🤴Harry's Book Review 書評：哈利王子的新書

2 Apr

This book review is long overdue. To be honest, after finishing the book I really hesitated about whether I even wanted to write one. While it started off quite interesting, the takeaway feeling was "What was the point of that?".

這篇書評已經拖了很久。老實說，看完這本書之後，我真的猶豫了一下到底要不要寫書評。雖然一開始看起來很有趣，但最後的感覺就是「那是為了什麼？」。

Suffice to say that I felt there were a lot of contradictions and convenient omissions in Harry's narrative. Having previously given little thought to Harry and Meghan until their infamous Oprah interview, I have come to feel increasingly suspicious of their motives. In the beginning, when Harry and Meghan got married, my thoughts probably went something like this: "Ooh another wedding hoopla"; "She's the one from Suits, isn't she?"; "They seem to go well together"; "I wonder if Harry's still a cheeky chappy"; "Shame Meghan must be under so much pressure, being compared to Kate all the time". I hazard a guess the majority of the public had somewhat similar thoughts.

總之，我覺得哈利的陳述中有很多矛盾和和巧妙的省略。以前我對哈利和梅根的事情沒有多少想法，直到他們接受有名主持人奧普拉的訪談後，我對他們的動機感到越來越懷疑。一開始，當哈利和梅根結婚時，我的想法可能是這樣：“哦，又一場婚禮狂歡”；「她就是那個出演Suits的女演員，對吧？」；「他們看起來很般配」；「不知道哈利還是不是那個調皮搗蛋的家伙」；「梅根一定承受了很大的壓力，一直被拿來和凱特比較」。我猜大多數公眾的想法也差不多。

But now in the UK, opinions about Harry and Meghan can be quite divisive; many people support them, others loathe them, and most don't care and just want it to stop. My opinions, I like to think, come more from a moral compass, rather than any particular feelings for or against the monarchy. If the royal family were to become your average Joes overnight, or to continue to pass on the crown and take around £1.53 in taxes from us every year, I couldn't care less either way. That is what I like to think – who knows, I might change.

但現在在英國，人們對哈利和梅根的看法可能存有很大的分歧。許多人支持他們，其他人厭惡他們，而大多數人並不關心，只希望這件事情能夠停止。我想，我的觀點更多來自於道德準則，而不是對君主制的任何特殊感情。王室家族在一夜之間變成普通人，還是繼續繼承王位，每年從我們這裡拿走大約1.53英鎊的稅款，我都無所謂。這是我的想法 -- 誰知道呢，我可能會改變。

The concept of a royal family in the modern day is more similar to a fairground attraction, which Harry does well to give us an insight into in the book. This is one of the book's merits – an insider's glimpse into what it's really like to be a member of the royal family. It doesn't sound like fun, as you can imagine. Like most people, I'm appalled by the media's treatment of them, as if royal family members aren't real people. Here is one truly harrowing passage, where Harry is given some photos of his mother by a police officer friend. Diana is dead in the tunnel after the car crash in Paris:

在現今，現代王室的概念更像是一個遊樂場景點，哈利在書中很好地向我們展示了這一點。這也是這本書的優點之一，以局內人的視角讓我們了解作為王室成員的真實情況。這聽起來一點都不好玩，可想而知。像大多數人一樣，我對媒體對待王室成員的方式感到震驚，彷彿他們不是真實的人一樣。這裡有一段令人非常心痛的文字，描述哈利從一位警察朋友那裡獲得了他母親的照片。黛安娜在巴黎發生的車禍中死在隧道裡：

I came to photos of mummy. There were lights around her, auras, almost halos. How strange. The colour of the lights was the same colour as her hair - golden. I didn't know what the lights were, I couldn't imagine, though I came up with all sorts of supernatural explanations. As I realised their true origin, my stomach clenched.

Flashes. They were flashes. And within some of the flashes were ghostly visages, and half visages, paps and reflected paps and refracted paps on all the smooth metal surfaces and glass windscreens. Those men who'd chased her... They'd never stopped shooting her while she lay between the seats, unconscious, or semi-conscious, and in their frenzy they'd sometimes accidentally photographed each other. Not one of them was checking on her, offering her help, not even comforting her. They were just shooting, shooting, shooting.

我看到了媽媽的照片。她周圍有燈光，有光環，幾乎像是光圈。多麼奇怪。燈光的顏色和她的頭髮一樣 -- 金色。我不知道那些光是什麼，也無法想像，儘管我想出了各種超自然的解釋。當我意識到它們的真正來源時，我的胃開始緊繃了。

閃光燈。它們是閃光燈。在一些閃光中出現了幽靈般的面孔，還有半張面孔，狗仔，在所有光滑的金屬表面和擋風玻璃上反射和折射的面孔。那些追著拍她的人…在她昏迷或半昏迷地倒在車座之間時，從未停止過拍照。在瘋狂的時候，他們有時會不小心拍到對方。他們中沒有一人查看她的情況，向她提供幫助，甚至沒有為她提供安慰。他們只是拍、拍、拍。

Disturbing. Very disturbing. At the same time I can also imagine what being behind a camera all day does to you. It detaches you from what you're actually taking a photo of. You become a spectator, out to grab what you can from the present moment and to convert it into something more valuable. Troubling indeed.

這令人感到不適，非常的不適。同時，我也能想像整天待在相機後會對你產生什麼影響。它會使你與實際拍攝的對象脫節。你變成了一個觀眾，想趁當下抓住你能抓取的一切，並把它轉化成更有價值的東西。這確實令人感到不安。

Overall, the book feels to be about 80% about Harry's history: his childhood, teenage years, time in the army, and falling blissfully in love with Meghan. I'm not sure anyone really wanted to know about this, but I suppose that's the point of memoirs. Mostly, I found myself quite enjoying the peeks he gives us into royal life and how he felt about it all. But at times his recounts were quite confusing. For example, there were many descriptions of how he was objectively naughty at school: making faces behind teachers' backs, hosting underage drinking parties, and so on. But Harry is simultaneously baffled by the media portraying him as ‘naughty’. He's frustrated that he gained that reputation, even though that's the picture he paints of himself. I couldn’t help but feel his lack of self-awareness.

整體來說，這本書感覺上有80%是關於哈利的歷史：他的童年、少年時代、軍隊生涯，以及與梅根幸福地墜入愛河。我不確定讀者是否真正想知道這些，但我想這就是回憶錄的意義所在吧。在大多數情況下，我發現自己相當享受閱讀他所描繪的王室生活高峰，以及他對這一切的感受。但有時他的描述卻相當混亂。例如，他描述了很多自己在學校的調皮行為：在老師背後做鬼臉，舉辦未成年喝酒聚會，等等。但哈利同時也對媒體把他描繪成“調皮”感到困惑。他對自己獲得這樣的聲譽感到沮喪，儘管這就是他描繪的自己。我不禁感到他缺乏自我意識。

To give another example, he tells us that he frequently smoked weed out of the bathroom window with his friends at school, and had trouble quitting. Yet in the next paragraph, he is utterly confounded that the media produced a story about him doing drugs. Unbelievable! .... But had he not just told us that he did do drugs regularly? Of course, we know the media twists things and even creates stories out of thin air, but this one actually had a thread of truth to it. Why the surprise? And more importantly, why was he reading all those trashy headlines? I certainly wasn't. Why would you expose yourself to such toxicity, especially if it's about you?

再舉一個例子，他告訴我們，他在學校裡經常和朋友們在浴室裡抽大麻，而且很難戒掉。然而在下一段文字中，他對媒體報導他吸毒感到大為震驚。真不敢相信！.... 但他不是剛告訴我們他確實經常吸毒嗎？當然，我們知道媒體會歪曲事實，甚至捏造故事，但這個故事實際上有一絲真實性。為什麼他會如此驚訝？而更重要的是，他為什麼要去看那些垃圾標題？我肯定不會去看那些。你為什麼要讓自己去接觸這種有毒的刊物，尤其它是關於你的報導的？

As I got towards the end of the book, I started to feel like maybe the beginning 80% was largely about setting the reader up for the ending. Currying favour and gaining trust from the audience: "If he can be honest about how he lost his virginity, he must be being honest about everything else". Unsurprisingly, the remaining 20% of the book delves sharply and abruptly into Meghan's 'downfall'. It felt akin to "And then everyone started hating Meghan for no reason. We were rejected from the royal family. Poor us. The end. Bye."

當我讀到書的結尾時，我開始覺得也許開頭80%的內容主要是為了讓讀者對結尾有所準備，討好並贏得他們的信任，讓他們覺得：“如果作者能誠實地說出自己是如何失去童貞的，那麼他一定會對其他事情也同樣誠實。”不出所料，書中剩下的20%內容尖銳而突然地深入探討梅根的“失落”。感覺就像是“然後所有人都開始無緣無故地討厭梅根。我們被王室拒之門外。可憐的我們。故事說完了。再見。”

There were also significant gaps – Meghan's divorce? Why no mention? Not a single word. If it's going to be a 'tell-all', then please do tell-all, Harry. Any flaws that Meghan had? No. None. She was perfect in every way. It was a totally random attack from all the members of his family, that was the problem. William in particular, by the way, is pretty much depicted as a demon throughout the entire book. A cold, unkind, uncaring character with random fits of rage. Very interesting to see him portrayed in this light. Again, I don't know him so can't really comment one way or another, but what I do know is this must be slander against one's own family. A low blow in my opinion, no matter what your family did.

書中的內容還有明顯的漏洞，例如梅根的離婚，為什麼沒有提到呢？一個字都沒有。如果這是一場“全盤托出”的話，那就請你全盤托出吧，哈利。梅根有什麼缺點嗎？沒有，一點都沒有。她在各方面都很完美。這完全是其他家庭成員的無端攻擊，就是這樣。尤其是威廉，在整本書中被描繪成像個惡魔。一個冷漠、無情、漠不關心他人的角色，時而暴怒。看到他被描繪成這樣，讓人覺得非常有趣。再次聲明，我不認識他，所以不能對他做出任何評論，但我知道的是，這肯定是對自己家人的誹謗。在我看來，無論你的家人對你做了什麼，這種做法都是一種卑劣的行為。

Not only William, multiple people in the book are portrayed as irrationally hating Harry and Meghan ‘out of nowhere’. One particularly insightful line read: "You're delusion Harry" they said. But they were the delusional ones". I think that pretty much sums up the whole book. Versions of events diverge, everyone gets their panties in a twist, and it's a battle of the egos from thereon. No real solution, apart from to pack it in. Let it go.

在書中，不僅威廉，還有其他人也被描繪成“莫名其妙”地仇視哈利和梅根。書中有一句特別有見地： “他們說：“哈利，你是在妄想”。但他們才是有妄想症的人”。我覺得這幾乎是整本書的總結。事件的不同版本使情況變得複雜，每個人都陷入自我保護的狀態，這是一場自尊心的鬥爭。除非當事人願意放手，不然也沒有真正的解決辦法了。

Harry also does a lot of mind-reading in the book. One particularly interesting example is the TV interview where both couples were present, and that got stirred into news gossip afterwards. It reads:

哈利在書中也對他人進行了許多推測。其中一個特別有趣的例子是在某個電視採訪中，當時兩對夫婦都在場，後來這件事情被炒作成八卦新聞。書中寫道：

All this came on the heels of an awkward moment backstage. Meg had asked to borrow Kate's lip gloss. An American thing. Meg forgot hers, worried she needed some, and turned to Kate for help. Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a tube. Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced. Small clash of styles, maybe? Something we should've been able to laugh about soon after. But it left a little mark. And then the press sensed something was up and tried to turn it into something bigger.

這一切都發生在後台的一個尷尬時刻。梅根向凱特借唇彩。這是美國人的作風。梅根忘了帶自己的唇彩，擔心自己可能需要用到，於是就向凱特求助。凱特大吃一驚，把手伸進手提包，不情願地掏出唇彩。梅根在她的手指上擠了一些，然後塗在嘴唇上。凱特苦笑了一下。也許是風格上的小衝突？那是一件令人事後就笑出來的事情。但它留下了一點痕跡。然後媒體察覺到了一些事情，並試圖把它鬧得更大。

How on earth could he mind-read what Kate was thinking about in that moment, what she felt thereafter, and how or why the press stirred up gossip? It was accounts like this that made the whole book feel painfully one-sided. A look through Harry’s lens, but by no means a full account. This felt unfair to me, as the people he was talking about a) never gave their consent to their privacy being exposed in such a way, and b) won’t ever be able to give their version of events, for obvious reasons. I guess it comes back to the moral conundrum of whether it’s okay to badmouth those close to you online. Many people seem to think it’s fine, but I can’t say I’m one of them.

哈利究竟如何能讀懂凱特當時的想法，之後的感受，以及媒體如何或為何炒作這件事情？正是這樣的敘述，讓人覺得整本書的內容非常片面。這全都是透過哈利的視角看待事情，它絕對不是一個全面的敘述。我覺得這樣並不公平，因為他所談論的人 a) 從未同意在這種方式下揭露他們的隱私，b) 基於明顯的原因，他們永遠無法提出自己的事件版本。我想這牽涉到一個道德難題，即在網路上說你身邊人的壞話是否合適。許多人似乎覺得這沒什麼，但我不能說我是其中之一。

So yeah, "And then everything blew up. I now have no qualms about throwing my family under the bus, because y'know, tit-for-tat, and we've got to make money" is what the ending might as well have read. I was left with a distinct feeling of emptiness. This is the note I wrote to myself after finishing this book: "Started to give me a headache. Too much drama. Too much 'he said, she said'. One big mess. They're like children. How depressing. Can't they just focus on putting something positive out into the world? People will be influenced by their behaviour. They might think it's okay to be immature, resentful and disloyal to those close to you."

所以，是的，“然後一切都炸開了鍋。我現在毫無顧忌地背叛我的家人，因為你知道的，以牙還牙嘛，而且我們必須賺錢。”結局可能是這樣吧。我感到了一種明顯的空虛感。讀完這本書後，我寫下了這樣的筆記：“開始讓我頭痛。太戲劇化了。各方各說其話。一團糟。他們的行為就像孩子一樣。多麼令人沮喪。他們難道就不能專注於為世界帶來一些正面的東西嗎？人們會被他們的行為所影響。人們可能會認為對親近的人不成熟、怨恨和背叛是可以被接受的。”

In summary, while a little vain and with strong hints of delusion towards the end, it was still interesting to hear about Harry’s life. While I slate the book in many ways, I would say it’s still worth a read, because we're getting a rare glimpse into what life as a royal and an army officer is like, plus it’s a very easy read. Having said that, I also totally understand if you’d rather boycott it. What I certainly wouldn’t take this book to be is some kind of revelatory ‘truth’ beyond one man’s version of events. Regarding ‘what actually happened’ between Harry, Meghan and the rest of the royal family, I still feel none the wiser!

總的來說，儘管書的內容有些自負，到最後也有強烈的錯覺，但了解哈利的生活還是很有趣的。雖然我在很多方面批評這本書，但我仍然覺得它值得一讀，因為我們可以罕見地一窺王室和軍隊官員的生活是什麼樣子，而且這本書非常容易閱讀。話雖如此，如果你想要抵制它，我也完全理解。我當然不會認為這本書是某種啟示性的“真相”，它只是一個人對事件的看法。關於哈利、梅根和其他王室成員之間“到底發生了什麼”，我仍然感到一無所知！

Susie x