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 Sharne in what she hopes will be her author photo
Mitchell's Dusty Textbooks & Liquid Paper is, in
her own words, "a dark and gritty exploration of love, learning and the trials
of being Supervisor Of Girls." At 450 pages, the novel spans four terms in the
life of Relieving Deputy Head Teacher – English, Rae Sjostedt.
"I used Conrad's Heart Of Darkness as a kind of
framework and inspiration for Dusty Textbooks," Mitchell said. "In the
same way Marlow traverses the waters of the Congo River
to find a spiritual barbarism within himself, Rae braves the murky depths of
bottom Year 10 poetry to find they have no knowledge of rhyme, metaphor or iambic
pentameter."
Mitchell has also worked in some of her experiences as a Rock
Eisteddfod co-ordinator: "Nothing can compare to the dizzying highs and crashing
lows that accompany a hundred teenage girls in leotards, dancing in unison to
U2's With Or Without You. I've used the 'Fod experience to mirror Rae's
fruitless search for a staffroom soulmate."
Some critics have chided Mitchell for basing certain
characters on real-life people, but the author claims she was careful to avoid
direct analogues. "People think Neil ‘Butch' Wilde is based on [Year 8 bully]
Beau Wiles, but he's more of an amalgam of all the fat, obnoxious loudmouths
I've had in my classroom over my 21 years of teaching."
Dusty Textbooks & Liquid Paper is yet to be
picked up by a publisher, but Mitchell remains confident it will eventually be
included on the HSC syllabus. She has also commenced work on a sequel,
tentatively titled Beyond The Chalkface. "It's more of a fantasy work,"
she explained. "Following the painful demise of Neil Wilde, Rae wins the
lottery and is able to retire to southern France,
where she drinks champagne, writes moving sonnets and has a whirlwind romance
with a young, handsome gardener."
[Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
Pinball Neil May 6th, 2007 - 8:06 PM
I'd read it! | [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
Mezeltov Cocktail May 6th, 2007 - 9:07 PM
Well, they do say you should write about what you know.
That's why I always write about drugged-up whorish hippies!  | Re: [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
Mr Pants May 6th, 2007 - 9:47 PM
I'm writing a book by the way. | Re: [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
Fritz May 6th, 2007 - 10:04 PM
I wonder if this was written about Squiggles? | [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
Sam Clark May 7th, 2007 - 4:52 AM
lol nice article.
funniest part is how that image can be found google imaging english teacher and on the second page- not criticism  | Re: [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
The I Don't Fucking Care Bear May 7th, 2007 - 4:57 AM
I wonder if this was written about Squiggles?
i'm hardly muse-like.
(more, moose-like....)
 | [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
kathryn May 10th, 2007 - 8:00 AM
What the??
Who wrote this???
They go/went to Smiths Hill. They just mixed up the names of my Principal and one of the Drama teachers and used the personalitites of some of the English and Science teachers.
Well done whoever you are. Top article.
| Re: [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
Vince Ficarra May 10th, 2007 - 10:01 AM
good one!!!  | Re: [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
The I Don't Fucking Care Bear May 13th, 2007 - 7:57 AM
The more I look at that picture, the more it reminds me of the lady who comes in to discuss my 'special needs' kids with me.
Wonder if it's her | Re: [Article]English teacher writes novel about teaching English
George W Bush May 28th, 2007 - 8:07 PM
Let us award her the James Goatpee Nobel Prize for Literature...*
...how about a white South African professor of Literature who teaches at a South African university writing a book about a white South African professor of Literature who teaches at a South African university?
(let us encourage him to write the flattest, dullest prose of all time, to fill his work with cliches, to preach his views on the meaning of literature, to prostrate himself before the Ancients (Thucydides, Socrates, Mark Latham, etc) for all white male characters to be the same gormless, spineless quavering-whisperers, as he is... Then let's compound the travesty by awarding him the Booker and Nobel prizes.)
*Nobel Prize= An award presented by a committee of white-haired whiteys to the most mediocre in several fields. Given in memory of Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite. Past winners have included Yassar Arafat (Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize) And Neils Bohr (For the invention of the Nuclear Bomb) and Robert Sturtevant (for writing The Secret Life of Douglas Manson, and publicising it with a hoax terrorist attack upon Sydney)
Farewell, bipedally symmetrical |
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