[BEACON, NEW YORK]

[ニューヨーク州 ビーコン]

My name is David Rees, and I have an artisinal pencil-sharpening business.

オレの名前は デイビッド・リーズ

People pay me to sharpen their pencils.

鉛筆削りが仕事だ

[THE FINER POINTS OF DAVID REES]

[鉛筆削り師 デイビッド・リーズ]

[IN 2009, DAVID REES QUIT HIS JOB AS AN ACCLAIMED POLITICAL CARTOONIST. IN 2010, HE STARTED A ONE-MAN ARTISINAL PENCIL SHARPENING SERVICE.]

[2010年 風刺漫画家を辞め 鉛筆削り業を立ち上げた]

[HE CHARGES $15 PER PENCIL AND HAS RECENTLY PUBLISHED A GUIDE TO SHARPENING PENCILS CALLED HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS.]

[１本15ドル 最近 本も出版した]

The oldest way to put a point on a pencil is using a straight blade.

鉛筆削りの道具は カッターが主流

Take the straight blade, and apply it to the edge of one of the

まずは 鉛筆の六角形の角に 刃先をあて 削り始める

hexagonal sides of the shaft.

鉛筆を回し 角を落としながらー

Your first couple rotations around the shaft, all you're trying to do is

木の部分を出していく

expose the unfinished cedar wood.

削る作業は 二段階ある

This is basically a two stage process. The first stage,

まずは 芯が出るまで 木を削る

is to remove enough cedar so that the graphite is exposed.

今は説明が目的だからー

So, here you can see, and this is just really rough,

見た目は気にしないでくれ

we're not doing this for aesthetics,

鉛筆の中心から ある程度 芯が顔を出したらー

we're just doing this for functionality.

次の段階へ 芯の形を整えて とがらせる

But I've exposed the graphite core in the middle of the pencil,

漫画家を辞めた後 国勢調査の仕事を

and now for the second stage,

2010年の春のことで 新人研修の時にー

we're gonna shape the graphite and create our pencil point.

仕事道具が支給された

I quit political cartooning and I got a job at the United States Census,

その中に HBの鉛筆が

in the Spring of 2010, and on the first day of Census training,

マークシートを塗る時に 必要になるからね

they had us open our supply kits,

研修初日に 鉛筆を削るよう言われー

and inside there were a few pencils and a pencil sharpener,

全員 指示に従って ゴミ箱の前で削った

because you fill out the forms with number 2 pencils,

それが楽しくて 仕方なかったからー

for the Scan Tron machines,

鉛筆削りを仕事にしようと 考え始めたのさ

and on the first day of staff training, the staff trainer was like,

ここは クリップ工場の跡地だ

"alright, now everybody sharpen your pencil."

クリップの跡があるし 錆びたクリップも転がってる

So we were all standing around these trash cans, sharpening our pencils

こういった廃れた工場や 倉庫はー

with these little pocket sharpeners, and it was so satisfying and fun

アメリカ中に たくさんある

that I thought, I want to figure out how to get paid to sharpen pencils.

廃墟になった工場はー

So this used to be a paperclip factory, here in Beacon, NY.

操業を明日に控えた 無人の工場とは 決定的に違う

And as you can tell, we have the ghost image of some paperclips

後者は 新品の道具と同じで 可能性に満ちている

and some old rusted paperclips.

新しい真っ白な帳簿やー

There's a lot of abandoned factories and warehouses here in Beacon,

紙に触れるのを待つ とがった鉛筆のようにね

and there's a lot of abandoned factories and warehouses

この跡地は アメリカの過去や未来ー

all over the country.

それに 我々の死にざまを 表してるようだ

So there's something very different about an empty warehouse that's

きっと 不毛の地で 飢え死にする...

been abandoned, as opposed to an empty warehouse that's about to kick into

- なぜ漫画家を？

production the next day.

元々 ブッシュが退任したらー

The latter is kind of the same thing as unblemished office supplies,

[『ゲット・ユア・ウォー・オン』] 辞めるつもりだった

there's just a lot of promise and potential

潮時だと思っていたし 新しいことにも挑戦したかった

in a brand new empty ledger book.

アブグレイブ刑務所の 虐待事件の時ー

Or a brand new, freshly sharpened pencil

ひどく不愉快で 気が滅入ったよ

that hasn't been applied to the page yet.

でも 事件は 風刺漫画の題材だからー

It just makes you think about the past of our country

漫画を描かないわけには いかなかった

and the future of our country and how we're probably all gonna die.

だが 本音を言うとー

Starving to death and tearing each other apart in some kind of wasteland.

考えたくもなかったし 毛布にくるまって 隠れたかった

Why did you quit political cartooning?

鉛筆の部位を 個別に言い表すのにー

I was always going to quit when George W Bush left office,

独自の用語を作った

[GET YOUR WAR ON 2001-2009] because it was making me depressed,

先端の部分の名前を説明する

and also I was getting kind of impatient,

削り始めから 芯の先端までをー

I was ready to do different things, like different projects.

鉛筆の〝軸先〟と名付けた

I remember when all the photos came out from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal

そして 削られた木の部分を 〝首〟と呼ぶ

that was just kind of depressing and so dark,

つまり 首の最下部は 軸先の一番下と重なる

but I knew that I had to make cartoons about it, and people were e-mailing me

そして 木と芯の ちょうど境目のところがー

saying, "when are you gonna make cartoons about this,"

首の最上部だ

"where are the cartoons about Abu Ghraib?"

最近出した本から 一節 読もう

And part of me was just like, you know what I really want to do, is just like

「輪先に切り込むのは つらい」

hide under the covers and eat cereal and not think for a couple months.

「なぜなら 鉛筆削り師は 何としてでも 輪先を守れとー」

So I had to create kind of a taxonomy of terms

「教わっているからだ」

to describe different parts of the pencil point.

「しかし 最初は気が引けてもー」

So I describe the pencil point as beginning where the unshaped

「すぐに 報われるはず」

shaft of the pencil stops, and ending at the tip of the pencil.

「あなたの手で 新たに鉛筆の 軸先を形作っていくのだから」

I call this whole thing the point. The exposed cedar of the point,

離婚を機に 今の仕事を始めた

I call the collar. So the collar bottom is where the unshaped

鉛筆と 鉛筆削りの 虜になったタイミングがー

cedar shaft ends, and the exposed cedar cone begins.

ちょうど 自分自身が さまよっていた時期と重なる

That's the collar bottom.

仕事面では 漫画家を辞めー

The collar top is where the cedar ends and the graphite begins.

私生活でも 夫の役割が 終わった時だったからね

That I call the collar top.

これは透明なゴムの管でー

So I'm going to read to you a passage from my new book,

鉛筆の先に ぴったりフィットする

"How to Sharpen Pencils."

折れてしまわないようにー

Cutting into the shaft of a pencil and removing its point

ゴム管を十分な長さに切って 覆いかぶせてからー

can be an emotionally wrenching experience.

持ち主に送り返す

After all, as pencil sharpeners, we are taught to perfect and protect

こうやってゴム管を 先の部分に はめればー

the point at all costs,

これで 第１段階が完了だ

and this amputation may feel perverse and unjust.

パーティー会場や イベントで鉛筆を削る場合はー

If the process feels you leaving bereft or ashamed,

カバーをつけ そのまま手渡しする

rest assured your meloncholy will be replaced by satisfaction soon enough,

創作活動中はー

as the predestined arc of the pencil point in conjured anew by your hand.

制限がある方がいい

I started my pencil sharpening business as my marriage was ending.

自由な状態だと 逆に 何も手につかなくなる

And so it's kind of like, I started this project and got obsessed with

例えば 出来合いの画を元にした 漫画は 想像力をかきたてる

pencils and pencil sharpeners at a time when I really was kind of adrift

HTMLもそう

in terms of my identity professionally,

基本的に ５種類のタグしか 使わないんだ

because I quit cartooning, and then also personally,

中央寄せ 太字 斜体 文字のサイズと カラー

because I was no longer a husband.

必要最低限のもので 最大限に楽しむ

This is just rubber plumbing tubing that you can buy at any hardware store

架空の広告会社の ウェブサイトを作ってー

and you can see that it fits over a pencil point.

有名企業の 悪質な自作広告を 載せたことがある

So this is the first step of protecting the pencil point,

誰かから 依頼されたわけじゃなくー

is to actually cut a length of rubber tubing,

ただ楽しむためさ

that's long enough to fit entirely over the pencil point

どれもシンプルな HTML形式の バカげた広告だ

so that it's not left exposed before you put it in the mail.

でも最高に笑えたしー

And this tubing is simply placed over the shaft of the pencil,

評判は微妙だったけど オレは この上ない幸せを感じたよ

and around the tip of the pencil. So there you go. That's the first step.

客の多くは 鉛筆を オブジェとして飾ったりー

If I'm sharpening pencils at a party or a convention,

ネタや お守りにする人もいる

and the person plans to use their pencil pretty quickly,

だから キャップ付きの カバーに入れてあげるんだ

then I'll just hand it to them with this sheath, this protective sheath,

これで芯が 二重に守られてる

placed over the pencil point.

ゴム管と 耐久性のあるカバーでね

I kind of like being limited,

ほら 折れてない

or having constraints when I'm being creative,

投げられたとは思えない 完成度

I get overwhelmed if you can do whatever you want,

徹底的なリサーチの末 辿り着いた形だ

I just get overwhelmed and shut down.

当初 インターネットを 利用してー

So, like making comics with clip art, that's a good limitation.

鉛筆を届けることに 魅力を感じたんだ

because you can't draw anything, so you just have to write around

鉛筆とインターネットは 正反対だからー

whatever images you find.

新旧の技術の融合さ

And I guess the same is true of HTML.

鉛筆という 昔ながらの伝達手段とー

Like, HTML is pretty bare-bones. I know maybe 5 different tags.

ネットのような 最先端のツールのね

Like, center, bold, italicize, font size, font color.

ほら 鉛筆が 吸い込まれていく

So you just try to have as much fun with it as you can.

鉛筆の動きが止まったので 取り出そう

Like, I built this website for this fake advertising agency

〝ブラックウィング〟の 長く伸びた芯が お目見えだ

called Joey the Midwife.

人間と違って 機械なら均一に仕上げられる

And I made all these online viral ads for Pepsi, and Toyota or whatever,

鉛筆にハマッてからー

and Duracell batteries. I mean, I wasn't commissioned to make the ads,

シャーペンや それを使う人を 軽蔑するようになった

I just made them for fun.

シャーペンは削らずに使えて 楽だと？

And it was just supposed to be really silly and goofy.

そんな連中は ハッキリ言って 「バーカ クソくらえ」だ

And that was all HTML,

削りカスは鉛筆の一部だから 一緒に 客の元に返す

and I think that made me laugh harder than anything I've ever made.

これは上質な赤杉で できている

Not many people ever got into it, but for me it was like, really really

サーモンみたいな 美しい色合いだ

made me happy.

あとでラベルを貼ろう

I think most of my clients don't actually use my pencils, they just

これは冗談じゃなく 歴としたビジネスだ

keep them as art objects,

鉛筆を削るのが仕事

or conversation pieces, or inspirational talismans.

腕には自信があるし 450本以上は削ったよ

So these display tubes work really well. I got a cap on each end,

客からのクレームだって めったにない

and now you can see that the pencil point is protected twice.

多くの仲間にも出会った

First by that rubber sheating, and now by the shatter-proof plastic tube.

鉛筆削り師として カリブ海の クルーズ船に雇われたし

The pencil tip is unbroken!

ジャマイカの滝の下で 削ったことも

You would never know that it had been thrown across an empty warehouse.

幸せな思い出が たくさん増えてきたよ

Again, that just speaks to the thoroughness of the research I did

癒し効果もある

when I started my business.

たまに ものすごく 怒る人がいて 不思議だ

One of the appeals of starting the business, was I thought it would

新聞に取り上げられても

be cool to use the internet to send people pencils in the mail.

コメント欄には 怒りの声が

Because pencils are really kind of the opposite of the internet, in many ways

〝そう難しく考えるなよ〟って さとしたくなるね

so I thought it was cool to combine those two different technologies.

オレは 鉛筆を尖らせて 人に届ける

Like, a really old method of communication, the pencil,

それだけ

and then a really new method of communication,

字幕翻訳　日本映像翻訳アカデミー 字幕監修　大石レナ

social networking and the internet.

You can see if you look closely

that the pencil is moving into the sharpener.

And now, the pencil has stopped moving into the sharpener.

So we will open the aperture, remove the pencil,

and you can see that we've put a lovely long point on this

Palomino Blackwing pencil.

Again, this is the difference between machine and man.

Machines are perfect and men are flawed.

Once I got into number 2 wooden pencils again,

it really made me kind of despise mechanical pencils

and the people who use mechanical pencils.

And the people who brag

about how their mechanical pencil never needs sharpening.

I mean, fuck you. Fuck you, you fucking cocksucker.

The shavings are part of the pencil, and so they should be returned

to the client along with the pencil.

And you can see that this pencil uses high quality red cedar,

because the color of the shavings is very nice, it looks like salmon.

I'll label these when I get back to the office.

It's a real business. Like, it's not a joke.

Like, I literally sharpen people's pencils for them.

And I do a good job. You know, I've done over 450 pencils,

I've never had one returned. I rarely get complaints about my handiwork.

I've met a lot of nice people sharpening pencils.

I got hired to sharpen pencils on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

That was cool, you know?

I literally sharpened a pencil in a Jamaican waterfall.

So I guess insofar as it has increased my overall stockpile of happy memories

yeah, it has been therapeutic.

What I find interesting is how mad some people get about it.

When there's an article about it in the newspaper, sometimes the people

in the comments section are so furious.

And part of me is like, "guys, you don't need to overthink it."

It is what it is.

Like, people pay me money, and I send them a really sharp pencil.

And that's about it.