One day in 1819,

チリ沖 から4,800km離れた

3,000 miles off the coast of Chile,

太平洋の ど真ん中で 20名のアメリカ人船員が

in one of the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean,

自分達の船が 沈むのを見ていました

20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater.

巨大なクジラに衝突して

They'd been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped

船体に大きな穴が開いたのです

a catastrophic hole in the ship's hull.

船が波間に飲まれる間

As their ship began to sink beneath the swells,

彼らは３隻の小さな捕鯨用ボートで 身を寄せ合っていました

the men huddled together in three small whaleboats.

故郷から 16,000km―

These men were 10,000 miles from home,

最も近い陸地でも 1,600km も離れています

more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land.

ボートの備品は

In their small boats, they carried only

ごく基本的な航海計器と

rudimentary navigational equipment

限られた食料と水だけでした

and limited supplies of food and water.

彼らは捕鯨船 エセックス号の乗組員です

These were the men of the whaleship Essex,

後に 『白鯨』 の モデルの一部になりました

whose story would later inspire parts of "Moby Dick."

現在だったとしても 深刻な状況ですから

Even in today's world, their situation would be really dire,

当時の過酷さがしのばれます

but think about how much worse it would have been then.

陸地では 事故のことなど 知る由もなく

No one on land had any idea that anything had gone wrong.

捜索隊が来るはずもない

No search party was coming to look for these men.

この船員達ほど―

So most of us have never experienced a situation

恐ろしい体験を する人は まれですが

as frightening as the one in which these sailors found themselves,

怖いという感情は 誰もが知っています

but we all know what it's like to be afraid.

ただ 感覚的には わかっていても

We know how fear feels,

恐怖の意味を きちんとは

but I'm not sure we spend enough time thinking about

考えてきませんでした

what our fears mean.

成長するにつれて 恐怖は 弱さの表れで―

As we grow up, we're often encouraged to think of fear

捨てるべき幼稚なものと 考えるようになります

as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard

乳歯やローラー・ スケートと同じように・・・

like baby teeth or roller skates.

でも私達が そう考えるのは 偶然ではありません

And I think it's no accident that we think this way.

神経科学は人間が本来

Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings

楽観的にできていることを 明らかにしています

are hard-wired to be optimists.

私達が恐怖を 危険なものと考えるのは

So maybe that's why we think of fear, sometimes,

そのせいかも知れません

as a danger in and of itself.

「心配ないよ」「慌てないで」と 人はよく言います

"Don't worry," we like to say to one another. "Don't panic."

私達にとって 恐怖は克服すべきもの―

In English, fear is something we conquer.

戦う相手であり 乗り越えるべき障害です

It's something we fight. It's something we overcome.

でも見方を変えると どうなるでしょう

But what if we looked at fear in a fresh way?

恐怖は 見事な 想像力の作用であり

What if we thought of fear as an amazing act of the imagination,

“物語” と同じくらい深遠で

something that can be as profound and insightful

洞察に満ちていると 考えてみてはどうでしょう？

as storytelling itself?

小さな子供の場合 恐怖と想像力の関係が

It's easiest to see this link between fear and the imagination

はっきりしています 恐怖がとても鮮明だからです

in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid.

私は 小さい頃 カリフォルニアにいました

When I was a child, I lived in California,

住むには いい所でしたが

which is, you know, mostly a very nice place to live,

子供の私には少し 怖いこともありました

but for me as a child, California could also be a little scary.

小さな地震が起きる度に 食卓の上のシャンデリアが

I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier

ゆらゆら揺れるのを見て

that hung above our dining table swing back and forth

怖かった事を覚えています

during every minor earthquake,

寝ている間に 大地震が来やしないかと

and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified

不安で眠れない こともありました

that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping.

私達はそんなささいなことを 恐れる子供を見て

And what we say about kids who have fears like that

想像力が たくましいと考えます

is that they have a vivid imagination.

でも いつしか私達は

But at a certain point, most of us learn

こうした想像力を忘れて 成長します

to leave these kinds of visions behind and grow up.

私達は ベッドの下に 怪物などいないことや

We learn that there are no monsters hiding under the bed,

地震で必ず家がつぶれる わけではないことを学びます

and not every earthquake brings buildings down.

一方 才能あふれる人々が 大人になっても

But maybe it's no coincidence that some of our most creative minds

恐怖を忘れないのは 偶然ではないかもしれません

fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults.

『種の起源』や 『ジェイン・エア』―

The same incredible imaginations that produced "The Origin of Species,"

『失われた時を求めて』を 生んだ想像力が

"Jane Eyre" and "The Remembrance of Things Past,"

同時に強い不安を生み 大人になったダーウィンや

also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives

シャーロット・ブロンテや プルーストを脅かしたのです

of Charles Darwin, Charlotte BrontĂŤ and Marcel Proust.

では 恐怖について 天才や子供達から

So the question is, what can the rest of us learn about fear

何を学べるでしょうか？

from visionaries and young children?

話を1819年に戻して

Well let's return to the year 1819 for a moment,

エセックス号の乗組員が 直面した状況を思い出してください

to the situation facing the crew of the whaleship Essex.

太平洋の真ん中で 漂流する彼らが

Let's take a look at the fears that their imaginations

想像した恐怖とは どんなものだったでしょう

were generating as they drifted in the middle of the Pacific.

船が転覆してから 24時間が過ぎていました

Twenty-four hours had now passed since the capsizing of the ship.

生き残るための 算段が必要でしたが

The time had come for the men to make a plan,

選択肢は限られていました

but they had very few options.

ナサニエル・フィルブリックは 著書の中で

In his fascinating account of the disaster,

遭難の様子を こう描写しています

Nathaniel Philbrick wrote that these men were just about

「彼らは地球上の誰よりも 陸地から遠い場所にいた」

as far from land as it was possible to be anywhere on Earth.

最も近い島は 1,900km先にある

The men knew that the nearest islands they could reach

マルキーズ諸島だと 彼らは分かっていました

were the Marquesas Islands, 1,200 miles away.

ただ そこには恐ろしい噂がありました

But they'd heard some frightening rumors.

マルキーズ諸島とその周辺には

They'd been told that these islands,

食人種が住んでいるという噂です

and several others nearby, were populated by cannibals.

彼らは上陸してすぐに殺され

So the men pictured coming ashore only to be murdered

食べられる自分を想像したのです

and eaten for dinner.

もう一つの選択肢は ハワイでした

Another possible destination was Hawaii,

しかし季節が悪く

but given the season, the captain was afraid

激しい嵐に合うことを 船長は恐れました

they'd be struck by severe storms.

最後の選択肢は 最も長く 厳しいものでした

Now the last option was the longest, and the most difficult:

まず 2,400km 南下してから

to sail 1,500 miles due south in hopes of reaching

風をとらえて

a certain band of winds that could eventually

南アメリカ沿岸を 目指すのです

push them toward the coast of South America.

ただ 長旅になるので

But they knew that the sheer length of this journey

食料と水はギリギリでした

would stretch their supplies of food and water.

食人種に食われるか 嵐に襲われるか

To be eaten by cannibals, to be battered by storms,

陸に着く前に 飢え死にするか・・・

to starve to death before reaching land.

そんな恐怖が 想像力を支配し

These were the fears that danced in the imaginations of these poor men,

その結果 どの恐怖に従うかが

and as it turned out, the fear they chose to listen to

彼らの生死を 分ける事になりました

would govern whether they lived or died.

さて恐怖は 別の言葉で 言い換えられるでしょう

Now we might just as easily call these fears by a different name.

“恐怖” ではなく

What if instead of calling them fears,

“物語” と呼んでは？

we called them stories?

恐怖は本来 物語なのです

Because that's really what fear is, if you think about it.

恐怖とは 私達が 生まれつき知っている―

It's a kind of unintentional storytelling

無意識の物語なのです

that we are all born knowing how to do.

恐怖と物語は 共通の要素と

And fears and storytelling have the same components.

構造をもっています

They have the same architecture.

恐怖には 物語と同様に 登場人物がいます

Like all stories, fears have characters.

恐怖では 登場人物は 私たち自身です

In our fears, the characters are us.

筋書きも 起承転結もあります

Fears also have plots. They have beginnings and middles and ends.

飛行機に乗り 離陸し エンジンが停止 といったように

You board the plane. The plane takes off. The engine fails.

また恐怖には　 小説に出て来そうな

Our fears also tend to contain imagery that can be

生々しいイメージがつきがちです

every bit as vivid as what you might find in the pages of a novel.

想像してください　食人種の歯が

Picture a cannibal, human teeth

人肌に食らいつく・・・

sinking into human skin,

火であぶられる人肉・・・

human flesh roasting over a fire.

恐怖にはサスペンスの 要素もあります

Fears also have suspense.

もし私が上手に語っているなら

If I've done my job as a storyteller today,

皆さんはエセックス号の乗員が

you should be wondering what happened

どうなったか知りたいはずです

to the men of the whaleship Essex.

恐怖は これによく似た サスペンスを生みます

Our fears provoke in us a very similar form of suspense.

あらゆる傑作と同様に 恐怖に導かれて私達が意識するのは

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention

文学においても人生においても 重要な問い すなわち―

on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature:

「次は何が起こるだろう？」 という問いです

What will happen next?

つまり 恐怖を通して 未来を考えるのです

In other words, our fears make us think about the future.

未来について このように考え

And humans, by the way, are the only creatures capable

未来に自己を投影する能力は

of thinking about the future in this way,

人間だけがもっています

of projecting ourselves forward in time,

このような頭の中の タイム・トラベルも

and this mental time travel is just one more thing

恐怖と物語の 共通点の一つです

that fears have in common with storytelling.

フィクション作家の主な仕事は

As a writer, I can tell you that a big part of writing fiction

ある出来事が 他に与える —

is learning to predict how one event in a story

影響を予測することです

will affect all the other events,

恐怖も同じです

and fear works in that same way.

小説と同様に ある出来事が他へと続きます

In fear, just like in fiction, one thing always leads to another.

処女作 『奇跡の時代』を 書いていたとき―

When I was writing my first novel, "The Age Of Miracles,"

私は何か月も考えていました

I spent months trying to figure out what would happen

地球の自転が 突然 遅くなったら何が起こるか―

if the rotation of the Earth suddenly began to slow down.

人生はどうなるか 作物はどうなるか―

What would happen to our days? What would happen to our crops?

精神にはどんな変化が生じるのか？

What would happen to our minds?

後になって気付いたのですが 私が考えていたことは

And then it was only later that I realized how very similar

子供の頃 夜中に怯えながら

these questions were to the ones I used to ask myself

考えたことに似ていました

as a child frightened in the night.

子供の頃は 今夜 地震が来たら

If an earthquake strikes tonight, I used to worry,

家や家族はどうなるだろうと いつも心配していました

what will happen to our house? What will happen to my family?

そして その答えはいつも 物語になっていました

And the answer to those questions always took the form of a story.

恐怖を単なる感情ではなく

So if we think of our fears as more than just fears

物語としてとらえるなら その物語の作者は

but as stories, we should think of ourselves

自分自身のはずです

as the authors of those stories.

もう一つ重要なことは

But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves

恐怖の読み手も 自分だと考えるべきです

as the readers of our fears, and how we choose

恐怖をどう捉えるかで 人生は大きく変わります

to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.

恐怖を細かく読み取るのが 上手な人がいます

Now, some of us naturally read our fears more closely than others.

最近 成功した起業家に関する 論文を読んだのですが

I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs,

著者によると 彼らには共通して

and the author found that these people shared a habit

「恐怖心を生かす」習慣が あるそうです

that he called "productive paranoia," which meant that

彼らは自分の恐怖を無視せず

these people, instead of dismissing their fears,

きちんと読み取って 検討し

these people read them closely, they studied them,

準備や行動の 指針として理解していました

and then they translated that fear into preparation and action.

だから仮に最悪の事態が起きても

So that way, if their worst fears came true,

仕事を進められるのです

their businesses were ready.

しかも最悪の事態は しばしば起こります

And sometimes, of course, our worst fears do come true.

恐怖の驚くべき所はここです

That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about fear.

恐怖を通じて 未来を予知できるのですから

Once in a while, our fears can predict the future.

でも想像しうる あらゆる恐怖に

But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears

準備できるわけではありません

that our imaginations concoct.

では私達が従うべき恐怖と

So how can we tell the difference between

そうでないものを どうやって見分ければいいのでしょう

the fears worth listening to and all the others?

エセックス号の話は

I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex

悲劇に終わりますが 教訓になると思います

offers an illuminating, if tragic, example.

船員たちは 考えた末に決断しました

After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision.

食人種を恐れて 最寄りの島をあきらめ

Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands

より遠く 遥かに困難な

and instead embarked on the longer

南アメリカ行の ルートを選んだのです

and much more difficult route to South America.

漂流を始めて２か月 予想していた通り―

After more than two months at sea, the men ran out of food

食料が尽きました

as they knew they might,

陸地はまだ遥か彼方です

and they were still quite far from land.

通りかかった２隻の船に 最後の生存者が救助されたとき―

When the last of the survivors were finally picked up

生き残りは 半数以下になっており

by two passing ships, less than half of the men were left alive,

中には人肉を食べて 生き延びた者もいました

and some of them had resorted to their own form of cannibalism.

メルヴィルはこの話を 『白鯨』の題材に使い

Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick,"

後年 次のように 書いています

wrote years later, and from dry land, quote,

「可哀想なエセックス号の乗員は

"All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex

難破した場所から すぐに ―

might in all human probability have been avoided

タヒチ島に向かっていれば

had they, immediately after leaving the wreck,

苦しまずに済んだであろう

steered straight for Tahiti.

しかし彼らは 食人種をひどく恐れた」

But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals."

不思議なのは なぜ彼らが 飢える可能性よりも

So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals

食人種の方を 恐れたのかということです

so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation?

なぜ彼らは ２つの物語の

Why were they swayed by one story

片方に強く 惹かれたのでしょう？

so much more than the other?

このような視点から見ると

Looked at from this angle,

これは解釈についての 物語だと わかってきます

theirs becomes a story about reading.

小説家ナボコフは言っています 「最良の読者は―

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader

２つの異なる気質を あわせ持っている

has a combination of two very different temperaments,

芸術的気質と科学的気質だ」

the artistic and the scientific.

よい読者は 芸術家のような情熱で

A good reader has an artist's passion,

物語に没頭します

a willingness to get caught up in the story,

一方 読者は 科学者のような

but just as importantly, the readers also needs

冷静な判断力を 持つ必要があります

the coolness of judgment of a scientist,

読者は直感的に 反応しますが

which acts to temper and complicate

冷静さは 反応を和らげたり 強調したりします

the reader's intuitive reactions to the story.

エセックス号の船員は 芸術的気質には優れていました

As we've seen, the men of the Essex had no trouble with the artistic part.

様々な恐ろしい シナリオを想像したのです

They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios.

ただ 間違った物語に 注目したのは失敗でした

The problem was that they listened to the wrong story.

恐怖が生み出した 物語の中で

Of all the narratives their fears wrote,

彼らが反応したのは 最も怖ろしく 生々しい―

they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid,

しかも想像しやすい物語 すなわち―

the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture:

食人種でした

cannibals.

もし彼らが自分の恐怖を

But perhaps if they'd been able to read their fears

科学者のように捉え 冷静に判断していれば

more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment,

食人ほど 血なまぐさくないですが

they would have listened instead to the less violent

より可能性の高い 餓死のシナリオに注目したはずです

but the more likely tale, the story of starvation,

メルヴィルが言うとおり タヒチに向かっていたでしょう

and headed for Tahiti, just as Melville's sad commentary suggests.

自分の恐怖を解読すれば

And maybe if we all tried to read our fears,

ひどいシナリオに 左右されずに

we too would be less often swayed

済むかもしれません

by the most salacious among them.

殺人鬼や航空事故を

Maybe then we'd spend less time worrying about

心配する時間を減らして

serial killers and plane crashes,

より捉えにくく緩慢な

and more time concerned with the subtler

目の前の悲劇に 時間を割けるはずです

and slower disasters we face:

例えば 静かに 進む動脈硬化や

the silent buildup of plaque in our arteries,

少しずつ起こる 気候変動です

the gradual changes in our climate.

文学では 繊細な物語が 最も豊かだとされます

Just as the most nuanced stories in literature are often the richest,

同様に 小さな恐怖が 最も真実に近いのです

so too might our subtlest fears be the truest.

正しく読み取れば 恐怖は 想像力が与えてくれる―

Read in the right way, our fears are an amazing gift

素晴らしい贈り物― 身近な予知能力です

of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance,