核心畫面

One way to hold perversion: something has been turned off its proper road while keeping its old name. The trial is still called a trial, the fund is still called a fund, the word natural is still the word natural — but each has been pointed somewhere else. That is why the word is so heavy. It does not say wrong, it says turned away from what this was for, and it always names what has been turned: a perversion of justice, of the truth, of a meaning.

perversion 可以想成:一樣東西被轉離了原本的路,名字卻還掛在上面。審判還叫審判,基金還叫基金,「自然」這個更多收起perversion 可以想成:一樣東西被轉離了原本的路,名字卻還掛在上面。審判還叫審判,基金還叫基金,「自然」這個字還是那個字,只是都被指向別的地方去了。所以它的分量才這麼重——它說的不是「錯」,而是「背離了原本的用途」。也因為這樣,這個字後面幾乎一定要交代被轉歪的是什麼:a perversion of justice / of the truth / of a meaning。

Two branches

把好的東西弄歪

核心畫面本身,也是閱讀時最常遇到的一支。

noun · C1

The act of turning something good, true or natural into something wrong or twisted, or the twisted thing that comes out of it.

扭曲;曲解;變質

被認定不正常的性行為

同一個「被轉離原本方向」的畫面,套在性行為上;差別在於這裡的「原本方向」由說話的人認定。

noun · C1

Sexual behaviour that the speaker treats as unnatural and unacceptable.

(指控用語)性變態、變態行為