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The Bone People has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. | ||||||||||
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A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on November 1, 2022. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that The Bone People by Keri Hulme nearly ended up as a doorstop instead of a Booker Prize-winning novel? |
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I just capitalized the title. —Preceding unsigned comment added 23 September 2004 (UTC)
I own a copy, and it's capitalised. -- Greaser 04:03, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
The correct title of the book is the bone people. Not in title case, as The Bone People. This was done, by the author for what she obviously felt were valid reasons.
If you own a copy with the incorrect title, it is indeed a poor cousin.
The author used title case for a reason - this had nothing to do with some graphic designer's whim. In NZ literary and academic circles, you will generally see the novel referred to, correctly, as the bone people, especially by those close to the book http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/hulme.htm http://www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/marian_evans/about-us/aboutus.html Amended accordingly Notalent (talk) 07:04, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
I just finished the book yesterday and as far as I can remember Kerewin doesn't know she has cancer until after she burns the tower down, unless of course I completely missed the point? She's not running from Simon and Joe because shes sick but they have all been separated and she wants to leave to get away from another mess like she did before. Anyway that's what I think maybe we should edit tht second paragraph of the summary. Drac90 15/8/06 9.50
I notice a prior version of the article contained: "Kerewin Holmes - Kerewin is a reclusive artist who is running away from her past. The character's name seems intentionally similar to the author’s. This could mean that the author wishes for some reason to draw parallels between herself and Kerewin. Kerewin also shares the author's appearance and lifestyle, but the character's realism and obvious flaws such as short-temperedness and alcoholism suggest that Kerewin is not a Mary Sue." But it's been removed.
That the character is a self-insertion of some sort is damn obvious to anyone who's seen the name, and it's one of the biggest examples I've seen in a recognised literary work. Not mentioning that it's a self-insertion, is trying to retain some scrap of modesty that the book doesn't have.
The only thing I'd question is the statement 'is not a Mary Sue', and the reasons given. Alcoholism and short-temperedness isn't a character flaw in the authors eyes, given that all the sympathetic characters in the book have no problem with it (same goes for smoking - a Doctor offers a Cigar to a 6-7 year old, if you've read it, and all the sympathetic characters think people are being a bit 'PC' for not letting a kid smoke or drink). If anything, the only flaw acknowledged in Alcoholism is having a hang-over, and 'Kerewin' generally drinks people under the table, and yet, doesn't. Let's not forget her expertise at any skill mentioned (architecture, herbalism, guitar, painting, carpentry, chess - is there anything she *isn't* good at? Why, no!), and her ability to handle 'at least 6 attackers' with ease, due to her elite Aikido skills. ;P C'mon, it's a gem! -- A. Nonymous, Wellington. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.154.238.36 (talk) 02:05, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
Kia ora all! I'm about to start working on this page (it's an important one I think!). I've previously been in touch with Marian Evans of Spiral who has kindly organised for photographer Philip Tremewan to upload some photos of Keri Hulme to Commons (see this Commons category). I'm hugely grateful to her for this.
Something else Marian has raised with me is that Hulme's preferred capitalisation was the bone people. This is how it was stylised in the first edition, but not always in later editions. Secondary sources are mixed in how they refer to the novel but the sources I'd consider most authoritative in the area of New Zealand literature use the lower-case, for example Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature and other scholarly sources, while newspaper articles (such as the various obituaries for Hulme after her death recently) tend to use the upper-case. So this is not a very clear-cut case, and I'm wondering what others think of the best approach? Is this the kind of thing where a RfC might assist, or would the author's preference + use in reliable sources justify a bold move to lower-case? Cheers, Chocmilk03 (talk) 23:50, 9 July 2022 (UTC)
I see you wanted feedback, Chocmilk:
This isn't far off a GA. Great work. And the revision history shows how much work you've put into this. Schwede66 06:46, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
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