Writers Who Read
LIVE! #19
3 May 2020
translated by
Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Agenda
- Why We're Here
- Literary Forensics
- - What do I bring?
- - What do I feel?
- - What do I notice?
- - What do I study?
- Next Month's Reading & Study
Why We're Here
We Writers want to improve our craft
by Reading like a Writer
through Literary Forensics training
we learn from each other
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
We practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Today's author: Olga Tokarczuk
- Born in 1962 in Sulechów, Poland
- Novelist, essayist, poet, psychologist, screenwriter
- Nobel Prize in Literature (2018)
- Notable awards: Nike Award (2008, 2015); Vilenica Prize (2013); Brückepreis (2015); Man Booker International Prize (2018); Jan Michalski Prize (2018); Prix Laure Bataillon (2019)
- Translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones
- - Has translated 4 of Tokarczuk's novels into English
- - Jennifer Croft has translated 1
What do I feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do I notice?
- • Language and Grammar
- • Context
- • Point of view
- • Character & character development
- • Pacing
- • Horizontal structure
- • Layering of themes
- • Overall effect
Auguries of Innocence - William Blake (34 of its 132 lines appear in Plow)
- 1. To see a World in a Grain of Sand
- 2. And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
- 3. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
- 4. And Eternity in an hour
- 5. A Robin Red breast in a Cage
- 6. Puts all Heaven in a Rage
- 9. A dog starv’d at his Masters Gate
- 10. Predicts the ruin of the State
- 11. A Horse misus’d upon the Road
- 12. Calls to Heaven for Human blood
- 15. A Skylark wounded in the wing
- 16. A Cherubim does cease to sing
- 21. The wild deer, wand’ring here & there
- 22. Keeps the Human Soul from Care
- 35. He who torments the Chafers Sprite
- 36. Weaves a Bower in endless Night
- 39. Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
- 40. For the Last Judgment draweth nigh
- 43. The Beggars Dog & Widows Cat
- 44. Feed them & thou wilt grow fat
- 67. Every Tear from Every Eye
- 68. Becomes a Babe in Eternity
- 69. This is caught by Females bright
- 70. And return’d to its own delight
- 71. The Bleat the Bark Bellow & Roar
- 72. Are Waves that Beat on Heavens Shore
- 93. The Questioner who sits so sly
- 94. Shall never know how to Reply
- 107. He who Doubts from what he sees
- 108. Will ne’er Believe do what you Please
- 109. If the Sun & Moon should Doubt
- 110. They’d immediately Go out
- 119. Every Night & every Morn
- 120. Some to Misery are Born
- 121. Every Morn and every Night
- 122. Some are Born to sweet delight
- 123. Some are Born to sweet delight
- 124. Some are Born to Endless Night
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Stats
- Marketing: Dark Humor, Literary Satire Fiction, Lawyers & Criminals Humor
- Genre: Realistic, Modern-Day, Arch-Plot Long-Form
- Word count: 77,226
- Print Pages: 285
- Reading Level: 8th grade
- POV: Janina
- Publish date (Polish): November 25, 2009
- Publish date (English-UK): September 12, 2018; (English-US): August 13, 2019
- Publisher: Riverhead Books
- Sold By: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
- Prizes: 2019 International Booker Prize Longlist; 2019 National Book Award Translated Literature; 2019 Earphones Award for English Audiobook
- Adaptations: Spoor (film) 2017
from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake
Writers Who Read: Coming Up
June 7: Agent Running in the Field (England, 2019) - John le Carré