VCE English : Station Eleven

Author insights via video link

Emily St John Mandel wrote 'Station Eleven' a dystopian novel about a highly contagious flu pandemic in 2014. This novel is a set text for Year 12 English, and yesterday our students, as well as 17 other schools across Victoria, had the unique opportunity to hear from the author via video link from the US. 

Mandel spoke eloquently about the process and inspiration behind 'Station Eleven', exploring her motivation for writing a dystopia as wanting to consider the modern world through creating a 'post-technology' world. Mandel revealed too that one of the characters in the text, an artist who lovingly crafts a graphic novel in the gaps of her office job, was most like herself as she had spent many years having to engage in her writing practice alongside full time work. 

The author spoke as well about how in writing about a world in which everything of the modern world is lost, people no longer take these things for granted and they desire to preserve these artifacts of the past - phones, screens, a snow globe - all items that inspire awe in a world in which so much has been lost. 

Mandel's lecture was timed well to support students in their study of 'Station Eleven' ahead of their SAC in early Term 2. The event was memorable and great thanks to Elliot Wall for his coordination.