How to be Both - Camera

[Louise, Group Founder]

Discussion for the 'Camera' section.

Section starting with: 'Consider this moral conundrum...'

[amber]

I was internetless for a couple of weeks, so haven't had the chance to check in. So far I'm enjoying it more then The Accidental. How seems to have more to say than Accidental did.

[Melissa (ladybug)]

Mine starts with Camera. I have started reading and so far, it has been ok. :)

[Louise, Group Founder]

That's the modern part?

Are you able to understand what's going on right from the beginning? Cause I had Eyes first and was very confused for several pages, I'm kind of assuming that Camera first makes for a smoother start and a less jarring change from one narrator to the other.

[Melissa (ladybug)]

Yes Camera is sort of modern. :) I am not very far, just a few pages. George is remembering a conversation between her and her mother, before her mother died, where her mother asked her an hypothetical question.

[Melissa (ladybug)]

Camera made the story more understandable, at least for me. I think if I had started with eyes, I would have probably given up on the book because of confusion.

[Louise, Group Founder]

Funnily enough I actually prefer the Eyes part (even though I thought Camera was stronger), but the beginning is pretty impenetrable until you get to Camera. So I'm not entirely sure the 'it can be read either section first' really works all that well.

I think the point is to question who is telling the story - is George making up a life for this artist to cope with her grief? or is the ghost of the artist watching over a grieving teenager? All confused by the fact that the artist actually is a real historical figure, about whom we know very few details, so the artist's life-story definitely is made up, if only by the author. But is it made up in context of the novel, or is it meant to be real?

Presumably whichever section you read first is meant to feel like the 'true' narrator and changes the perspective of the novel and what it's about, giving two different reading experiences. But while it's quite a clever idea (and actually I enjoyed the book a lot more than I thought I would) it seems a bit too much like the actual story is merely the vehicle for the gimmick, at times.