All great works of literature either found a genre or dissolve one (Walter Benjamin), and Sebald’s books are quite unique, baring a resemblance to nothing which has gone before, and almost certainly being followed by no books quite like them. Sebald creates thoughts in us which are entirely our own, helping us discover something which has always been there, but unrecognised, until the convoluted prose of Sebald has penetrated into out own depths to release something precious from its swirling eddies.
Unique to Sebald is his use of images, grainy black and white photographs scattered throughout his text. Sometimes these photographs are "found" images which Sebald used for his own purposes, other times, they are photographs taken by himself. The images are always untitled and enigmatic, sometimes enlightenting, other times misleading. It is quite possible to create images similar to Sebald's, using a digital camera and photo-editing software and the results of this work can be used to illustrate our own thoughts and the events which come into our lives.
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Have you been impacted by the writer W G Sebald? Would you like to contribute photographs and words of your own which have been perhaps inspired by Sebalds books? Or mabye create images and text in the style of Sebald? Here is the place to do it.
If W G Sebald is a writer unknown to you, then his Wikipedia entry can be found here.
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