'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#21

Post by harperlee » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 2:57 PM UTC

Bodell wrote: post #17

There are many people these days that use formatting to further their writing, but a particular example that I enjoyed immensely was Danielewski's House of Leaves.[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

I remember fondly the experience of reading a passage with either a chase or a fall, and each page having less words (down to 1 word per page, several times), the effect of which was that you started to page the book faster and faster, giving your reading a wonderful sense of acceleration.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#22

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 3:23 PM UTC

blacktriangle wrote: post #9

_Microft wrote: post #3

Are there any books that use different fonts or font sizes to convey for example feelings of a character? Large bold font when they feel strong; tiny, scribbled text when they feel frightened, and so on? There might be a few things that could be explored here, turning a book from a simple way to present text into an indispensable part of the piece it contains.

Not for emotions, but House of Leaves makes excessive use of different fonts and typesetting techniques to interesting effect.

House of Leaves made me scared of my own house for months. +1

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#23

Post by fluidcruft » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

JorgeGT wrote: post #2

The original 1979 edition of The Neverending Story was printed in two inks (red and green) depending if the action was set in the real word or in Fantastica. I wonder if more books use this technique?

There's a black and red edition of The Princess Bride.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#24

Post by paulie_a » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

Oh God that is an awful awful book

I can't believe it is taught for anything other than "how to not write"

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#25

Post by InitialLastName » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

dwhitney wrote: post #15

I loved this book when I read it in college. Things people should know: * It's funny. * Benjy is just one of the characters. He has mental issues, which make his chapters more difficult, but the other characters' chapters are straight forward, give you context, and push the story forward. * Benjy's chapters aren't really that difficult. * It's been 20 years since I read this so everything I've written here may be wro…

I'm about 3/4 of the way through, and feel like I need to re-read it just so I know what's going on in context for the Benjy section.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#26

Post by AndrewStephens » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

JorgeGT wrote: post #2

The original 1979 edition of The Neverending Story was printed in two inks (red and green) depending if the action was set in the real word or in Fantastica. I wonder if more books use this technique?

It is a pity that later, cheaper editions of The Neverending Story were printed in black ink only. I read the original (well, original English translation) and it really added to the story.

Incidentally, for anyone out there that hasn't read The Neverending Story, I recommend it. The book is very different to the film and starts messing with the reader about halfway in.

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#27

Post by colomon » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 8:15 PM UTC

fluidcruft wrote: post #23

JorgeGT wrote: post #2

The original 1979 edition of The Neverending Story was printed in two inks (red and green) depending if the action was set in the real word or in Fantastica. I wonder if more books use this technique?

There's a black and red edition of The Princess Bride .

Yes, the first edition of The Princess Bride had red text for Goldman's "editorial" comments. I don't know if there have been editions since which maintained that convention?

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#28

Post by JorgeGT » Fri, Jan 22, 2021, 10:16 AM UTC

AndrewStephens wrote: post #26

JorgeGT wrote: post #2

The original 1979 edition of The Neverending Story was printed in two inks (red and green) depending if the action was set in the real word or in Fantastica. I wonder if more books use this technique?

It is a pity that later, cheaper editions of The Neverending Story were printed in black ink only. I read the original (well, original English translation) and it really added to the story. Incidentally, for anyone out there that hasn't read The Neverending Story , I recommend it. The book is very different to the film and starts messing with the reader about halfway in.

Plus it had those fantastic illustrations by Rowitha Quadflieg! (which is decidedly the most Harry Potter-esque name I've ever read in real life).

Re: 'The Sound and the Fury' as William Faulkner imagined, in color (2012)

#29

Post by SuoDuanDao » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

short_sells_poo wrote: post #12

JorgeGT wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thinking of Death in Terry Pratchett's Discworld , who speaks in sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs.

I found Sir Terry to be great with various mannerisms and speech patterns he devised for his characters. Just this small detail can add so much memorability to a character who may have been relatively minor otherwise. Like Inigo Skimmer's regular "mmh-mmph" in The Fifth Elephant which could be a sarcastic snigger or a nervous laugh and to some degree it is left up to the imagination of the reader to interpret it base…

Interesting. The ambiguity itself must create the kind of mental state associated with empathy. Clever trick for a writer of fiction, I'll have to steal that.