for thinking people
April 6, 2018
The word juxtaposition comes from the Latin juxta (meaning “next”) and the French poser (meaning “to place”). In other words, juxtaposition refers to the practice of arranging things next to each other. Now, in terms of writing and literature, juxtaposition refers to the way (usually) two elements are grouped in order to create a certain effect. In today’s article we’ll take a look at juxtaposition. Particularly, I’ll give you tips on how to use juxtaposition in fiction.
April 3, 2018
Speculative fiction is a genre dealing with what-ifs. In this context, Elleander Morning belongs to what one might rightfully (and whimsically) call “WW2-whatif-fiction”. We’ve had several stories dealing with an alternative world where Nazi Germany has won the Second World War. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick probably remains the point of reference, though in recent years Fatherland by Robert Harris has also received quite a bit of attention.
Elleander Morning is indeed such a novel, with a sort of a twist: the Second World War has never happened. The reason? A young woman – Elleander Morning – travels to Vienna before the outbreak of the First World War and kills a mediocre artist called Adolf Hitler. Many decades later, in the early 1980s, Elleander Morning’s granddaughter, Lesley, discovers a book. It’s a complete history of World War Two, including marvelous photographs that cannot be dismissed as a forgery. Something odd is going on, but what? Well, that’s a damn good question. One that sadly not even the author, Jerry Yulsman, seems to have been able to answer.
March 28, 2018
I haven’t read much Chinese literature, so finding a library copy of A Yi’s A Perfect Crime seemed like a good choice for some casual afternoon reading. I discovered that A Yi worked as a police officer for a few years before becoming a writer, so a crime novel by a former police officer came off as promising. The description left little to imagination: a Chinese teenager decides to kill someone, and he murders a schoolmate of his. Subsequently, he leaves town.
