Cally Black's "In the Dark Spaces" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Distinctive features of In the Dark Spaces

• Black’s dedication, ‘To all young people searching for a kinder future in a harsh world’, makes a direct appeal to students
• A powerful front cover has an engaging question: How far would you go to get home?
• The original narrative voice of 14-year-old Tamara is raw and arresting 
• The short chapters, great headings and quick sentences create pace and vitality 
• The ferocity of some of the events in this novel marks it for older readers in Years 9 and 10 
• The use of classic science fiction genre elements with new aspects involving the role of women, and women in families is worth exploring  
• The vivid world building includes the creation of the alien species (and their language of whistling sounds and unfamiliar words) and their floating hives in deep space 
• Learning the language of the Garuwa (the Crowpeople), is key to understanding who they are
• Language is seen and heard as a weapon of misunderstanding/miscommunication and also as a force for understanding
• The novel confronts students with ethical considerations of survival, conquest and war 
• Environmental attitudes demonstrate contrasting cultures and life forms 
• There are strong parallels with First Nations peoples’ experiences in Australia.

Ways to use In the Dark Spaces in the classroom

Author’s dedication

Black’s dedication is a good place to start.

‘To all young people searching for a kinder future in a harsh world.’

Ask students what they would consider would make their school, neighbourhood and the world a kinder place.

Class discussion on genre

In the Dark Spaces has many elements of speculative fiction, a genre usually associated with settings other than the real world with futuristic or imaginative elements. This broad definition encompasses the science fiction and fantasy genres. In the class consider what are classic elements of the science fiction genre by suggesting well known films/novels e.g. Dune, The Martian, Foundation, Avatar, The Hunger Games and making suggestions about the usual, conventional elements of the genre e.g.

• Time travel
• Teleportation
• Mind control, telepathy, and telekinesis
• Aliens, extra-terrestrial lifeforms
• Space travel and exploration
• Interplanetary warfare
• Parallel universes
• Fictional worlds
• Alternative histories
• Speculative technology
• Super-intelligent computers and robots

Task: making notes
As you read the novel, note what conventional elements you discover and what other elements are appearing e.g. fierce female narrative voice and strong role of women. Also note down textual support for the ideas of

• Language
• Loss
• Survival
• Loyalty
• Space travel
• Belonging
• Family
• Ownership
• Environment

Characterisation

The character of Tamara

• Tamara is a stowaway, a hostage, a translator, a survivor and a peacemaker. Find textual examples that support these descriptions of Tamara and consider how Black creates such an intense and interesting character.
• Add other characteristics and textual examples that are important in her ability to act as a go-between.
• Create a character portrait of both Tamara and her Garuwa leader, Tootoopne.

World Building

The craft of creating an alien species and alien world

Cally Black carefully builds a picture of the Garuwa beginning with this description by Tamara:

The stranger keeps coming, long-legged stretches of shiny black uniform kicking down the ramp. And it’s not a person. Facing McVeigh is this tall half-crow, half-scarecrow things, all dressed in black. Shiny black armoured ridges line down the centre of its chest and across its shoulders like the back of a crocodile. Its head is a massive beaked helmet. And it’s not a leathery cape, cos it’s moving by itself. They’re wings. Wings that lift higher and quiver….
My scalp prickles. Not right. This is not right. This is a real thing!

• In groups plot how the reader and Tamara come to see the Garuwa differently over time.
• Consider what causes the description to change and chart the differing word use.
• Contrast the hive, which provides food and shelter, thinking and feeling and nurturing to the Garuwa with the humans’ ships and what they offer to the crew.

In groups conduct an internet search for influences for the creation of the Garuwa (as they call themselves) or the Crow people (as humans call them). What parallels can you find with First Nations people?

Formal writing task

Distinctive ideas are at the heart of every novel. In your view, what is a distinctive idea explored in In the Dark Spaces. Explain how this idea is developed throughout the novel.

OR

How does this extract from In the Dark Spaces introduce us to the important ideas in Black’s novel? In your response, make detailed reference to the extract below from In the Dark Spaces and the novel as a whole.

Tootoopne talks about how more and more human ships come into their space, and how they worry for their hives if more come. He talks about how humans fire on anything in their path. How humans take the minerals the hives need to grow. He talks about how much good we do protecting all the hives of their children.

I never thought space could belong to anyone. Space is just there. Land, planets, minerals, that’s what humans want, but space is empty. It’s what you travel through to get someplace else, unless your people live in hives that float in space, I suppose. (p109)

Relevant details in relation to the new English 7-10 syllabus

Text requirements: In the Dark Spaces is a novel (extended prose) by an Australian author.  It includes a range of cultural, social and gender perspectives.

Concepts could include Characterisation • Perspective and context • Genre.

Syllabus content

Understanding and responding to texts A | EN5-URA-01

Characterisation

• Analyse how engaging, dynamic and complex characters are constructed in texts using language features and structures, and use these features and structures in own texts
• Explore how characters in texts can be lifelike constructions with whom audiences establish intellectual and emotional connections, and can be perceived to reflect, challenge or subvert particular values and attitudes
• Analyse how characters can serve structural roles in narrative, such as foils and drivers of action and conflict, and manipulate these ideas when composing own texts

Understanding and responding to texts B | EN5-URB-01

Perspective and Context 

• Understand how the personal perspectives of audiences are a product of historical and cultural contexts
• Analyse how texts can be understood or interpreted from different perspectives, and experiment with this idea in own texts
• Evaluate how texts can position audiences to accept, challenge or reject particular perspectives of the world, and reflect on this in own texts
• Analyse how elements of an author’s personal, cultural and political contexts can shape their perspectives and representation of ideas, including form and purpose
• Appreciate how all communication is a product of cultural context
• Explain how texts affirm or challenge established cultural attitudes and values in different contexts
• Appreciate the significance and value of expressions of cultural context in texts constructed using elements of languages and dialects, including Standard Australian English, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Languages, and Aboriginal English

Understanding and responding to texts C | EN5-URC-01

Genre 

• Analyse how elements of genre in texts can shape the way ideas and values are represented and perceived, and experiment with elements of genre in own texts to shape meaning and response
• Reflect on the evolution, adaptation, subversion and hybridity of genre in different time periods and cultural contexts, and how they demonstrate changing values

Expressing ideas and composing texts A | EN5-ECA-01

Writing 

• Select and adapt appropriate codes, conventions and structures to shape meaning when composing written texts that are analytical, informative, persuasive, discursive and/or imaginative
• Develop a personal and informed voice that generates ideas and positions an audience through selection of appropriate word-level language and text-level features
• Experiment with language to create tone, atmosphere and mood
• Use rhetorical language strategically and subtly to shape complex ideas and convince others of a point of view, as appropriate to audience and purpose
• Use tense accurately and purposefully
• Apply narrative voice to depict complex ideas and enhance engagement
• Create engaging and authentic temporal and spatial settings for a range of purposes and audiences

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts