It was lovely to meet half of you at Southam last night , and I do hope you all found it a useful meeting--especially our new " shadowers". The practical session to get to grips with the blog, I hope really helped those of you who had been struggling. Carla and I look forward to see that you're all blogging away nicely!
Anyone still having trouble please shout!!
I know some of you ( well, all of us really! ) find the idea of the Will Self Umbrella , a little daunting, but it will be interesting to see what we think, when we come out at the end....
Penny's idea of reading it in small chunks, alongside something else, sounds a good one.
We all agree that the judges have certainly turned around from last year, with all the criticism that entailed, and, as The Telegraph said "Man Booker Prize shortlist opts for experimental novels in which the shock of language is shown in so many different ways." Something to muse on as we're reading..
Last night, we thought we'd note down a few thoughts to consider as we're going along, which may help in the final judging, so here they are, for those not there:
* Writing needs to be memorable. It needs to have weight. Remember the founder of Man Booker , Sir Michael Caine, talked of books that would last, and still be read 20 years on.
* Good and realistic characterisation ( immaterial whether we identify with them, or not)
* A universal theme, a feeling that it transcends boundaries of place and time.
* And we agreed that it should be readable and accessible.
Please disagree/ and or add anything to this list, for the benefit of everyone
Man Booker have asked me to send them a group profile and picture, so I will be doing that shortly
Ok, that's enough from me--first weekend of reading is here, so make the most of it. There's not many of them!!
Happy Reading!
I don't even think the characterisation has to be 'realistic' -- that is so very subjective, but I do think it needs to be intensely human. It seems to me in order to be 'worthy' these Booker winners need to say something rather profound about the human condition. Or perhaps it's better to say 'resonant' than profound. Because the best messages, those that affect us most deeply, are those we recognize at once deep inside as part of the universal human condition, however it may be interpreted in time and place. Without that quality, the book is just a good yarn.
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