I’ve started a creative writing course and it has made me realise that I don’t really read that much “literature” anymore. That is capital L, serious, Booker/Miles Franklin [insert appropriate award] winning books.
Surprisingly, the course is very much about the ‘classics’ with set readings from authors such as: Hemmingway, DeLillo, Ondaatje, Proulx, Naipaul, Carey and Winton.
I am struggling with the readings. And it’s not just the short fiction, but also the critical analysis pieces which have so far relied upon a close textual reading ie. this is an important point in the narrative because it represents this and in relationship to that etc.
Oh god, reading some of these set pieces just reminds me why I didn’t continue with literary studies at university!
The main text is The Best Australian Stories 2010, edited by Cate Kennedy. And to be quite frank I didn’t find anything that great about them! I actually enjoyed about 2 stories in the whole collection.
The frustrating thing is that I am supposed to use some of these stories as a springboard for my own writing. Oh and the fact that I have to produce a peice of fiction that is:
- literary in style: not specialist generic fiction such as science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery – but you may draw upon aspects of those genres providing your work remains literary in style and sophisticated in approach and content.
I'm a little miffed that it seems that "literature" does not seem to encompass sci fi, mystery or other genres. It's an old fashioned and very conservative view of literature which suprises me because the institution I am at isn't a traditional conservative "sandstone" sort of place.
After all this whining, you may be suprised that I have decided to contiue with the course. The actual creative writing has been fun and it is quite liberating that you get to make it all up! Especially when my day job is all about writing 'key messages' for other people.
That and the fact that I will be writing a genre influenced creative piece for my assesment. Just trying to work out whether to go with zombies or vampires......
I started reading George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones, the first novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels because I found out that HBO are making it into a new TV series. Plus the added bonus that Sean Bean was playing one of the lead characters Eddard Stark!
The good news is that Game of Thrones is a great read, with lots of interesting characters and a complicated but compelling story. It has been aptly described as, “the Sopranos in Middle-earth".
Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective. Usually, I find this narrative structure annoying and all too easily used by writers who can’t sustain a proper narrative. But fortunately it works here and Martin is able to create a compelling level of suspense while also giving the reader an overall view of the intersecting stories.
In a very short amount of writing, Martin creates a vast world of believable characters and situations. I also liked the fact that Martin is not afraid to kill of major characters in the book, which makes it exciting!
The bad news is that I didn’t quite make it through the second book, A Clash of Kings. I got mid-way and just lost interest. The story seemed to drag on and as more different characters were introduced it all got a bit too long and laborious. Plus I was distinctly disappointed at the lack of fantasy element in the book ie. where is the magic/dragons?
I’m not sure whether I will try the second book again.......
The series is set to premiere on April 17, watch the trailer video here:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2864422169/
Oh and here's pic of Sean Bean in character:
It’s been a while since I have read any contemporary Japanese fiction. A few years ago, I went through a rather intense period, reading all the books of Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami.
I recently received Shuichi Yoshida’s Villain as a present from Tseenster. It’s the first novel of his published in English and because of the current popularity for translated crime fiction, he is being marketed as the next Stieg Larsson.
Initially difficult to get into, I found that after a few chapters the book was quite engrossing.
The story is based in southern Japan, where the body of Fukuoka insurance saleswoman Yoshino Ishibashi is found. Soon after the discovery of the dead woman's body, Nagasaki police charge twenty-seven year old construction worker Yuichi Shimizu with first degree murder.
Villain has been described as part “police procedural and dirty realism” , as the focus of the story is not really the actual crime but the affects of it on the all the different players.
The novel is not so much concerned with ‘who did it?’ to ‘why did they do it?’. Like all good crime fiction, that is the more interesting and challenging question.
Structurally the novels shifts from different narrators, some talking directly to the reader in an interview style. This structure works because the strength of the novel is really Yoshida’s insightful and acute analysis of contemporary Japanese society. His able to directly give voice to the conflicts and misunderstandings between the different generations of Japanese society.
Interestingly, I think his most critical representations are of Japanese youth (mid twenties) and their disconnection to the any emotional reality.
Having lived in semi-rural Southern Japan in 2001, doing the usual teaching English gig, I found this Yoshida's representations of provincial Japanese life really spot on. Indeed, one of the main characters in the novel: the spoilt rich brat could have modelled on one of my students!
I am eagerly awaiting the translation of Yoshida's next novel.
Two of my best read for 2010 were actually teen/young adults books:
I stayed up many late nights over the Christmas break reading the Hunger Games Trilogy. One of the reasons I've enjoyed teen/young adult books so much lately is that the plot lines are so sharp and tight; there is a story being told.
Set in the post-apocalyptic world where the Central Government forces one boy and one girl from each district to fight to the death in televised ‘Hunger Games’. Katniss Evergreen volunteers for her sister to becomes a contestant in this 'Big Brother' TV program with a difference:the contestants must kill each other.
The book is a thrilling read with the lots of twist and turns in the plot. And unlike some trilogies the narrative is easily sustained over the three books, with real character development.
With the movie in the pipelines, there has been much debate about who should be cast as Katniss Everdeen. My vote is for Haillee Stendfield who is brilliant in the Coen brother's lastest movie True Grit.
I also have high hope for the movie as Suzanne Collins is writing the screenplay. But we will have to wait awhile as the movie isn’t scheduled to come out to 2013.
