Задание 4 ЕГЭ по английскому языку

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Presenter: Hello, everybody, and welcome to our weekly programme 'The Writer's Workshop'. Today in our studio, we have Chris Black, a writer and teacher living in Los Angeles. He's the author of a flash fiction collection, and he's also published over 50 stories in various literary journals. He's been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. He is currently Chair of Creative Writing at the California State School for the Arts. Hi, Chris.

Chris: Hello, everybody. Thank you for inviting me here today.

Presenter: You obviously prefer to write in second person. Why so?

Chris: I have a theory about writing in second person, wholly untested, that it works best for stories that are inherently about identity. There's an effect that happens when I read a second-person story that reminds me a little of playing a first-person video game, where I'm supposed to be this person, but I also know almost nothing about this person. Second-person fiction reads like that to me. The story is a series of puzzle pieces for readers as we actively participate in assembling the identity of the narrator.

Presenter: What is flash fiction, and why do you write it?

Chris: Flash fiction is a fictional work, which is incredibly short, but you can still see character and plot development there. It's a secret of writing an entire book quickly. My collection of 45 short stories is so short that I never have to decide anything. The form allows me to write a story about the moment before a story, take it right up to the point that something catastrophic will have to happen, and then the story's over. The reader is just left there in that moment, imagining all the things that might happen next. For me, that not knowing is a more interesting place than the knowing. This is one of the things I love about flash fiction.

Presenter: Haven't you ever thought to enlarge your stories?

Chris: Well, there are many stories in the collection I could imagine enlarging. The book is basically 45 inciting incidents for 45 future novels.

Presenter: One of your books is called 'Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups'. What is it about fairy tales that seems to convey the feelings we get from real life?

Chris: There are a lot of people who study fairy tales as a genre, and I should say I'm not one of those people. I'm no fairytale scholar, but I am a big fan, and particularly a fan of the fairytale's ability to evoke deep, resonant, inexplicable horror. What I'm hoping to do with this very book you've mentioned is explore some of the lingering corners of adult psychology that still resonate within the hidden kid fears. There are plenty of things in our lives that don't make sense exactly, but we push them out of focus so we can function as adults in the world. They're still there, making a mess of our minds in ways we don't fully understand.

Presenter: In your interviews, you've mentioned that you walk in the footsteps of Angela Carter. Why have you chosen this writer as a role model for you?

Chris: Well, Angela Carter, along with a few other people, basically created the genre of fairy tale-inspired fiction. She helped me form a very non-judgmental view of what that literature can be. She helped reinforce in me this idea that those strange, magical stories have value to adults too. But honestly, the thing I admire most about Angela Carter has to do with the enormous compassion and empathy she brought to the characters in her stories. What a gigantic, wonderful, fair heart she had! That's the kind of writing I want to do too.

Presenter: Thank you, Chris. It's been very interesting talking to you.

Chris: Thank you.