登陆注册
45663900000035

第35章 Waves of Heart心曲浪花(7)

So when I write a story I want to make a certain kind of structure, and I know the feeling I want to get from being inside that structure. This is the hard part of the explanation, where I have to use a word like “feeling”, which is not very preciseprecise adj.精确的, 准确的 n.精确, because if I attempt to be more intellectually respectable I will have to be dishonest. “Feeling” will have to do.

There is no blueprint for the structure. It,s not a question of, “I,ll make this kind of house because if I do it right it will have this effect.” I,ve got to make, I,ve got to build up, a house, a story, to fit around the indescribableindescribable adj.难以形容的 “feeling” that is like the soul of the story, and which I must insist upon in dogged, embarrassed way, as being no more definabledefinable adj.可定义的 than that. And I don,t know where it comes from. It seems to be already there, and some unlikely clue, such as a shop window or a bit of conversation, makes me aware of it. Then I start accumulating the material and putting it together. Some of the material I may have lying around already, in memories and observations, and some I invent, and some I have to go diligentlydiligently adv.勤勉地, 坚持不懈地 looking for (factual details), while some is dumped in my lap (anecdotes, bits of speech). I see how this material might go together to make the shape I need, and I try it. I keep trying and seeing where I went wrong and trying again.

I suppose this is the place where I should talk about technical problems and how I solve them. The main reason I can,t is that I,m never sure I do solve anything. Even when I say that I see where I went wrong, I,m being misleading. I never figure out how I,m going to change things, I never say to myself, “That page is heavy going, that paragraph,s clumsyclumsy adj.笨拙的, I need some dialogue and shorter sentences.” I feel a part that,s wrong, like a soggy weight; then I pay attention to the story, as if it were really happening somewhere, not just in my head, and in its own way, not mine. As a result, the sentences may indeed get shorter, there may be more dialogue, and so on. But though I,ve tried to pay attention to the story, I may not have got it right; those shorter sentences may be an evasionevasion n.逃避, 借口, a mistake. Every final draft, every published story, is still only an attempt, an approach, to the story.

I did promise to talk using reality. “Why, if Jubilee isn,t Wingham, has it got Shuter Street in it?” People want to know. Why have I described somebody,s real ceramic elephant sitting on the mantelpiece? I could say I get momentummomentum n.动力, 要素 from doing things like this. The fictional room, town, world, needs a bit of starter dough from the real world. It,s a device to help the writer - at least it helps me - but it arouses a certain baulked fury in the people who really do live on Shuter Street and the lady who owns the ceramic elephant. “Why do you put in something true and then go on and tell lies?” they say, and anybody who has been on receiving end of this kind of thing knows how they feel.

“I do it for the sake of my art and to make this structure which encloses the soul of my story, that I,ve been telling you about,” says the writer. “That is more important than anything.”

Not to everybody, it isn,t.

So I can see there might be a case, once you,ve written the story and got the momentum, for going back and changing the elephant to a camel (though there,s always a chance the lady might complain that you made a nasty camel out of a beautiful elephant), and changing Shuter Street to Blank Street. But what about the big chunks of reality, without which your story can,t exist? In the story Royal Beatings, I use a big chunk of reality: the story of the butcher, and of the young men who may have been egged on to “get” him. This is a story out of an old newspaper; it really happened in a town I know. There is no legal difficulty about using it because it has been printed in a newspaper, and besides, the people who figure in it are all long dead. But there is a difficulty about offending people in that town who feel that use of this story is a deliberatedeliberate adj.深思熟虑的, 故意的, 预有准备的 v.商讨 exposure, taunttaunt n.辱骂, 嘲弄 vt.嘲弄, 奚落 adj.[海](桅杆)很高的 and insult. Other people who have no connection with the real happening would say, “Why write about anything so hideous?” And lest you think that such an objection could only be raised by simple folk who read nothing but harlequin Romances, let me tell you that one of the questions most frequently asked at universities is “Why do you write about things that are so depressing?” People can accept almost any amount of ugliness if it is contained in a familiar formula, as it is on television, but when they come closer to their own place, their own lives, they are much offended by a lack of editing.

同类推荐
  • 笑死你的英文书

    笑死你的英文书

    本书是一本世界笑话作品集。主要内容包括:爱情婚姻、家庭生活、商店购物、外出旅行等。
  • 中小学生必读丛书:鲁滨逊漂流记

    中小学生必读丛书:鲁滨逊漂流记

    本书是被称为“现代小说之父”的英国著名作家丹尼尔·笛福的代表作。在西方文学史上,鲁滨孙的形象众所周之,他航海遇险,一个人漂流到南美洲某荒岛,靠着双手和工具,造房子,修田地、种粮食,养牲畜,还从土著的刀下救了一个人,取名礼拜五,收为自己的奴隶……鲁滨孙用28年的时间把荒岛建设成为一个世外桃源,最后又奇迹般地回到欧洲,成为巨富。
  • 被侮辱与被损害的人

    被侮辱与被损害的人

    陀思妥耶夫斯基是一位超越时空的作家,又是一位充满矛盾的作家。正如世界有多复杂,人有多复杂,陀思妥耶夫斯基本人也有多复杂一样。现在,俄罗斯和全世界已悄然兴起一门新的学问——陀思妥耶夫斯基学。陀思妥耶夫斯基本人是个谜,他的作品也是个谜。破译这个谜,是全世界陀思妥耶夫斯基学家研究的基本课题。专家们把陀思妥耶夫斯基的生平与创作,一般分为两个时期:西伯利亚之前和西伯利亚之后。本书《被侮辱与被损害的人》(一八六一)则处于这两个时期之间,带有明显的过渡性质:既保留了四十年代作品的思想、内容和风格,又承上启下,开创了作家后期以探索社会秘密、人心秘密为主的社会-心理-哲理小说的先河。
  • 课外英语-美国各州小知识(十二)(双语版)

    课外英语-美国各州小知识(十二)(双语版)

    全书共50册,分为美国各州的小知识,七彩缤纷的音符,优美好看的小散文,开心时分的短文,经典流传的寓言,超级高效的短句,实际有用的词汇等等在这些书中,备有单词解释,相关简介,或中文翻译,便于同学们更好的阅读和理解,真正进入文字的内涵当中,准确地和文字进行交流。本册主要介绍加州、科罗拉多州、肯塔基州和路易斯安那州的概况、州长、州鸟、州花、州旗、州歌以及相关资料,附有话里话外部分,主要介绍美国公园和美国科学家。
  • 尽头处,生命更灿烂

    尽头处,生命更灿烂

    《尽头处,生命更灿烂》告诉我们如何用生活中半对半的理论来处变不惊地应对各种变化,永葆青春的秘诀,以及什么是最美的快乐生活旋律。并指出,生活中有些事,我们不必认真去做,要学会让心灵在天空中自由地飞翔,将自己幸福快乐的感觉写出来,学会给予别人快乐,自己也会快乐。
热门推荐
  • 重生之刺神归来

    重生之刺神归来

    因兄弟背叛,刺客联盟地址暴露,为了防止兄弟被追杀回零级,苏晨决定解散刺客联盟,删除“辰星”,没想因此重生,既然我重活一世,我被夺走的,都要重新夺回来
  • 倩崽的闲暇时光

    倩崽的闲暇时光

    生活随笔和心情日记还有奇思异想,其中的篇幅可能会比较短,不喜勿喷
  • 我不是一个衰仔

    我不是一个衰仔

    一个普普通通的学生,一颗价值连城的宝石,父母离去的原因,一步步的浮出水面。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 倾世异眸之绝宠三世帝妃

    倾世异眸之绝宠三世帝妃

    因一双紫眸从小被视为灾星和废材的她脸上还有一块惨不忍睹的胎记,十岁时被家人陷害跳下悬崖却被一人所救,九死一生的她完美蜕变。当回归复仇之时,她却遇见了他,眼底的倾城究竟惊艳了谁?“十里红妆为聘,我愿以天地为誓,许你一世繁华,待你嫣然一笑,三生三世,只与你共同沉沦”当她与他共同站在世界之巅时,即使是那背影,互相依偎着,也谱出了惊世绝华
  • 疯仙山:徒弟不好当

    疯仙山:徒弟不好当

    “徒儿,为师决定教你轻功水上漂!”“你不是我师傅!”“徒儿你眼瞎连师傅都不认识了?”“我师傅老奸巨滑,你绝对不是我师傅!”“……”
  • 梦穿异界

    梦穿异界

    公元2016年,全身瘫痪的吴天做了一个梦,梦中的他变成了历史上夜国的亡国公主,正一路逃亡。与此同时,夜国的亡国公主慕思语也做了一个梦,梦中的她,变成了一个全身瘫痪的青年男子。他能否扭转她的命运,她又能否改变他的生活……梦醒之后,一切又将如何……
  • 汝亦无情若有情

    汝亦无情若有情

    龙家三小姐,最不受宠的一个小丫头,悲愤过世之后,绝地重生,终究过上了自己的想要的生活。爹爹不疼,她不认了就是;娘亲不爱,她离家出走就是;姐妹相残,她打回去就是。她的归途,她说了算,高智商,高学历,却是个低情商,遇到他,慢慢调教。
  • 恐慌男女

    恐慌男女

    我梅岚紫因为恐男症毕业整整两年一直找不到正经工作,好不容易找到一份好工作没想到上司是变态禽兽老同学,搬家又遇上与我同病相怜的恐女症患者,人生要不要这么戏剧啊……