Reasons to Read (anything)

There are many angles from which to analyze There, There, so I wanted to focus on how Tommy Orange gives his readers breadcrumbs: details that connect across chapters.

As I spent time with this book, I asked myself about how Tommy Orange manages the inherent subjectivity of each reader. What makes a person keep listening? How does Tommy Orange capitalize on whatever that is? How do I start to notice the breadcrumbs that I tend to always overlook, so that I could hook a different type of reader than myself -- or do I want to do that?

These things make people turn pages:

1. Plot, tension, conflict/resolution, characterization… (reminds me of middle school Language arts)
2. The story is personal to author and therefore, reader
3. The story is not just personal, but it is politically impactful and/or historically significant (for example, what does it mean to write stories about Native American people in the modern era when people’s stories are inextricable from the past? Is the story not “authentic” if it is forged in a new way? Reminds me of Lony and Loother’s conversation on p. 131 -- “why can’t we just make up our own way?”)
4. The prose is nice, and maybe the reader wants to bathe in beautiful language
5. The structures are unique and the author is doing something innovative with how they frame storytelling (shifting perspectives, a nested narrative of a filmmaker making films about the other characters, whose chapters represent that part of the film)
6. The reader feels “smart,” like a detective, because they are picking up on the devices the author uses -- clues in each chapter that link back to other chapters… (for example, details about Jackie Red Feather and Harvey and Opal all come together in different chapters, not just all at once)
7. The reader can trace themes (for example, Tommy Orange writes each character with some sort of screen or mirror through which they see/analyze their reflection, or at least informs the reader about their appearance… ALSO there is a lot of referencing to addiction, the singularity, internet & isolation)

Anyway, I think my aim of this post was to investigate the net Orange casts, and how. I want to figure out what makes a story worthwhile to be written, and listened to, when nearly everything about what makes a person listen is a slippery subjective thing.

HJ