Black Swan Green's Parenthetical Writing
In my opinion, one of David Mitchell's biggest strengths in Black Swan Green is the ability to draw us into a moment by including the quick, raw, and allusive thoughts of Jason that let us know what's happening under the surface. The title of this blog is just a roundabout way of saying I like how Mitchell includes parentheses (sometimes mid-sentence, like the first example below,) to let us know what Jason's thinking. Let me bring up some examples to explain.
A scene that stuck out to me in this way in the final chapter was when Jason finally meets Cynthia. The conversation is extremely tense, and I admire Mitchell's tense writing in this segment once again.
‘So how—’ I began, suddenly scared of having nothing to say.
‘If you—’ she began in the same second.
‘After you—’
‘No, after you. Really. You go ahead.’
‘How long’ (no grown-up’s ever made me go first) ‘have you known Dad?’ (Mitchell 278)
In this scene the "no grown-up's ever made me go first" shows just how obvious it was that Cynthia is nervous from trying making a good impression on the family that her lover kept seperate from her for so long. It is obvious that Jason and Cynthia are not having this conversation because they want to get to know each other, but I still like how Mitchell includes the detail that Jason speaks because he's "scared" that nothing will fill the silence, showing how they're both kind of distracted by not wanting to make the conversation awkward. Them interrupting each other is additionally very realistic and relatable.
Another very telling thought from Jason was when Madame Crommelynck explains her family's relationship to Robert Frobisher. She details how Robert and her father "'shared a musical empathy, who is an empathy more intimate than the sexual.’ (She said ‘sexual’ like it was any other word)" (157). The added thought from Jason shows us how much attention he's paying to that word specifically, which reflects a lot of the tensions he's had around sex recently, from things like thinking about Dawn Madden, seeing Tom Yew and Debby Crombie have sex, and soon even seeing his Dad's "ox-tail" and contemplating his own future will be added to the list.
Overall I think this technique makes the book a lot more fun to read. Sometimes it seems to interrupt the flow of a thought, but it's very natural to read in the end and lets us see rawly what's happening inside Jason's head.
This is a super interesting detail that I didn't really pick up on but now that you mention it, also really enjoyed throughout the book. I think one reason why I loved this style of writing was not only that it let us know how Jason was feeling under the surface but it really sold that "middle school boy" type of speaking to me. I can't say I know exactly what middle school boys feel like, but from other stereotypical books/movies/descriptions, I imagine it's hard for boys his age to really express what they mean and we see that in Jason -- he refrains from saying certain words or thoughts because of the way other people will take him. Thus, I think this inner voice way of writing that Mitchell has incorporated plays into this persona super well and makes me feel closer to Jason.
ReplyDeleteLike what Danbi said above, I didn't really notice this detail either until I read your blog post, but I definitely remember a bunch of those instances when Mitchell used parentheses to enclose Jason's inner thoughts. I guess it's a good thing that it didn't really stand out to me because that means reading it was really natural and didn't interrupt the flow of the narration at all. I think that's because we all have these spontaneous and sometimes random inner thoughts while interacting with other people, so when Mitchell describes Jason's random thoughts in parentheses during his conversations, it doesn't seem out of the ordinary to us readers.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way the book was written as a whole because I felt it was relatable (even though I've never experienced bullying). The fact that the book had so many statements in parentheses only added to that because it reminds me of when I'm thing of something and then a completely different thought comes into my head. I also agree that the parenthetical statements contributed to the atmosphere of a scene.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great point! I think it is also interesting to see how these parenthetical statements evolve over the course of the book. It seems to me that at the beginning Jason really highlights how much he edits himself in real life conversations, when he says one thing and then tells the reader the opposite is true. But by the end, it seems that Jason doesn't feel as much need to edit his thoughts (although realistically, we all self edit, so I wasn't expecting Jason to completely stop). Another way we see Jason self edit is to avoid his stammer, which occurs less at the end of the book as Jason becomes more confident in himself. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteYes, I also really liked how the book used parentheses to show Jason's thoughts. I thought it added a bit of relatability and authenticity, as I do something similar sometimes when I'm in a conversation (like thinking to myself). It also didn't interrupt the flow of scene, so it didn't take anything away from the narrative.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's fun how in some cases, the writing style sacrifices polish in order to show the state of Jason's mind, which is sometimes jumpy or chaotic.
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