Whenever Gary Shteyngart visits Tokyo, he will go to a capybara cafe（水豚咖啡廳）. He finds capybara（水豚）so fascinating（引人入勝的） that he has journeyed（遠行） to many places around the world just to see the animal.

Why is he such a fanatic（狂熱者） for capybaras?! First of all, capybaras are such sweet（溫馴可親的） animals that you can just sit there and have a connection（情感聯繫） with them. When you are around one, time flows（流逝） differently, one’s vision feels soft, and the world becomes pure and unaggressive（毫無攻擊性的）.

Moreover, he thinks that there’s something about the capybara that invites projection（引發心理投射）. Because the capybara is a prey animal（獵物動物）, it has prey reactions（獵物本能反應）. When cornered（被逼入絕境）, they will get panicky（驚恐不安的） and freak out（情緒失控）. The flightiness（易受驚的特質） of the giant rodent brought to mind the childhood bullying（童年時期遭受的霸凌） that Gary endured（長期忍受） from friends and family. And it dawns on（使⋯恍然大悟） the author that the capybara represents a duality（矛盾的雙重性） he’s very familiar（熟悉並深有所感的） with—a desperately friendly（極度渴望友誼的） creature always afraid of being attacked（時刻害怕受到攻擊的）.

Is this why people love the capybara? Do we all feel trapped（受困於無形枷鎖） in a world that encourages（推動並塑造） us to be hyper-social（過度社交化的） yet rewards（回應） us with nothing but endless existential anxiety（無窮無盡的存在焦慮）?

你是不是也已經找到一個讓你有效暫時抽離現實、遠離塵埃，找到一個給予你好好喘息並享受當下的療癒動物了呢？

如果你喜歡李老師的英文故事，歡迎請老師喝杯咖啡，讓學習的湧泉源源不絕！

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