The opening chapter of Gail Jones’ Five Bells cleverly introduces characters through their perceptions of the quay and Sydney Opera House. Whilst Ellie describes the icon as a fan (p. 3), the ‘obstinately unjoyful’ James DeMello sees white teeth reminiscent of prowling sharks (pp. 4-5). The calm and independent Pei Xing likens the building to an old friend, and never tires of the ‘porcelain bowls … in unexpected harmony.’ (p. 12). Catherine, a brash young Irish woman, identifies a resemblance between the sales and petals on ‘blown roses’ (pp. 14-15).
Image of Eric Thake’s An Opera House in Every Home from the National Gallery of Australia: printsandprintmaking.gov.au
As a class exercise in Preliminary Extension, we discussed how effective these varied insights are in revealing important aspects of each character. We challenged ourselves to think of alternative views for the opera house and create a word bank. Here are two examples:
1. waves wild changeable white frothy crest ocean inbalanced contrast rhythm sense of time
2. architecture tiles framework feathers skeleton unfolding bat bird wings
Further discussion allowed students to consider how these words and ideas might affect meaning for a reader when meeting a character. I noted that, so far, our ideas were mainly positive and we then tried to develop a series of negative words:
piled up bones on promontory angles stiffness jumbled jutted imposition thoughtless hip pelvis scapula uncaring
We then turned our attention to a local icon – Corbett Gardens in Bowral. This is the central site for the annual Tulip Festival which attracts many tourists to the southern highlands region of New South Wales. Through visualisation, we considered the features of this outdoor space in individual seasons and how we experience these through our different senses. We created a series of word banks for the hard and soft architecture, garden beds and plants. For each item, word or idea, we challenged ourselves to record specifics, increasing our vocabulary and opening up the possibilities for nuance, connotations and lateral ideas.
- stone garden beds: grey granite sandstone cement dry mottled lichen moss
- wire arches: pavillion gazebo seating marble memorial benches
- paths: meander rounded winding
- tulips: deiversity community unity bright individual massed planting hybrids colours petals created manufactured harmony drifts shape design
- tulip colours:
- yellow: sun sunflower smiley faces lemons squash beans golden
- purple: lilac lavender dusk dawn majestic regal royal amethyst
Working closely with the ‘show not tell’ concept, students considered the different aspects of a character that could be made immediately available to a reader under three domains:
Appearance physique clothing
Actions movement gestures
Speech dialogue internal monologue
Their homework was to develop a character profile – name, age, occupation – and write:
- one paragraph as a descriptive pause
- shorter paragraph detailing an action
- three lines of dialogue
- one paragraph revealing their prime emotion or motivation for being in the gardens