Designed Fiction

Ohh, this is like breaking the fourth wall for bookworms. :)

I hadn't heard of either of those books you mentioned, but I have to go and find them now. That's really amazing—I remember reading The Neverending Story and being enchanted by the two different colours of text—for when Bastian is reading the story and the story itself; sort of how the fiction is extending beyond the words and wrapping itself around the book.

And then Jasper Fforde has this memorable part in his Thursday Next series, in the book First Among Sequels. There's one part of the story where the main character goes beyond the reaches of the Bookworld, and instead of the story being told in text there's a few pages of comic-book style drawings, with no words, to show what's happening in that place. Very interesting.

The books you wrote about are fairly unusual, and might turn off some readers, but it's interesting how the traditional paper medium is being extended, and it's not just the words that matter to the story, but how they are presented as well. I really love the idea of highlighting the word 'house' in blue ink and the proofread pages, as well. :D
 
I've seen similar things done by my favourite contemporary author Douglas Coupland.
I think it was his book called "Jpod" (which is partly a quirky look into the the world of a group of software developers.

He uses pages and pages for little games or double spreads full of seemingly brainstormed words arranged on the page.

One of the most memorable games was where he listed pi to as many numbers as it takes to fill about four pages and the challenge was to find the wrong number.

Another on was to spot a 0 in amongst pages and pages of N's.

He also did a few odd little games with binary I think.

Anyway, these were used well to break up the narrative or to reinforce a point within it.

I can't recommend Coupland enough to those that might be interested.

@ Muse
Also I love Jasper Fforde, he has a very unique approach to writing a novel. You can finish one of his books having no idea what has just happened, but you know it was fun and you enjoyed it!
 
Krey20 said:
@ Muse
Also I love Jasper Fforde, he has a very unique approach to writing a novel. You can finish one of his books having no idea what has just happened, but you know it was fun and you enjoyed it!

Isn't he? I practically force all my friends to his section of the library every time I visit.
 
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