When Ink Comes to Life: Bingeing Inkheart

Day 1

The first day of our reading binge was exceptional with little or no complaints.  We found ourselves reading on the first floor of the library on the couches. It was nice because the couches didn’t allow us to get too comfy and it was a quiet setting. The text opened up nicely and caught our attention with its inventive and accurate descriptions. Early on we were interested in attaining more knowledge of the characters, especially Dustfinger a fire eater who behaves cryptically. Some group members found themselves restless at times which led to the use of music, pacing around, and unorthodox reading positions. At the end of our first group binge we hashed over the text, we discussed the subtle use of animals to describe characters, the absence of Meggie’s mother, and several mysterious nicknames. One group member, Eric, began keeping track of every time a bird was mentioned. Overall, our entire group had a quality experience in our first two hour group reading and we were excited to continue reading Inkheart and begin to unravel the mysteries in the next four hour individual binge session.  

The story takes place in several hillside Italian villages with churches in the center.

Day 2

The second day of our group binge went very well. Before we began reading we discussed our individual binge to see how each of us saw the characters as people who are familiar to us. For example; some saw Capricorn (bad guy) as Kylo Ren, others saw him as Voldemort, one even compared him to their father (in appearance). We all felt that it was easier to read together, as we found motivation in seeing others around us immersed in the same world. The pace of the novel was steadily building momentum and kept our interests easily throughout the second day. 

There are birds, insects, and other animals and weather that kept appearing throughout our text which all have symbolic meaning. These symbolic meanings vary depending on the setting and which characters are involved in the scene. For example Capricorn’s men are described as "crows" and Mortola (Capricorns head housekeeper) was described as having a face like a magpie, while Capricorn himself was represented as a Red Rooster. Fenoglio (the author of the book inside the book) was described as having the face of a tortoise, which can symbolize wisdom and knowledge. Weather was also symbolic the rain, which the characters keep getting caught in, shows a storm brewing inside the story. Then when the setting includes blue skies and sunshine there was a sense of relief, though it was short lived. The narrative teleology of the novel has a flow that kept us in tune and completely immersed in the plot. By the end of day two lot of us had almost made it to the end of Inkheart and were excited for the conclusion.

There are also a couple chapters that take place in a coastal village like this one.

Day 3

Wrapping up our third and final group binge session of Inkheart, everyone was captivated by the story and still extremely invested. This was achieved by the narrative arc of the story. It was paced well and the arc was pretty basic, with only a slight variation from the “typical hill”. This story is like a roller coaster for children, but her words are eloquent and keeps even the more advanced readers immersed. While plot does not show a lot of variation throughout the text, the setting does. The Italian countryside is described in such vivid details. Eric had been to Italy over the summer, he shared his pictures with us (as seen throughout this blog post) and we were all amazed at how close they came to our own ideas about what the fictional world looked like. The author “brings the words to life” creating a visual image of the worlds in the story that are strong enough to take one's breath away. The point of this is that even an elementary plot can have a beautiful story. Majestic fairies, lakes, vast mountain ranges, colorful house, vibrant leaves, pure darkness, and dancing fire; all of the visual characteristics that are missed in most books, are not missed in Inkheart.  With the right language, words are powerful and can come to life when pieced together correctly.

In the coastal town there are many brightly colored buildings.

While set in current day, the story has an older feel.

Written/Edited by Aleah Honeycutt, Shanna Welch, Ian Wiesenberg, Jimmy Hall, & Eric Kelley

Photos taken and provided by: Eric Kelley