Real or fake: continued...

Continued...

Reviews
It was helpful to look up some book reviews online. These reviews convinced me to look beyond the main plot of the book and explore the Power and Control relationships unpacked by the novel.
I found one of the reviews from a book club particularly encouraging. “This novel has so many layers that our group was able to have its longest-running discussion over what has been our shortest selection to date. There’s women’s lib, race relations, man versus the Man, man versus machine, what it means to be crazy, treatment of the mentally incompetent, and much, much more.”

(Source: http://www.emlynchand.com/2011/05/book-review-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-by-ken-kesey/)

My main ideas to be reflected in the cover design:

My own interpretation of the book draws strongly on the idea of Power and Control. This is the key underlying message that is evident throughout the novel and I wanted to make it the central message of my front cover.

My notes below show the process that I used to decide on the key elements to be included in the front cover.  I previously used this process to work on “The remains of the sunny days” theme. I found this process very helpful and I am planning to use it again in my future work. The process follows a series of steps:

1)     brainstorming the ideas associated with the topic (I make a good use of quotes and any other sources that I can get hold of)

2)    grouping these ideas in a scrapbook (digital or physical)

3)    adding any images, thoughts, drawings that might be associated with these groups of ideas

4)    consolidating the themes and tightening the focus

5)    exploring the best combinations of the elements and the composition.

These steps usually help me to get a good idea of how to approach the topic and what the end result might look like.

For this assignment, I used the quotes collated from the novel to develop the cover elements as follows:

“The machine I hear humming behind the door” (Chapter 1)

“The ward is a factory for the Combine. It's for fixing up mistakes made in the neighbourhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is. When a completed product goes back out into society, all fixed up good as new, better than new sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse's heart...."

(Chapter 4)

“The ward hums the way I heard a cotton mill hum” (Chapter 1).

Theme: The machine, surveillance, Big Brother, watching eye, product, conveyer, robots, non-emotional, mechanical = element of surveillance Element of composition/ image = CCTV

“The technician go trotting off, pushing the man on the Gurney, like cartoon men – or like puppets, mechanical puppets in one of those Punch and Judy acts where it’s supposed to be funny to see the puppet beat up by the Devil and swallowed headfirst by a smiling alligator…” (Chapter 1)

“I had so many insults I died. I was born dead. I can't help it.... I'm tired.'" (Chapter 5)

Theme: Cartoons, puppets, Punch and Judy, unreal, theatrical, threat, dead, fear, confusion

Element of composition/ image: an image of a man confused, blurred, an image convening fear and uncertainty

Technique: torn paper, burnt or scratched paper or film, image showing through the scratches, a man’s face showing through the scratched paper – technique to try -  sandwich of two images? 

“But I tried though,' he says. 'Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn't I?'" (Chapter 11)

Theme: Freedom, breaking through, trying to change the system, fighting against the machine/The Combine

 Element of composition/ image: some element associated with the freedom – ideally a blue cloudless sky, maybe as a background?

"I’ve been away a long time." (Chapter 29) – the blue sky might work here, or a tree growing out of the brick wall (nature takes its course against the machine)

Theme: Awareness, awakening

Element of composition/ image: blue sky as a background