獨居時代

The rise of solo living

獨居時代的崛起

Aroom of one』s own

屬於一個人的房間

Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise andSurprising Appeal of Living Alone. By Eric Klinenberg. Penguin Press; 273pages; $27.99. Gerald Duckworth & Co; ￡16.99. Buy from Amazon.com,Amazon.co.uk

《走向單身:獨身主義的崛起與誘惑》；艾瑞克·克蘭伯格著；企鵝出版社；共有273頁；售價27.99美元；Gerald Duckworth & Co 出版社，16.99 英鎊. 可從亞馬遜網站或亞馬遜英國購買

「YOU need an apartment alone even if it』s over a garage,」 declaredHelen Gurley Brown in her 1962 bestseller 「Sex and the Single Girl」. To Brown,who went on to edit Cosmopolitan magazine, the benefits of solo living wereinnumerable: it afforded the space to cultivate the self, furnish the mind,work late and indulge in sexual experimentation. Young women should enjoy theirbest years without a husband, she advised, as this not only laid the foundationfor stronger marriages but also gave them a lifestyle to fall back on in casethey found themselves alone again.

"就算它是在停車庫上方，你也需要一座屬於自己的公寓。」海倫·格莉·布朗在其1962年的暢銷書《單身女孩》宣揚道。對於這位《大都市》雜誌的主編來說，獨居生活的好處無窮無盡。獨居可以擁有培養自我，心靈供給，熬夜工作，縱情性愛的空間。她認為，年輕女性應該不急於結婚，好好享受她們人生中最美好的年華。這樣才能為強力的婚姻培養好基礎，同時以防下一次落單能夠重返從前的生活方式。

Sensational at the time, Brown』s counselseems sensible now. Certainly both sexes have taken it to heart, marryinglater, divorcing readily and living alone in larger numbers than ever before.In America more than half of all adults are single and roughly one out of sevenlives alone. Worldwide, the number of solo dwellers has climbed from 153m in1996 to 202m in 2006—a 33% jump in a decade, according to EuromonitorInternational, a market analyst. Yet little is known about the wider socialeffects of this unprecedented boom, writes Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist atNew York University. His new book 「Going Solo」 offers a comprehensive look atthe lures and perils of living alone.

布朗的建議曾轟動一時，現在看來也不失理智。很顯然，男女雙方都將建議銘記於心，遲遲結婚，快速離婚，獨自生活的人數比過往多了許多。美國有逾半數的成年人單身，大概有七分之一的人獨居。據市場分析公司歐睿信息諮詢公司數據統計，全球獨居人數已由1996年的153百萬攀升至2006年的202百萬人——十年間增加了33%。而這始料未及的上漲所引起的更廣泛社會效應卻鮮有人知道，紐約大學社會學家艾瑞克·克蘭納伯格寫道。他的新書「走向獨居」一書向我們全面詮釋了有關獨居生活的誘惑和冒險。

Mr Klinenberg parts with those who see therise of solo living as yet another sign of the decline of civic society. Nowthat marriage is no longer the ticket to adulthood, a desire to live alone isperfectly reasonable, he writes. Young adults view it as a rite of passage, aperiod of personal growth before possibly settling down. Its culturalacceptance has helped to liberate women from bad marriages and oppressivefamilies, granting them a space to return to civic life. And as elderly adultslive longer than ever before, often without a partner, many hope to stay independentfor as long as possible. Nearly everyone who lives alone prefers it to theirother options, says Mr Klinenberg, and ever more people hope to join the ranks.

有人將獨居人數的上漲視為公民社會衰退的象徵，克蘭伯格對此並不贊同。他在書中寫道，現在婚姻並不再是通往成熟的唯一途徑，獨居的渴望是非常理智的。青年人將獨居視為成熟的儀式，安定之前的自我成長。文化上對獨居的接受讓婦女得以從不良婚姻，壓抑家庭解放出來，確保她們能有足夠空間重返公民生活，而且隨著人們壽命延長，年老者多無伴，許多人希望儘可能保持獨立。幾乎每位獨居者更享受現在的生活，而且越來越多的人希望加入獨居的隊伍當中。

Solitary living need not mean solitude (「Noone really bowls alone,」 Mr Klinenberg quips). The author offers evidence thatpeople who live alone are often more socially active than their cohabitatingpeers. The 「communications revolution」 has allowed more people to experiencethe pleasures of social life from the comforts of home, and cities with highnumbers of singletons enjoy a thriving public culture of bars, cafés andrestaurants. Urban officials are now eager to lure professional singles—knownto both work and play hard—in the hope that they will stimulate the localculture and economy.

獨居生活並不意味著形單影隻。（」沒有人願意獨自打保齡球。「克蘭伯格戲語道。）。克蘭伯格在書中羅列種種例子，表明獨居的人比群居的同齡人更加活躍於社交。「通信革命」讓更多人體驗到由居家舒適感帶來的社交愉悅，享受到和眾多單身族一起在酒吧、咖啡館和餐館同歡這一種興盛的公共文化。如今，城市官員熱切希望職業單身族能夠在當地定居。眾所周知，職業單身族不僅勤於工作也樂於享受，這樣就可以大大促進當地的文化和經濟。

Living alone is easy enough for the youngand solvent; less so for the elderly, frail and poor. Mr Klinenberg came tothis story while working on a book about the lethal Chicago heatwave of 1995,when hundreds of people died alone at home, out of touch with friends andneighbours. The trend for solo living can too easily morph into socialisolation, particularly for men, who are less adept than women at making andsustaining connections. Other bugbears include loneliness, discrimination (inthe workplace, the tax code and so on) and workaholism. Ageing single adults—afast-growing group—complain that there are few decent, affordable alternativesto withering away.

對於年輕人和富有的人來說，獨居是很容易的，而對於長者，體弱多病或者窮人來說相對較難。克蘭伯格正是在寫作一本關於1995年芝加哥致命熱浪的書而關注到獨居現象的。當年，有成百的人在房子里孤獨地死去，鄰里朋友並不相知。獨居的熱潮很容易演變為社會孤立，特別是對於男人。因為男人並不如女人那樣會創造和維持社會連接。其他令人擔憂的原因還包括孤獨感，歧視（在工作場所，免稅代碼等等）和工作狂。作為快速增長的群體，曾經的單身青年逐漸老去，開始埋怨很少有其他體面的，支付得起的變老方式傍他們逝去。

Mr Klinenberg looks wistfully to theScandinavian countries, where generous social-welfare benefits and communalurban design allow more people to live alone together. He optimistically callsfor 「bold policy initiatives」 such as more affordable housing andassisted-living facilities. 「We』ll need them,」 he adds, 「since so many of uswill be living alone.」

克林伯格想必非常渴望到斯堪的納維亞國家生活。這些國家擁有慷慨的社會福利，而公共的城市設計允許許多人可以一起享受獨居生活。他積極呼籲「政治上進行勇敢的首創改良」——諸如提供老百姓支付得起的房屋和輔助生活設備。「我們將需要這些。」他補充說道「因為將來我們中的大多數人將過上獨居的生活。「