The Longest Year: The Team Leader Saga (3)

What had occurred before this entry were described in Part 1 and Part 2.

Supplanting Ellie to become the new acting team leader was a huge boost to Patty's ego. She had ambitions. A foreign graduate, she always thought herself overlooked and under-appreciated by her colleagues. Now, it was time to show them her leadership skills. She immediately assumed a maternalistic attitude toward her colleagues, handing out accolades and reprimands to reviewers with whom she was sharing complaints about the Boss and Ellie just a few weeks ago. The view on top --- or merely on the second floor --- was always better than that at the bottom.

Unfortunately, Patty quickly discovered that none of her fellow reviewers took her new authority seriously. True, as the team leader, she was in charge of overseeing their work and giving comments and critiques. But none took her critiques lying down and often argued every point with her. They kept dropping hints, in front of and behind the Boss, that Patty had barely enough qualification and aptitude to be a reviewer, much less a team leader.

Fighting with her colleagues and trying to maintain her authority, Patty was soon feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Stressing her out even further the endless administrative crap that she had to manage daily: Responding to outside requests, managing reviewers' workload, dealing with complaints from all corners, and generally getting dumped on by the Boss with every bit of worthless little projects.

The morale in the team had slipped so low that fewer and fewer members came to the weekly team meetings, each person's excuse was lamer than the next. Soon enough, everyone, from the Boss Lady to the reviewers, was phoning into the weekly team teleconference.

Patty thought she could show off her leadership skills, but the Boss thought Patty was taking her newly found power a little too far and a little too enthusiastically. "I don't even know what Patty is doing nowadays," the Boss once complained to the third reviewer on the team, the last person who had not tasted power yet. This reviewer, who would never get anywhere because she has a big mouth, promptly offered the Boss complaints about Patty's incompetence --- unable to keep up with work assignments, unable to resolve conflicts, unable to make sound judgment, etc., etc., giving the Boss plenty of ammunition to take the next step.

Three months later, Patty was promptly relieved of her acting team leader position. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.


Just when the reviewers assumed that things would return to the way they were 6 months ago, albeit with somewhat soured opinions toward each other after the much ado about nothing, the Boss Lady announced a new brilliant ideas of hers: a peer-review system in the team. Instead of returning to the previous work process, in which the Boss review and sign off on, therefore assume responsibility for, every reviewer's review, each reviewer's work would be "peer-reviewed" by one of her fellow reviewer.

All this to save the Boss Lady some work and headache, so that she could concentrate on "more important things," like "working from home" two days a week and attend more meetings with upper management, so that she could lunge toward more projects and seize more glory, and so that she remains the most faithful and indispensable pet to the bigger bosses.

The Troubled Man

OK, OK, 这书尚未出售，要到本月底才会开始卖，不过我已经把 Kindle 版给买了下来，29日即刻无线送到机器上。

最后一本 Kurt Wallander。说实话，看到 Linda 在小说里还好好地活着，我心里感到很温暖。

The Adjustment Bureau

这片儿一老早就打出了 “根据 Philip K. Dick 短篇小说改编” 的旗号，我一老早就不怎么相信原作的内容能所剩几何。果然不出所料，只是借用一点点PKD的神经病奇思妙想而已。

虽然掺杂进去很多科幻元素，亦有比较严肃的哲学问题（“命运既定还是自由意志？”），但这部影片其实是个典型而传统的爱情片！完全遵守爱情戏的 formula: 所有的情节都是阻止二人搞到一起的障碍，男女主角象打游戏一样闯了一关又一关，直到最后终于搞到一起。

影片的中心障碍很简单： 江山还是美人？ 为了符合观众的期望，英俊而前程远大的男主角当然要放弃江山，反抗老爹和家庭的阻力，不惜牺牲前程也要跟美人白头偕老。虽然在这里老爹和其他煞风景的长辈们变成了上帝和天使，或者说，修政局的官僚，他们的狗腿，以及楼上的社团主席。反正都一样。

结尾特别汗，男女主角差点上演“毕业生”里 Dustin Hoffman 的抢亲桥段，最后楼上的老板发话，或者说，中央领导空降一个老书记，在关键时刻搭救了得罪光全部地方领导的改革新星。于是一对情侣从此幸福地生活在一起。影院里的女观众都幸福地叹口气，自动带入 Emily Blunt 角色中。

因为情节非常没有挑战性，我一边看一边注意各种有趣的细节：例如，修正局 的员工都打扮得非常过时，跟 Don Draper 一样（一个中层管理人员是 John Slattery，简直可以回收利用他在 Mad Men 里的服装）---这年头谁还戴帽子啊！例如，修政局的官员都叫啥森，Richardson, Donaldson, Thompson! 例如，天堂，噢不，修政局大楼，就是个古色古香的老图书馆的样子，很酷哦。例如，Jon Stewart 出现了两次！因为男主（Matt Damon）的职业是政治选举，现实中的政治人物和CNN 脑袋们都跑上来转一圈打酱油。

看到一半，我不禁想：这有啥好选的？光辉政途 vs 极high恋爱。闷死人。如果换成女主角的角度，这个选择问题还有点挣扎有点意思： 要变成世界顶尖的舞蹈家兼编舞还是要男友？二选一不可兼得。

科幻类型与神话浪漫类型的根本差别在于，科幻非常死扣“游戏规则”，即使是瞎编出来的不可能的规则，也要严格遵守逻辑推理。神话浪漫类则根本不理这些纳德的玩意儿，随心所欲，想怎么玩就怎么玩，只要最后俊男美女幸福地生活在一起即可。

然后继续发散思维，如果换成我来写这个故事，就会把修正局写成跟人间的官僚机构一样的地方，人浮于事，级别太多，左手不知右手干了什么，朝令夕改，乱七八糟... 当然，这种故事才没有人要看呢。

********
一边看一边继续胡思乱想，忽然意识到这片儿其实很类似另一部片子： The Lives of The Others. 从某个角度来看，两部片子都是讲一个工作认真的政府员工被上头派去细细监视一个凡人，在监视的过程中日久生情，爱上了监视对象。所以，当上头下手威胁监视对象的安全，监视者牺牲自己的前途，违抗上级命令和自己的责任，保护监视对象，默默奉献不求回报，以对方的幸福为自己的幸福 ...

此片中保护 Matt Damon，替他无私奉献的，是 Tony Mackie 演的天使，噢不， 修政局工作人员 Harry Mitchell。Mackie 在 The Hurt Locker 里面就很棒，在这片里很温柔。做为 Julliard 戏剧系的毕业生，又有不少舞台经验，他可以算是年轻一代美国男演员里的高材生了，可惜是黑的，注定不会在好莱坞大片里当上 leading man 。他齿间有缝，加上眼睫毛又长又黑又卷，我觉得相当可爱呢。

阴影

前几天也不知是说起了啥，S 同学忽然说： I grew up in the shadow of nuclear war and global annihilation ... 我惊跳起来问道：点解？古巴飞弹事件发生的时候你还没出生呢。他摇摇头说不是啊，核战争的乌云直到九十年代初苏联解体才真正散去，之前都是觉得不知何时就从现实生活变成启示录了。

这话给我留下的印象很深。真的是各人自有一套历史，很多对一个人的性格与思想影响至深的记忆和环境，别人从外面是无法观察到的，经常连自己也非有意识地记得，有意识地认识到。

I, too, grew up in the shadow of something。我这一代的中国人都是在这个阴影中长大的。我不能彻底地知道他的阴影留下的痕迹，他也不能完全理解我的。我可以想象，我可以动用empathy，但是，事实很清楚，理性的解释无法摸到感性直觉潜意识的一根线。

历史给人---个体与集体---制造的效果，大多是不易觉察但是非常深刻的。Nobody knows anybody, not that well. ("Miller's Crossing") We know less about each other than our empathy has led us to believe.

电子书与纸书

在亚马逊上面找了找Craig Johnson的侦探小说，发现一个有趣的现象： 企鹅出版社把电子版定价得跟纸皮书一样，同时把旧一些的硬皮书降价低于纸皮书和电子书，等于鼓励读者买硬皮书。

这个策略跟美国售书市场的惯例有关系。跟其他商品的销售不同，出版社跟书店的协议一般是，书店可以退还卖剩下的新书，这样市场的风险主要落在出版社身上。出版社的策略是，第一轮印刷数量有限的硬皮书，吸引对价格不敏感而急于一睹为快的书迷们；然后根据第一轮的销售口碑和数量决定晚一些发行的纸皮书的发行量（大约晚几个月）。这是大多数上市卖的书籍，此外也有只发行纸皮书的小说。硬皮书一般定价25刀，纸皮书一般12刀。硬皮书与第一轮买主是给出版社提供高利润的一环。

因为书店可以退还卖不出去的书，这些copies就变成在出版社的仓库里的废纸，命运是变成回收纸浆。前阵子听说亚马逊出售的新书数量，纸皮书仍然名列第一，但Kindle 电子书的销售量已超过了硬皮书。现在企鹅通过网上书店甩卖积压的硬皮书，定价低于电子书与纸书，大概是出版社的一种挣扎对策。可是，硬皮书的未来命运如何，看上去真的不太乐观。

翻了半天，我既没买电子版也没买硬皮书，而是到本地图书馆的网站上，发现立刻就可以借到免费的。

不过 History of Ballet 这本巨著，在图书馆排队太久了，又未必能及时读完，正在考虑买 Kindle 版，定价才15刀，比硬皮书便宜。

The House of God

刚开始读。

The Surgar House

Daniel Deronda 看到 65%，被宗教狂热派的描述给滞住了，一时读不下去，先搁一搁。

为了调剂一下，把前阵子随手买的（为了凑够Amazon的免运费）侦探小说The Sugar House给看完了，是Laura Lippman写的Tess Monaghan 系列中的一本。她挺高产的，这个系列已经写了十几本，而且还出了几本系列外的独立小说。

这篇除了一贯的巴尔的摩风土人情之外，还有大笔的地方政治黑幕，布局颇复杂，让我看得很起劲。嘿嘿，SJ Rozan 有时也会写地方政界的阴谋黑幕之类，我都很爱看，不知道是什么心理。