WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT THE BOOK "ANDRA" by LOUISE LAWRENCE.
As was previously mention (Inspirations #1) I was the Great Devourer of SF/F fiction - and fact, as it happens, my parents still own a copy of the Tomorrow's World annual from 1968, with its flying cars and two-mile high skyscrapers.
Now all those SF/F books tended to be in the heroic vein, a huge variety of heroes it's true, but in the end the protagonist would always win. Which is nice, of course, and very encouraging to a somewhat introverted young lad, a bit of a misfit older than his years.
My school had a decent library and it contained SF books, among all the rest. And there was one book called "Andra" by Louise Lawrence, which I duly checked out and began to devour.
Teenage female protagonist, no problem; dystopian future Earth, lovely; protagonist fails
... and dies. O! M! G!
Yup, a fatal tragedy, and aimed at teenagers too.
I have a copy of this book to this day. I love it. It taught me the power of tragedy. (And how to write a convincing dystopian society.)
(By the way, the first book to make me blub out loud was not Andra, that was just a shock, by "Mr God, This is Anna" by Fynn. A book with phenomenal imagery and a compelling tale. And it wasn't the end that made me cry, but the middle. OK, the end did as well, but not as much. It's a book I've had to keep buying because I give it away and it just gets passed on out of reach.)
Other inspirations
- Art of Words
- It's a tragedy (this one)
- Haiku
- Art of Words addendum
- Perspiration
What's on the turntable? "Coyote" by Joni Mitchell from "Hejira"
No comments:
Post a Comment