Moved by Red | Natalie Alexander
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About Red Sorghum by Nobel prize winner Mo Yan.
In this episode you'll hear about my preparations for a book club discussion on Red Sorghum by Chinese author Mo Yan at Saint-Germain, 44Stanley in Johannesburg. Mo Yan is the only citizen to date awarded the Nobel prize in Literature, which he received in 2012.
After announcing the book to our group, a loyal member, an award winning teacher, Natalie Alexander, approached me and told me her mother had grown up in China.
This sparked the idea to prepare for book club together, as Natalie could offer insights into Chinese customs and culture that I wouldn't discover on my own.
I take you through our journey of uncovering what makes Red Sorghum unique, from cultural details remembered by Natalie to the telling techniques Mo Yan uses.
I discovered the acceptance speech of Mo Yan on the Nobel prize website and I quote from this speech. I believe it is an exceptional speech. The acceptance speech gives us clues on how to interpret several telling techniques, like repetition and colour.
Together, Natalie and I developed discussion questions for the club, grappling with the novel's vivid depictions of extreme violence, committed by both Chinese and Japanese characters, and the surprising use of dark humour, which I initially missed. I share with you what the response is from the book club members.
And Natalie Alexander presents a letter she wrote to the group, in this episode she reads it to us as an interlude. And when my episode is finished we have a chat about how it was for her to hear me telling about our preparations and the book club evening we hosted together. I close this episode with a short story I wrote myself, an attempt to echo some of the storytelling techniques we believe Mo Yan used in Red Sorghum.
In this episode you'll hear about my preparations for a book club discussion on Red Sorghum by Chinese author Mo Yan at Saint-Germain, 44Stanley in Johannesburg. Mo Yan is the only citizen to date awarded the Nobel prize in Literature, which he received in 2012.
After announcing the book to our group, a loyal member, an award winning teacher, Natalie Alexander, approached me and told me her mother had grown up in China.
This sparked the idea to prepare for book club together, as Natalie could offer insights into Chinese customs and culture that I wouldn't discover on my own.
I take you through our journey of uncovering what makes Red Sorghum unique, from cultural details remembered by Natalie to the telling techniques Mo Yan uses.
I discovered the acceptance speech of Mo Yan on the Nobel prize website and I quote from this speech. I believe it is an exceptional speech. The acceptance speech gives us clues on how to interpret several telling techniques, like repetition and colour.
Together, Natalie and I developed discussion questions for the club, grappling with the novel's vivid depictions of extreme violence, committed by both Chinese and Japanese characters, and the surprising use of dark humour, which I initially missed. I share with you what the response is from the book club members.
And Natalie Alexander presents a letter she wrote to the group, in this episode she reads it to us as an interlude. And when my episode is finished we have a chat about how it was for her to hear me telling about our preparations and the book club evening we hosted together. I close this episode with a short story I wrote myself, an attempt to echo some of the storytelling techniques we believe Mo Yan used in Red Sorghum.
