CONVENTIONS
use of sources
The different sources given as evidence in each chapter help form and give the background to the story. The text is separated into different categories of notes, newspaper articles, diary entries of Steven Messenger, journal entries of Wouter loos, audiotaped interviews, reports and extracts from books for example “Famous Australian Murders”. There are many different ways of presenting the story, as it shows multiple perspective on history, to show that the text is evidence based, and that there are many interpretations for what happens in the novel. Not only this, but the different sources used make the text more interesting and engaging for the reader.
Narration
Strange Objects is written with a number of narrators, all telling the same story through a different point of view and a variety of texts. These narrators are important as the reader gets a better understanding of characters, as well as more details of the story. Different narrators tell different things, all contributing to driving the novel forward. The narrator Steven Messenger tells the majority of the story through his delusional eyes, while Wouter Loos tells his story very differently. Both Messenger and Loos, the main narrators appear to hallucinate at certain points (see pages 209 and 230), therefore by having several narrators, where some narrators are unreliable, another narrator explains what actually happens, helping the reader follow the story.
“Mirror references could be entirely fictitious” in the novel there were entries by Wouter Loos. Professionals annotated this and added footnotes to the bottom of the pages to undermine the truth value of journal accounts.
“Mirror references could be entirely fictitious” in the novel there were entries by Wouter Loos. Professionals annotated this and added footnotes to the bottom of the pages to undermine the truth value of journal accounts.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Fabtograph