Novel study introduction

 Not so novel  Ransom Riggs  Breakdown – group activity  Special note on setting

 A long prose narrative that usually describes fictional characters and events in the form of a sequential storyprosenarrative  Historical roots in the fields of medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novellamedievalmodernromancenovella

 Construction of the narrative  Plot  Relation to reality  Characterization  Use of language Winslow Homer, The New Novel (1877)

 American writer and filmmaker  Wrote The Sherlock Holmes Handbook  Publisher Quirk Books suggested that he put together a narrative based on the photos he’d collected

 Made The New York Times Best Seller List  Another book, Talking Pictures, will follow  Talking Pictures Talking Pictures

 Ransom Riggs grew up in suburban Florida  Part of his upbringing is reflected in Jacob’s life  Grew up writing stories and making videos  Mainly, Riggs Writes books Makes movies Word-blogs and video-blogsvideo-blogs Do you hear Jacob’s tone in Riggs’ narration of this video?

 Riggs – “…Geographically, I loved the look of an island off Scotland called St. Kilda, which is all craggy peaks and steep valleys. Really beautiful, though people haven’t lived there in decades.”

 Non-fiction?  Fiction?  Science fiction?  Fantasy?  Autobiographical? You guessed it…FANTASY

1. Setting 2. Character 3. Plot 4. Visual 5. Genre

 “It was dramatic and beautiful, unlike any place I’d seen. I felt a little thrill of adventure as we chugged into the bay, as if I were sighting land where maps had noted only a sweep of undistinguished blue.” (67)

 Fictional island  Inspired by Riggs’ interest in travel  The island setting is significant  Islands possess a certain mystique Isolation lends itself to peculiarities that mainland society is less likely to have

 Lord of the Flies  Robinson Crusoe  Life of Pi (stranded)  The Swiss Family Robinson Island existence is often the inspiration for films and TV series