feel shopworn in the retelling. Shopworn or just divested of emotional content.

紐約時報這段翻譯可以. 小缺點是它改寫下文兩句(黑體字)成一句:

That old dictum, write what you know? I’ve always thought that was terrible advice. Most of us don’t know much. And what we do know can feel shopworn in the retelling. Shopworn or just divested of emotional content. Sometimes, the things we’re closest to — our lives, for instance — are the very things we least want to examine with rigor.

老話常說：寫你所知。我一直覺得這個建議不怎麼樣。我們大多數人知道的並不多。而那些我們知道的事情呢，再去跟別人轉述，感覺也很老套或者缺乏感情。有時，我們最了解的事情——比如我們的生活——正是我們最不想仔細研究的東西。


shopworn

(shŏp'wôrn', -wōrn')
adj.

1. Tarnished, frayed, faded, or otherwise defective from being on display in a store.
2. Worn-out, as from overuse; trite: shopworn anecdotes.

[形]((米))

1 〈商品などが〉棚ざらしの（((英))shopsoiled）；〈人が〉いつまでも芽が出ない.

2 つまらない, 単調な；陳腐な.

 shop-soiled

adjective

British

(of an article) made dirty or imperfect by being displayed or handled in a shop: he is selling second-hand or shop-soiled goods  

figurative   his subject—the nature of the artist in relation to his society—is pretty shop-soiled