He redefined how to talk about love, sex, and the fullness of human relationships

And if we pick up a pen and a notebook and carefully record the various textual images in McEwan's novels, we may find that "black" is far from everything McEwan is about. .

Below are 26 keywords related to McEwan.

A=Adulthood

McEwan writes beautifully about the variety of human experiences, including the exquisite transformation from child to adult, or the individual's The moment when innocence is lost in the face of the harsh light of society’s harsh reality.

B=Belief

McEwan’s examination of the world often focuses on human beings’ desire for faith. Belief in religion, science, mysticism, or self. All beliefs are treated by McEwan with equal parts sympathy and skepticism.

C=Childhood

Have you forgotten what it was like to be a child? McEwan doesn't, and he reminds us of children's ability to understand joy, endless sorrow, confusion, and love.

"For children, childhood is eternal. It is always now, everything is in the present tense. Of course they have memories, of course for them time passes slowly and the end is Christmas section. But they don't feel it. That's what they feel today, when they say 'when I grow up', there's always an edge of doubt - how could they become someone else than they are now?" p>

Excerpted from｜McEwan** "Children in Time" **

D=Dread (fear)

Readers are particularly likely to think of McEwan's early works It's dark, dangerous, or (less creatively) scary, but not without reason.

E=Empathy

Part of McEwan's charm as a writer is his ability to evoke empathy with the experiences and perspectives of others. His characters are alive because we recognize ourselves in them.

F＝Fitzrovia

McEwan lives in Fitzrovia, London all year round, and this environment is depicted in his novel "Saturday" played an important role. A keen observer of this spatial environment, McEwan opens with a description of Fitzrovia, perfectly capturing the essence of modern life in a busy city.

"He stood there, as impervious to the chill as a marble statue, looking out over Charlotte Street, at the distant rows of tiny houses, scaffolding and pointed roofs. It was This city is truly a great achievement, a brilliant creation and a masterpiece of nature - millions of people travel through this city that has been built up and rebuilt over thousands of years, as if they were living on a coral reef, day after day. People can rest, work, and play in harmony most of the time, and almost everyone expects the city to continue to function like this. ”

Excerpted from ｜McEwan **"Saturday" **

G=Gastronomy (cooking)

Interested in Henri Perron's fish stew from Saturday? McEwan provides a detailed description of this menu on his website: Henri Perron's Fish Stew.

(Please search: Henry Perowne's Fish Stew)

H=Heteronyms (language)

McEwan's mastery of language allows him to explore the full range of our human experience and misunderstandings. One minute he's highlighting details the next, and the next he's exposing readers to more global topics. He does this by showing us how language can enter us as a portal into the world and into our inner self.

"In a language like English that pays attention to idiomatic usage, misunderstandings caused by mispronunciation are inevitable. As long as the stress is moved back, a verb can become a noun. It becomes the process of executing something. When 'refuse' is used as a verb, it means to insist on saying no to something you think is wrong. If the stress is moved forward, it becomes a pile of smelly garbage."

Excerpted from｜McEwan**"Amsterdam"**

I＝Inaction (inaction)

Often seen as an exquisite elaboration of plot and characters Writer, McEwan Some of the most powerful moments in McEwan's stories come from characters' inactions—words left unsaid, time passed, lives incomplete.

J＝Jokes

Enjoy laughing? McEwan deftly integrates his own humor into his narrative, but his aim is not to insert a simple joke or two:

"A relentless, angry review The patient asked the pathologist if he was absolutely sure that the patient was dead before the autopsy. The doctor replied that he was absolutely sure. That was because the patient's brain was in a jar on my desk. The examiner then asked, is it possible that the patient is still alive? Yes, he may still be alive and working as a lawyer somewhere."

Excerpted from "Children's Act" by McEwan**. **

K = Kink

McEwan's early stories were rife with eccentricities and taboos, but through his work he developed a new standard for How we talk about love, sex, and the fullness of human relationships.

L = Luck

Some of McEwan's characters create their own desperate circumstances, but others simply respond to the demands the world places on them . Is this free will or fate? Or is it something unpredictable?

M=Music

McEwan once told David Remnick, editor-in-chief of The New Yorker magazine, "I love blues and rock and jazz. I also listen to A lot of classical music. The music flowed through me. "That love stayed with me. In addition to writing oratorios ("Shall We Die?") and plays ("For You"), McEwan incorporated music into his novels, including "Amsterdam," "On Chesil Beach," "Saturday" and Children Act.

N=No

Some people are reluctant to answer "no", but this does not mean that we should not say "no".

“My love for you is strong and passionate. It refuses to accept rejection. It is advancing steadily towards you and is about to possess you and save you.

”

Excerpted from McEwan’s “Intolerable Love”

O＝Occupations (occupation)

Musicians, poets, scholars, surgeons, judges , and many other professions, populate McEwan's novels. He describes professions with an insider's clarity, and never abandons the writer's eye for seeing each profession as a metaphor in the novel. In this excerpt, McEwan describes his protagonist Henry Perronne's "immersion in the present" as performing neurosurgery:

"For the past two hours, he had been immersed in the present moment." In the dream, you abandon all consciousness of time, abandon all other consciousnesses in life, and even forget your own existence. He enters a pure present, without the burden of the past or the worries of the future. ”

Excerpted from McEwan’s “Saturday”

P＝Pickled

Every writer hopes that his debut novel will be a blockbuster, and many writers hope that their debut novel will be a blockbuster. Writers do it, but rarely include truly disturbing and imaginative stories in these books, yet McEwan did it with his first novel, First Love, Last Rites

Who can forget Captain Nichols' precious pickled penis in "Solid Geometry"

Q=Quantum Mechanics

Science versus McEwe? Eng's work was innovative and influential. In addition to lectures, he participated in fair discussions about climate change, Darwinism, human nature, the intersection of religion and science, and language, although some of his characters shared his interest in science. There are strong interests, but they rarely go unchallenged by artists, writers, and mystics

R=Relationships

One of McEwan's strengths as a writer is that. He helps us make sense of the diverse and imperceptible ways in which we simultaneously nourish and destroy each other with words, silence, gestures, and inaction. in social relations".

S=Suitcase

If you've ever tried to pack a suitcase, make sure you take some notes while reading The Innocents.

T=Time

Traffic jam? Missed the appointment?

U=Undoing

Who has not wished that he could undo some of the things he had done in the past? If only he could make up for the regrets and unintended consequences of his actions. The pain caused by the unspoken words is gone. Who hasn’t thought about it like this? No matter how much she willingly gave up—whether it was the clarification and inspiration she received in individual counseling or the happy hours on the college lawn—she could never undo the damage she had done. It can never be made up for. She is unforgivable. ”

Excerpted from｜McEwan’s “Atonement”

V＝Venice (Venice)

Although many readers think that Venice should be “Love Only Strangers” McEwan did not explicitly write about the city described in the novel.

Harold Pinter adapted the novel into a screenplay and a film directed by Paul Schrader, set in Venice. This may have added to people's confusion.

W=War

From the powerful depiction of the evacuation of Dunkirk in Atonement to the razor-sharp depiction of Cold War Berlin in The Innocents, Mike Yoon frequently reminds readers that the effects of war and conflict will ripple into the future.

X=X-chromosome

Some of McEwan's most memorable characters are women. From his first novel, he examined the difficult question of gender and the role it plays in society and relationships.

"Girls can wear jeans, cut their hair short, and wear shirts and boots, because it looks good to look like a boy, which is very honorable for girls. But if a boy To be a girl is to be depraved, according to your theory, because you secretly believe that to be a girl is to be depraved."

Excerpted from "The Cement Garden" by McEwan

Y＝Yearning. (Desire)

How intense can McEwan portray desire? If a mannequin evoked these feelings, imagine what he would write about those living, breathing characters?

Z=Zzzzz

Although McEwan's characters enjoy spending time in bed, they don't always have sex. Sometimes they dream, sometimes they think about life and death, or sometimes they just think about sex.

In fact, several articles in McEwan's bright collection of stories for young people, "Peter the Dreamer," are almost philosophical:

▲ The picture above is from Mike The movie "Atonement" adapted from Ewan's novel

Translated from

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/on-writing/the-a-to-z/ 2015/apr/02/ian-mcewan/