extremely loud and incredibly close book

Other examples of hybrid novels include Umberto Eco’s The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, Dave Eggers’ You Shall Know Our Velocity, W.G. “Hybrid novels”-novels with graphic elements such as such as photographs, drawings and diagrams integrated into the written text-are increasingly common. They do not merely reflect or illustrate the writing they are part of the writing.įoer is not the only novelist pushing the limits of the genre by using images as literary devices. Foer’s novel differs from illustrated literature of the past because the images are included as literary devices. However, these kinds of images have traditionally been included as decorative elements in novels-ornate title pages or illustrated plates could be added or subtracted in different editions without significantly affecting the comprehension of the writing. Early novels often had illustrated plates scattered through the text or photographic frontispieces, and there is a long tradition of publishing special illustrated editions of classic or best-selling novels. Jones accentuates that the photographs and other images are “rare and impressive” because they are “fully integrated” in the novel. Director Mark Jones calls the work a “rare and impressive example of a text with fully integrated visual elements, in which you encounter things you don’t expect” (Khan n.p.). In addition to the photographs scattered amongst the written text, are a range of other graphic images: diagrams, handwritten text, and unconventional typesetting. Novels are conventionally a purely written literary form images are drawn in the mind of the reader, and not on the page of the book.

Second it is unusual for a novel to contain photographic illustrations at all. Although Foer took some photographs himself most were sourced from stock libraries, web sites and The New York Times. First the “illustrations” are mostly found photographs, rather than original images created by the author. Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close won the Book Illustration Award and was named Overall Winner at the Victoria and Albert Illustration Awards in 2005. Picturing The Language of Images, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. Final draft (pre-editing) of a chapter published in:

Extremely loud and incredibly close book