Seminar

[Roxy]

Hello I'm in a writing course for english at school and we have to do a speech about a writer and I have chosen Isobelle Carmody. Anyway I wanted to hand out a piece of her work you know like something that captures her good writing sorry i don't make sense. I was thinking of handing out the introduction to Obernewtyn has anyone got any other ideas?

[Megana]

Hmmm, is that the bit at the very beginning that tells us about the age of chaos? And how the farmers formed the first council? That could be a good bit, cos in my opinion it really shows how she sets up the place where her story takes place.

Go using Obernewtyn in school projects! I used Ober in a speech I did in year twelve, as one of my related texts to the topic I was doing, and it made the task easier, cos I knew it all so well.

Anyway, good luck Roxy!

[Miska]

id sday a section form the ledgend song...likethe prelude or somethin - the ones about the seals...or a sueges part... id chose that cos it reflects her more recent writing style..adn i think its more beautifully written then the obernewytn books. but thats jsut me

[Roxy]

thanks for the great advice! it has helped alot. I was going to do John Marsden for my speech but then i realised i knoew more about IC and she is a fantastic writer.

[Miska]

yea and i dont think many would actually do her which is such a bonus! plus u have all of us here to help u out! we're all freaks! cheers to that!

[Megana]

She is really good, and I kinda agree with Miska that Legendsong does have a certain sparkle about it's style that Obernewtyn just doesn't have.........but I still say that Ober's characters are way better.

[Miska]

ooo yes i agree with that...u just cant beat obers characters...but there are 5 books to develope them and its writen differently so u get to no them better...tho the legend song ones arent bad... i still say donard and solen are my faves! (ok after that darn pig!)

[Roxy]

Yay! it's so lovely to have great help! My class is full of people who think they are better than me and use crappy words like they have just read them out of a dictionary so i hope i will do ok. Besides i'm going to do something i enjoy.

I like the idea about the darksong. perhaps i can hand out both.

[Roxy]

sorry legendsong

[Dameon]

I agree...

If you want to show her excellent writing style, use Legendsong.

If, however, you wantto show her incredible way of moving the reader and dragging you into the action, I don't think you can go past one of these two parts in The Keeping Place:
When Malik leaves the Misfits to die in the White Valley
When Elspeth is helping get the prisoners out of the Herder Cloister. With the guy who wants to see the sky.

Both those bits are excellent!

KSL

[Roxy]

Yes that is also a great idea!

I will look through the legendsong tomorrow and then decide. but the part about malik and the man seeing the sky was a great part of the book too i dont know!!!!!

[Roxy]

i can't read the whole seminar lol although i would like to

[Miska]

you no what mite be good then...if u have quiet a few sections...put them all on a hand out and when ur talking about how IC writes in relation to those aspects tell ur audience to look at section x of the hand out! ull get extra for audience participation (if its done well) and u get to say everythin u need!!!!! without spending the whole time reading passages!

kayt i like ur suggestions too...cos all are so IC!

[Roxy]

yes i was just thinking about doing that. There are so many great parts in the book but i will probably use the bit about Malik just like Kayt Sel Liantuy has said to show how powerful IC's writing can be etc...

[Dameon]

Yay! You spelt my name right!

Go you!!!

(You can call me Kayt, or KSL you know. No one can be bothered spelling it out!)

KSL
PS> Glad you like my suggestion

[Roxy]

Oh good i'm glad i can call you Kayt. I can't tell you haw many times i had to scroll up and back down to spell it correctly lol. oh i'm weird. Anyway.

Yours and everyone elses suggestions were great i have got a great feeling about this speech.

[Talmina]

i did a speech on isobelle carmody in yr 11 and used the intro to obernewtyn as my opening. it went really well actually, theres this really good isobelle carm ody quote that i found that you might be able to use as well

Where else in the world do you find love that lasts forever, truth, justice, honour, courage? Why do we yearn for them when there's so little evidence of them around us?" It's a reasonable question, if rhetorical. In full flight, author Isobelle Carmody is a verbal whirlwind, earlier hesitancy swept aside in proselytising zeal. "Fantasy," she says in it's-patently-obvious tones. "That's why it's so popular - we want there to be more than the real."

This article appeared first in The Australian magazine, 1996. It was taken in its entirity from this site <http://www.ozemail.com.au/%7Ewaldrenm/carmody.html>.

ok i just copy/pasted that from the notes but yeah.

[Roxy]

cool i'm in year 11.

Thank you for all that it is great info and i love the quote!