This project was a very interesting way of doing an ISU. The blog concept had both its pros and cons. The obvious con for me was the fact that I did not have internet for the first month that this project was assigned, this created a problem because this project had to be done on the internet. However once I got internet in my home I really began to appretiate why the project was assigned this way. It felt more casual, in that, I could write half of a post and come back to it later. I can not normally write in this fashion, if I feel that it is an overly formal piece of writing I have to sit down and write the entire thing in one go.
I liked that our process could be seen by other students as we went. When this idea was first proposed I hated it, however once it was in practice, I could certainly see the merits of it. Getting imput from various people was helpful because that way I got mixed feedback, which was nice because I am used to hearing critics from only one person. By recieving imput from various people with various learning styles I could take a deeper look at my own work, with different points of view.
If I could go back and re-do this project I would have chosen a more critically acclaimed novel because, although I enjoyed 40 Words For Sorrow, it tended to be more difficult to write about then what a more famous book might have been, especially for its significance.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Works Cited
Works Cited
"Anthony Award." Fantastic Fiction. 2008. FantasticFiction. 11 Nov. 2008 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/awards/anthony.htm.
CTV.ca News Staff. "Jesse Imeson now faced with 3 murder charges." CTV.ca. 10 Aug. 2007.17 Nov. 2008 http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/articlenews/story/ctvnews/20070810/imeson_court_070810/20070810?hub=canada.
"Dagger Award." Fantastic Fiction. 2008. FantasticFiction. 11 Nov. 2008 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/awards/dagger.htm.
"40 Words for Sorrow." Fantastic Fiction. FantasticFiction. 11 Nov. 2008 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/giles-blunt/forty-words-for-sorrow.htm.
"Giles Blunt." Fantastic Fiction. 04 Nov. 2008. FantasticFiction. 11 Nov. 2008 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/giles-blunt/.
An Interview With Giles Blunt. Perf. Giles Blunt. Youtube. 09 Nov. 2006. 16 Oct. 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9lbg9lzha0.
"Macavity Awards." Fantastic Fiction. 2008. FantasticFiction. 11 Nov. 2008 http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/awards/macavity.htm.
"The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations." Wikipedia. 20 Sept. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 13 Nov. 2008 .
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Explication
When reading the 36 dramatic situations the one that immediately stood out to me was "self-sacrifice for an ideal". The explication that goes along with this particular dramatic situation is "a hero; and ideal; a creditor or person/thing sacrificed". This one stood out to me because of the whole nature of the law enforcement career, police officers, lawyers, and detectives are constantly putting their lives, their time, and their sanity on the line for the greater good: the ideal that justice will be served, and it will be served through them. The protagonist of 4o Words for Sorrow does exactly that, he sacrifices not only himself, but his family, and friends to take down the Windigo Killer, a murderer who prayed on run away teens.
The heroes in 4o Words for Sorrow are obviously Detectives Lise Delorme, and John Cardinal, more specifically John Cardinal. I am choosing John Cardinal as the main protagonist, or hero, in this novel because he is the character that the majority of the novel is in the point of view of. The reader learns about more about his personal situation then any other character, where as you only experience the character of Delorme in the police, work setting. She would not be the obvious candidate for the role of "hero" in the "self sacrifice for an ideal" dramatic situation because you do not get to learn about all of the personal sacrifices she is making in order to take down the murderers.
The ideals that Detective Cardinal is striving for are justice, and a safe community. He puts everything on the line to take down the murderer, to restore the peace in Algonquin Bay. Once the body of Katie Pine was found and the case was re-opened the media was immediately alerted and the case became a very public one. All of us know from experience the way that a very publicized crime can affect a community. In the summer of 2007 there was a nation wide search for Jesse Imeson, the murderer of an elderly couple in Goderich Ontario. I personally remember the weeks that he was on the loose, and I know how people reacted the this incident. My mom was sure to remind me every morning, when she would take me to babysit, that if I were to go out with the kids that I stuck to busy streets where there were people around so that nothing could happen to any of us. When dangerous criminals are on the loose it really disturbs people and makes them become very protective. The ideal of a safe community is a very relevant one to this story. The ideal of justice is another important one because of the nature of crime. The police are there to keep us safe, and they do this by making sure justice is served. This is the lesser of the two ideals because this is a detective novel, not one that revolves around the legal system, however it is still a prominent one.
The sacrifice that John Cardinal is making throughout this novel is his personal sanity, and not only his, but his families safety. The safety sacrifice becomes very important in the end of the novel, after Eric has drowned in the bay. It seems that the entire fiasco is over, because they do not realize that Eric had an accomplice. A photo of Cardinals home is published in the Algonquin Bay newspaper. Eddie sees where he lives and "crashes" her car near his home and poses as a "damsel in distress". When Cardinal goes out to help her, she attempts to kill him, luckily Cardinal had already phoned 911 to send an ambulance to the scene of the crash. Then of course, just in the nick of time, Delorme shows up and takes Eddie down. Cardinals safety was very much put at risk in his line of work, and had Cardinals daughter and wife still lived at the home, their lives would be put at risk as well.
I chose the "self-sacrifice for the ideal" situation as the most appropriate explication of 40 Words for Sorrow because of the enormous risks that people in the law enforcement line of work put themselves up to every day.
The heroes in 4o Words for Sorrow are obviously Detectives Lise Delorme, and John Cardinal, more specifically John Cardinal. I am choosing John Cardinal as the main protagonist, or hero, in this novel because he is the character that the majority of the novel is in the point of view of. The reader learns about more about his personal situation then any other character, where as you only experience the character of Delorme in the police, work setting. She would not be the obvious candidate for the role of "hero" in the "self sacrifice for an ideal" dramatic situation because you do not get to learn about all of the personal sacrifices she is making in order to take down the murderers.
The ideals that Detective Cardinal is striving for are justice, and a safe community. He puts everything on the line to take down the murderer, to restore the peace in Algonquin Bay. Once the body of Katie Pine was found and the case was re-opened the media was immediately alerted and the case became a very public one. All of us know from experience the way that a very publicized crime can affect a community. In the summer of 2007 there was a nation wide search for Jesse Imeson, the murderer of an elderly couple in Goderich Ontario. I personally remember the weeks that he was on the loose, and I know how people reacted the this incident. My mom was sure to remind me every morning, when she would take me to babysit, that if I were to go out with the kids that I stuck to busy streets where there were people around so that nothing could happen to any of us. When dangerous criminals are on the loose it really disturbs people and makes them become very protective. The ideal of a safe community is a very relevant one to this story. The ideal of justice is another important one because of the nature of crime. The police are there to keep us safe, and they do this by making sure justice is served. This is the lesser of the two ideals because this is a detective novel, not one that revolves around the legal system, however it is still a prominent one.
The sacrifice that John Cardinal is making throughout this novel is his personal sanity, and not only his, but his families safety. The safety sacrifice becomes very important in the end of the novel, after Eric has drowned in the bay. It seems that the entire fiasco is over, because they do not realize that Eric had an accomplice. A photo of Cardinals home is published in the Algonquin Bay newspaper. Eddie sees where he lives and "crashes" her car near his home and poses as a "damsel in distress". When Cardinal goes out to help her, she attempts to kill him, luckily Cardinal had already phoned 911 to send an ambulance to the scene of the crash. Then of course, just in the nick of time, Delorme shows up and takes Eddie down. Cardinals safety was very much put at risk in his line of work, and had Cardinals daughter and wife still lived at the home, their lives would be put at risk as well.
I chose the "self-sacrifice for the ideal" situation as the most appropriate explication of 40 Words for Sorrow because of the enormous risks that people in the law enforcement line of work put themselves up to every day.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Apologia
The novel 40 Words for Sorrow is admittedly, not extremely earth shattering, or significant to literature as a whole, however the author Giles Blunt is a important enough figure when it comes to the genre of crime and mystery novels. The novel is significant in how it was written, the characters, and setting.
40 Words for Sorrow is not necessarily famous within the general public however, within the crime genre Giles Blunt is a very well renowned writer. Lee Child, author of The Killing Floor has been quoted as saying 40 Words for Sorrow has "intensely vivid characters, terrible crimes, and a brutal deep-frozen landscape...Giles Blunt is a tremendous crime novelist"
Giles Blunt is significant to the crime and mystery genres because he has been nominated for four awards, in the category of best novel. In 2001 he was nominated for a Dagger Award, for the novel I studies, 40 Words For Sorrow. Then in 2007 he was nominated again for Fields of Grief. In 2004 he was nominated for a Macavity Award (names after the "mystery cat" of T.S Elliot), and an Anthony Award which is an award that has been handed out since 1986 at the yearly Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the nominees and winners are selected by the attendees. The novel that was nominated for both of these awards with The Delicate Storm. Although he as only ever been a nominee for awards, it is important that he was been nominated for so many of them.
Regarding the significance of the novel, I think that the most important part is the double narrative. You get the story from both perspectives which is very intriguing because you get to see the story unfold through the eyes of John Cardinal, the detective on the Windigo Killer case, but you also get it from the perspective of the Eddie, who is essentially the assistant to Eric, the murderer. Very rarely in a crime novel to you get both points of view. I feel that in the crime genre this is very effective, however when it comes to mystery, I really think it kills the prolonged suspense of not knowing the killers next move. Suspense only lasts the 20 pages that is a chapter of the novel, because you know as soon as you get to the next chapter, the mysteries will be revealed.
The characters of John Cardinal and Lise Delorme are important, and fairly significant to the genre of crime novels because Giles Blunt has written an series of crime novels about these two characters. The Delicate Storm, the novel that was nominated for both the Macavity and Anthony awards, is the second book in the series.
Another important aspect of the novel is the setting. Giles Blunt has said himself in an interview that he wanted the setting to be non-conventional. He originally wanted to set it in New York, but there are many crime novels out there set in the big city. So he thought back to his roots in Northern Canada and placed his story in Algonquin Bay, (or North Bay) Ontario. The choice in setting is important because it gives the reader a sense of, "Wow, this stuff can really happen anywhere, murder doesn't just happen in the big city". It makes you question the safe, coziness of your own little town and leaves you feeling slightly disturbed, which is important with this particular genre because crime does indeed happen everywhere, and no one is safe. This novel really hits home to readers, which is very important and helps to bring you into the story.
In conclusion, although 40 Words for Sorrow is not a world renowned piece of literature that should be recommended for everyone to read, Giles Blunt is a fantastic crime novelist and brings a different, Canadian perspective to the crime genre. Canadians who enjoy crime novels should definitely consider reading this novel because of its close to home feeling, that "this could happen anywhere".
40 Words for Sorrow is not necessarily famous within the general public however, within the crime genre Giles Blunt is a very well renowned writer. Lee Child, author of The Killing Floor has been quoted as saying 40 Words for Sorrow has "intensely vivid characters, terrible crimes, and a brutal deep-frozen landscape...Giles Blunt is a tremendous crime novelist"
Giles Blunt is significant to the crime and mystery genres because he has been nominated for four awards, in the category of best novel. In 2001 he was nominated for a Dagger Award, for the novel I studies, 40 Words For Sorrow. Then in 2007 he was nominated again for Fields of Grief. In 2004 he was nominated for a Macavity Award (names after the "mystery cat" of T.S Elliot), and an Anthony Award which is an award that has been handed out since 1986 at the yearly Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the nominees and winners are selected by the attendees. The novel that was nominated for both of these awards with The Delicate Storm. Although he as only ever been a nominee for awards, it is important that he was been nominated for so many of them.
Regarding the significance of the novel, I think that the most important part is the double narrative. You get the story from both perspectives which is very intriguing because you get to see the story unfold through the eyes of John Cardinal, the detective on the Windigo Killer case, but you also get it from the perspective of the Eddie, who is essentially the assistant to Eric, the murderer. Very rarely in a crime novel to you get both points of view. I feel that in the crime genre this is very effective, however when it comes to mystery, I really think it kills the prolonged suspense of not knowing the killers next move. Suspense only lasts the 20 pages that is a chapter of the novel, because you know as soon as you get to the next chapter, the mysteries will be revealed.
The characters of John Cardinal and Lise Delorme are important, and fairly significant to the genre of crime novels because Giles Blunt has written an series of crime novels about these two characters. The Delicate Storm, the novel that was nominated for both the Macavity and Anthony awards, is the second book in the series.
Another important aspect of the novel is the setting. Giles Blunt has said himself in an interview that he wanted the setting to be non-conventional. He originally wanted to set it in New York, but there are many crime novels out there set in the big city. So he thought back to his roots in Northern Canada and placed his story in Algonquin Bay, (or North Bay) Ontario. The choice in setting is important because it gives the reader a sense of, "Wow, this stuff can really happen anywhere, murder doesn't just happen in the big city". It makes you question the safe, coziness of your own little town and leaves you feeling slightly disturbed, which is important with this particular genre because crime does indeed happen everywhere, and no one is safe. This novel really hits home to readers, which is very important and helps to bring you into the story.
In conclusion, although 40 Words for Sorrow is not a world renowned piece of literature that should be recommended for everyone to read, Giles Blunt is a fantastic crime novelist and brings a different, Canadian perspective to the crime genre. Canadians who enjoy crime novels should definitely consider reading this novel because of its close to home feeling, that "this could happen anywhere".
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