Passage Nineteen (Creative Process of Works)

The great question that this paper will, but feebly, attempt to answer is , what is the creative process?

Though much theory has accumulated, little is really known about the power that lies at the bottom of poetic creation. It is true that great poets and artists produce beauty by employing all the powers of personality and by fusing emotions, reason, and intuitions. But what is the magical synthesis that joins and arranges these complex parts into poetic unity?

John L.Lowes, in his justly famous “The Road to Xanadu,” developed one of the earliest and still generally acceptable answers to this tantalizing question. Imaginative creation, he concludes, is a complex process in which the conscious and unconscious minds jointly operate. “There is…the deep well with its chaos of fortuitously blending images; but there is likewise the Vision which sees shining in and through the chaos of the potential lines of Form, and with the Vision, the controlling Will. Which gives to that potential beauty actuality.”

The Deep Well is the unconscious mind that is peopled with the facts, ideas, feelings of the conscious activity. The imaginative vision, an unconscious activity, shines through the land of chaos, of lights and shadows, silently seeking pattern and form. Finally, the conscious mind again, through Will, captures and embodies the idea in the final work of art. In this way is unity born out of chaos.

Though there can be no absolute certainty, there is general agreement that the periods in the development of a creative work parallel, to some extent, Lowes’ theory of Well, Vision, Form, and Will. There are at least three stages in the creative process: preparation, inspiration, work.

In a sense, the period of preparation is all of the writer’s life. It is the Deep Well. It is the Deep Well. It is especially a period of concentration which gives the unconscious mind an opportunity to communicate with the conscious mind. When remembrance of things past reach the conscious level of the writer’s mind, he is ready to go on with the process. Part of this preparation involves learning a medium—learning a language, learning how to write, learning literary forms. It is important to mot here that form cannot be imposed upon the idea. Evidence, though sparse, shows that the idea gives birth to the form that can best convey it. It is the Vision, according to Lowes, ” which sees shining in and through the chaws of the potential lines of from … ”

1.       When remembrance of things past reach the conscious level, the post has reached the stage called

[A]. Well.      [B]. Vision.       [C]. Form.        [D]. Will.

2.       Which of the following statements is TRUE?

[A]. The form determines the subject matter.

[B]. The idea determines the form.

[C]. Vision makes beauty an actuality.

[D]. A writer is unconscious when he prepares his work.

3.       The word “fortuitously” in the third paragraph means

[A]. accidentally.        [B]. luckily.         [C]. thoroughly.         [D]. potentially.

4.       The remembrance of things past is carried on in the

[A]. Deep Well.                     [B]. Vision.

[C]. Chaotic lights and shadows.        [D]. Conscious mind.

Vocabulary

1.   fuse                      融化，结合

2.   intuition                   直觉

3.   Xanadu                  是一个非常美的，田园诗般的地方。美国诗人Sanul T Coleridge还根据这地方写了一首诗，“Kubla Khan” 忽必烈汗（即元世祖）

4.   John  L. Lowes            1876——1945年美国学者，批评家及教师

5.   tantalizing                 引起好奇心的，可望不可及的，逗人得

6.   fortuitous                  偶然的，幸运的

7.   parallel                   相应于

8.   sparse                    稀少，稀疏

9.   synthesis                  综合，综合法