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13in picturing young composer's excitement before the concert and the spirit which seized Catherine during it. It seemed to me that if I closed my eyes I would find myself in a great concert-hall and the music would sound in my breast. Such episodes are perceived not with brains but with soul and that's all I can say.
One more thing important for understanding the book has much to do with the modern life. It is Catherine's relationships with Dave. It should be noticed - there wasn't a word about love. It was said about slight sympathy, about wish, about sex, but love wasn't mentioned. What was the result of such "relationships”? Anna, a daughter, was the only good one. Another results - drunken brawls, constant beating and total absence of aspiration. The greyness and blackness of life. And again - music saved her. Pre-hearing and hearing the beach, the sea, the nature, the music of being a mother, music of the calm day at the seaside...
The next unusual line of the novel is the theme of international [to be more strict - interreligious) struggle within Northern Ireland. Catherine and her countrymen observe it and suffer from it all their lives. Grace Notes made me look for the historical references about the conflict and that "Twelfth”. When a book makes you interested in another country's history, it says something about a book, isn't it?
My review may seem to be abrupt and inconsequent, but I've just tried myself in transmitting the spirit of this unusual book. Whether I've managed in it or not - I can't judge, but I suppose that sincere thoughts and feelings are rarely put in absolute order and succession.
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Darya Pestova Fifth Year student Tver State University Hangman
Is it always possible to avoid a powerful stroke with the fist, being a professional boxer? Yes, if you are able to foresee your adversary's treacherous attacks thinking ahead and elaborating counter strikes, own strategies and techniques. To defeat your enemy you should know him by sight.
In a splendid psychological novel Black Swan Green by David Mitchell the reader's attention is grasped at once with a Hangman. The introduced creature produces an ambiguous effect. On the one hand 'Hangman' is a concrete, existing name for an executioner, who carries out death sentences on condemned criminals by hanging. On the other hand 'Hangman' appears to be a harmless game, where one player thinks up a word and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters. These two notions close interweave and render the author's idea of clear depicting the main character' speech disorder. The writer impels the reader to understand about the phenomenon of stammering; revealing how Hangman threatens to tie Jason's tongue into knots and makes the boy invent more and more alternative tricks to prevent stammering of words, that begin with N or S sounds [nightingale, know, something, some time). To strengthen this effect the author resorts to phonetic expressive means: onomatopoeia, which is upheld with graphical devices [Ex. 'there m - may be a ship out there'; 'The sssame up here as down there.' 'They - ' 'Erm ...'). Metaphorically Hangman acts like an invisible, unexpected hook that suffocates and lacks physical powers such as the ability to coordinate one's flow of speech. Lexically the author illustrates this process very convincingly using the verbs, which semantic connotation manifests them as humiliating, abusive and limiting one: to seize, to grip, to block, to decide not to let, to put the boot in in relation to Hangman's activity. The Hangman divided Jason's life into two great periods: Before and After. The defect declared itself when the boy was about eight years old, actually at the age when children enter primary schools and have to face some difficulties in socializing with classmates, especially when you stand out of the crowd, being a rare black swan green. Consequently we may infer that the speech disorder appears to be acquired and not congenital. Some outer, social factors must have provoked it.
Jason definitely knows that discovery of his secret - stammering will result in merciful persecution and mockery from gruff, pitiless and obscene school boys, therefore he painstakingly hides it. Despite his parents' being in the swim, they discuss the speech impediment with their son exactly never. Parents it was who could console the boy's psychical, inner phobia of unembarrassed communication, they should have explained to maturing, brittle soul that he must
stop thinking of stammer as an enemy. Unfortunately the Taylors' marriage came apart at the seams and only strange people, such as Madame Cromylenk, Mrs. de Roo and Mrs. Gretton managed to persuade Jason, that stammering is a part of him which he should understand, accommodate with, even respect and never fear it. Confidence in interlocutor's willingness not just to listen to you for aeons, but more important to hear you brought relief to Jason's speech. The boy even forgot about Hangman when a person was interested only in what Jason says and not how he does it. The quotation cited from the book 'You think you are in charge of the secret, but isn't it the secret that's using you?' highlights the concealed hint on recognizing the stammer's right to exist. Goal is the constant learning how to live with it. Imagine that stammering is just a peculiar way you talk, keeping in mind that you choose a concerned listener and not vice - versa.
The author makes his principle character his mouthpiece. Novels written from the child's point of view are never written by children, they are written by adults for whom this particular problem occurred once. David Mitchell' style is characterized by the expert knowledge of the matter portrayed. The message of the story seems to be following: to surmount an obstacle means to be morally prepared for it and not to let this hindrance frustrate your objectives and bring your prosperous life way to a stop.
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SECTION 9
LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
Walking and Literature
Natalia Deryabina,
Ural Federal University named after B.N. Yeltsin 620002, Russia, Ekaterinburg, Mir str., 19
Dear Editors,
In the Footpath-5 I came across a terrific article by Rod Mengham devoted to the concept of walking and its embodiment in the spheres of art, culture and our mundane everyday lives. I must
