Writers Who Read
LIVE! #19

3 May 2020

translated by
Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Agenda



  • Why We're Here / Roundtable Rules

  • Introduction to Literary Forensics

  • Group Discussion

  • Further Study


Why We're Here

We writers want to improve our craft
by reading like a writer

We learn from each other
using Literary Forensics

Roundtable Rules

Always refer back to the book

Practice active listening & serendipity

Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion

Always refer back to the book

Reading Teaches Writing

Literary Forensics

 

What you bring

What you feel

What you notice

What you study

Literary Forensics

 

What you bring

What you feel

What you notice

What you study

Introductions

What do you bring
to this 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

  •  

Literary Forensics

 

What you bring

What you feel

What you notice

What you study

What do you 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

Literary Forensics

 

What you bring

What you feel

What you notice

What you study

What do you notice?

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



Literary Forensics

 

What you bring

What you feel

What you notice

What you study

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

Literary Forensics

 

What you bring

What you feel

What you notice

What you study

Listen to our podcast: Writers Who Read

Attend our next meeting in person or online

Literary Forensics
Available worldwide at your local bookstore
and online everywhere

Thanks to: Boulder Writers Alliance

Contact Gary: gary@WritersWhoRead.com
Additional Literary Forensics Resources

Happy Reading
and
Happy Writing!