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Le Week-end (2013) Storytelling Notes
Le Week-end is a comedy, drama, romance, but not a rom-com — unlike the bulk of romantic/comedy blends this is about a couple on their 30th wedding anniversary, attempting to fall in love with each other again. The promotional material shows the characters laughing, but this is not representative of the mood, which is heavy. The…
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What Is A “Coming-of-age” Story?
Coming-of-age is a type of story in which a young person becomes an adult, or heads in that direction. There are many children’s stories (or stories about children) about a child losing their innocence. When that character is a bit older (adolescent) then it’s called a coming-of-age story. Sometimes people think they know you. They know…
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Storytelling Notes On A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2017)
Daniel Handler wrote the teleplay (as well as the books) to the Netflix adaptation of A Series Of Unfortunate Events. The author’s voice and politics come through loud and clear.
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What Is Magical Realism? Is It Fabulism?
Magical realism is when the world is about 95% normal, but 5% magical/mystical and that magic is a totally natural part of the world.
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What Is Surrealism?
The word ‘surrealism’ has a different use in everyday English from its meaning in critical discourse. Surrealism in everyday English: I don’t understand it. Weird somehow. Creepy. Like a dream. Disparate things are together and don’t make sense. Surrealism in critical discourse: Over and above. Literally, super-real (from French). ‘Surreal’ is a modern word and does…
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That Is NOT A Good Idea by Mo Willems Analysis
That is NOT A Good Idea is a picture book written and illustrated by the Mo Willems team. This is a funny book which makes use of silent film techniques.
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Chatterbox by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland Analysis
Unfortunately for everyone, Chatterbox by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland isn’t the only children’s book in existence called Chatterbox. This isn’t the creepiest children’s book image I’ve ever seen but it’s up there. The Australian, contemporary picture book called Chatterbox is a very satisfying book to read aloud and my kid just loves it. Deborah…
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This Book Just Ate My Dog by Richard Byrne (2014) Analysis
This Book Just Ate My Dog is a great example of both. Part way through the story the reader is yanked out of it, reminded in no uncertain terms that this thing they’re holding… yeah, it’s a book. It’s a physical object. **SPOILER ALERT** The dog disappears into the gutter. I have seen little kids find…
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What Happened To Rosemary Fawcett?
Roald Dahl’s work wasn’t always illustrated by Quentin Blake. Dirty Beasts, for example, was originally illustrated by a young woman new to the field, Rosemary Fawcett. The edition she illustrated is now out of print. Jeremy Treglown explains the story in his biography of Roald Dahl: To one British critic, Russell Davies, “the buzz of misanthropy…
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Hop O’ My Thumb by Charles Perrault
Hop O’ My Thumb is so similar to Hansel and Gretel you might wonder how both co-existed. Both stories have: A time of famine In which the parents decide to leave their children in the woods A trail of pebbles A second abandonment, further into the woods A welcoming cottage in the woods A cannibalistic…
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What’s behind the wide appeal of horrible, brooding, YA boyfriends?
THE RECIPE FOR A YOUNG ADULT DARK PARANORMAL ROMANCE BOYFRIEND Handsome In a white kind of way Muscled but not too muscled — not like he works at it Well groomed and fairly nubile — not much body hair Remarkable eyes and gaze A bit older than the female protagonist A bit taller Maybe a…
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What Is A Goth?
The word ‘goth’ is used in various ways in various contexts. When applied to a person, what does it mean?
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The Three Main Types Of Modern Myth Stories
In everyday English, a myth is a story which is not true. In a myth, the surface level story is not true, but the symbols running through the story say something deeper about humankind. This is what makes it true.
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What Colour Is Your Sun?
Different cultures view the sun differently. Ask a Western child to draw the sun and they will draw it yellow. Ask a Japanese child to draw the sun and they will draw it red. Our closest star is ‘actually’ white. I grew up in New Zealand and I drew it yellow. But when I lived as…
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What Is A Flâneur? What Is A Dandy?
As described by James Wood in How Fiction Works, the flâneur is the loafer, usually a young man, who walks the streets with no great urgency, seeing, looking, reflecting. Flânerie describes aimless behaviour. In French it’s spelt like this: flâneur. Wood also uses the great phrases ‘porous scout‘ and ‘Noah’s dove‘ to describe this authorial stand-in.…