Doughnuts

Of all the strange sights on the internet, the Instagram videos that people upload of themselves eating enormous quantities of unhealthy food are among the most disturbing.

在互联网上的所有奇怪景象中，人们上传的 Instagram 视频中最令人不安的是他们自己吃了大量不健康的食物。

In the videos I’ve seen, it’s always a lot of food, all of it overloaded with sugar or fat—or both.

在我看过的视频中，总是有很多食物，所有食物都富含糖或脂肪——或者两者兼而有之。

So it’s what they eat—but also how they do it.

所以，这不仅是他们吃什么的问题，也是他们吃东西的方式的问题。

The people are making a display not so much of pleasure as of conquest, and there is nothing subtle about it.

人们的表现与其说是为了快乐，不如说是为了征服，而且没有什么微妙之处。

It’s gluttony.

这是贪吃。

It’s a rout.

这是一场溃败。

Bad enough that these people were motivated to record themselves for all to see, but making it even worse was the influencer or commenter culling these videos from the internet and bundling them together with commentary about the eating habits on display.

糟糕的是，这些人有动力录制自己的视频供所有人观看，但更糟糕的是，有影响力的人或评论者从互联网上挑选了这些视频，并将它们与所展示的饮食习惯的评论捆绑在一起。

To be fair, the commenter never used overtly pejorative terms.

公平地说，评论者从未使用过明显的贬义词。

But he didn’t need to: His ringside seat—watching the videos while his viewers watched him watching—made clear what kind of spectacle it was.

但他不需要这样做：他的观众坐在场边观看视频，而他的观众则看着他观看视频，这清楚地表明了这是什么样的奇观。

That, and the calorie counts he supplied as a form of analysis.

那，以及他提供的卡路里计数作为一种分析形式。

To rebroadcast content with commentary is a moneymaking project.

重播带评论的内容是一个赚钱的项目。

But so must be these videos that people upload—enough views and you get royalties.

但人们上传的这些视频也必须如此——观看次数足够多，你就能获得版税。

I can think of no other reason for subjecting yourself to the ridicule of strangers.

我想不出还有什么理由让自己遭受陌生人的嘲笑。

After four or five videos, I’d seen enough.

看了四五个视频，我就看够了。

I asked my son, who had showed me the videos, “Is that even legal?” If I were to hang out at a local eatery, and I posted videos of strangers gorging themselves, I’m sure I’d be picked up.

我问给我看这些视频的儿子，“这合法吗？”如果我在当地一家餐馆闲逛，并且发布了陌生人狼吞虎咽的视频，我确信我会被抓住。

Or beaten up.

或者被殴打。

My son explained that the commenter was taking people’s content and rebroadcasting it for an entirely different purpose.

我儿子解释说，评论者正在获取人们的内容并出于完全不同的目的重新广播它。

“What about copyright?” I wondered.

“版权呢？”我想知道。

He told me that as long as the original content is repurposed, it’s fair use, so you get away with it.

他告诉我，只要原始内容被重新利用，那就是合理使用，所以你就可以逃脱惩罚。

Get away with, his phrase, shows he agrees there is something underhanded about using people’s own weaknesses, bad judgment, or cravings—for attention or otherwise—against them.

他的这句话表明，他同意利用人们自身的弱点、错误的判断力或对关注或其他方面的渴望来对付他们，这是一种不正当手段。

What could be more damning than the video of a man digging with glee into a whopping 10,000-calorie vat of crumbled Oreos and milk in lieu of his breakfast cereal?

还有什么比视频中一名男子兴高采烈地挖进一桶 10,000 卡路里的碎奥利奥和牛奶来代替早餐麦片更令人震惊的视频呢？

One should look away.

人们应该把目光移开。

No one I saw topped the Oreo man in terms of calories in a single sitting, but one image struck me even more.

我见过的没有人一次性摄入的卡路里超过奥利奥，但有一张图片更让我震惊。

Of a pretty girl of about 20 making a doughnut sandwich.

一个大约 20 岁的漂亮女孩正在制作甜甜圈三明治。

This was not like a croissant sandwich such as my stepmother sometimes serves—a croissant cut in half lengthwise and filled with white bean spread and lettuce.

这不像我继母有时做的羊角面包三明治——羊角面包纵向切成两半，里面填满白豆酱和生菜。

Instead, the girl took a doughnut from a box, proclaimed it to be “the bread,” then slapped it onto her open palm.

相反，女孩从盒子里拿出一个甜甜圈，宣称它是“面包”，然后把它拍到张开的手掌上。

Then she took another, called it the mayo, another the cheese, another the meat, another the tomato, and so on, until she had a doughnut tower, 13 doughnuts high.

然后她拿了另一个，称之为蛋黄酱，另一个是奶酪，另一个是肉，另一个是番茄，依此类推，直到她有了一个甜甜圈塔，有 13 个甜甜圈高。

It looked solid, stacked on her hand.

它看起来很坚固，叠在她的手上。

Then she slapped her other hand over the top.

然后她用另一只手拍了拍上面。

Whap.

噗。

And pressed down.

并按下去。

Each doughnut folded into the doughnut below in full-stack collapse.

每个甜甜圈都折叠到下面的甜甜圈中，形成全堆叠折叠。

Within seconds, the 13-doughnut high-rise was three inches tall.

几秒钟之内，这座由 13 个甜甜圈组成的高层建筑就达到了 3 英寸高。

What she did next was to eat it—which was astonishing too, the way each bite tore into the structure like Godzilla entering New York City, advancing not with any particular malice but with a heedless appetite for whatever lay before it, each step destroying something that had, a moment before, seemed integral.

她接下来做的就是吃掉它——这也令人惊讶，每一口都撕碎了这座建筑，就像哥斯拉进入纽约市一样，前进时没有任何特殊的恶意，而是对面前的一切不顾一切的胃口，每一步都摧毁了一些在片刻之前似乎不可或缺的东西。

These broken, squashed doughnuts were rendered mush, and unbelievably, 13 of them disappeared down the woman’s throat in four bites.

这些破碎、压扁的甜甜圈变成了糊状，令人难以置信的是，她咬了四口，其中 13 个甜甜圈就消失在了女人的喉咙里。

It was carnage without death.

这是没有死亡的大屠杀。

It was obliteration.

这是抹杀。

The image has stayed with me.

这个形象一直伴随着我。

She was smug with the success of her attack on decorum and restraint, concluding the debacle by folding and twisting and pushing the last quarter of the compressed doughnut wedge into her mouth.

她对自己对礼节和克制的成功攻击感到沾沾自喜，通过折叠、扭转并将最后四分之一的压缩甜甜圈塞进嘴里，结束了这次失败。

Thirteen doughnuts balanced on her palm, then beaten down with one blow, reduced, then destroyed, obliterated, no resistance.

十三个甜甜圈平衡在她的手掌上，然后一击打倒，缩小，然后摧毁，抹杀，没有抵抗。

It is not the gluttony that I keep coming back to.

我不断回来的并不是暴食。

It is how substantial those 13 layers had appeared and how diaphanous they soon proved to have been.

这就是这 13 层表面看起来多么坚固，以及它们很快被证明是多么透明。

One strong thwack, and they imploded.

猛烈一击，它们就爆炸了。

Isn’t that what is so unsettling about life, too?

这不也是生活中令人不安的事情吗？

All the layers of experience and education, effort and work, built up, one stratum at a time, polished, presented.

所有层次的经验和教育、努力和工作，一次一层地积累、打磨、呈现。

But time pours like a thick sauce over the whole of your life, burying the bottom layers.

但时间就像浓稠的酱汁一样倾倒在你的整个生命中，埋葬了底层。

It was supposed to be so substantial, so meaningful.

它本来应该是非常充实、非常有意义的。

Yet under the accumulated weight, the bottom layers turn to sand and disintegrate.

然而，在累积的重量下，底层变成沙子并分解。

The middle layers are mush.

中间的层是糊状的。

The top, the accomplishment of your life, the crown of the towering assemblage—what is that?

顶峰，你一生的成就，高耸组合的王冠——那是什么？

It is slipping and sliding and rolling and falling.

它不断滑倒、滚动、坠落。

Nothing to hold it up, nothing solid.

没有什么可以支撑它，没有任何坚固的东西。

Sugar doughnuts we were, and sugar doughnuts we are.

我们曾经是糖甜甜圈，现在也是糖甜甜圈。

Thirteen doughnuts.

十三个甜甜圈。

Thirteen?

十三？

Okay—when I checked I found it was only six.

好吧——当我检查时，我发现只有六个。

The girl was not, in fact, pretty.

事实上，这个女孩并不漂亮。

We all exaggerate.

我们都夸大了。

So the carnage was not carnage—it was not even worth noting, not worth filming, not worth commenting on, and possibly not worth writing about.

所以这场大屠杀并不是大屠杀——它甚至不值得一提，不值得拍摄，不值得评论，甚至可能不值得写作。

But then, what else to do if you can’t find a thing that is worth the effort?

但是，如果你找不到值得付出努力的东西，还能做什么呢？

Eat a doughnut while you ponder?

一边思考一边吃甜甜圈？

You could do worse—like eating a dozen.

你还可以做得更糟——比如吃掉一打。