是在舒适宽敞的环境中去享受这一切聪明而又世故的人物。然而，纽约人还是不愿意居住在那里。他所恋恋不舍的正是纽约的那些在许多外地人看来难以忍受、令人讨厌的地方…它的粗俗、紧张、急迫感，它那剑拔弩张的竞争，它那严厉苛刻的评判，以及那么多封闭在各自的小圈子里、不分尊卑贵贱地挤作一团的纽约人。那些在竞争中吃了败仗的人并非躲在城里某个看不见的地方。在地铁里，在公共汽车上，在大街上，到处都会不可避免地遇见一些生活过得比你艰难的人。对于那些悲观绝望、疾病缠身、精疲力竭、不知所措的人，最好不要与之交谈(他们并不希望交谈).只需用同情的目光稍稍接触一下，表示把他们视同人类就行了。这虽没什么了不起，但对于最忌在大庭广众之中暴露隐私的纽约人来说，这就是他们那种一闪即逝的友好表示。即使是一种帮助，纽约人往往也要用嘲骂来表示：一个人闯红灯，冲到一辆开过来的汽车前，他身后的那个人便会大声喊叫：
暂无注释
