Category: Literature

What is Metafiction?

Posted August 10, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 4 Comments

I’ve heard a bit of talk about metafiction lately and to be honest I wasn’t sure what it was. The dictionary defines it as; fiction that discusses, describes, or analyses a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction. That didn’t really help me with understanding the concept in greater detail. After further investigations I found the most common types of metafiction and some examples of each one;

  • A novel about a writer creating a story (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man).
  • A novel about a reader reading a novel (The Princess Bride)
  • A novel which features itself as its own prop or McGuffin (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
  • A novel within the novel (The Man in the High Castle, Sophie’s World or The Princess Bride).
  • A novel wherein the author (not merely the narrator) is a character (Breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse Five)
  • A non-linear novel, which can be read in any order other than from beginning to end (Finnegans Wake).
  • Merging characters or elements from diverse works of fiction into a new fictional scenario (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)

There are many more scenarios of metafiction out there and the more you think about it the more books start to fit. I just though I would give some examples so you can better understand metafiction too. If you have some interesting examples of metafiction please feel free to let me know.

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Five Books That Changed My Life

Posted April 12, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 0 Comments

As most of you may know, I never use to be much of a reader; it was only last year that I decided to discipline myself to read more. So I thought I might as well share with you five books that really had strong effects on me and my views on life.

  • Markheim – This short story by Robert Louis Stevenson is definitely my favourite of his works I’ve read so far. The concept is amazing, but I won’t give you any spoilers.
  • Slaughterhouse-Five – And so it goes…nothing could have prepared me for a book like this. It’s unique in its style and left me pondering it for months after reading it.
  • Wuthering Heights – I know one reader that would be happy to see this on my list. The reason it does grace this list is the simple fact, that it defied all expectations. I went into this book thinking I knew what the story was about, but it shattered every expectation and left me with a dark and beautiful tale.
  • Frankenstein – It is apparent that this book has changed my life. I’ve mentioned it before in reference to pop culture and even a Smashing Pumpkins song. This book is simply a brilliant book on very real social issues.
  • Hey! Nietzsche! Leave them kids alone! – This book is the reason this blog exists. Craig Schuftan opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know by providing some interesting connections between the Romantic Period and today’s music scene.

Did Pop Culture Destroy Literature?

Posted April 8, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Culture, Literature / 0 Comments

Isn’t it interesting that in pop culture, we think we know icons like Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. We know their basic story but until we read the books that made these characters famous, and then we realise that we have missed so much of the concepts and story.

Frankenstein is referenced  in countless  movies but ia most commonly associated with the monster, not the doctor. It’s just a tale of a monster terrorising the villages and  until you read the book you don’t understand it at all. I remember reading Frankenstein for the first time and discovering this isn’t a book about a monster.  This is a book about society and how we judge and treat people.

When it comes to Dracula, we all know the story of the Vampire, Count Dracula from Transylvania, but we don’t have a clue on just how interestingly the book was written. I went into the book thinking I was going to be reading a novel, but I discovered a series of letters, diary entries and ship logs that told this story in such an unsuspecting way.

Now unfortunately pop culture has ruined the plot of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but it has left out a lot of the interesting concepts. The book explores the idea of separating the Good from the Evil in the doctor, who was trying to explore the evil inside of himself and still live with his conscience clear. Or maybe it’s a story about living life with split personalities.   There are so many interpretations, but all in all its a book about the duality of human nature.  Pop Culture just tells a story of a doctor discovering this potion by accident.

The interesting thing is that no one really knows where Mr Hyde goes all those nights and what he does. This has lead to many of conversations through the ages trying to work out what Mr Hyde was up to; Some say it’s a metaphor for Homosexuality but I believe it’s open for personal interpretation. So the reader can make his own discovery on their evil side.

My Reading List

Posted January 25, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 0 Comments

The more I read the more I discover, but also the more I find that I need to read.  I keep finding more and more books that I really want to read. Like the ‘1001 Books you must read before you die’ I want to read all of them. I never use to be a read and I wish I trained myself to read when I was younger. I feel like I’ve missed so much by not reading. But now, with a passion for writing has also come a passion for reading and I want to explore this passion more and more.

For some reason I seem to ignore most of the modern books and I rather go for the classics. Not that it’s a bad thing; It is a great thing, though I feel like I’m reading a language that doesn’t get used anymore. The old 1800’s books have such beauty and elegance in the way they are written, it’s a shame that the English language has changed.

So If you look up the top of my blog I’ve now added my Reading Goals for people to look at and recommend more books to read.

Finnegans Wake

Posted January 24, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 2 Comments

Because this book is known as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language, I thought I would explore the book a little more. No, I have not and probably never will read Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (Ok, I lie, I would probably try to read it, if my passion for modern culture continues) but I like to learn more of these types of books.

The thing I found interesting about what I’ve learnt is this book is that the entire thing is written in an idiosyncratic language, consisting of multilingual puns and portmanteau words. This to me would mean that there would never be a correct interpretation of this book; it’s just a twisted world full of no answers.

The book is a non linear story which attempts to recreate the experience of sleep and dreams. Which is interesting because back in the early 1900 Freud wrote a book called “The Occurrence in Dreams of Material from Fairy Tales”. In this he made mention of dreams been a coded message waiting to be cracked. So it seems Finnegans Wake was just James Joyce deciding to follow this idea and blend it with his obvious love of puns to create a completely unorthodox book.

For a book that took seventeen years to write, it’s hard to think what the point of it is. Is this just a social experiment that Joyce was doing? Maybe he was just setting out to defy all conventions of plot and character construction. What ever the reason was it remains on of the most interesting ideas I’ve seen so far.

Just a great example of avant-garde in modern literature that doesn’t get read. I think the only people that do read it are the people fascinated with this kind of topic and the people that read it to sound intellectual.

I would love to talk to someone who’s actually read this book.

EDIT: I read somewhere that the idea of all the puns is so essentially the book never ends.

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Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Posted January 23, 2010 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 0 Comments

 

Foucault's PendulumI found this book recently called “Foucault’s Pendulum” (still haven’t read it) but I’m in love with the concept. Reminds me of the John Cage Quote “Finnegans Wake is one of the books I’ve which always loved, but never read” (sorry for the tangent, just adding that quote to remind me to write about both John Cage and Finnegans Wake).

Written by Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco the novel is basically about three friends that decide they can make a better conspiracy theory then what’s out there and they set out to create the conspiracy known as ‘The Plan’. As the story progresses these three begin to forget it’s a game and become more and more obsessed with the ideas and theories and start making connections to other theories out there; like lost artefacts and the Templers. Even a very real secret society begins to believe one of the three possesses the key to the lost treasure of the Knights Templar. Eventually ‘The Plan’ involves connections between a whole range of different societies like;

  • The Knights Templar
  • The Rosicrucians
  • The Gnostics
  • The Freemasons
  • The Bavarian Illuminati
  • The Elders of Zion
  • The Assassins of Alamut
  • The Cabalists
  • The Bogomils
  • The Cathars
  • The Jesuits

The concept is brilliant and makes me ponder a few ideas, like ‘Will people believe anything that is printed?’ and ‘Do you start believing your own lies if you say them enough?’

I have a huge pile of books to read but I’m excited about reading this book. It has been described as “the thinking person’s Da Vinci Code” with makes me even more excited, I know the Da Vinci Code was a good read but it wasn’t thought provoking.

2009 Wrap Up

Posted December 31, 2009 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 0 Comments

I set myself the goal to read 12 books in the year, seemed like a perfect place to start. Especially for someone that is trying to convert into an avid reader. I achieved my goal, and I found some beautiful treasures. Also for those people that don’t count graphic novels, novellas or short stories in the 12, I did read 12 novels as well as a graphic novel, novella & short story.

You must be away that I never really was a reader in my childhood so this is probably as many books as I’ve read in my life previously. Biggest highlight of the year was Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, it is now my security blanket (so to speak); I carry it with me where ever I go, in one form or another. I also know own a beautiful leather-bound copy of the book as well as a paperback (for reading) copy of the book. It is now my measuring stick to every other book I read. In Non Fiction I can’t go past Hey! Nietzsche! Leave them kids alone!: The Romantic Movement, Rock & Roll, And The End Of Civilisation As We Know It, this has started a new found passion in all things Culture and Romantic which lead to this blog.

As for my life time reading goals by completing all the books on the 1001 books to read before you die & Modern Library 100 Best Novels list, I have now read 8 of the 1001 and 2 of the 100. Some extremely interesting books on these lists like; Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death & Nineteen Eighty-Four. Out of all the books on the list of 1001 books to read before you die I was only disappointed in one (American Psycho) but that was possibly due to the fact that the movie is very similar and the book offered nothing new to the story. If I read the book before seeing the movie I’m sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Watchmen took a lot of effort to really get into, it was a great story I just felt I struggled at times. Another book that I struggled to get through was Dracula, the story was good but it seemed to drag on and on at times, it could have cut a few sections and still worked.