The real date for turning in revised Essay 1 or 2

Tonight we reviewed the due dates for the remaining assignments. The revised calendar - with the agreed upon due dates - is posted to the right.

We then talked about "Invisible Man" - with a particular focus on how Graham presented controversial material in a manner that allowed readers to "watch" and think about behaviors that might otherwise get lost in the drama and emotion that often accompanies their presentation.

In this essay, Graham was a "participant observer" => a role you are invited to step into for the "eye" essay. Although in class I indicated that "watching" classrooms, friends, even family might make good material for an essay - remember the people in these "groups" have perspectives and sensibilities that turning them into "objects" is not really OK. I would hope these essays would have as their true object what Lott described as "our responsibility as human beings to answer for and to our lives" = to seek to understand.

For Monday:

Blog 15: any kind of writing you want to work on to develop an "eye" essay

Read: McPhee, "The Search for Marvin Gardens" 117

Essay 3

Tonight we talked over "Meet the Shaggs" and "eye" essays.

Also, you signed up for conferences for Essay 2 as follows:

Wednesday, October 27

9:00 Casey

2:00 Yasmin

3:20 Hamilton

3:40 Michael

4:00 Nashira

4:20 Marjorie

4:40 Robyn

5:00 Fran

5:20 Eric

7:15 Josh

Thursday, Oct 28

6:00 Ashley

If your name is not on the list - send me an email so we can work something out.

For Wednesday:

Read: Lawrence Otis Graham: "Invisible Man"

Blog 14: Brainstorming for essay 3

Who are the Shaggs?

I know you can find these sites on your own - but just so we have heard some of the important songs. . .

Philosophy of the World

Who are parents?

It's Halloween

National Day of Writing

The Open Mic for ENG 4070/5070 was a great success! Thank you for your participation, and if you like, I will look into reserving a warmer space for a second reading at the end of the term. I enjoyed every reading - and was greatly impressed by the quality of thinking and revising just since our conferences of a week ago.

Keep writing into your second "I" essay and post as far as you've written for Monday. We will sechedule conferences - and then you will make some decisions about submitting your first "finished" piece.

Meanwhile, in class we will start to talk about "eye" essay - which as we've discussed in class are more "objective" or journalistic. At the same time, they are still and inescapably focused through the lens of the writer's sensibility. The difference is one of balance and focus = in an "eye" essay the "revellation" or "discovery" is directed more toward external facts and interpretations than internal ones.

For Monday,

Read: Orlean, 52

Blog 12: Draft Essay 2

Reasonable Lies, Unacceptable Lies, and CNF

Tonight we talked about lies - both in terms of our experiences with lies and lying in our own lives, and in terms of lying in writing - particular in terms of the way James Frey used a lie about the "truth" of his writing for his own purposes. I think we started the conversation with the acknowledgement that because our representations of experience are from our own perspectives - and always partial - in some sense everything we write is going to be a kind of - if not a lie - then at least some kind of not-quite-truth. That given - there are some kinds of lying that go beyond what it is OK to do in writing. Different writers draw the line in different places - but all writers should do some serious thinking about where their line is, and what it means to draw it "there" and not somewhere else.

After writing into a prompt about lies that hurt (thank you for the good contributions) we listed all the ways Frey lied - and then we classified the kinds of lies he told. We came up with 4 different kinds of lies:

• lies about himself/his identity (posing as a classic "hero-rebel");
• lies that affected/represented other real people;
• what we called "lies of principle" that went beyond lying about a particular person or group - and moved to represent "the way things are" based on Frey's (false) experiences;
• and "meta-lies" or lies about the truth, source, basis of his writing

We then ranked the "evilness" of the lies Frey told and came up with the observation that in some sense - without the meta-lie that his book was true - all the other lies wouldn't matter.

So it seems -in writing CNF - in the very act of proclaiming the "truth" of your material - you take on an ethical responsibility - to examine, be forthcoming about, and reflect on the quality of truth in the material you present. Of course this is only a partial representation of what we did in class (a lie?). . . .

For Wednesday:

Blogs: Provide comments for whatever is posted for Draft 2 for writers in your rehearsal group

See you at Liberty Hall!

For Monday:

Blog 12: Post Draft 2 - a second "I" essay

Wednesday, October 13: Rehearsal

Tonight you will practice your readings for the Day of Reading, October 20.

For most literary readings the author begins by introducing her/his self - and giving a short background on the piece s/he will be reading. Then s/he reads the piece, there is applause, and sometimes - there is a short discussion afterwards.

We have scheduled readings to last about 10 minutes. You should divide up your time to include your introduction + background, the reading - and any discussion you might hope to facilitate.

For the rehearsal:

1. Make sure someone in the group is keeping time.

2. One group member will practice his/her introduction + background + reading just as s/he will give it.

3. Note how long the performance took.

4. Respond to any questions the reader has about "how it went." Audience members should primarily receive the work and provide validation. This rehearsal is not about really about critique, however if the reader asks for specific help such as shortening (or lengthening) a piece - the audience's description of their respose (which parts were necessary to understand the idea, exciting, engaging) can be useful.

5. Go on to the next reader.

Rehearsal groups:

1. Chelsea, Josh, Casey, Marilyn

2. Marjorie, Hamilton, Yasmin, Fran

3. Nashira, Michael, Erin,

4. Ashley, Eric, Robyn, Elizabeth

Over the weekend:
I will be reading blogs and providing comments.

For Monday:

At this point I have conferenced with everyone (except Marjorie- who I will be in touch with) and hopefully you have some ideas about where to go with your first piece, as well as some ideas about what to do for your second piece. Make some notes & do some thinking - but I am recommending that you let the first piece simmer - and get started on the second piece.

In class on Monday we will talk about TRUTH.

Read: Smoking gun expose of A Million Little Pieces (if you haven't read it already)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies

and the Winfrey backlash

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/books/27oprah.html?ex=1296018000&en=ddd9b3b2c1f92c9a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Blog 9: Brainstorming for Essay 2

Have a good rehearsal and see you on Monday.

October 6: National Day of Writing, Emotions and Truth

National Day of Writing Plans

We spent the first part of class firming up plans for the National Day of Writing at Liberty Hall on October 20. I have reserved the Carriage House for an Open Mic reading from 4:30 - 7:30. You have signed up for readings according to the following schedule:

5:00 Robin

5:10 Nashira

5:20 Marjorie

5:30 Hamilton

5:40 Marilyn

5:50 Yasmin

6:00 Ashley

6:10 Josh

6:20 Fran

6:30 Elizabeth

6:40 Casey

6:50 Chelsea

7:00 Erin

Wednesday, October 13. At the beginning of class - I will set you up in groups and go through the protocol for practicing your reading. In general- the practice reading takes longer than the performance.

As you can see from the schedule, you will each have 10 minutes (more or less). That would probably be around 8 pages of prose - depending how fast you read. For poetry - I can't really guess. Decide whether you want to include time for providing background for your piece, or a short introduction about your self - or why you wrote this piece, etc. In general, reading slower - rather than faster - is better. Your listeners need to take in both your words and the effect - so they might need some time.

What we did in class October 6. Your journal writing was on emotions. I presented some of the background from the research in psychology and neurology that bears out connections between thinking and feeling. Feelings not only help orchestrate access to our memories, they are also influence our interpretation and representation of what our memories mean. The series of prompts we used were meant to set you up to see patterns between your emotions and the particular events you call to mind, the kinds of stories associated with particular emotions, and your "attitudes" toward your emotions. The particular stories you shared with class - as well as your observations about how your emotions connected to your lists of stories - were rich and thought provoking - and should make good material for essays.

We spent an extremely short time talking about O'Brien and truth - and made a brief comparison of his understanding of truth to Lopez. As Chelsea pointed out, O'Brien published his work as fiction (even though it has been anthologized as an essay) - so maybe what we are looking at is the difference between the way fiction and nonfiction writers regard truth? We will continue this discussion when we get to the discussion of Frey and the analysis of his work on The Smoking Gun.

For Monday, October 11:

Blog 8: Post Draft Essay 1

Come to your conference (see earlier post for revised schedule - anyone who wants to meet Monday night should send me an email to make an arrangement).

For Wednesday, October 13:

Come to class prepared to practice reading the piece(s) you will read at The National Day of Writing.

Conferences + Class October 13 + Day of Writing

Tuesday October 12

12:40 Casey

Wednesday, October 13
9:40 Erin
11:40 Chelsea
12:40 Nashira

1:00 Marjorie

2:20 Elizabeth

3:00 Eric

3:20 Yasmin

3:40 Marily

4:00 Michael

4:20 Robyn
4:40 Hamiton

5:00 Fran

5:20 Josh

Ashley - I forgot - I will be out of town October 14 so we need to set up another time.

For those of you who have not signed up - speak to me in class so we can set a time.

Class October 13

My flight is 8:35 - so I will probably need to leave for the air port right around when class starts.

We can talk about this in class - but I would like to propose that the rehearsal for the National Day of Writing be on October 13. We can set up a format for practicing your readings. We had a very successful approach last year that was primarily peer-to-peer.

National Day of Writing

Come to class with some ideas about what you might want to read. Readings can be a polished piece - or a work in progress. Last year students did both - and both kinds of readings were well received. The audience will be primarily your classmates and the friends and fans they invite. It is a chance to "publish" some of your work.

Your reading should not be longer than about 12 minutes. That way we get 5-6 people in an hour, and everyone can read in the 3 hour period we have reserved.

I will have a sign-up sheet and we can do some arranging for "short" & "long" slots to accommodate your individual work.

See you Wednesday.

Family stories & converging landscapes

We talked about Barry Lopez' essay, Landscape and Narrative. I focused discussion on the first part of the essay - the exploration of stories and the convergence of inner and outer landscapes - but the last section, the discussion of truth - makes a transition to the consideration of truth we will begin with Wednesday's discussion of "How to tell a true war story." Lopez distinguishes several different kinds of truth. He presents truth as a distinction between what is authentic & what is inauthentic where myth rooted in the local landscape is "as real as the story of a wolverine in a man's lap" - as in contrast to a notion of truth as "something that can be explicitly stated." In contrast, authentic truth is "something that can be evoked in a metaphorical way" (though not reduced to aphorism, formulas etc).

He adds yet another twist to this discussion of truth when he nots that "because of the intricate, complex nature of the land, it is not always possible for a storyteller to grasp what is contained in a story. The intent of the storyteller, then, must be to evoke, honestly, some single asplect of all that the land contains. . .[and because] different individuals grasp the story at different levels. . . regard for truth must be at the primary (level)" - with focus on who was there, what happened, whe, where, and why things occurred." So that is something to think about as you read O'Brien - who presents a version of truth that is both radically different and the same as what is posed here.

You then recollected + wrote family stories. Family stories can become part of the "landscape" of an extended group - they define identities and realitionships, what is "done" and what is not"done." The unconscious choices involved in creating and telling family stories reflect both the culture at large, and the more local culture of a particular family. Adding to this list - can open up both a reflection on self - and on the ways the culture sets us up to be those selves. The stories I shared included a "rebel-hero" story, a 'wise' parent story, and a crafty pet story - all of which have corelates in the Arne-Thompson tale-type index for folklore. So it seems things change and stay the same. Our story heritage creates that are tellable - and it sets aside some experiences as not-stories - experiences that don't fit into our unconscious assumptions about what makes a story. Those experiences may need telling - but can become forgotten because their "unthinkableness" excludes them from the narrative carriers we use to hold & remember experience. One line of creative nonfiction is about telling those kinds of stories - and O'Brien's piece is one of those.

For Wednesday:

Read: O'Brien: "How to tell a true war story" http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/pdocs/obrien_story.pdf

Blog 7: More brainstorming for Project 1

Bringing landscapes together

Just in case you would like to hear the "blackpoll warbler's burst of sound."

FYI: Barry Lopez also writes fictive essays - fiction that is written "as if" it is a personal (CNF-y) type of essay.