Margin Notes

What I Was Reading:

While reading Haruki Murakami’s short story, “With the Beatles”, I was drawn in by the intimacy his prose can generate, and I asked myself how he was doing it? One rhetorical move I observed I’ve taken to calling, The Interrupting Self.

In this craft move the author offers a phrase to modify the phrase that came previously in order to be more precise and to indicate stream of consciousness. Consider this example from Haruki Murakami,

There’s one girl—a woman who used to be a girl, I mean—whom I remember well. I don’t know her name, though. And, naturally, I don’t know where she is now or what she’s doing. What I do know about her is that she went to the same high school as I did, and was in the same year (since the badge on her shirt was the same color as mine), and that she really liked The Beatles.

What Moves I Notice the Writer Making:

• This move is made in the first sentence and the last. Murakami breaks into his own discourse to clarify that the girl is a woman now. In this way we learn where we are in time relative to the moment being remembered and it makes the prose conversational, as though the author were telling you what was on his mind. This interruption makes his communication feel more direct and immediate.
• The second iteration is performed in a different way, brackets instead of dash, but it achieves the same effect. Here we are given the detail of the badge colour they shared, which focuses attention to a precise detail. From that detail we glean that Murakami’s speaker attended a school with a uniform. Again, this little aside evokes a conversational tone in the piece that feels like confession.
• This piece does something else that I really like, which I call “Load the Last”. The above paragraph is taken from Murakami’s short piece, “With the Beatles.” So, bringing his meandering paragraph to its conclusion with this particular noun allows it to land with weight.

Possibilities for Writers:

• I think the former of these two moves would be a great way for students to practice structured stream of consciousness writing. One exercise might be to write a simple line in a direct voice. Then, go back and insert a detail that reveals what your speaker is thinking in ‘real time’.
• With the latter move, students should experiment. Try writing a paragraph with one important idea in mind. Provide supporting details throughout the middle of the paragraph, try to ‘land’ on that final word. This is a practical tactic that writers can use in a variety of writing forms.

Guest writer Scott Connelly’s experience with music, theater, and the performing arts, combined with his years of experience in corporate telecommunications, help to provide students with a variety of essential skills in literacy.  Scott teaches English Language Arts and Social Studies in Saint John, NB.