Friday, March 02, 2012

A brilliant teaching podcast of 'Compass and Torch'

There is a teacher in Plymouth, Mr Andrew Bruff, who is responsible for my losing a morning's writing today! I opened my emails and there was a link to this innovative and fun teaching podcast he has made about my story 'Compass and Torch' (see below). It's a hoot, and also very clever - I was laughing most of the time, but the analysis of the story is so spot-on I was really touched, and it ends with a song which made me cry! Plus: he and his co-presenter Mr Ollie Hayne, English teachers at Lipson Community College, taught me something about the story I hadn't realised myself: I had always thought of it as omniscient, but they point out that it's actually a complicated mix of omniscient and what they call 'flipping' intimate third. They comment that this strongly supports the story's theme of the difficulties of communication, but I had never even noticed that that's what I'd done, leave alone thought about its thematic significance. But then that's the magical, alchemical process of writing for you.

And all I can say is that Bruff and Haynes are pretty brilliant teachers....

Anyway, by the time I'd stopped being utterly tickled and amazed and touched, the story I was meant to be writing had quite gone from my head....! But I don't mind in the least, it's made my day!

6 comments:

Sharon said...

Thankyou for this excellent teaching podcast .... my son is 15 and studying 'compass & Torch' as part of GCSE.... hes also Autistic (Aspergers Syndrome) so struggles 'interpretting' the world and its occupants....let alone poetry and prose!!!!
so he just walked in...stressed ... complaining that his teacher says he's 'wrong' all the time....
and i find your blog....
the podcast u liknk to is excellent... but so is alos ur observation on how they interpret something about the piece that even u as the author had not noted.... perfect amunition for my son to fire at his teacher the next time he says my son is 'wrong' how he interprets things!

I would love ur thoughts on this!!!!

Sharon said...

kraftyshaz @ live . co . uk thanks!

Elizabeth Baines said...

Hi Sharon,

I would say it's always a matter of interpretation, and that it's the words on the page that stand to be interpreted, but that there is often more than one valid interpretation. For instance, Bruff and Haynes mention the significance of the colours of the torches in 'Compass and Torch' - red and green - and say that this possibly symbolises the stop-go relationship between the father and son. I can honestly say this never occurred to me: I just chose two different colours so that the boy could be disappointed that they they weren't the same colour, but I have to say that B & H's concept works as an idea in the story and therefore in no way am I prepared to deny it as an interpretation. I'd say that any interpretation of a story is valid as long as you can justify it from the words on the page...

Maggie said...

When did you write you write Compass and Torch? It is a very evocative story really enjoyed it.

Regards

Maggie

Elizabeth Baines said...

Thank you, Maggie. Oddly enough, I can't remember when it dates from exactly. It was first published on East of the Web
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/CompTorc.shtml
and as far as I can see
they don't date when the stories went up, and I can't easily lay my hands on a record. It was some time in the early 2000s, probably, though it may have been later.

Anonymous said...

brilliant podcast except I found it one of the most annoying things I've ever listened. the desperate attempt to imitate the Ricky Gervais show was so blatant including the monkey noises. I had to fast forward the singing man which just grated on me and found it very difficult to concentrate on what he was saying. Good content but the delivery was cringeworthy.