1,000 Days of Sun is a noisy novel. It employs techniques of graphic design, code systems of language, non-textual ideas and musical elements to describe and reflect questions of contextual identity and the novel form itself.
I analyse postmodern metafictional and graphical techniques and discuss how I have used these to create multiple layers of narrative, while retaining the forward motion of a traditional novel. I look at how form can be employed as a technique to represent and reflect fluidity of identity for the characters of a novel, and I discuss how information theory and noise elements can be employed to disrupt and energise a novel.
The novel reveals the different stories of three sets of characters on a small territory – Salvi Island in the tropics. Ian and Laura are expatriates, having moved for Laura’s work. Wilberforce Jenkins-Ross IV is the leader of the Salvi government, dealing with demands both on a geopolitical and hyperlocal level. His nephew, Leadbetter, is a 17-year-old bass player desperate to change the world through his music. These stories intersect and contrast in a polyphonic form and through the multiple narrators, creating an overview of the island which emerges as the tales unfold. The novel culminates in a single island-wide festival at which all the characters appear and describe from their own points of view. The events are the same, but they are inevitably perceived differently by each set of characters.
The commentary included here discusses how I developed the form and focus of a novel through practice-based research and concludes that a novel can contain multiple layered narratives and still retain its narrative thrust. Hidden, or encoded, additional material performs a dual function: first as noise, and then as information once it is unlocked. This leads me to conclude that a novel can contain within its pages several concurrent but different reading experiences, based on this tension between noise and signal. Finally, I look at ways that narrative can be formed through various media including online websites, different book editions, and cross-media possibilities.