Introduction

Introduction
The Author speaks:
The first question put to an author, personally, or through the post, is:
‘Where do you get your ideas from?’
The temptation is great to reply: ‘I always go to Harrods,’ or ‘I get themmostly at the Army & Navy Stores,’ or, snappily, ‘Try Marks and Spencer.’
The universal opinion seems firmly established that there is a magicsource of ideas which authors have discovered how to tap.
One can hardly send one’s questioners back to Elizabethan times, withShakespeare’s:
Tell me, where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot¹, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
You merely say firmly: ‘My own head.’
That, of course, is no help to anybody. If you like the look of your ques-tioner you relent and go a little further.
‘If one idea in particular seems attractive, and you feel you could dosomething with it, then you toss it around, play tricks with it, work it up,tone it down, and gradually get it into shape. Then, of course, you have tostart writing it. That’s not nearly such fun–it becomes hard work. Alternat-ively, you can tuck it carefully away, in storage, for perhaps using in ayear or two years’ time.’
A second question–or rather a statement–is then likely to be:
‘I suppose you take most of your characters from real life?’
An indignant denial to that monstrous² suggestion.
‘No, I don’t. I invent them. They are mine. They’ve got to be my charac-ters–doing what I want them to do, being what I want them to be–comingalive for me, having their own ideas sometimes, but only because I’vemade them become real.’
So the author has produced the ideas, and the characters– but nowcomes the third necessity– the setting. The first two come from insidesources, but the third is outside–it must be there–waiting–in existencealready. You don’t invent that–it’s there–it’s real.
You have been perhaps for a cruise on the Nile–you remember it all–justthe setting you want for this particular story. You have had a meal at aChelsea café. A quarrel was going on–one girl pulled out a handful of an-other girl’s hair. An excellent start for the book you are going to writenext. You travel on the Orient Express. What fun to make it the scene for aplot you are considering. You go to tea with a friend. As you arrive herbrother closes a book he is reading–throws it aside, says: ‘Not bad, butwhy on earth didn’t they ask Evans?’
So you decide immediately a book of yours shortly to be written willbear the title, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
You don’t know yet who Evans is going to be. Never mind. Evans willcome in due course–the title is fixed³.
So, in a sense, you don’t invent your settings. They are outside you, allaround you, in existence–you have only to stretch out your hand and pickand choose. A railway train, a hospital, a London hotel, a Caribbean beach,a country village, a cocktail⁴ party, a girls’ school.
But one thing only applies–they must be there–in existence. Real people,real places. A definite place in time and space. If here and now–how shallyou get full information–apart from the evidence of your own eyes andears? The answer is frighteningly simple.
It is what the Press brings to you every day, served up in your morningpaper under the general heading of News. Collect it from the front page.
What is going on in the world today? What is everyone saying, thinking,doing? Hold up a mirror to 1970 in England.
Look at that front page every day for a month, make notes, consider andclassify.
Every day there is a killing⁵.
A girl strangled.
Elderly woman attacked and robbed of her meagre savings⁶.
Young men or boys–attacking or attacked.
Buildings and telephone kiosks smashed and gutted⁷.
Drug smuggling⁸.
Robbery and assault.
Children missing and children’s murdered bodies found not far fromtheir homes.
Can this be England? Is England really like this? One feels–no–not yet,but it could be.
Fear is awakening–fear of what may be. Not so much because of actualhappenings but because of the possible causes behind them. Some known,some unknown, but felt. And not only in our own country. There are smal-ler paragraphs on other pages–giving news from Europe–from Asia–fromthe Americas–Worldwide News.
Hi-jacking of planes.
Kidnapping.
Violence.
Riots.
Hate.
Anarchy–all growing stronger.
All seeming to lead to worship of destruction, pleasure in cruelty.
What does it all mean? An Elizabethan phrase echoes from the past,speaking of Life:
…it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
And yet one knows–of one’s own knowledge–how much goodness thereis in this world of ours–the kindnesses done, the goodness of heart, theacts of compassion⁹, the kindness of neighbour to neighbour, the helpfulactions of girls and boys.
Then why this fantastic atmosphere of daily news–of things that hap-pen–that are actual facts?
To write a story in this year of Our Lord 1970–you must come to termswith your background. If the background is fantastic, then the story mustaccept its background. It, too, must be a fantasy–an extravaganza. The set-ting must include the fantastic facts of daily life.
Can one envisage¹⁰ a fantastic cause? A secret Campaign for Power? Can amaniacal desire for destruction create a new world? Can one go a step fur-ther and suggest deliverance by fantastic and impossible- soundingmeans?
Nothing is impossible, science has taught us that.
This story is in essence a fantasy. It pretends to be nothing more.
But most of the things that happen in it are happening, or giving prom-ise of happening in the world of today.
It is not an impossible story–it is only a fantastic one.

1 begot   

v.为…之生父( beget的过去式 )；产生，引起

参考例句：

• He begot three children. 他生了三个子女。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cush also begot Nimrod who was the first man of might on earth. 卡什还生了尼姆罗德，尼姆罗德是世上第一个力大无穷的人。 来自辞典例句

2 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

3 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

4 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

5 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

6 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

7 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

9 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

10 envisage   

v.想象，设想，展望，正视

参考例句：

• Nobody can envisage the consequences of total nuclear war.没有人能够想像全面核战争的后果。
• When do you envisage being able to pay me back?你看你什么时候能还我钱？