LIVE! #38
6 February 2022

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

Literary Forensics

 

What do I bring?

What do I feel?

What do I notice?

What do I study?

Literary Forensics

 

What do I bring?

What do I feel?

What do I notice?

What do I study?

Introductions

What do I bring
to this book?

Today's author: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro

  • Born Nagasaki, Japan, 1954; moved to UK 1960
  • 8 novels; numerous short stories; 5 screenplays; 5 novel adaptations

  • Awards
  • 1986: Whitbread Prize for An Artist of the Floating World
  • 1989: Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day
  • 2017: Nobel Prize in Literature

  • Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award, Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star, Appointed Knight Bachelor for services to literature
  •  

"Maybe the very thing that makes human beings rather special, which is their complexity and their individuality, actually kind of dooms them to a certain kind of fundamental loneliness."
- Kazuo Ishiguro

"My focus in this book isn’t so much Klara, and how human is she or is she not: it’s the humans. The idea we have about human beings having souls and being very individual. Is that something we’ve kind of slightly overstated? Or is it a hangover from some kind of past age, a more superstitious religious age?"
- Kazuo Ishiguro

Literary Forensics

 

What do I bring?

What do I feel?

What do I notice?

What do I study?

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

Literary Forensics

 

What do I bring?

What do I feel?

What do I notice?

What do I study?

What do I notice?


  •    • Language and Grammar

  •    • Context

  •    • Point of view

  •    • Character & character development

  •    • Pacing

  •    • Horizontal structure

  •    • Layering of themes

  •    • Overall effect

Literary Forensics

 

What do I bring?

What do I feel?

What do I notice?

What do I study?

Klara and the Sun - Stats

  • Marketing: #2 in Metaphysical Fiction, #6 in Dystopian Science Fiction, #8 in Metaphysical & Visionary Fiction
  • Genre: Near-Future Realistic (Speculative) Long-Form Fiction
  • Print Pages: 321
  • Word count: 93,667; Avg. wds/sent.: 12.68
  • Reading Level: Grade 7; Lexical Density: 44.55
  • Flesch Reading Ease: 77.12

  • POV: Klara; Person: 1st; Tense: Past

  • Publish date: March 2, 2021
  • Publisher: Knopf
  • Sold By: Random House
  • Audio book narr.: Sura Slu (10 hrs, 16 mins)

  • Awards: Longlisted 2021 Booker Prize
  •  

Contour Map

Literary Forensics

 

What do I bring?

What do I feel?

What do I notice?

What do I study?

Writers Who Read: Coming Up

March 6: The Plot - Jean Hanff Korelitz (USA, 2021)
April 3: The Promise - Damon Galgut (S. Africa, 2021)
May 1: Intimacies - Katie Kitamura (USA, 2021)
June 5: Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen (USA, 2021)



Thanks to: Boulder Writers Alliance

Contact Gary: hello@garyalanmcbride.com
Literary Forensics Resources

Happy
Sleuthing!