Thursday, July 10, 2014

Re: Breaking Convention - Kate

Rather than look at the design of books, I took a look at some books that break traditional structure with their writing and organizational systems. I'll list a few here:

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner: this book is written in stream-of-consciousness and has only four chapters. The first three follow three brothers on three separate days and the fourth chapter follows the thoughts of their cook.



Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut: the chapters in this book are not organized by time or location. The story of the past, present and future of the Billy Pilgrim is told in a non-linear fashion and the chapters are presented to the reader in a way that best showcases his character, which builds from beginning to end.



A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: what makes this book unique in structure is they way that the character is developed through the writing. The main character, Stephen, starts as a child and the writing is in his level of vocabulary, though it's not his voice. The narrator is sympathetic and non-judgmental. As Stephen grows up, the vocabulary grows as well until the last chapter closes with the narrator in the voice of a slightly affected young artist.