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A Country Where You Once Lived by Robin Black Analysis
“A Country Where You Once Lived” by Robin Black (2010) is a great example of a short story in which the present story plays out alongside the backstory of a stand-out inflection point (“fulcrum”) which happened 13 years earlier. Two separate time periods merge into one. Whenever this happens in a story we are reminded…
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Pine a Short Story by Robin Black Analysis
“Pine” is a short story from a collection called If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This published 2010, written by Robin Black. This is a wonderful example of a contemporary story loosely based on an old fairytale—this time it’s Bluebeard. “Pine” is also an excellent example of a story which centres a homophone…
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The Thrill of the Chase in Storytelling
In the spoof Thriller Concept Generator below, cartoonist Tom Gauld captures the centrality of the chase sequence in the thriller genre.
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Rabbits and Hares in Art and Storytelling
Rabbits are strongly associated with babies and early childhood. They appear often in stories and art for children. But what about hares?
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Comedy Techniques In “This Country”
This Country is a fly-on-the-wall mockumentary sitcom with two series so far (2017-2018). The story centers the misadventures of two cousins marooned in a small village in the Cotswolds. Most of their peers have moved on. Kerry and Kurtan are stuck in adolescence. They behave like typical Year 10s, despite being in their late 20s,…
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The Tale of Mr Tod by Beatrix Potter Analysis
The Tale of Mr. Tod by Beatrix Potter (1912) is a child-in-jeopardy crime thriller. See my post on thrillers and also my post on secrets and scams.
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The Tale of Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter Analysis
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter is a story of utopian, idealised capitalism, first published 1909. This is how we’d all like capitalism to work — small local businesses provide goods and services; those friends providing the best goods and services win out, those ill-suited to small business find other, more suitable…
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Do Americans really frown with their mouths?
I saw this widely shared on Twitter and wondered if this frown analysis were an oversimplification of reality: On the other hand, it may be true. It would explain why (American-made) frowny emoticons have no eyebrows to speak of. This explains why the frowny emoticons have never looked satisfying to me. They just look mildly…
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The Headless Bust by Edward Gorey Analysis
“The Headless Bust” is the sequel to “The Haunted Tea-Cosy”, which I tried to decipher the other day (with limited success). This one is actually a little easier to understand and we are basically given a pass for not understanding it anyway:
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The Haunted Tea-Cosy by Edward Gorey Analysis
Edward Gorey was an American writer and illustrator who died in the year 2000. The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas is a picture book for adults, based on the cartoons first published in the December issue of the New York Times Magazine, 1997. Bloomsbury picked it up in an early-Internet era…
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The Pigeon Wants A Puppy by Mo Willems Analysis
The Pigeon Wants A Puppy by Mo Willems is one of my kid’s favourite books. The Pigeon books are similar to the Elephant and Piggie books in graphic design and in humour. STORY STRUCTURE OF THE PIGEON WANTS A PUPPY SHORTCOMING When I read this quote from the author/illustrator I knew that Willems thinks of…
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Deals With The Devil In Storytelling
Humans have been making transactions with money for about 5000 years. Before that, our ancestors traded goods; before that, favours. We are a species highly attuned to swapping, making deals, owing favours and keeping stock. So it’s not surprising that we personify ‘fate’ or ‘life itself’ or God or whatever, and feel, deep down, that…
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Pig the Winner by Aaron Blabey Analysis
Pig The Winner, written and illustrated by Aaron Blabey, is another picture book in the widely-loved Pig The Pug series. I suspect these will become Australian classics in the same way the Hairy Maclary books became New Zealand classics. I pick and choose when it comes to Aaron Blabey books. Pig The Fibber, which felt…
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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Novel Study
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is ten years old now, published 2009. I’ve seen this middle grade novel described as magical realism, though for knotty political reasons we might prefer to call it fabulism. It is also science fiction and grounded in the real world. It packs a lot into 40k words. There…
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If I Loved You by Robin Black Short Story Analysis
“If I Loved You” is a short story from a collection called If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This (2010), written by American author Robin Black. A woman dying of cancer writes an imaginary letter to her new neighbour, who has uncharitably built a fence along their boundary line. This fence prevents her…