Sunday, February 17, 2013

February Book Blog 1-Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine


When people speak in this book they don’t have quotation marks around what they say.  Instead, to indicate that somebody is talking the words are in italics.  Me, being a constant reader, and always used to quotation marks, I was surprisingly taken aback and struggle having to get used to the italics used for talking. 

When I read, when something is in italics, someone is remembering something, or thinking.  When I read, it’s like I’m playing a movie in my head.  So when I see something in italics, and somebody is thinking I see them doing whatever they’re doing and having a narrative in the background of what they’re thinking.  For example if a person in a book is listening to what someone is saying, but not really paying attention, instead thinking I see them sitting there, nodding their heads with a narrative in the background of what they’re thinking like: I never realized that other piercing in her ear….                                           Or when somebody is remembering something and in the memory someone is talking, it’s in italics, so I see this memory playing in my head, but the image is blurry since it’s a memory, therefore not clear.  Also the talking is distant.  So when I imagine a memory the talking is distant and the image is blurry.

Everything that goes on in my head when I read is impacted by the font, size, or italics.  That’s why it’s so hard to get used to the italics in this book indicating talking, like normal talking, not memories or thinking.  When I read this book, I really have to think, because if not, then I’ll get sidetracked and the image in my head of what’s going on when somebody’s talking  will become like a memory, because that’s what I mainly think of when I see the speaking in italics in this book.   I have to train myself to realize and understand that they’re speaking normally, not thinking or remembering.   It’s unexpectedly extremely difficult for me.

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