新概念英语四册课堂笔记 Lesson48:What Every Writer Wants from

 L48 What Every Writer Wants from Harper's

I have known very few writers, but those I have known, and whom I respected, confess at once that they have little idea where they arc going when they first set pen to paper. They have a character, perhaps two, they are in that condition of eager discomfort which passes for inspiration, all admit radical changes of destination once the journey has begun; one, to my certain knowledge, spent nine months on a novel about Kashmir, then reset the whole thing in the Scottish Highlands. I never heard of anyone making a 'skeleton', as we were taught at school. In the breaking and remaking, in the timing, interweaving, beginning afresh, the writer comes to discern things in his material which were not consciously in his mind when he began. This organic process, often leading to moments of extraordinary self-discovery, is of an indescribable fascination. A blurred image appears, he adds a brushstroke and another, and it is gone; but something was there, and he will not rest till he has captured it. Sometimes the yeast within a writer outlives a book he has written. I have heard of writers who read nothing but their own books, like adolescents they stand before the mirror, and still cannot fathom the exact outline of the vision before them. For the same reason, writers talk interminably about their own books, winkling out hidden meanings, super-imposing new ones,begging response from those around them. Of course a writer doing this is misunderstood: he might as well try to explain a crime or a love affair. He is also, incidentally, an unforgivable bore.
This temptation to cover the distance between himself and the reader, to study his image in the sight of those who do not know him, can be his undoing: he has begun to write to please.
A young English writer made the pertinent observation a year or two back that the talent goes into the first draft, and the art into the drafts that follow. For this reason also the writer, like any other artist, has no resting place, no crowd or movement in which he may take comfort, no judgment from outside which can replace the judgment from within. A writer makes order out of the anarchy of his heart; he submits himself to a more ruthless discipline than any critic dreamed of, and when he flirsts with fame, he is taking time off from living with himself, from the search for what his world contains at its inmost point.
最难的课文 L55 L58 L58 L60
New words and expressions
confess 承认 confess one's guilt 承认罪行 confess that I am guilty (也可跟从句)
表示"承认"的词还有：admit, acknowledge, confined
confess与它们的区别在于：confess是宗教词汇（忏悔）
inspiration灵感 inspire激发 brain wave灵机一动，脑波 sunden inspiration灵机一动
radical 根本的 也有"激进"之意
（同）primary根本，fundamental基本，essential根本
interweave 交织 inter相互 weave 编
weave a story 编故事 Weaving Maid 织女 He weaves a lie.撒谎
afresh 重新 =again
fresh student 新生 fresh water淡水资源 I am fresh here.
discern辩明，领悟 ——长期的考证，敏锐的目光（强调result）
(同)observe——（科学上）长期、敏锐考证（强调process）
detect——侦察，侦探
spot——猛然发现（suddenly） I spotted an old friend of mine.
indescribable无法描述的 beyond description
utter表述 unutterable非言语所能表达的
express表达 expressible能表达的 inexpressible难以形容的
blur使……模糊不清 Tears blur my eyes.泪水模糊了双眼。 blur with由于……而看不清
befog——由于雾看不清 blot——墨水弄污 stain——由于污渍而弄得不美观
yeast激动 来源：酵母，发酵粉
I am yeasty.我有点激动。 yeasty talk空洞的，一派胡言
fathom领悟，彻底了解 fathomless无法计量，无法了解的 fathomable能够了解的
原意：测量（水）深的手段 go to the bottom of sth.研究 with plumb研究
comprehend理解 penetrate深入，探索