The coursework provides eight titles to choose from although you can suggest a title of your own providing you can justify why and that it will be equally as interesting and challenging. The titles are:
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Choice by Renata Saleci
1984 by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Outsider by Albert Camus
The Remains of the Day by Kazu Ishiguro
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart.
About the Books
To be able to conceptualise a book it has become very apparent from my research that you do need to know the story. To enable me to make the initial decision as to which to produce an image for, I had to find out what they were about and what previous covers looked like.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Probably a very interesting book and it could be very challenging to conjure an image for the story, but a bit too weird for my liking. A young man, Grenouille, who in order to capture an exotic scent (basically the odour of virginal pre-pubescent girls) discovers he had to murder them in order to capture this scent. Which he does, for 2 years...sentenced to death he unstoppers his 'creation' at his execution where everyone is intoxicated by it and an orgy ensues... He gets a pardon but eventually hates himself, returns to Paris, douses himself in the remaining scent whilst standing amongst a group of lowlifes. The mix of thieves and murderers are overcome by the perfume, rip him to pieces and eat him......
Appreciating that if this as a commission the option to decline would be tricky am glad I have the chance to say no, but until I look at the others who knows?
Choice by Renata Saleci
Hmmmmm odd? From what I can find out this book is non-fiction? A study of choice and consumerism?
1984 by George Orwell
Such a well known book with terms that gradually filtered into the everyday vernacular I must admit to not knowing the finer plot. Winston Smith, parents killed by 'The Party' works for the Ministry of Truth, altering newspaper stories to echo the party line. He lives in a one bedroomed flat, eats basic rations and drinks gin. Threads that run through the novel are the surveillance of everyone, a love interest in the form of Julia, their planned rebellion and subsequent capture, torture, betrayal and ultimately Smiths acceptance of the party line.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Very similar to 1984 in that it is set in a dystopian society, a future American Society where reading is banned and firemen burn books. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who starts to doubt what he does; burning books and even the homes of those caught reading and owning books.
Later on it is discovered that he has not been burning books but taking them home and reading them, he is ordered by his boss to destroy them along with his own home. Other complex plot lines which involve Montag killing his boss, being pursued by mechanical hounds, discovering a group of people who memorise books in order to preserve them, a nuclear war and the group setting off to the city to rebuild it.
Could be interesting, a lot of images spring to mind...
The Outsider by Albert Camus
The themes of this novel are free will, colonialism and the meaningless of human life. The main character Meursault appears to have no real emotions about anything. He is unmoved at his mother's funeral, assists a friend to set up an ex-girlfriend for a beating. During an encounter with some Arabs, who confront him over the beating, Meursault kills one. Despite killing him outright he puts a further four bullets into the body. The second part of the book concentrates on Meursault's incarceration and continued indifference. This detachment is seen as him having no remorse and being a 'souless monster'; he is sentenced to death by guillotine. Only at the end do we see any real emotion as he rages that people are not fit to judge him.
The Remains of the Day by Kazu IshiguroStevens, an English butler, narrates this novel in the form of a diary, recalling his professional and personal relationships, mainly with a former colleague, housekeeper Miss Kenton. The story is told in flashback where it becomes apparent that Stevens and Kenton fell in love but neither admitted it or dared to cross the line. The two main characters come into contact once more, Miss Kenton eventually married and 20 years later is looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild. Stevens looks back on his life, thinking of lost opportunities but determined to focus on the the remains of the day, the rest of his life and future service with his current employer.
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Set in the English countryside Far from the Madding Crowd revolves around a few main characters over a span of many years. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd who saves enough money to lease and stock a sheep farm. He falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, who refuses his hand in marriage. Years pass, his fortunes fail, hers improve, confused and unrequited love tangles follow (as ever with these stories). Bathsheba employs Gabriel on her farm yet falls in love and marries another man, Troy. He had another true love bearing his child though both die. He vanishes but re-appears six years later when Bathsheba is seriously considering marriage to William Boldwood. A fight ensues in which Boldwood shoots Troy and is sentenced to hang, this is changed to 'confinement at her Majesty's Pleasure'
Gabriel decides to leave and Bathsheba realises how much she needs and loves him and the couple wed.
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart.
Luke Rhinehart is a bored psychiatrist, one evening clearing up after a party he comes across a die hidden underneath a playing card. He thinks to himself, if it is a one he will rape Arlene, his neighbours wife...from here on in the plot describes how all his decisions are made on the throw of a dice, how he introduces others to this idea. Reviewers either love or hate this book so am quite tempted by it, also because I don't know the story at all.
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