Writing anything imaginative and questioning usually comes down to one ordinary question: what if? What if there were ghosts who could move through the walls? What if a man were to turn into salt? What if there was a book of real predictions? These questions form clear starting points, while character, setting, and the beginning point are key parts.
In this masterclass with Natasha Pulley, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and creative writing lecturer, you will be guided through the strategies that help craft magical realism, from story planning to the final completion.
Combining practical writing exercises with theory and discussion, this masterclass will give you the tools and inspiration to build your ideas into a novel.
Course content
Finding your ideas quickly and easily
Extending the outline into more complex world-building
How to use historical language to enrich your work
How to think about novel structure
Course Details
Date: Thursday 12 October 2023
Time: 6: 30 pm - 9: 00 pm
You will be sent a link to the online class 24 hours prior to the start time. Please email masterclasses @theguardian. com if you do not receive the access link 24 hours before the scheduled start time. If you require any adjustments to enable your participation in this course, please get in touch with us through email as well.
Soaring to 29, 035 feet, the famous Mount Everest had long been considered unclimbable due to the freezing weather, the obvious potential fall from cliffs and the effects of the extreme high altitude, often called "mountain sickness." But that was to be changed by Edmund Hillary.
When he was invited to join the British Everest expedition in 1953, Edmund Hillary was a highly capable climber. The glacier-covered peaks in his hometown in New Zealand proved a perfect training ground for the Himalaya. It was his fourth Himalayan expedition in just over two years and he was at the peak of fitness.
On May 28, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, an experienced Sherpa (夏尔巴人) set out and reached the South Summit by 9 a. m. next day. But after that, the ridge (山脊) slightly fell before rising suddenly in a rocky spur (尖坡) about 17 meters high just before the true summit. The formation is difficult to climb due to its extreme pitch because a mistake would be deadly. Scratching at the snow with his ax, Hillary managed to overcome this enormous obstacle, later to be known as the Hillary Step.
At 11:30 a. m, the two men found themselves standing at the top of the world. "Not until we were about 50 feet of the top was I ever completely convinced that we were actually going to reach the summit." Hillary later recounted, "Of course I was very, very pleased to be on the summit, but my first thought was a little bit of surprise. After all, this is the ambition of all mountaineers."
Emerging as the first to summit Mount Everest, Hillary continued by helping explore Antarctica, and establishing the Himalayan Trust (信托基金), through which he provided a number of beneficial services to the Himalayan peoples. He also a sizeable legacy that mountain climbers have chased ever since. As a young climber said, "It was not just Hillary and Tenzing that reached the summit of Mount Everest. It was all of humanity. Suddenly, all of us could go."
The Gata used to look annoyed when they received power bills that routinely topped $200. Last September the couple moved into a 1,500-square-foot home in Premier Gardens, an area of 95 "zero-energy homes" (ZEH) just outside town. Now they're actually eager to see their electricity bills. The grand total over the 10 months they've lived in the three-bedroom house: $75. For the past two months, they haven't paid a cent.
ZEH communities are the leading edge of technologies that might someday create houses that produce as much energy as they consume. Premier Gardens is one of a half-dozen subdivisions (住宅开发项目) in California where every home cuts power consumption by 50%, mostly by using low power appliances and solar panels.
Aside from the panels on the roof, Premier Gardens looks like a community of traditional homes. But inside, special windows cut power bills by blocking solar heat in summer and keeping indoor warmth winter.
The rest of the energy savings comes from the solar units. They don't just feed the home they serve. If they generate more power than the home is using, the excess flows into the utility's power grid(电网). The residents are billed by "net metering": they pay for the amount of power that they get from the grid, minus the kilowatts(千瓦) they feed into it. If a home generates more power than it uses, the bill is zero.
That sounds like a bad deal for the power company, but it's not. Solar homes produce the most power on the hot sunny afternoons when everyone rushes home to turn up the air conditioner. "It helps us lower usage at peak power times," says solar expert Mike Keesee. "That lets us avoid building costly plants or buying expensive power at peak usage time."
What's not to like? Mostly the costs. The special features can add $25,000 or more to the purchase price of a house. Tax breaks bring the cost down, especially in California, but in many states ZEHs can be extremely expensive. For the consumer, it's a matter of paying now for the hardware to save later on the power bill.
In 2022, campaign group Fashion Revolution Chelsea dye garden for its Chelsea Flower Show presentation. An ancient craft, natural dyeing is a practice whose time has come again, with hand tie-dyed fashion also making a comeback in recent years.
The revival has been encouraged by Covid lockdowns, "which allowed people to explore the craft at home," says natural-dyeing enthusiast and teacher Susan Dye. It's unlikely, though, that the practice would have caught on in quite the same way if not for a continually growing discomfort about fashion's heavy footprint. From carbon emissions to animal cruelty, fashion is under considerable inspection. "Put it this way, 97% of dyes used in the industry are petrochemically (石油化学产品) based," says sustainable fashion consultant Jackie Andrews, who helped advise the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative. "We've got net zero targets which mean we're going to have to remove all those petrochemicals from the manufacturing cycle."
Fashion is a huge polluter. According to the UN Environment Program, the industry is responsible for up to one-fifth of all industrial water pollution — due to the fact that most clothes today are produced in poorer countries where regulation is weak and enforcement weaker still. Waste water is dumped directly into rivers and streams, poisoning the land as well as the water sources of people and animals who rely on them.
It's easy to see why someone who cares about people, planet and animals, as well as clothes, might turn to natural plant dyeing. From the beauty of the raw materials-often wild plants-to the property of only bonding with natural fiber like cotton and linen, from the minor footprint of upclycling old clothing that has grayed or faded over time to the vibrant and long-lasting dyeing results, plant dyeing feels like a quiet act of rebellion. This is why, while beginners start with simply changing their clothes' color, new worlds open. Many of today's natural dyers grow their own dye plants, run local community workshops, and advocate for change in industrialized fashion systems and beyond.
We need to be conscious of the fact that people around us influence us in subtle ways that may encourage us, or hamper it. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said, "You're the average of the five people you spend most of your time with".
If this "circle" of people is goal-driven, and encouraging, we can experience a positive impact on our actions. On the other hand, if the people around us are negative and restrictive, we may subconsciously "live-up" to these qualities and stop our own personal growth in the process.
How do you identify who is influencing you? Be mindful of the conversations you have with people and the activities you engage in with them. What are the opinions that dominate in your social group? If there is a discrepancy between what you are and where you want to be, look at your circle of five and you will see how instrumental they are in influencing your path. Identify and exclude time and energy vampires from your circle of five.
Nourish your circle
Once you identify the people who belong to your reference group, it is important to nourish these relationships. Different individuals evolve at a different pace. The important part is to be aware of this living and changing "circle of five". Of course, five is a rough guide. It could be slightly more or less. Let this circle of five motivate you, help you gain courage, and take the right actions.
Play this role sincerely and demonstrate a growth mindset to anyone who lists you as part of their circle of five.
A. Know your circle
B. Dominate your circle
C. Over time, this core circle may change.
D. It means that this "circle" can help you live a better life.
E. The influence of those around us can be quite significant.
F. Also remember, just like others influence you, you also have an influence on others.
G. What are the similarities between you and the five people you are constantly close to?
Gumah, growing up in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.
He is the first Black writer to 1 the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993, and some observers saw his 2 as a long delayed corrective(矫正) after years of European and American Nobel laureates(获得者). In his 10 novels, Gurnah has often explored the 3 of exile(流放), identity and belonging. They 4 "Memory of Departure" "Pilgrims Way" and "Dottie", which all deal with the immigrant experience in Britain.
Gurnah's first language is Swahili, but he 5 English as his literary language. He drew on the imagery and stories from the Quran, 6 from Arabic and Persian poetry, particularly "The Arabian Nights". The news of Gumah's Nobel 7 by fellow novelists and academics who have long argued that his 8 deserve a wider audience.
Gumah was born in Zanzibar, which is now 9 of Tanzania, in 1948. Then, in 1964, he fled to England. 10 , poor; homesick, he began to write scraps(片段) in his diary, then 11 entries, then stories about other people. In his 20s, he started 12 fiction. Then he finished his first novel, "Memory of Departure", about a young man who flees a failed uprising, at the same time he was writing his Ph. D. dissertation(论文). 13 , he became a professor of English.
Though Gurnah hasn't lived in Tanzania since he was a 14 , his homeland always inspires him of his imagination, 15 , he said "my homeland always asserts myself in my imagination, even when I deliberately try to set my stories elsewhere".
The first time I entered the busy Chinese hotpot restaurant, I was immediately impressed by the delicious smells and lively chatter. The waiter handed me a menu, but it was predominantly written in Chinese, characters were completely beyond my comprehension. With some hesitation, I decided to take leap of faith and pointed at a few items on the menu that looked (invite).
As the bubbling pot was set (boil), I watched with fascination as the waiter poured a fragrant broth (肉汤) into it. (mix) with chili peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and other mysterious spices, the pot released a mouthwatering aroma into the air.
The moment of truth came I tentatively dipped my chopsticks into the broth and added a slice of thinly sliced beef and a handful of vegetables. The first bite was an (explode) of flavors.
The numbing sensation from the Sichuan peppercorns danced on my tongue, and I understood the reason for the restaurant's name, "Spicy Heaven."
I continued to experiment, trying various ingredients and(marvel) at not only the food, but also the adventure, the(delight) surprise of a world of flavors in a single bubbling pot. my limited knowledge of the Chinese language, I laughed with my newfound friends and shared stories.
Palm trees seemed to speed by the car window. Eight-year-old Katrina began to get nervous, the way she always did in new surroundings. She felt a thin shine of sweat above her lip in spite of the car's cool air. "The aquarium won't be crowded, I bet, and people are gonna notice me. I hate wearing this prosthesis leg (假肢)." She felt tears pinprick behind her eyes. "Not being normal is the worst."
Entering the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, around a comer of a tank, she noticed an animal that looked unusual. "Is that a dolphin with stump (假肢) instead of a tail?" she asked an aquarium staff. He nodded. "Yes, that's Winter. She's a very special dolphin." "What happened to her?" "This girl dolphin was found off the coast of Florida, caught in a crab trap. The ropes from the trap cut off the blood circulation to her tail. So she lost her tail," Katrina caught her breath. "She's just like me. She's just like me." "But she struggled to survive. Now she wears a prosthetic tail part of the day to help her swim like a dolphin's supposed to swim." the staff continued, "Every day, Winter shows us anything is possible if we believe."
Katrina felt her heartstring was touched. She waved at Winter. Looking at Katrina, Winter raised her flipper (鳍), came to her and lifted her head. "She's swimming right into my arms," Katrina said tearfully. They made eye contact. She seemed to be speaking to Katrina: We're the same.
Back home, all Katrina talked about was Winter. For two weeks, she cried and begged her mother to take her back to Clearwater.
Unfortunately, another blow hit Katrina. She fell on the hardwood floor at home and broke her other leg. Katrina was in constant leg nerve pain. After a through examination, the doctor explained bad news that she would need another surgery on her leg. Years of a living hell came back to her.
She started fearing surgery again and refused to take any.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Katrina's mom decided to take her back to Clearwater.
Finally came the day when Katrina was in the hospital again.
