《衰姐们》：当年轻梦想照进纽约现实

by Jordan Zakarin

With her 2010 1）SXSW-darling film Tiny Furniture， Lena Dunham captured the malaise and uncertainty of a generation of postcollege 20-somethings with 2）grit， humor， and painful realism， transforming Manhattan into a depressing playground for overeducated， underqualified youths in an economy that had seemingly forgotten about their existence.

As she graduated college， Lena Dunham had a vision of what shed be doing as she 3）waded into real life in New York City.

“I just spent all day getting sandwiches for someone who doesnt know my name， thinking that that was somehow going to get me where I was going to go，” she said， 4）rehashing a projected inner monologue she had prepared for her postgrad self. “And I was always of the mind that I was just going to have a shitty job that had nothing to do with anything and then write when I could write， and that was my hope.”

莉娜·杜汉姆在2010年“西南偏南”大会上受到追捧的电影《微型家具》借用残酷的现实主义，用大胆、幽默的手法，捕捉到20多岁，刚大学毕业的那一代人惴惴不安以及迷茫无助的心态。在其描绘下，曼哈顿变成一个令人抑郁的竞技场，一群高学历低水平的年轻人在苦苦打拼，其存在却似乎被低迷的经济全然无视。

自莉娜·杜汉姆离开大学校园，她就想象着要如何融入纽约的现实生活之中。

“我只是一天到晚给陌生人递三明治，想着这样做怎么都会让我达成所愿，”她说道，重新回忆起那个为研究生毕业的自己设计好的内心独白。“我当时总是觉得我会干一份跟所学所爱毫不相干的烂活儿，然后自己找时间能写作就写作，那就是我的希望了。”

《欲望都市》是“闺蜜情结”的开山之作，剧中对亲情刻画模糊甚至避而不谈，却对“姐妹情深”赋予深情赞叹，让每个只身在大都市打拼的女子都不得不感慨：做人当做“凯利·布拉德肖”（《欲望都市》的女主角）。这是以家庭为单位的传统宗族观念的一个改变，《欲》剧告诉我们：我们可以自己“制造”亲人。里面的四位女郎游戏人间，没有钱财烦恼；剧中对职场生活描写寥寥，姐妹们只需打扮一番，谈情说爱，便能打发一日。遥望《欲》剧的开播是上世纪90年代末，美国经济繁荣，正如片头中凯利散漫又自信的步伐一样，有一种“山高水低任我行”的豪气。然而，同为HBO出品，《衰姐们》的创作背景却完全相反：金融危机过后的美国，失业率激增，刚毕业的大学生惶惶不安，工作还没着落，大学贷款还款期却迫在眉睫。所以里面的人物总是焦躁，到处碰壁——谈情说爱当然必不可少，但是生活却与《欲》截然相反，让人心生共鸣也不免神伤。

从艾美奖失利，到金球奖赢家，《衰姐们》折射出的是当下纽约年轻人对残酷现实的认同与感叹。这就是新的曼哈顿女郎。不光鲜，不亮丽，却也让人欢喜。时代不同，新生的曼哈顿女郎敢于穿上杂牌的外套，奔波于乱世之中，自嘲，自贬，还有着坚信明天会更好的情怀。

——Mac

Of course， its worked out far better than that， and now， at age 25， she produces， writes， directs and stars in HBOs Girls. Dunham picked up the nomination to the pressure-packed position of “the voice of her generation” when her indie film Tiny Furniture debuted at 2010s SXSW； with Girls， she has cleared her throat and made her thesis statement： Life is hard and confusing and messy and endlessly funny， and by being honest， its possible to 5）speak with， not at， viewers.

Girls is， in many ways， the antithesis to HBOs own ladies-in-Manhattan fantasy， Sex and the City， offering a far more realistic portrayal of sisterhood than that of Carrie Bradshaw and Co.， though virginal student Shoshanna does have a SATC poster prominently displayed in her“6）bachelorette pad，” and she categorizes herself and other women by Sex and the City character types.

Tracking the personal and professional 7）travails of four recent college grads in New York City， the show captures the particulars of todays 20-something struggle for economic and existential survival in an immediate way that requires intimate knowledge.

Dunham plays an aspiring writer， named Hannah， who has just been cut off from her parents financial 8）lifeline， and suddenly finds herself desperate for an upgrade from her unpaid internship. Unfortunately， she lives in a city filled with employers less than eager to do something as 9）preposterous as compensate for work in a market filled with the young and 10）grasping. Bright and driven （if a little self-destructive） but seemingly unemployable in ways that 11）defy logic or fairness， hers is a problem shared by just about every new 12）transplant to the city.

“People are graduating from college during a recession， and thats a huge deal，”Dunham told The Hollywood Reporter at the New York City premiere of Girls. “And I think that TV shows， at the time I started writing this， werent necessarily reflecting that reality.” She said one of her goals was to “look at that financial struggle， and the fact that students are graduating with these degrees， going like， ‘World！ Can you wait for me？ And the world is like， ‘Uh yeah， I actually can wait for you.”

当然，事实比预想的要好得多，现在，杜汉姆25岁而已，她已经是HBO电视台的连续剧《衰姐们》的制作人、编剧、导演以及主演。2010年当她的独立电影作品《微型家具》在“西南偏南”大会上首映时，杜汉姆得到了让人备感压力的提名——“新生代之声”。凭借《衰姐们》，她已清嗓道出自己的主题“中心句”：生活是艰难的，令人迷茫，充满混乱，无尽滑稽，只要真诚以对，是有可能与观众一同感受，而非对其嘲弄。

《衰姐们》，从很多方面来看，是HBO招牌菜“曼哈顿女性幻想曲”之作《欲望都市》的对立面。比起凯利·布拉德肖以及整部电视剧，它对姐妹情这一话题摆出的是更为现实的描画，尽管乖乖女学生苏珊娜的“单身闺房”里显眼地贴着一张《欲望都市》的海报，还把自己和其他女孩按照《欲望都市》的角色类型来分类定义。

《衰姐们》追踪四个刚从大学毕业的学生在纽约城的生活以及职场两难期，捕捉现今20多岁的年轻人为金钱、为生活挣扎求存的细节，那种直接的表现方式是需要融入亲身体验的。

杜汉姆扮演汉娜——一个有抱负的作家，脱离父母的经济支持后，她忽然发现自己极度需要晋升，不再停留于无薪实习的职位。不幸的是，这个城市的老板面对满是年轻、焦急的求职者的市场，并不急于做一些“可笑的”的按劳付酬的举动。聪明又有野心（如果说还有那么点自毁倾向），但汉娜似乎没有受雇前途，虽然这说不通也不公平，然而，她的问题正是和这个城市的每一个新移民所共有的。

“在经济衰退期，大家从大学毕业，那是很严重的问题，”《衰姐们》在纽约首映的时候，杜汉姆对《好莱坞记者报》如是说。“在我开始写这个剧本的时候，我觉得当时的电视剧都不太能反映现实。”她说自己其中一个目的是为了“放眼看金融危机，以及大学生毕业的事实，就像是，‘世界啊！你能等等我吗？而世界就说：‘啊对，我真的可以等等你。”

For Dunham， success came quickly. But she has seen friends struggle and considers her rocket to 13）stardom a surprise. And there are still plenty of universal difficulties shared by 20-somethings， especially among women. In the show， Jessa gets pregnant and plans to have an abortion， while Hannah goes through her own 14）gynecological dramas. That the national debate has focused so heavily on womens reproductive rights is 15）coincidental， but she isnt afraid of the topic.

“I was raised by a pro-choice mother， and that dialogue was always on the table，” Dunham said. “I think its never fully gone away， but at any election time， it really becomes loud and national again.”

On less 16）charged notes， there are plenty of specific nods to New York and New Yorkers， from the Tasti D-Lite frozen yogurt the girls eat in front of the park （“It was really important to me to have it—a product that exists almost nowhere else， I believe”） to the discussion of different bars in specific Brooklyn neighborhoods.

“It was really important to me to get those details of really what the fabric of New York life is for girls this age，” Dunham said. “I just wanted it to be just like， if a New Yorker watches it， there were subtle nods to them， but it wouldnt isolate anyone else.”

对于杜汉姆来说，成功来得很快。但她看到朋友们的奋斗，还觉得自己的一举成名是一个意外。而且，在20多岁的人群当中，仍然有许多共同遇到的问题，特别是在女性当中。在《衰姐们》里，杰莎怀孕了却打算把孩子打掉，而汉娜也闹了一场妇科病笑话——这与全国范围讨论大力关注女性生育权利的议题不谋而合，不过杜汉姆并不害怕这个话题。

“我是由一名提倡合法堕胎的母亲抚养成人的，而对这个话题的讨论在家里一直是公开的，”杜汉姆说，“我觉得这问题从没消失过，只是每到了选举时刻，又会成为举国讨论的大话题。”

在一些氛围稍微轻松的情节中，有许多是特别对纽约和纽约客致敬的地方，从女孩们在公园前吃Tasti D-Lite冰淇淋连锁店的冰冻酸乳酪（“这情节对我来说真的很重要——我相信其他地方是找不到这种食品的”）到讨论布鲁克林附近的不同酒吧。

“显现这个年纪的女孩子在纽约生活的真实细节对我来说真的很重要，”杜汉姆说，“我想要的是，如果一位纽约客看这部剧，其中有大家会心相知的细节，但也不会孤立排除其他人。”

It all points back to that 17）perilous title she picked up two years ago， which Dunham seems to 18）wink at in Girls first episode， when Hannah—high on 19）opium tea—tells her parents she thinks shes “the voice of my generation…or a voice…of a generation.”

Dunham said that line was used to give Hannah hilarious delusions of 20）grandeur， but she admits that having been given the label perhaps played into her 21）subconscious. Nonetheless， for all the praise， she wants to avoid the title； after all， her work is predicated on being an outsider.

“I think thats a scary 22）mantle to assign to someone， just because every generation is comprised of so many different types of weirdos，” she laughed.

Ultimately， Girls is 23）achingly original， the sort of television show that comes around but once in a decade， embodying a singular vision and pitchperfectly capturing a voice. Whether it represents the voice of a generation remains to be seen， but its a voice thats not afraid to be unique， to shout 24）at the top of its lungs that it has arrived， and to remind us all of what it means to be young.

这都指向了两年前她获得的“危险”头衔，在《衰姐们》第一集里杜汉姆似乎对此表示默认，当时汉娜因为喝了带有大麻成分的茶而飘飘然，她告诉父母，她觉得自己是“我这一代人的声音……或者是……一个时代的声音。”

杜汉姆说，这句台词给汉娜滑稽的妄想赋予了豪情，但她承认被贴上那种标签可能在她的潜意识中起了作用。然而，对于所有的赞美之声，她想回避那种头衔，毕竟，她的创作是建基于局外人的身份。

“我觉得这相当于给人披上一层让人提心吊胆的外衣，因为每一个时代都充斥着形形色色不同的怪人，”她笑言道。

总体而言，《衰姐们》原创味十足，是那种十年才得一见的电视剧，体现了一种非凡的视角，并且完美地捕捉到一种声音。这部电视是否能代表一个时代的声音还有待时间的考证，但它是一种声音，一种不怕特立独行，在已达到的高度上放声呐喊，提醒我们所有人“年轻”意义何在的声音。