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Cluster Headache One - 2012
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Cluster Headache One: "Who's telling this story??!"
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This themed-read will focus on stories told from multiple perspectives. We will be exploring the ways writers tell their stories through different points of view and discussing the hows, whys, and wherefores of using the speech, thoughts and narration of multiple characters in these books.
We’ll begin with two short stories and a movie that was created from a combination of the two. We will continue with three novels that use multiple perspectives, but do so in very different ways.
First, we start with Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and his short stories In a Grove and Rashomon. Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa based his movie Rashomon on these stories. For our discussion, we will talk about the two stories and the movie together.
Next, we will read William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. This classic novel centers on the Compson family and is told by three of the family members. The fourth section is told in a third person omniscient point of view that focuses mostly on the family’s servant, Dilsey.
After Faulkner, we will read an early postmodern novel by William H. Gass, Omensetter’s Luck. Published in 1966, this novel is an amazing mixture of narration and stream of consciousness told primarily by three characters in a small Ohio town.
The third novel is by James Michener and is called, The Novel - - no really, it is. By comparison with the other selections in this Cluster Headache, The Novel is the most straightforward and easy to read. Told by four different characters, this look at the publishing world – and a mysterious murder – is an enjoyable page-turner and nothing at all like his place novels. This book will also serve as a bridge to our second Cluster Headache of the year, which will focus on several aspects of the writing/publishing world as portrayed in Michener’s novel.
For those of you who are writers, or future writers, or if you’re simply interested in exploring the art of story-telling, these Cluster Headaches are an excellent way to look at the craft from an interesting perspective.
Reading Schedule
April 16 – April 22 In a Grove / Rashomon / Rashomon movie
April 23 – May 27 The Sound and The Fury
May 28 – June 24 Omensetter’s Luck
June 25 – July 22 The Novel (also first book of Cluster Headache 2)
July 23 – July 29 Conclusions/A summing up of Cluster Headache One
A detailed schedule is posted for each book.